Category Archives: Pandemics

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, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR MARCH 2023

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“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.” Sylvia Plath

James Webb Space Telescope image of IC 5332

This is an image created from the  NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. It is of a spiral galaxy know as IC 5332 and it is about 30 million light years away in the constellation Sculptor. The detail is obtained by Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). It is a both a camera and a spectrograph on the telescope that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Being able to “see” in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum with JWST allows astronomers to see the gaseous bone like structures of IC5332. This galaxy has been imaged before by Hubble, but the new images from JWST contain so many new details that they look almost completely different. See the image below from Hubble. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://esawebb.org/images/potm2209a/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IC_5332

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST and PHANGS-HST Teams

Hubble Image of IC 5332

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.” Hunter S. Thompson

This is an image of the star known as Wolf-Rayet 124. The Wolf-Rayet stars are a heterogeneous set of stars with interesting spectra. They have broad emission lines of ionized helium and highly ionized nitrogen or carbon. The surface temperature with WR stars are very hot, in the range of 20,000K to 210,000K. These stars are named for the astronomers Charles Wolf and Georges Rayet. They discovered three of these stars in the constellation Cygnus, in 1867 at the Paris Observatory. This image was created using two instruments on the JWST, the MIRI and the Near-infrared Camera or (NIRCam). The white colored star shapes are diffraction spikes from the NIRCam. They are caused by the physical structure of the telescope itself. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://esawebb.org/images/weic2307a/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf%E2%80%93Rayet_star

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

“Finally, from what we now know about the cosmos, to think that all this was created for just one species among the tens of millions of species who live on one planet circling one of a couple of hundred billion stars that are located in one galaxy among hundreds of billions of galaxies, all of which are in one universe among perhaps an infinite number of universes all nestled within a grand cosmic multiverse, is provincially insular and anthropocentrically blinkered. Which is more likely? That the universe was designed just for us, or that we SEE the universe as having been designed just for us?” Michael Shermer

James Webb image of M74

Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team.  Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

This is an image of the “Phantom Galaxy” or M74. It was created by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. It is about 32 million light years from earth in the constellation Pisces. The camera used on Webb was the MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument). It has also been observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. See the image below. M74 is a large spiral galaxy with well defined spiral arms. Due to it large size and it’s face-on orientation to earth it is a popular object for advanced amateur and professional astronomers to study. The name “phantom” comes from its faint surface brightness and can be difficult to spot in the night sky – hence the nickname phantom. This galaxy has been studied extensively due to the areas of bright star formation.

To learn more please see these links: https://esawebb.org/images/potm2208a/ and https://esahubble.org/images/potw2235a/ and Messier 74 – Wikipedia

Hubble Image of M74

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar

“New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.” Kurt Vonnegut

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 again for both of us!!

As I started to write this blog post, the number of deaths and reported Covid cases has continued a slow decline. And that my friends is a very good thing. Of course there is one caveat to this trend. There is not a lot of “official reporting” here in the United States or in the rest of the world on Covid cases. So you have too look at the numbers with a healthy grain of salt so to speak. As the New York Times recently published:

“After more than three years of daily reporting of coronavirus data in the United States, the NYT is ending its Covid data gathering operation. This change was spurred by the declining availability of virus data from state and local health officials.”

Even the John Hopkins site has shut down for now. I usually post numbers in this section but not this time because I can’t get a good estimate of what is going on in the United States or the rest of the world for the most part. At the time of publishing this blog, there was a new variant taking hold in India, XBB.1.16. Unfortunately, at this time, there is not much more information to pass along.

Pretty interesting and not too surprising when you think about it. Giving accurate figures on the Corona virus, while not always good for the economy, it does help people to make informed decisions when it comes to their health and welfare. Remember, not everyone has your best interest in mind when “money” or “economics” comes into play.

If you are interested in more information from the remaining reliable sources please check out these links. I have included the CDC waste water reporting section. It gives the best estimate if Covid is increasing in your area: https://www.youtube.com/c/OsterholmUpdateCOVID19 and https://www.youtube.com/c/VincentRacaniello and https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/wastewater-surveillance/index.html

March was another good month for getting outdoors. The wind and weather patterns still held as in the previous month which made for great air quality. The temperatures were about average for this time of year and for the first part of the month there was not much snow or moisture. But by the end of the month, and two storms later, we were closer to the monthly average.

There is some concern among the weather people that we should prepare for a hotter summer again, as the La Nina pattern seems to be shifting over to an El Nino. The last two summers were some of the hottest on record and they occurred during a strong La Nina pattern. And this is a little troubling as La Nina weather tends to be much colder compared to the El Nino pattern. This could mean much hotter temperatures than what we saw in the last two years. And it might be a little bit wetter. This sounds good, but think of it this way with climate change: “Heat produces moisture, moisture produces storms, and heat and moisture combine to produce even more severe storms.”

So buckle up butter cup, we might be in for a wild ride this summer.

This picture was taken on March 9th, 2023 at about 6pm in the afternoon. Here Marvin and I are on the banks of the Poudre River just off the bike path. The sun was just starting to set and was creating some interesting colors.
This picture was taken March 11th, 2023 at about 2pm in the afternoon. My wife Janet was able to get out with us several times for walks in the month of March. Spring was definitely in the air on this day, even though it was still a week off from the first official day of spring.
This picture was taken on March 13th, 2023 at about 6:45pm in the afternoon. Due to the time change, sunsets were happening a little later in the evening but there were some spectacular ones. This was looking West across our neighborhood lake.
This picture was taken on March 16th, 2023 at about 6pm in the afternoon. With the warm up in temperatures for the month of March and the continued healing of my “year long now” running injury; I was finally able to get some running time in on the foothill trails behind Fort Collins. This area is an open space behind Fort Collins called Pineridge. Here I am looking North at one of the dams that holds back water in Horsetooth reservoir.
This picture was taken on March 18th, 2023 at about 7pm in the evening. Another beautiful sunset of colors that only lasted about 2 to 3 minutes. I always find it amazing that just being in the right place, at the right time, can make such dramatic effects with color. These clouds had been sitting in the exact same spot for about 30 minutes and were a washed out gray color due to the lighting, but just as the sun dropped…. boom.
This picture was taken on March 23rd, 2023 at about 4pm in the afternoon. A sure sign of Spring is the increased number of the great blue herons. By the end of March, I saw these birds every day I was out waking or running. I always thought they only ate fish and other water invertebrates like crayfish. But I saw one snatch a mouse of some kind from the streambank and fly off. I guess they are opportunist. Lol.
This picture was taken on March 24th, 2023 at about 5pm in the afternoon. I was running with Marvin in another open space behind Fort Collins called Maxwell. There are quit a few deer that live in the open space areas behind FC.
This picture was taken March 27th, 2023 at about 7pm in the evening. A fast moving storm had come through early in the morning and dumped about 10 inches of snow. The forecasted high, just three days from this picture, is supposed to be 62 degrees! Lol. That is spring time in Colorado.

It was another great 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 “Hacking the Code of Life: How Gene Editing Will Rewrite Our Futures” by Nessa Carey.  I first heard about Nessa Carey while watching a YouTube video from the Royal Institution.  She was giving a lecture on Epigenetics.  The 40 minute video is from 2015 but is still relevant today.  If you interested check out this link: https://youtu.be/9DAcJSAM_BA

So after seeing her lecture, I thought she might have a book out there and sure enough she has several.  The field of genetics has changed in recent years with the advent of CRISPR and the amount of information that is now known about genetics and virology, so I got her most recent book, which is this one.  It was published in 2019 and is a great review of where we are at with genetics. 

I found her writing style much like her lecture on epigenetics.  Concise, understandable and to the point.  And in the process of explaining the science, she covers some of the moral, ethical and societal issues to give the reader a much boarder understanding of how genetic engineering will and has affected their lives.  This is a great book for those without a science or medical background.  

I listened to the book as an audiobook 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/f1WQFNJ  

The next book I would like to review and recommend is called “The Last Days of the Dinosaurs” by Riley Black.  First let me start off saying that Riley is a talented science writer that has been featured in publications like WIRED, National Geographic and Scientific American, etc.…   And besides this book, she has several more to her name.  If you’re interested she has a web site that will give you much more information on what she does and who she is: http://rileyblack.net/

I first heard about her when I was looking for the book by Steve Brusatte called the “The Rise and Reign of Mammals.”  This is another great book that picks up where Riley’s ends. 

I had been taught that the end of the dinosaurs was due to an asteroid strike in the present day area known as the Yucatan but I had no idea what this really meant.   I mean you kind of get a picture in your mind about what a 7 mile wide asteroid could do in damage. But it is hard to think of it abstractly.  If you saw the Netflix movie “Don’t Look Up,” then you might begin to understand what I mean.  Unfortunately in the movie, you never get to see what exactly happens after the strike, play by play. 

I wanted to know, what were the environmental conditions that occurred across the world that led to a massive die off of more than half of every know creature on the earth at the time.  And this is where the book shines in my opinion.  Each chapter is about a different time frame after the impact and what you would expect to see and experience as an animal living at that time.  And as a way to make it more personnel, Riley further enhances the chapters by creating short stories around the animals that experienced the event.  This makes for a great read.  It takes what could be a “little dull scientifically” for the non-scientist and humanizes it a bit.

I listened to this book as an audio book but it would work well in any format.  You can probably find the book at your local book store or at Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link: https://a.co/d/dF67RO9

The next book I would like to review and highly recommend is the book called “The Climate Book” by Greta Thunberg.  If you ever needed a book to show you where we are in the cycle of human caused climate change, this is the book.  And the reason why, it’s not just Greta that is sounding the alarm.  While she has written parts of the book, it is really the collection of essays from other individuals that make all the difference.  Prior to this book, I had read several other ones on climate change from different authors, and what I usually got was a singular perspective from said author.  This in and of itself is not a bad thing and is what you would expect.   In her book, she has taken the idea of “don’t believe me,” well here are a hundred other individuals from almost every walk of scientific and cultural life saying the same thing.  Climate change is real and if we keep putting it off, meaning a total decarbonizing of our global economy, the worse it is going to be.

Be warned, this book is not about hope.  Greta and the other 100 contributors give you the science, the facts and it is not pretty or hopeful where we are right now.  It is not about electric cars, or that “always in the future” promise of fusion power.  It is about how, we need to totally revamp our way of life, especially in the modern industrialized world, if we want to solve this crisis before it kills us all.  This is a call to action, to do what you can on an individual basis.  This book will change you, if you let it.  Ok, ok enough of the soap box. 

I got the book as an audio book but it might work better in traditional format.  This would make it a lot easier to refer back to certain chapters.  You should be able to find this book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://a.co/d/hYtfMVa           

The last book I would like to review and give a very high recommendation to is called “The Deluge” by Stephen Markley.  This is a fictional story starting in 2013 and ending in 2040 and it is in simplest terms, a terrifying example of where the world is heading by the mid-2030s.   

When you tell people about “climate change” how do you give them a visceral, tangible feeling of what it really means to have 2 degrees Celsius of warming?  Think about it a moment? Hard to do.  Hard to make it real for them.  Well, this is what Mr. Markley so expertly has done in his novel.  And it is terrifying. 

The book starts off introducing the cast of characters.  Giving them each a seemingly unrelated story arch but eventually intertwining them into the main story plot.  There is a lot of character development and this might turn a few readers off.  For me it was a way of making them more real and relatable.  And in the end, making the book so much more freighting, because it could easily be our future. 

This is a big book and it will take some time to get through it, but oh so worth it.  If you really want to give yourself a scare, read “The Climate Book” by Greta Thunberg at the same time.  If not for the different story styles and how information is presented, you might lose track of which book is which. Even though it is a fictional novel, Stephen like Greta is giving us a wakeup call.      

I got the book as an audio book (40+ hours) but it would work in any format.  You can find this book at your local bookstore or on Amazon:   https://a.co/d/hqlCY59   

No new “sellable” art work again for this month but I have been working on what I call “sketchbook” practice pieces. Some are abstract and some are more specific. I have still been working on a few rooster faces, but I have also done a few other subjects – all just for fun and practice. The drawings are done by free hand pencil sketching first and then pen and ink are added last. These were all done in the month of March.

I had fun doing them and I hope you enjoyed seeing them. Hopefully I will have a new piece or two by the the end of April and ready for sale.

More on 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, Colorado, Covid 19, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, PurpleAir, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR FEBRUARY 2023

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“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” Charles Bukowski

The above image is of the Tarantula Nebula or also know as 30 Doradus. It was created using the Hubble Space Telescope. Nebula are luminescent regions in space that are made up of gas and dust. They are often star forming regions. It is located about 161,000 light-years away from Earth and is part of the large Magellanic Cloud. This Nebula is the brightest star forming region in our galactic neighborhood. The James Webb telescope has also looked at this region and has seen thousands of never-before-seen young stars. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubbles-new-view-of-the-tarantula-nebula and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_Nebula

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, E. Sabbi; Acknowledgment: Y. -H. Chu

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities, we are eaten up by nothing.” Charles Bukowski

The above image is of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872. It was created in 2013 using several different telescopes, (European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer, and infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.) This galaxy is located 212 million light-years from earth. And is also known as the Condor Galaxy. The constellation it is found in is Pavo (Southern Sky) which is Latin for peacock. The smaller shaped galaxy above it, is known as IC 4970 and is a lenticular galaxy. The two galaxies are interacting. NGC 6872 is also the largest known spiral galaxy found so far. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/spiral-galaxy-spans-space and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6872 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavo_(constellation)

Image Credit: NASA/ESO/JPL-Caltech/DSS

“It was true that I didn’t have much ambition, but there ought to be a place for people without ambition, I mean a better place than the one usually reserved. How in the hell could a man enjoy being awakened at 6:30 a.m. by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?” Charles Bukowski

This is an image from the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) of the Spiral galaxy LEDA 2046648. It is the large one at the bottom of the picture. And it is about 1 billion light years from earth. It is located in the constellation Hercules. This was one of the reasons for the JWST infrared vision Camera (NIRCam). It allows astronomers to peer much further back in time to these incredible distant galaxies and stars. By comparing these much older ones to younger galaxies the hope is that we will have a better understanding of galaxy formation, evolution and composition. If you would like to learn more, please see these links: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb and https://www.popsci.com/science/james-webb-space-telescope-spiral-galaxies/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(constellation)

Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Martel

“There’s nothing to mourn about death any more than there is to mourn about the growing of a flower. What is terrible is not death but the lives people live or don’t live up until their death. They don’t honor their own lives, they piss on their lives. They shit them away. Dumb fuckers. They concentrate too much on fucking, movies, money, family, fucking. Their minds are full of cotton. They swallow God without thinking, they swallow country without thinking. Soon they forget how to think, they let others think for them. Their brains are stuffed with cotton. They look ugly, they talk ugly, they walk ugly. Play them the great music of the centuries and they can’t hear it. Most people’s deaths are a sham. There’s nothing left to die.” Charles Bukowski

This is an image from the JWST from a region of the sky know as the North Ecliptic Pole. (Information from the Hubble Space telescope was also used to help create this image.) There are thousand of galaxies in this image, some have never been seen before. Light from the most distant ones, traveled over 13.5 billion years to reach us. If you would like to learn more, please see these links: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Webb and https://phys.org/news/2022-12-webb-glimpses-field-extragalactic-pearls.html

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, A. Pagan (STScI) & R. Jansen (ASU); CC BY 4.0

“Yet nevertheless – it can’t be helped – contaminated by the sickness of my time, I entrust my bones again and again to flying contraptions to circle the globe. I can’t help belonging to this generation of the restless, the globetrotters, the astronauts, obsessed with seeking, pursuing salvation elsewhere, as if the black-eyed Susans in Provence were more black-eyed than the ones in my backyard. As if being young and American on Main Street were any different from being young in the Grand Rue of a Belgian town. As if to grow old in Kyoto were so different from growing old in Verona or Prague! Old ones, unenlightened but sane as they are, are often wise enough to sit on benches in parks practicing the Zen precept: “When you sit, sit; when you walk, walk. Just don’t wobble.” Frederick Franck

This is an image of Pluto taken by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. According to NASA the picture was created by using the Long Ranger Reconnaissance Imager and the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera. They say it is approximate in true color. And it is believed the haze is created by the action of sunlight on methane and other gases in the planet’s atmosphere. Pluto was discovered February 18th, 1930 at the Lowell Observatory by the American astronomer Clyde William Tombaugh. It is considered a dwarf planet and is located in the Kuiper belt ( a ring of bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune). Pluto is made up of mostly ice and rock and is much smaller than the other planets in our solar system. The surface is mostly composed of nitrogen ice with traces of methane and carbon monoxide. The orbital period is about 248 earth years. The image below was also taken by New Horizons spacecraft and has enhanced color to bring out the difference in surface composition. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/a-blue-farewell and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Tombaugh

Image credit: Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” Seth Godin

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 again for both of us!!

As I started writing this in the second week of February the number of cases continues to drop each day to about the 30 thousand range and the number of deaths per day had dropped to about 400! That is some good news for now and hopefully things will continue to move in that direction. Of course this is the official counts that are reported and you have to assume due to home testing, the number of cases is higher and the number of deaths related to Covid are higher. Some states are not reporting accurately. It looks bad for business.

As of right now ( all of February) the variant of concern was XBB.1.5 and for now, that still seems to be the variant of concern. Nothing seems to have been generated out of China as of yet. And unofficial estimates of deaths in China and Russia have put the numbers between 1 million and 1.5 million for each country. Of course the numbers could be a lot higher but we will probably not know for sure until relations between the US, China and Russia get better. With the way things are working out in Ukraine it will probably be a while.

