Category Archives: Environment

Air Quality, Art, Book Review, Cameron Peak Fire, Climate Change, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Environment, Exercise, Fort Collins, Meditation, Pandemics, Science, Space, Trail Running, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR JUNE and JULY 2023

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“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Mahatma Gandhi

This is an image from the Hubble Space Telescope and it is of the galaxy named JO206. This galaxy is more than 700 million light years from earth in the constellation Aquarius. To the right of the main “galaxy cluster” are tail like structures that are created as the main body moves through the intracluster medium. This is another example of what is known as ram-pressure stripping. Or as the galaxy moves though the medium, parts are pulled away creating the strands. These strands are long drawn out areas of star formation. These type of galaxies are called Jellyfish galaxies due to their shape. Hubble has looked at these type of galaxies to give astronomers a better understanding of star formation. Interestingly, HST observations have shown that there is no significant difference between star formation in the galaxy disc and star formation in the long strands, suggesting that the environment created by newly formed stars does not have as much influence in the strand formation itself. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-observes-a-cosmic-sea-creature and https://phys.org/news/2023-06-image-hubble-jellyfish-galaxy-jo206.html and https://scitechdaily.com/hubbles-final-gaze-unraveling-the-mysteries-of-jellyfish-galaxies/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_pressure

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team

“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone that you begin to change, grow, and transform.” Roy T. Bennett

This is an image of another jellyfish galaxy. This one is name JW39 and is about 900 million light years from earth. It is located in the constellation Coma Berenices. The name means “Berenice’s Hair” and refers to the Egyptian Queen Berenice II who lived 269 to 221 BCE. The story is she donated a lock of her hair for the safe return of her husband Ptolemy III after he set forth to avenge the murder of his sister. A court astronomer told people the lock of hair had been transferred to heaven, where it formed a new constellation and hence the name Coma Berenices.

The long tendril like structures of star formation are again due to the movement of the galaxy through the intracluster medium. Adding to this, JW39 is also located in a galaxy cluster. Being in the cluster, it is subject to a much more hostile environment caused by the gravitational pull of its larger neighbors. This increased gravitational force can twist galaxies in to different shapes. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-captures-a-drifting-galaxy and https://www.britannica.com/biography/Berenice-II and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coma_Berenices and https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubble-image-jellyfish-galaxy-jw39-11932.html

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Gullieuszik and the GASP team

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” Joseph Campbell

This is an image of the globular cluster NGC 6544 and was created by the Hubble Space Telescope. Globular clusters are balled shaped collections of stars all held together by gravity. They can contain 10s of thousands to millions of stars. Some of these clusters contain some of the oldest known stars in the galaxy. This one contains what is known as a pulsar. These are rotating neutron stars that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of their poles. These beams can only be observed on earth when a beam is pointing directly at earth, creating a “pulsed” observation. This combined with the rotation is what gives these neutron stars their name. NGC 6554 is present in the constellation of Sagittarius and is about 8 to 9 thousand light years from earth. The first time this cluster was observed was by William Herschel in 1784. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-glimpses-a-glistening-cluster and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globular_cluster and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6544

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Lewin, F. R. Ferraro

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

This is an image of what is known as the Smiling Cat Nebula and was made using data from the VLT Survey Telescope. This telescope is located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. It is part of the ESO (European Southern Observatory) in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. VLT is just one of several telescopes on site. The telescope is mapping the southern sky in visible light and uses a 256 million pixel camera that is very good at taking wide field images.

The official name of the above nebula is Sh2-284. It is located about 15,000 light years from earth in the constellation Monoceros. The nebula is about 150 light years across or about 1400 trillion kilometers or 870 trillion miles. Images like the above have helped astronomers and astrophysicists better understand the life cycle of stars in our Milky Way galaxy. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2309/ and https://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/paranal/telescopes/vst.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VLT_Survey_Telescope and https://phys.org/news/2023-06-cat-sh2-nebula-captured-image.html

Image credit: European Southern Observatory

“People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.” Seth Godin

The above images were created by the James Webb Space telescope. The images are from the Orion Nebula. The largest one was made using Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). In the upper right, the telescope is focused on a smaller area using the Mid-Infrared camera. And it shows a young star system with a protoplanetary disc named d203-506. The bottom right image is a combination of both cameras of the same area but highly magnified. The distance from earth is about 1350 light years. The star is a red dwarf and is only about one tenth the mass of earth.

What is significant about this star and it’s disc? Well, for the first time, scientist have discovered the signature of methyl cation (CH3+) in a protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. This methyl molecule does not react readily with hydrogen but does with a host of other more complex carbon based molecules. And this has potentially huge implications for extraterrestrial life, since carbon forms the bases for all known life on earth. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://esawebb.org/news/weic2315/?lang and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_group and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), the PDRs4All ERS Team

A philosopher once asked, “Are we human because we gaze at stars, or do we gaze at them because we are human?” Pointless, really… “Do the stars gaze back?” Now, that’s a question.” Neil Gaiman

Image credit: EHT Collaboration (Event Horizon Telescope)

This is the first image of a black hole and was created using a network of eight radio telescopes across the world. Collective they were given the name: The Event Horizon Telescope. It was taken in 2019. The scientist chose the black hole in the galaxy named Messier 87 or M87 for short. The galaxy is one of the most massive in the local neighborhood so to speak. In comparison, it is 51 percent larger than our galaxy, the Milky Way. The galaxy is located in the constellation Virgo.

The telescopes that were used were not physically connected but were able to synchronize their data streams with atomic clocks, which precisely timed their observations. The data was fed into supercomputers known as correlators, one at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy and one at the MIT Haystack Observatory, and between the two the data was combined and eventually turned into an image.

The black hole in M87 was chosen for the fist image due to its incredible mass. It is approximately 6.5 billion times the mass of our own sun. Let me say that again, it is 6.5 billion times the mass of our own sun. The image below was taken years ago by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and with the added insets it gives you some idea of the location of the super massive black hole.

If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1907a/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_87 and https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/the-giant-galaxy-around-the-giant-black-hole

This wide-field image of the galaxy M87 was taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. The top inset shows a close-up of two shockwaves, created by a jet emanating from the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. The Event Horizon Telescope recently took a close-up image of the silhouette of that black hole, show in the bottom inset.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Arthur C. Clarke

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

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19 and so have I!! Yea for both of us again!! Hopefully you are not one of the 16 million Americans with some form of long Covid.

Well where are we with Covid? Who knows!? Lol. No, really it is a bit difficult to tell what is going on for now. Looking at the waste water sites around the country, the first week or two of the month (June) saw some increase. Places like Dallas Texas, parts of Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, New York, etc… There were no increasing concentrations of virus out West for the most part. Or another way to look at it, by June 5th there were 22% of waste water sites reporting significant increases but mainly on the eastern side of the country. Hospital admissions were down as were deaths. All a good thing.

By the end of June, deaths had gone up a bit and there was some speculation that by the end of the year we would still see about 80,000 plus deaths caused by Covid in 2023. That number is not as big as the previous years but still – that is 80,000 extra deaths in this country alone. And most of them will have been preventable. People not vaccinated, or boosted, the immunocompromised taking unnecessary risks, providers not understanding the need for antivirals and how to give them, people thinking the pandemic is over, etc…. Oh well, what are you going to do?

Also at the end of June there was a new Covid variant that the CDC started to track a little more closely. It is EU.1.1 and is an XBB sublineage related to the XBB.1.5. Interesting enough, the intermountain west (specifically Utah) was the leading state with cases from this subvariant. At the first of July , XBB.1.5 was still the leading variant nationwide with about 27 percent of cases across the country. The new one, EU.1.1 was first discovered in the Netherlands and Germany and now makes up about 2% of cases in the US, mainly in the intermountain west. Of course, it is still too early to know if this variant will cause any additional problems. If your interested what the CDC is tracking for variants here is the link: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions

By the end of the July in the US, it was estimated that there were still about 80 people dying each day from the virus or another way to look at it: less than one percent of overall daily deaths. Most of these deaths were from people that were both older and more likely to be unvaccinated. While not zero, this is good news. And most of the progress is thought to be from three factors. One, is that about three quarters of the US adult population have received at least one vaccine shot. Two, about the same number of Americans have been infected, giving them natural immunity. And three, the antivirals like Paxlovid, have become widely available this past year. With all of this said, is the pandemic truly over? It really depends on who you ask and if you are speaking locally or globally. The bottom like is that Covid could come roaring back because not all countries are able to prevent, test and treat equally. We are a very mobile society of humans at this time and it gives us the inadvertent ability to spread a new variant with ease. Think of it as a smoldering fire that could be fanned up at anytime. I guess time will tell in the coming months whether it is truly over or not.

Note: At the time of publishing this blog, there had been a significant increase in Covid cases and hospital admissions. While not as big of an infection wave as in the previous summers, it does warrant watching and maybe avoiding some of the crowded, poor ventilation activities we are so fond of, unless your willing to wear an N95 or KN95 mask. For now it is a wait and see type of situation.

Here are the links if you are interested in more information from the remaining reliable sources. I have included the CDC waste water reporting section. It gives the best estimate if Covid is increasing in your area, but remember it is a week or two behind what is actually going on: https://www.youtube.com/c/OsterholmUpdateCOVID19 and https://www.youtube.com/c/VincentRacaniello and https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/wastewater-surveillance/index.html

June and July were good months for getting outside, at least for June. This was due to what is known as an “Omega Block” or persistent High Pressure in the Norther plains. Because of this, we escaped most of the wildfire smoke for the month of June and July. Think of it like a big sign wave in the center of the country with the upper part over the Northern plains and troughs on either side, one on the West Coast and one on the upper East Coast. We got a lot of moisture in the form of rain at lower elevations and snow up at the highest elevations. (the snow was pretty much done by July) The low on the upper East Coast kept most of the smoke up there. But of course there is a downside, as there always is, the warmer temps increased the number of ozone action days in the afternoons. Especially in July. At least it was not ozone and particulates together like last year! That created true smog.

I believe that Denver set a record for the month with over 6 inches of rain. This would make it the wettest June since 1882. And the mountains continued to get snow at the highest of elevations. This time last year Marvin and I were already running some of the high pass areas in our neck of the woods so to speak. But this year was a totally different story with a significant amount of snow still up high at the end of June. Of course this is a good thing for the forest but inconvenient for trail running. Lol. Now with all that said, it was not as rosy for the whole state. The southwest corner of the state was still in a drought and had a couple of forest fires burning by the end of July. And the northern mountains, due to the previous years wildfires were constantly in some kind of flood watch or warning for the entire month of June and parts of July. Oh well, climate change creates some wonky weather patterns and conditions. At least we did not have the extremely hot and persistent temps that the south and southwestern states were experiencing.

The next three pictures below were sunset pictures in the month of June. The increase in wet weather led to some great sunset shots for the month. They are with Janet and Marvin.

This picture was taken June 1st, 2023 at about 6pm in the evening.
This picture was taken on June 7th, 2023 at about 6:30pm in the evening.
This picture was taken June 8th, 2023 at about 6:45pm in the evening.
This picture was taken on June 14th, 2023 about 11am in the morning. It was already staring to get hot out. Here Marvin and I are standing in Spring Creek that flows through Fort Collins. This became a daily ritual in July due to the early morning heat.
This picture was taken on June 30th, 2023 at about 10am in the morning. While not a sunset picture, it was one of those days in June in which the rain rolled in and stayed all afternoon. Felt like the Pacific North West. Lol.

Even with all the wet weather there were some dry days that made for great bike riding. The two pictures below were taken on the Poudre Trail. As long as you got out before 4pm, ozone was not much of a problem. And this would hold true for all of July. We were hit with multiple air quality alerts but the air quality was pretty good until the afternoon.

This picture and the one below were taken on June 5th, 2023 at about 2pm in the afternoon before the rain got going. These are on a bike trail through Fort Collins called the Poudre Trail. I always wonder if the city councils of the past (almost 50 years ago now) realized how big the trail system would get in the City? And how important it would become to the citizens and visitors of FC. Pretty cool and one of the reason I continue to chose to call FC home.

In the month of July, after most of the snow had melted and the weather started to stabilize, I was able to get in a few high elevation trail runs with Marvin. While the mountains had gotten a lot of snow during the winter and rain in June, things were starting to get a little dry by the end of July. Most of the bigger side streams were still running but the smaller ones had become little more than seeps in some places where they crossed the trail. Of course it did not help that temps had gotten much warmer. Several times trailhead parking lot temps at 8000 feet were close to 80 degrees or a bit warmer. Off the trail, in the forest the ground cover in places had that crunchie dry sound when you walked. Hopefully we will eventually get the monsoonal rains that are common this time year.

