Category Archives: Wildfire

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

MUSINGS FOR JUNE and JULY 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Image credit: European Southern Observatory

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

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

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

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

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

Image credit: EHT Collaboration (Event Horizon Telescope)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

        

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUSINGS FOR MAY 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This graphic gives you some idea of size of PM 2.5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Painted Chicken Boy”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Air Quality, Art, Book Review, Climate Change, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, 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, 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

Air Quality, Art, Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, Marshall Fire, Minimalism, Pandemics, Space, Trail Running, Wildfire

MUSING FOR FRIDAY 28TH, JANUARY 2022

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“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Aldous Huxley

The above image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope over a ten day period in 1995. It is called the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). The telescope looked at a very narrow speck of sky, or about 1/30 of the diameter of the full moon, and reveled a baffling number of other galaxy shapes and colors that had never been seen before. Some of these may have formed in the very early universe after the Big Bang. Three years after this observation, a region in the southern hemisphere was imaged in the same way. The similarities between the two regions strengthened the belief that the universe is uniform over a large scale. There are over 3000 objects in the above image. Bluer objects contain young stars and are relatively close, while redder objects contain older stellar populations and are farther away. Image credit: NASA/JPL/STScI Hubble Deep Field Team. If you would like to learn more please see these links: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia12110-hubble-deep-field-image-unveils-myriad-galaxies-back-to-the-beginning-of-time and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad.” Aldous Huxley

The above image is a picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. It is of two galaxies, the big one is NGC 105 and is about 215 million light years away in the constellation Pisces. While it looks like NGC is crashing into a smaller galaxy, this is not the case. The smaller one is much, much further away and is relatively unknown to astronomers. This is a common occurrence in astronomy. One of the best examples are the stars that form the constellations in our night sky. Ancient humans were creative in connecting dots with the stars to establish patterns that looked like animals, gods, goddesses, and heroes. But in reality, these stars are at vastly different distances from Earth, and only appear to form patterns due to a chance alignment to other stars. Two other objects that are present in this photo are pulsating stars called Cepheid variables and supernova explosions. They are both important to astronomers trying to measure the vast distances in space. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al.
Acknowledgement: R. Colombari. If you would like to learn more about the above image please see this link: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2201a/

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” Aldous Huxley

The above image is of the galaxy NGC 976 and is from the Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies around 150 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Aries. The space based Hubble telescope was launched in 1990 from the Space Shuttle Discovery. It has made over 1.5 million observations and it allowed the publication of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers on its discoveries. Just incredible when you stop and think about it. I am hoping that the James Webb Space telescope will turn out to be as significant as Hubble has been. The acronym NGC in the galaxy name stands for New General Catalogue. It is an astronomical catalogue of deep sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. There are a total of 7,840 objects in the catalogue now. They are galaxies, star clusters, emission nebulae and absorption nebulae. Credit for image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al. If you would like to learn more about his image, Hubble and the New General Catalogue, please see these links: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2202a/ and https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/about and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_General_Catalogue

“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” Aldous Huxley

This galaxy image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and is named Messier 94. It is an example of what is known as a spiral galaxy with a starburst ring. These types of galaxies are undergoing a high rate of star formation as compared to other types of galaxies. As an example, our own Milky Way is about 30 times slower than the typical starburst galaxy in star formation. Interestingly the star formation in one of these is so large that it consumes a huge amount of the interstellar gas and thus is consider just a “phase” in the galaxies evolution. The above bright ring, seen encircling the rest of the galaxy is called a “starburst ring.” It is the region of intense star formation. The galaxy is about 16 million light years away in the constellation of the Hunting Dogs or Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781 and catalogued by Charles Messier two days later. Image credit: ESA/NASA. If you would like to learn more about the above image or starburst galaxies please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/a-hubble-view-of-starburst-galaxy-messier-94 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_94 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starburst_galaxy

“You build the best possible story from the information available to you and if it is a good story you believe it. Paradoxically it is easier to construct a coherent story when you know little, when there are fewer pieces to fit into the puzzle. Our comforting conviction that the world makes sense, rest on a secure foundation – our almost unlimited ability to ignore our ignorance.” Daniel Kahneman

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!! I am still hoping that I can keep saying this for all of next year. I really, really mean that, especially if you are someone who has not gotten your vaccine. Go get it. There is no shame in waiting as long as you did. Just do it like the Nike ad says.