Here in the United States the Covid deaths continue to be about 3000 to 4000 per week during the month of February. And the above picture according to official data has not changed much but I am guessing the data is skewed. Again, this is because a lot of states have just stopped reporting or they are reporting deaths due to something else.

The best way to understand what I am talking about is with an analogy. Try to imagine that your body is a house in a forest. Any pre-existing conditions you have are the conditions in the forest, the type of trees present, whether you house has a metal roof or not, the amount of moisture in the forest soil (drought or not), the siding on the house (fire resistant),etc… Now, here comes a forest fire that was started by a match. The match is Covid. Unfortunately you have a wooden roof (heart disease) and the forest fire burns down your house (you die). The question is whether Covid (the match) played any part in the forest fire that consumed the house (your body). The answer is yes. While the match ( Covid) did not kill you directly, indirectly it allowed your pre-existing conditions to get worse(that’s the forest fire) and you died. Without the match you would still be alive. I did not come up with this analogy but I feel that it is one of the best ones I have heard so far. And I hope that it helps. What some states and countries have been doing is leaving out the match part (Covid) of the death report.

The total death count at the end of February was 1,145,000 individuals. That is a jump from the previous month by 13,000 official deaths due to Covid, but again you have to assume the count is higher due to under reporting or skewed reporting.

If you are interested in more information from reliable sources please check out these links: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and https://www.youtube.com/c/OsterholmUpdateCOVID19 and https://www.youtube.com/c/VincentRacaniello and https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

And if your interested in a short 1 minute version of day to day numbers, here is a good source. It is from the Johns Hopkins site. It is the best for a quick look. Here is the link for YouTube to subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnxJP601LarGKt_zbttd3uyl_MqVLW2s1

February was another good month for getting out doors. The wind patterns still held as in January so the air quality was pretty good. There were some of the usual high pollution days but not as many as some years in the past. We came out of the deep freeze when February rolled around and this led to significant thawing/melting of the left over snow and ice from January. Unfortunately this led to some significant muddy conditions in the afternoon for dirt trails in the foothills behind Fort Collins, so most of my running and walking were confined to the bike paths. If you were an early riser( I am not) then this would not have mattered as much. Temps still got pretty cold at night and the muddy trails were frozen over by morning and thawed by the afternoon.

The best part of the month were the late afternoon sunsets. Almost everyday (unless it was over cast) you could plan on a beautiful sunset. I have included some of the best ones below.

This picture was taken on February 2nd, 2023 at about 5:45pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken on February 5th, 2023 at about 5:30pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken on February 9th, 2023 at about 6pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken on February 11th, 2023 at about 5:30pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken on February 16th, 2023 at about 6pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken on February 20th, 2023 at about 6:15pm in the evening.
This picture was taken on February 24th, 2023 at about 5pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken on February 25th, 2023 at about 6pm in the evening.

Marvin and I (and occasionally Janet) get out every afternoon and walk or run. And I could have included a picture for everyday but I won’t do that to you! Lol. Truly February was a month for sunsets as you can see. Here’s to hoping that March will bring a similar sky and air quality!

You might notice that I pay a lot of attention to the air quality in and around Fort Collins. We all know that air pollution is bad for us but how bad can it be? Unfortunately, it is one of those things that is very hard to quantify, unless the pollution is visible and so bad you can’t breath the air. There are many kinds of air pollution but for now I will keep it to what is known as “particulates.” A study that came out this past November from Columbia University helped to finally shed some light on this subject. The researchers were examining lymph nodes found in lung tissue from deceased organ donors. The crazy part, they were not looking at the time for air pollution’s influence on the immune system. But what they noticed was as people aged the lung lymph nodes darkened in color and when examined were found to be clogged with particles from airborne pollutants. See the picture below. The donners were all nonsmokers and the numbers are their ages. These pictures reminds me of the lung pictures from the antismoking movement when I was a teenager.

Lung lymph nodes from six non-smokers between the ages of 20 and 62. Particles of air pollution darken the lymph nodes and impair immune cells within the nodes. Credit: Donna Farber / Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Here is a link to the full article: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-11-decades-air-pollution-undermine-immune.html

If your athletic like me, or even if your not, the next time you decide to get outdoors and go for a run or a walk in the park, check the air quality. A good way to do this is with a product called “purple air.” They are sensors that you can buy for indoor or outdoor use to check the air quality in your area – in real time, not delayed. The cool part is that if you don’t have the money to do this, you can still check out the their map showing where all the monitors are and what the air quality is in real time. Here is a link to there web site and map: https://www2.purpleair.com/

(To be clear, I do not receive any financial compensation for endorsing their product.)

I am an ultra runner and I am always amazed in recent years when fellow runners and “health conscious individuals” will still make the decision to run the race with a forest fire nearby that is creating terrible air quality. When asked why run in this mess, I get the response that it is no big deal and they are not worried about it. The above picture and research says otherwise. It is direct proof of what particulate emissions can do.

It 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 Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin. I first heard about the book from a 60 minutes interview with Rubin. I had no idea that he had been so productive in the music industry.

If your interested here is the link for the 60 minutes interview: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/rick-rubin-60-minutes-video-2023-01-15/

To be honest, I had heard of him before but did not really know who he was and how “looked up to” and “sought out for” his insights were into how to make music better.  I had no idea the number of famous musicians that have used him as a guru so to speak.  I know, I know, I live under a rock when it comes to knowing much about who’s who in the music world.  Lol.  So after a little bit of research, I thought I would give his book a try. 

Let me say first, Wow!  This book is about how to be more creative.  And it does not matter what you medium is, whether it is music, drawing, painting, sculpture, or someone that does not do any of those things but wants a fuller and more meaningful creative life.  This book is about how to foster and encourage your creativity, but it is also a book on how to live a more meaningful life by encouraging and nourishing that creativity.   After all when you think about it, we are all creative, it is in your genes.  If you go back far enough, someone, somewhere in your family tree made things.  There were no Walmart’s, Targets, Home Depots, TV videos, museums, etc.… at one time everyone made things.

The book, I got it as an audiobook, is divided up into short segments that touch on different parts of creativity with a secular Buddhist mindset or that is what it feels like.  The cool part about this is that you can start from any part of the book.  You don’t have to read it or listen to it from front to back.  Each small segment is a stand-alone section.  Rubin does not give you the answers but he points you in the direction to find them. 

Some of you might get turned off by the Buddhist flavor, don’t, it’s secular and you’re doing yourself a disservice by not reading it if the eastern philosophy gets in your way.  This is a great book.  I have already listened to it twice.  The book will work in any format and can probably be found at your local bookstore or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link: https://a.co/d/7rl2vW4

Then next book I would like to review is called “The Maffetone Method: The Holistic, Low-Stress, No-Pain Way to Exceptional Fitness by Dr. Philip Maffetone.” I first heard about the Maffetone method and Dr. Philip Maffetone from the Podcast called the Extramilest by Floris Gierman.  Here is a link to the website if you’re interested: https://extramilest.com/mystory/ Lots of great advice on running and well worth your time. 

Over the last few years I have been reading about how the “long steady distance with significantly reduced intensity” idea has been coming back into vogue so to speak.  For a while, in the past, there seemed to be this maelstrom of advice telling people that the only way to get faster and stronger was to train faster and harder.  The no pain, no gain sort of approach.  And for me, almost half of all my training was in this category.  That was until I got injured, again.  During the recovery phase, which is still ongoing, I wanted to find a better way.  This is probably my forth “significant” running injury in the last 10 years.  And I wanted to be done with these sidelining injuries.  This is now, my third book on this idea of running with a much lower intensity in order to get faster and stay injury free. 

The book was published over 20 years ago but is still relevant in the places that count.  But if you want a more updated version of what it is all about.  I suggest that you Google the Maffetone Method and check out the website.  Here is the link: https://philmaffetone.com/method/

The method is based on heart rate and now that heart monitors are pretty common and easy to use, I have found this is a great way to train.  One of the best take-a-ways from the book is from this sentence: “I had learned an important lesson, one that would benefit not only me but also those I would work with for decades to come:  I had made myself fit enough to run 26.2 miles, but fitness was different from health.”  This was me to a T.  Over the last 10 years I had made myself fit enough to do 50 mile ultras but was I healthy?  And this is what the book is about.  That health and fitness are not the same thing.

The website has updated information but I wanted the book to hold and read.  So if you get the book, realize that it should not be your only source to go to for fitness and health, but a complement to other books on the subject. I got the book on Amazon but you can probably find it at your local book store.  Here is the Amazon link: https://a.co/d/8c0j4KH

The last book I want to review and recommend is called “Zen Seeing, Zen Drawing: Meditation in Action by Frederick Franck.”  I am an artist and I got this book initially as a way to improve my eye hand coordination.  But in the process I found that it is so much more.   I was hooked on the book as soon as I read this sentence:

“Proclaiming oneself to be an artist is all too pretentious.  Art is neither a profession nor a hobby.  Art is a Way of being.”   

The book is about how to see, to really look and see what is there at the most mundane level.  How many times do we just “look at” something, not really seeing what is there?  Thinking that when we are looking at something, we are seeing it. 

The author helps the reader realize this difference between seeing and looking by using drawing as the method.  At the same time it is a way of slowing you down.  You could even call it a form of meditation.

This book was published in 1993 but is a relevant today as when it was published.  A timeless classic that should be a part of anyone’s library, whether you are an artist or not.  I got the book on Amazon but you may be able to find it at a used book store.  Be warned, I believe it is out of print and even the used paperback version can be in the 50 dollar range.  Here is the Amazon link: https://a.co/d/ayPiz7t

No new “sellable” art work again for this month but I have been working on a new series that highlights Rooster faces. For now it has just been sketchbook drawings and one practice painting. This is a way for me to work out the details on a few things before staring the ones that I will put up for sale. I have included four drawings and one painting below. The drawings are done by free hand pencil sketching and then adding pen and ink. The painting was just done by looking and painting what I see from the photograph. These were all done in the month of February and I am hoping to start the “official” drawings and paintings some time in March.

This one was finished the first week of February.
This one was finished the second of February.
The painting was finished by the 14th of February but I started it about three weeks before. I am new to this type of painting and it takes me a little time. Lol
This one was finished by the third week of February.
This one was finished the last week of February.

I had fun doing these and I hope you enjoyed seeing them. Hopefully I will have at least one new piece done and ready for sale by the end of March or April.

For more of my art work, the finished pieces and not the practice ones (Lol) can be found on 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 the end of another blog post. Yea! 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 stupid to say the least, if you were to lose your life 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, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Pandemics, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR JANUARY 2023

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“This was my wake-up call. I opened my eyes to the depressing fact that there are other forces at work in medicine besides science. The U.S. health care system runs on a fee-for-service model in which doctors get paid for the pills and procedures they prescribe, rewarding quantity over quality. We don’t get reimbursed for time spent counseling our patients about the benefits of healthy eating. If doctors were instead paid for performance, there would be a financial incentive to treat the lifestyle causes of disease. Until the model of reimbursement changes, I don’t expect great changes in medical care or medical education.” Dr. Michael Greger

This is an image of a group of galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet. It was taken by the James Webb Space Telescope and shows details that were not seen with Hubble. The Instrument that was used is called MIRI or Mid-InfraRed Instrument. It is composed of both a camera and a spectrograph that sees light in the mid-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These wavelengths are longer than our eyes can see. It has allowed us to see new details in the dust-shrouded regions of the quintet, like shock waves and tidal tails and has reveled regions of star formation that were not seen before. The grouping of the five galaxies is actually a misnomer. Only four of the galaxies are close to each other. The left most, called NGC 7320, is 40 million light years from earth, while the other four are closer to 290 million light years away. The group is in the constellation Pegasus. It was first discovered by the French astronomer Edouard Stephan in 1877 at the Marseille Observatory. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://esawebb.org/images/potm2207a/ and https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/observatory/instruments/miri.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan%27s_Quintet

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

“Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, recently warned that we may be facing a future in which many of our miracle drugs no longer work. She stated, “A post-antibiotic era means, in effect, an end to modern medicine as we know it. Things as common as strep throat or a child’s scratched knee could once again kill.” We may soon be past the age of miracles. The director-general’s prescription to avoid this catastrophe included a global call to “restrict the use of antibiotics in food production to therapeutic purposes.” In other words, only use antibiotics in agriculture to treat sick animals. But that isn’t happening. In the United States, meat producers feed millions of pounds of antibiotics each year to farm animals just to promote growth or prevent disease in the often cramped, stressful, and unhygienic conditions of industrial animal agriculture. Yes, physicians overprescribe antibiotics as well, but the FDA estimates that 80 percent of the antimicrobial drugs sold in the United States every year now go to the meat industry.” Dr. Michael Greger

This image from JWST is of a merging galaxy pair known as II ZW 96. They are in the constellation Delphinus and are about 500 million light years from earth. The bright cores of the two galaxies are connected by bright lines of thread like appendages that are actually star forming regions. The spiral arms of the lower galaxy have been twisted out of shape by the gravitational forces created during the merger. The upper galaxy has had significant distortion too. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://esawebb.org/images/potm2211a/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZW_II_96

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. Evans

“In 2012, the American Dietetic Association changed its name to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics but didn’t appear to change its policies. It continues to take millions of dollars every year from processed junk food, meat, dairy, soda, and candy bar companies. In return, the academy lets them offer official educational seminars to teach dietitians what to say to their clients.” Dr. Michael Greger

This is an image of the Phantom Galaxy from the James Webb Space Telescope. Another name for this galaxy is Messier74 and it is a member of a class of spiral galaxies known as a “grand design spiral.” This means that the spiral arms are more defined and prominent than in other spiral galaxies. It is in the constellation of Pisces and is about 30 million light years from earth. It is estimated that M74 hosts about 100 billion stars. If you would like to see more, please see these links: https://esawebb.org/images/potm2208a/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_74 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_design_spiral_galaxy

Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. 
Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt

“More than two thousand years ago, Hippocrates said, “If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.” Dr. Michael Greger

This is a picture from the JWST that is of NGC 7469, an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation of Pegasus that is about 200 million light years away from earth. It is estimated that the galaxy is about 90,000 light-years across. It was discovered by William Herschel on November 12th, 1784. This galaxy has a bright nucleus and in the image above, the diffraction spike (patterns produced as the light bends around sharp edges of a telescope) makes it look like a six pointed star. Galaxies with this bright nucleus are also known as Seyfert galaxies. This name comes from Carl Seyfert, an American astronomer who first described this class in 1943. It is thought that the brightness is created by the presence of an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole. This galaxy has a great deal of dust around it and it has been difficult to study it with Hubble. With JWST and its better instrumentation, astronomers will now have a chance to peer though the dust clouds to see the starburst ring, and the central AGN (active galactic nucleus) in much greater detail. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://esawebb.org/images/potm2212a/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7469 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyfert_galaxy

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Armus, A. S. Evans

“In this world, time has three dimensions, like space. Just as an object may move in three perpendicular directions, corresponding to horizontal, vertical, and longitudinal, so an object may participate in three perpendicular futures. Each future moves in a different direction of time. Each future is real. At every point of decision, the world splits into three worlds, each with the same people, but different fates for those people. In time, there are an infinity of worlds.” Alan Lightman

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 again for both of us!!

Well what the hell, Covid is still with us and will be for the foreseeable future. At some point, I am guessing that with the new mRNA technology, the scientist that do vaccines will figure out a much more effective treatment. But until then, it is what it is for the moment. Covid has now become, with a few exceptions, a serious disease of those that are older than 65 and / or are immunocompromised. New cases have dropped from the 60,000 plus range to around 40, 000 per day now. But deaths have actually gone up to about 500 per day. I am guessing that in a week or two the number of deaths per day will drop and that will be a good thing. It appears that we are in a plateau and I am hoping that instead of things going up, we will see a continued drop. But time will tell.

The new variant of concern for the end of January is called XBB.1.5 and makes up more than half off all cases in the United States. This variant overtakes the BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 that was predominate back in December. The question that I have and I am sure many others have, what’s going to come out of China? There have been some reports generated by eye witness accounts and satellite data that they may be experiencing as many as 20 to 30 thousand deaths per day due to their population size and lack of vaccination. When you extrapolate back from this you can probably guess that the number of new daily infections are in the hundreds of thousands. Of course none of this is being reported by the Chinese government. That is a lot of people for new variants to emerge. It is not a question will new variants be created but will we get one in the next 6 months that is the variant from hell?! And add in the Chinese government’s reticence in reporting and you get the possibility the rest of the world will be scrambling to play catch up in creating an effective treatment plan when it spreads beyond their borders. Oh well what are you going to do?

By the time of publishing, the death count per day was still holding in the 500 range. And total deaths were now around 1,132,000 or about 16 thousand more deaths from last month. Again, hard to wrap my head around those numbers, especially when you consider the count is probably a lot higher. Covid is still considered the third leading cause of death as of this past November. Right behind Heart disease and Cancer. Not to mention that if you have gotten Covid and survived, you are not out of the woods yet so to speak. There is an 18 month time frame post Covid, that you are at increased risk for cardiovascular complications and neurodegenerative disease.