These next pictures are from trail runs with Marvin at the end of July. The first six pictures are from the Cameron Peak Fire area. It started on August 13th, 2020 and burned until December 2nd, 2020. It consumed about 208,663 acres. Running these trails almost three years later, it is interesting in how some areas have recovered quicker than others.

All three of the above picture are from a trail called the Big South trail in the upper Poudre Canyon. I was amazed at how much green had come back in just three years. These pictures are from July 13th, 2023. The area is the Comanche Peaks Wilderness.

The above three pictures are from a trail called Blue Lake Trail. And here the forest recovery appeared to be a little slower. There was more green than last year but no where near as much on the Big South Trail (BST). Also no Aspens as compared to the BST. All along the BST there were lots and lots of small Aspens. The Blue Lake Trail is higher in elevation and I am thinking this is one of the reasons it is taking longer to recover than similarly burned areas lower down. These pictures were taken on July 15th, 2023. The area is the Rawah Wilderness.

The next three pictures are from an area that did not burn. These are in the Rawah Wilderness too and the trail is called the Rawah Trail. It was nice to run in an area that had a bit more tree cover than the burned areas. Marvin and I have not explored this area much in past but I am planning to change that this summer and possibly fall.

The Rawah Trail is a long trail with a one-way length of 10 miles or 20 miles around trip. On this outing Marvin and I only did 6 out and 6 back for a total of 12 due to the warmer weather. When it gets this warm (80 degrees F) at elevation I have to make sure that there is plenty of water for him to drink and to cool him off. Hopefully the monsoonal rains will start and we can go a little further in our next visit to this area. These three pictures were taken July 23rd, 2023.

It was another good month for reading and I would like to share a few book recommendations.

The first books I would like to review and recommend is actually two books in a series. The first book is called “Wanderers” and the second book is called “Wayward.” The books are by Chuck Wendig. They are fictional but they are believable fictional. If you liked Stephen King’s “The Stand.” Then you are going to like these. I lost a bit of sleep staying up and listening to these book as audiobooks. Lol. They were that good.

I first heard of the author when I got his book on writing.  He has a couple out there but the one I got is called “Damn Fine Story – Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative.”  And it is good.  So when I was in the market for another brain bubble gum book and came across the above two, I thought why not.  I am glad that I did.   

The mystery starts right off in the first book.  With a growing group of individuals across the country starting to sleepwalk.  And this is not just any old experience of sleep walking.  They cannot talk, they cannot be woken up and bad things happen when you try to forcibly restrain them or poke them for blood, or swab them for pathogens.  What starts off as individuals by themselves walking across the town, the state and eventually the country, grows to multiple individuals, a whole flock so to speak of sleep walkers.  Family members that stay with the flock and walk with them become known as shepherds.  No one knows where they are going, no one seems to be able to tell what is wrong with them, and even the CDC is at a loss for what it might mean.  The book takes place in our current time frame with the benefits and evils of social media / news coverage. And the rumors of what is going on becoming rampant, with groups from all sides having opinions, accusations, even militia groups wanting to kill them.  Meanwhile the sleepwalkers go right on walking through it all.   

The second book picks up where the first book leaves off.  These books need to be read in order, for them to make sense.  I am only half way through the second book now but I wanted to include it partially in the review.  These are big books, lots of character development and Mr. Wendig is a master at creating a narrative that makes you care.  I have heard that there is some talk that these will become a TV series and I think that is a great idea. 

I listened to these as audio books, but they will work wonderfully in any format.  You can probably find them at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the amazon link: https://a.co/d/fAiRFUP and https://a.co/d/2sTY6E0                 

The next book I would like to review and recommend is called Born to Run 2:  The Ultimate Training Guide by Christopher McDougall.  If you have read “Born to Run” and liked it then you are going to like the second book even more.   If you have not read either book then let me suggest that you read both of them, they are that good.  The second book covers a lot of the same ground but goes into a lot more depth in that it gives you a training guide in how to become a better runner based on the principles of better form equals better runner.  I like the way Chris see running as a dance and to get a lot better at the “dance” you have to practice, practice and practice WITH the right technique.  Sure, we are all different, some of us are going to be slower or faster, lower or higher VO2 max, perfect body type or not, male or female, etc. But it all comes down to a basic technique no matter who you are.  Once you get this down, once you get the wobbles ironed out, and once you get the mantra firmly fixed in your mind:  Easy, Light, Smooth and, on fast days, Fast.  Then you are well on your way to achieving almost any running goal you choose. Personally I use the mantra version:  Easy, Light, Smooth and Relaxed.  And when I do that, I find that I go faster without thinking about it.    

There is a lot of added content with reflection in this book from the first book.  I really liked the section on food and the recipes.  Some of them sounded pretty good.  And of course there is a section on footwear and benefits of minimalist shoes.  But it is not overly preachy.  I have a pair of “Zero Shoes” that are for trail running.  If you’re not familiar with them, check it out: https://xeroshoes.com/  They are very minimalist.  I have not used them for trail running but they are my go to shoes for pretty much anything I do that has nothing to do with running.  Lol.  So, so comfortable.  Personally I prefer a little sturdier of a shoe for my trail running adventures.  But due to the book, I did go to a less cushioned and lighter version of Hoka’s (Tecton X 2).  And after a few months of adjusting I am happy that I did.

This is a book about making running fun again.  And that is what it should be.  The more fun you have the more you will want to do it and keep doing it.  Which will leads to better health and a happier you.  I got this book initially as an audio book with the PDF download.  I liked it so well I got the Kindle version to go along with the audiobook.  You can probably find the book at your local bookstore or you can go to Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link: https://a.co/d/6KV65Ic 

        

The next book I would like to review and recommend is called “The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence by Paul Davies.  First let me start off by saying this book was written around 2010 and I usually don’t get a book on science that is this old due to how fast the different fields of science are changing.  But in my opinion this one has become even more relevant in the last few years due to the jump in the number of discovered exoplanets orbiting other stars.  The book is about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and why we have not heard or discovered anyone “out there” in space as of yet.  It is becoming an interesting question in light of all the new exoplanet discoveries.  Now that it is apparent that almost every star you see in the night sky almost without exception has at least one exoplanet orbiting it, you have to ask yourself who else is out there and why have we not discovered or heard from them. 

The SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) program has been searching for 40 years now, though at times it has been intermittent, and they have found nothing.  This question and the many that follow from asking this question is what the author explores.  The big one for me in the book is something that humans do all the time.  We anthropomorphize things, whether it is our pets, or a computer, or the car.  We give human traits and intentions to non-human entities.  And why would this not be similar in SETI.  A question we have to ask ourselves is, can something be so “alien” so utterly different from us, that we don’t even recognize it as intelligent or even alive.   How would this change our search for ET?  How would something so “alien” try to communicate with us, if at all?            

Looking at the SETI program website: https://www.seti.org/csc It appears that they have incorporated some of the suggestions from ten years ago and expanded their scope of research.

I got this book as an audio book but it would work in any format.  You might be able to find it at your local book store but more likely on Amazon due to its 2010 publication date.  Here is the Amazon link: https://a.co/d/2uavdCg

No new sellable artwork this blog post, but I have been doing some sketch book practice and I have included some of them below. I find that these types of drawings can be very meditative and I have enjoyed doing them immensely. In fact I call them sketchbook meditation practice. They take about 10 to 15 hours each to complete.

This one was complete on June 21st, 2023.
This one was completed on July 8th, 2023.
This one was complete on July 12th, 2023.
This one was complete on July 20th, 2023.
This one was complete on July 26th, 2023.
This one was finish August 3rd, 2023.

If you interested in seeing more of my work that can be bought, check out my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/strugglingprotoplasm/edit?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

In support of Prochoice and Separation of Church and State, I will donate 10% of any sales to Planned Parenthood or the Freedom From Religion Foundation, but only if you wish me too. If not, I will be more than happy to keep the money! Lol

Well I have come to end of another blog post. Yea! And I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as much as I did writing it.

So take care my friends and if you have not gotten vaccinated or boosted, even if you have had Covid, then get it done. It would be a damn shame if you were to die or suffer significant disability with this virus when vaccines are readily available in this country. So until next time Adios!!

“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” Carl Sagan

“Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.” Yuval Noah Harari

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

Air Quality, Alien Life, Art, Book Review, Climate Change, Colfax Marathon, Colorado, Covid 19, Denver, Dogs, Environment, Exercise, Fort Collins, Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, Pandemics, PurpleAir, Quad Rock 50, Science, Science Fiction, Space, Trail Running, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR MAY 2023

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“Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.” – Joshua Becker

This is an image from the Hubble Space Telescope of two galaxies interacting due to a super massive black hole at the heart of the pair. The galactic structure is called AM 1214-255. The swirling gas that is being pulled in to the black hole creates a much higher level of luminosity and is referred to as an AGN or active galactic nucleus. These areas create a huge amount of electromagnetic radiation as they pull in material. There are many different subclasses of AGNs based on the observable characteristics. The most powerful AGNs are called quasars and when you have an AGN with a jet of electromagnetic radiation beaming toward earth it is called a blazar. Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Barth (University of California – Irvine), and J. Dalcanton (University of Washington); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-captures-extraordinarily-bright-interacting-galaxies and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_galactic_nucleus and https://www.britannica.com/science/active-galactic-nucleus

“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” Nathan W. Morris

This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of a lenticular galaxy called NGC 5283 and it too contains an AGN or active galactic nucleus. NGC 5283 is called a Seyfert galaxy because the amount of luminosity is just a little bit less than the typical AGN. Here due to the decrease in radiation you are able to observe the structure of said galaxy, whereas with the typical AGN the prodigious amount of radiation outshines the galaxy structure itself. NGC 5283 is located in the constellation Centaurus and is approximately 168 million light- years away. It was first discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Louis d’Arrest in 1866. Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Barth (University of California – Irvine), and M. Revalski (STScI); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-views-a-beautiful-luminous-galaxy and Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 5283 | Sci.News

“More is better” turns out to be a formula for dissatisfaction. If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.” Joe Dominguez/Vicki Robin

This May is the 50th anniversary of the first US space station – Skylab, and it was operated by three different astronaut crews. The top picture is of the Saturn V launching with major components of the space station, which included an orbital workshop, a telescope mount, docking adapters and a airlock module.

On May 14th, 1973 a Saturn V rocket launches with the components of the first US space station – Skylab. Image credit: NASA
This is an image of Skylab by the fist crew to the station, June 22nd, 1973, just before they departed for earth. The crooked golden blanket was a parasol sunshade that was used by the crew to protect the lab from solar heating. The original sunshield was lost during the launch along with one of the main solar arrays. Image credit: NASA/MSFC

Over the course of it’s lifetime three different astronauts crews visited the space station (May 25th, 1973 to February 8th, 1974). They were able to carry out 270 scientific and technical investigations in the fields of physics, astronomy, and biological sciences. There were plans to boost the lab with the Space Shuttle to a higher orbit and give it five more years of service, but unfortunately the shuttle was not ready in time and Skylab came to an end in July 1979. The early re-entry of the almost 200,000lb lab created a lot of criticism of NASA and generated an international media event.

An interesting note is that Skylab was not the worlds first space station, that honor belongs to the Soviet Union. Salyut 1 was launched into low Earth Orbit by the Soviets Union on April 19th, 1971.

If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/50th-anniversary-of-the-skylab-1-launch and https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/gallery/msfc_iow_18.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_1

“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

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

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19 and so have I!! Yea for both of us again!! Hopefully you are not one of the 16 million Americans with some form of long Covid. It is estimated that one in 10 that had the variant Omicron will have some kind of long Covid symptoms.

So where are we with Covid? The honest truth is that no one really knows for the moment. The federal COVID 19 public health emergency declaration ended on May 11th, 2023. Does this mean that the virus is done and it is over with? Nope. It just means that most of the official data collection, reporting and surveillance has ended. Fortunately, there are going to be some metrics that will still be reported on but just not as frequently. The best place to see if it is increasing or decreasing in your area is the CDC wastewater surveillance system. Hospitalizations and deaths are not a good indication of what is going on in the country due to faulty and ambiguous reporting from each state. And of course, home testing does not give an accurate count of what is going on. It might at some point be a good indication if you can track where the demand for home testing kits is rising or dropping based on individual internet searches. But not yet.

So why should we still be interested in what Covid is doing? Isn’t it over? Nope. And to add a little weight to that “Nope”, the Chinese public health ministry issued a statement, at the end of May, that says they are going through a second wave of the virus, XBB variant, and the peak is forecasted to be in late June at 60 million new cases per week.