Looking at the numbers on January 6th, it appears, unfortunately, that in the last 30 days (December 6th to January 6th), we have added another 44,000 deaths – for a total of 855 thousand individuals. Up 8,000 individuals from the previous 30 days. In October and November we had started a downward trend but I am guessing the holidays and the advent of the Omicron variant has led to this increase. And of course the deaths are predominantly the unvaccinated. To say this is a senseless and tragic loss of life is an understatement.

The above image has not changed. It shows the top ten states with the most cases and deaths. California still leads the country with Texas trailing by a small margin. Florida is the mystery state. They seem to be reporting their new cases but have not reported more than a few hundred new deaths in the last 90 days. Every other state that has as many new cases as Florida with similar populations, has a significantly higher death count. So what is it with Florida? I am guessing it is due to the economic interests in the state. You want to make things seem rosier than what they actually are so that people will come and spend money. What is the old saying: “It’s nothing personal, it is just business.” The pandemic has defiantly been one of misinformation and incorrect reporting. I am guessing, but I bet the death count in Florida is a lot higher than what is being reported. So you don’t lie about it, you just leave the relevant information out.

By the first week of January new cases really started to sky rocket due to this variant. I don’t think people really wanted to hear this news and continued on as if nothing had changed. But by the middle of the month, we were adding over 800 thousand new case each day and the death count was back into the 2000 per day range. On January 15 total deaths for the US stood at 873 thousand. Or 18,000 new deaths in 9 days (from January 6th). More than 60 thousand deaths from December 6th! Unreal.

The news media has been playing down the Omicron variant as less severe, but that is not the case for the unvaccinated, those over 65, and the immunocompromised. Of course this includes kids that have not been vaccinated or are too young to get vaccinated. Unfortunately, Omicron is just as significant for these populations.

Nation wide we passed the peak of infection for Omicron at the first of January, but the increase in deaths and hospital utilization will not occur until the end of the month.

By the time of publishing, January 28th, the daily death count was well over the 3000 mark, and this includes states that are slow in reporting or fudging their numbers like Florida. So I am guessing that we are much, much higher. We were at 900 thousand total reported deaths at the time of publication. Or 45 thousand deaths in just 22 days. The only good news was that the number of daily new infections was heading in a downward trend. Hopefully we can keep this daily infection numbers headed in that direction.

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

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

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

Ok that was enough about Covid! Time to move on to something much better to talk about! For the most part… Lol. I swear, it is one tragedy after another this year. Oh well, now to get on with it.

The month of December, like November, was another beautiful one for being outdoors here on the Front Range of Colorado. And again it was a very, very mild month. We really did not get any “winter like” weather until the last day of December. And that was not until later in the day.

This picture was taken on December 2nd, 2021 at about 2pm in the afternoon. Here Marvin and I were running in an open space behind Fort Collins called Pineridge Natural Area. This picture of Marvin says it all. I think that the temps that day were in the 60 to 70 degree range. Way too warm for the month of December!
This picture was taken on December 9th, 2021 at about 2pm in the afternoon. Here we were just finish up a walk in the neighborhood. Again, I think that the temps for this day were in the 50 degree range. Marvin with his “serious face” was watching another dog across the street.
This picture was taken on December 13th, 2021 at about 2pm in the afternoon. The temps were down in the 50 to 60 degree range with some clouds so I could run Marvin a little longer without having to worry that he would overheat. Here we are looking North from the Maxwell Natural Area. The lake in the background is Horsetooth Resivor.
This picture was taken on December 16th, 2021 at about 2pm in the afternoon. You are probably wondering where the snow came from since I already said it was a very mild month. Lol. Marvin and I had to go up into the mountains to find it. Here we are in the Roosevelt National Forest close to Cameron Pass, just off highway 14. I think the elevation at this location was about 10,000 feet. Even though there appears to be a lot of snow it really should be a little deeper for December. Never the less, it was a fun day on Snowshoes. And the snow did get better in January.
This picture was taken on December 19, 2021 at about 5:30pm in the evening. It is looking West across a pond in our neighborhood. Besides the beautiful colors reflected off the clouds, you can see Mount Meeker and Longs Peak in the background. They are in Rocky Mountain National Park. The air quality on the Front Range was great for December. There was enough wind to keep the atmosphere clean, so you could see the peaks in the distance. When you look at the above picture, the mountains you are seeing are about 40 miles distant in a straight line. Pretty cool.
This picture was taken on December 25th, 2021 at about 8pm. Happy Holidays from our Fort Collins family to yours!!
This picture was taken on December 27th, 2021 at about 3:30pm in the afternoon. Here Marvin and I were looking West from the top of Horsetooth Mountain Natural Area. While it looks cold, the temps were actually close to 50 degrees. And still no significant snow. Where we were standing is about 7500 feet and you can just see a tiny amount.
Wow! Finally! Lol. This picture was taken December 31st, 2021 at about 4pm in the afternoon. The first significant snowfall for the winter of 2021/22. The very last day of 2021. Crazy. Here Marvin and I were doing some walking in one of the parks.

