First and foremost, the mariner appreciates and is grateful for each reader.

Regular readers know the mariner has two alter egos. One is Chicken Little, a character that runs about saying disaster is at hand. The other is the prophet Amos, a character ill fit socially but nevertheless decries the behavior of the masses for not following God’s commands. There is a third alter ego, the guru, but he seldom appears because no one understands what he says.

Over the years, only two complaints about mariner’s blog are repetitive. One is the posts are always doom and gloom; the other is mariner should provide solutions for his complaints. Just yesterday, I challenged readers to write some haiku. The following is a reader’s reply to that challenge:

Ancient Mariner:

Your voice and the canary

Foretell disaster.

Mariner has no defense. His Meyers-Briggs says he is an ENTJ. Even so, the mariner reads many blog sites – many receive recompense for their posts. He has not found any substantive blog that reflects Pollyanna, Helen Steiner Rice or Norman Rockwell (if he wrote instead of painted). There are endless blogs that talk about the personal life of the blogger. Many of these are similar to War and Peace; a few, like Dave Barry, are comedic; the rest are sitting in their garden reflecting on the meaning of the universe. Mariner has no doubt that virtually all these blogs belong on social media.

While we are examining the Blog of the Ancient Mariner, note that regular readers are from ten countries (47 cities) around the world. Periodic readers are from twenty countries. On a regular basis, each post is read by at least 158 readers. The highest count of readers is in the US and Brazil followed by France and the Philippines.

Solutions are both direct and indirect. Most often, the solution to an issue is to use one’s vote wisely or to correct one’s deportment. The indirect solution is that the mariner has added to one’s perspective.

The mariner appreciates and is grateful for each reader.

REFERENCE SECTION

A new science is emerging regarding how accurate our ability is to predict what will happen in the future.

Expert Political Judgment: How Good Is It? How Can We Know? by Philip E. Tetlock Paperback, 2006.

“The intelligence failures surrounding the invasion of Iraq dramatically illustrate the necessity of developing standards for evaluating expert opinion. This book fills that need. Here, Philip E. Tetlock explores what constitutes good judgment in predicting future events, and looks at why experts are often wrong in their forecasts.”

In the news today, the World Health Organization stated that processed red meat may, on occasion, cause cancer. The report focused on processed meats like hotdogs, hamburger, sausage and canned meat. Diet books have emphasized for some time that meat should be reduced and vegetables increased. Visit the following:

http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/26/news/red-meat-processed-cancer-world-health-organization/index.html

http://www.webmd.com/diet/a-z/flexitarian_diet

http://dailyburn.com/life/health/flexitarian-diet-less-meat-better-health/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caveman-diet-secret/

Your library may have several books on this subject.

Ancient Mariner