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The Anchor
While the waves of the world surge in every direction,
Winter sunshine warms the sheltered haven of Ouray, Colorado.
January 22, 2019
The Tunnel Vision
March 17, 2023
Blue Lagoon
The Huddle
High above Camp Bird Road this family of trees weathers another winter, together.
December 29, 2022
Let the Clouds Be Your Pillows
December 22, 2020
Basking Below Zero
December 16, 2022
Daydream Pillows
February 17, 2022
Just Like Heaven
February 18, 2021
You Can Still See it Shining
February 6, 2021
The Icarus Rescue
March 17, 2021
Be the Tree That Grows Through Walls
The Dike Wall
January 18, 2021
Come On Up to the House
Camp Bird Road
December 19, 2020
The Nest Egg In Your Heart
Comforted by Cliffs
February 4, 2021
The Igloo Stillness
February 25, 2022
Cold Cozy
January 10, 2021
Thread the Needle
The Million Dollar Highway
March 5, 2019
Cold Hands, Warm Heart
November 26, 2109
The Ups and Downs
March 5, 2019
Mister Blue Sky
Brief & Beautiful Mackerel Skies
Bless Sleepy Ouray.
February 18, 2020
Reach for the Light
I've always admired this noble tree, growing tall out from the depths of the Uncomphagre Gorge. If it doesn't already have a name, it needs one!
December 13, 2018
A Lucid Dream
Ouray awakens to magical morning light.
January 2nd, 2020
The Ice Chasm
From above, the depths of the Ouray Ice Park are hidden. It merely looks like a crack in the Earth spanned by a couple bridges. But this narrow chasm is a wonder of physical and cultural geography. And for the next couple days it is the epicenter of the ice climbing universe.
January 24, 2018
Horizon Warmth
The Chief Ouray Mine Bunkhouse
February 14, 2022
Last Light
The Clean Sheets
First fresh snow frosts Ouray
on a shining Halloween morning.
October 31, 2018
Zig the Zag
The Million Dollar Highway
November 27, 2018
New Year's Gleam
January 1st, 2019
Warmth in the Cold
Ouray, Colorado
November 12, 2018
Mountain Wrinkles
The weathered flank of Hendrick Gulch bathes in the last light of a chilly day.
January 22, 2019
The Ruby Walls
A satisfied snow plow skirts the most exciting section of the Million Dollar Highway
January 22, 2018
Road Lessons
The Million Dollar Highway
January 22, 2018
Camera Magnet
February 4, 2018
Guided by Giants
Mount Abram and the Million Dollar Highway
March 27, 2021
Gentle On My Mind
March 24, 2019
A Long December
Ouray blushes for five fiery minutes
before the cold night comes
December 27, 2017
Wake Up to Winter
November 8, 2017
Bluebird Morning Glory
December 22, 2017
The World at Large
San Juan hiking heaven waits
under Winter blankets.
March 12, 2018
Danger - Falling Rocks
The Million Dollar Highway cuts through cliffs older than I can comprehend as it passes underneath The Ruby Walls outside of Ouray, Colorado.
As I was flying the drone to capture this panorama I witnessed a rock about the size of a suitcase come crashing down onto the highway.
February 26, 2018
The Shine in the Storm
February 6, 2018
The Mountain King
The Million Dollar Highway twists through a rugged landscape rich with history. If these mountains could talk I would listen to every single word. It is hard to believe that the prominent peak in the center is unnamed. But like so many mountains in the San Juans, it towers anonymously.
However, if you look closely you will find a multitude of places that have been named. Here are a few, going from left to right: Commodore Gulch, Barstow Mine, Spirit Gulch, Governor Gulch, Mountain King Mine, Galena Lion Gulch, McIntyre Gulch, Richmond Trail, Hayden Mountain, Red Mountain Creek, and of course, The Million Dollar Highway.
March 12, 2018
The Blues and the Browns
March 15, 2019
Turn Toward the Mountains
County Road 5
November 12, 2016
Heart of Hearts
From far above the Oak Creek drainage
Whitehouse Mountain keeps wintery watch
over Ouray wonderland
Turn the Corner
The Million Dollar Highway
February 26, 2018
The Riverside Slide
Beautiful but deadly avalanche chutes flank the Million Dollar Highway.
