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Air Quality, Book Review, Cameron Peak Fire, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, PurpleAir, Trail Running, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 25TH, SEPTEMBER 2020

September 25, 2020 teleskees Leave a comment

“One of the most freeing insights of meditation practice is realizing that the only power thoughts have is the power that we give them.” Joseph Goldstein

The science fiction show Star Trek debuted 54 years ago on September 8, 1966. This image is of the 1976 roll out of the Space Shuttle enterprise, the Star Trek TV crew, Gene Roddenberry and NASA Administrator at the time James Fletcher. How cool is that!? When you think about the technology that was available in 1976 and fast forward to now – the idea of going to Mars does not seem so far fetched. Image Credit: NASA. To learn more about the above picture go to this link: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/star-trek-and-nasa-54-years-and-counting

“Every time we become aware of a thought, as opposed to being lost in a thought, we experience that opening of the mind.” Joseph Goldstein

This is a picture of Eugene Kranz. He was the flight director that saved the Apollo 13 mission from disaster. The flight directors are responsible for the teams of flight controllers, research and engineering experts, and other support and logistics people around the globe that can make or break a successful space launch. To learn more about Eugene or this picture please follow this link: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/be-a-nasa-flight-director

“Thoughts should not be treated as obstacles or hindrances. They are just another object of mindfulness, another object of meditation. Don’t let the mind become lazy and drift along. Make the effort for a great deal of clarity with respect to what’s happening in this moment.” Joseph Goldstein

This picture shows what is called the Twin Peaks on Mars. They are modest size hills to the southwest of where the Mars Pathfinder landed in July of 1997. Of interesting note, when the Pathfinder spacecraft approached Mars, no NASA mission had successfully reached Mars in more than 20 years. Pathfinder is considered the first ever robotic rover to the surface of the red planet. It landed on July 4th, 1997. Image credit: NASA/JPL. To learn more about his picture please visit the site: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/marss-twin-peaks

“The light of a single candle can dispel the darkness of a thousand years.” Joseph Goldstein

This is a picture of Kate Rubins on the International Space Station in 2016. She was the first person to sequence DNA in space and the 60th woman to fly in space. She is schedule to go back to the ISS on October 14th aboard the Soyuz MS-17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This time around she is going to work on a cardiovascular experiment that builds on previous work from her first space mission. Also she will celebrate with her crew-mates the 20th anniversary of continuous human habitation of the space station. Where has the time gone? It has already been two decades of science and technology research on the ISS. Image Credit: NASA. For more information and reading about Kate Rubins and the above picture please check out the link: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/shes-back-kate-rubins-set-to-return-to-space-station

“If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we’re just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.” Carl Sagan

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

If your reading this then you have continued to survive Covid – 19. And so have I!! Damn, that is a very, very good thing for both of us!! Therefore life continues to be good and I cannot complain too much at the moment. Looking at the numbers during the first week of September, the good old USA had decreased in the number of positive cases added each day. Back during the first week of August we were adding 40 to 50 thousand new patients each day and now we are down to about 30 thousand new cases per day. That is an improvement. Florida, California and Texas were leading the way again with said new case totals. The total death count at the first of September for all of the USA was 188,000. By the time this was published the count was at 207,000. Hard to believe that the first known death was at the first of February this year and at the end of September we are at 207,000 fatalities! Just unreal when you think about it. In just 8 months. Wow in a bad way. I am wonder where we will be in a years’ time?? If you want to see the numbers for yourself check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

**This was Trump speaking to Bob Woodward – Feb 7th, 2020?!**

**March 19th, 2020 vs September 15th, 2020?!!**

Well I hate to say that I told you so but, I told you so. Or at least that is what I told some supporters of the ODT. Back about 7 months ago I told several friends, that myself and several others in the medical community were very concerned about the response and down playing of Covid from the ODT and his administration. And low and behold, not only did the ODT confirm that he knew all about the seriousness of it, that he actually down played it to the American People. Lied to people. And people have died. The crazy part of all of this is the ODT actually told on tape, to Bob Woodward, how dangerous, airborne, highly contagious and more deadly than even your strenuous flus, in his own words!? This was on February 7th. Which probably means the ODT knew about it weeks before back in January. I bring this up because most of the stuff between the Reps and Dems is just politics. Both wanting to fix a problem, but going about it in different ways. And that is “just politics” and human nature. BUT this, this is something on the scale of mass murder. It is not even involuntary manslaughter because he knew. It is not about politics. The ODT knew how deadly the virus was and he let people die. I have to ask myself if I was running for president would I even want the job after the “mess” it has become? No matter who gets elected, the house is going to come crashing down sooner or later without a lot of repair. Oh well, enough said for now.

Well due to the continued lack of rain, the Cameron Peak fire has continued to burn in my area of Colorado. We did get a little relief the first week of September with Snow in the high country and on the front range. By the time of publishing the fire was at 105,000 acres. On the last blog post (August 28th) the fire was at 23,000 acres so you can do the math yourself and see how large it has grown. I believe that the only part of the landscape left that I photographed over the preceding weeks and months is the very highest peaks and passes. Not much tree cover there and what did burn should come back quickly as opposed to the lush meadows, pine and spruce forest. It will be interesting to see what is left next summer. Hopefully there will be some terrain that has not burned and can be skied later this winter. That is assuming the fire goes out and highway 14 opens back up. If you want to learn more about the fire visit: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/6964/

I believe this picture was taken on Tuesday morning, September 8th, before the snow had moved in to the high country. I am assuming the photographer is looking West by North West. The fire was around 100,000 acres at this point. Then the snow moved in. I am hoping that we get more rain and snow in the coming weeks. Image credit: Unknown. If you want to see more images like this visit Cameron Peak Fire on Facebook. Link as follows: https://www.facebook.com/CameronPeakFire/

While the fire was burning with the heat and lack of rain in August, I did find another fairly close place to do a little trail running. This is an often over looked area by Colorado residents and it is located in Wyoming. Specifically I did a little exploration in the Snowy Range area West of Laramie in the Medicine Bow National Forest. Marvin and I were able to get in a few runs in this area. Unfortunately by September the smoke in the Northern half of Colorado and Southern Wyoming had gotten bad enough that it was not worth the risk. And this brings up another topic, “Air Quality.”

This is a screen shot of the PurpleAir map of Fort Collins air quality on Monday 21st, September 2020 at 12:44am. These are real time air quality monitors owned by the public. They measure particulates. The **lower the number the better the quality of air. For more information check out their web site:** https://www2.purpleair.com/

I did see a lot of friends on Strava that were exercising in really low quality air. This is something that I am not willing to do and I have to wonder what this will mean for them further down the road? PM 2.5 or particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller can really play havoc on all the bodies systems over time. It is a misconception that it just stays in the lungs. Recent research in the last few years has shown that it can cause or make worse, lung cancer, heart attacks, asthma attacks, and other cardiovascular / respiratory diseases. One study showed that it can affect pregnant mothers and the unborn.

This picture was taken on August 20th, 2020 at 5pm. Marvin and I had just finished running the North Fork Trail #304 in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest in Wyoming. This was our turn around point at Brooklyn Lake.

There is a great web site that can help you decided if you need to mask up (think N95) for air quality or just stay in doors and use the treadmill or exercise bike. It is called “Purple Air.” They do “real time” monitoring of air quality by selling monitors to the general public and linking them all over the world. This is a fantastic idea because you are no longer dependent on the federal or state government to tell you when the quality of the air is bad. And it helps to bring attention to an often over looked aspect of our environment that affects us all. AND that knowledge is powerful. Check out their map at this link: https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/mAQI/a10/cC0#11/40.5506/-105.0492

This picture was taken August 28th, 2020 at about 5pm. Marvin and I were at a turn around point on Sheep Lake Trail #389 in the Medicine-Bow Routt National Forest in Wyoming. This picture is of Mutt Lake and not Sheep Lake. And I believe that is Browns Peak in the back ground. A very beautiful day. I think a lot of other people from Colorado had the same idea because the parking lot was full of Colorado **plates! Lol.**

My personnel opinion is that if you don’t have an N95 mask or are unwilling to mask up on the bad air quality days then say inside. What is the point of staying healthy with exercise, diet, sleep, etc… if you are going to wreck your body by running /biking in poor quality air? Here is a short article about this topic from Trail Runner Mag: https://trailrunnermag.com/training/should-you-run-in-smoky-air-probably-not.html

This picture was taken September 8th, 2020 at about 7pm. It is on the Powerline Trail in Fort Collins. What a difference a few days can make or can you say “Global Warming”? Lol. The recent early snow in Colorado is thought to have occurred because of a Typhoon that tracked further North in China (much further north than they have been previously recorded), which in turn caused a bump in the Jet Stream, leading to a burst of cold air down from Canada. Since this picture, we have again had temperatures in the high 80s with **some 90 degree days AND no rain or snow to speak of.**

Due to the smoke issues and fires, my trail days were very limited in September. I have gotten in the habit of looking at the air quality and deciding how much running and/or lower intensity walking I do. Somedays it is just better to use the trainer in doors. Also I take into account the dog. Unfortunately it is very difficult to make a N95 mask for a dog that works with running, even walking. Oh well this is just a blip in the general order of things? Or that is what I hope! Lol.

A couple of book reviews before wrapping up. There are several that I have finished in the last month or two and I would like to give recommendations on them.

The first book I would like to take about is called “Driving While Black” by Gretchen Sorin. This is an informative and interesting read if you want to learn about how the automobile changed African American reality. And in a good way. The author weaves together the history of how transportation and the Jim Crow laws interacted with each other. Remember that the Jim Crow Laws were a way to enforce racial segregation in the United States, mainly in the Southern States. I had to look it up again to refamiliarize myself with what they were and I did not realized that they were enforced officially until 1965. I am guessing that unofficially these practices went on for much, much longer. As a white person there are so many freedoms that I take for granted and Gretchen opened my eyes to this. Especially with travel in the good old USA. In the book, she gives an easy to follow narrative of why cars came to hold an importance for black families that white people would not even think twice about due to fact that their white. For African Americans, the automobile opened up a whole new way of circumventing the entrenched racial hatred in society. The book reminded me of a scene from the movie “Forest Gump” in which he is in Washington and meets up with his Jenny and her boyfriend in a building with a couple of very loud and very angry Black Panther members. And I always thought “why are these guys being portrayed as so angry.” Gretchen’s book has helped me to see why. And if the roles were reversed I would be very angry too. I listened to this book as an audio book but it would work in any format.

**You can find the book on Amazon at this link:** https://www.amazon.com/Driving-While-Black-African-American/dp/

The next book I would like to talk about is called “Scale” and is written by Geoffrey West. It is defiantly one for the math and science nerds out there. You know who you are. The book was written a few years ago but the laws of physics have not changed in that time. Lol. All kidding aside. This is an great book in which Geoffrey, a theoretical physicist, shows how scale plays a role in all of nature. Some of it is very intuitive but a lot of it is not. And that is where it becomes interesting. It does make you stop and think. I listened to this book as an audio book but I am thinking it might have been better to read it in traditional format so that you can easily come back to sections and reread again. This is not an easy book to get through. It is one to take your time with and it might mean that you have to go back and look up some topics before moving forward. The book covers a very large section of topics and how scale and complexity play a role in it all.