So how do you stay safe and make the best decisions for this busy holiday and summer travel season. First, find out what the virus is doing in a particular area. The best way to do this is the CDC waste water surveillance web site. See the link below. Second, if your over 65 or have an autoimmune disease, think about getting a prescription for the antiviral Paxlovid. It is now fully approved by the FDA and this should make it easier to get a prescription. If you are traveling overseas you might want to prefill a prescription or find out the availability before travel. Some countries have not been as fortunate as the United States for access to this antiviral meditation. Of course you have to check with your health care provider to make sure you can take this medication due to it’s potential interactions with other meditations. Third, choose actives that are outdoors as opposed to indoors if possible. And if it is indoors, look at the size of the room, the number of people and ventilation. A small overly crowded room with poor ventilation is going to be much more of a risk than a larger room that is lightly crowded and has good ventilation. Fourth, if your planned activity is something that puts you at high risk and you cannot avoid it, consider wearing an N95 or KN95 mask. Yes, they do work, ignore the social media hype. Last, but not least, if your not vaccinated, get vaccinated and boosted before travel. This one should be a no brainer but for some reason, it continues to be issue. We are so fortunate in this country to have access to mRNA vaccines. Not everyone in the world has had this access.

Here are the links if you are interested in more information from the remaining reliable sources. I have included the CDC waste water reporting section. It give the best estimate if Covid is increasing in your area, but remember it is a week or two behind what is actually going on: https://www.youtube.com/c/OsterholmUpdateCOVID19 and https://www.youtube.com/c/VincentRacaniello and https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/wastewater-surveillance/index.html

May was a somewhat good month for getting outdoors. If you got out early, the air quality was pretty good and the winds for the first part of the month kept the early season wildfire smoke away.

Of course this did not last last. By May 20th, there were more than 200 active wildfires across Canada. Over 90 of those were in Alberta alone. Around 3.2 million acres as of now and counting. Just in comparison, their yearly average is about 55,000 acres per year. I find it crazy that parts of Northern Alberta are already having wildfires. And this does not include a significant fire events going on in Central Mexico, fires in Spain, the Middle East, Nova Scotia, etc… And all of this can be attributed to climate change. Oh well.

Fire and smoke from a wildfire are shown in Hay River, Northwest Territories in a handout photo. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/James Cardinal Jr.)

So during the last 10 days of the month, things got a little more interesting here on the Front Range as a strong cold front ushered down significant amounts of smoke into the lower 48. Especially, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. By Friday afternoon (May 19th, 2023), Fort Collins was measuring one of it worst air pollution days in years due to the smoke. What this means in more scientific terms is that particulate matter that is 2.5 microns or less was very high. Some readings on Friday afternoon around the city were in the 200 range. Denver was said to have had the worst air quality than any other city in the world on that day.

Image of the Denver’s skyline from Friday, May 19th at approximately 6:30am. Image credit: CDPHE (Colorado department of public health & environment)

And we really did not get a break in the smoke until late Wednesday afternoon. The picture below is from our neighborhood lake on Tuesday 23rd, 2023 at about 7pm in the evening.

This picture was taken on Tuesday 23rd, 2023 at about 7pm in the evening. The AQI was still in the 100 range.

The picture below was taken on Thursday 25th, 2023 about the same time as the above picture and location. Here the smoke has totally cleared. The AQI was down to less than 30.

This picture was taken Thursday 25th, 2023 at about 7pm in the evening. What a difference two days make.

So you may ask, why am I so concerned about the wildfire smoke. Well, it has to do particulate matter less than 2.5 microns or better known as PM 2.5. I have written about this kind of particulate matter before but let me review a few facts. These tiny particles are so small that they can get deep down into our lungs where they can cause damage, but it does not stop there. They get into the blood stream and travel to pretty much every part of the body and they are highly inflammatory (think disease causing). They have been shown to cross the blood brain barrier and can even be found in the fetal circulation of the unborn. Long-term exposer to pm 2.5 is considered the largest environmental risk factor for human health, with an estimated 4.1 million attributable deaths worldwide.

This graphic gives you some idea of size of PM 2.5

With that said, I check air quality every time I go out to exercise. It is not just caused by wildfire smoke but by coal fired power plants, wind blow dust, industrial processes, automobiles, etc… And it can combine with other types of urban pollution to really make a toxic mix. If the levels are high in my area I stay inside, close the windows and turn on the air purification system in the house and use the treadmill, rower or spin bike. Why do I go to great lengths to avoid this pollutant? Because it is like cigarette smoking and the damage to your body is accumulative. Just like smoking. The pictures below are from the Denver Colfax 5K race that occurred Saturday 20th, 2023. There are approximately 6000 participants that have chosen to run in this very polluted air. None of them are doing themselves a favor. From a public health perspective this is not health. They would have been more health conscious if they had stayed home and smoked cigarettes. I love it that race directors will talk about what to do if you feel symptoms running in polluted air, but leave out the most important part, what happens years down the road when you develop adenocarcinoma of the lung or cancer in another part of the body due to the accumulative effect of PM 2.5. Or some kind of autoimmune disease. It’s not the short term exposure that is the issue, but what happens long term. In my opinion events that require exercise should be canceled or better yet, have a built in “make-up” day when air quality exceeds standards. Would this be inconvenient? Yes. Would it cost extra money? Yes. Would it be a headache for race directors and organizers? Again yes. Would it be much better for your long term health? Absolutely.

Of course there are races now that allow participants to do the race “virtually.” This is where you run the race at home or at some other time when the air quality is better and send in the results and get your finisher medal. This is left up to the race participant on whether they choose to do this or not.

This was the start of the Colfax 5k on Saturday morning the 20th. AQI was in the high to very high range. Over 150 in some parts of the city. Very unhealthy. When local veterinarians are telling the public to keep their pets indoors due to the air quality, humans should probably do likewise.
Very dirty air during the Colfax 5k with around 6000 participants.

Well enough about the wildfire smoke and PM 2.5 but if you’re interested here are a few links for great articles on the subject and why it is so potentially detrimental in the long term to exercise when the levels are high: https://www.howardluksmd.com/pm-2-5-levels-air-pollution-and-our-health/? and https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-decades-air-pollution-undermine-immune.html? and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33198760/ and https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/air-pollution/index.cfm

On a much more positive note, I was able to run the Quad Rock 25 on May 6th, 2023. I had signed up for the 50 back when registration had opened last December but due to a nagging knee injury, I did not push my luck in making things worse and ran the 25 instead. This was my 7th time to be in the race since 2013. I missed two races due to injury and one due to Covid. This has been and continues to be a great trail marathon and ultra put on by GNAR Runners. It is a loop course, through Horsetooth Mountain Park and Lory State Park. You get the 50 mile distance by doing the loop twice, once in reverse. It is a challenging and scenic course and well worth your consideration if you want a tough early season trail marathon or ultra in Colorado. The nice part is that it is very close to Fort Collins, about 20 minutes from downtown, and this provides great post race opportunities to kick back and enjoy the finer things in life. Next year’s race is already schedule for May 11th, 2024 and registration opens December 15th, 2023. Here is a link to the race and GNAR runners: https://gnarrunners.com/quad-rock-50/#register and https://gnarrunners.com/

The pictures below are from the race that was held on Saturday 6th, May 2023.

This was the start of the 50 mile race at 0530 in morning. It turned out to be a beautiful day this year. Nice and cool for the first part of the day with gradual warming into the afternoon. The starting temp was somewhere in the upper 30s to lower 40s for the start. And I believe the high for the day was somewhere in the low 70s.
This view is looking East across Horsetooth lake and toward Fort Collins. Besides the views, the volunteers, and the location of the race, the one thing that I love the most is the ability to start the 50 mile race but still get credit if you only do the 25. On a personal note, I have never completed the 50. Lol. I usually time out at the turn around point. Part of the reason is that it is a little early in the season for me. I seems to be in better running form by middle to late summer. (that is what I tell myself – Lol) This year, it was due to an injury which caused me to be really slow on the downhill sections.
This is looking West in Lory State Park at the iconic rock formation called Arthur’s Rock. It is named for one of the previous landowner’s that sold the land, Arthur Howard. If your interested, a short history of the area from Colorado State Parks can be found here: Colorado Parks & Wildlife – History (state.co.us)
This is one of my favorite views in the race from Horsetooth Mountain Park. Here I am looking South towards Denver.
The icon rock formation that gives Horsetooth Mountain Park and Horsetooth Lake their names.

Again, this has been and continues to be a great trail marathon and ultra put on by GNAR Runners. It would be worth your time to check it out for next year.

This picture was taken on Saturday 27th, May 2023 at about 11am in the morning. Here Janet and Marvin are enjoying a nice walk in the park.

The last few days of the month were pretty good as far as air quality goes. The smoke had shifted further east and the Front Range of Colorado was spared the added air pollution. Of course, like any spread out metropolitan area we generate enough on or own. Lol.

If was another good month for reading and I would like to share a few book recommendations.

The first book I would like to review and recommend is called “The Possibility of Life” by Jaime Green.  The book is about the likelihood of alien life in other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy. 

Now, before I leap into the review, I would like to give a little background why this book appealed to me in the first place.   I became significantly more interested in books on the subject of life in other part of the galaxy after learning that every star you see in the night sky, almost without exception has at least one exoplanet.  And this idea was sealed for me after reading the book by the physicist and astronomer Adam Frank.  His book is called “Light of the Stars:  Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth.”  A quote from his book:  “From the exoplanet data, astronomers can now say with confidence that one out of every five stars hosts a world where life as we know it could form.  So, when you’re standing out there under the night sky, choose five random stars.  Chances are, one of them has a world in its Goldilocks zone where liquid water could be flowing across its surface and life might already exist.”   

Think about that for a moment.  Hard to get your head around.  And that is the very reason I feel that books by Jamie Green and Adam Frank are so important. 

Jamie Green is a Science writer, among other things and she approaches the philosophical questions about the possibility of alien life in a somewhat different perspective.  She uses Science Fiction.  Yes you heard that right, she uses the imagination from SiFi writers to weave an interesting narrative about how humanity will react when alien life is discovered.  In the process she intersperses real science in with the creative writing to tell an interesting story.  Now some might be turned off by this style because it is not all hard and fast science, but what was the quote by Einstein?  “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”  Meaning the most important thing to have is the ability to imagine and embrace novel possibilities with the search for alien life and what to do when we find it.  And for the time being, until we have hard scientific data on the subject, what a better way to prepare for the inevitable first contact, than by tapping in to the years and years of creative and imaginative writing on the subject from SiFi.

I got this book as an audio book but it would work in any format.  You can probably find it at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the amazon link:  https://a.co/d/8qU6DOX 

The next two books I would like to review and recommend are part of a series written by Daniel Suarez. They are Science Fiction but are in the realm of possibility.  I call these books “brain bubble gum books”, fun to read but not always a lot of real world substance. These books are a little different and have an important message for humanity.  It is the argument that getting off the planet and starting to make a permanent human presence in space is the only way for humans to survive the existential crisis of climate change. 

The first book is called Delta-V and the second book is called Critical Mass. 

It all starts off when an eccentric billionaire that sees where humanity is heading on an overcrowding and warming planet with dwindling resources is inevitably heading.  And he comes to the conclusion that the only way to save humans is to get off the planet.  Of course, even a billionaire does not have that kind of money.  So the big question is how do you pay for it all.  And this is where the story gets interesting.   What if a private company could create the first near asteroid mining operation?  How much would that be worth to the world economy?  What technologies would be developed to make this happen? Would there be people on earth that would try to stop it and why?   

The first book introduces us to the main characters and their struggle to make the team and eventually survive the harsh realities of space.  The second book picks up where the first book leaves off.  Now that you have shown commercial asteroid mining is possible, what is the next step?  How do you start the process of getting large numbers of humans into space?  Is control of such a potentially lucrative space operation better left in private hands, or existing world governments? Set all of this against a world that is starting to come apart and you have the makings of a very interesting story.         

All these questions are what makes this series of “brain bubble gum books” such a great read.  It is one of the rare opportunities of getting to read for the sheer enjoyment of the story but you might learn something in the process.  Good food for thought.  

I got both of these books as audio books but they would work in any format.  You can probably find them at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here are the Amazon links:   https://a.co/d/jl0LIGs and  https://a.co/d/ji2hpsX

The last book I would like to review and recommend is called “The Long View:  Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time” by Richard Fisher.  In a world where the old saying “time is money”, a book like this is more relevant and urgent than ever.  The author argues that this is one of the very reason that we need to slow down a bit and take a much longer view of things.

What would happen if we were all taught from a young age to look at things in the long view?  To really see the results of our immediate actions ten, twenty, thirty or more years down the road.  It is an interesting idea.  There are so many examples of this idea being explored throughout history, even in our current literature, musical art and life.

The first example that came to my mind, was the quote in the second or third movie of the Lord of the Rings.  When King Theoden says: “To whatever end.  Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?”