March 12, 2018
East Riverside Slide
March 12, 2018


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Wrasses: fishes of the family Labridae
Due to their brillian color patterns, wrasses are one of the most conspicuous fish familes (Labridae) on Hawaiian reefs. As well, life stages and sexes can have distinct color differences. They are protogynous hermaphrodites which is a type of sequential hemphroditism whereby females develop into males. Forward pointing teeth enables wrasses to target and pick their food including parasites off other marine animals.Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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Cramping, pain, or tiredness in the legs when walking or climbing stairs — these may not sound like symptoms of a serious condition. In fact, many people believe that they are normal signs of aging. But they can be signs of peripheral arterial disease, a severe condition that can lead to gangrene and amputation if left untreated. So if you have these symptoms, be sure to tell your doctor.
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a condition in which arteries leading to the legs and feet (or in some cases the arms) become clogged with fatty deposits called plaque, resulting in reduced or blocked blood flow to these areas. It affects between 8 million and 12 million Americans, and people with diabetes are more likely to develop PAD than the general population. PAD is also known as peripheral vascular disease (PVD), leg atherosclerosis, or simply poor circulation.
PAD and diabetes
Anyone can develop PAD, but people with diabetes, especially those with Type 2 diabetes, have a higher risk of developing it because of a series of bodily changes associated with diabetes, including insulin resistance, a higher level of blood fats, and an increase in blood pressure. All of these contribute to arteries becoming clogged with fatty deposits, leading to the hardening and narrowing of these blood vessels.
Having diabetes also increases the risk of developing neuropathy, or nerve damage, as a result of high blood glucose. Neuropathy can cause decreased sensation in the feet and legs, which can cause a person not to notice small injuries to the foot, such as blisters or cuts. If a person continues to walk on an injury, it is likely to enlarge and get infected.
The combination of PAD and neuropathy is particularly dangerous because when blood flow to the feet is reduced, the body has a harder time healing injuries to the feet and fighting infection. A wound that goes unnoticed and that the body cannot heal on its own may become severely infected and develop into an ulcer.
And that's not all that can go wrong. If you have PAD, you may also have clogged blood vessels in your heart or brain, putting you at higher risk for heart attack and stroke. In fact, having PAD means there is a one-in-four chance that you will experience a heart attack, stroke, amputation, or even death in the next five years.
Warning signs and symptoms
One symptom of PAD that is hard to ignore is pain, which can occur in the legs, feet, or toes, and often interrupts sleep. Pain may also increase with walking and let up with sitting; this type of pain is called claudication. Sometimes it may not be actual pain, but rather a feeling of heaviness, tiredness, or cramping that occurs in the buttocks, thighs, or calves. The pain or discomfort can limit your ability to do everyday activities like shopping or going out with friends. Since PAD often interferes with activities that bring enjoyment, it can also take a mental toll by leading to feelings of isolation and confinement.
Another sign of PAD is that sores on the legs or feet heal slowly (longer than 8 to 12 weeks) or don't heal at all. Feet may feel cold because of decreased blood flow. When this happens, you may notice that one foot or leg seems colder than the other, although sometimes both are cold. Cold feet can be a subtle sign; if you have a spouse, he or she may notice them more than you do, particularly when you sleep at night.
Other things you may notice if you have PAD include color changes in your feet (paleness or blueness), poor nail growth, and decreased hair growth on your toes or legs.
It is also possible to have PAD with no symptoms. In people with diabetes, PAD often affects smaller blood vessels below the knee, which makes it less likely to cause pain and other symptoms. In fact, almost 50 percent of people with diabetes who have PAD experience no symptoms at all. This is in part because many people with diabetes have neuropathy and decreased sensation in their legs. For other people, symptoms may be so subtle or develop so gradually that they do not seem worth reporting to a health-care provider. Symptoms that are commonly ignored include walking more slowly, an inability to walk long distances due to pain, and a feeling of heaviness or fatigue in the legs.
Even if you do not have symptoms, or if the symptoms you have do not interfere with your daily activities, having diabetes alone is reason enough to be concerned about PAD. Like other vascular diseases (diseases of the heart and blood vessels), it can be "silent" until it causes a severe problem such as a blood clot that results in lasting damage.