**You can find this book on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Scale-Geoffrey-West-audiobook/dp/B071YNQM2T/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=scale+the+book&qid=1600975612&sr=8-1

The last book I would like to talk about is what I call a “Brain Bubble Gum” book. One to just enjoy for the story it tells and maybe ponder the “What if’s” that are always present in science. Of course it is a Science Fiction Book and goes by the title called “We Are Legion (We Are Bob).” Written by Dennis E. Taylor. It is the first part of a series of books. The book is about 4 or 5 years old but tells a good story. I got this book as an audio book and I have not been disappointed. The amazon description does a good job of introducing the story: “Bob Johansson has just sold his software company for a small fortune and is looking forward to a life of leisure. The first item on his to-do list: spending his newfound windfall. On an urge to splurge, he signs up to have his head cryogenically preserved in case of death. Then he gets himself killed crossing the street. Waking up 117 years later, Bob discovers his mind has been uploaded into a sentient space probe with the ability to replicate itself. Bob and his clones are on a mission to find new homes for humanity and boldly go where no Bob has gone before.”

Think “Futurama” with this book, except Bob wakes up in which religion has not died out, but has proliferated across the globe. Even though it is what I call “Brain Bubble Gum” I had to ask myself is this what is in store for humanity? Interesting to say the least! I believe the book would work great in any format.

**You can find this book on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-We-Are-Bob-audiobook/dp/B01L082SCI/ref=sr_1_1?crid=FRNUMZ4VBJXY&dchild=1&keywords=we+are+legion+we+are+bob&qid=1600975667&s=audible&sprefix=we+are+l%2Caudible%2C212&sr=1-1

Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog post. Even though I have said this before, I am going to say it again, I hope you have given more thought to minimalism and how it could make a positive change in your life and in the world. If you want to be part of that change, to make the world a much better place – I firmly believe that minimalism is one path to that ultimate goal. If you want to learn more please visit the web site: https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

So take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds or indoors and practice physical distancing. Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Pandemics, Politics, Religion, Space, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 31ST, JULY 2020

July 31, 2020 teleskees Leave a comment

Religion easily has to be the greatest bullshit story every told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of ever day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever til the end of time! BUT he loves you… He loves you, and HE needs money!! George Carlin

NASA astronaut Robert Behnken is pictured here on the ISS – International Space Station, replacing an old nickel-hydrogen battery with a new lithium-ion one. This was a six hour space walk and was done on July 1st, 2020. Image Credit: NASA. To learn more about this picture visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/upgrading-the-space-station-is-all-in-a-days-work

“There are 200 countries in the world now. Do these people honestly think that God is sitting around picking out his favorites? Why would he do that? Why would God have a favorite country? And why would it be America out of all the countries? Because you have the most money? Because he likes our National Anthem? Maybe it’s because he heard we have 18 delicious flavors of Classic Rice-A-Roni! It’s delusional thinking! And America is not alone with this sort of delusions. Military cemeteries around the world are packed with brainwashed dead soldiers who were convinced God was on their side. America prays for God to destroy our enemies. Our enemies pray for God to destroy us. Somebody’s gonna be disappointed. Somebody’s wasting their fucking time. Could it be everyone?” George Carlin

This is the space shuttle Atlantis. It was the last launch of a Space Shuttle to the ISS – International Space Station and occurred on July 8th, 2011. There were 135 missions accomplished by the American Space Shuttle program. It was the orbiter’s final flight and what some call the end of an era. There were four crew members on the flight: Chris Ferguson-commander, Doug Hurley-pilot, and two specialist-Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus. Image Credit: NASA. To learn more about his picture visit: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/sts-135-shuttles-final-launch-and-the-beginning-of-a-new-era

“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” Richard Dawkins

On July 16th, 1969 , the Apollo 11 mission launched on a Saturn V rocket with Neil Armstrong as the commander from Launch Complex Pad 39A. This was the mission that completed the goal set by President John F. Kennedy, eight years prior, to put a man on the moon. The command module pilot was Michael Collins and the lunar module pilot was Buzz Aldrin. Image Credit: NASA To learn more about his picture and Apollo 11 visit this site: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/apollo-11-launches-into-history/

“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” Richard Dawkins

This is a picture of the NASA’s first chief Astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman (1925 to 2018). She was at NASA during a time in which women were generally discouraged from studying math and science. Nancy was instrumental in taking the Hubble Space Telescope from an idea to reality. Hence she is known as the ‘Mother of Hubble. Image Credit: NASA. If you want to learn more about his picture and Nancy visit this site: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nancy-grace-roman-the-mother-of-hubble-2/

“When people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them that the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the big bang, so there is no time for god to make the universe in. It’s like asking directions to the edge of the earth; The Earth is a sphere; it doesn’t have an edge; so looking for it is a futile exercise. We are each free to believe what we want, and it’s my view that the simplest explanation is; there is no god. No one created our universe, and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization; There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that I am extremely grateful.” Stephen Hawking

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid -19. And so have I!! That is a very good thing for both of us!! Therefore life is good and I cannot complain too much at the moment. Looking at the numbers during the first week of July, the good old USA was adding 50 to almost 60 thousand new cases each day. With Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, and Arizona leading the way. Total deaths were just breaking 130,000. I remember when the initial projections for morbidity and mortality were forecast back in April and this number was not supposed to happen until September?! Wow! I guess we are over achievers. Are we winning yet??

Right at the time of this publishing, 25 days from when I started writing the blog post we were greater than 150,000 dead. That is 20,000 more individuals. Think about that, 20,000 more have died because of the virus in the month of July. And the number of positive cases per day is still in the 50 to 60 thousand plus range. Another one of those numbers that just seems unreal to me – 60 thousand plus per day?! Wow!!

This picture was taken June 3rd, 2020 at about 7:30pm. Marvin is stretched out after doing a long walk. By June the temperatures in Fort Collins were getting much warmer and in order to escape the heat, we were walking later in the evening.

To think that most of these deaths could have been avoided in the United States. When you needed someone with strong leadership, where were they?? When you needed someone to take the “bull by the horns” so to speak and protect their fellow Americans above their own interest, where were they?? When you needed someone to listen to the experts and make wise decisions, where were they?? When you needed someone to decisively act and not give placating platitudes… When you needed… Oh well you get the picture. We are in the “churn” now, so to speak. And your only hope is to try and survive. As the Buddhist like to say, life is what it is at the moment. And the moment is all that we have. I take this to heart and try my best to learn from it. It reminds me of a Joan Tollifson quote: “Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor or employee, every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the Guru.” Not really sure what I can F**king learn from this debacle but I thought I would put it out there anyway…

Oh well, if you are interested to see the numbers for yourself, check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

This picture was taken June 8th, 2020 at about 3pm. The picture is of Joe Wright Creek in full Spring runoff. Marvin and I were doing a little trail running on Blue Lake Trail in the Roosevelt National Forest. We could not get to the lake due to snow above 10,500 feet.

I am amazed and sadden that there are so many individuals that still refuse to wear a mask in public venues where social distancing is not possible. The number of “anti – mask” post and comments on social media in the month of June and July were staggering. You would have thought that someone was trying to take away their guns, their freedom, their first born child, their right to (put your own word in), etc… Just because they were asked to wear a mask. I am not sure where this comes from. It was and is, just unreal. As someone who works with the public at the worst of times, and has to wear a mask while at work, I find this behavior discouraging. But what are you going to do? There is so much misinformation put out by entertainment news organizations like Fox, it is very difficult for the truth to be heard. I have tried to argue this point and put forth real science to friends on social media that have this misguided view point. Of course most of this has fallen on deaf ears. Some have been openly hostile even. My thought from now on is that I should just let the numbers fall where they may. Kind of like the scene from Jaws where Hooper tells the individuals in the obviously over-loaded boat that it is over-loaded. They all mumble back at him to mind his own business. Of course we all know where it leads. If you don’t remember the scene check it out below.

I have found that there is just not much you can do with this type of behavior and you have to let the “ignorance” play out so to speak. My only wish is that the individuals that do not take it seriously, will not spread the disease to others. I do believe in the next few years that we will all have friends or family members that will have had the disease or have died from it. It is inevitable. Our only hope for the future is the development of a vaccine. If you wanted to understand how serious the threat of Covid is in terms of physical health and economic stability, then you only need to look at the speed of the vaccine development race. Vaccines usually take years to bring to the market. A lot of regulatory hurdles have to be jumped through to make sure the vaccine is safe and effective. With Covid we are talking a year or less if all works out. And that my friends says a lot. This is a “Hail Mary” pass.

One advantage in the development race is that researchers are not working from scratch. They are using previous research done on SARS and MERS. So this may have shortened the time line a bit. Realistically I am guessing that it is probably closer to 18 months before we have a safe and effective vaccine. There is some thought that the push to have one before this November, even if it is not that effective or safe, could potentially sway election results in favor of the Orange DT. I hope that is not the case. Again time will tell.

Wow where has the time gone?! This picture was taken on Wednesday 17th, June 2020 at about 8:30pm. Janet and I were celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary!! Here we are doing our part at social distancing and “eating out” so to speak on our garage deck with take out. Lol

On a different note, Marvin and I have been doing a trail run in the high country each week. Usually running the same trail each time to see the changes that have occurred as the spring/summer season has progressed. At the first of June we had trouble getting up to a place called Blue Lake due to snow. It sits just below 11,000 feet and it takes a little time to melt out or so I thought.

This picture was taken June 23rd, 2020 at about 5pm. What a beautiful day. Marvin and I hung out in the meadow for a little while to absorb some sunshine. This picture is looking North West toward Clark Peak.

By the end of June things were a much different story. I had no idea that the snow would melt out so quickly. I am guessing that this is variable from year to year, but this year I found it pretty amazing. Of course this has left me wondering, is this an average year? I don’t know. By the end of June not only could Marvin and I get to Blue lake we were able to access the pass above the lake.

This picture was taken on June 29th, 2020 at about 4:30pm. This is Clark Peak and Marvin and I are on top of Blue Lake Pass. At the first of June this would not have been possible without crossing several snow fields, but by the end of June we only had to cross a very small one to get to this point. No snow on top of the pass.

I plan to continue running this same trail each week through out the season to see how the changes progress over time. I know this might sound a little boring to some but I am actually looking forward to it. It will be interesting to see what changes fall brings and when winter makes an appearance again. I have even thought that I might continue to do this one all year, switching to snow shoes and eventually skis as the snow permits. Oh well that is the plan for now, but we will see how it goes. Lol.

A couple of book reviews before wrapping up. There are several I have finished in the last month or two and I would like to give recommendations on them.