The second one is the music from the Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime. Part of the lyrics are: “And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack, And you may find yourself in another part of the world, And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile, And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife, And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

A third one that is personnel for me, was when I worked in the ER.  And I would see people in their 60s and 70s or sometimes much younger, their bodies permanently wrecked by poor life style choices, on death doorstep and wonder; did they as teenagers and 20 year old’s, see their lives ending like this.  Ten, twenty, thirty years down the road, in a wretched state of affairs.

A lot of the book is all about how we operate half-awake most of the time, not seeing where our actions are taking us down the road.  Again a short view of time.   

This is a very thought provoking book and well worth the read.  It is about slowing down but more importantly it is about taking a longer view of all things in life.  Maybe if we looked at how our immediate actions would influence things much further down the road, than tomorrow or next week, we might create a much happier and friendlier world for us all.

Richard is senior Journalist with the BBC in London and now an author.  If you would like to learn a little more about him check out his webpage: https://richardfisher.carrd.co/

I got this book as an audiobook but it would work in any format.  You can probably find this book at your local bookstore or at Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link: https://a.co/d/44gAK9j

Last but not least, I would like to show case one new piece of artwork that I finished at the first of May. I call it “Painted Chicken Boy.” It is 9×12 inches, acrylic paint on canvas paper, mounted to a cradled wood panel and sealed with archival varnish.

“Painted Chicken Boy”

This piece and other types of my art work can be found at my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/strugglingprotoplasm/edit?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

In support of Prochoice and Separation of Church and State, I will donate 10% of any sales to Planned Parenthood or the Freedom From Religion Foundation, but only if you wish me too. If not, I will be more than happy to keep money! Lol

Well I have come to the end of another blog post. Yea! And I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

So take care my friends and if you have not gotten vaccinated or boosted, even if you have had Covid, then get it done. It would be a damn shame if you were to die or suffer significant disability with this virus when vaccines are readily available in this country. So until next time Adios!!

“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” Carl Sagan

“Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.” Yuval Noah Harari

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

Air Quality, Art, Book Review, Climate Change, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Environment, Exercise, Fort Collins, Injury, Pandemics, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 29TH, APRIL 2022

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“According to Buddhism, the root of suffering is neither the feeling of pain nor of sadness nor even of meaninglessness. Rather, the real root of suffering is this never-ending and pointless pursuit of ephemeral feelings, which causes us to be in a constant state of tension, restlessness and dissatisfaction. Due to this pursuit, the mind is never satisfied. Even when experiencing pleasure, it is not content, because it fears this feeling might soon disappear, and craves that this feeling should stay and intensify. People are liberated from suffering not when they experience this or that fleeting pleasure, but rather when they understand the impermanent nature of all their feelings, and stop craving them. This is the aim of Buddhist meditation practices. In meditation, you are supposed to closely observe your mind and body, witness the ceaseless arising and passing of all your feelings, and realize how pointless it is to pursue them. When the pursuit stops, the mind becomes very relaxed, clear and satisfied. All kinds of feelings go on arising and passing – joy, anger, boredom, lust – but once you stop craving particular feelings, you can just accept them for what they are. You live in the present moment instead of fantasizing about what might have been. The resulting serenity is so profound that those who spend their lives in the frenzied pursuit of pleasant feelings can hardly imagine it. It is like a man standing for decades on the seashore, embracing certain ‘good’ waves and trying to prevent them from disintegrating, while simultaneously pushing back ‘bad’ waves to prevent them from getting near him. Day in, day out, the man stands on the beach, driving himself crazy with this fruitless exercise. Eventually, he sits down on the sand and just allows the waves to come and go as they please. How peaceful!” Yuval Noah Harari

The above two images are from Nasa Hubble Space Telescope and they made headlines at the end of March for a star that is 12.9 billion years away from earth. Meaning that it has taken light 12.9 billion years to reach us. We are seeing light that came from the universe when it was only about 7 percent of it current age. Hubble was able to capture this image due to gravitational lensing. This was caused by a chance alignment with a huge galaxy cluster located between the star and the telescope. The galaxy cluster is so massive that it warps the fabric of space time, creating a type of magnifying glass. The scientists that discovered the star named it Earendel or morning star. There is hope that when the James Webb telescope is fully calibrated, it can confirm Earendel and measure for temperature and brightness. If you would like to learn more check out this link: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/record-broken-hubble-spots-farthest-star-ever-seen and the YouTube video below!

“The greatest scientific discovery was the discovery of ignorance. Once humans realized how little they knew about the world, they suddenly had a very good reason to seek new knowledge, which opened up the scientific road to progress.” Yuval Noah Harari

This is an image take by the Hubble Space Telescope and it is of the galaxy NGC 5921 and it is about 80 million light years from earth. Or another way to think about it, is that it has taken the light of this galaxy 80 million years to reach us. How extraordinary that is when you think about it. Of course this is not considering the first image in this blog post. That one took light about 13 billion years to reach us. I think numbers like these can lose their meaning if you don’t have frames of reference. A way that I get my mind around it is by thinking of seconds: One millions seconds equals about 11 days, but 1 billion seconds equals almost 32 years. Big difference. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Walsh; Acknowledgment: R. Colombari. If you would like to learn more about the above image or see a calculator for seconds to years and vise versa, please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goodard/2002/hubble-spies-a-serpentine-spiral and https://www.calculateme.com/time/seconds/to-years/1000000

“The capitalist and consumerist ethics are two sides of the same coin, a merger of two commandments. The supreme commandment of the rich is ‘Invest!’ The supreme commandment of the rest of us is ‘Buy!’ The capitalist–consumerist ethic is revolutionary in another respect. Most previous ethical systems presented people with a pretty tough deal. They were promised paradise, but only if they cultivated compassion and tolerance, overcame craving and anger, and restrained their selfish interests. This was too tough for most. The history of ethics is a sad tale of wonderful ideals that nobody can live up to. Most Christians did not imitate Christ, most Buddhists failed to follow Buddha, and most Confucians would have caused Confucius a temper tantrum. In contrast, most people today successfully live up to the capitalist–consumerist ideal. The new ethic promises paradise on condition that the rich remain greedy and spend their time making more money and that the masses give free reign to their cravings and passions and buy more and more. This is the first religion in history whose followers actually do what they are asked to do. How though do we know that we’ll really get paradise in return? We’ve seen it on television.” Yuval Noah Harari

This is an image from the Hubble Space Telescope of the spiral galaxy NGC 7172 and it is approximately 110 million light years from earth. It was first cataloged by the English astronomer John Herschel on September 23rd, 1834. It is located in the constellation of Piscis Austrinus, which means “the southern fish.” The constellation is in the southern celestial hemisphere. The galaxy made news when astronomers inspected the electromagnetic spectrum and discovered it had a supermassive blackhole at it’s center powering its galactic nucleus. This type of nucleus is characterized by a intensely bright compact core as in the above image and is known as a Seyfert galaxy. These are named after Carl Seyfert, who was an American astronomer that did significant research in this area of astronomy. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. J. Rosario, A. Barth; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz. If you would like to learn more about this galaxy, constellation and Carl Seyfert, please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-views-a-galaxy-with-an-active-black-hole and http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/hubble-active-spiral-galaxy-ngc-7172-10654.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piscis_Austrinus and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Keenan_Seyfert

“It takes a lot of courage to fight biases and oppressive regimes, but it takes even greater courage to admit ignorance and venture into the unknown. Secular education teaches us that if we don’t know something, we shouldn’t be afraid of acknowledging our ignorance and looking for new evidence. Even if we think we know something, we shouldn’t be afraid of doubting our opinions and checking ourselves again. Many people are afraid of the unknown, and want clear-cut answers for every question. Fear of the unknown can paralyze us more than any tyrant. People throughout history worried that unless we put all our faith in some set of absolute answers, human society will crumble. In fact, modern history has demonstrated that a society of courageous people willing to admit ignorance and raise difficult questions is usually not just more prosperous but also more peaceful than societies in which everyone must unquestioningly accept a single answer. People afraid of losing their truth tend to be more violent than people who are used to looking at the world from several different viewpoints. Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.” Yuval Noah Harari

This is an image of the galaxy NGC 4571. Can you guess what kind of galaxy this is? If you said spiral, then you are right. The image was made with the Hubble Space Telescope using it’s Wide Field Camera 3. The galaxy is about 60 million light years from earth and is located in the constellation Virgo. Which is the second largest constellation in the zodiac. The above galaxy is located in what is know as an asterism. A group of stars having a popular name but smaller in size than a constellation. An example of this is the Big Dipper which comprises seven of the brightest stars in the constellation Ursa Major. Another one would be the Southern Cross. The asterism for this galaxy is called Coma Berenices. It is an ancient asterism dating back to the time of the early Greeks and Egyptians. It is named after an Egyptian queen Berenice II Euergetis. The name translates as Bernice’s Hair. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team. If you would like to learn more about the above constellation, and Queen Berenice please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-spies-a-stunning-spiral and http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/hubble-ngc-4571-10634.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berenice_II_of_Egypt

“How can we distinguish what is biologically determined from what people merely try to justify through biological myths? A good rule of thumb is ‘Biology enables, Culture forbids.’ Biology is willing to tolerate a very wide spectrum of possibilities. It’s culture that obliges people to realize some possibilities while forbidding others. Biology enables women to have children – some cultures oblige women to realize this possibility. Biology enables men to enjoy sex with one another – some cultures forbid them to realize this possibility. Culture tends to argue that it forbids only that which is unnatural. But from a biological perspective, nothing is unnatural. Whatever is possible is by definition also natural. A truly unnatural behavior, one that goes against the laws of nature, simply cannot exist.” Yuval Noah Harari

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

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19 so far and so have I! Yea for us again! I am still hoping that I can keep saying this until the Covid Marry-Go-Round is done. Lol. Man it has been long enough!

Looking at the numbers on April 6th, it appears that in the last 30 days (March 6th to April 6th) we have added another 26 thousand deaths for a total of 1,010, 537. Yes you read that right! We went over the 1 million death mark back at the end of March! The only good news about this is we are down one half the deaths from the previous 30 days.

The above image has not changed from the last month. All of the same states for the number of deaths is still the same. Of course, Florida is not reporting. I always assumed that the CDC could go to a state to assess the public health hazards and make recommendations or to see if counting statistics are being accurately reported in the name of public health. But this is not the case. Because the CDC did not exist at the time the Constitution was written, the CDC has no jurisdiction over state rights. Meaning that they have no power to ensure things are being counted accurately in the name of protecting the public health. They have to be invited in. Does make you wonder if we need some kind of Constitutional Amendment that can be used when the next pandemic occurs to help ensure public health. In my opinion the CDC needs more control and legal enforcement in matters of public health.

By the middle of the month we had added another 5000 deaths in this country alone. Again it is hard to get your head wrapped around these numbers. And due to the variant BA2 the cases had climbed again to about 40 thousand per day. But due to home testing and non-reporting this is probably an underestimate of how many new cases are occurring per day. At least hospitalizations have not climbed much. This is not due to the variant being less severe but due to the number of individuals that are vaccinated, have gotten booster shots or had prior Covid. It is much more transmissible than previous variants. Right up there with Chicken Pox. Some states like New York have reinstated mask mandates due to rising numbers.

Around the middle of the month a Federal Judge ruled in Florida (of course) on a case that said the CDC over stepped it bounds when issuing a mask mandates. Her name is Kathryn Kimball Mizelle. I am wondering if she realizes how much death and disability she will have caused over the coming months. Shortly after this ruling the airlines and other transit systems dropped their mask mandates. Oh well – “Stupid is as stupid does.”

By the end of the month or the day of publishing we were up to about 55 thousand cases per day officially. Of course this number was much higher due to unreported testing with the home kits and some states that have just stopped reporting in a timely manner. The total death count was approximately 1,020,500. Or about 10 thousand extra deaths in the last 23 days. So while that is a big number, at least it is going in the right direction of down. I hoping that I can keep saying this for the next month. Time will tell.

If you interested in looking at the numbers for yourself, please see this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

If you interested in getting a good understanding of what is going on with Covid each week without having to watch the news, check out this link for the Osterholm Update on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FC1G09xkOFc

And if you don’t want to listen on YouTube you can check out Apple Pod cast. Dr. Michael Osterholm is an American epidemiologist, Regents Professor, and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Osterholm gives an update each week on where we are with the virus. Really good information directly from the source and not spun by the news media channels.

