Here’s his illustration of the evolution of work-life balance patterns as shaped by changing cultural attitudes over the last century.

A reader from Ontario recently asked whether we had any kind of planner that extends more than 1 year ahead: “I do a lot of long-range planning as a promoter and would like to have a planner that would give me say, 2009 to 2014.”

We don’t, unfortunately, but I figured I would open up the question to the wisdom of crowds. Do you do much long-range planning? Is there a system that you use?

The explosion near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River on June 30, 1908 flattened some 500,000 acres of Siberian forest. An eyewitness described flashes and thunder and everything (including their hut) flattered completely by a strong wind.

No one knows what caused it, but a long-standing theory is the crash of an asteroid or comet.

But other interesting theories abound.

Struck by the similarity of Tunguska and Hiroshima decades later, Alexander Kazantsev, a popular science fiction writer, wrote a story in which the Tunguska blast was the exploding nuclear power plant of a spaceship from Mars. Russian scientists took up the cause and claimed to find various bits of evidence–never proved–for a UFO crash.

Another theory is the Nikola Tesla “death ray.” The man who pioneered radio and modern alternating currents claimed to have invented a device that could transmit energy over huge distances.

The story goes that Tesla tested it the evening of June 30, 1908. He aimed the death ray towards the Arctic and turned it on. At this time, Robert Peary was trekking to the North Pole and Tesla asked him to look out for any unusual disturbances.  Tesla then watched the newspapers and sent telegrams to Peary, but didn’t hear about anything unusual in the Arctic.

But Telsa did hear the news about an unexplainable event in Siberia. He was thankful no one was killed, as it was clear to him his death ray had overshot its target. He then dismantled the machine, saying it was too dangerous to keep. Tesla claimed the plans for the death ray were stolen from his hotel room in the 1940s.

GoodMorningGloucester offers ”The World’s Greatest Lobster Roll.”  It looks great! If you don’t have the lobster roll on a toasted hot dog bun it’s not a real lobster roll.  I also want tail meat–not just stuff from the claws.

The Jedediah Hawkins Inn in Jamesport, NY also offers the “World’s Greatest Lobster Roll.”  I have had one there, and it was indescribably delicious. 

If it rains, I’ll go to Jedediah Hawkins; if the weather is good, the backyard with the Gloucester, Mass. recipe!

Have a good 4th!

My garden is small, and young, so everything seems precious. The bowlful or two of strawberries we harvested last month felt like the best I’d ever tasted; now, my first daylily blossom—pictured above just after a light summer rain—strikes me as beyond gorgeous. I even love its small asymmetries, because they make it seem more natural and less expertly cultivated.

The daylily offers a great lesson in appreciating the beauty of a moment. Most daylilies blossom only for a single day, opening in the morning and closing up at nightfall. (Each plant has several blossoms, though, so the pleasure’s not quite so ephemeral.)

Left-handed writers, myself included, grew up having to contend with ink smears and stains on our hand as we wrote. I have smeared on pocket and desk size planners, but finally settled on a Space 24, but that’s only because I write more notes than appointments.

Once at a pen show I asked one of the traders what was the best pen to use for writing, since my ink often smeared. He told me instead of a medium nib left-handers should use a fine or even extra fine nib, since the ink would dry faster. I made the switch, and rarely have that problem.

Many inks are marketed as “fast-drying.” While I certainly use J. Herbin inks (we distribute them), I also have to admit to a fondness for Noodlers Ink. I also like Swisher Pen’s own inks, which were made to be fast-drying. I have found them impossible to smear.

Has the Internet made us less attentive readers?

In this month’s Atlantic, Nicholas Carr admits he now has trouble reading books and longer magazine articles—thanks, he speculates, to the Internet’s way of turning us into superficial information grazers.

In Slate, Michael Agger describes some studies that show how lazy our brains are online: they prefer short sentences, explanatory headlines, and bulleted lists, and they skip large chunks of text.

Personally, I still have plenty of patience for reading books and magazine articles, but only when I’m offline, and only when I’m not anxious about some other time commitment. Online, however, I’m exactly like the rest of us, erratic, impatient, unable to concentrate on (too) much at one time…

I don’t know. When I need to do any sort of sustained writing or thinking, I try to close my Internet browser, though it isn’t always easy. Other times surfing the web is like keeping my eyes occupied while my mind searches for the right word or concept—sometimes I find that it helps, and other times I’m probably just kidding myself.

What do you think?

The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility, introduces the “Clock of the Long Now Project“–a gigantic mechanical clock  in the Nevada desert, as monumental as Stonehenge, and engineered to record time over 10,000 years.

In concise essays, Brand touches on the mathematics and philosophies of time, episodes of history, and arguments for stretching out our perceptions of time, the benefits of long-term thinking, reversing our shorter and shorter attention spans.

The idea to build a momument scale, multi-millennial, all mechanical clock as an icon to long term thinking came from computer scientist Danny Hillis.

Brian Eno, a board member of the Long Now Foundation, described their mission: “The idea is to extend our concept of the present in both directions, making the present longer…Civiliations with long nows look after things better. In those places you feel a very strong but flexible structure which is built to absorb shocks and in fact incorporate them.”

In honor of the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson has designed four man-made waterfalls to run down underneath the bridge’s two main towers.

The waterfalls will be turned on tomorrow and will remain on till Oct. 13 between 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. You can learn more about the project at its official website; for my own part, I can’t wait to see it!

“Do you still use a Daily Planner to keep track…of your appointments, reminders, contact info, etc.? I know thre are electronic devices made for such tasks but what if the battery runs out, the system crashes, the power is out, the device croaks, etc.?”

“Mr Downtown” responded:

“Quo Vadis Miniweek. 3 x 4 inches means never having to say ‘my calendar is in my bag/car/office.’ And it’s cool to occasionally look back at what was important enough to write in my 1979 appointment book.”