The first one I would like to talk about is an Audio Book written by Charlotte Joko Beck. It is called “Living Everyday Zen.” I really liked this book because it has helped me take my practice to a more everyday, tangible level. Or this is what I have experienced after listening to the book twice. I will probably listen to it a third time in the next month or two. If you practice zazen everyday then you know what I mean when I say it can be kind of abstract even though you are keeping your mind in the present while sitting. How do you relate this to everyday life? For me that was always the question after sitting. A lot of benefits of zazen go unnoticed because it creates a change that gradually takes place over time. A long, long time. Her book helps you to see the process in a more concrete way. I would not expect for individuals that are new to zen to get as much out of the audio book as someone that has been doing it for a much longer period of time. This is not to say that someone that is just curious about zen would get nothing out of it, they would, just not as much. Either way it is defiantly a book for the “experienced” practitioner and one for the library of a newcomer.

**You can find the audio book on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Living-Everyday-Zen-audiobook/

The next one I would like to talk about is an audio book (s) by Joseph Goldstein called “Abiding in Mindfulness.” There are actually three volumes to this series but I have only pictured the first one. This is a series of lectures given by Joseph in what Buddhism is for the Western audience. If you are interested in Buddhism, even from a different religious background, these books are well worth it. I have listened to this series a number of times over the years and each time I learn something new or are reminded of a lesson forgotten. The newcomer to Buddhism will not get as much out of this series initially as someone who has already been practicing. But that is not to say it would be by any means a waste of time. This series is not about how to meditate, it does not provide techniques on posture, mindfulness or breathing, etc… The purpose is how to connect your own meditation experiences with some of the deeper meanings of Buddhism as explained by Joseph. An excellent resource.

**You can find the audio book on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Abiding-in-Mindfulness-Volume-1-audiobook/

The next one is for the beginner foremost but even the experienced practitioner will get something out of it! Lol. It is called “Mindfulness in Plain English” by Bhante Gunaratana. Probably should have listed this one at the top. Oh well. I have read this book multi times over the last 10 years. If you are interested in being more “mindful” but don’t want to study Buddhism or you are of a different religious faith then this is the book for you. I am firmly convinced that if more of the worlds population did meditation everyday, we would be a much more kinder and gentler society. This book was written in 1984 and is considered one of the most influential books in the field of mindfulness. The author takes you step by step through the realities and benefits of meditation and more importantly he tells you what meditation is not. Dispelling a lot of myths about meditation. I have read this book several times and it seems I get something out of it each time or relearn something that I have forgotten. Defiantly one for the library. This book is only available in traditional format or Kindle. My opinion is that this needs to be taught in public school at a very young age and continued through college.

**You can find this book on Amazon**: https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-English-Bhante-Henepola-Gunaratana/

The last one I want to give a review on is another one for the newcomer or just plain curious, to Zen. It is called “Wherever You Go There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. This is not a book that is going to give you the down and dirty on meditation and Zen. It is a collection of stories, thoughts and recommendations by the author as seen from a Zen perspective. It will give you a taste of various meditation and mindfulness concepts. It is a good one for your exploration into what meditation, mindfulness and zen are about. This book is offered in all formats but works best in my opinion in traditional format or kindle. I do not recommend the audio version because it has been abridged and leaves too much out.

**You can find this book at Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Wherever-You-There-Are-Mindfulness/

Well that is going to be about it for me on this Blog post. If you read the last one I hope you gave a little more thought to minimalism and how it could make a positive change in your life and the world. The “buying and consuming” will come back to pre-Covid levels eventually. The Corporations and Advertisers are depending on it. Of course the problem is that it is not sustainable for our planet. Minimalism is a great way to make a difference at the individual level. Just think, if you became a minimalist you would be buying future generations a little more time to figure things out. Maybe to even become a space-faring species. How cool would that be?!

Take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds and physical distancing. Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Economics, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, Psychology, Religion, Science, Science Fiction, Sociology, Space, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 29TH, MAY 2020

May 29, 2020 teleskees Leave a comment

“Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

On April 25th, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery. This year it turned 30 years old. It is named after the astronomer Edwin Hubble and remains in operation. At some point it will be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope which is scheduled to be launched next year in March 2021. Image Credit: NASA
**Check out this montage of images taken from Hubble over the years:** https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/videos/1273-Video

“All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are longing for happiness. Basically, you wish yourself well…desire by itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in knowledge and experience. It is the choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing – food, sex, power, fame – will make you happy is to deceive oneself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.” Nisargadatta Maharaj

This photo of earth from space was taken by the Apollo 17 crew on December 7th, 1972. I am using it here to call attention to Earth Day that is now 50 years old. The first one was celebrated April 22nd, 1970. With so much of the world focused on Covid issues, I felt it was appropriate to remind us all of the incredible beauty of our home world and the need to always be vigilant in taking care of it. Image Credit: NASA

“Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor, every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the Guru.” Joan Tollifson

This picture taken by Hubble is call the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation. Here the pillars are seen in infrared light, which helps to see through obscuring dust and gas. The pillars are pretty cool, but to me it is the incredible amount of stars seen in the rest of the image. Imagine, this is just one part of space and the sheer number of other stars is mind blowing. Just unreal…. Image Credit: NASA
**To see the original better-known image of the pillars of creation in visible light, check out this link:** https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1501a/

“The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought. That’s what we’re going to discover again and again and again. Nothing is what we thought. I can say that with great confidence. Emptiness is not what we thought. Neither is mindfulness or fear. Compassion—not what we thought. Love. Buddha nature. Courage. These are code words for things we don’t know in our minds, but any of us could experience them. These are words that point to what life really is when we let things fall apart and let ourselves be nailed to the present moment.” Pema Chodron

A team of transatlantic scientist reanalyzing data from NASA’s Kepler Space telescope discovered an earth-sized exoplanet that is in the habitable zone of it’s solar system. Named Kepler – 1649c. It is orbiting an M-Type red dwarf star named Kepler – 1649. The above image is an artist’s illustration so it might look a lot different than pictured. The important part is that it could support liquid water. How cool is that?! Of course it is a bit of a distance away – about 300 light-years. So for now, until we get the warp engines up and running, we will have to use our imagination.

“In Science it often happens that scientists say, “You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.” Carl Sagan

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19!! Yea!! And so have I!! That is a very good thing indeed. Life is changing and this kind of forced, rapid change is hard. You can see it, feel it and hear it, especially on social media. There are those that it is not going to make much difference but for a majority of us there will be changes. I don’t think the virus is going to go away anytime soon. It is creating a new normal and we are living through that creation right now. Where are things going to end up? That is the billion dollar question. Will we get back to the old way of doing things or will it be a version of the past with a few modifications? And how long will all this last? Another 6 months, a year or until a vaccine becomes available? I don’t really know but I think I am going to hedge my bets on the vaccine scenario. Herd immunity will not occur without significant loss of life, unless you have a vaccine. And that my friends is a hard pill to swallow.

**This picture was taken April 3rd, about 7:30pm in the evening. I was looking West just as the sun was going down in our neighborhood.**

For me, the lock down has not made too many changes… yet. Being somewhat an introvert has helped a lot. Lol. My wife and I were not big concert participants and we did not frequently eat out much except for special events. Most of our recent vacations have been “stay-at-home” types except for visiting the mountains in the RV. While most of my purchases have been online even before the outbreak, my wife’s were not. So that has been modified, especially with the grocery store. As far as work, there have been changes, but the key point is that we are both still working. I am lucky that my job has been spared budget cuts so far. Therefore the only thing that has significantly changed beside social distancing and wearing a mask outside of work, is the way I enjoy the outdoors in Colorado.

This picture was taken April 5th, 2020 at about 6:40pm. We have been doing a lot of neighborhood walking. We are lucky to live in an area that does not have a lot of neighborhood traffic. So walking in the streets is somewhat safe and easy to do. It was a nice spring day in Colorado with temps in the 60s.

By this time last year, I would have already run a couple of races, but they have all been canceled or rescheduled until later in the year. Also by this time, I would have been out in the foothills and the lower mountains for trail running with Marvin, but due to the shear volume of people out and about now, that had to change. I did not want to be a part of the problem. Even the bike trails in the middle of the day are like grand central station, compared to what it was back in April and May 2019. So you adapt and make changes. I have used the indoor bike trainer a lot the past few months. More than I have in the previous two years. If I go for an actual ride, then it has been late at night, with the fewest people on the bike trail as possible. Besides the obvious downside of this, there was an unexpected upside as well. I have walked a lot in the neighborhood the last couple of months, especially with Janet and my youngest daughter Cathryn. They are not runners, especially not trail runners, and the forced isolation has given me a chance to spend more time with them. We walk the neighborhood streets which allows plenty of social distancing.

**This picture was taken April 16th, 2020 at about 5pm. What a difference a week or so makes here in Colorado. Wow!! Marvin was enjoying it a lot.**

I think that 2020 is “over” for trail race events, fun runs, marathons, etc… I cannot imagine there would be anyway to arrange aid stations so that people would not cross contaminate each other. Even with people being very conscious of social distancing, it would be very hard to do. It is hard enough to get individuals to wear a mask at the grocery store. What would it take to get them to put one on during a steep trail climb with multiple bunched up runners. All it takes is one individual to start the process of infecting others. I have to ask myself, do I want to be exposed to that possibility. And since I work in what is considered a high risk environment, would I want to potentially expose others if I was infected? That is an unfortunate aspect of this virus. You can be shedding viral particles before you get sick. Some reports are up to three days before you get sick. In comparison, we got lucky with Ebola. For one, you did not become an infection risk until you were sick. Actually sick with a fever or other symptoms. So if you got it you were easy to screen. The other part is that the mortality was high, 60 to 90% high. While this is bad if you get the disease, you usually were not out and about, running around infecting others, so it became self limiting. Not so with Covid. You can be running your merry way around, not feeling or showing any symptoms, but still infecting others. A “perfect storm” of a virus…

**This picture was also taken on April 16th, 2020 at about 7:30pm. It is looking West along the Poudre River.**

And thinking about this brings me back to change. What is the old saying, “Change, the only constant in life is change.” I know, we have all heard this expression in one form or another. And if you are like me, you are tired of hearing it. But hear it we must, because an event like this is going to be made more difficult if we are not willing to change the way we do things. I would have to say that all the “old rules” are being challenged. It will force all of us across the spectrum of modern life, to look at things in a different way. Especially if you want to keep things running. One of the first ones I think about is schools. Closing of schools exposed the lack of access many homes have to the internet. How can kids learn remotely if they can’t get access to their teachers and learning material online? And what if you need a laptop or a desk top computer? Of course, just having internet access is a luxury for some families. Maybe the internet should be made available to all, free of charge, country wide? Schools may open in the fall and they may not. It might be next year? How can you keep things running if you can’t send kids back to school – safely??