Again enough about Covid! Lol. I will be so glad when this is over. The month of March was a good one for getting outdoors. I did not do a lot of running because of a knee injury but I did get in a lot of walking. Pretty much everyday with the dog and Janet. Due to the weather patterns and lots of wind, the air quality was pretty good. I would even have to say since the start of this year the air quality has been unusually good. And that my friends has been a blessing and a curse. The wind has been the reason for the cleaner air but when you add in the current drought conditions here on the front range, it has created some very significant fire danger. So far, we have been pretty lucky. There have been a few small fires, that were quickly controlled, but nothing like what has been going on in New Mexico and Arizona. It seems like this is way too early in the year for these types of conditions and I am a little nervous about what the summer will bring.

This picture was taken March 2nd, 2022 at about 5:30pm in the afternoon. It was a great afternoon for a walk with Janet and Marvin.
This picture was also taken on March 2nd, 2022 at about 6pm in the evening. We did have some nice sunsets in March but not as many as we usually do because of the cleaner air. It is one of those things that if you have beautiful sunsets it usually means the sun is reflecting off the particulates in the air. Fewer particulates fewer colors.
This picture was taken March 3rd, 2022 about 4pm in the afternoon. Here Marvin and I are looking North East from Horsetooth Mountain Park. It was a very nice day for a run with temps in the low 50s.
This picture was taken March 6th, 2022 at about 6pm. We did get some cold weather in the month of March with snow. Unfortunately it was not enough to make up for the drought. This picture is looking West across the neighborhood pond.
This picture was taken on March 8th, 2022 at about 530pm in the afternoon. Marin is staring at 4 to 5 deer hidden in the tall grass and trees. It was a much warmer day from a few days before with temps in the lower 40s.
This picture was taken March 15th, 2022 at about 715pm. What a beautiful evening. The week before we had been down in the single digits and teens for temperatures and in this picture the temps were up around 60 degrees. Typical for Colorado this time of year.
This picture was also taken on March 15th, 2022 at about 7pm.
This picture was taken on March 22nd, 2022 at about 7pm in the evening. Another beautiful Colorado sunset.
This picture was taken on March 26th, 2022 at about 530pm in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride. This is looking South East along a section of the Poudre Bike path.
This picture was taken on March 28th, 2022 at about 7pm in the afternoon. Our youngest daughter was along for the walk and took the picture. Another beautiful day in Colorado.

I did not have a lot of pictures of mountain scenes due to my knee injury. In order to help heal the knee, I had to really decrease the amount of running that I was doing and just keep the walking. Of course the knee injury did not just happen but was the result of me overdoing it. Lol. If you are a runner then you will know what I mean. As runners we all have this mindset that if a little is good then more is better and I am guilty. What is the old saying “We are our own worst enemy.” Oh well, live and learn. Then relearn, then promise yourself you won’t do that again. Then forget you said that and do it again… Lol.

It was another great month for reading. And I would like give a couple of book recommendations.

First, if you interested in a great A.I. book written by a world renowned researcher in said field go no further until you check out the book called Human Compatible:  Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control by Stuart Russell.  What I found most interesting in this book was the author’s view of what we might expect from A.I. in the near future and what most likely is still just a fantasy, even in the long term.  Of course with this said the author does bring up the old joke about “What an old professor says is not possible, has probably already happened or will happen very soon, but what a young professor says is just around the corner, is usually years off.”  All kidding aside it is an interesting book looking at this topic.  From the possible development of human level general A.I. (Strong A.I.) to the personal data assistant (Weak A.I.). 

He also devotes a significant part of the book to how we might be able to develop A.I. in such way that we won’t end up with the Terminator and Skynet issues depicted in Hollywood Movies.  You might be thinking that is a ways off, but in reality we might get there quicker than you imagined even without the development of a strong A.I.  Think of a really smart but not sentient data assistant.  I would love to have something like this to help with my day to day life.  It would be wonderful until one human decides to use it against another human.  Or a group of humans?  Or… you can see where this might lead.  So how do we prevent a simple concept as the personnel data assistant from being used in a malicious way?  Good question with so many possibilities for things to go wrong so to speak.  This is a great book to read if you want to get a broader understanding of where we are with A.I. and it’s possible future development.  Of course, I listened to this book as an audio book but it would work well in any format.  You can find it on Amazon at:  https://amzn.to/3Mqx6Vj

The next book I would like to recommend is one by a former MIT president Susan Hockfield and is called “The Age of Living Machines: How the Convergence of Biology and Engineering Will Build the Next Technology Revolution.”  If you are someone that has not been following some of the technological changes occurring in genetics and what is termed bio-engineering / synthetic biology, then this short book would be a good one to read.  She gives examples of using “biology” to potentially solve real world problems that would usually be approached as a classical physics challenge in the past. 

One of my favorite examples from the book was the research in using a virus to make a battery at the nano scale level.  That is using a genetically modified “biological virus” to assemble inorganic molecules into predesigned structures to make the battery.  Another one was the research in creating engineered viral or bacterial colonies to filter water and air for humans similar to what you would find in aquariums. Now be warned there is some plugging for MIT and she does mention a few times she was a former MIT president but if you can get past that advertising, it is an interesting and thought provoking book to say the least.  I got it as an audio book but it would work well in any format.  You can find the book on Amazon:    https://amzn.to/3K6m71H  

The next book that I would like to STRONGLY recommend is “Basic Economics, Fifth Edition:  A Common Sense Guide to the Economy” by Thomas Sowell.  Mr. Sowell is an American economist, historian, social theorist, and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.  If you were like me, you might have gotten a basic economic course in college (a long time ago) but that would be about it or if you were someone who did not go to college then you probably have never taken one. Maybe in High School? I don’t really know.  Either way this is a book that is for all of us.  The only people I would leave out would be those that are actual economist. What I loved about this book is the author uses real world examples of past events to help explain each chapter topic.  And with all the things going on in the world today with the pandemic, like supply chain issues, higher gas prices, inflation in general, housing, etc.…  This is a very relevant book.   

What I learned in each chapter helped me to see past some of the current political BS that is spun by both political parties when it comes to how the economy is doing or not doing.  Lol.  Now be warned this is a big book and I got it as an audio book.  There was 24 hours of listening time.  I think it would work well in any format but I am one of those readers that does better with “dry” material as an audio book.  I would listen to a single chapter while doing house chores or on a long walk with the dog.  And this worked very well for me.  I actually found myself listening to some chapters more than once.  This is an excellent book on how the economy functions.  Of course you can find it on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/3KdHjTs    

Last but not least I would like to show case a piece of art work. I call this one Cosmic Sisters. I got the idea after reading about the LIGO detector for gravitational waves. GWs had been theorized to exist but up until LIGO it was just a theoretical idea. One of the research questions that led to the building of the detector was if you have binary pulsars (2 neutron stars orbiting each other) they should create gravitational waves. And low and behold that is what they found. This confirmation of gravitational waves has opened up new areas of research in Astrophysics. Which I think is pretty cool. The sisters represent a Binary Pulsar.

This piece measures 14 inches wide by 17 inches tall. It is done in pen and ink and sealed with mod podge. The drawing is done on thick paper and mounted to painted (black) white board.

COSMIC SISTERS

This piece and other types of art work are for sale and can be found on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/strugglingprotoplasm/edit?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Well I have come to the end of another blog post! Yea! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! Before I go I want to touch on the report by the International Renewable Energy Agency that came out at the end of March. In a nutshell the report says that if we want to avoid catastrophic warming, let me say that again, catastrophic warming in the coming years we much take “radical action” to prevent it. Wow! Radical action. Meaning that we need to drop our world wide carbon emissions by 45% in the next 8 years. Think about that for a moment. By 2030, we need to be 45% lower in our carbon emissions. Unreal when you think about it.

So how do we do this?? We don’t want things to look like the above picture. Will switching to Electric Vehicles save the planet? The simple answer is NO. It is not enough. It is going to take a lot more. And this will mean lifestyle changes. How we work, how we play, how we eat, how we produce power, even how many pets we have. All of these things have to come into play.

If a lot of this sounds like too much to deal with, there is another way of pulling all of the different factors together. And that is becoming minimalist. It will lower the carbon foot print. And it is something we can all do on an individual level. It is a way to fight back against our over rampant consumeristic culture that is leading to an unlivable planet. When I first heard about the idea of minimalism I thought of a monk living in a monastery, bare walls, owning nothing, eating the same gruel each and everyday, etc.… But in reality this is not the case, though I guess if you wanted to do this you could. Lol. Minimalism is different for each individual. You choose how much “minimalism” you want in your life and how much you don’t want. It is about understanding what matters most in life and removing the things that do not support the “what matters most part.” Of course this usually translates to getting rid of all unnecessary material goods as a first step. But it does not have to be. Minimalism is so much more than just this.  And again, let me stress, each individual decides how much “minimalism” they want in there life. Becoming minimalist is just a change in mindset. Nothing to buy, nothing to purchase, just a change in how you look at your life and the world.

Ok, ok, enough of the soapbox, but if your interested and want to learn more about sustainability, minimalism and the steady state economy, please see these sites: https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/what-is-sustainability/ and https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/ and https://steadystate.org/ and https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2018/12/27/35-ways-reduce-carbon-footprint/

So take care my friends and if you have not gotten vaccinated, then get it done. We all want this “Groundhog Day – Covid – Marry- Go – Round” to end. Until next time Adios!!

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

Air Quality, Art, Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Environment, Exercise, Fort Collins, Fort Collins, Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, Minimalism, Pandemics, Politics, PurpleAir, Science, Science Fiction, Space, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 25TH, JUNE 2021

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“Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.” Louis Pasteur

This is an image of Arp 299 and was created by using X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink), higher-energy X-ray data from NuSTAR (purple), and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (white and faint brown). It is an image of two colliding galaxies approximately 134 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa major. The two systems have been locked in gravitational combat for millions of years blending and merging stars from each galaxy into a cosmic goulash. Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Crete/K. Anastasopoulou et al, NASA/NuSTAR/GSFC/A. Ptak et al; Optical: NASA/STScI. If you want to learn more about the above image check out these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/galactic-goulash and https://phys.org/news/2017-06-arp-galactic-goulash.html and https://youtu.be/YfF83mXMC7U

“We have to remember that what we observe is not nature in itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” Werner Heisenberg

This is an image of galaxy NGC 5037 in the constellation of Virgo. It is about 150 million light-years away from Earth. The image was created using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. The first documentation of its existence was by William Herschel in 1785. A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral with a central bar-shaped structure. The central structure is composed of stars. It is thought that about half of all spiral galaxies have bars. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, where we live, is classified as a barred spiral galaxy. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario; Acknowledgment: L. Shatz. To learn more about this image or the galaxy NGC 5037 please see these links: Hubble Captures a Captivating Spiral | NASA and https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/hubble-galaxy-ngc-5037/

“I am utterly convinced that science and peace will triumph over ignorance and war, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity.” Louis Pasteur

This image was created using a large mosaic of data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the MeerKAT radio telescope in south Africa. The orange, green, blue and purple colors are from Chandra Observatory and the radio data from MeerKAT are shown in lilac and gray. This image made news because it is thought to be showing X-ray and radio emissions intertwined. The idea is that they are held together by thin strips of magnetic fields. This concept has been put forth in a study by Q. Daniel Wang of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “Such strips may have formed when magnetic fields aligned in different directions, collided, and became twisted around each other in a process called magnetic reconnection. This is similar to the phenomenon that drives energetic particles away from the Sun and is responsible for the space weather that sometimes affects Earth.” Image credit: Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/Q.D. Wang; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT. To learn more about this image please visit there links: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/images/magnetized-threads-weave-spectacular-galactic-tapestry.html and https://phys.org/news/2021-05-magnetized-threads-spectacular-galactic-tapestry.html

“All one can really leave one’s children is what’s inside their heads. Education, in other words, and not earthly possessions, is the ultimate legacy, the only thing that cannot be taken away.” Dr. Wernher von Braun

This is an image of Uranus – the 7th planet from our sun. It is four times the diameter of Earth and rotates on its side and has two sets of rings. This side rotation makes it different from all other planets in our solar system. The above image is made from combining a Chandra X-ray image from 2002 (pink) superimposed on an optical image from the Keck-I Telescope made in 2004. The planet made news recently because astronomers have detected X-rays for the first time coming from Uranus, using NASA’s Chandra Observatory. Most of the X-rays are thought to becoming from the Sun due to scattering but there is a possibility the rings of Uranus could be creating the rays themselves. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/University College London/W. Dunn et al; Optical: W.M. Keck Observatory. If you want to learn more about this please visit these links: Detecting X-Rays From Uranus | NASA and https://phys.org/news/2021-03-x-rays-uranus.html

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur

Apollo 16 was the tenth crewed mission of the Apollo space program. It was the 5th landing on the moon by astronauts. This mission started on April 16th, 1972 and ended on April 27th. The mission was crewed by Commander John Young, the Lunar module pilot was Charles Duke and Command module pilot was Ken Mattingly. In the above image, John Young salutes the flag while jumping on the moon. The Lunar landing Module Orion and the Lunar Roving Vehicle are in the background. Image Credit: NASA/Charlie Duke. To learn more about the above image and the Apollo 16 mission please visit these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/flag-day-2021-saluting-the-us-flag and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_16 and https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo16.html

“Our sun is one of a 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living thing in that enormous immensity.” Dr. Wernher von Braun

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

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19 so far and so have I!! That my friends is a very, very good thing for all of us. And I am crossing my fingers that I can continue to say this each and every month for the next year.