If you are interested in more information from reliable sources please check out these links: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and https://www.youtube.com/c/OsterholmUpdateCOVID19 and https://www.youtube.com/c/VincentRacaniello and https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html

And if your interested in a short 1 minute version of day to day numbers, here is a good source. It is from the Johns Hopkins site. It is the best for a quick look. Here is the link for YouTube to subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnxJP601LarGKt_zbttd3uyl_MqVLW2s1

The month of January was a great month for getting outdoors. The wind patterns were good and it made for some great air quality days. Not our usual high pollution days due to temperature inversions. Of course, firewood burning ( I am guilty of this too), oil and gas wells out in Weld County and the number of people living on the Front Range of Colorado does not help. But most of that particulate and chemical pollution was mitigated for the month of January due the wind patterns. Yea!

This picture of Marvin was taken on January 3rd, 2023 at about 5:45pm in the afternoon. This winter has been almost the total opposite from last year in terms of temperatures. On the Front Range we usually get a 50 plus degree day once per week, but this year that has not happened. Over all the temps have been much cooler, or about 10 degrees lower than our usual highs at this time. No 50 degree days so far. Lol.
The above pictures were taken on January 7th, 2023 at about 5:30 – 6:30pm in the afternoon. All three pictures were from an in-town run that I did with Marvin. It is through one of the many open space areas here in Fort Collins. When I look back at these pictures I am remind of how lucky I am to live in such a place.
This picture was taken January 12th, 2023 at about 5:15pm in the afternoon. It is looking west from our neighborhood. Another beautiful Colorado sunset. The two big peaks in the background are Mount Meeker (13, 911 feet) and Longs Peak (14,259 feet). Both are in Rocky Mountain National Park. To be able to see them like this, means there are high winds in the atmosphere – blowing most of the particulate between Fort Collins and the mountains out of the way. From my vantage point, I am looking through the atmosphere about 40 miles as the crow flies. The sunset colors are created from reflected light off the “particulate” behind and to the West of Colorado. Pretty cool.
This picture was taken on January 14th, 2023 at about 5:30pm in the afternoon from our neighborhood. As her foot injury healed , Janet was able to get out much more with us in January. Very nice indeed.
The above three pictures were taken on January 18th, 2023 at about about 11pm at night. Due to the colder temperatures and a little bit of lingering snow, XC skiing was possible in town, on the golf courses. If I could change one thing about Fort Collins climate, I would make it a little bit colder just for the months of January and February, so that the city could make snow. This would give the ability to have consistent in town XC skiing during those two months. I am envious of the northern Midwest states that can do this with their golf courses in winter.
This picture was taken on January 24th, 2023 at about 5:30 pm in the afternoon. What can I say? Another beautiful Colorado sunset.
This picture was taken on January 27th, 2023 at about 6:30pm in the evening and it is one of my favorite ones for the month of January. Marvin has such a serious look on his face. I guess that is part of his “livestock guardian” genes coming in to play so to speak. He is part Great Pyrenees, part Anatolian Shephard and part German Shepherd. Here he was checking out a resident family of Racoons in the open space.

So all and all, it was another good month for getting outdoors with great air quality for the most part. Here’s to hopping that February will be the same.

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

The first book I would like to review is called Daily Rituals:  How Artists Work, written by Mason Currey.  I got this book because I am a “struggling artist” and most of the struggle is caused by me.  Lol.  Yep, your worst enemy in the process of making art, is yourself.  This is the second time that I have read (or tried to read) this book.  I got it in the Kindle form when it first came out in 2013.  But I only got a quarter way into it and stopped reading.  At that time, I was doing art only when time would allow or not at all for months on end.  Still working full time, family, kids, self-inflected obstacles, etc.…   All the usual things that can create barriers to making art.  And I let it all get in the way.

First forward ten years and I am wishing that I had paid more attention and read the whole book.  The author gives a small paragraph or two on about 160 different types of artist, on what they did to get the “work” done so to speak.  As I read, I realized that there is “no one way” to get it done.  I could have used this realization.

Every artist in the book seemed to have their own unique work habits in making the art while living busy lives.  Of course there are some methods that were unhealthy to say the least like amphetamines and alcohol use, and some that were pretty humorous and a little bizarre even by today’s standards.  One of the things that I liked best about the book was the inclusion of some characters that would not be considered artists in the strictest sense, like scientists and philosophers.  And there were several individuals in the book that I could relate to.  The massive coffee drinkers and those that were night owls.  Lol.  Both of which I am. 

So, if you’re a struggling artist too, and want to get a small glimpse of what others have done to get the work done so to speak then this book is for you.  If you are someone that is not an artist but are just curious, then this book is for you too.  It is a fun read and entertaining to say the least. 

This time I got the book as an audio book but it would work in any format.  You can probably find the book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the amazon link:   https://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp

The next book I would like to review is one called “Boldly Go:  Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder” by William Shatner or better known, if you’re a trek fan, as Captain Kirk.  If you have been a Star Trek fan and even if you haven’t, then you need to get this book.  It is a kind of autobiography or reflection on his life by the subject himself.  He tells a pretty good tale on his struggles in life along with the celebrations.  As a bonus, you get his pearls of wisdom on living the best life.

To be honest, other than knowing him as Captain Kirk from Star Trek, I did not know much about him.  I got the book because of his age.  He is 91 years old, and well he might not be around that much longer.  I feel that when people have made it to that age and are still mentally competent, I want to learn from them.  I want to hear what they have to say about their lives and how they might have done some things differently or not.  I want to hear about how they dealt with problems, I want to hear their words of wisdom.  I want to hear how their attitudes changed over time.  I want to know more about them.  And I was not disappointed. 

One of the things that I leaned in the book is that Captain Kirk (he will always be the Captain to me) is an environmentalist and that is something that I can relate to.  And he seems to be of the mind, like I am, that you must strive to learn something new every single day.  Great book and an easy read. 

I got the book as an audio book but it would work in any format.  I am pretty sure you can get the book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the link:  https://www.amazon.com/Boldly-Go-Reflections-Life-Wonder/dp   

The next book I would like to review is called “Conspiracy:  Why the Rational Believe the Irrational by Michael Shermer.”  Now if you not familiar with the author let me say he is an American Science writer, Historian of Science, and the executive director of The Skeptics Society.  He is an author of over a dozen books mostly dealing with beliefs in pseudoscience and religion.  I first came across one of his books when I was doing a book review of Carl Sagan’s book “The Demon-Haunted World.” By the way, the Sagan book is another one of those timeless classics that is as relevant today as when it was published back in the 90s.  Now to get back to the book at hand, “Conspiracy” is the newest book by the author and is an examination of how conspiracies get started.  He gives us great examples of imagined conspiracies, like the still ongoing ones of the JFK assassination, the QAnon groups, the Sandy Hook massacre, the 9/11 conspiracy, the Satanic Panic in the 1980s and 1990s, etc.…  Some are so out there you have to just kind of scratch your head and think what the hell is wrong with people.  Lol.

Now along with the imagined ones he gives us examples of where there were real ones and how they unfolded.  Like the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln Conspiracy, The World War One Conspiracy and how it almost did not happen, The Tuskegee experiments on black men and syphilis, Watergate, Iran Contra, etc.…  What I really liked in the book was the explanation of how the real ones usually play out in haphazard ways due to the nature of chance.  Pretty interesting stuff.

Humans are incredible at pattern recognition, after all this is what kept us safe in our ancient past.  Unfortunately in our more modern age we are really “good” at seeing patterns that are not there.

Great book.  I listened to the book as an audio book but it would work in any format.  You can probably find this book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Conspiracy-Why-Rational-Believe-Irrational/dp

The last book I would like to give a review on is called The Rise and Reign of the Mammals:  A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us by Steve Brusatte.   Let me start off by saying “Wow,” I really had no idea that paleontology had progressed so far with mammals.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  In college I got a degree in Biology that had an interdisciplinary minor that required courses in geology and paleontology.  At the time, (mid 80s) most of the talk in these classes was on dinosaurs, not much on mammals at all.  Of course in hindsight, the fossils had to be there all along but it was not talked about much at all.  I wonder if part of this was due to where the college was located (Texas), and the significant religious influence present in the town. It was like:  “We don’t want to talk about evolution – just don’t go there so to speak.” Lol.   

The book got me hooked as soon as I started to read, especially with the story on the Dimetrodon. A large (up to 15 feet in length) sail-backed looking lizard.  At the University I went to (Midwestern State University), there were a lot of photographs and drawings of the fossilized skeletons of this animal because it had been found in the this area of North Central Texas.  One of the college professor even lamented the fact:  “That there was not one skeleton on display in the area.  That they had all been whisked away to more cosmopolitan museums in bigger cities.” 

So all we had were drawing and photographs.   At that time, we were told it was a dinosaur.  From the book, I learned that it is a very early mammal (called a synapsid) and predates dinosaurs by almost a million years.  And that humans are also considered synapsids, meaning we have one hole in our skull for jaw muscles, just like Dimetrodon.  Pretty cool.

If there is one thing that this book has taught me is that earth has had a very complex and multifaceted evolution of life, from early mammals, to dinosaurs, to mammals again, all of which includes us. And when I stop to think about it, if the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico 66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs, had missed earth instead, most of the animal life we take for granted, including us, would not be here.   

I got this book as an audio book but I think it works better in the traditional version.  There is a lot of information.  If you do get the audio book make sure you download and print out the significant PDF.  The pictures and diagrams help a lot in the understanding.  You can find this book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Reign-Mammals-History-Dinosaurs/dp             

Well, I was going to have a new piece of art work to share but that did not quite work out like I wanted it to, so I am posting a few “practice pieces” that I have done with acrylics over the last few months. In the past, I have painted with acrylics but I have approached the painting like a pen and ink drawing. Very planned out. When drawing with pen and ink – there is very little room for error.

In the process of trying to get better at my painting techniques, I started to watch other artist on YouTube and Instagram. I had not done this before and it was an eyeopener. So much possibility with painting. So this has become a goal of mine. To broaden my painting ability this year.

Another thing that I learned from an Instagram artist was the practice of using cardboard for canvas – especially for practice pieces. So cheap and plentiful if your an Amazon Prime member. Lol.

The above three large scale paintings were done a few years ago and are more indicative of a pen and ink style of painting for me. The very top one has a little bit of freeform with the flowers but it was not something I was comfortable with at the time. The next few paintings below are the “practice” pieces. Very little planning, just looking at a picture and trying to paint it. All done on cardboard over the last few months. Lol.

The next two paintings below are of a wolf face, the first one is before the “freeform practice” and the second one is after. I am still working on the finishing touches on the second one.

The second wolf face was done “more freeform” and I like it a lot better. I cannot wait to start the next one in about a month. I am hoping that the new painting technique will continue to carry over into these larger paintings.

More of my art work. The finished pieces and not the practice ones (Lol) can be found on 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 the end of another blog post. Yea! 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 stupid to say the least, if you were to lose your life 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, Exercise, Fort Collins, Marshall Fire, Pandemics, Science, Skiing, Space, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR DECEMBER 2022

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“Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life – weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.” Lawrence M. Krauss

The above image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and is called a “Dense Core.” It is a collection of dust and gas particles. The one above is named CB 130-3 and is in the constellation Serpens, about 650 light years from earth. It is thought the mass of these objects can get large enough in one place to ignite hydrogen fusion and thus make a “new” star. This is why these space clouds are called stellar nurseries. They can be the birth places of many different stars. Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA & STSCL, C. Brit, T. Huard, A. Pagan. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-views-a-billowing-cosmic-cloud and https://www.space.com/hubble-space-telescope-dense-core-image

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

The above image is from the recent Artemis 1 mission back in November 2022. It was captured by the spacecraft optical navigation camera. This is one of the closest photos of the Moon since the Apollo mission. This mission did not have real humans aboard but mannequins inside for testing. The first planned human mission will be sometime in 2024. Image Credit: NASA. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/orion-s-moon-crater-close-up and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_program

“Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.” Christophe Hitchens

This above image is from the Hubble Space Telescope and it is of NGC 1858. The NGC stands for New General Catalogue and is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects. The catalogue was created by John Louis Dreyer in 1888. The above image is consider an open cluster and an emission nebula. This patch of sky is found in the Dorado constellation which is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. An open cluster is a type of star cluster in which the stars were formed from the same molecular cloud and have about the same age. A nebula is a luminescent star forming region and an emission nebula is one that is formed of ionized gasses that emit light. NGC 1858 is a long ways from earth at about 160,000 light years and is estimated to be about 10 million years old. Image credit: NASA, ESA and G. Gilmore (University of Cambridge); 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/2022/hubble-spies-emission-nebula-star-cluster-duo and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_nebula and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster

“I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.” Isaac Asimov

This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of the barred spiral galaxy named NGC 6956. These type of galaxies have a bar shaped structure that is composed of stars at their center. It is thought that this shape is found in most spiral galaxies known so far. The Milky Way Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy. The above galaxy is of special interest to scientists because of the presence of Cepheid variable stars, or stars that brighten and dim at regular intervals. Using this data, they can measure distances of cosmic objects with some accuracy. It was the work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt in the early 1900s with Cepheid variable stars, that gave astronomers their first “standard candle” in which to measure distance of far away galaxies. Using earth based telescopes, scientists can measure out to 13 million light years, after that it becomes the work of space based telescopes to get out to 50 to 60 million light years. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jones (University of California – Santa Cruz); 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/2022/hubble-captures-majestic-barred-spiral and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barred_spiral_galaxy and https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/cepheids.html and Henrietta Swan Leavitt – Wikipedia

“I don’t accept the currently fashionable assertion that any view is automatically as worthy of respect as any equal and opposite view. My view is that the moon is made of rock. If someone says to me ‘Well, you haven’t been there, have you? You haven’t seen it for yourself, so my view that it is made of Norwegian Beaver Cheese is equally valid’ – then I can’t even be bothered to argue. There is such a thing as the burden of proof, and in the case of god, as in the case of the composition of the moon, this has shifted radically. God used to be the best explanation we’d got, and we’ve now got vastly better ones. God is no longer an explanation of anything, but has instead become something that would itself need an insurmountable amount of explaining. So I don’t think that being convinced that there is no god is as irrational or arrogant a point of view as belief that there is. I don’t think the matter calls for even-handedness at all.” Douglas Adams

The above image is part of a close up portion of the open cluster NGC 6530. It was created by the Hubble Space Telescope. This open cluster is part of the Lagoon Nebula or M8. See the picture below for a zoomed out view of the Lagoon Nebula. This open cluster is located in the constellation Sagittarius and is about 4,350 light-years from earth. Scientist were using the Hubble’s advanced cameras to look for ionized protoplanetary discs called Proplyds. See the very bottom pictures for examples of this. So far, most of these discs have only been found in the Orion Nebula, making them extremely rare. Image Credit:  ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. De Marco; Acknowledgment: M.H. Özsaraç. If you would like to learn more please see these links: Hubble Views a Star-Studded Cosmic Cloud | NASA and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proplyd

The Lagoon Nebula. Image credit: VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile
Proplyds in the Orion Nebula. Image credit: By ESA/Hubble, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8778842

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?” Richard Dawkins

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 both of us!! Unfortunately some have not been so lucky, either by choice (not getting the vaccine) or circumstances (immunocompromised or older than 65). The death count as of December 5th, 2022 is still about 300 per day and due to the Thanksgiving holiday – cases are on the rise again, along with FLU. The good news is that RSV is staring to trend down a bit. Reported cases for December 5th was about 57,000, so that would mean that you have double that number due to home testing and people not testing at all. So the current infection rate is back up to about 100,000 per day now. And I am guessing that it is 2nd or even the third time around for a lot of people.

At the end of the first week of December 2022, the omicron subvariants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 were dominate in the USA. Due to their ability to evade or side step treatment with monoclonal antibodies, these drug were pulled by the FDA. This is bad news for people with weakened immune systems and puts them at risk for developing severe disease. The drug that was pulled in December was bebtelovimab (monoclonal). Paxlovid (antiviral) is still working but a lot of people cannot take this drug if they have had organ transplants – it creates issues with the other drugs they are on. Oh well, a lot of us may be done with the virus but the virus is not done with all of us.

The above picture has still not changed. California, Texas and Florida still lead the country in deaths. And I will say this again, due to the lack of reporting by states such as Florida, this picture is a little inaccurate. One of the great missed opportunities in this pandemic will have been our public health system. We have the tools to make it the best in the world but so far we continue to fail to do that.

By the time of publishing, the death count per day for the USA was back up into the 400 range and the total deaths since the pandemic started was about 1,116, 000 total. That is about 23,000 thousand deaths in the last two months. Again hard to wrap my head around those numbers, especially when you consider the count is probably a lot higher. Covid is still considered the third leading cause of death as of this past November. Right behind Heart disease and Cancer.

If you are interested in more information from reliable sources please check out these links: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and https://www.youtube.com/c/OsterholmUpdateCOVID19 and https://www.youtube.com/c/VincentRacaniello

One other late note is the conditions in China since they eased their lockdown restrictions this month. Due to their inability to get people vaccinated, and the short sighted view of continued lock downs up until this point, most experts warm of an impending disaster in China with Covid. Unfortunately, with the state run media, information on what is happening will be difficult at best to obtain. I am guessing that we are going to be looking at a very different China in about 6 months. My fear, besides supply disruption, will be that we get a new variant out of their population that will be the worst yet. Oh well, time will tell.

The months of November and December were great for getting out doors in Fort Collins. But with my continued knee problem, most of the getting out was walking, at least for me. Unfortunately for Janet, even with the foot issues on the mend, she came down sick with a virus at the first part of December that keep her sidelined for about 16 days. She tested multiply times for Covid with home test and came up negative each time. She did get tested for the flu and that was negative too. Looking back at her symptoms, it really seemed like it was Covid and it makes me wonder how accurate the home test were. There were reports of some home testing kit failures with the two current variants (BQ.1.1 and BQ.1) by the FDA. So far at the time of this writing I have stayed illness free for now. And hope to stay that way. Oh well.