**This picture was taken April 23rd, 2020 at about 7:30pm. What a difference in just 7 days from the above pictures. All the snow is gone. A week ago the snow in this spot was about 12 inches deep.**

The school situation is part of a much broader picture of what happens when groups of people are not allowed to meet in person, whether it be for business or pleasure. All the things that we take for granted are now being challenged by a massive scaling back of productivity in all sectors of life. And this is not a bad thing in the short term. More and more people are being asked to work from home. With some companies thinking about making the four day work week a permanent part of life. How cool would that be to have a three day weekend – every weekend? Of course it is definitely not good for a majority of people that are still out of work like those in the restaurant industry. I have no doubt that it will come back, but the question will be in what capacity. How do you keep people safe? Especially with a virus that can spread from an individual that has no symptoms? If you greatly decrease the number of people that can eat at any give time, will the profit margins be high enough for you to stay in business? I don’t have the answers to these questions and I really don’t think that any one does. Colorado is opening back up as I write this, including restaurants and it will be interesting to see what the case count will be by the middle of June.

**This picture was taken April 27th, 2020 at about 4:30pm in the afternoon. It is a close up shot of the inside of a Tulip flower.**

One thing that has really caught my attention in May, especially on social media is all the fake news out there. I mean there is usually a lot of it anyways but the Pandemic has really stepped on the accelerator. Especially the reopen America type stories. Even thought all of these stories are fake, I think that it strikes a cord with people that have been out of work for a while. And it makes it easier for them to not question the source of the message and they retweet it or share it on FB. It is not too unexpected to see how hunger and fear help to drive these pseudo stories.

Another one that I find fascinating is the conspiracy theory people. I think the individuals that create this content do it for money and some kind of morbid creative enjoyment. My opinion is that they don’t really care who it hurts. The people that buy into it are probably scared. They want answers and meaning for this terrible event that has interrupted their lives and killed family and friends. Unfortunately there is no “deep meaning” other than just what it is. A respiratory virus, ten times deadlier than the flu, that crossed over, likely from bats to humans, in which we have no immunity to. Given our ability to travel the globe, it has infected millions around the world and will continue to do so. Until an effective vaccine is developed, all the precautions we are doing now will become our new normal.

A few book reviews before I go. There are several that I have finished over the last few months and I would like to give a recommendation on them.

The first one I would like to talk about is one that might upset a few people depending on your religious or non-religious views but I feel is worth reading. Maybe more than once, no matter if you are an atheist or religious. “Religion” so to speak has been around for a very long time and over this period it has learned a lot about what makes humanity tic. This information has taken thousands of years of unofficial research and observation to obtain. And it has been incorporated into all religious texts to some degree. If you ask an atheist about whether religion should even exist, most likely the answer will be no. But in the authors opinion and mine that would be a huge waste of hard earned information about what makes us human. The book is about how we can make the world a better place by using this information. The author explains how the “tools of religion” can build a better sense of community, better relationships, better appreciation of art and other cultures, better techniques for learning, etc… This is not about trying to convert anyone to a particular religion. But a look at what it means to not have the “god figure” involved at all. This book works great in traditional format and as an audio book. You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Religion-for-Atheists

The next one I want to talk about also has a religious theme but not how you would expect. The author looks at how religion has been incorporated by different Science Fiction writers over the last 50 years or so. He uses examples from literature as expected but also from television and films. The part that I really liked is how some stories have religious overtones that when I read or viewed them initially, I did not really comprehend it. But after reading the book, it makes much more sense now. I have always felt that our future has already been written in a SiFi book or more likely several books, just by accident. And that our reality is defined by the tools that we have at the moment. As your tools change so does your reality. Reading the book, one of the conclusions I came to was that this also applies to religion. From the book: “A church that dwells in the past is certain to lose touch with the world in which its believers live, and if religion is to meet the spiritual needs of coming generations, it must be willing to face the future with an open mind.” How powerful a statement. This book is only available as Paperback and Kindle. I wish that it was on audio book because it would be worth a second listen on a long car trip. You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-according-Science-Fiction-Twilight

The last one I would like to recommend is another science fiction selection that has 6 books so far. It is called the Red Rising Series. Written by Pierce Brown. It borrows from the Roman past to tell a dystopian future. If you liked the “Hunger Games” you will probably like this series as well. It is the classic story about the “haves” and the “have nots.” A human conflict that is as old as humanity is itself. This series is available in all formats. I thoroughly enjoyed it as an audio book. You can find it on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Pierce-Brown

Well that is about it for me on this Blog post. As the Pandemic continues to drag on, I want to ask you this question again. What do you want “your new normal” to be. This is a great opportunity to create something different. Remember the old guard may not like what you have in mind and will try to divert your attention by selling and telling you things that help you to feel normal. And if that is what you need at this moment, then by all means take it. But if you want something different…resistance is not futile. If you are wondering and want to take a deeper plunge into something different than the current economic system, there is a YouTube channel called Democracy at Work and is hosted by Richard D Wolff – a Harvard Educated Professor of Economics. Check out some of the videos and I will let you be the judge. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK-6FjMu9OI8i0Fo6bkW0VA

Take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, wear your mask when in crowds and social distancing. Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Fort Collins, genetics, Life and Meaning, Longivity, Pandemics, Psychology, Sociology, Space

MUSING FOR FRIDAY 24TH, APRIL 2020

April 24, 2020 teleskees 5 Comments

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exist.” – Eric Hoffer

The Witch’s Broom – Located in the Veil Nebula, is part of the remnants of a star 20 times the size of our sun that went supernova, exploding roughly 8,000 years ago. The long, slender filaments of the Witch’s Broom are part of an expanding blast wave from the supernova – shocking, heating, and transforming interstellar gasses as it goes. The bright spot at the nebula’s upper edge is the giant star 52 Cygni in the constellation Cygnus.

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan W. Watts

NASA’s Curiosity rover captured its highest-resolution panorama yet of the Martian surface between Nov. 24th and Dec. 1st, 2019. This version with the rover contains nearly 650 million pixels and is composed of more than 1000 images. Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego built and operates the Mastcam. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington and built the Curiosity rover.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” Barack Obama

This 2010 image is from the Herschel Space Observatory and shows dust clouds associated with the Rosette Nebula. It is a stellar nursery that is somewhere around 5,000 light years from Earth. The Observatory collected infrared light radiated out by the dust. The bright spots are cocoons containing embryonic stars. They will eventually grow up to 10 times the mass of our sun.

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer

Apollo 17 (December 1972) was the last crewed lunar landing. It hosted the first scientist-astronaut to land on the Moon, Harrison Schmitt, a geologist. The lunar module was distinguished by extended hardware capability, larger scientific payload capacity and the use of the battery-powered Lunar Rover. The rover vehicle traversed a total of 30.5 kilometers. The crew “stay time” on the moon was 75 hours and approximately 243 pounds of material was brought back to earth.

“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?” Carl Sagan

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

Well if you are reading this… then you have survived Covid – 19 so far and I have too!! That is a very good thing. This virus has turned out, as most of the experts predicted, to be much worse than the flu. It was interesting to me that even after the first week of April or so, when the death toll continued to climb each day, there were some individuals that thought it was still being over blown. I mean I get it. It is hard to believe that something like this could occur in our modern day and age. Especially if you have no science and or medical training. And of course after hearing the “Orange DT” expound over and over, again and again, upon the idea that all the media is “fake news” for the last four years – I am guessing this affected some individuals in that they did not know what to believe. I have to ask myself how much needless suffering and death was inflicted upon the public due to this conman’s irresponsible rhetoric? Oh well, its all water under the bridge, not much we can do about it. The issue now is all about mitigation and recovery at some point. And I am wondering if “opening back up” at the end of April is the best move? Maybe putting it off another month might be better? Time will tell. And the question to ask is what will be our new normal?

**This picture was taken March 3rd, 2020 at about 4 pm.** Here I am looking South from the top sections of Horsetooth Mountain Park, due West of Fort Collins. It was a beautiful spring afternoon in Colorado. My elevation at this point was just over 7,000 feet.

On a more positive note it sounds like there are several different companies around the world, working on a vaccine for this virus. From the United States to Australia. I know that one company was given the green light to skip animal trials and go straight to human testing. That is pretty amazing because it has never been done before. Think about that, straight to human testing?! If you ever needed another reason to take this viral illness seriously, then this would be it. The company’s name is Moderna. Based out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. You should check out their web site. It looks like they have a list of vaccines they are working on using mRNA. Or messenger RNA. Every thing from infectious diseases, like Zika and Covid 19 to Cancer Vaccines. Also it looks like they have an area of research called Regenerative Therapeutics – meaning they are developing gene therapy to treat injured or diseased tissue. That is pretty cool. Here is the link: https://www.modernatx.com/

**This picture was taken March 11th, 2020 at about 5:30 pm. It was another beautiful spring like day in Colorado.**

If there is only one silver lining to come out of the pandemic, it will be the advancement of knowledge in working with genetics, viruses and vaccines. And this includes dealing with mass causality situations due to an infectious agent, on a scale that has not been seen since the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. Hopefully when the next one occurs we will have a much more robust capability and knowledge base to deal with it.

**This picture was taken March 19th, 2020 at about 7 pm.** It is from one of the parks in Fort Collins. Wow what a difference a week makes in the weather. From 50 to 60 degree days last week to cold and snow a week later. Oh well it is spring time in Colorado and there is an old joke that you can experience all four season in a single day living here. Lol

What does the future hold? What will be our new normal? Truthfully, I have no idea. But I am guessing that as we do try to unlock the economy, I feel that there will be a “blitzkrieg” in advertising. All of it, trying to help you feel “comfortable” again. And we all want to feel that way. I have been lucky so far. My “day job” so to speak, is medical and for now it has escaped budget cuts. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to be worried about paying rent and bills, not to mention just affording food. Our need for comfort and safety will be genuine. The advertising agencies and corporations know this. I am guessing that there have been countless teleconferenced meetings around the world on the best strategy on how to sell you the old normal. But do we want the old normal back, as it was? Like an economy that is based on debt and over-consumption to the point that it collapses when people start to buy only their essentials. How strong could it have actually been? Or a health care system that does not work for everyone or charges you so much money that you have to the sell the farm to pay the medical bills. Or a degraded social safety net that relies in part on the capricious generosity of others. I could go on and on with this. But I think you get the picture. Maybe a modified version might be better?

**This picture was taken March 22nd, 2020 at about 7 pm. Only three days later and temps back in the 50s. Beautiful evening. Marvin was keeping a close eye on the geese. Lol**

As I write and research this, I find a lot of other authors talking about “time.” How in the old system, we just did not have enough time to care. In the previous economy, no matter who we were as Americans, we all shared one thing in common, we were busy. Working, paying bills, taking kids to school, answering e-mail, phone calls, attending meetings, and the list goes on and on and on. So, how can you worry or much less logically think about an existential issue or problem when you barley have enough time for eating and sleeping, before you have to do it all over again the next day. Truly – you had no time. This really hit home with me. Not because I was feeling stressed about time, but because I wasn’t. I have been in health care for about 40 years and for the majority of it I have worked 12 hours shifts. Three per week, sometimes more but recently a lot less – my choice for the last few years. Now I only work two 12 hours shifts per week or less. Having time to read more, to exercise more, to eat better, to work on my mental health, etc… has been liberating to say the least. If I would have been more self-disciplined when I was a younger man, I would have gone to this part-time way of existence much sooner. Yes I had to make sacrifices in what I spend and buy. But that was more of a mental issue than a true physical one. My wife used to ask the kids when they were younger, “Is it a want or a need.” And she was right in more ways than one. Our needs are few but our wants are endless. The advertising agencies and big business know this.