Now for something that was not so great…

Thinking and writing about the past month of December 2021, I have come to realize that this is the longest dry spell for snow/rain, Janet and I have experienced here in Colorado, so far. We moved here in July of 1987, so almost 35 years ago. It does make me wonder what the future holds in store for citizens along the Front Range in a warming climate. I could have devoted a whole blog post to talking about the devastating fires that occurred in Boulder County on December 30th, 2021. Now called the Marshall Fire. When you think “fire danger” in Colorado, you think mountains and forest fires but this one did not happen in the mountains. It was out on the plains. I did not mention it in the above pictures, but that day I was actually running with Marvin in Horsetooth Mountain Park just west of Fort Collins. The temps were again in the 50 to 60 degree range. There was a high wind warning in effect for all of the Northern Front Range and this included where we were at. The crazy part is that we did not experience any significant wind, maybe 10 to 20 mph at best. While the areas that burned, were hit with 70 to 100 mph wind. I did not even realize there was a significant weather/fire event taking place just 40 miles away, until I heard it on the radio. Crazy. Where Marvin and I were, it was beautiful. Unusually warm, but it made for a beautiful day. Check out the picture below of Horsetooth Mountain Park looking Northeast across Fort Collins and compare it to the bottom two images from Boulder County – same day. Unreal.

This picture was taken on December 30th, 2021 at about 3pm in the afternoon. The day before it snowed. It is looking northeast from Horsetooth Mountain Park. Light winds. Nothing like the gale force winds just 40 miles to the south that fueled the Marshall Fire, destroying more than 990 structures/homes and parts of the towns of Superior, Louisville and unincorporated Boulder County. Just unreal.
This is an image from MAXAR Aerospace. The top panel shows a pre-fire image. The bottom panel is an afternoon image of the same area.
Early evening photo on December 30th, 2021 – provided by Boulder County showing the Marshall Fire. This is only about 40 miles from where I live.

If you did not know about the Marshall Fire on December 30th, 2021 in Boulder County check out this Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%932022_Boulder_County_fires#:~:text=On%20December%2030%2C%202021%2C%20shortly%20before%2010%3A30%20a.m.,permitting%20the%20Federal%20Emergency%20Management%20Agency%20to%20intervene.

There are a lot of reason why the Marshall Fire occurred, but a big contributing factor was how dry and warm it has been in Colorado for several years now. A good article to read on how a “warming climate” created the perfect conditions for the Marshall Fire is this one from the Climate Adaptation Center (CAC): https://www.theclimateadaptationcenter.org/2022/01/10/another-climate-catastrophy-the-boulder-colorado-fire/

It is written by Bob Bunting, who is the Chairman and CEO of the center. The CAC is an independent, non-profit organization headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. Their mantra is that if all carbon emissions stopped tomorrow, the increase in warming will not stop for another 100+ years. So how can we adapt to mitigate the disruptions that are occurring now and in the future. How can we help individuals, business and states adopt practices that will help to protect life and property. Check out this link to learn more about the CAC: https://www.theclimateadaptationcenter.org/about-us/

December was another good month for running and therefore good for reading. Ok – it is listening to audio books. Lol. So, I have a few books I would like to recommend.

