Stumping

The newest design of landscaping in the urban desert. No leaves to block out that western sun; no trees marring the horizon of those wide open spaces. No swings hanging from branches, no squirrels skittering upward, no cats peering down from a leafy perch…

In looking up "stumps" online, I found that it’s a term used in cricket, and a users’ group for Wikipedia (the group that edits and advises on articles). I also found a curious site which lists daily arrest and booking reports and posts mugshots of those arrested—and it’s for the Boise area. The site has no "Who we are" info or tells why they are doing this (when you can access most of this info from local government websites anyway). Western vigilantes?

Of course, "being stumped" is a state of being unable to solve a problem, stopped in your tracks. A geek site tells you "how to avoid being stumped by 999 errors" when you scrape a website. From Wikipedia: Scraping a website is when automated bots and other software "harvest" info from websites, which can be helpful in pulling info together in specific localized sites for public use—or harmful, as in gathering emails for spam distribution.

Meanwhile all the presidential hopefuls are on the campaign trail, stumping for votes...(spam, anyone?)

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We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
--Albert Einstein

A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
--Duke Ellington