This picture was taken March 23rd, 2020 at about 7:35pm. Looking West along the Poudre trail in Fort Collins. A lot of the open space areas that the trail transects were old farmsteads in the past. Looking at this tree, I wonder who in the past might have looked the same direction? What thoughts they might have had, their worries, their concerns, their loves, their likes and dislikes, etc… What would they think of the world today?

Big government, big business and advertising are all teaming up. They are going to want to make you feel comfortable again. They will be there to indoctrinate you into the old ways of doing things. To make you think that it was not as bad as what it was. Like a Jedi mind trick. You didn’t see those body bags in Italy and New York, you didn’t see the death count, you didn’t see the doctors and nurses on the front line describing hospitals as war zones, you didn’t see the food lines, you didn’t see that the air was much cleaner, you didn’t see those headlines and if you did they were all fake. You did not see or hear the leader of the free world reference the virus as a new hoax, or take too long to declare a national emergency. In order to be good children, you will be told over and over again and again through advertising to drink the proverbial Kool-aide. So I ask you, is this what you want? To go back? This crisis has given us a chance to see ourselves and our world from a very different view point. It has hit the pause button on the human-ant like madness that was taking place on the planet. To see it in a better light. To give you the “time” to wake up and take a much closer look at the issues and problems that we all face at some point in our lives. So ask yourself, what is it that you want to put back into in your life? How do you want to spend your time?

This picture was taken March 25th, 2020 at about 7:30 pm. I was looking West along the Poudre River and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Another beautiful Colorado sunset. They never get old.

A few book reviews before I go. There are several that I have finished over the last year and I would like to give a recommendation on them.

One of the fist ones I would like to talk about is an old one but just as relevant today as it was when published in 1996. The book is written by Carl Sagan and is called “The Demon-Haunted World.” This is one of those books that you need to savor. Take a chapter at at time, read it, think about it and maybe even reread the same chapter. Or better yet look up some of the ideas put forth. He talks in detail about many myths and pseudoscience concepts (ghosts, aliens, crop circles, spirits, etc..) that we have heard about over time and why people seem to have this incredible need to believe in them. And why education in science is an answer to dispelling them. This is my second time to read the book, but I felt like he had just written it yesterday due to current events in the world. If anything this book is prophetic. A lot of what Carl talks about in the book, to take as a warning for the future, has unfortunately come to pass. This should be one of the books that is mandatory reading for all High School Seniors before graduating. This book works great in traditional format and as an audio book. You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark

The next one I want to talk about is called Lifespan and is written by David A. Sinclair, PhD. I have worked in health care for almost 40 years now and have seen all the usual diseases associated with getting old, heart disease, cancer, dementia, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, arthritis, neuro-degenerative, etc… and how we approach each disease in a singular fashion. With each disease having it own specialist. David puts forth that all of these diseases with some exceptions can be linked to aging. And if we treat the cause of aging, then we also will be treating the diseases that are related to getting old at the same time. His theory on why we age is also something that was a surprise to me. But once it was explained, made perfect sense. Like an Ah Ha moment. The book does require a small amount of prior knowledge of cell biology, genetics and physics to truly be appreciated. But it is really just a small amount and no math! Lol. If your willing to look up a unfamiliar term or concept, the book is well worth the read. It is not just about living longer but also about living healthier. The book is better if you read it in traditional format. I bought it as an audio book the first time. But I am now going back through it in the paperback form. You can find the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Lifespan-Why-Age-Dont-Have

The next one I want to talk about is a Science Fiction Series that has been made into a TV series. It is called “The Expanse.” There are 8 main books in the series so far. They are by James S.A. Corey, which is a joint pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Wow is the least that I can say about the books. The TV series is good but not at the level of the books. The setting is Earth, Mars, the moons of Jupiter, assorted asteroids, and eventually alien worlds. It takes place a couple of hundred years into the future. Humanity has moved out into the solar system and taken our same societal issues with us. Some good and some bad. A great Space Opera. Well worth the read while you are stuck at home. You can find the books here on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Wakes

Well that is about it for me on this Blog post. Another somewhat long one but again due to the crisis in the world today there is a lot to think about and in turn write about. As the Pandemic drags on, ask yourself what do you want your “new normal” to be. We have a great opportunity to create something different. Just remember a lot of the old guard will not like what you have in mind and will try to divert your attention by selling you things that help you to feel normal. And if that is what you need then by all means take it. But if you want something different…resistance is not futile. So take care my friends and remember social distancing. Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Fort Collins, Life and Meaning, Pandemics, Politics, Science, Sociology

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 27TH, MARCH 2020

March 27, 2020 teleskees 2 Comments

“We all too often have Socialism for the rich… and rugged Free Market Capitalism for the poor.” – Martin Luther King

“A disregard for human suffering in the pursuit of profit.”

Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 1996

HEY!! I AM LOOKING AT YOU!! THAT’S WHO!! LOLOLOLOLOL

Well if you are reading this blog post it means that you are still alive, for now. And it means that I am too!! Yea for both of us!! Amazing what a tiny pathogen can do to an entire world and it’s economy. I hope that none of you have lost any loved ones to this virus. “Jobs”, “businesses”, “material things”, can all be replaced, but those that we hold dear cannot. This pandemic has made me realize again how much we are all linked globally. In a bygone era this would not have been the case. But now due to air travel and supply chains we are all connected. How much better a world it would be if we cared for each other on a global scale. Time to get rid of the old models of Nationalism and Isolation. Time to accept Globalization as a real path to the future. I believe that our very survival depends on it.

This picture was taken February 1st, 2020 – looking West at about 5:30 pm. It is in my neighborhood. Unreal the colors that evening. I was at the right place at the right time. This is one of my favorite pictures so far this year.

Another thing this Pandemic has laid bare is the pitfalls of “Free Market Capitalism” or what might be better known as Neoliberalism. What I call our current economic system in the US. I could not believe or I guess I could due the craziness of the last four years with the Trump administration and their laissez faire attitude, that there might be a charge for a potentially life saving vaccine for Covid-19. Of course we have seen this with rising medication cost already. Especially where some medications that have been around for a very long time and were relatively cheap have now skyrocketed in price. Thank you “Free Market Capitalism” for making life hell for millions of Americans. Some might disagree that I use Free Market and Capitalism in the same quote. I don’t see anything wrong with Capitalism as Capitalism. But I do see a problem with a form of Capitalism called Free Market / Neoliberalism.

This picture was taken February 5th, 2020 – looking West at about 5:25pm. A beautiful and cold afternoon. Just after taking this picture the high school cross country ski team came whizzing by. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Neoliberalism has given unheard of powers to multinational corporations and banks. To the degree that they are for the most part unaccountable to the public. Some have seen that giving all this power and wealth to a small elite, is one of the greatest threats to democracy. And I have to agree. This type of economy does not work for the majority of Americans that are living from paycheck to paycheck and have no health insurance, no savings, no back up. I am talking about the low-wage and gig-economy workers, the poor, the elderly, the immigrants and the care workers. Especially when you have something that is a Pandemic. How can you stop the spread of something like this that threatens all of us, when people have no sick days, no health insurance to go to a doctor and not the emergency room. Not to mention that they have no income unless they are working. Two weeks to a month of self – quarantine might not sound like a lot to some of us. But if you have no money to buy food or pay rent… Well I think you could imagine the picture. Leaving stuff like this to our current system of “Free Market,” and the “Capricious Generosity” of others is not going to work. The idea of having a entry level minimum wage job that does not have paid sick days or health insurance is or should be over… forever.

**This picture was taken February 18th, 2020 at about 6pm. It was taken looking West along the Poudre River. Colorado has had some beautiful sunsets this winter!!**

So it will be interesting to see how our current economic system and government holds up under the pressure of Covid -19. So many policies that our elected officials have long told us were impossible and impractical are now, due to the crisis, eminently possible and practical all long. All the things like forced evictions, continued homelessness, skyrocketing interest on student loans, crushing medical debt, etc…, were issues that we were all told there was no money to fix or reform. I bet in the coming months all these issues due to the crisis will magically be fixed, at least temporarily. I find it ironic, that in a crisis, the rules don’t apply therefore it makes me wonder why they were rules in the first place. If there is any silver lining to this world debacle, it is that we now have an opportunity to change things so that millions and millions of people are not so vulnerable to begin with.

**This picture was taken February 26th, 2020 at 6:45 pm. It is looking West at the Moon and Venus. Earlier in the year they were quit close to each other right after sunset.**

Well in last month’s blog post I wrote something to the fact that technology had become the big driver of change in society and how something like disease had become less of an issue. OH HOW I WAS WRONG. And I want to admit that fact. But I have to give myself a little credit at the same time. If I had known that the Trump administration had cut the CDC’s epidemic prevention programs back by 80 percent in 2018, I would have written a much different blog post. Not only did they do that but they eliminated at the same time, a National Security Council directorate that was charged with preparing for when, not if the next Pandemic hit. Don’t believe me. Check out the two articles below. One from Futurism and one from the Washington Post. Both from 2018. Of course fast forward to the present and the excuse they give is that it was a “streamlining effect to make it all more efficient” or some such bullshit like that. No mater what you believe, I think that we can all agree that their handling of it has been a debacle to say the least. When South Korea was taking action on February 23rd, what the hell was the Trump administration doing? And when the WHO raised the treat level from high to very high on February 28th, a warning to every government on the planet, what was the Trump administration doing? It was not until March 13th that Trump and his administration declared a State of Emergency. Twenty days after South Korea. WTF is all I can say.

The crazy part is that none of this is rocket science. It was been written about, movies made, studies done, scenarios worked up, etc… for at least the last 50 years. Even the dumbness dumb person, in the administration should have had some clue that something was afloat by the middle of January… Oh well it is all water under the bridge for now and the best we can do is to hope that we survive.

Futurism: https://futurism.com/neoscope/officially-path-global-pandemic

Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2018/05/10/top-white-house-official-in-charge-of-pandemic-response-exits-abruptly/

Those two articles well help to put it into perspective. No one was driving the bus and we ran off the road into a pandemic so to speak.

**This picture was taken February 29th, 2020 at 6pm. It is looking West along the Poudre River. Another beautiful Colorado sunset.**

Change is coming folks. For better or worse. The question we need to ask is how do we want the changes to occur. Some that came to my mind are: Who will get the lion’s share of relief money? Will it go to more Corporate Socialism? How will the health care system change? Will there be a renewed push so that all have health insurance regardless of their ability to pay? What new / old ideas on social nets for the poor and elderly will be seriously looked at again. Will there be something called family care? Better family medical leave? What will happen to the pharmaceutical corporations? Will government take a more active role so that profitability is not the main driving factor? Will Science come back into vogue with the general public? We can only hope. There is a lot of potential for change after this crisis has passed and it is up to all of us in how we want that change to occur. There is a good article from POLITICO on this very topic. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579

It looks at a lot of different possible “change scenarios” that might occur when this is over. Well worth the read.