This image was taken on November 21st, 2022 at about 3:45pm in the afternoon. It was in one of the city’s open space areas called Reservoir Ridge. This was the only trail hike / run I did with Marvin due to continued knee issues for the next 30 days.
This picture was taken on November 27, 2022 at about 4:45pm in the afternoon. This was from our neighborhood lake.
This picture was taken on November 28th, 2022 at about 5pm in the afternoon. This was one of only two days that Janet was able to get out with us, either due to foot issues or illness.
This picture was taken on November 30th, 2002 at about 7:30pm in the evening. We got enough snow at the end of November to do a little bit of cross country skiing at one of the local golf courses. I feel it would be a fantastic idea if the city took one of the golf courses off line so to speak and used manmade snow to create, for a few months, a local cross country ski area. I think this could be done in the months of January and February most years and would be a huge benefit to the locals.
This picture was taken on December 2nd, 2022 at about 4:45pm in the afternoon. This was the last walk Janet was able to do with us for the next 18 days due to illness.
This picture was taken on December 4th, 2022 at about 5pm in the afternoon. Again this was from the neighborhood lake.
This picture was taken on December 5th, 2022 at about 5:30pm in the afternoon. Some of the neighbors along the Spring Creek Bike trail light up a few trees during this time of year. Pretty cool in my opinion!

This picture was taken on December 7th, 2022 at about 4:45pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken December 11th, 2022 at about 5pm in the afternoon.
This picture was taken on December 16th, 2022 at about 5:40pm in the afternoon.

Again it was another great 30 days for taking sunset pictures. Most of these images are from the local neighborhood lake, which gives a great vantage point for these types of pictures.

The next couple of pictures were from a trail hike / easy run that I did with Marvin on December 21, 2022. What a difference from last year. The temps this year (mid 30s) were more typical of a Colorado Front Range winter. Last year, at the same time, I was up in this same area running in shorts with no snow on the ground. Who knew that a little more than a week later – there would be the devastating Marshall Fire down by Boulder. If you do not know what the Marshall Fire was about then check out this link: https://www.marshallfiremap.com/

The images are from Horsetooth Mountain Park just West of Fort Collins.

Looking East toward the City of Fort Collins.
Horsetooth Rock – this is where the park gets it name.
Most of the shaded areas all had snow and ice on them.
Looking across Fort Collins out into Weld County. You can see a temperature inversion just east of Fort Collins. We have had favorable winds this year to keep the air quality great, so far. Weld county has over 20 thousand active oil and gas wells which contribute significantly to the pollution issues on the Front Range.
This is looking West toward Rocky Mountain National Park. The two big mountains are Mount Meeker and Longs Peak. They are about 35 miles away as the crow flies.

Of all the ironies, while I was at the top of the park, I saw a plume of smoke down towards Boulder and thought to myself they are doing a prescribed burn. But when I got home, I found out it was another forest fire and there had been the evacuation of about 360 homes. I believe they are calling it the Sunshine wildland fire. While we have had more seasonal like temperatures this year, we are still in a severe drought on the Front Range. Fortunately, at the time of publishing, winter had returned to the Front Range with snow and below zero temperatures, very reminiscent of last year at this time, but a week earlier. Luckily this has put an end to the fire danger for the time being. The crazy part, is that even in winter, due to climate change, you are not safe. Fire season on the Front Range is now year round.

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

The first book review is about Nike and the Oregon Project.  It is called “Win at All Costs:  Inside Nike Running and Its Culture of Deception” by Matt Hart.  Matt has written numerous magazine articles for the likes of Outside Magazine, National Geographic, The Atlantic, The New York Times, etc.… “Win at All Cost” is his first book and a pretty damn good one at that.  I am an amateur ultra runner, so I am drawn to books about running.  I first heard about the Nike doping scandal with Alberto Salazar from the HBO show called “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.”  If you’re interested, I believe the show was from last January 2021.  Here is an HBO clip from YouTube on the show: https://youtu.be/2G4-gUkhKYQ

So when I saw that Matt had written a book about it.  It was somewhat of a no-brainer to get a copy or in my case the audio book.  I love listening to audio books on long runs.

Most of the story that Matt tells is about the relationship between Alberto and Kara / Adam Goucher.  Both were coached by Salazar.  Kara was one of the first athletes to accuse Salazar of doping allegations.  Salazar’s coaching style comes across as what can only be described as idiosyncratic in my opinion.  His wanton willingness to use whatever was “in vogue” for performance enhancement (legal and illegal) at the time is pretty disheartening.  Kara’s part was trying to “make it” as a professional athlete while being coached by someone who was willing to bend the rules anyway possible and would threaten you with being “let go” if you did not participate.  There is some focus on the Nike organization itself, but not as much as you would think.  Of course, the Nike management had to know what Salazar was doing and by not calling him out on it, gave their unofficial blessing.  The other part of this book that was interesting was the physicians that were involved as well.  Obviously, the Hippocratic Oath really did not mean anything to them.           

If you follow the world of professional sports, like bicycling, you will remember the Lance Armstrong doping scandal from about 10 years ago.  What I did not remember, was how it all tied in to the Nike organization.  While there is not much on the Lance Armstrong angle. It was interesting none the less.

I got this book as an audio book but I think it would work better in traditional format.  Especially if you are not familiar with all the other players (athletes, Nike executives, physicians, etc.…) mentioned in the book.  If you want to know more about the author here is a link to his website: http://bymatthart.com/

Of interesting note, Salazar got a life time ban from the sport back in December 2021, but not from doping but for sexual assault of an athlete on two different occasions.  For more information on this check out this New York Times link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/sports/alberto-salazar-sexual-assault.html

You can probably find this book at your local book store or on Amazon. Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Win-All-Costs-Running-Deception/dp

The next book I would like to recommend is another one about running called “Running to the Edge:  A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed by Matthew Futterman.  First off, let me say, this is NOT a how to run book but more of a historical account of the legendary running coach Bob Larson and the different runners that he coached over the years starting in the 60s and 70s.  The story starts with high school students and ends with his coaching of the long distance runner Meb Keflezighi.    

The tale Futterman weaves is a good one.  Besides telling the story of the difficulties, problems and victories of Bob and his band of runners over the years, the author, interweaves his own story of trials and tribulations with running.  At the same time he mixes in a little bit of science as he describes Bob’s quest to find the formula to create not only fast runners but runners with incredible endurance. 

To reiterate, this is not a book about “how to run”, “how to train” or a book about Bob Larson’s training methods.  This is a book telling a story about Bob Larson and some of the runners he coached.   

I got the book as an audio book but it might work better in traditional format if you are not familiar with some of the athletes mentioned and races talked about.  I had to go back and replay sections, to then be able to look stuff up.  In a traditional format this would not be as much of an issue.  You can probably find this book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Running-to-Edge-Matthew-Futterman-audiobook/dp

The last book I would like to talk about is a book on how to be an artist.  No really, it is a book about how to be an artist.  Sounds easy, right?  Not really.  There are so many things that can get in the way of achieving a high level of creativity and craft in any artistic path.  Whether it is writing, drawing, painting, cooking, sculpture, etc.… there is always something that can side track your path.  The least of which is yourself. 

The book is called “How to Be an Artist by Jerry Saltz.  Jerry is an American art critic and received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2018.  Before getting serious about the art world, he was a “regular guy”, a long distance truck driver until the age of 41.  You can’t get any more main stream America than that.  So he gets what it like to be in the struggle. 

There are a lot of other great and not so great books on how to be an artist.  What I like about Jerry’s book is that he basically tells you how to get past or at least make friends with “yourself.”  That inner personality we all have called self-doubt.  And along the way, as a bonus, you get multiple pearls of wisdom of what it means to be in the art world and to be an artist. 

Jerry gives you all of this in concise and easy to understand steps.  About 63 to be exact.  This is what makes the book.  They are short and to the point.  Not a lot of fluff and stuffing, but more down to earth.  A pragmatic look at what “you got to do” to be someone who creates art, no matter what it may be.

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://www.amazon.com/How-to-Be-an-Artist-Jerry-Saltz-audiobook/dp   

Last but not least I would like to show case a new piece of art work. This is the second in a series called “Athena Nike Revisited.” I got the idea from watching some of the amazing women in track and field compete in running events during the recent 2022 World Track and Field Championships held in Eugene, Oregon back in July. So I thought I would do a drawing of what I feel incorporates the very spirit and determination of these female figures. To be the very best they can be. I believe these powerful and determined young women should be allowed to choose they own destinies and that includes all choices that have anything to do with their healthcare and/or bodies. And that those choices should not be dictated by anyone else but them. Watching them run with such spirit and sheer resolve gives me hope for the future. I cannot imagine any of them bending to becoming someone’s handmaid.

This piece measures 9 by 12 inches. It is done in acrylic paint on canvas paper, mounted to a hardboard frame and sealed with archival varnish.

Athena Nike Revisited # 2

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

In support of Prochoice and the 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 th end of another blog post! Yea! 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 stupid to say the least, if you were to lose your life 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, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, genetics, Marshall Fire, Meditation, Minimalism, Pandemics, Psychology, Science, Space, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR NOVEMBER 2022

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“To see what we have never seen, to be what we have never been. To shed the chrysalis and fly, depart the earth, kiss the sky, to be reborn, be someone new: is this a dream or is it true. Can our future be cleanly shorn from a life to which we’re born? Is each of us trapped at birth by destiny? Pity those who believe the latter. Without freedom, nothing matters.” Dean Koontz

This is a photo of the astronaut Nicole Mann sitting inside of a T-38 jet trainer. The picture is from November 15, 2018. Mann is a member of the Wailaki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in California. In October of this year, she became the first indigenous woman from NASA to fly into space to the ISS as commander of Nasa Space X Crew – 5 mission. This will be the fifth crew rotation with Space X. They will spend several months aboard the space station doing research on a variety of scientific subjects. Image credit: NASA. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/nicole-a-mann/biography and https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-spacex-crew-5-launches-to-international-space-station and https://www.legendsofamerica.com/wailaki-tribe/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_Valley_Indian_Tribes_of_the_Round_Valley_Reservation

“We can embrace love; it’s not too late. Why do we sleep, instead with hate? Belief requires no suspension to see that Hell is our invention. We make Hell real; we stoke its fires. And in its flames our hope expires. Heaven, too, is merely our creation. We can grant ourselves our own salvation. All that’s required is imagination.” Dean Koontz

This is an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It is of the galaxy pair know as Arp-Madore 608-333. They are located in the constellation of Columba. The galaxy on the left is called ESO 364-35 and the one on the right is known as ESO 364-36. These two are an interacting pair meaning that the gravity from each is disrupting and distorting both of them. NASA/ESA is trying to build up a catalogue of interesting targets with unused Hubble time. The idea is to be able to go back in the future and use ground based telescopes , the new James Webb Telescope as well as Hubble for further study. Telescope time is very limited due to the number of request and “observations” that use almost ever second of time. But there is always a tiny bit left over as the Hubble turns to point at new objects. These snap shots as they are called, fill in the gaps. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/Department of Energy/Fermilab/Dark Energy Camera (DECam)/Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory/NOIRLab/AURA. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-snaps-a-pair-of-interacting-galaxies and ESA – A snapshot of interacting galaxies and https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubble-two-spiral-galaxies-11249.html

“The sky is deep, the sky is dark, the light of stars is so damn stark. When I Iook up, I fill with fear. If all we have is what lies here, this lonely world, this troubled place, then cold dead stars and empty space. Well, I see no reason to persevere, no reason to laugh or shed a tear, no reason to sleep or even to wake, no promises to keep, and none to make. And so at night I still raise my eyes to study the clear but mysterious skies, that arch above us, as cold as stone. Are you there, God? Are we alone?” Dean Koontz

This is an image from the Hubble Space telescope and it is of an area of ionized gas that is created when gas from a young star collides with nearby dust and gas. These objects are know as Herbig-Haro objects and are commonly found in star forming regions of space. These two are known as HH1 and HH2 respectively and are about 1,250 light years from earth in the constellation of Orion. These were first seen by the American Astronomer Sherburne Wesley Burnham. They are named after the first astronomers to study them, George Herbig and Guillermo Haro. Because of the movement and evolving nature of new/young stars with the associated gas/dust their appearance can change on times scales as short as a few years. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Reipurth, B. Nisini. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-views-a-turbulent-stellar-nursery and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbig%E2%80%93Haro_object and https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubble-herbig-haro-objects-hh1-hh2-11297.html

“Prayers were a projection of human wants onto an inhuman universe. They were more futile that whistling into a hurricane: they were begging the hurricane to take pity on you because you thought you were special. They were a plea for immunity from prosecution under the laws of nature.” From the book “Wheelers” by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen

This is an image of the supernova remnant called Cassiopeia A or Cas A for short. It lies in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way galaxy and occurred about 300 years ago. The explosion would have become visible to earthlings around the mid 1600s. The above image is the aftermath of the explosion and is called a remnant. This is the ejected debris from the exploded star. Besides using data from the Chandra Observatory and the Hubble Telescope, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) was also used. This new telescope is actually three that are designed to measure the polarization of cosmic X-rays of black holes, neutron stars and pulsars. It launched on December 9th, 2021. Image credit: Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO, IXPE: NASA/MSFC/J. Vink et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/ixpe-measures-exploded-star-remains and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IXPE and https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/multimedia/exploring-cassiopeiaA.html

“In fact, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a “non-astrologer” or a “non-alchemist.” We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.” From the book “Letter to a Christian Nation” by Sam Harris.

The above image is the famous “Pillars of Creation” and was first captured back in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope. The above and enhanced image is from the James Webb Space Telescope. The Pillars are located in the Eagle Nebula which lies in the Serpens constellation. About 6000 to 7000 light years from earth. The pillars are made up of hydrogen gas and dust that are being slowly eroded over time. The Webb data will help scientist better count new star formations and give a better understanding of the amount of gas and dust in the region. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI). If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/webb-reveals-new-details-in-pillars-of-creation and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pillars_of_Creation

Much of Science Fiction literature presents a view of the universe according to which there is something wrong that leads to hardship, suffering, and death. It hopes to provide an answer to this fundamental problem whereby human suffering may be understood, if not eliminated. This sense of wrongness permeates the genre (and arguably all literature), and even the most materialist of SF writers wish to provide readers with hope that the universe can be improved. SF hope to show us that both the world around us and we ourselves can be made better, and this hope presupposes a sort of fallenness which must be rectified. In most SF there is something, either in humankind itself or in alien beings who wish to help us, that can overcome the problems of sin and suffering. New ideas of evil bring with them new understandings of good, new opportunities to express the best of ourselves. These stories present us not only with new moral problems, but new ways to be moral; not only with sin, but with salvation. From the book “The Gospel According to Science Fiction” by Gabriel McKee

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!! Unfortunately some have not been so lucky, either by choice (not getting the vaccine) or circumstances (Immunocompromised or older than 65). I am hoping that there is not a “newer” variant that puts all of us ( vaccinated and unvaccinated alike) at significant risk again.

By the start of October we were still seeing about 400 deaths per day?! Again I have ask myself what is that about?! Incredible and not in a good way. I guess we are a country of individuals that are not going to do what we have been encouraged to do with the best available science. Oh well what are you going to do about that? Nothing. Some are just going to win Darwin awards and take themselves out of gene pool. What is that old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force him or her to drink.” As I am writing this and looking at the numbers, the USA is less than 5000 deaths away from 1.1 million total so far. Now that sounds pretty awful and it is, but when you look at it in the context of population, we come in about 16th or 3000+ deaths per one million population. Oh well, I guess that is better than being in the top 10, but really, not too good when you think about our level of economic prosperity and health care system. China ranks itself down around 220th place but that is probably a misnomer due to their resistance in reporting. Israel – 84th, Denmark – 85th, and Canada is at 87th place. The number one place is Peru. Of course all of these numbers could be a little skewed due to reporting issues and this includes the United States. If you interested in the numbers yourself check out his link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

The above picture still has not changed. California, Texas and Florida still lead the country in deaths. Of course this picture is again probably skewed. I am guessing that Florida is much higher since they quit reporting accurately on infections and deaths over a year ago. One of the great missed opportunities in this pandemic will have been our public health system. We have the tools to make it the best in the world but so far we have failed to do that.

By the middle of November the death count for the USA was over the 1.1 million mark. The good news is that the death rate had dropped on average to about 300 per day. Unfortunately new cases across the country seemed to be on the rise again. The greatest increases for the middle of the November were Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. All of these states saw numbers go up by 30 percent in the last couple of weeks.

And if that was not bad enough, Flu and RSV (RSV mainly effects kids) was out of control, to the point that some hospitals were setting up tents in the hospital parking lots to take in the overflow. Oh well, what are you going to do? Get vaccinated! Lol. Of course this does not help with RSV.

If you are interested in more information from reliable sources please check out these links: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and https://www.youtube.com/c/OsterholmUpdateCOVID19 and https://www.youtube.com/c/VincentRacaniello

The months of October and November were great for getting outdoors in the Fort Collins area. The air quality was much improved from the summer months due to cooler temps and favorable winds. As in August and September, I continued to take it easy with my left knee, meaning not a lot of running. But I was still able to get out with Marvin everyday for walking. Unfortunately Janet suffered an overuse injury to her foot and also had to take time off from walking at the end of October. So it was just Marvin and I for most of the last 30 days.