When I started to write this blog on June 8th, the death count in the USA stood at 613 thousand. That is a difference of 20 thousands deaths from May 6th. While this is a large number it is an improvement from the previous 30 days by 6000 individuals! The big question becomes can we keep this downward trend?

By the middle of the month the downward trend was continuing with 200 to 500 deaths per day and new cases averaging about 10,000 per week. Again, even though these are large number we were still in that downward trend.

By the end of the month the total added death count was about 5000 or 618,000 total and while this number is large it is a significant improvement from the previous 30 days by more than half. And our infection rate has continue to fall so that was good news. If you want to see the numbers yourself check out these links: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/ and https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

The only fly in the ointment was the Delta variant of the virus – first identified in India. By the end of June it was responsible for one in every five new infections in the United States. Part of this rapid rise is that it is much more transmissible than previous versions of the virus. The good news is that the two main vaccinations do seem to offer protection. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about it, like how severe it might be compared to prevision versions. There is some evidence that you are twice as likely to be hospitalized with this version than the last. Due to the unevenness in vaccinations around the country and age groups we may see a rise with infections in the South and an increase in young people. I guess time will tell, but the best thing to do now is to get as many people fully vaccinated as possible.

It has now been 24 weeks since I got the Pfizer Vaccine for Covid and… so far there have been no side effects for me!! Yea!! While there has been a rise in heart inflammation reported in adolescents and young adults with the two main vaccines it does not appear that this is a long term condition and generally most individuals recover without further concern.

As of June 15th, in the US, there were 174 million individuals or 53% of the population that had gotten at least one shot of the two main vaccines. And there were about 145 million or 44% that have full vaccination!! This is a very good thing, not only in terms of health but also in terms of economic recovery.

If you want to look at the numbers yourself check out these links: https://usafacts.org/visualizations/covid-vaccine-tracker-states/ and https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/28/960901166/how-is-the-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-going-in-your-state and for a look at world vaccinations check out this link from CNN: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/health/global-covid-vaccinations/

Well enough about Covid. Time to move on to something different. May was another good month for running along the Front Range in Colorado. While there were some unsettled weather days and even a little snow along the Front Range, it was a good month for air quality and exercising outdoors.

This picture was taken May 11th, 2021 at 6:50am in the morning. Winter was not quit through with us. I believe on the Front Range this was the last snow fall for the season. Being at 5000 feet in elevation you just never know when the last snow might fall but it is usually somewhere around Mother’s day. Lol. I have gotten to where I do not plant out any new flowers or vegetables until the middle of May. The Quad Rock trail race was 3 days before this photo was taken! At that time the trails were dry and running was supreme. What a difference a few days can make!

I write a lot about the air quality here in Colorado because there are times it is really, really bad. It was not until 1963 that the “Clean Air Act” was passed in the United States and in 1970 congress gave the EPA the legal authority to regulate pollution from cars and other forms of transportation. This dramatically improved air quality a lot, but I have come to realize it does not go far enough.

This picture was taken May 13th, 2021 at 7:30pm in the evening. It is looking West along one of my favorite in town sections of the Poudre River. Here you can see that the river is filling in with spring runoff. The City and County had filled most of the reservoirs by this time and the river was allowed to run free. Most of the water is spoken for, but the consumers are “downstream users”, so the the river is running full through the city. As I write this, I am wondering where the next “water” source will come from for Colorado? We are a headwater state (meaning all of our rivers begin in the Rocky Mountains and flow out of the state) and most of Colorado is very dry – think high plains desert. The eastern half of the state makes up 40% of this type of topography. And on the West side it is not much better. Precipitation averages 8 to 14 inches per year. As growth continues, at some point, there will not be any more “water” to obtain. The questions become: When do you say enough is enough? Do you damn every river in the state just so you can have growth and when every river is damned, then what? Hard questions for the State, City and County governments here in Colorado. If you want to learn more about Colorado’s climate please visit this link: https://climate.colostate.edu/climate_long.html

To understand this, it is important to see one of the reasons the Clean Air Act came into being. After World War 2 with the returning soldiers several things occurred. Economic growth skyrocketed and there was a soon to be baby boom. With the impending increase in population the suburbs become the “hip” place to live. The only problem was that the mass transit infrastructure did not exist like it did in the cities. This forced an increase in the reliance on private motor vehicles with a corresponding significant increase in air pollution. Hence the need for the Clean Air Act. Of course this was not the only reason for the CAA but it was a substantial one.

This picture was taken May 16th, 2021 at 6:15pm in the evening. Here Janet and Marvin are on the banks of the Poudre River and it is still flowing full. This picture reminds me of how “big” Marvin actually is! Lol. His breed is called a King Shephard. For Marvin, it is a mixture of German Shephard, Alaska Malamute and Great Pyrenees. He’s got a little more Pyrenees due to the fact that his father was full Pyrenees. Hence the floppy ears. I find it interesting that he did not get the thicker Pyrenees coat.

The part of the CAA that regulates vehicle pollution is considered a success story by many measures. Lead has been eliminated and sulfur levels are 90% lower than they were prior to regulation. If you compare cars from the 1960s to now, you are looking at a decrease of about 98% in tailpipe pollutants. So why is air quality terrible at times here on the Front Range of Colorado? I will try to explain.

This picture was taken May 20th, 2021 at 12:15pm in the afternoon. It is looking out East towards Weld County. It was a great day for running in Horsetooth Mountain Park. There was just enough wind from the West to increase the air quality around Fort Collins. If you look very closely at this photo you can just see the thin layer of brown. That my friends is the infamous “brown cloud.” And it is created when temperature inversions trap the cooler air near the ground, preventing pollutants from rising into the atmosphere. The topography slopes downward as you move away from the foothills, so the colder air had moved out toward Weld County, taking the bulk of the pollution with it. Of course, Weld County has over 33 thousand oil and gas wells, which does not help with the brown cloud. The interesting part is the entire state only has about 53 thousand wells. Therefore, 62% of the wells are in Weld County alone. I wonder how many people realize this?

When you are looking at pollution here along the Front Range, I am not talking about Greenhouse gas pollution per se. But more about the sources of hazardous chemicals that help to create ozone and wildland fire sources that contribute to particulates. Colorado unfortunately has become one of the worst violators of the federal air quality health standards due to VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and nitrogen oxides. Colorado emits around 200,000 tons of these each year. There are several sources but one of the biggest is oil and gas development and processing, something around 45%. The next greatest portion comes from people driving vehicles that burn fossil fuels. But you would think with tailpipe emission getting better, the air quality should improve? At least from the automotive end? Right? Well unfortunately this has not been the case. Colorado has seen another population boom in the last 20 years and it has double the number of citizens. We are now in the range of about 6 million as of 2020. This and the increase in oil and gas development has erased many of the air quality improvements seen since the 1980s.

This picture was taken May 20th, 2021 at about 12:45pm in the afternoon. The same day as the above picture but looking West and not East. Here you see Mount Meeker and Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. This is the view, looking West, from the top of Tower’s Road in Horsetooth Mountain Park. Some of the darker areas in the lower half of the image are from last years historic fires. I love this view from the top!

Another significant cause of Front Range Air Pollution in recent years is the overall increase in Forest Fires. This increase has resulted in a significant up swing in particulates. The stuff that you see from a fire or driving down a dusty road, are called PM-10. These include smoke, soot, dust and dirt. These particles irritate the eyes, nose and throat. This stuff can be annoying but usually it does not have a long term health consequence. But and there is always a but, the smaller particles, called PM 2.5 or particles smaller than 2.5 microns can and do cause problems. They are composed of everything from sulfates, nitrates and heavy metals to combustion byproducts including hydrocarbons. These fine particles are often bound to toxins in the air. Because of their small size they can easily get into your lungs and then into the blood stream. Once in the blood stream they can travel to any part of the body. They have even been found in the unborn fetuses of pregnant mothers. These particles have been causally linked to increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, pneumonia, exacerbation of COPD, Asthma, Lung Cancer, preterm birth, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and other forms of cancer. They stay in the air for a long time and can travel long distances with the wind. This is why you can still be exposed when a forest fire is hundreds and hundreds of miles away.

This picture was taken May 28th, 2021 at 1:30pm in the afternoon. It is looking south from the top sections of Tower Road and is an image of the iconic Horsetooth Rock. You can just make out a few individuals standing on top of the rock. It was another beautiful day for running along the Front Range.

Now you might ask why is this such a problem for Colorado? Doesn’t all these same issues affect other parts of the country as well? The answer, yes they do, but… Let me explain. Due to the Front Range’s topography, we get a consistent “temperature inversion type of condition” in which the cooler air is trapped closer to the ground with very little wind movement for long periods of time. This really allows for the combination of VOCs/nitrogen oxides with resultant ozone and particulates from forest fires to accumulate in one place with resultant terrible air quality. It gets so bad at times that I wish for it to be a super windy day just to clean the old, dirty stagnant air out.

This picture was taken June 6th, 2021 at about 8:30pm in the evening. The days in June were getting progressively hotter and we found ourselves walking later with the dog so that he would not get overheated.

I have written about this issue before but thought it was good idea to revisit it. Fort Collins just moved up in rank this month, on the list of cities with the worst air pollution. By Ozone, Fort Collins is number 17 in the nation out of 226 metropolitan areas and 50th for short term particulates out of 216 metropolitan areas. While not exactly at the top, close enough in my opinion and not something that should be allowed to go any higher. To see some of the numbers check out this link at the American Lung Association: https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities

“Environmental pollution is not only humanity’s treason to humanity but also a treason to all other living creatures on earth!” Mehmet Murat ildan

Will it be an easy problem to solve? No way. But some things we can do. Get rid of your gas mower – move to electric. And encourage the landscaping companies to do the same. When you start thinking about buying that new car, think hybrid or full electric. When the next election cycle starts, ask the candidates how they are going to fix this. Will they be plugging the regulatory holes to target major polluters inside and outside Colorado? Will they be encouraging the trucking companies to go electric? Will they be pushing for the upgrades needed in the electric grid? Information is powerful and I encourage you to visit the websites of Purple Air and Air Quality Colorado if you live here. Check them every time before you plan an outdoor activity and if they are not optimal send a screen shot to your elected representative. Ask what they are doing about it.

You can find those links here: https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/mAQI/a10/cC0#11/40.5524/-105.0534 and https://www.colorado.gov/airquality/air_quality.aspx

A couple of book reviews and a piece of art work before wrapping things up. The first book I would like to talk about is “The Physics of Climate Change” by Lawrence M. Krauss. The first thing before reading this book you need to understand is that Krauss is a world renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist. In the book he admits that this is not his area of expertise, but after looking at all the data and the arguments about climate change, he felt it was important to write a book that would help to explain the “science” in a way that makes sense to the rest of us. Now with that said, if you are someone that needs all the equations and math in minutiae for the science of CC to make sense, then you will be disappointed. This is not that book.

I found the book an enlightening look at the complexity of the research that has gone into the science. And it helped me to understand how the lay person and even other scientist could get confused when looking at all the data. A truly daunting task for climate researchers. The take away: Is global warming real – absolutely and are humans responsible for a large contribution to this phenomena – most assuredly. I believe this book would work well in any format. I got it as an audio book and found it thoroughly enjoyable while out for long runs.

Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is an American / Canadian theoretical physicist and cosmologist who previously taught at Arizona State University, Yale and Case Western Reserve University. To learn more about him please visit this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Krauss

You can find the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/The-Physics-of-Climate-Change/dp

The next book I would like to talk about is called “Neuromancer” by William Gibson. It is a book that is consider a Science Fiction staple and that you cannot truly call yourself a SiFi fan unless you have read it. So I felt the need to read it at 59 years old. Lol. This book deals with AI, computer programs, cyber space, and transhuman technology among other things. The crazy part is the book was written in 1984 – about 37 years ago! And the concepts put worth are more relevant today than there were back then. It is consider one of the best known examples of Cyberpunk and after reading it, I believe it still holds true.