**This picture was also taken on February 29th, 2020. Post walk / run with Marvin. Here he is enjoying the comforts of his dog bed. Of course he enjoys the comforts of the futons too. Lol.**

In this blog post I want to give a few book reviews. There are several that I have finished over the last couple of months and I would like to give a recommendation on them.

One of the first ones I would like to start with is called the “The Uninhabitable Earth” by David Wallace-Wells. Now I have to warn you this book is not for the faint of heart. It paints a much bleaker picture of what our future holds as the earth continues to warm. Think food shortages, refugee emergencies, famine, disease and economic collapse. Some have likened it to Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring.” David does not sugar coat anything in my opinion. It is a call to action in a changing world of climate change. I read it this past year and it was the emphasis for me to put solar cells on our house to help decrease CO2 admission. Some may find that the author is a little alarmist but that is the point of the book. It is a call to action.

**You can find it at Amazon:**
https://www.amazon.com/Uninhabitable-Earth-Life-After-Warming

The next one I would like to give a recommendation on is called “The Case For Mars”, by Robert Zubrin. It is a little bit of an older book but still makes a very strong case for getting to the Red Planet. The original publish date is 1996, but it has been updated and is as relevant today as it was back then. When you realize that we could have started the colonization of Mars two decades ago with the technology at the time, it makes you wonder why we have not done it already. Zubrin addresses not only how we get there but he also gives us the why. He does goes into some detail on specifics but not so deep that the average person can’t understand. For me this really hit home with the current Covid 19 crisis. We do need to have a second planet as a fall back. I got this book as an audio book but I think it would work in any format.

**You can find it at Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet

The next one to give a recommendation to is actually two books in Science Fiction that are part of a series. They are both by Travis J.I. Corcoran. The first one is called “The Powers of Earth” and the second is called “Causes of Separation.” I loved both of them. The time is in the near future, about 40 or so years from now, and earth has become more politically corrupt and over populated. Because of this, there is a kind of quasi world government and military force that is made up of all the countries on earth. Think of it as a NATO on steroids. Now add some technology, and a few disgruntled individuals that don’t like the way things are run on earth. Which causes them to decide to move to the moon and in the process become very successful. Mean while the economy on earth is in a continued downward spiral called the long depression. The conflict arises when the US government decides they want to take some of the moon’s wealth. I like both of these books because it is dealing with issues that we currently see in the world today. Just not on that big of scale yet. The other part I love is how a single piece of technology can totally change everything. Have you ever wondered what would happen if the moon was accessible to all of us, without having to ride a “roman candle” into space. It opens up a whole world of possibilities. Both books work great as audio books or other formats.

**You can find it at Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Powers-Earth-Aristillus-Book

**You can find it at Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K37YHD9?pLink=31a14b22-48ed-4b&ref=adblp13nvvxx_0_0_im

The last one I want to give a recommendation to is called “Figuring” by Maria Popova. I like this book a lot because it gave me deeper insights into multiple historical figures of the past. Like Johannes Kepler, Rachel Carson, Maria Mitchell, Harriet Hosmer, Margaret Fuller and Emily Dickinson, to just name a few. In truth I had to look up several individuals to refresh my memory of them. She goes in-depth about their personnel lives and struggles. How it all affected who they loved or were allowed to love. And how it all influenced their work and careers. She covers almost four centuries in doing this. I listened to this book as an audio book but it would have been much better to read it in a traditional format due to the amount of information. I found myself stopping several times to re-listen to a section to get a better understanding. A very good book that I feel I will read a second time.

You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Figuring

Well that is about it for me on this Blog post. This one was a rather long one but due to the crisis in the world today, there seemed to be much more to write about. I hope that all of you are able to stay well. And if you get Covid – 19, may your illness be short and you recover completely. Remember social distancing and when change comes think about the outcomes. What might be a better fit for all of us and not just a select few. Take care my friends!! Adios!!

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous.., leading to the most amazing views.” Edward Abbey

Book Review, Colorado, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Life and Meaning, Trail Running

MUSING FOR SUNDAY 16TH, JUNE 2019

June 17, 2019 teleskees Leave a comment

“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all this to happen: Room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” Pema Chodron

“…anyone who stands on the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without a reference point, experiences groundlessness. That’s when our understanding goes deeper, when we find the present moment is a pretty vulnerable place… completely unnerving and completely tender at the same time.” Pema Chodron

“To be fully alive, fully human and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no man’s land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” Pema Chodron

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there!! Damn it has been a good couple of weeks. Great running in FoCo and the weather here on the Front Range has finally decided to stay warm for a bit . A plus to all this is I have had the luxury of staying part of this last week in Summit County. While some of the really high trails are not clear yet for hiking or running due to snow, the rest of the terrain around Breckenridge has been fantastic. I really, really should not complain!! Life is good!! Lol

**Marvin’s first RV trip. This picture was taken the first night of our “camping out” and I am not sure if he is down with it yet?! This dog always seems to have a serious look on his face! Lol**

In this blog I thought I would include a few quotes from Pema Chodron. They are from her book called “When Things Fall Apart.” I believe that these are timeless truths that echo a lot of what the Author Brene Brown talks about when she speaks of the power of vulnerability. I read the book from Pema a few years ago when it first came out, once as an audio book and once as an e-book. I felt that strongly about it. The thing that I have found interesting about the book is how the messages she lays out keep coming up over and over again and again. Or at least they do for me. Especially the first quote about how things come together and then fall apart. Nothing is truly “fixed” in life and for those of us that have a little trouble with change this can be very hard. It has helped me to see that there are no absolutes in life. That there are many, many shades of black and white. And that it is OK.

This picture was taken on Thursday 13th, June 2019. It is of Janet and Marvin on a section of the Colorado Trail that goes into Breckinridge. Beautiful evening of hiking with Marvin. Again what is it with the serious face?! Lol

Things come together and they fall apart and come together again and fall apart again. Whether it be families or vacations, jobs, buying a house or not buying a house, births, deaths, events, parties, the list could just go on and on and on. In my opinion that is just the way life works. One of the tricks to working with this fact, I think, is to just show up. Put the fear aside of what might or might not happen and just show up. Sometimes things will work out and sometimes they don’t but you will never know if you don’t show up. Just that simple. You have to show up. And I remind myself of this as I write. Part of the plan for being up in Summit county this weekend was to run the Leadville Trail Marathon. That was the plan. And I did NOT show up. Talked myself right out of it… Now I have to ask myself. What was that about?? Was it the weather forecast? It was suppose to rain and be cold all day. Was it the fear of not finishing? I had trained quit a bit this year and put in more running miles than I did by this time last year. Was it just fear in general? I always have a little underlying anxiety anytime I plan to run a race. This is nothing new.

This picture was taken at the Starbucks in Breckenridge on Saturday 15th, 2019. They usually do not allow dogs in the building but because Marvin was being so nice they made an exception for us. Lol. He seemed to enjoy it.

Or was it just a combination of all the above? I don’t know for sure but I have been in this situation before and I do know the solution no matter what the reason is. You just have to SHOW UP. Just that simple but OH so hard at times. All I needed to do was just show up and it would have all worked out.

It turned out the weather was fantastic, at least on the Breckinridge side. A few afternoon showers but very nice otherwise. Sure it is never easy running 26 miles at elevation but I had trained for it. You just have to see past the anxiety and fear and just show up. For whatever reason, this year I did not do that. And it is hard to admit this, but the “what ifs” got the better of me. Oh well you live and learn. On the plus side I did get to spend a fantastic day with Janet and Marvin. Things come together and they fall apart but not always as you might expect……

**Hiking with Janet and “Serious” Marvin on Sunday 16th, June 2019. What a great day!!**

Well that is going to be about it for me on this blog post. I hope everyone had a great two weeks and I hope to see you out there on the trails, whether it be biking, hiking, running, or just plain walking!! Adios amigos!!

Artificial Intelligence, Book Review, Exercise, Science, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY 24TH, MARCH 2019

March 24, 2019 teleskees Leave a comment

With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out. – Elon Musk

Everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools that AI may provide, but the eradication of war, disease, and poverty would be high on anyone’s list. Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. Unfortunately, it might also be the last. – Steven Hawking

With the increasingly important role of intelligent machines in all phases of our lives–military, medical, economic and financial, political–it is odd to keep reading articles with titles such as Whatever Happened to Artificial Intelligence? This is a phenomenon that Turing had predicted: that machine intelligence would become so pervasive, so comfortable, and so well integrated into our information-based economy that people would fail even to notice it. – Ray Kurzweil

This picture was taken on Tuesday 12th, March 2019. Here I am at the top or close to the top of Horsetooth Mt. park looking West. In the background you can just make out Meeker and Longs Peak. Longs sits at 14,000 feet. The day was very warm, as an approaching storm was moving into the state.

Well it has been a good 2 weeks. I was under the weather a little bit for the start of it but I am feeling better now. I divide my workout/running sections into 3 week intervals and the last interval I finished with about 138 miles ( 46 miles/week). Which might not sound like a lot to those of you that are running gods. For me, I might have pushed it just a little bit. To add to this, I missed my usual amount of sleep and being older it does not take much to create illness. My wife Janet reminds me of this a lot and it is probably a good thing that she does!! Lol

This picture was taken the very next day, Wednesday 13th, March 2019, and again not to hit an old cliche’ too much, “What a difference a day makes!!” Dang, I cannot imagine what it must have been like for the early settlers on the plains. You have this fantastic weather for a day or two and get lulled into a false sense of security. Then Kaboom! Snow and wind with no modern day warning. We were lucky in Fort Collins, we did not get the high winds and drifts that the Eastern Plains did. This view is from our front door.

I am between books at the moment, so no new book review this week. But I would like to reiterate my thoughts on AI. I really do think this is coming, rather sooner than later. I am pretty sure it will be the “General AI” that everyone is hoping for or fearing depending on your point of view. And by general I mean, something that thinks and reacts, for good or bad, as a human would. The current AI we have now is something a little less dramatic and world changing. Such as your smart phone, semi-autonomous cars and trucks, social media feeds like FB, personal data assistants like Siri and Alexa, entertainment such as video games and Netflix. The list could go on and on. It is already used in thousands of applications everyday and most of the time we are not even aware of it. I guess in some sense this technology has been world changing. But the difference to me is that you could decide to not use a lot of it and it would not make that much difference in your life. At least not at this time. So I don’t worry about it too much. Another name for this kind of AI is machine learning. The type of AI that I am concerned with is true “General AI.” Or if it helps to understand it better, something that is conscious or sentient AI. This would be a game changer and will make everything else seem like child’s play. Will it happen? Good question. I think yes. It will happen and sooner rather than later.

This picture was taken the next day after the storm, Thursday 14th, March 2019. And it shows again what I think is the best thing about the Front Range of Colorado. Even though the temp was in the high 20s, a lot of snow had already melted. This picture is looking West towards the mountains and the lake is Lake Sherwood in our neighbor.