The American Diabetes Association recommends that if you are over 50 and have diabetes, you should be screened for PAD even if you have no symptoms. If you are under the age of 50 and have risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or having had diabetes for more than 10 years, you should be screened, as well.
How does one go about getting screened? First, see your health-care provider. A doctor will most likely ask you a series of questions to evaluate your risk and also look at your feet to see if you have physical signs of PAD (cold feet, decreased hair growth on the toes, ulcers that are slow to heal, or a weak pulse in the feet). Once your doctor determines that you are at risk for PAD, he may perform a test (or refer you to someone else to do the test) called an ankle–brachial index (ABI). The ABI test is painless and noninvasive, and it takes about 20–30 minutes to perform. You will be asked to lie down for about 10 minutes so that the effect of gravity is the same on your arms and legs; this is necessary to get accurate results. Then the doctor or nurse will measure the blood pressure in your arms and in two places on each foot with a handheld device called a Doppler probe. The Doppler probe uses sound waves to detect blood flow. Only the systolic blood pressure (the "top number") will be recorded for each site. The blood pressure in your ankles will be compared to the blood pressure in your arms. If it is lower in the ankles than in the arms, you may have PAD.
The ABI is a screening test, so it cannot tell you where a blockage or narrowing of the arteries is located. To determine the location and extent of a blockage, you will most likely be referred to a peripheral vascular specialist for further testing. These tests can include an ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or an angiogram (an x-ray test to look at blood flow).
Once you know whether you have PAD, treatment will depend on the location and extent of the blockage. The goal of the treatment will be to improve your quality of life and to prevent a heart attack, stroke, or amputation.
Treatment options
There are generally three treatment options for PAD. These include lifestyle changes (discussed in the next section on risk factors), drug treatment, and surgery.
You may already take medicines that can help reduce your risk of PAD, such as diabetes drugs, cholesterol-lowering drugs, and blood-pressure-lowering drugs. In addition, your doctor may prescribe an antiplatelet drug to decrease the risk of developing clots in your blood vessels.
There are several surgical options for the treatment of PAD. One, with which many people are familiar, is an angioplasty. This procedure is often used when there is a blockage leading to the heart, but it can also be done for PAD. To perform it, a doctor inserts a small tube with a balloon at its end into the affected artery. The balloon is inflated, opening the narrowed area. Sometimes a stent, a tiny wire mesh tube, is inserted to keep the artery open. Another procedure that can be done is an artery bypass. This surgery, too, is commonly performed in the heart, and is often used when the blockage is more complete and cannot be opened by an angioplasty. In this procedure, a blood vessel is taken from another part of the body and reattached around the blocked section of artery.
A more recently developed treatment is plaque removal. In this procedure, a small tube is inserted into the affected artery, and a tiny rotating blade is used to shave plaque from the artery wall as the doctor advances the tube through the artery. This is generally not a possibility if an artery is nearly or fully blocked.
Risk factors
What can you do to reduce your risk of developing PAD? The first step is to know the risk factors. Some that you cannot change include the following:
- Your age. Simply being over the age of 50 increases your risk of PAD.
- Having diabetes. One in four people over the age of 50 with diabetes has PAD.
- Your ethnicity. African-Americans are twice as likely to have PAD as Caucasians. Hispanics are also at increased risk for PAD.
- Your personal history. If you have had vascular disease, a stroke, or a heart attack, you have a one-in-three chance of developing PAD.
You are also at risk if you have a family history of heart disease or diabetes.
There are also some risk factors that you can modify through lifestyle changes, including these:
- Diabetes control. Keep your HbA1c level (a measure of diabetes control over the past two to three months) within the target range that you and your doctor have established. The American Diabetes Association recommends an HbA1c level of below 7 percent, or as close to normal as possible.
- Smoking. If you smoke or have a history of smoking, your risk of developing PAD is multiplied by four. Smoking is one of the biggest, and most avoidable, risks for developing PAD. Even if you already have PAD, you can halt or even reverse the progression of the disease by stopping smoking. So if you smoke, find a way to quit!
