Mom cut this lovely pink rose stem and gave it to me to bring home. I put it in the bud vase and it opened to display this pink blush. How pretty! Click image to enlarge.

I call it the ‘hat trick’ - the hockey term for three goals by a player - because this is the third color to open this spring. We already had the yellow and white epiphyllums opening and now the red. Click the image for full size.

I drove to Mom’s house today. It’s quite some time since I took the nearly 50 mile drive across some of the busiest roads in Los Angeles County.

We had a very nice visit. My sister was there too, and we had a nice visit over lunch at a restaurant in the area - my treat. We talked about various topics, mainly getting caught up with what’s been going on in our lives.

Mom’s 89th birthday was several weeks ago, and this was an opportunity to see her in person. Click on the thumbnail image to enlarge us.

I took a pair of images of a ‘beaver tail’ cactus in bloom during our recent visit to Joshua Tree National Park. The bright pink flowers on this type of cactus are frequently seen in the park during late spring. You can click on the image for the full-sized anaglyph image.

When I image scenes that contain bright reddish or bright bluish colors, the image, when viewed through the 3D glasses will look different to each of the eyes. This gives an unnatural feeling when you look at the image. Compare the image above to this grayscale 3D image here. The problem with that, is the bright pink flowers appear as a dull shade of gray.

And, as usual, if you do not have your free pair of 3D glasses, you can see the 2D image here. For more 3D images click here or here.

On a whim, we drove over the Palos Verdes Peninsula today to Point Vicente. We thought that it might be a picturesque day and we were not disappointed.

It was a spectacular day, with azure skies, puffy white clouds, blue pacific waters and flocks of California Brown Pelicans soaring the updrafts along the cliffs on the south side of the peninsula. I captured this picture of some Browns rounding the point by the whale watching center. The Point Vicente Lighthouse is in the background with Santa Catalina Island in the distance. Click on the image to enlarge.

I got an Easter Lily in a pot a couple years ago, and when the lilies had all bloomed, I cut it back and put the pot out in the patio. Last December a stem grew out and several lilies bloomed then. Now, in June, they’re back out. The lily bulb seems to be either three months too soon or two months too late. Still they’re very pretty.

I don’t go very political on this website, but I can’t resist posting this interesting recount of a college experiment in socialism. H/T John Lott.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

Could not be any simpler than that.

I’ll drink to that!