I draw this conclusion from recent material that I have read, and from an old video on an AI conference from a few years ago, around 2015. It was taking place in Taiwan or it might have been Hong Kong. It was a round table discussion of some of the movers and shakers in AI at the time from around the world. I cannot remember their names, but they were from the tech industry and different universities. The one I remember best was a guy from Carnegie Mellon University. The talk was pretty lively around the table about when general AI might arise or even if it would. There was a lot of disagreement, some saying its way off in the future and some saying in the next 10 to 20 years and some saying no, it would never come to be. This guy interrupts everyone and says: “What you all have to remember is that there are “100s of thousands” of young people in the U.S. alone working on this very problem.” That single statement stopped everyone in their tracks for a moment. It just hung there in the air. Incredible. All I could think was, this is like the “Manhattan Project.”

**This picture was taken on Sunday 17th, March 2019, looking West, across a local golf course, next to the Power-line Trail in Fort Collins. Just another beautiful Colorado Sunset.**

Remember that the Manhattan Project was a secret research and development program to create the first atomic bomb. And it employed a 100,000 plus individuals to pull it off. It was a race with Germany at the time. They were ahead of us in R&D prior to the start of the project in 1939. Lucky for us and the rest of the world. We came in first. I believe that we are in another race. And this time it is to build the first “General AI.” At this point, my guess is that the USA, European Union, China and Russia are all neck and neck at the moment, with hundreds and hundreds of thousands of individuals all working on it from multi different countries.

This picture was taken Thursday 21st, March 2019. What a beautiful day it was in Fort Collins. Sixty degrees, very mild wind and clean air. Wow!! You don’t get too many of these with all three ingredients like this. Air quality being the number one reason why. Just beautiful. This picture was taken on the East side of Horsetooth reservoir looking North. The lake is low at this time of year, in another month or two there will be about 20 to 30 feet of water where I am standing.

This gives me pause and it should you too. It took fewer individuals to build the first atomic bomb than is currently working on AI. We are not in a world war like we were in 1940, but I do believe the stakes are just as high. Ask yourself: “How do you want this to happen?” Do you want a benevolent AI, that helps humanity to the next level of existence or one that is used to wipe out a countries neighbor, or one that is the all watching eye of a totalitarian state? In a worst case scenario it see us as inconsequential and decides to eliminate humanity altogether. I know you are probably like me wondering what you can you do about it? Another good question. The first thing is to educate yourself. And a good place to start is with one of the books that I last reviewed. It is well worth the read and Tegmark elegantly and convincingly puts into words why we should be concerned and what we can do to help make a difference. You can find the book on Amazon: h

Well that is enough of my soapbox for this blog post. I could go on and on for a while longer, but I think you get the zest. Please if you get the change to read the above book and I usually don’t recommend a book twice, read it. You don’t have to be an Astrophysicists to understand it.

**This picture was taken last week on or around Wednesday, March 20th. Five weeks old and getting bigger!! Just waiting to meet the parents of this pup to make the final decision.**

What an interesting two weeks with weather on the Front Range of Colorado, from beautiful warm days and cold nights, to a full blow blizzard. Spring is here in Colorado!! Lol. I hope that this blog post finds all of you in the best of health. Maybe I will see you out there on the trails or ski slope!! Adios my friends.

Artificial Intelligence, Book Review, Colorado, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Genetics, Science, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY 24TH, FEBRUARY 2019

February 24, 2019 teleskees Leave a comment

“If an AI possessed any one of these skills—social abilities, technological development, economic ability—at a superhuman level, it is quite likely that it would quickly come to dominate our world in one way or another. And as we’ve seen, if it ever developed these abilities to the human level, then it would likely soon develop them to a superhuman level. So we can assume that if even one of these skills gets programmed into a computer, then our world will come to be dominated by AIs or AI-empowered humans.”
― Stuart Armstrong, Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence

“A powerful AI system tasked with ensuring your safety might imprison you at home. If you asked for happiness, it might hook you up to a life support and ceaselessly stimulate your brain’s pleasure centers. If you don’t provide the AI with a very big library of preferred behaviors or an ironclad means for it to deduce what behavior you prefer, you’ll be stuck with whatever it comes up with. And since it’s a highly complex system, you may never understand it well enough to make sure you’ve got it right.”
― James Barrat, Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era

“Why give a robot an order to obey orders—why aren’t the original orders enough? Why command a robot not to do harm—wouldn’t it be easier never to command it to do harm in the first place? Does the universe contain a mysterious force pulling entities toward malevolence, so that a positronic brain must be programmed to withstand it? Do intelligent beings inevitably develop an attitude problem? Now that computers really have become smarter and more powerful, the anxiety has waned. Today’s ubiquitous, networked computers have an unprecedented ability to do mischief should they ever go to the bad. But the only mayhem comes from unpredictable chaos or from human malice in the form of viruses. We no longer worry about electronic serial killers or subversive silicon cabals because we are beginning to appreciate that malevolence—like vision, motor coordination, and common sense—does not come free with computation but has to be programmed in. Aggression, like every other part of human behavior we take for granted, is a challenging engineering problem!”
― Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works

This picture was taken on Sunday the 10th of February, looking North. It was a cold evening and air quality was just on the edge of the acceptable range. Not much air movement due to no wind. You can just make out some of the brown cloud that plagues the Front Range of Colorado. It does make for a beautiful sunset. LOL. Still a nice run during the afternoon. Saw a couple of healthy looking Coyotes on this trail run. I am guessing that they have been feeding on the plethora of rabbits in the area.

Well it has been a great two weeks I think. The weather has been cold and snowy, off and on here on the Front Range, but not enough to really make much of a difference with running. The snow in the mountains has been wonderful and the best part, it has continued to come down. I have gotten in a couple of days of skiing and both of those days were great. Excellent conditions compared to last year.

This picture was taken on Thursday 14th, February 2019 while walking with Janet. We have heard owls in this area quit a bit, but had not seen one this close up. It was pretty cool to say the least to see the bird hooting. The whole body was involved in producing the hoot. It was easy to identify the species on this one. A Great Horned Owl. LOL. Looking at this picture now, I can see why the Native Americans and early settlers made up stories about these birds. It does look a little creepy. Again, a cold afternoon walk but the bike path was clear of ice and snow and with some wind, the air quality levels were much better.

As some may know we lost our white German Shepherd Neige, back last August. She had Degenerative Myelopathy. A genetically inherited malady that is a progressive, incurable disease of the spinal cord in dogs. Similar to ALS in humans. To say that we were heart broken would be an understatement. But as they say, time heals all wounds. So we have started to look again for a dog. I think that we are going to stick with the German Shepherd breed. But it has been hard to say the least. We have owned four Shepherds in the last 30 years and they have all suffered some form of the most common genetic aliments of the breed. Neige lived to be 12 years old and was definitely enough dog for two people. Meaning that we had not really looked at what is out there in the market place for a while.

Neige in better times. Doing what she loved to do. This picture was taken about a year ago, last March 2018. Thinking back, wondering if I was in a hurry that day? Could I have thrown her the stick a few more times knowing what I know now…. Time is a lot shorter than you ever realize…. Always loved and never forgotten….

So I have been doing a little bit of “dog” research and my conclusions, “It is all about genetic testing.” First if you buy from a breeder – then you need genetic testing of the parents to rule out some of the common genetic ailments. Otherwise it is just a game of roulette, no matter what the breeder tells you. And if you decided to get one from the humane society or shelter of your choice – then you need to do some, you guessed it, genetic testing. A little more difficult to do when the dog is from the shelter. But possible, just not convenient. I found it interesting that some of the shelters are now starting to do this on their own. They have found that it makes some dogs much more adoptable to know the breed mixes in the dog and (for an added cost) if they are susceptible to certain common genetic diseases. If you think about how much time, effort, and money you put into a family pet. Not to mention, they truly become part of your family. And in some cases a very significant part of your life. I think it makes sense to go a step further in the selection process and do the genetic testing. Especially now that the technology to do this is available and has come down significantly in price. For me, it just makes sense to do it. I know that this will be a little controversial with a few people and that is OK. I hope it generates some good discussion and consideration the next time you look for a dog. A good recent article on this subject is from WIRED magazine: https://www.wired.com/story/dog-dna-kits-reviewed/?mbid=email_onsiteshare

This picture was taken Saturday 16th, February 2019, looking North West in the late afternoon. I have to say it was a beautiful sunset. Cold, in the teens, with a little wind. In Colorado we get what is know as “standing wave clouds” and this is an example. They can make for great sunset pictures. The colors do not last for long but can be quit intense for a few minutes.

Now on a totally different note, I have started to listen to a new audio book called “Life 3.0 – Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” by Max Tegmark. I am not very far into it yet but it really has gotten me thinking about A.I. and what that means for the future of humanity. Tegmark is a is a Swedish-American physicist and cosmologist. He is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the scientific director of the Foundational Questions Institute. I have read a previous book from him called “Our Mathematical Universe.” I am only a few chapters into the new book but I am already feeling that the true game changer for Humanity, good or bad, may be the development of an Advanced A.I. It might not even need to be “sentient” as in human terms to be this game changer.

**You can find the book on Amazon at:** https://www.amazon.com/Life-3-0-Being-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/B0742JQF31/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1550651814&sr=8-1&keywords=life+3.0+being+human+in+the+age+of+artificial+intelligence

We are becoming so complex as a society, billions and billions of people on the planet. There are some estimates that we will reach the 10 billion mark by 2030. With this many people we will have become, a true global community on a scale never known in human history, with all our usual human wants and needs. Resource allocation will not be something that can be left to chance. Housing, work, travel, food, medical care, security, energy, clean air/water, education, news, entertainment, social media, solitude, etc… will all have to be coordinated to a degree that we have never seen as a species. Second and Third world countries will continue to want to move up the ladder of prosperity and have all the things that you and I now take for granted. Just thinking about that, gives me chills. It will be a daunting task….. How will all this “complexity” be managed and coordinated? What “algorithm” will be sophisticated enough to help us deal with it all? My belief and others is that this increasing complexity of a burgeoning human population will give rise to a super intelligent A.I. Not a matter of if, but when. The big question that comes with this, is how do we want it to occur and who to manage it. Do we want society to become an Orwellian/Kafkaesque Dystopia? Big brother always watching, judging, today’s freedoms severely curtailed? Or the filling out of forms, after forms, after forms, after forms, in order to just buy a car, get married, go on a simple vacation, or even just traveling across state lines? Is there a better way?

**Personally I don’t think this will take 100 years. I would not be surprised if it happened in the next 20.**

A.I. or more importantly,the people that control A.I. will have the ability to push society to change, but will it be in the right directions. To give us more freedoms, to give us better and/or cheaper housing, work, travel, food, medical care, security, energy, clean air/water, education, news, etc… and advances in technology that makes today’s tech seem like rubbing two sticks together to make fire. This is what Tegmark talks about in his new book with the hope that he can get people from all walks of life involved in the discussion of A.I. His belief is that this will be one of, if not the “Monumental” question of the 21st century. I have not totally finished reading it yet but from what I have read so far, I felt it was important to put a partial review out. I highly recommend the book.