- High blood pressure. The established blood pressure goal for individuals with diabetes is below 140/90 mm Hg. Numerous lifestyle measures can help you lower your blood pressure, including making dietary changes such as reducing your sodium intake; engaging in regular physical activity; losing weight if you're overweight; learning and practicing relaxation techniques such as meditation or guided imagery; and keeping your alcohol intake moderate. If these steps are not enough, your doctor may prescribe one or more blood-pressure-lowering drugs
- High blood cholesterol. If your LDL (low-density lipoprotein, or "bad") cholesterol is higher than 100 mg/dl, you have a greater risk of developing PAD. Know your cholesterol numbers, and ask your doctor for a copy of your lab test results so that you can track your progress. Many of the lifestyle changes that help lower blood pressure are also good for cholesterol levels. It may also help to meet with a dietitian for specific advice on food choices. If necessary, your doctor may recommend that you take a medicine to increase your HDL (high-density lipoprotein, or "good") cholesterol and decrease your LDL cholesterol level.
The good news about PAD is that it can be prevented with the same healthy lifestyle that lowers the risk of most major diabetes complications. In addition, if detected early, PAD can be stopped and reversed, so it's important to get screened regularly for PAD, be aware of its signs and symptoms, and seek treatment immediately if a problem or symptom arises. By taking steps to prevent or halt vascular disease, you can raise the likelihood of being able to live your life the way you want to.
Want to learn more about peripheral arterial disease? Read "Have Calf Cramps? Strengthening Your Hip Muscles May Help," watch the video "Peripheral Arterial Disease," and take the quiz "How Much Do You Know About Peripheral Arterial Disease?"


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The Misconception: You make rational decisions based on the future value of objects, investments and experiences.
The Truth: Your decisions are tainted by the emotional investments you accumulate, and the more you invest in something the harder it becomes to abandon it.
You can learn a lot about dealing with loss from a video game called Farmville.
You have probably heard of this game. In 2010, one in five Facebook users had a Farmville account. The barrage of updates generated by the game annoyed other users so much it forced the social network to change how users sent messages. At its peak, 84 million people played it, a number greater than the population of Italy.
Farmville has shrunk since then. About 50 million people were still playing in early 2011 – still impressive considering the fantasy megagame World of Warcraft boasts about a quarter as many players.
So, it must be really, really fun. A game with this many players must promise potent, unadulterated joy, right? Actually, the lasting appeal of Farmville has little to do with fun. To understand why people commit to this game and what it can teach you about the addictive nature of investment, you must first understand how your fear of loss leads to the sunk cost fallacy.
In psychologist Daniel Kahneman's book, Thinking Fast and Slow, he writes about how he and his colleague Amos Tversky through their work in the 1970s and '80s uncovered the imbalance between losses and gains in your mind. Kahneman explains that since all decisions involve uncertainty about the future the human brain you use to make decisions has evolved an automatic and unconscious system for judging how to proceed when a potential for loss arises. Kahneman says organisms that placed more urgency on avoiding threats than they did on maximizing opportunities were more likely to pass on their genes. So, over time, the prospect of losses has become a more powerful motivator on your behavior than the promise of gains. Whenever possible, you try to avoid losses of any kind, and when comparing losses to gains you don't treat them equally. The results of his experiments and the results of many others who've replicated and expanded on them have teased out a inborn loss aversion ratio. When offered a chance to accept or reject a gamble, most people refuse to make take a bet unless the possible payoff is around double the potential loss.
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely adds a fascinating twist to loss aversion in his book, Predictably Irrational. He writes that when factoring the costs of any exchange, you tend to focus more on what you may lose in the bargain than on what you stand to gain. The "pain of paying," as he puts it, arises whenever you must give up anything you own. The precise amount doesn't matter at first. You'll feel the pain no matter what price you must pay, and it will influence your decisions and behaviors.
In one of his experiments, Ariely set up a booth in a well-trafficked area. Passersby could purchase chocolates – Hershey's Kisses for one penny a piece or Lindt Truffles for fifteen cents each. The majority of people who faced this offer chose the truffles. It was a fine deal considering the quality differences and the normal prices of both items. Ariely then set up another booth with the same two choices but lowered the price by one cent each, thus making the kisses cost nothing and the truffles cost 14 cents each. This time, the vast majority of people selected the kisses instead of the truffles.