On the plus side, with the sun setting earlier as we moved further into fall and the change to daylight saving time, I was able to get in some great sunset pictures. Most of the photographs below are from our neighborhood lake or in one of the open spaces along the Poudre River.

The above two pics were taken on October 21st, 2022 at about 6:30pm. If you time it just right the views across the lake looking West can be spectacular.
This image was taken on October 26th, 2022 at about 6:30pm. Again, another beautiful fall sunset with Marvin.
This picture was taken three days later from the above picture on October 29th, 2022 at about 6:30 pm.
The above few images were taken on October 31st, 2022 at about 3pm in the afternoon. It is from one of the many open spaces along the Poudre River in Fort Collins. A lot of trees still had leaves in place. It was a very nice day for an easy run with Dogboy.
This picture was taken on November 12th, 2022 at about 6pm in the evening. Almost every afternoon the sunsets have been beautiful.
This picture was taken on November 18th, 2022 at about 5pm in the afternoon. Due to the shorter and shorter days, Marin and I have had to get out a little earlier each afternoon if we want to catch the sunsets. As you can see in this picture, snow is on the ground and the temps are much colder. The two peaks you see in the back ground are Mount Meeker (13,916 feet) and Longs Peak ( 14, 259 feet) – about 40 miles away as the crow flies.

So all and all, other than Janet’s foot injury and my continued knee woes, it was another great month on the Front Range of Colorado. We still have not had much moisture in the form of rain or snow. But the temps have cooled significantly and this has decreased the fire danger. I have to remind myself that the Marshall Fire in Boulder County did not occur until almost the end of December of last year. Crazy when I think about it. Hopefully the cool weather and more snow / rain will fall in the next 30 days. If you want to read about the Marshall Fire here is a wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Fire

It was another great month for reading and I would like to share a few book recommendations. As I put forth on the last blog post, we are so fortunate to live in a time that allows so much access to information and books. To remain totally ignorant of a topic in today’s reality is a choice and not an excuse. As the late great Science Fiction author Harlan Ellison said: “You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”

So with that said, the first book review is on a book called Decoding Your Dog:  The Ultimate Experts Explain Common Dog Behaviors and Reveal How to Prevent or Change Unwanted Ones by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists.  If you want to get a basic understanding of canine behavior, both good and bad, then this is the book.  Each chapter is written by a different author(s) and covers just about every aspect of dog ownership.  There is “moderate depth” on most topics in my opinion.  But if there is anything deeper than this, the authors suggest you talk with your local Veterinarian.

I found this book a good review of most topics.  Everything from how to choose a new puppy, to house training, to basic training, to fixing common problem “dog” behaviors, etc.…  There is also a good section on kids and dogs.  I found this particularly interesting.  Especially the recommendation that young children should always, always be supervised around a dog no matter how “good” you think the dog is.  After many years of working in the ER and hearing all kind of dog bite stories, I can attest to this excellent recommendation.  As our Veterinarian once said:  “Any dog can and will bite in the right circumstances.”

I also liked the section on how all dogs need a job so to speak.   Those of us not involved with canines on a professional basis think that a job is only for working (police, military, protection, herding, etc…) dogs but that is not the case.  All dogs need some kind of job.  It helps to strengthen the bond between dog and owner, fights boredom, and gets rid of pent-up energy among other things.  The author of this chapter gives examples of common jobs, like doing agility and or obedience class with the dog, games with the dog like hide and seeks or find it games.  Long walks a few times per week was another suggestion.  And if you don’t have a lot of extra time to spend, you could even use mentally stimulating toys for the dog.   

 I got this book as an audio book but feel it would work better in traditional format.  There is a lot of information here and it would be nice to look back at certain chapters to review information.  Which is hard to do with an audio book.  I got this book at Amazon but you can probably find it at your local book store.  The Amazon link is here: https://www.amazon.com/Decoding-Your-Dog-audiobook/dp          

The next book I would like to give a recommendation on is called A Crack in Creation by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg.  Let me start off by saying that Dr. Doudna is an American biochemist whose efforts made it possible for CRISPR gene editing to become a reality in the real world so to speak.  She did this work along with her graduate student at the time Samuel H. Sternberg, now a PhD in his own right.  In 2020, Jennifer received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of this method for genome editing.   If you are not familiar with what CRISPR is all about, you need to be.  This technology has given humans the ability, if we so choose, to radically change our destiny.  We now have the power, for better or worse, to change who and what we are at a fundamental level.  This includes all living things in the environment.

CRISPR was actually discovered about thirty years ago, but not many understood at the time how important it might become.  CRISPR stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.”  In a nutshell, it allows for a much more accurate and cheaper way to edit genes.  At some point, there will not be any part of the human condition that has not been touched by this.  Jennifer and Samuel opened the world’s eyes in seeing how to edit genes in a new light.  This occurred back in 2012 and has since taken off, significantly.  The only limiting factor will be our imaginations. 

In the book, the authors go through the story of CRISPR and how it was developed into a more accurate and cheaper gene editing technique.  They do a great job in explaining it all, but if you are like me, you need some kind of visual representation to help with the understanding of how it works.  There are multiple short YouTube videos on this very subject.  My recommendation is to go and watch one so you have a much better understanding.  You can find a good one here: https://youtu.be/ANehpGhbuF4

Another part of the book that I found interesting was the Author’s warning on editing the human germ line.  That is where you forever change the DNA of a human that can then be passed on to future generations.  Scary but at the same time hopeful stuff.  It might mean the end of genetic diseases in family lines. Things like Sickle Cell Anemia, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, some cancers, genetic caused blindness, etc…

I listened to the book as an audio book, but I think it might work better in traditional format if you need to re-listen (like I did) or reread certain sections to better understand.  Of course you can find the book on Amazon or at your local book store.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/A-Crack-in-Creation-audiobook/dp

The next book I would like to give a recommendation to is called “The Body Keeps the Score:  Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Bessel A. van der Kolk, MD.”  Let me start off in saying that all of us, and I mean all of us, have experienced some type of trauma in our lives.  It is a part of the human condition for better or worse.  You didn’t have to be a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan, or go to a third world county like Haiti, or work in a busy ER like I did to experience trauma.  Trauma occurs anywhere and everywhere and no one is immune to it.  Whether it is war violence like what is going on in Ukraine or at home domestic violence, it can be found any place you look.  It affects us all, not just the person that experienced the trauma but everyone around them. Most of us try to bury the horrendous experience(s) by pushing it (them) out of our minds.  Unfortunately it does not work that way.   It will still be there and can surface at any time if the right triggers are pushed.  Trauma can cause actual physiological changes in the body, especially the brain.  Because of this, traumatized individuals can keep repeating the same mistakes in life: drinking too much, over eating, drug abuse, cutting, sexual promiscuous, etc.…never learning from the experience.  It is not a sigh of moral failure, or the lack of willpower, or just bad character, or for you religious types – the devil.  These behaviors are caused directly or indirectly by changes in the brain brought about by the traumatic experience. 

The treatment of trauma has been Dr. Kolk’s life’s work.  In his own words:  “ I wrote this book to serve as both a guide and an invitation to dedicate ourselves to facing the reality of trauma, to explore how best to treat it, and to commit ourselves, as a society, to using every means we have to prevent it.”

The book was published in 2014, so some treatment modalities might be a little dated or not included, otherwise the book is as relevant today as it was eight years ago.   This book is for everyone, not just the medical professionals.  One of the things that I really liked about the book was the topic on the “over use and potential misuse” of psychiatric medications.  Very interesting.  Another section that was a favorite of mine was the use of Yoga and Meditation in the treatment of trauma.  I practice both of these on a daily basis, but not for trauma.  I had no idea that they could be used this way.  Again pretty interesting.    

I liked this book so well, I got the paperback version and I am in the process of reading it again while listening at the same time.  The book works in any format.  I am sure you can find the book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp     

The next book I would like to give a recommendation to is a great “Brain Bubble Gum” book – one that you read just for the fun of it. A short escape from reality.  It is called Kingdom of Bones by James Rollins.  A pure Mystery/Thriller/Suspense type of book.  If you have read a Rollins book before then you know what I mean.  In this book, the Sigma Force is back and in the Congo working on trying to figure out a new viral outbreak that has plants and animals going berserk and becoming more aggressive.  But with humans that are infected – they become more docile and eventually go into a stupor/catatonic state.  Now throw into this mix, a rich bad guy with his own objectives. And you get a story that is hard to put down.

All the usual characters – Gray, Monk, Kowalski, Tucker and Kane are back in force and trying to save the world as usual.  One of things I really liked about the book was the last section where the author goes through and talks about what is real and what he totally made up to fit the story.  Pretty interesting and relevant to our current state of affairs with the pandemic.  

If you haven’t read a Rollins book before and are unfamiliar with the characters don’t worry.  The book can be read as a stand-alone.  If you are looking for a thriller with some history and science mixed in then this is the book for you.  I listened to it as an audio book but it would work in any format.  I am sure you can find it at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/Kingdom-Bones-Novel-Sigma-Novels/dp

The next book (another brain bubble gum) I would like to give a recommendation to is actually a book series.  The one I just finished is called Vengeance:  Confluence, Book 5 by Jennifer Foehner Wells.  This was the last book in a series of five books with two main protagonist character arcs that don’t overlap much at all with each other, but do with what is happening in the overall story.  The first two books and forth book, deal with the discovery that humans are not alone in the Universe (Dr. Jane Holloway is the main first protagonist) and the third and fifth book tell a story about a human (Darcy is the second main protagonist) that finds she is part of that much bigger cosmic picture.   And in the process, discovers that earth has been visited in the ancient past by aliens.   

When I listened to the third book of the series, not realizing that this was a separate protagonist character arc, I was a little confused to put it mildly.  But as the story went along I got my bearings.  These books are not really stand-alone books but need to be read in order.   This is a great space opera and well worth the read.  Here is a list of the books in order: Fluency book 1, Remanence book 2, Inheritance book 3, Valence book 4 and Vengeance book 5. 

I listened to them as audio books but they would work will with any format.  I am guessing that you could find them at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Vengeance-Confluence-Book-5/dp   

The last book I would like to give a semi-warm recommendation to is called Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.  This is more of a serious speculative fiction book. Not really a brain bubble gum book. I got this book after an NPR interview with the author.  You can listen to the interview here: https://www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978138547/kazuo-ishiguro-draws-on-his-songwriting-past-to-write-novels-about-the-future

The author won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature and has several other books to his name.   Klara and the Sun is his eighth or ninth novel.   

This is a dystopian science fiction novel with a little bit of mysticism thrown in, so it is not a true hard science fiction story.  The narration is told by an “AF” or Artificial Friend (Klara) who is the companion of a sickly child named Josie.  This is pretty interesting in itself and what makes the book.  Klara observes, records and analyses everything, but cannot see the bigger picture of what is happening to Josie.    

There are parts of the book that seem a little long winded but in the end are somewhat necessary in understanding the story.  This is not a fast paced action type of book.  There is none of the typical action infused drama in this story and maybe that is why it did not appeal to me as much.  It is more of “let’s take a year out of the lives of the characters that are living in a world in which something bad has happened” and make a story out of it.  We are never told what has happened or what the world might be like, except in tiny bits and pieces.  There is some interesting reflection and dialogue with the characters on what it is to be human.  But it does not give a satisfactory answer one way or another in my opinion.  I think that this book would appeal more to those of us that hold a belief in some kind of higher power.  For Klara it is the sun.    

I listened to this book as an audio book but it would work in any format.  You can get the book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/Klara-Sun-Novel/dp      

Last but not least I would like to show case a new piece of art work. I have been playing with acrylics more the last few months and I am finding that I really like it. Even better than pen and ink.

This one I call “It is all about the Heart.” It is 9×12 inches, acrylic paint on canvas paper, mounted to a hardboard frame and sealed with archival varnish.

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

In support of Prochoice and the 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 th end of another blog post! Yea! I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. One final thing before I go, I want to give a shout out to minimalism. It is one way to possibly make that “sting we are all feeling with inflation” a little less painful. And in the process of becoming minimalist you might find new happiness. I know that I did.

If your interested for more information, please check out this link: https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

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 stupid to say the least, if you were to lose your life 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, Exercise, Fort Collins, Gun Control, Marshall Fire, Pandemics, Rico Colorado, Science, Space

MUSINGS FOR OCTOBER 2022

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“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.” Harlan Ellison

The above image is known as the famous Stephan’s Quintet. It is considered the first compact galaxy group ever discovered and gets it’s name from Edouard Stephan (French astronomer). He discovered it in 1877 at the Marseille Observatory. The galaxy on the left (NGC 7320) appears to be a part of the group but is actually closer to earth at 40 million light years. The other galaxies are about 300 million light years away. The image is a composite of Webb telescope data (Infrared data) and Chandra (X-Ray data) and some data from the retired Spitzer telescope (again Infrared data). The blue color is data from Chandra and indicates a shock wave of millions of degrees as one galaxy passes through another. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52404135772/in/photostream/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan%27s_Quintet

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO;IR (Spitzer): NASA/JPL-Caltech;IR (Webb): NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

“The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.” Harlan Ellison

The above image is of the Cartwheel Galaxy or ESO 350-40 or PGC 2248 and is consider a lenticular ring galaxy. It is about 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. The interesting shape is thought to be the result of a collision with a smaller galaxy sometime in the past – estimated 200 to 300 million years ago. The above image is a composite of the Webb telescope (Infrared data) and Chandra (X-ray data). If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52404135532/in/photostream/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartwheel_Galaxy#X-ray_sources

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

“Gods can do anything. They fear nothing: they are gods. There is one rule, one Seal of Solomon that can confound a god, and to which all gods pay service, to the letter: when belief in a god dies, the god dies.” Harlan Ellison

This is an image of a cluster of galaxies know as SMACS 0723. This patch of sky (Constellation of Volans – Southern Hemisphere) has been imaged many time by the Hubble telescope and was one of the first spots to be looked at when the Webb telescope came online. What your looking at is around 4 billion light years from earth. The image is a composite of Webb (Infrared data) and Chandra (X-ray data). The blue haze at the center is superheated gas that has an estimated mass of about 100 trillion times that of the sun. Pretty hard to wrap my head around that one. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52405131881/in/photostream/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMACS_J0723.3%E2%80%937327

Image Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Durham Univ./G. Mahler; IR: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

“I know that pain is the most important thing in the universe. Greater than survival, greater than love, greater even than the beauty it brings about. For without pain, there can be no pleasure. Without sadness, there can be no happiness. Without misery there can be no beauty. And without these, life is endless, hopeless, doomed and damned.
Adult. You have become adult.” Harlan Ellison

The above image is of the galaxy pair VV 191. It is an example of superimposed galaxies – where one seems to be in front of another one. So far there is about 2000 known examples of this type of galaxy pair. What is cool about this image (it is composite of the Webb telescope and the Hubble) is that the galaxy on the left shows a previously unknown lensed galaxy. You can just see it at the 11 o’clock position on the left galaxy. It is the red looking smudge. The gravitational lensing occurs when the gravity of a massive object distorts the fabric of space time and bends/magnifies the light from a more distant object located behind it. This lensed galaxy went undetected in the Hubble telescope data and it was not until the Webb scope came into play that we were able to image it for the first time. If you would like to learn more please see this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/52406400196/in/photostream/

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), W. Keel (University of Alabama), S. Wyithe (University of Melbourne, Australia), and the JWST PEARLS Team

“Like a wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we were, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.” Harlan Ellison

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 all of us again!! Unfortunately some have not been so lucky. I am still hoping to be able to continue to say this for the rest of the year!

By the middle of September we were still seeing about 400 to 500 deaths per day and this continued into October. Unfortunately. The majority of these cases were over 65 adults, the immunocompromised and the unvaccinated. The first two you can do nothing about but the last one is just being stupid if you have not gotten vaccinated. There is plenty of data out there now that shows the vaccines work and they are safe. No excuses.

Data on how many new infections are occurring each month is really anyone’s guess at the moment. The “at home testing” does not allow anyway to gauge what is going on at the moment. The only ability we have now is the testing of waste water samples and then extrapolating from the amount of virus found to what community levels are. Of course that is assuming that the “political party” of a said state will actually do it. My guess is that we are still around 100,000 new cases per day. Who knows?! The death count has stayed pretty much the same so I am basing this guess on the fact that the positivity rate is also about the same.

The above picture has not changed. But again, I think North Carolina should be in the picture, which would push New Jersey out.

By the middle of October the total deaths in the US was about 1,090,000 or an increase of about 15 thousand deaths in the last 30 days.

On an interesting note, Germany had a spike in confirmed cases the first couple of weeks in October and tightened restrictions hoping to curb the spread of the virus. What usually happens in Europe, means that in a few weeks it will be here in the US. Unfortunately, with the large flu outbreak going on in Australia, which usually means a severe season for the US, things might get pretty interesting. We may be looking at a real “Twindemic” for this late fall and winter. Oh well, what are you going to do? Get vaccinated! Lol.

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 every other 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.

Another great YouTube channel to follow on Covid, and other infectious diseases like Monkey Pox and Polio, especially if you are someone that is medical, is this one: https://youtu.be/786kiTxg6Bk

It is a part of microbe.tv/twiv. Vincent Racaniello and Dr. Griffin do a great job in presenting the “information” each week. Vincent R. Racaniello is Higgins Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Daniel O. Griffin is an American infectious disease specialist. He is an instructor in Clinical Medicine and an associate research scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University.