This picture was taken Saturday 23rd, February 2019. What a beautiful Colorado day! Sunny, cold but not too cold. Temp about 32 degrees F in the parking lot, and best of all there was some wind. So most of the brown cloud was gone. This picture was taken in Horsetooth Mountain Park looking South to South East. That horizon is at least 50 miles from where I am standing. Someday as we move away from fossil fuels, this might be the norm again and not just the exception.

Well I think that I am about done for this Blog post. I hope the last two weeks have been great for you dear reader. Remember your comments are always welcome. Take care and maybe I will see you out there on the trail or the ski slope. Adios amigos!!

Book Review, Colorado, Exercise, Fort Collins, Psychology, Religion, Science, Skiing, Sociology, Trail Running

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY 10TH, FEBRUARY 2019

February 10, 2019 teleskees Leave a comment

“When complexity makes knowledge difficult to attain, we are organisms that substitutes knowledge with beliefs.”

“The uneven rate of change between biology and complexity causes a gap to occur.”

“We become susceptible to manipulation and ideology and follow false prophets.”

“Public policy becomes shaped by irrational beliefs, rather than knowledge of fact.”

Rebecca Costa

This picture was taken on Monday 28th of January 2019, the open space in question is between Fort Collins and Loveland. It is called Coyote Ridge Open Space. A very nice trail with few visitors for a Monday. On the weekend it can get pretty busy due to the fact that it is a connector trail for longer distances. The afternoon in question was beautiful with temps right at 30 degrees and a slight breeze.

Well it has been another two weeks and I am going to say here that life is pretty good at the moment. Got some skiing in and that is a very good thing. I think it had been over a month since I last went. Not sure what that was about but it happens. The trail running the last couple of weeks has been fantastic here in Fort Collins. It has been cold but not like Midwest Cold. Wow! We have not seen temperatures like that in a very long time. There is some thought that this is related to Global Warming. I know that it does not seem that way but when you start looking at the science, some of the dots start to connect. I guess in the end, time will tell as the research continues. One of the things to remember is that weather and climate are two different things even though they are related.

Another picture from Monday the 28th of January 2019. The sun was out and just starting to set. It was in full force on this rock ridge. It really brought out the colors in the rock. Totally different from the picture above. Same area but a different open space called Rim Rock Ridge. Both are right next to each other.

I am reading a new book that is called the Watchman’s Rattle by Rebecca Costa. I became interested in her when I watched a TED talk by her. It has to do with Societal Collapse. It actually came out in 2012 and I believe that this is her first book. A more recent book by Rebecca is called On the Verge. I did not get this one because it is not on Audio book and I am way behind on regular reading. But I plan to in the future. In her first book, she comes up with some interesting ideas about what happens to a society when technology out paces the ability of the residents to keep up. I think the book is much more relevant now than it was back in 2012. In particular this last election with the Evangelical Christians, Flat Earthers, Anti-Vaccination people, Anti – global Warming individuals, the lets “Bring dirty coal” back people, and the list could go on and on. She makes the case that as complexity makes knowledge more difficult to attain, or as my wife likes to say “Overwhelming”, we as humans start to substitute knowledge with beliefs. And she makes the argument that this is what has happened to ancient societies that collapsed like the Mayans, the Romans, etc…

**This book can be found on Amazon:** https://www.amazon.com/Watchmans-Rattle-Radical-Theory-Collapse/dp/1593156863/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=VMGYGGUY98ZQ&keywords=watchmans+rattle&qid=1549827324&s=gateway&sprefix=watchmans+r%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

Costa is a Sociology-biologist. She based a lot of her research on Dr. Richard Dawkins 1976 book “The Selfish Gene.” In her book she uses the term Super-memes which are any widely accepted information, thoughts, feelings or behaviors. And she feels that they have the capacity to compete with each other just like genes do in Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Another words they compete in a sense to become accepted in our minds and our society whether they are true or not. There is an actually study of memes, called Memetics. Check it out on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics

I had no idea. Costa calls them “super-memes” when they get to a point that they block us from the very solutions we seek to all the complexity we see in the world. Another name that she uses for this blocking is “Gridlock.” It occurs or you can know that it is occurring when there is opposition across the board to any meaningful solution to a major problem. Thinking about this, the first thing that comes to my mind is “Gun Control.” It is a complex issue and you see a lot of “irrational opposition” to any attempt at fixing the system. It is as if people are more comfortable rejecting remedies rather than advocating solutions.

This picture was taken on Thursday, January 31st. I just loved the shape of this huge cottonwood tree. The weather was warm enough for me to ride my bike on Thursday, above 50 degrees for me. This picture was take on the Boyd Lake Trail.

Another example of this blocking, I think, is in Health Care. Again, before the attempted and partial repeal of what has become known as “Obama Care,” I heard from individuals on both sides of the fence. Some that hated it, because their premiums went up and others that loved it because they could now actually get insurance on their preexisting conditions. But with the current congress and president, it has become gridlocked. It will be interesting to see after the next elections if anything is concretely done or just a kind of band-aid fix. Again nothing really going anywhere. One size that fits some but not others, back to a mish-mash of plans that really don’t address the issues or cover people adequately.

This picture was taken on Thursday, February 7th. It was at the Loveland Ski Area which sits right at the Eisenhower Tunnel off of Interstate 70. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Much warmer (25 degrees) than when I left Fort Collins (12 degrees) that morning. There was a little bit of wind but that did not really show up in force until later in the afternoon. Most of the terrain for the ski area sits at around 11,000 feet.

I could go on about her book but I think I will leave it for now. I do recommend it. Remember it was written in 2012 and some predictions in the book she got right and a few she got wrong; somethings did get fixed and some are still broken. I think if I had read the book back in 2012, I would not have appreciated it as much as I do now. Interesting to say the least.

On a similar note, I had a interesting, short FB exchange with a family relative on whether something she was posting on FB was true or not. When another friend of hers called her out on it and showed her where a fact checking service said it was false. She went off about how the “fact checking service” was wrong. And that the “fact checking service” was infiltrated by “liberals” and that was why she could not trust them. I was kind of dumbfounded for a moment. This is an educated woman that used to teach school to kids. I could see it…., if it had come from one of my uneducated or partially educated “hillbilly like” relatives. But no this was from an educated one. Oh well what can you say to that… Obviously I won’t be spending the holidays with her…. Lololololol.

This picture was taken taken Wednesday 30th, January 2019. It was at the trail head to Reservoir Ridge Natural Area in Fort Collins. I had just finished a trail run and the sunset was just stunning to say the least. This is my favorite picture of the last two weeks.

Before I finish here, I would like to pass on a quote by the author Neil Gaiman. I came across it several years ago and I wrote it down just because it seemed a little strange to me at the time. This was a few years before the 2016 election. I did not really understand it then, but I think I do now. So it is important to share it with you, especially if you decide to read Costa’s book or you are like me trying to make sense of the “craziness” that has griped our country.

“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.” Neil Gaiman

Well that its for this couple of weeks. Take care, be safe out there fellow trail runners. Always be looking for that “Special Cat.”

Adios amigos!!

Book Review, Exercise, Science, Skiing

MUSINGS FOR SATURDAY 24TH, NOVEMBER 2018

November 24, 2018 teleskees Leave a comment

Damn it has been a fantastic week!! And that is the truth of the matter. Hope everyone had a great Turkey Day. I had to work but that was OK. Someone has got to do it? Right? Oh well sometimes you are off and sometimes you have to work. And this Turkey Day it was my turn to work.

I started reading a new book by Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang called “Accessory to War.” So far it seems like a pretty good book on the alliance between science and the military. It is one of those things you don’t really think about to start, but when someone points it out, it is almost like an “aha moment.” My first experience with this idea came in college years ago. The book actually brings back memories of Art History when we studied about Leonardo Da Vinci. Artists at the time needed people to employ them, a “patron” so to speak, and one of the ways to do that was to design and build “war machines”, “castle fortifications”, etc.… all for protection or conquest. Leonardo was employed in 1487 for this very reason by the Duke of Milan. At the time Italy was made up of a collection of City States that were constantly at war with each other and if you had the ability to design and build these types of implements, then you were very employable. I am guessing that you could go back since time immortal and find evidence of alliances like this. Again, I am not that far into the book but it seems pretty good for now. I will let you know if I change my mind. You can find the book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Accessory-War-Unspoken-Alliance-Astrophysics/dp/0393064441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1542701177&sr=8-1&keywords=accessory+to+war

The afternoons the last few days have been beautiful here on the Front Range of Colorado. Very nice weather for running and some beautiful sunsets to boot. The four pictures below were all taken on the same afternoon/evening but at different times. Looking at them again I am amazed how the light changed over the course of about 30 to 45 minutes.

FIRST PICTURE – LOOKING WEST.

SECOND PICTURE – LOOKING WEST.

THIRD PICTURE – LOOKING WEST.

FOURTH PICTURE – MOON RISE – LOOKING EAST.

Well… You might be wondering why I posted the quotes from different scientists? The reason is I really believe that if we as a nation want to make “America Great Again” – this is where the focus needs to be. As problems of our planet and society become more and more convoluted. We need better solutions for all of us living together. I would say that this is so important in the next 20 years that we need to make all College Level Scientific degrees free for anybody who wants one. And if you get into one area of study and want to change then you can do it without any repercussions. I believe America will be behind most of the developed world within the next few years if we don’t make this switch. My personnel opinion is that all education needs to be high caliber with minimal cost. So that even someone in a single parent household can go to school. All schools should be merit based, not dependent on how much money you have or can pay. Truly, putting all politics aside, if you want to help this country continue to be a world leader then you need to offer free college for Science Majors (all science majors, master’s programs, PhD programs) – pull the money you need out of the military budget. I mean it is going to benefit them in the long run anyway. Or tax all churches and religious organizations, put the money into science education. Prayers do not cure you of your antibiotic resistance staph infection, only the next generation of antibiotics will. We need to continue to move away from the comforting “make believe” of religion and put more effort into hard science. Our future, our children’s future, humanities future depends upon it.

Science is the key to our future. Especially if you want to avoid the massive problems that occur when major calamities strike, natural and man-made. We are in a very interconnected world that is becoming more connected every day. Whether we like it or not, we are a “global community.” Let me say that again, we are a global community. And to manage something as big as an entire global community takes a whole new understanding and level of science. As a nation we can continue to be a part of this or we can allow the world to pass us on and be eventually “told” by the rest of the world what to do and how to do it. I believe it is in our best interest to be part of the later…..

Well that is going to be about it for me this week. Cross country skiing is getting really good at the moment, much better than last year. I was at Snow Mountain Ranch in Grand Country earlier in the week and the snow was great. This time last year I could have been mountain biking on the same trails. It is snowing in the mountains this weekend, so the skiing next week should be fantastic!! I hope to see you out there on the trails or at the ski slope. Take care my friends and may you have a great weekend!!

Struggling Protoplasm

Category Archives: Book Review

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Life is good, bad, beautiful and ugly – but it is all experience, so drink it up and guzzle it down my friend, for it is all that we are given!!