If people acted on pure mathematical logic, explained Ariely, there should have been no change in the behavior of the subjects. The price difference was the same. But you don't think in that way. Your loss aversion system is always vigilant, waiting on standby to keep you from giving up more than you can afford to spare, so you calculate the balance between cost and reward whenever possible. He speculates that this is why you accumulate free tchotchkes you don't really want or need and why you find it so tempting to accept shady deals if they include free gifts or choose decent services that offer free shipping over better services that do not. When anything is offered free of charge, Ariely believes your loss aversion system remains inactive. Without it, you don't weigh the pros and cons with as much attention to detail as you would if you had to factor in potential losses.
This is why marketing and good salesmanship is often all about convincing you what you want to buy is worth more than what you must pay for it. You see something as a good value when you predict the pain of loss will be offset by your joy of gain. If they did their job well, somewhere in your Byzantine perception you feel as though you won't lose at all. Emotionally, you will come out ahead. Unless you are buying something just to show others how much money you can burn, you avoid cringing when you fork over your earnings.
When you lose something permanently, it hurts. The drive to mitigate this negative emotion leads to strange behaviors. Have you ever gone to see a movie only to realize within 15 minutes or so you are watching one of the worst films ever made, but you sat through it anyway? You didn't want to waste the money, so you slid back in your chair and suffered. Maybe you once bought non-refundable tickets to a concert, and when the night arrived you felt sick, or tired, or hung over. Perhaps something more appealing was happening at the same time. You still went, even though you didn't want to, in order to justify spending money you knew you could never get back. What about that time you made it back home with a bag of tacos, and after the first bite you suspected they might have been filled with salsa-infused dog food, but you ate them anyway not wanting to waste both money and food? If you've experienced a version of any of these, congratulations, you fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy.
Sunk costs are a favorite subject of economists. Simply put, they are payments or investments which can never be recovered. An android with fully functioning logic circuits would never make a decision which took sunk costs into account, but you would. As an emotional human, your aversion to loss often leads you right into the sunk cost fallacy.
You know a loss lingers and grows in your mind, becoming larger in your history than it was when you first felt it. Whenever this clinging to the past becomes a factor in making decisions about your future, you run the risk of being derailed by the sunk cost fallacy.
Hal Arkes and Catehrine Blumer created an experiment in 1985 which demonstrated your tendency to go fuzzy when sunk costs come along. They asked subjects to assume they had spent $100 on a ticket for a ski trip in Michigan, but soon after found a better ski trip in Wisconsin for $50 and bought a ticket for this trip too. They then asked the people in the study to imagine they learned the two trips overlapped and the tickets couldn't be refunded or resold. Which one do you think they chose, the $100 good vacation, or the $50 great one?
Over half of the people in the study went with the more expensive trip. It may not have promised to be as fun, but the loss seemed greater. That's the fallacy at work, because the money is gone no matter what. You can't get it back. The fallacy prevents you from realizing the best choice is to do whatever promises the better experience in the future, not which negates the feeling of loss in the past.
Kahneman and Tversky also conducted an experiment to demonstrate the sunk cost fallacy. See how you do with this one.
Imagine you go see a movie which costs $10 for a ticket. When you open your wallet or purse you realize you've lost a $10 bill. Would you still buy a ticket? You probably would. Only 12 percent of subjects said they wouldn't. Now, imagine you go to see the movie and pay $10 for a ticket, but right before you hand it over to get inside you realize you've lost it. Would you go back and buy another ticket? Maybe, but it would hurt a lot more. In the experiment, 54 percent of people said they would not. The situation is the exact same. You lose $10 and then must pay $10 to see the movie, but the second scenario feels different. It seems as if the money was assigned to a specific purpose and then lost, and loss sucks. This is why Farmville is so addictive people have lost their jobs over it.
Farmville is a valuable tool for understanding your weakness in the face of loss. The sunk cost fallacy is the engine which keeps Farmville running, and the developers behind Farmville know this.
Farmville is free, and the first time you log on you are transported to a netherworld patch of grass where you float above an abeyant young farmhand eager to get to work. His or her will is your will, and his or her world is empty save a patch of land ready to be plowed and a crop of vegetables ready to be picked.