The months of September and the first part of October were better for getting outdoors than the previous two months. We were still having high pollution afternoons along the front range of Colorado but they were decreasing in number as daytime temps cooled. And the wind patterns were favorable in keeping the smoke from the forest fires out west from tracking down into Colorado. Things were pretty good as compared to July and August.

After all the hiking we did, when we were in Rico, Colorado back in August (See last Blog post), I decided to take a week or two off from any serious outdoor exercise and give my left knee a rest so to speak. But I still got out every afternoon / evening and walked Marvin. I even made it up into the high country to see a little bit of the Aspen color change.

The pictures below were from one of my favorite trail running and hiking areas in the Rawah Wilderness Area – the West Branch Trail. The Aspens were just starting to change on September 20th.

The trees lower down were already in the process of changing, but higher up there was not much of a color change.
Temps at 9500 feet were still a little warm as Marvin is currently demonstrating.
This stand of Aspens at about 9500 feet had no color change yet.
Old loggers cabin from before the area was designated a Wilderness. I always find these kinds of artifacts / structures fascinating. When you look out at the trees in a Colorado forest today, very little of it is old growth. Almost all of it has been logged at one time or another.
Looking West towards Cameron Peak at 12,127 feet.
This is the view from the parking lot. One of my favorite spots.
Great beaver pond on the Laramie River close to the parking lot. This is what a lot of smaller streams and rivers in Colorado looked like prior to the 1700s. Before the beavers were trapped out. Again it is a reminder of what we see in Colorado’s mountain landscape is not natural but a human induced unnatural condition. Pretty interesting.

This last two pictures are of Janet and Marvin from our local neighborhood pond. The sunsets from this vantage point can be beautiful.

This picture was taken on October 8th at about 7pm in the evening.
This picture was taken October 10th, 2022 at about 6:30pm in the evening.

So all and all it was a great month here on the Front Range of Colorado. I am wondering what the rest of the fall will bring. We have not had much in the way of rain or snow in the last 30 days and the average temps are about 4 to 8 degree above normal. This has made for some great weather but at the same time it is a little worrisome. I don’t think anyone wants to see a repeat of the Marshall Fire situation that occurred last year at the end of December 2021. A lot of the Front Range Foothills and Plains are vulnerable to this type of situation. If you don’t remember what the fire was about check out this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Fire

It was another great month for reading and I would like to share a few new book recommendations. We are so fortunate to have the access to all the information that is out there. If you can at least read or listen to an audio book there is no reason that you could not set a goal of one book per month. In my opinion, this would be one the best habits you could ever have. Read, read, read and read some more! Lol.

The first book I would like to recommend is called Existential Physics by Sabine Hossenfelder. Let me start off by saying this book is about some of our biggest questions currently in physics and that Sabine is the perfect scientist to help you start to think about these conundrums.  Especially for those of us that are not scientist.  She has the rare talent of being able to explain some very complicated topics in layman’s terms.  But before I get too far let me say that Dr. Hossenfelder has the credential to do this, for she is a theoretical physicist at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, where she explores the intricacies of quantum gravity.  I first learned about her on YouTube.  She has a channel called “Science without the gobbledygook.”  If you interested check out this link: https://www.youtube.com/c/SabineHossenfelder/videos

In the book, she covers things such as “Does the Past Still Exist”, “Are You Just a Bag of Atoms”, and “Has Physics Ruled out Free Will”, among other topics.  She does this in a way that is in line with current known/tested real world models.   I found the book a refreshing look at what we know in physics and more importantly what is just conjecture or opinion.  As an example, take “Multiverse Theory.”  Now there is nothing wrong with pondering the possibilities of having multiple universes, but until it can be tested and proved or disproved it is basically just opinion.  Sabine does an excellent job at pointing these conjectures out.  It is a good look at what we know and what we don’t know. 

I got the book as an audio book but it might work better in traditional format.  There is a lot of information here to unpack and I found myself listening to sections and chapters more than once.  I am guessing you can find the book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the link for Amazon:   https://www.amazon.com/Existential-Physics-Scientists-Biggest-Questions/dp/

Another great book to read this fall, especially if you are over the age of 50 like I am, is called “Breaking the Age Code:  How your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live,” by Becca Levy.  I found this book very interesting.  Especially now that I am over 60 years old.  Lol.  I am not so sure I would have appreciated it as much if I had read it back when I was thirty.  The author is a Professor of Epidemiology in Social and Behavioral Science at Yale University.  Her research is in social gerontology and the psychology of aging.  The book starts off by showing how our attitudes affect how we age as individuals.  And that by incorporating positive age beliefs we can reverse the process a bit.  Pretty interesting stuff.  Before getting the book I had developed a habit of teasing my wife about our ages (we are both over 60) and how “new” aches/pains are just the process of getting older.  Of course this was all done with a tongue-cheek kind of humor.  Lol.  But now, I am much more careful about this type of kidding.  What is the old saying: “Your body believes every word you say.”  (I think that this is the actual title to a book by the author Barbara Hoberman Levine.) 

While the part about internalized negative age beliefs vs positive age beliefs was interesting, it was not the best part for me.  What really opened my eyes was the sections on how society reinforces these beliefs.  And how a type of discrimination called ageism is much more prevalent than we think.  Everything from job discrimination to how you are treated in the health care system.  One of the best examples was the author describing a school play in which the kids were dressed up as “old people” and acting out stereotypical funny old age behavior.  She goes on to describe how everyone was laughing at the skit.  Of course, before reading the book and turning 60, I probably would have too.  This example caused me to stop and pause and ask myself is this OK?  Or is it part of a much bigger and deeply ingrained behavior.  Pretty interesting.

This is a great book to read even if you’re not over 50 right now.  Besides if you play your cards right, you might get lucky and become an old person someday too.  I listened to this book as an audiobook but it would work well in any format.  The book can probably be found at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the link to Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Age-Code-Beliefs-Determine/dp/   

The next book I would like to recommend goes along with the previous book but by a different author.  It looks at aging in a different light.  This book is called “The Science and Technology of Growing Young:  An Insider’s Guide to the Breakthroughs That will Dramatically Extend Our Lifespan…and What You Can Do Right Now by Sergey Young.  The author is the founder of the Longevity Vision Fund.  This fund is a 100 million dollar investment fund dedicated to making longevity affordable and accessible to all.  The idea is to accelerate research by investing in companies that are creating technologies, products and services that keep you healthy and extend lifespans. 

In the last few years I have been interested in research along these lines, so when I saw this book and read the author’s bio, I thought it might be a good one to read.   And it was.  The book goes into detail about all the research being done in this area of medicine.  Things like regenerative therapeutics, genetic engineering, health data tracking, and theories of why we age, etc.…  There is also a good portion of information scattered thought out the book on the sociology and psychology of longevity.  I especially liked the section on “precision medicine” and how it is slowly changing how we treat people in the medical landscape.  Traditionally, in medicine, it has been the old idea of one size fits all approach.  And this works to some degree for most patients, but is not quit perfect and for a lot of patients, it does not work at all.  Now que the development of AI and Health informatics and you have the ability to potentially tailor medical treatment for each individual based on that individual’s unique health profile.  Pretty cool. 

As a bonus, the final chapter is about how to live longer today.  The author describes the attitudes, habits and choices you need for today to hopefully take advantage of the current longevity research as it comes to fruition in the next decade.  It would be a real bummer to miss a longevity break through that might only be a few years away. 

I listened to the book as an audio book but it would work well in any format.  You can probably find the book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/Science-Technology-Growing-Young-Breakthroughs/dp/

The next book I would like to review is one on Global Warming that was published this year.  It is called “Hothouse Earth:  An Inhabitant’s Guide” by Bill McGuire.  The author is a volcanologist and Professor Emeritus of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at the University of London.  Let me start out by saying that this is not one of those feel good at the end climate books.  You know the ones which say we can prevent global warming, blah, blah, blah… and there is still time to turn it around.  No, this is a blunt look at what we are facing now and in the coming decades.  Dr. McGuire argues in the book that we are way past the point of no return in the ongoing climate crisis.  That our only hope for now is to try to mitigate the worst effects.  He starts the book out by giving us a good perspective on what our climate was and how it changed multiple times in the past.  Then he brings us up to date on where we are at now. It’s not good. 

Besides the usual “warming climate” effects like increased temperature, drought, forest fires, sea level rise, etc.…  The author had a section on how the melting of the polar caps and glaciers could spell an increase in large scale events like earthquakes and volcanic activity.  This is one that I had not read about before.  It did not occur to me that the weighing and un-weighing of the earth’s crust due to changes in rainfall and drought, could create potential slips along a boundary of two major tectonic plates and create an earthquake.  Wow, I had no idea. 

The other one was the melting of glaciers on large volcanic peaks or land surfaces could result in enough of a decrease in stress load on the earth’s crust, that you see an increase in volcanic events.  The idea is that there is less weight holding subsurface magma down so it is easier for it to come to the surface.  I did a little google searching on this topic and saw were this has already been found to have happened in the past in Iceland.  NASA has an article (published 2019) about these effects and can be found here:   https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2926/can-climate-affect-earthquakes-or-are-the-connections-shaky/

All in all this was a good book for a wakeup call.  No, we can’t prevent what is going to happen but maybe we can head the worst of it off.  I listened to the book as an audio book but it would work well in any format.  I think you should be able to find this book at your local book store or on Amazon.  The Amazon link is here: https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Hothouse-Earth-Hot-Science/dp/

The last book I want to give a recommendation to is called “The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization” by Peter Zeihan.  This book was suggested to me by a friend that had seen my earlier review of a similar book called Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio.  Both books cover the coming change in globalization but from different angles.  Both are good, Ray looks at the picture in a large historical context (the last 500 years) and Peter looks at it in the context of the last 100 years, specifically from the end of World War 2 until now.  And Peter’s book goes into a lot more detail of where we are currently and how we got here.   Peter is a geopolitical analyst and author on four other books on geopolitics.   

Until I read this book, I really did not give much thought as to how our current day “International / World Society” formed over the years.  Specifically the international trade game of where and who makes the products and food we all enjoy globally.  We take so many things for granted, that our parents, grandparents or great grandparents never had access to.  For better or worse, free market capitalism and globalization has given billions of people in the world ( including us) the opportunity to have a standard of living that would only be a pipe dream to our ancestors. 

In the book, Peter argues what will happen when this type of globalization, that we have known for at least the last 20 years, ends and what it will mean for countries, not just the United States, around the world. Questions like:  What if countries had to grow all their own food, create their own energy sources, produce all their own goods, fight their own battles, etc.…? We all depend on globe spanning supply chains, as the pandemic readily pointed out, but what if that ended?  How would the world cope?  This is a large part of what the book talks about.  Along with this aspect, the author touches on another topic that I had not given too much thought to – populations and birth rate.  For an economy to grow in a free market capitalistic system, people have to “buy” stuff.  But if your population significantly declines as populations age and die, who is going to pick up that slack.  Very interesting ideas. 

The previous presidency was based on the idea of ending globalization. But could it be, if America changed all of it trade policies and became a full isolationist country, would it be enough to throw the whole thing into a tailspin world wide? Well this is what Peter argues. That the only reason we have globalization like we do now is because of American involvement after WW2. And after listening to what this would mean to the rest of the world if it ended, I can see why people got so “bent out of shape” when this policy was being pursued by the previous White House administration.

This is a great book – “A WAKE UP CALL” in a way. After listening to it, I for one do not want globalization to end. Would America survive? Yes, but it would be a downgrade in our standard of living and absolutely disastrous for other parts of the world. I got it as an audiobook but it would work in any format.  I am guessing you can find it at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:   https://www.amazon.com/End-World-Just-Beginning-Globalization/dp/          

Last but not least I would like to show case a new piece of art work.

Third painted Wolf Face. I call this one Canis 3. I have always had a fascination with wolves. They have always seemed larger than life to me. The wolf has been a common theme in mythology since time immortal. Especially in the cultures of Eurasia and North America. I got the initial idea for doing a series of large wolf faces several years ago while reading the Game of Thrones books by George R.R. Martin. After watching the HBO adaption, I knew I had to do this. Instead of trying to do a realistic version, I thought it might be more interesting to create paintings that evoke more of the potential mythology of the wolf.

These are large acrylic paintings that are done on OSB or Oriented strand board. The boards or sheets were given to me by my neighbor when he was remodeling his basement several years ago. He was in the process of throwing them away but thought I might want them. In keeping with North American wolf symbolism, I cut the sheets into circles to symbolize creation, death and rebirth.

The diameter is about 46 inches across, and the weight is about 50 lbs.

Canis 3

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

In support of Prochoice and the Separation of Church and State, I will donate 10% of any sales to Planned Parenthood or the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Well I have come the end of another blog post! Yea! I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. It takes a lot more time than I ever realized. Lol.

No shout out to Minimalism for now. I will save that one for next time. But if you are disappointed and are interested, here are a few links to get you started on sustainability, minimalism and the steady state economy: 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 or boosted, even if you have had Covid, then get it done. It would be stupid to say the least, if you were to lose your life 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, Exercise, Fort Collins, High Camp Hut, Minimalism, Pandemics, Religion, Rico Colorado, Science, Science Fiction, Space

MUSINGS FOR SEPTEMBER 2022

2 Comments

“We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.” Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

The above image is from the James Webb Space Telescope and is called the Cartwheel Galaxy because it looks like a wheel from a cart. It is located about 500 million light years away in the constellation known as Sculptor. It is thought that the shape was created by the collision of a smaller galaxy though what was a large disk galaxy. And this produced ripples, similar to the ripples that are created when a stone is dropped into a pond. The outer ring is an intense area of star formation. To give some scale to this, the outermost ring of the galaxy is 1.5 times the size of our Milky Way. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220824.html and https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2018/hubble-s-cartwheel

“In the way that skepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the sceptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.” Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

This is a photo that was taken back in August 2022 with the James Webb telescope. It is of Jupiter. This is considered one of our best views of the iconic planet to date, showing differences in cloud layers and the Auroras at each pole. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and the largest in the solar system. It is a gas giant. This planet is the third brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jupiter ERS Team; Processing: Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU) & Judy Schmidt. If you would like to learn more about his image please see these links: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220830.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter

“Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course. Microbiology and meteorology now explain what only a few centuries ago was considered sufficient cause to burn women to death.” Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

This stunning image was recently captured by the James Webb Space telescope. The picture showcases a group of stars that are known as NGC 2070 or Caldwell 103. They are part of what is known as the Tarantula Nebula. In this Nebula is a huge cluster of some of the largest and hottest stars known to date. It was first observed by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1751 and 1753. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220907.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_Nebula

“Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? … No other human institution comes close.” Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

This is one of my favorite images from the Hubble Space Telescope. It is called a Starburst Galaxy or Messier 94. It is 15 million light years from earth in the norther constellation Canes Venatici ( Hunting Dogs). It was first discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781 and catalogued by Charles Messier two days later. The is a great example of a spiral galaxy. Even though 15 million miles is a very, very long way from earth, this galaxy is popular with astronomers because it is bright enough to be spotted with smaller telescopes. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220731.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_94

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!! Oh well what are you going to do??

By the first week of August we were still adding about 60,000 to well over 100,000 cases per day and the total death toil was about 1,059,000. This was an increase in about 15,000 deaths from the first week of July. And the variant of concern was BA5. Unfortunately the numbers for new cases you have to take with a slight grain of salt due to the fact that home testing has no tracking. It is any bodies guess how high the actually numbers might be. The death count is probably much, much higher but again due to no national mandatory reporting laws, we really do not know.

The above picture has not changed. These are the top states as it stands with the highest morbidity and mortality. The only exception is North Carolina. My guess is if NC reported their counts correctly and honestly, then they would move into the picture and push Michigan out. Interesting to say the least.

By the end of the month (August 2022), we were still adding at least 60,000 cases per day and increasing the death toil by 300 to 500 cases per day. Covid is still considered the fourth leading cause of death, right behind heart disease, cancer and accidents. By the first week of September the total number of deaths for the USA was 1,730,000. Or again, another 15,000 deaths in the last 30 days for a total of 30,000 deaths in the last 60 days. We are done with the virus but unfortunately the virus is not done with us.

Now in better news, on September 1st, the CDC endorsed the use of an updated booster for the omicron subvariants. One was from Moderna and another was from Pfizer. My guess and it is only a guess, because there is no real data yet, this will become a yearly occurrence just like the flu shot. A good link to check this out is from the PBS news hour: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/updated-covid-19-booster-shots-are-now-available-heres-what-you-need-to-know

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 every other 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.

Another great YouTube channel to follow on Covid, and other infectious diseases like Monkey Pox and Polio, especially if you are someone that is medical, is this one: https://youtu.be/786kiTxg6Bk

It is a part of microbe.tv/twiv. Vincent Racaniello and Dr. Griffin do a great job in presenting the “information” each week. Vincent R. Racaniello is Higgins Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Daniel O. Griffin is an American infectious disease specialist. He is an instructor in Clinical Medicine and an associate research scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University.

The months of July and August were again not as good as it was in the spring for being outdoors. There were air quality issues as in “Ozone action days each and everyday.” And heat, it was hot here on the front range of Colorado. It was so hot that I had to resort to walking Marvin twice per day – everyday. Once in the mornings and once in the evenings. The only time that this was different is when I got a change to get up into the high country. And even then, temps above 10,000 feet were higher than usual. Oh well what are you going to do?!

