Author: Rich Horner
Prothonotary Warblers & Others
July 21, 2026 On Tuesday, Patty and I went to Ward Bayou again, with her chair on the back. When you first enter Ward Bayou, you’re headed due east, and on a bright morning you can’t see a thing. It’s tough driving to the end of the road because Patty hears birds and wants to…
Ward Bayou – July 17, 2026
July 20, 2026 I rarely go birding without Patty but she was in Alaska birding and I needed to get out of the house and use my camera. I arrived at Ward Bayou at daylight, and it started with a young hawk who seemed genuinely curious about me — cooperative in a way that made…
The Promise and the Distance: 4-What Fusion Energy Actually Is Today
July14, 2026 Every energy source in this series has involved burning something, splitting something, or capturing something that already exists — oil, sunlight, heat from the earth, hydrogen separated from water. Fusion is different in kind, not just degree. It asks whether we can replicate on Earth the process that powers the sun itself: forcing…
Home Before Morning
By Lynda Van Devanter Genre: Historical Memoir / Military Non-Fiction / Oral History Category: The Human Condition & The Burden of Observation 📖 The Blueprint (No-Spoiler Synopsis) In 1969, twenty-two-year-old Lynda Van Devanter arrived in Vietnam expecting to perform standard nursing duties. She was instead assigned to the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku, a high-intensity…
A Walk in the Woods
By Bill Bryson July 15, 2026 Genre: Travelogue / Humorous Non-Fiction / Nature Category: Feel-Good / The Mental Reset & The Visual Palette 📖 The Blueprint (No-Spoiler Synopsis) Bill Bryson, having spent two decades living in England, decides to return to his native United States to reconnect with the country. His chosen method is the…
The Invisible Fuel: 3-What Hydrogen Actually Is — and Isn’t
July 10, 2026 The Invisible Fuel: What Hydrogen Actually Is — and Isn’t When most people hear “hydrogen vehicle,” they picture something like a gas-powered car — a tank of fuel, an engine that burns it, exhaust coming out the back. That picture is wrong in almost every detail. A hydrogen vehicle is an electric…
Ward Bayou is open
July 7, 2026 Tuesday morning, after an oatmeal breakfast, Patty and I headed out to Ward Bayou one last time before her trip. We wanted to see if the gates had opened and the flooding had subsided. Sure enough — it was gorgeous out there. Plenty of water, but the road was clear, and the…
Heat From the Earth: 2-The Geothermal Breakthrough
July 7, 2026 Every energy source this series has examined so far — oil, batteries, solar, wind, nuclear — draws on something that can run out, degrade, or be blocked at a chokepoint. The earth’s internal heat is different. It has been radiating outward since the planet formed, it will continue doing so for billions…
Villa Coco
By Andrew Sean Greer Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini July 1, 2026 Genre: Humorous Literary Fiction, Farce, Modern Bildungsroman Audio Length: 8 hours, 42 minutes 📖 The Blueprint (No-Spoiler Synopsis) Fresh out of an uninspired undergraduate career and utterly broke, an unnamed young archivist takes a seemingly quiet job in the Italian countryside. His directive appears…
Energy Innovation 1- Nuclear’s New Shape: Small Modular Reactors
July 3, 2026 The previous two essays in this series looked at policy — the incentives, regulations, and decisions that explain why some countries have moved faster than others toward alternatives to oil. Policy explains a great deal. It does not explain everything. The technology itself is also changing, often faster than the policy built…