Wading into the experience, you feel the game designers have made every attempt to turn your head toward the screen in a way which brings no attention to the grip on your scalp. It is all your choice, they seem to be saying, no one is forcing you to proceed. Here, harvest these beans. Hey, why not plant some seed? Oh, look, you could plow a patch of land, you know, if you want. A loading bar appears and then quickly fills as you watch your grinning Aryan-ish avatar with his messy-on-purpose haircut virtually dirty his digital overalls. The cheery music, which sounds like the cyborg interpretation of clumsily extracted memories from the brain of a reanimated Old West piano player, drones on and on. The moment the loop restarts is difficult to pinpoint.
Within a few minutes, you've done everything which can be done on your first garden, but there are hints all over the screen portending a fully functioning Texas-ranch-sized megafarm, should you plant your seeds well. Once you learn you must wait at least an hour or so to continue, you start clicking around and find you have coins and cash which can be spent on trees, plants, seeds, an impressive bestiary of jaunty fantastical creatures and a bevy of clothes, devices, buildings and props. You have just enough currency when the game starts to buy a caramel apple tree or some honeybees, but the nice stuff like pink tractors and magic waterfalls, will have to wait until you've played the game a while. If you stay vigilant, checking back throughout the day to see how close your strawberries are to being ripe or if a wandering animal has visited your feed trough, you can earn more virtual currency and advance in levels and unlock more stuff. You'll need to plant and plow and harvest to advance, most of which is also an investment in something which must be harvested…later.
This is the powerful force behind Farmville. Playing Farmville is a commitment to a virtual life form. Your neglect has consequences. If you don't return, your investments die and you will feel like you wasted your time, money and effort. You must return, sometimes days later, to reap the reward of the time and virtual money you are spending now. If you don't, not only do you not get rewarded, you lose your investments.
To stave off these feelings you can pay Farmville real-world money or participate in offers from their advertisers to negate the need to tend to certain things, reverse the death of crops and expand your farm ahead of schedule. You can also ask your friends to help, since the game has tendrils reaching deep into Facebook.
Although all these strategies will keep the fallacies at bay for a few days, they also feed them. The urge to stay the course and keep your farm flourishing gets more powerful the more you invest in it, the more you ask others for help, the more time you spend thinking about it. People set alarms to wake up in the middle of the night to keep their farm alive. You continue to play Farmville not to have fun, but to avoid negative emotions. It isn't the crop you are harvesting, but your fallacies. You return and click to patch cracks in a dam holding back something icky in your mind – the sense you wasted something you can never get back.
To say Farmville has been successful is a silly sort of understatement. It has led to the creation of a whole new genre of entertainment. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being generated by social gaming, and like so many profitable businesses, someone is hedging their bets against a predicable weakness in your behavior in order to turn a profit.
Farmville players are mired in a pit of sunk costs. They can never get back the time or the money they've spent, but they keep playing to avoid feeling the pain of loss and the ugly sensation waste creates.
You may not play Farmville, but there is probably something similar in your life. It could be a degree you want to change, or a career you want to escape, or a relationship you know is rotten. You don't return to it over and over again to create good experiences and pleasant memories but to hold back the negative emotions you expect to feel if you accept the loss of time, effort, money or whatever else you have invested.
If you dropped your cell phone over the edge of a cruise ship, you would need James Cameron's unmanned submarine fleet to find it again. Sure, you could spend a small fortune to retrieve it, but you wouldn't throw good money after bad. Laid out like this, logical and rational and easy to pick apart, you can pat yourself on the back for being such a reasonable human. Unfortunately, the sunk costs in life aren't always so easy to see. When something is gone forever it can be difficult to realize it. The past isn't as tangible a concept as the sea floor, yet it is just as untouchable. What is left behind is just as irretrievable.
Sunk costs drive wars, push up prices in auctions and keep failed political policies alive. The fallacy makes you finish the meal when you are already full. It fills your home with things you no longer want or use. Every garage sale is a funeral for someone's sunk costs.
The sunk cost fallacy is sometimes called the Concorde fallacy when describing it as an escalation of commitment. It is a reference to the construction of the first commercial supersonic airliner. The project was predicted to be a failure early on; but everyone involved kept going. Their shared investment built a hefty psychological burden which outweighed their better judgments. After losing an incredible amount of money, effort and time, they didn't want to just give up.