This month instead of showing pictures from in and around Fort Collins, I thought I would post some from a trip we took in August to the town of Rico, Colorado. Janet and I with Marvin made this trip to visit the middle daughter. She moved there with her significant other Dave this past year to become the managers along with the owner Cindy of the “High Camp Hut.” We got to see the place while we were visiting and I have to say it is pretty cool. The hut is located at about 11,000 feet in the San Juan National Forest. It is situated on about 300 acres of private land in the Forest. To call it a Hut is somewhat of a misnomer in my opinion. It is more of a large fully outfitted cabin in the woods. There is no cell service and no Wi-Fi, so you are definitely unplugged from the rest of the world. And if you are like most of us in modern society, being unplugged from our hyper-connected world every once and a while is a good thing. If your interested and want more information, please check out their website: https://www.highcamphut.com/

The pictures below are from the area around the Hut and the Hut itself.

Sheep Mountain 13,176 feet
San Miguel Peak 13,734 feet
Lizard Head Peak 12,996 feet
High Camp Hut

The next set of pictures are from a couple of local trails around the town of Rico. The town is not a big place, less than 200 residents at any give time. There is a gas station if you need gas, but the only hotel had closed when we were visiting and only a few choices for dinning with limited hours. When asking about this, I got the feeling that the “locals” kind of like it that way. Lol. Rico was a silver mining center in the late 1800s. A good website to learn more and see pictures of Rico is here: https://www.uncovercolorado.com/towns/rico/

This picture is just outside the town of Rico along the Dolores River.
Janet and Marin on a trail in Rico.

The next few pics below are from the Scotch Creek Toll Road and Pinkerton Trail. This trail/road was the only route into Rico in the 1800s until the railroad reached Rico in 1891. Incredible to think this was the only way into the valley if you had to move large items and by horse and oxen no less. So many things we take for granted in our modern lives.

The next few pics are from an area that is called Horse Gulch Creek Trail and is a launch point for paragliders when the weather is cooperative. Janet and I were amazed at the number of Aspen in the area. There were a lot and I am guessing that you could get a spectacular fall viewing if the conditions are right.

I believe this is Heartleaf Arnica or Mountain tobaccos. Arnica cordifolia. These flower were everywhere but especially on this trail.
Lots of Aspens all around Rico!
This trail climbed a bit from the highway parking lot and had great views of the valley from several locations. We found out later it was a launch point for paragliders. Pretty cool.

These next pictures were from the East Fork Trail to Twin Creek. This trail follows the Dolores River as it climbs into the mountains above town. If you were to follow it far enough it connects to a whole network of other trails in the same area. Pretty cool.

Looking towards Rico and Highway 145.
Looking down toward the Dolores river at the bottom of the hill. It is not that large at this point. We were not too far from it’s headwaters. The river is named, “El Rio de Nuestra Senora de Dolores” or The River of Our Lady of Sorrows. It was named by a Spanish trader in 1765. If you would like to learn more about the River please see this link: https://www.americanrivers.org/river/dolores-river/
Hawk’s Wing Mushroom
Our favorite “middle” daughter Jean-Marie and her dog Benson! Lol
Janet, Me and Marvin at the first of Twin Creeks. This was about three miles back.

It was a good trip to see Jean-Marie and Dave and to check out some of the local hiking areas. I did not do any running because of an overuse injury to my left knee. Runners are their own worst enemy but I will save that story for another time.

Even though the town of Rico is only about 30 miles from the big resort of Telluride there does not seem to be the same level of development and activity as you see in Frisco/Breckenridge area or the Vail/Edwards area. While there is an advantage in having certain amenities with increased development, there always comes a point of diminishing returns. The challenge is to create enough growth to have certain things but not too much that you permanently change the feeling and character of an area. In my opinion Rico could use a little extra growth but just a little. I was blown away when I first saw the town with it proximity to Telluride. You could say it is even a bit run down looking. My guess is that it has something to do with the locals and being a Home Rule Municipality. They recently voted down a local initiative to get a regular sewer system. The entire town is still on septic!

On an interesting note, a mining company in the area is selling what appears to be all or part of it’s holdings called Silver Springs at Rico. It totals 181 separate parcels of land (146 mining claims, 6 tracts and 29 platted lots) for a total of about 1146 acres. It has been on the market since April 2022 and list for 10 million. Which, when you think about it, is not much since you are less than 30 miles to Telluride. It will be interesting to see who buys this and what happens with the rest of the town when this occurs.

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

A great Science Fiction book to take a look at this late summer and early fall is one by Blake Crouch called Upgrade:  A Novel.  If you are someone that has occasionally followed the science of gene editing and the CRISPR technique, I think you would really find this novel entraining.  But, even if you have not followed anything about gene editing, this is still a great read.  So, if you do not know what CRISPR is then let me give a very brief synopsis of what it has allowed scientist to do.   First what does it mean?  CRISPR is an acronym for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.”  Do you need to know what that really means to enjoy the book?  No, not really.  Lol.  What it has allowed though, in a nutshell, is a more rapid, accurate and cheaper way of editing genes in DNA. It really increased the precision in manipulating genes in any living organism.  From viruses to humans and everything in between.    

The story takes place in the not too distant future, in which the main character’s mother has invented a gene editing technique that makes CRISPR look like child’s play.  And because of this, the whole world has been or has the potential to be transformed.  If you have read the book by Nancy Kress called Beggars and Choosers (published in 1994) then you will understand all the possibilities this opens up.  If not, no worries.

This book explores one of the many possible futures that gene editing makes possible.  I loved this SiFi book because it points out our potential blind spots. We are all worried about climate change, the war in Ukraine, the lingering pandemic, etc.… We all have our eyes on what we think is the approaching “disaster bus” as it bears down on our car (humanity), but in reality we do not see the speeding train (unregulated gene editing) that crashes into us as we cross the tracks!  Of course the story is only Science Fiction but it still gives me chills thinking about it.  Lol. 

Of course I listened to the book as an audio book but it would work well in any format. You should be able to find it at your local book store or Amazon. Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Upgrade-Novel-Blake-Crouch-ebook/dp

Another good Science Fiction book that I would like to recommend is called “Atropos” by John Japuntich.  This is a good science fiction yarn that has to do with current topics in science, like genetic engineering, information technology, longevity, the possibility of future space travel, etc.… There is also some good content on geopolitics and religion.  The author takes all of these topics and weaves them together to give the reader an interesting story with good food for thought.  It made me wonder, what would happen if there was a way to end all death due to natural causes but at the cost of zero birth rate?  How would humanity as a whole respond to this type of crisis?  And I think it would be seen as a crisis.  Especially with the zero drop in birth rate.  Interesting ideas.     

I believe this is the author first crack at a full length novel and I have to give him an A minus.  The story line was good and it kept me interested to the very end.  There was a little bit of jumping around in the different story arcs of the characters but once I got used it, the narrative flowed fairly smoothly.  I got this book as an audio book but I think it would work better in traditional format.  The narration did not work for me as well as it has with other stories of this type.  You should be able to find this book at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:  https://www.amazon.com/Atropos-John-Japuntich-ebook/dp 

The next book I would like to recommend is also a Science Fiction book.  This one is called “The Kaiju Preservation Society” by John Scalzi.  If you have read any of Scalzi’s previous books then you will understand the kind of entertaining and talented writer that he is.  This book is no exception.  It is a quick and fun read that is just pure brain bubble gum.  Lol.  I love the fact that he weaves the story line into current events with the Covid pandemic.  There is just enough “science” to be plausible and believable. 

If you have not googled the word Kaiju yet, let me tell you what it is.  It means “Strange Beast” and is a Japanese genre of films and television featuring giant monsters.  Think Godzilla but in an alternate dimension in which humans are absent.  In the book, the Kaiju are in trouble and humans help to keep them safe, but there is someone trying to make a profit off them.  And of course, this is where the trouble begins.  Don’t be turned off by the “Godzilla theme,” thinking it’s a little hokey.  I thought the same thing at first but due to author’s reputation I got it anyway and I am glad that I did.    

I listened to the book as an audio book but it will work in any format.  You can probably find it at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:    https://www.amazon.com/The-Kaiju-Preservation-Society/dp  

Also if you have never read any of Scalzi’s books, another one I highly recommend is “Old Man’s War.”

The last book I would like to review is called “The Forest of Vanishing Stars:  A Novel” by Kristin Harmel.  Let me start out by saying that this is not my usual type of fiction book, but I find it good to read outside of your traditional likes a few times per year.  This one was recommended by my sister and I am glad that she did.  It is a WW2 survival novel that takes place in a forest of Eastern Europe.  It has a somewhat similar story line to the 2008 movie called Defiance.

It took me a little time to get engrossed in the book, mainly due to some of the mysticism and religion that is part of the book, but by about half way in, I wanted to find out how it was going to end.  In a very brief nutshell, the main character (Yona) is put into an impossible situation of being a forest dweller and encountering an ill-prepared group of Jews fleeing the Nazi occupation. It does not take long for her to come to the realization that she is the last hope of these people being able to survive a harsh winter in the wild. Not to mention that she must keep them and herself hidden since they are still being hunted by the Nazis. 

   

It was a good story, but not one that really stands out in my mind initially. What made the “good to great review” was the author’s note at the end.  It was rather lengthy but this was a good thing.  The author goes into all the research that helped to inspire her with writing the story.  Very interesting and definitely was the icing on the cake so to speak.

I got the book as an audio book but it would work in any format.  I am sure you can find it at your local book store or on Amazon.  Here is the Amazon link:   https://www.amazon.com/Forest-Vanishing-Stars-Novel/dp

Last but not least I would like to show case a new piece of art work. This is the fifth version of what I call Jesus of Borg or SiFi Jesus. Or what you could call “Transhumanist Jesus” depending on whether you believe Jesus was an alien or inspired and created by humanity’s need to find meaning in an uncaring Universe.

I decided to do these pieces initially over anger of the Texas GOP’s enactment of their draconian anti-abortion law. I had only planned to do a limited number, but now with the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs Wade, I will continue to make them.  I have three adult daughters and while they might not agree on whether it is right or wrong to get an abortion, they all agree that it is “their right” to choose. And I agree with them. So that is how the project started out, but it morphed into something a little different. Did you know that there are at least 10,000 different denominations of Christianity in the world? Of course, some say this number is much higher, but I figure 10,000 is a safe estimate. Knowing this I thought why not make up my own Jesus?! A lot of other people have. So, I did. And what I came up with was a tough but accepting LGBT SiFi Jesus. A Jesus that would assimilate all other Jesuses, even Republican Jesus, into a hive mind and create an accepting and loving collective for all people and all religions. AND the Jesus Brothers would support all women in their right to choose! In Star Trek, the Borg are considered the enemy but, in my version, I have turned it around and made “Jesus of Borg” the good guy, the savior from the Conservative Christian Taliban.

This drawing is done in pen and ink with a little acrylic paint thrown in. It is mounted to painted white board and coated with Mod Podge. It measures approximately 9.25 inches wide by 12.25 inches tall. When hanging the overall height is 17.25 inches. I have called these studies of Jesus by several different names, Jesus of Borg or SiFi Jesus or the current name of Transhumanist Jesus.

Transhumanist Jesus #5

These pieces 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

In support of Prochoice and the Separation of Church and State, I will donate 10% of any sales to Planned Parenthood or the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

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! But before I go, I would like to give another shout out to becoming minimalist. I think that the quote below from the movie “Fight Club” says it best. Lol. Of course minimalism is much, much more than that, but if you had to boil it down to one reason for being minimalist then this would be it.

There is way too much to go into detail here in the blog post about minimalism and others have done it a lot better than me, so 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 or boosted, then get it done. It would be stupid to lose your life or suffer significant disability with this virus when vaccines are readily available in this country. So until next time Adios!!

“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, Cameron Peak Fire, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Minimalism, Pandemics, Religion, Science, Space, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR AUGUST 2022

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“Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not.” Michael Shermer

Hubble Space Telescope

The above image is from the Hubble Space Telescope and the below image is from the James Webb Space Telescope. These are images of the open cluster named NGC 3324 in the constellation Carina, located northwest of the Carina Nebula. These pictures are of a small section or edge of a gaseous cavity within NGC 3324. The bottom picture is of the Carina Nebula and if you look to the top right you can see the open cluster NGC 3324 that is a small part of the Nebula. Pretty amazing when you think about the scale involved. The “small” pocket sized gaseous cavity in NGC 3324 is about 35 light years across. This does not sound like much, but when you realize one light year is 5.88 trillion miles, you can start to understand the distance involved.

James Webb Space Telescope – much greater detail!

The above image is of the Carina Nebula with NGC 3324 at the top right. Image credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI and Harel Boren. If you would like to learn more about any of the images please see these links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3324#:~:text=NGC%203324%20is%20an%20open%20cluster%20in%20the,nebula%20IC%202599%2C%20also%20known%20as%20Gum%2031. And https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

It is time to step out of our evolutionary heritage and our historical traditions and embrace science as the best tool ever devised for explaining how the world works.  It is time to work together to create a social and political world that embraces moral principles and yet allows for natural human diversity to flourish.  Religion cannot get us there, because it has no systematic methods of explanations of the natural world.  And no means of conflict resolution on moral issues when members of competing sects hold absolute beliefs that are mutually exclusive. Flawed as they may be, science and the secular enlightenment values expressed in Western Democracies are our best hope for survival. Michael Shermer

James Webb Space Telescope – again compare the detail in the above image to the one below!

The above image is from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope of a galaxy cluster called SMACS 0723. The bottom image of the same object, is from Hubble. This is a cluster of galaxies that are about 4 billion light years from earth. This was one of the first images from Webb. There are thousand of galaxies in this image. What I find even more amazing is if you were standing on the ground and holding your arm out, this image would only cover a patch of sky about the size of a grain of sand at the end of your arm. Image and information credits and links: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI and https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMACS_J0723.3%E2%80%937327

Hubble Space Telescope

“Finally, from what we now know about the cosmos, to think that all this was created for just one species among the tens of millions of species who live on one planet circling one of a couple of hundred billion stars that are located in one galaxy among hundreds of billions of galaxies, all of which are in one universe among perhaps an infinite number of universes all nestled within a grand cosmic multiverse, is provincially insular and anthropocentrically blinkered. Which is more likely? That the universe was designed just for us, or that we SEE the universe as having been designed just for us?” Michael Shermer

The above photo is of Jupiter and a hypothetical drawing of the exoplanet called WASP-96b discovered in 2014. It is about 1100 light years from earth and orbits its star about every 3.4 days. When the new James Webb Space Telescope looked at this exoplanet, it captured the signature of water and the evidence for clouds. Check out the atmosphere composition picture below created with the Webb data. And if you want to learn more about this exoplanet check out this cool NASA link: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/5152/wasp-96-b/

Image and information credits and links: Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI and https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WASP-96b

“Myths, whether in written or visual form, serve a vital role of asking unanswerable questions and providing unquestionable answers. Most of us, most of the time, have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. We want to reduce the cognitive dissonance of not knowing by filling the gaps with answers. Traditionally, religious myths have served that role, but today — the age of science — science fiction is our mythology.” Michael Shermer

James Webb Space Telescope

The above image is from the James Webb Space Telescope called Stephan’s Quintet. The below image is from Hubble taken with its Wide Field Camera 3. It is a visual of five galaxies. But this is a bit of an inaccurate description. Studies of the Hubble image below have shown that the galaxy in the upper left (NGC 7320) is actually 7 times closer to earth than the other galaxies. To get the above image with Webb it took over 1,000 separate image files, for a total of 150 million pixels.

Hubble Space Telescope

Image and information credits and links: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI and https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages and https://esahubble.org/images/heic0910i/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan%27s_Quintet

“What is the probability that Yahweh is the one true god, and Amon Ra, Aphrodite, Apollo, Baal, Brahma, Ganesha, Isis, Mithra, Osiris, Shiva, Thor, Vishnu, Wotan, Zeus, and the other 986 gods are false gods? As skeptics like to say, everyone is an atheist about these gods; some of us just go one god further.” Michael Shermer

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!! Oh well what are you going to do??

By the 6th of July we were still in the 100,000 plus cases per day range. The variant of concern was B5. Amazing how quickly it had changed from BA.2.12.1 to B5. By the middle of July BA5 made up a majority of Covid cases in the US. And my guess is that we are going to have another wave unfortunately, but smaller this time. It seems that most of the general public are over it. The pandemic I mean. Case in point. A friend of mine went to an outdoor wedding and they were the only one wearing a mask out of several hundred guests. Now granted it was outdoors but people were packed fairly close together. Close enough that if you were infected you could easily spread it to someone else. Then the reception was held inside with no one wearing a mask and eating and drinking and talking loud and singing, etc… Well you get the point. Sure enough a few days later some reported being infected. No telling how many more were but did not come forward to say that they were. Think of it this way, this is the most infectious disease humanity has experienced since measles.

So you may ask who is dying from Covid now? Well half of the 300 to 500 per day are the unvaccinated or un-boosted. The others are either immunocompromised or over the age of 75. Of course this does not include the people that will develop long Covid. We may be done with the pandemic but the virus is not done with us.

Again, the above picture has not changed officially. I am wondering how many states are just not reporting as they were. Especially the ones that are the closest to making the top 10. Like Arizona, Tennessee, North Carolina, etc… My guess is that they are finding some kind of loop hole that allows them to not report that a patient had Covid when they died. Pretty interesting in how this works out. It is all about economics. Who would want to visit a state that is reporting a high case count and death rate? Even if it was only 5 to 10 percent of people that would change their plans, that is a significant economic hit in our current system of free market capitalism. Again what is that old saying? “Nothing personal it’s just business.” I do believe that people should have the freedom to take their own risks. But how can you adequately access the risk if you don’t have the relevant data? The with holding of information that could significantly affect public health, that is a problem.

