I've always had a problem with Schrödinger's cat as having a relationship with reality. In the real world, in the cat scenario, the cat will really either be dead or alive, regardless of whether or not it is observed. The observer only determines the actual state of that which already exists. As an expression of probabilities, the scenario works and only applies to probability, not reality.

For me, the telling question is this: If a collapse of the wave function requires an observer in order to "make real" the quantum states, who was the observer that collapsed the universe so it could become real?

Or the corollary question - would the universe exist if there were no humans to observe it?

Your 4th picture is the one no rodent wants to see. Amazing!

Looks like my deck - except with opossums instead of rabbits. Having outdoor cats with food definitely draws the wildlife. I thought about putting a doorbell cam or trail cam out there, but I really don't want to know.

In the 1990's a WWII P-38 fighter was recovered from Greenland's ice. The plane was one of a squadron that were forced to land on a glacier during a transfer flight to England in 1942. From
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/glacier-girl-the-back-story-19218360/

"Within days, the radar teams had pinpointed the exact location of all eight airplanes. And it immediately became obvious why they hadn’t been located earlier. The shifting ice had carried the airplanes about two miles from their original location. And a high-pressure steam probe revealed that they lay beneath 264 feet of solid ice."

Question: If, in the time since the planes landed they were buried in nearly 300 feet of ice, when was it more dangerously warm (in Greenland), 1942 or 1992?

The plane was recovered, restored, and is flying as "Glacier Girl". I saw that another plane is also being recovered that was also under 300 feet of ice. See
https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a22575917/wwii-p-38-discovered-under-300-feet-of-ice-in-greenland/

Thanks for the laugh.

My father-in-law owned an old gas station on the edge of town that was straight out of the 1930's or so. He sold bags of popcorn and other snacks and we frequently grabbed a bag to snack on while spending the day there. One day I sat down in the chair next to the box he used for a trash can. The popcorn bag that I'd eaten earlier in the day started moving around. It would sit still for a little bit and then start wiggling and rustling. I had to look at what was going on. First I got a big channel lock wrench to pickup the bag before I looked inside. Of course, a mouse was staring up at me. It then had a quick but dignified walk to the field behind the station. I don't know how quickly it may have made it back into the building.

Tells the story - terrific sequence.

You are truly blessed to be able to experience and capture nature the way you do. Thank-you for sharing these with us.

Terrific picture of a local iconic business. Good work, John.

We have to applaud and admire the Pioneers who took chances in order to better not only their own lives, bu all lives. I guess our COVID vaccine records kind of serve the same purpose - we are all pioneers! Polio was one of the diseases that people were truly afraid of - for good reason (as people have noted previously.

My wife's cousin, who recently passed away, was afflicted as a child with polio shortly before the vaccine was available in her town. She was on of those who was paralyzed by it and wore leg braces her entire life. While it affected her ability to do some things, there was also an attitude at the time that a handicap like that - particularly for a girl or woman - meant that you couldn't be expected to achieve as much as you actually could and sometimes stifled attempts to be self-sufficient and make use of all they did have. I won't say that we are necessarily more enlightened now. We do have a lot more support for people to work beyond their disabilities. We also have means for using disabilities to bypass the work of achieving - a somewhat subtler form of the discouragement my wife's cousin experienced.

We all have things in our lives that we need to exert our wills to overcome. I admire my wife's cousin for all she did and how long and well she cared for herself. She would seek help when really needed, but cherished her independence and ability to do for herself what she could - including driving the car my father-in-law modified for her.

I thought hard about buying the digital Pen-F just because I love my film Pen FT - a camera I used up until starting digital. For most of my photography in those years - family travel and kids growing up - half-frame was all I needed, fit my budget and quality needs, and the camera was small, light, and comfortable to use. It also had a distinctive mirror and shutter noise unlike any other.

When: Early '70's. Where: Indianapolis and Muncie, Indiana. How:
My story is more about cameras than photography. I have collected some cameras and I am captivated by the mechanics of the pre-electronic cameras. I enjoy taking photographs and have tried at different times during my life to take the best pictures I could with the equipment I had. I enjoy recording the events and little things in my life. I'm also an architect, so there are quite a few landscapes, sites, buildings, and building parts in my collection.

I received my dad's Argus Argoflex E twin lens reflex as a confirmation gift the summer of 1972. I had done some "picture taking" with family Kodak Instamatics up until then. That year I also had a graphic arts class where I learned black & white developing and printing - which I continued to do through college. I didn't have the financial resources to regularly use the camera until my Senior year in high school. That year i found and purchase a complete Kodak Retina IIIC kit, with auxiliary lenses, finder, filters - the works. A beautiful camera that cemented my love for folding cameras of all types, but particularly the Retinas. Foolish teenager I was, I left my bag with the Retina in a restroom and its was gone forever. A few years earlier I advised my mom to purchase a Canon EF (I was longing for an F-1). I used that camera extensively when I was with her and it is now in my collection.

The replacement for my Retina was a Zeiss Super Ikonta A 530, c. 1937, 6x4.5 cm, 120 roll film folding rangefinder camera. I continued to use that camera up until starting digital photography 25 years later. I could still use it today if I wanted. It's a brilliant piece of technological art that can fit in a pocket. The lens is sharp and the rangefinder remarkably precise.

The summer before starting college in 1977 I purchased my real dream - an Indianapolis 500 Canon F-1 body. I was living in Indy and the local camera stores would sell equipment provided by Canon to professional photographers for the 500. I couldn't afford a lens, so at the start of college I borrowed my mother's FD 28/2.8 she got with her EF. I was starting architecture school and the 28 was a better choice than her 50mm. That became my most used combination. Photography classes helped me improve from a decent amateur to a better amateur. I had that body until I sold it to get married two years later.

While in college I found another of my dream cameras, an Olympus Pen FT, and purchased it. Since it doubled my shots per roll, it was my day to day camera until I transitioned from film to digital point-and-shoots in the early 2000's. An OM lens mount adapter allowed me to purchase additional non-PEN lenses. A 28-70-ish zoom was generally on the camera for everyday use.

A Fuji FinepPix S700 was my first "good" digital camera. After thousands of pictures and two bounces off the ground its image quality was surpassed by my second iPhone. For convenience and value, my phones have been the camera of choice. I have a Nikon Coolpix i use when I know I need the telephoto range, but it's image quality is lower than the current phones.

I don't know who will get my collection when I'm gone. My son picked up some interest in photography, but it lost out to his becoming a very dedicated chef. His wife has been a professional photographer for a while. But the cameras I love aren't of any interest to anyone I know. I don't have the same thrill from modern equipment that I get from a 1930's folder or 1960's SLR and lenses.

Question 1: What gives anyone the idea to build in a place like this?
Question 2: How did they get all of the material there to build it?

The colors and composition on all are spectacular. Of the first 3, the first image is best to my eye, but all 3 are stunning. I also really like the road shot and the picture through the mine building (#5), but every composition is very good. The colors are what set these apart from many landscape photos. You were in the right places at the right time.

I was going to recommend Camera Lens Rentals in Anderson, Indiana (https://www.cameralensrentals.com/), but they apparently don't have a z8 to rent.

OOPS! I should have gone back and reread your post.