It is a noble and exclusively human proclivity, the desire to persevere, the will to stay the course – studies show lower animals and small children do not commit this fallacy. Wasps and worms, rats and raccoons, toddlers and tikes, they do not care how much they've invested or how much goes to waste. They can only see immediate losses and gains. As an adult human being, you have the gift of reflection and regret. You can predict a future place where you must admit your efforts were in vain, your losses permanent, and when you accept the truth it is going to hurt.
You Are Not So Smart – The Book
If you buy one book this year…well, I suppose you should get something you've had your eye on for a while. But, if you buy two or more books this year, might I recommend one of them be a celebration of self delusion? Give the gift of humility (to yourself or someone else you love). Watch the trailer.
Order now: Amazon – Barnes and Noble – iTunes – Books A Million
- Ariely, D. (2009). Predictably irrational, revised and expanded edition: The hidden forces that shape our decisions. Harper. (Amazon link)
- Arkes, Hal R., and Peter Ayton. "The Sunk Cost and Concorde Effects: Are Humans Less Rational than Lower Animals?" Psychological Bulletin 125.5 (1999): 591-600. Print. (pdf)
- Burthold, G. R. (2008). Psychology of decision making in legal, health care and science settings. Gardners Books. (Google Books link)
- Busch, Jack. "Travel Zen: How to Avoid Making Your Vacation Seem Like Work." Primer Magazine. Primer Magazine, Jan. 2009. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Gaming Can Make a Better World. By Jane McGonigal. TED Talks. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Godin, Seth. "Ignore Sunk Costs." Seth's Blog. Typepad, Inc., 12 May 2009. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Höffler, Felix. "Why Humans Care About Sunk Costs While (Lower) Animals Don't." The Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, 31 Mar. 2008. Web. Mar. 2011. (pdf)
- Indvik, Lauren. "FarmVille" Interruption Cited in Baby's Murder." Mashable. Mashable Inc., 28 Oct. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (Amazon link)
- Kushner, David. "Games: Why Zynga's Success Makes Game Designers Gloomy." Wired. Conde Nast Digital, 27 Sept. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Lehrer, Jonah. "Loss Aversion." ScienceBlogs. ScienceBlogs LLC, 10 Feb. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Schwartz, Barry. "The Sunk-Cost Fallacy Bush Falls Victim to a Bad New Argument for the Iraq War." Slate. The Slate Group, 09 Sept. 2005. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Shambora, Jessica. "'FarmVille' Gamemaker Zynga Sees Dollar Signs." CNN Money. Cable News Network, 26 Oct. 2009. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Vidyarthi, Neil. "City Council Member Booted For Playing Farmville." SocialTimes. Web Media Brands Inc., 30 Mar. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Walker, Tim. "Welcome to FarmVille: Population 80 Million." Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 22 Feb. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011.
- "Why Zynga's Success Makes Game Designers Gloomy | Discussion at Hacker News." Hacker News. Y Combinator, 7 Oct. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011 (link)
- Wittmershaus, Eric. "Facebook Game's Cautionary Tale." GameWit. Press Democrat Media Co., 04 Aug. 2010. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)
- Yang, Sizhao Zao. "How Did FarmVille Take over FarmTown, When It Was Just a Exact Duplicate of FarmTown and FarmTown Was Released Much Earlier?" Quora. Quora, Inc., 01 Jan. 2011. Web. Mar. 2011. (link)


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Polygons and the colors of the Queen's Scale appear in Talismans for the Forces attributed to the Sephiroth, since they best reflect the passive or receptive nature of the latter. Polygrams and the colors of the King's Scale appear in Talismans for the Forces attributed to the Paths on the Tree of Life, as these best reflect their active or outflowing nature. The Talisman showed above further include Names of God, Archangels, Angels, Intelligences, Spirits, Qlippoth, and Spheres, together with Sigils for these Names. (The Qlippoth should be included exclusively for magical evocation).
Venus Talisman from "The Ritual Magic Manual," which contains the entire set of Elementary, Planetary, Zodiacal and Sephirothic Talismans together with complete instructions for their use!