The first one is called Real Zen for Real Life, by Bret W. Davis. He is a professor of philosophy and the T.J. Higgins, SJ, chair in philosophy at Loyola University. This is a great lecture series if you are interested in getting a deeper understanding of Zen. The lecture series is from the great courses, but it is much cheaper to get it on Amazon as audio only. The course is divided up into 24 lectures, each covering a different aspect of Zen and what it means to the Western audience. There is a lot of information to unpack so to speak from the lectures and this will be one of those courses I will go back and listen a second time or even a third time. One of the things that I found very helpful in my practice of Zen covered in the lecture series was the idea of “when sitting, ask yourself what are you leaving behind – not what you are getting out of the sitting.” We all have this tendency, myself included, to think we have to be getting something out of whatever we are doing. But in Zen it is the other way around – “What are we leaving behind, letting go of.” Not ignoring it, but inviting the feeling, the emotion, the whatever it is… IN. But after that, you leave it behind, let it go. This course is for both the beginner and the experienced practitioner of Zen. The great Courses Plus ( Now called Wondrium) has a good description of what each lecture covers and can be found here: https://www.wondrium.com/real-zen-for-real-life

Of course you can find the lecture series on Amazon here: https://amzn.to/3GQKCPA

The next book I would like to talk about is another one by Yuval Noah Harari and is called 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. In the last Blog post I reviewed his book called Sapiens. Sapiens is an excellent book and should be required reading for all high school and college students before graduation. His second book is called Homo Deus. This one is his third book in the series. Of course, I listened to the book as an audio book but I am thinking it would work much, much better in traditional format. There is so much provocative information presented that I found myself going back and forth between chapters and listening again and again. While the first two books should be required reading for high school and college students, this one should be required reading for everyone that is in political office or some kind of advisory role. One of my favorite section of the book was his look at world religions. How they all feel they are the one true religion and all others are fictitious at worst or misguided at best. All I could think about is the line from George Carlin, “Someone is going to be disappointed.” Lol. The other part is how the combination of A.I. and Biotech is going to change the world in ways we will have a great deal of trouble wrapping our heads around. The book also looks at history, politics, religion, philosophy and so much more through the lens of how we invent stories to explain our reality, but then betray those very stories when we need to. Lol. A great book and again I think it would work better in traditional format so you can go back and forth between chapters.

Of course you can find it on Amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/3qPovUp

Last but not least, I would like to showcase a new piece of art work before I go. This is the second “Sun Face” in a series I started in October 2021. It is constructed of 3/4 inch plywood and painted with high quality latex paint. Then sealed with a clear latex primer. The sculpture measures about 28 inches by 28 inches by 3 inches deep. Its weight is about 25lbs. They are designed for exterior placement, but if you are putting it outside, I would suggest a protected location. The latex paint, while durable, will gradually fade over time if placed in a location with strong sunlight. And like all paint, it is susceptible to the whims of harsh weather. This one is called “Squished Lego Sun Face 2.”

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

Well I have come to the end of another blog post! Yea! I hope you enjoyed reading it. Of course before I go, I would like to give my usual spiel about Minimalism. A couple of weeks ago the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published an article about the record number and record cost of all the weather disasters in 2021. The article is pretty interesting and gives a good picture of how much a warming climate is costing us in lives and dollars. This should be a wake up call to us all. The part that I find fascinating is that we are in the “chaos” of the a changing climate right now. Not 20 years from now. It is actually happening right now.

The original article that contained the above graphic can be found here: https://www.noaa.gov/news/us-saw-its-4th-warmest-year-on-record-fueled-by-record-warm-december?fbclid=IwAR3uRq9xLaNPUMxyuoGKmZImJaeDIga7vB2mrkzL-NIKp9D7prKMCYIsmcE

So with that said, what can we do as individuals about it? How can we start to decrease our carbon footprint? One answer is minimalism. Become more minimalist. Buy less, buy long term, reuse or recycle before buying new. If you in the market for a new car in the next year or two – buy a hybrid or full electric. Cut your meat intake and go plant based. You will reduce your carbon footprint and be healthier in the process. Ride you bike to work or school if possible. Like to travel all the time? Ask yourself why? If you thinking about your next vacation as soon as your back from your current one, maybe it is past time to design a life you don’t need to escape from…

Being minimalist is not all black or all white way of life. There are shades of gray. Minimalism is different for each individual. You choose how much “minimalism” you want in your life and how much you don’t want. It is about understanding what matters most in life and removing the things that do not support the “what matters most part.” It is a way to break free of a rigged consumeristic system. A way to buy time for the planet and bring back the joy we all want and need in our lives.

