The internet, global warming, Sunnis & Shiites, popularity of Paris Hilton.  I cannot speak intelligently about any of these, but I'm confident there's a lot I don't know and a lot to be learned.  The internet, regardless of how daunting and incredible it is, is just a bunch of algorithms and coding.  What?  Did I over-simplify that?  See, I don't know a whole lot.  I even needed dictionary.com to find out how whether it's a "n" or "m" in confounded.

Notwithstanding the above, there are a few things I find confounding.  Would you like to know some?  Well, anyway, here you go.

1.   I know you can get a 2,200 sq. ft. home in Michigan for $150,000.  But, jeez, it's in Michigan.  What confounds me is that a cool, well-located, 1,000 foot, high-ceiling, loft in San Francisco is the same price as a 4-acre, beautifully landscaped property with a home, a rental unit, barn, separate office, workshop, 4 sheep, an organic garden, lotta fruit trees, berries galore, and 25 chickens.  This country property is not in bum*(@%-ula, it's one hour north of San Francisco.  Same price.  How can that be?  I know. SF has the jobs and the pizzazz.  But, even so.

2.  I've seen it done a million times.  I can watch Ann Austin do it 50 times in one Ashtanga Full Primary session.  It's Jump Backs and Jump Throughs--the traditional transitions in the Ashtanga series for getting from seated to standing.  Want to know what I'm talking about?  Check out this link and this one.   They're hard.  I've watched, been instructed and tried many frustrating times.  I've used lots of excuses--my arms are too short, my femurs too long.  Nope, doesn't make an iota of difference. I just can't figure how to get two feet, two calves, two thighs and half a butt through such a small opening.  It looks like magic.  Ugh!  Read how Maty Ezraty breaks it down here.  Maybe there's hope.  Check back with me in about 5 years.

3.  I kinda get it.  Different countries have different cultures and it's not fair for us to export our values on others.  I'm OK with that.  But, rape is not a cultural issue.  Reports show(1) DR Congo's eastern South Kivu indicate that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu were gang raped by armed men, more than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians. This is not just a problem in South Kivu.  Rape is commonly used as a weapon in a region stalked by militias and undisciplined soldiers.  I'm familiar with the Stanford Prison Project and there's lots of damaged people who saw a lot of bad things as children.  But, mass rape?  Animals. 

4.  Has anyone missed the message about plastic water bottles?  I mean there's articles, books, movies(2), podcasts, Facebook links, bans.  Maybe FOX News has even broached the subject.   Would someone please let the Susan B. Komen Race for a Cure people know?  I walked the Newport Beach event a few weeks ago.  Thirty thousand participants on a blister-inducing, asphalt course on a hot, SoCal day.  Lotta need for water, for sure.  What did they have?  Trucks and pallets and huge stacks of plastic water bottles.  No, not larger, possibly reusable, 16 oz bottles-but the small ones, I guess 8 ozs.(3)  With 30,000 peeps, each needing and taking 2 or 3, well you do the math.   JC, could no one have figured out how to get water to the walkers in some other manner?  Maybe water stations.  Maybe reusable water bottles.  I don't know, but I'd think that an event this large and widespread could have done a better job.   I get that the local water bottle distributor probably donated the water and that getting water to that many people is difficult, but still.  I mean, please.

Do you have something that confounds you?  Email me and let me know.  Sometimes it's good to get these rants out of the head and down on paper.  We'll see.  In the meantime, long exhalation.  Ahhh.  Better?

(1) Harvard Humanitarian Initiative

(2)  http://www.tappedthemovie.com/

(3) To get that 8 oz of water (most of the time questionable municipal tap water) into plastic....... Water bottles are a very expensive way to deliver water.  Oil is used to make the bottles, oil is used to transport the water to the bottling plant, more oil from the bottling plant to the distribution center and then on to your local outlet.  Then there's oil to chill and then dispose of the bottles.  So, the energy required to produce your bottle is equivalent to filling your bottle one-quarter with oil.