A question you might ask is “how do the experts or those that are in charge” know what Covid is doing across the nation. One answer is based on hospitalizations but another way of finding out what is going on is through waste water testing. This in my opinion has a lot of potential for figuring out what is going on in a community without all the associated difficulty of getting people to get tested. If you want to learn more, a great article on this from Tufts University can be accessed here: https://now.tufts.edu/2022/06/21/wastewater-surveillance-covid-19-its-complicated

By the middle of the month (July 2022), we were still adding over 100,000 cases officially each day, but that number is probably double that due to unreported home testing. The death count was around 300 to 500 per day and again this number is probably under reported. The total death count stood at 1,049,000 for a total of about 5000 deaths in the last 8 to 9 days. So that is better than last month.

By the end of the month (July 2022), we were still adding about 450 deaths per day and about 100,000+ new cases per day. And over the course of last 30 days, we had added another 12,000 deaths. While this is way down from what things had been back at the first of 2022, it still comes out to over 100,000 deaths per year. Making Covid the fourth to third leading cause of death in the USA, right behind heart disease, cancer and accidents.

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 every other 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.

Another great YouTube channel to follow on Covid, especially if you are someone that is medical is this one: https://youtu.be/786kiTxg6Bk

It is a part of microbe.tv/twiv. Vincent Racaniello and Dr. Griffin do a great job in presenting the “information” each week. Vincent R. Racaniello is Higgins Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Daniel O. Griffin is an American infectious disease specialist. He is an instructor in Clinical Medicine and an associate research scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University.

The months of June and July were not as good for getting outdoors as was May. This was mainly due to much higher temperatures and lower air quality here on the Front Range of Colorado, it required a little more planning due to the heat. Especially for Marvin and myself. And pretty much every afternoon was an Ozone action day. This has gotten so bad along the front range of Colorado, the EPA has moved the ozone issue to “Severe.” Hopefully this will require the state to apply more stringent air quality measures across the region. It does no good to get out and exercise if you torque your lungs and body in the process due to air pollution.

In order to get out, before the heat and ozone becomes a problem, has been to get up early. I have been in the process of trying to reset my body clock after working for years as a night shift person. So for me to get up early and not sleeping until 12 noon is a big accomplishment. Lol. I am now down to getting up each day around 0730 and I would like to push this back even earlier. Oh well, a little bit at a time.

This picture was taken on June 10th, 2022 at about 7:30pm in the afternoon.

This picture was taken on June 19th, 2022 at about 10:30am. Here Marvin and I are hanging out in one of several small creeks that flow through the city of Fort Collins. This one is known as Spring Creek.

The next several pictures below were taken the mornings of June 23rd and July 1st, 2022. They are from the Blue Lake Trail head in the Roosevelt National Forest. It is about 70 miles West from where I live in Fort Collins. This is part of the Cameron Peak Burn area. The actual start of the fire was not too far from this trailhead. The fire started on August 13, 2020 or about 2 years ago. It burned 208,663 acres. This was my first time back since it burned. I was surprised at the amount of destruction, but at the same time amazed at what did not burn. The first part of the trail still had some tree cover and the last mile just before the lake did not appear to be burned much at all. The middle part was pretty much destroyed. Most of the trees in this area were dead before the fire started due to years of infestation of the Pine Bark Beetle. On this trip there were lots of wildflowers. The pictures below were just some of the examples and don’t really do it justice.

These flowers are know as Heartleaf Arnica and are native to Western North America. They are in the sunflower family. They were all along the trail in the burned areas and really stood out against the blackened landscape burn scars.
Watching Marvin made me wonder what he was thinking about as we traveled through the burned areas.
As Marvin and I got higher up toward the lake we saw more and more of this flower, which is known as Mountain Indian Paintbrush. They are native to North America with over 100 species and a variety of colors. The red or magenta paintbrush is the one I have seen the most in my travels around Colorado. Supposedly the flowers are edible and were consumed in small amounts by several Native American tribes as flavoring with other foods.
This flower is know as the Colorado Blue Columbine. It is the state flower of Colorado. In the past I have seen the flower in abundance along the trail, but this time I only saw one. It might have been due to the loss of tree cover (they like a little bit of shade) or I was just a little bit early for them to bloom. It was named by European Settlers in 1820 when Pike’s Peak was being explored.
This flower is know as the Aspen Fleabane and is a member of the daisy family. There are lots of common names for this flower, but one of my favorite is “Horseweed.” Lol. It is found throughout western North America. It is considered a good choice for soil stabilization and restoration due to its long taproot and rhizomes .
Here Marvin and I are about a mile from the lake. And as you can see the fire did not seem to touch this area at all.
Marvin loved the few remaining snow piles from last winter. During the first visit to the area on June 23rd, there were lots and lots of these remaining snow piles once you got above 10,000 feet. By the middle of July most of them were gone.
Blue Lake! Did not get a picture of them, but there were two bald eagles scouting the lake for fish just as we got there. Pretty cool!
This picture is looking North West toward Clark peak. As I walked along the trail I wondered how the forest would have faired if there were still the number of beavers that existed in Colorado before 1800. The creek that runs down from the lake combines with a second creek that roars through the valley, before joining up with the Poudre River, there are no beaver ponds. But I don’t think it was always that way. This area had been extensively trapped out and logged by the end of the 1800s. And this included most of the beaver population. When beavers are present, they slow the water, they spread it out and they store it. This in turn creates much more fire resistant wetlands. The next time you hike on a mountain trail in Colorado, imagine what it must have looked like before trapping and logging. In a sense, you might think you are in a natural environment, unchanged, but that is the furthest from the truth. It has all been significantly changed by prior human activity. If you interested here is a great article to read about the role beavers play in ecosystems: https://rockies.audubon.org/rivers/articles/beavers-offer-help-western-waters#2

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

The first one I would like to talk about is called Chasing the Scream:  The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari.  This book was a recommendation from my youngest daughter.  I think it was a required reading for her in one of her college classes.  At first I was a little hesitant about getting the book.  After all I had been working in health care for the last 40 years and in the ER no less.  Didn’t I know just about everything to do with addicts and drug abuse??  Well let me tell you, I was wrong.  While reading the book, I realized I only understood a very small section of a much bigger story.  The war on drugs was and still is a dismal failure.  Ever wonder why?  The book will point you to the real narrative.  I always thought that the WOD had started with President Nixon in the early 70s but in reality it was another government official named Harry J Anslinger that got it started in the 1930s.  

This is not a hard and fast book about drug statistics, rather it is a collection of stories from interviews the author conducted with individuals deep in the drug scene, i.e. drug addicts, dealers, research scientists and politicians.  With these stories, Hari presents a compelling case for how the criminalization of drug use has created bigger problems than it has solved.  This is a thought provoking, eye opening, and tragic but hopeful book.  If you are someone like myself that has strong opinions on addiction, or someone involved in making public policy, law enforcement, health care, has kids, etc.… then this is a book you need to read.  I got this book as an audio book but it would work well in any format. 

Of course it can be found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Scream-Johann-Hari-audiobook/dp

Another great book I would like to recommend for summer reading is called Mindful Eating:  A Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food by Jan Chozen Bays MD.  This book is not about how to diet, it is about how to approach our eating habits in a much more “mindful way.”  And in the process, improve our relationship to food.  Will you lose weight?  Maybe, maybe not.  Will you feel better about your eating habits?  Well, if you follow the advice in the book, most definitely.  As an added possible benefit, you may learn something “new” about yourself that can be applied in everyday life and not just when you eat.  I first saw this book while I was reviewing another book called Still Running.  Both of the authors approach their respective topics in a Buddhist philosophical sort of way.  You could even say that for some, this could be a life changing book.    

What did I get out of the book?  There was a lot, but one of the things was the realization that I am a stress eater.  The more anxiety, the more I want to go and snack on Oreo’s or chips or whatever I can get my hands on.  It helped me to see the 9 different types of hunger ( yes there are 9) and how to deal with each one when they arise.  And more importantly, to understand when it is ok to indulge an impulse and when it might not be.   The author gives you exercises after each section that you can use to work on specific challenges you may have. 

Is this a down and dirty, give me the facts-fast type of book?  A big NO.  Do you need to be a Buddhist to understand the book? Another big NO.  Then what do you need?  Just an open mind and patience, combined with a willingness to learn something about yourself. 

I got this book in traditional format and I am glad that I did.  I found myself taking a lot of time reading each chapter and making sure I understood what the author was talking about before moving on.  I liked the book so well, I got the audio book version too.  I want to be able to listen and reread at the same time.  It is that good of book. 

Of course you can find the book on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Eating-audiobook/dp 

The next book I would like to give a recommendation to is called The Believing Brain:  From Ghost and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths by Michael Shermer.  I am always looking for books on Critical Thinking.  Especially over the last few years due to recent events.  There is so much misinformation out there and some of it from people that are considered educated and knowledgeable.  So, what better to read, than a book written by the executive director of The Skeptics Society and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine?  Lol.  I found it interesting that the publish date on the book is 2011, but the topics covered in the book are much more relevant today than it was back then.  In reality the topics never go out of date, we are human and because of that, critical thinking or the lack there of will always be an issue. Myself included! Lol.

One of my favorite sections of the book is how humans became incredible pattern-recognition machines due to our evolutionary past.  While this helped to kept us safe from possible predators and enemies for hundreds of thousands of years, it can and has become a detriment in our modern society.  Another aspect that I found fascinating in the book was the idea of belief formation and why we stick to certain beliefs even when scientific fact does not support it.  Every wondered why someone that you considered really, really smart, intelligent, or successful has certain questionable views or beliefs?   Well one of the points the author argues is that the more intelligent you are, the better you are with coming up with supporting evidence for your belief.  To the point that you lose all objectivity.

The author also has a good section on logical argument fallacies.  Personally I think that this should be taught as a class starting in grade school and then repeated in junior high and high school and a requirement to graduate for college!  Lol.      

This is a great book if you want to learn why “we do what we do,” when it comes to beliefs, faith and superstitions in all aspects of society and life.  I got this book as an audio book but it might work better in traditional format so you can review certain sections to get a fuller understanding.   Much easier to do with a regular book than an audio book.  Of course it can be found on Amazon:   https://www.amazon.com/The-Believing-Brain-Michael-Shermer-audio/dp  

The next book I would like to review is called “Your Dog Is Your Mirror” by Kevin Behan.  Being the owner of numerous canines over the years I am always on the lookout for books about dogs and dog training.  Our current dog is the largest dog we have ever owned.  Marvin is a King Shepard, which is a cross between a Great Pyrenees, a German Shepard and Alaskan Malamute.  And due to his size, we are very cognizant of his power and the continued need for training and understanding of canine behavior.  So when I saw this book and read about the author, I became intrigued by the author’s philosophy on dog behavior.  The author’s ideas seem very similar to Cesar Millan’s philosophy.  The original book was published in 2011, but was a new release as an audio book in 2020.

Let me start by saying that this book is not about “how to train your dog” – it is NOT a dog training manual.  What it is about is how to understand your dog’s behavior and in the process you get a better understanding of yourself.  Pretty interesting to say the least.  One of the things the author points out in the book is that dogs don’t just experience emotion, they are emotion.  And how you are feeling affects how the dog is feeling and subsequently their behavior.  The idea to think about when your dog is misbehaving or not doing what you want them to do, ask yourself what are you feeling consciously or more importantly subconsciously.  The dog is extremely adept at reading the “energy” in the room.

The other part of the book the author goes to great length in explaining is an account of his life and how he came to his own unique philosophy on dog behavior.  His father was a famous dog trainer (John Behan) and founder of the Canine College.  A lot of the book is devoted to the differences in his father’s way of training and his own.  Kevin’s school is called “Natural Dog Training.”  Sadly Kevin passed away in 2020, but his ideas still live on at this website:  Natural Dog Training | The Official Website for the Theory and Practice of Kevin Behan’s Natural Dog Training | Dog Training, Dog Aggression Rehabilitation in Vermont, New York City, Connecticut and Massachusetts  Check it out if you’re interested. 

I was able to put into practice the idea of “checking” my emotions or what I was feeling before taking Marvin for his walks and I have noticed that if I am truly, totally calm and focused on the walk, before staring out, he is much calmer too.  We have always had some form of leash aggression while walking him, but now I have to say, it is much, much better. This book does NOT replace the need for formal dog training. What this book does, is give you the beginning of an understanding of what makes your dog tick. And in the process you might learn something about yourself.

I got the book as an audio book but I believe it would work in any format.  And you can find it at Amazon:   https://www.amazon.com/Your-Dog-Mirror-Emotional-Ourselves/dp

The last book I would like to review is called “How the World Really Works:  The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going” by Vaclav Smil.  This book was an Amazon recommendation based on my previous choices.  Lol.  The algorithms seem to know us better than we know ourselves.  Oh well, this is one of those book that is similar to something that Yuval Noah Harari would write.  It is pretty good, especially if you have not read either author.  The book came out in 2022, therefore the information is very relevant.  The author is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba and his field of study was Environmental Science and Public policy.  One of his areas of specialty has been in the use of energy by society.  In the book he makes a convincing argument that we would be foolish to rapidly transition to clean energies.  At first I was a little skeptical of this point of view but as he explained the total dependence of our current society on fossil fuels and how they are tightly intertwined, I started to see his point.  Do we need to get off of fossil fuels?  Absolutely yes, but in a controlled manner and not a knee-jerk reaction that could cripple economies and create significant food shortages.  A better response would be to “consume less”, less material products, less animal products, less water, less of everything a consumeristic society would want you to needlessly buy and have.  If anything, reading the book will help you to start to understand the daunting challenges ahead of us in terms of energy usage.  It is not just about electric cars. And why it is so important to get started now instead of later.    

The book is not all about energy use, there are sections devoted to food production, globalization, risk assessment, health, global warming, etc.… And as with any book that is written, due to the rapidly changing research picture in the world today, some topics can become somewhat outdated very quickly.  And the author does state this potential in his book. While I did agreed with 99% of the book, there were some sections on health that I did not.  But with that said, it is still a great book.  Should it be your only book on this type of topic?  No.  But it should be one of those at the top of your list, especially if you want to be better informed about society in general and how it works.

I got this book as an audio book but it would work great in any format.  You can find the book on Amazon:    https://www.amazon.com/How-World-Really-Works-Science/dp         

Last but not least I would like to show case a new piece of art work. I call this one “Athena Nike Revisited.” I got the idea of watching some of the amazing women in track compete in running events during the recent 2022 World Track and Field Championships held in Eugene, Oregon. So I thought I would do a drawing of what I feel incorporates the very spirit and determination of these female figures to be the very best they can be. I believe these powerful and determined young women should be allowed to choose they own destinies and that includes all choices that have anything to do with their healthcare. And that those choices should not be dictated by anyone else but them. Watching them run with such spirit and sheer resolve gives me hope for the future. I cannot imagine any of them bending to becoming someone’s handmaid.

This piece measure 9.25 inches by 12.25 inches. When hanging, total height is about 15 inches. It is done in pen and ink, mounted on half inch painted white board, coated and sealed with Mod Podge.

“ATHENA NIKE REVISITED”

These pieces 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

In support of Prochoice and the Separation of Church and State, I will donate half of any sales to Planned Parenthood or the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

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!  But before I go, I would like to talk about one more thing. In the spirit of the last book reviewed, I would like to give a recommendation on becoming minimalist. Especially after an article that was recently published in The Guardian. It was about a new book by Bill McGuire called Hothouse Earth. I have not read it yet but plan too. Bill is a emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at the University of London. He takes a pretty extreme view of where we are with Global Warming and that we are past the point of no return. His view is that it is going to get hot. Really hot. Like temps greater than 50C or 120F in the tropics. If you can imagine this happening, there will be mass migrations of entire populations away from the equatorial regions and desert areas and this is where trouble will begin. And he thinks it could create a climate cataclysm bad enough to threaten the very survival of human civilization. But it is not all bad news. In the article by The Guardian, he stress that if we can cut carbon emissions significantly and start to adapt to a much warmer climate now, we might avoid the worst case scenarios. But only if we start now, not later, but now.

So you might think, how do I do this as an individual. How do I get started. Well, one of the ways to do this is by becoming minimalist. And how do I become minimalist? It is easy. To get started, just buy less. And if you have to buy, think of this from the late Pete Seeger ( American folk singer and social activist): “Reduce, reuse, repair, rebuild, refurbish, refinish, resold, recycle, and think of buying used, before ever thinking of buying new. Pretty simple when you come down to it.

Of course, being minimalist, has much more to it than living with less material things, but that is actually the coolest thing about it. Minimalism can be a path to finding happiness and freedom from some of the stressors of our modern life. And in the process of following this path, you will be helping to save human civilization by decreasing your overall carbon footprint.

There is way too much to go into detail here in the blog post about minimalism and others have done it a lot better than me, so 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/

If your interested in the article from The Guardian check out this link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/soon-it-will-be-unrecognisable-total-climate-meltdown-cannot-be-stopped-says-expert/

So take care my friends and if you have not gotten vaccinated, then get it done. It would be stupid to lose your life or suffer significant disability with this virus when vaccines are readily available in this country. So until next time Adios!!

“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