Ok, ok enough of the soapbox, but if your interested and want to learn more about sustainability, minimalism and the steady state economy, please see these sites: https://www.sustain.ucla.edu/what-is-sustainability/ and https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/ and https://steadystate.org/

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

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

Air Quality, AllTrails, Art, Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Family, Fort Collins, Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, Pandemics, PurpleAir, Religion, Science, Space, Trail Running, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 24TH, SEPTEMBER 2021

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“Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive. The body of positive knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation.” Edwin Powell Hubble

This image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a picture of what is know as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) – a dwarf galaxy. Another name it goes by is Nubecula Minor. In Latin, Nubecula means little cloud. The SMC is visible from the entire Southern Hemisphere, but can be seen low on the southern horizon from latitudes south of 15 degrees north. Meaning – To see it in North America, you would have to be in the Southern Caribbean or further south. The SMC is about 210 thousand light years away with a diameter of about 7,000 light years. It contains several hundred million stars. In comparison, our galaxy the Milky Way, contains an estimated 100 billion. The SMC is one of the nearest intergalactic neighbors to our galaxy and one of the most distant objects that can be seen with the naked eye. Image credit: NASA, ESA and A. Nota (STScI/ESA). If you would like to learn more about the SMC please visit these sites: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/brilliant-hot-young-stars-shine-in-the-small-magellanic-cloud and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Magellanic_Cloud

“You are what you know. Fifteenth-century Europeans ‘knew’ that the sky was made of closed concentric crystal spheres, rotating around a central earth and carrying the stars and planets. That ‘knowledge’ structured everything they did and thought, because it told them the truth. Then Galileo’s telescope changed the truth.” James Burke

This is an image of a part of the Gemini Constellation. It is located in the norther celestial hemisphere. It’s name means “the twins” in Latin. The constellation was first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century ce. The picture was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and features a stellar nursery named AFGL 5180. It is about 5000 light years away. Due to the stellar dust associated with star formation, it can be difficult to see the newly formed stars. But Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 was designed to do this very thing by capturing detailed images in both visible and infrared light. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. C. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani (Chalmers University); Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt. If you want to learn more about this image please check out there links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/star-formation-in-the-constellation-of-gemini-the-twins and https://www.constellation-guide.com/constellation-list/gemini-constellation/ and https://www.sciencealert.com/hubble-s-latest-image-release-is-so-beautiful-it-should-be-illegal

“What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” Werner Heisenberg

This image is showing the Lagoon Nebula or Messier 8. The picture was created by using X-ray data (pink color) from the Chandra X-ray space telescope and optical images from the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center in Arizona (Blue and White Color). Messier 8 is about 4000 to 6000 light years from earth. It was first discovered in 1654 by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Hodierna. This star-forming cloud of interstellar gas is located in the constellation Sagittarius and can be slightly visible to the naked eye in a very dark sky. Image Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona. If you want to learn more about this image or the Sky Center in Arizona please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-lagoon-nebula-gives-birth-to-stars and https://skycenter.arizona.edu/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoon_Nebula

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Max Planck

This is an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 2276 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It lies about 120 million light years away in the northern constellation Cepheus. One of its spiral arms contains an intermediate mass black hole with 50,000 times the mass of the sun. First discovery credit is given to Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke in 1876. Of course at that time it was not understood that it was a separate galaxy from our own. That would have to wait until Edwin Hubble came along. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Paul Sell (University of Florida). If you want to learn more about his image please visit: https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2021/029/01F60K4CF8WRAD8GQ03HEBNBMQ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2276