Now in all honesty I did have a little trouble following the plot at times and had to go back and re-listen to several sections. And I am not sure if that was accidental or if Gibson had intended this to be the case. Neuromancer was his first novel, so I will cut him a little slack in this regard. I used Wikipedia as a guide to help me keep on track with the characters and the plot – this helped immensely. I listened to the book as an audio book while on long runs but it would work in any format.

Willian Ford Gibson is an American / Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. If you want to learn more about his author check out this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson

You can find this book on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Neuromancer-William-Gibson-audiobook/dp

Well last but no least a piece of art work before I go. This one is a piece of sculpture that is a sunface. It is constructed of scrap wood that is nailed, screwed and glued together – painted with acrylic and latex paint. After any summer project I hate to see anything go to waste and the year this face was made I had plenty of plywood and 2×4 pieces left over for a sunface. My inspiration was from the cartoon Sponge Bob Square Pants. In one of the episodes I watched with the kids, Squidward is seen relaxing and trying to get a tan before he is harassed by the usual characters.

This is a good size sunface: 42 inches by 42 inches and 10 inches deep. The sculpture is all wood and is about 14 to 15 pounds. This sculpture is meant to be indoors only.

I call this sculpture “SQUIDWARD SUNFACE”

The inspiration behind the sculpture. Lol

This piece is for sale and can be found on my Etsy site: https://www.etsy.com/shop/strugglingprotoplasm/edit?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

Well that is going to be about it for me on this blog post. My intent was that it would be informative, especially for those that live here in Colorado. We reside in a great place for being outdoors and I hope that it stays that way. Unfortunately “hope” like thoughts and prayers will only go so far without action. There are some big environmental challenges we need to fix in order to keep the air quality from getting any worse.

So what can we do? One of things, without a lot of effort initially is to become “Minimalist.” Our consumeristic culture is unsustainable at it’s current levels and you could even say that the air quality issues we are encountering around the country are the indirect result of this consumption mindset. I will repeat what my biology professor told me years ago about the destructions of our environment: “Growth for growth’s sake is the definition of cancer.” It does not matter if it is in the human body or the destruction of natural resources or a form of unfettered economic growth for profit and profit alone. It all leads to the same conclusion if it is not checked – death of the system.

Becoming minimalist is just a change in mindset. Nothing to by, nothing to purchase, just a change in how you look at your life and the world. If this appeals to you and even if it doesn’t at the moment but you are curious, a good place to start is here: https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

So take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, stay informed of current Covid 19 developments – especially of the Delta variant, and wear you mask (N95 now) when appropriate. And when a vaccine becomes available, please get it. No excuses – just do it. Adios!!

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

Colorado, Environment, Fort Collins, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 31ST, JANUARY 2020

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“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?” Robert Browning

“It is a terrible mistake to think that the future is somewhere off in a distance time. It is here – in embryo. We are creating it right now, with the decisions we make about the environment, with the attitude we take toward space exploration, with the education we are giving our children. Everything!!” Gene Roddenberry

“Nobody knows what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” Robert Goddard

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID’s, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere. Robert A. Heinlein

“Doing a task is usually easy. Thinking about a task makes it hard.” Ajahn Brahm

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

Well it’s the start of a new year!! And wow!! Where has the time gone?? Funny, as I have gotten older it has sped up. Or that is what it seems like. When I was in my 20s and 30s it just dragged by, but now that I am much closer to 60 than 50, the perception of time jumping forward seems almost palpable. I know that it is all perception, but still where has it gone? Oh well. If you find it let me know. Lol

This picture was taken on November 3rd, 2019 at around 5pm. It is only about a mile from my house. I was just running along and truly the old quote of being in the right place at the right time? Well this was an example. It is looking West by South West, across a golf course in Fort Collins.

So I was thinking what do I talk about for the first month of the new year? That was a good question. And I had to ask it several times over and over, again and again. I mean I usually talk about Marvin, or some book I read, or sometimes current events. And those are all good, and I will talk about them. After all it is what is going on in my immediate life. But this time I want to start out with something that is a little more intangible for most of us. I want to start out with something I think will be a game changer for humanity. And once I lay it out, you will probably be skeptical. But as a species, we need to be able to pull this off. OK, here it goes. As a species, we need to figure out a way to get out of earth’s gravity well without having to use chemical rockets all the time. To be able to lift large amounts of mass into orbit without riding a “Roman Candle” so to speak every time we do it. If this is not a reality in the near future, then the next best thing is what Elon Musk is doing with reusable rockets. I know what you are thinking (what have you been smoking in Colorado) and I would not blame you. But we need to be able to do this sooner rather than later. The survival of “us” – HUMANS – depends upon it. If you keep reading I will explain my madness.

This picture was taken November 15th, 2019. I was looking West across one of the River Bend Ponds. Late afternoon about 5pm in Fort Collins.

Elon Musk has the right idea about getting a million people to Mars. Around the middle of this month he made a series of tweets about getting 1000s of star ships to Mars by 2050. That is a huge claim and I really hope that he can pull it off, but I am skeptical. In order to colonize another planet in our solar system we have to be able to get a huge amount (megatons) of material in orbit. Especially if we are going to send 100s, 1000s and then 10s of thousands of people to Mars every year. Using a reusable rocket is a great idea but I am not sure if this can be scaled up to the degree needed. In my personal opinion the game change will be the development of an AG drive (Anti-gravity Drive). I do believe Musk will get us there initial, but not to the degree that he claims. By the way – if you know how or have a working model of an AG drive, please let Elon, or NASA know. I am sure it would be greatly appreciated. Lol

This picture was taken November 28th, 2019. Here I am looking West across one of Fort Collins Parks. It was about 4pm in this picture.

Now at this point you might be asking yourself why do we need to do this? Has Ed lost his mind? And the answers to these are yes and no. Right now the world population is at 7.8 billion and will continue to grow. The current estimate is 10 billion by 2057. (37 years from now) But I believe it will happen sooner rather than later. All it will take is one or two advances in health care that leads to a decrease in infant and mother mortality, and /or a break through in longevity research. And you also need to consider all the money that is being spent on curing cancer and heart disease. Not a matter of IF but WHEN will it happen. I know I sound like someone that might be arguing against these advances in medical treatment and care, but I am not. I think they will be great!! After all, who wants to die of Cancer or lose their child to preventable disease? Right?! But it is going to create a bottle neck in population growth vs available resources on earth. Imagine a balloon (the earth) that is being filled with air (people). At some point it will over fill and….. We all know what happens when a balloon gets too full. We need a relief value. And “space exploration and settlement” on a large scale is the answer.

A interesting web site to check out on population is called worldometer. Here is the link: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#growthrate

This picture was taken December 10th, 2019. It is looking from a trail in Horsetooth Mountain Park called Tower Road. In this shot I was looking east at the rising moon. The city in the background is Fort Collins. It was about 5pm in this picture.

The 10 billion number is coming and it is not going to take 37 years to get there. So why does this really become a much more significant issue now as opposed to 50 years ago? Well for one, we did not have 7.8 billion people on earth. Two, health care was not at the level it is now. Three, Global Warming and increasing CO2 levels had only been talked about in small scientific circles. And CO2 was not at the concentration it is now (over 400 ppm). As the planet warms and some areas become more inhospitable to human habitation, the balloon gets smaller but the volume of air continues to increase and the proverbial “pop” is just around the corner. In my personal opinion we have already reached the point of no return with global warming. It is not a matter of if this will happen, we are already there and it is happening right now. What we need to be doing is looking at how we are going to survive the coming decades as a species living on a very crowded and much warmer planet.

This picture was taken December 24th, 2019 at about 5pm looking west. The picture is from the lake/pond in my neighborhood.

One of the things I see happening is that the United Nations or something like it becoming a much more powerful world governing body. As countries are over-whelmed with over population and environmental degradation and all of their associated ills (starvation, disease, poverty, violence, etc…) the world will need a central governing body. A United Nations on Steroids with a powerful Military / Police force that can step in any where in the world (and I mean anywhere – all first world countries included) as needed to bring order and more importantly Food, Water, Medicine, etc…

This picture was taken December 26th, 2019 from Horsetooth Mountain Park. Here I was looking South East toward Denver at about 4pm. Beautiful afternoon.

The concept of an all powerful “World Government” has been around for a long time. And depending on how you look at it and what your situation is, this will be the “Godsend” for some. Millions will be saved that would have otherwise died. But on the flip side there will be those that do not want meddling by any kind of central authority. Think “Super Libertarians”. They will fight it and I have no doubt, to the death if needed. Maybe this is how world/global civilizations end. After all, where are all the aliens from space? They get to a certain point in development and if they have not achieved sustained large scale space travel then they die. Their planets are over populated, resources all minded out. And in desperation they turn to draconian governmental and religious “myth” leaders that promise a way out of the debacle. When things continue to fail, they rationalize and rationalize their continue belief in this false path, turning away from the very science and technology that could save them. The end result is total societal collapse and the extinction of the “insert name of species/race here” as we know it.

This picture was taken on December 31st, 2019. It is looking east, along a section of the Poudre River at about 4pm.

I know this all sounds terribly depressing and it is. Most of us have no control in the world. We have no way to change what happens to us. The only control we have is how we respond to it. As the population booms and the earth shrinks, the potential of societal collapse becomes much more likely. One way out is the exploration and colonization of space on a large scale. So call your Congressman or Woman and let them know how important this is to humanity. Support NASA, support Musk, support Branson, support Bezos. Well we probably already support Bezos too much through Amazon. But seriously, even if it is just words of encouragement. Give them your support. And one last thing – support Science. It is the lone candle in the darkness that can be religious belief. And the only true path to getting out.

Well that is about it my friends. I hope you have had a great start to the new year. See you next month and in the mean time, “May you live long and prosper.” Adios amigos!!

Dogs, Environment, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY 21ST, JULY 2019

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“This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” -Neil Armstrong

“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, but mankind cannot stay in the cradle forever.” -Konstantin Tsiolkovosky

“Nobody knows what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.” -Robert Goddard

Wow it has been a month since I last posted. Time just got away from me and one thing led to another and before I knew it…. Well, lets just say that a month has passed. And in truthfulness, I think that I needed time to recharge. The last four weeks have been pretty good. Although I pushed myself a little too hard and did not get enough sleep back during the first part of July which led to a summer cold. This took about 4 to 5 days to get over which translated into no heavy running or biking for about 8 to 9 days to help in recovery. That is one thing I have found out as I have gotten older is that it takes a lot longer to recover than it did when I was 25. This forced rest from doing heavy exercise was hard. I really wanted to get out and push it but that would not have been good. Thankfully I am feeling better now. And things are back to normal so to speak for me. Oh well you live and learn and sometimes you get to repeat those mistakes of the past. Lol.

Astronaut Edward H. White II, pilot on the Gemini-Titan 4 spaceflight, is shown during his egress from the spacecraft. His face is covered by a shaded visor to protect him from the unfiltered rays of the sun. White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. He remained outside the spacecraft for 21 minutes during the third revolution of the Gemini-4 mission. He wears a specially designed spacesuit for the extravehicular activity (EVA). In his right hand, he carries a Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit (HHSMU) with which he controlled his movements while in space. He was attached to the spacecraft by a 25-feet umbilical line and a 23-feet tether line, both wrapped together with gold tape to form one cord. He wears an emergency oxygen supply chest pack. Courtesy of NASA.

In this blog I wanted to briefly talk a little bit about space and what it might mean for humanity if we really tried as a global community for a more permanent presence in space. Also July 20th, 2019 was the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and the first human to step foot on the moon. Unreal to think it has been 50 years. I was 7 years old at the time and watched the event on TV. Both of my parents in attendance. All of us glued to the TV set watching in awe. When this occurred, hand held calculators as we know them today did not exist, cell phones did not exist, the internet did not exist as it does today, and the modern day computer was still just a dream.

AS11-40-5874 (20 July 1969) — Astronaut Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the LM the “Eagle” to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) “Columbia” in lunar orbit. Courtesy of NASA

A few years later, I remember reading and listening to my dad talk about Skylab. I believe it was launched in 1973. And how we all thought that by this time there would be all kinds of futuristic space stations, moon and mars bases, and much easier access to space than riding the “Roman Candle” as my father liked to call it. But life moved on and I forgot all about space. Then, about the time I was in College, I remember being in a world history class and the professor was watching a live feed of the launch of the first Space Shuttle. This I believe was in 1981 and it was the Columbia. For the life of me I do not remember the professors name but I do remember him saying after the successful launch “This changes everything.” And it seemed to for a while but then like Skylab it faded. If I remember right, the launches did become more common place (135 total), but the only time the Space Shuttle seemed to make really big news, unfortunately, was when there was an accident. The last shuttle flight was Atlantis, July 8th, 2011.

Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-50) launched into history carrying crew of seven and its payload was comprised of the US Microgravity Laboratory 1 (USML-1).The USML-1 was one of NASA’s missions dedicated to scientific investigations in a microgravity environment inside the Spacelab module. Investigations aboard the USML-1 included: materials science, fluid dynamics, biotechnology (crystal growth), and combustion science. Managed by Marshall Space Flight Center, the STS-50 mission was plarned for a 13-day duration, the mission ended with 14 days in space, the longest Shuttle mission to date. Courtesy of NASA

With the shuttle flights came the ISS (International Space Station), completed between 1998 and 2011. It has been continuously occupied since November 2nd, 2000. 230 individuals from 18 different countries have visited it, with the crew size usually being 3 to 6 people at any given time. It has severed as a great platform for research into how human health is affected by micro-gravity. They have also done research in product design, robotics, and botany as a few other examples. This is just a very brief over view of the ISS. If you want to learn more, the web site “space.com” has a more comprehensive review of the ISS. You can find it at this link: https://www.space.com/16748-international-space-station.html

iss059e016574 (April 8, 2019) — Expedition 59 Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency takes a quick self portrait while working outside the International Space Station. In a six and a half hour spacewalk, Saint-Jacques and NASA astronaut Anne McClain successfully established a redundant path of power to the Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, and installed cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex, as well as for enhanced hardwired computer network capability. The duo also relocated an adapter plate from the first spacewalk in preparation for future battery upgrade operations. Courtesy of NASA

Now fast forward a little and you have a lot of new private “space companies” – Space X is the one that I think most people are familiar with due to the fact it has been successful with cargo launches and cutting down the cost of said launches by creating reusable first stage boosters. I am always amazed when I see those rockets re-landing on the pad. Like something out of a science fiction movie. Crazy. When I say that there are a lot of space companies, there really are. Check out this listing on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies

https://youtu.be/u0-pfzKbh2k
So cool!!

Now with all this advancement you would think that we are on the fast track to becoming a space-fairing species, but here is the rub, in order to do this, we need to drastically increase our presence in space with significantly more hardware and humans. Much, much more than what is involved with the current ISS. I would go even as far as to say that our very existence as a species depends upon it. There is an old argument that we need to spend less money in space and more of it here on earth. It is as false now as it was years ago when I first heard it. Let me explain.

Nothing in life truly changes until there is a change in technology. Whether it be good or bad. Humans have always been good at procreation and technology has only helped to make us the most prodigious species on earth. Some estimate that we will be at the 10 billion mark by 2050. But I think it will happen sooner than that. The earth is a finite system and overpopulating it will only lead to our eventual extinction. The more money you spend here on earth will only increase our procreation and at some point there will never be enough “money, space, and resources” for all of us. Our only option, besides culling the herd, is to get off the planet. And in a big way.

World population in 30 years. Somewhere around 10 billion but I think we will hit this mark much sooner. All it would take would be a slight improvement in life expectancy (billions of research dollars are being used for this) and or improvement in general health care around the world in third world countries (this has been going for quit sometime now).

So how do we do this? Some have thought that building “Planetary Surface Settlements,” think moon or mars bases, would be the way to go. While others have said that the best way to do this is with “Settlements in Orbit,” think very large space station design. Both design ideas have their advantages and disadvantages. I personally believe that the Orbital Space Station is the cheapest and the easiest idea with today’s technology. Besides saving the world, you could harness sunlight for power and use it back on earth. No pesky atmosphere to get in the way.

But the thought that gets me really excited with orbital settlements is the idea that you could use them as a means to mine asteroids. A learning and jumping off point for deep space. The technology that would be developed to keep people healthy in orbital space stations would be easily adapted for deep space. The orbital stations could also be used as construction facilities for the ships that would take human into deep space. I firmly believe we have to make “space” profitable. Otherwise the altruistic notions of pursuing space for only scientific knowledge… Well, we are a greedy bunch and that idea will only take you so far.

The only flies in the ointment to me is how do you get out of the gravity well of earth without using large “Roman Candles” and what to do about “Micro-Gravity.” NASA has figured out how to do a lot of things in micro-gravity, but problems still remain due to the weak link – the human body. We are not evolved to live in MG long term. But what if there was a better way to manipulate gravity in general? What if you could lift very heavy and massive objects into space without a lot of effort?

If you could, a lot of issues would become much, much more easy to solve. Imagine being able to create a floating space station the size of a small city in space. You could add all the radiation and micrometeorite shielding that you could possibility need to protect equipment and the human occupants. Spin a large structure and you create artificial gravity. Now MG would not be a problem.

So many possibilities open up if you can easily get out of earths gravity well. I am not really sure if anyone is working on this but I would like to believe that there are some. For right now it appears that Elon Musk and SpaceX will be the “go to” company if you want to get into space relatively cheaply. You still have to ride a Roman Candle, and it will still cost millions of dollars but now thanks to their company it is not as many millions.

So thinking about this and organizing my thoughts. I have come to realize that if we want to save the human species (it is not save the planet – it will go on with or without us), then we need to be able to create one thing and one thing only in the next 10 years. A way to cheaply and safely get out of earth’s gravity well with the ability to life heavy, massive objects into space. Another words we need to be able to manipulate gravity in general. The movie “Interstellar” used this very idea as a main theme. By the way if you have not seen it, it is a good one to rent. You can find it on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=movie+interstellar&hvadid=78340254007781&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&tag=mh0b-20&ref=pd_sl_73fyd8nqi4_e

Well I could go on and on about this but I think I will save further thoughts about space for later posts. There is too much to cover with one blog post for a subject of this importance. I firmly believe that the survival of humanity is dependent on whether we become a true space faring society or not.

Marvin and Janet at the Canine Learning Academy, Thursday 18th, July 2019. He is 5 and 1/2 months old in this picture and just shy of 70 lbs.

I want to post a picture of Marin at dog school. He is doing pretty good so far in his first dog obedience class. We had to resort to the “gentle leader” for a training tool. He is going to be a big and powerful dog and we really wanted to get a quick start on his “rambunctious adolescent behavior.” Lol.

Well this is about it for me on this post. Hopefully I will have more trail porn pictures for you in the next one. Take care my friends and I hope to see you out there, whether it be on the trail, bike path or just hanging out and enjoying the beautiful Colorado landscape. Adios amigos!!

Colorado, Environment, Exercise, Fort Collins, Science

MUSINGS FOR SUNDAY, JANUARY 13th, 2019

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“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.” Cree Indian Proverb

“Earth provides enough to satisy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.” Mahatma Gandi

“It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.” Ansel Adams

Well it has been a great last two to three weeks here for me on the Front Range. Just got to love Colorado. I don’t do a lot of skiing over the Holidays and the first week or two of January. For me the crowd size is just a little too large. But living here in Fort Collins you usually get some sunny days and while it can be cold, it is not so cold usually, that you can’t get out.

Bald Eagle in an area that I frequently run or walk. This area is home to many, many hawks and owls. This is the first year I have actually seen a Bald Eagle in this open space. The next day there were two, so maybe they will become a nesting pair and will frequent the area for many more seasons!? This photo was take December 29th, 2019.

I started the first Blog Post of the year on an environmental note. One of my degrees from College is in Environmental Science and Wildlife Biology. One of the comments I have heard over the years when I tell people this, “Oh your an environmentalist.” I have always found this statement interesting. The idea that because I have a degree in said field makes me an environmentalist and you not? When I have questioned people about this they seem a little supprised until I explain further. The truth of the matter we are all environmentalist. We breath the same air, we all drink the same water, eat the same food so to speak. We all currently live on planet earth. And because of this we are all environmentalist. We all have a vested interest in what happens on earth and to future generations.

Beautiful sunset in Fort Collins are common. Lots of color. I don’t think the photograph does it justice. On the surface this seems like a good thing but not always so. Some of the color is due to smog and particulate matter in the atmosphere. So while you might get this incredible sunset it is a sign of problem that the Front Range has been dealing with for over 50 years. It has gotten to the point that I check air quality everyday before doing an outdoor activity. And it is year round. Most of the pollution problems we have in Colorado are due to oil and gas extraction and vechicle polution. Metro Denver was ranked 8th in the nation for worst air quality and Fort Collins was ranked in at 10th. This was by the American Lung Association in 2016. This photo was take December 30th, 2018.

My personnel opinion is that we all have to take a vested interests in the environment. Even if you are working two jobs, trying to feed the kids, pay the rent, etc… There is always something you can do, even on a small scale, something as simple as not using that plastic straw, recycling as much as you can whenever possible, paying attention to how you use water, using your own cloth bags at the grocery store, turning off lights when not in use (one that I am terrible at), decreasing the number of trips that you drive, etc… And a really big one and some would say, easy – How You Vote. We are lucky here in Fort Collins with the mail in ballots, extremely convenient.

I used to hate riding my bike in the wind but I have come to love it. As long as it is not too windy. The wind helps to circulate the atmosphere here on the Front Range, which translates into much cleaner air to breath. This picture show a good example. The day before, that “blue sky” you see was not so blue, there was a yellow haze to it. On the day that I took the picture, there was a light breeze pushing the smog out. The picture was taken Thursday, January 3rd.

Of course the big oil and gas people will spend millions of dollars to spread misleading information about how dangerous oil and gas emissions actually are. And of course they talk about the loss of jobs if more environmental rules are put into place. The reality is that most of the oil and gas job are temporary in the area that they are being done. Once the drilling has been done, the lines caped, the pipes laid, the tanks installed, etc… you either move to the next energy boom or you find a different job. So I have to ask myself, at what cost do we expose thousands of individuals to cancer causing chemicals for a temporary job? Not to mention that this does not help stop the warming of the climate and all the associated problems this will bring. Its hard when change comes. None of us really like change, but it comes anyways. At some point, there will be no oil and gas jobs? Then what? When you have drilled the earth dry, then what? When some smart individual or team of individuals invents a better alternative that is more environmental friendly and the demand of fossil fuel drops? Then what? Because it will happen, just like it did to the horse and buggy people, telephone operators, gas station attendants, mall operators, big box stores, etc…. Technology marches forward. Science marches forward. So why destroy the environment, expose people to known carcinogens, for really what amounts to short term profits at best?

This picture was taken from Horsetooth Mountain Park on a windy day. If it had been the day before, the view would not have been as clear as it was this day. This was the first true trail run for me this new year. Here in Fort Collins we are lucky to have two great trail running areas behind Fort Collins, Lory State Park and Horsetooth Mountain Park. Between the two parks, which butt up to each other, you can easily get in a 10 to 20 mile run or mountain bike ride if you wish. This picture was taken Monday January 7th.

Another area of the environment that I would like to touch on is about what we eat, especially in first world countries. This really does touch on the environment and the health of the individual. It has been known for a while now that a diet high in animal protein and processed foods can lead to a higher incidence of cancer and heart disease in the general population. There are multi books out there written by MD’s and food researchers that talk about this very thing. But there is also a link to the environment with cows. They require a lot of resources compared to other forms of meat production. Some estimates put this at 10 times the number that other sources of protein require, such as chickens and pigs. So there are good health reasons not to eat as much beef and animal protein in general and a great environmental reason not to eat as much beef. I call my self the 95% vegan, I still like a really good Cheese Berger every once in a while. For me that might mean once per month as opposed to several times per week. I still like a nice piece of Salmon every once in a great while and a little ice cream/yogurt every now and then. The rest of my diet is all plant based. No processed food as much as possible. There are some researchers that believe if we could get America’s population to switch to a healthier way of eating that in a 10 to 20 year span we would eliminate most of our health care cost, not to mention what this might mean for the environment.

Another beautiful Colorado Sunset in Fort Collins. I was looking across one of the ponds off the Poudre Bike trail. Still frozen. This picture was taken on Tuesday, January 8th.

I think that it is probably time to get off of my environmental soap box. I hope that it has given you some food for thought. I believe the only way to fix the current issues and head future ones off before they become a problem is for each of us to do our parts. Stay informed. Learn about the current scientific thinking on the issues from reliable sources. Not Fox News or the church. In the next elections don’t be swayed by big oil and gas or whatever “industry” trying to decrease its environmental regulations. Vote. If I had a dime, as the old saying goes, for every time I have heard the saying: “If you don’t have your health, you have nothing.” So true. Remember genetics loads the gun and only you or the environment can pull the trigger…..

Beautiful bike ride on a warmer January afternoon in Fort Collins. The temp was about 50 degrees at this point in the ride. The picture was take at the northern end of the Poudre River Trail. I have always loved the bridge work over the river in this section. I think that it has a very sculptural feel to it. The picture was taken Thursday, January 10th.

Well, that is about it for me with this post. May you have a happy and healthier 2019. Hope to see you out there on the trails or ski slopes. Take care my friends!! Adios!!