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

This is an image showing Dr. Nancy Grace Roman (third from left), Nasa’s first Chief of Astronomy and “The Mother of Hubble” visiting the Space Telescope Operations Center at the Goddard Space Flight Center in 2017. This was about one year before her death (1925 to 2018). Pictured left to right are: Beverly Serrano, Morgan Van Arsdall, Nancy Grace Roman, Olivia Lupie, Padi Boyd, and Erin Kisliuk. Nasa posted this picture on August 26th, 2021 to celebrate Women’s Equality Day. The day is celebrated each year on August 26th and commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote in the United States in 1920. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jim Jeletic. If you would like to learn more please visit these sites: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/paving-the-way-for-future-generations-of-women-in-stem and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women’s_Equality_Day and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Roman

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

If you are reading this then you have continued to survive Covid 19 so far and so have I!! And that my friends is a very, very, good thing for all of us. I am still crossing my fingers and now my toes, hoping that I can keep saying this for the next year. I really mean that. I am hoping that I can.

The virus is back and with a vengeance. The death toil has skyrocketed again and when I started to write this blog post on September 7th, we were at 669 thousands death. This was an increase in the last 30 days of 36,000 individuals. To put this in perspective, between June 6th to July 6th we only had 9,000 deaths. A significant drop, and it really looked like things were headed in the right direction. Of course “the experts” were warning about the Delta variant by this time and did we listen? No, not really. Events that were planned back earlier in the year for July, August and September were not canceled or modified for the most part and have been going off as planned. So the last 30 days has seen a huge increase in infections and death. 36,000 thousand individuals and counting… My question is how high is this going to go??

Well it has been 9 months since I got the initial two doses of the Pfizer Vaccine for Covid and when the third shot became available, I jumped on it. So did my wife. By the time of publishing it will have been 3.5 weeks since I got the third booster and no side effects so far. There has been some debate from the FDA, CDC and the President’s health advisory committee about whether the booster is needed for the general population. At the time of publishing it was not being recommended for the general public in the United States, unless you were a health care worker, over the age of 65 or immunocompromised. In Israel, it is being offered to everyone over the age of 30 and at least 5 months since their second shot.

By the middle of the month, September 15th, we had added another 16,000 deaths since September 7th. Wow, that is only 8 days and 16,000 more deaths. And that is with several states, like Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa and Wyoming not reporting on a timely basis. So the toil is probably much higher. Or to put this another way: one person in every 500 individuals dies because of Covid now in the United States.

By the time of publishing on the 24th, the death toil was over 700,000 thousand individuals in the USA. So what that means is that we added another 30,000 plus deaths in 17 days or 70,000 deaths since August 6th. A little more than 35,000 for each month of August and September. Unreal. And again, this is with some states not reporting in a timely manner. How high will the toil go by the end of the year?? My guess is that it will be 800,000 to 1 million deaths. Especially with Thanksgiving coming up and of course you have X-mass and New Years… Almost all of this has been preventable. From the Grand Cheeto’s debacle in how he handled the early part of the pandemic to now with the anti-vaccine people.

Of course much of the morbidity and mortality in this fourth wave of Covid is due to the unvaccinated. So if there ever was a time to get vaccinated, it is now. Actually it is past time. So do yourself and your loved ones a favor and get vaccinated.

If you want to see the numbers for yourself check out this link: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

I am tired of talking about Covid but what are you going to do? You are not going to get anywhere by ignoring it. But life does go on, so lets move on to something a little different and somewhat better. During the month of August there were only a handful of days that the air quality was good enough to really get out and push the pedal to the medal so to speak. I did get in a few trail runs but nothing like I did in June and July. Believe it or not the air quality went from bad to worse by the end of August. It was really not until the second week of September that things started to improve a little bit.

This picture was taken on August 8th, 2021 at about 7:45pm in the afternoon. It is looking West and you can see the smoke in the area. I wanted to post this picture because this was pretty much everyday for the month of August. Most of the air quality alerts for the month ranged from Moderate to Unhealthy. Not really good for any kind of heavy training in the outdoors. The only good thing to come out of the smoke is that it made for some spectacular sunsets in the area. Every morning the first thing to do was to check the Purple Air Map (https://www2.purpleair.com/ ) and the Open Summit Map (https://opensummit.com/ ) for current air quality and smoke forecast. You could not even get away from it by going up into the mountains. The entire state was covered.

This picture was taken on August 13th, 2021 at about 12 noon and it is one of the last days that I ran in the Horsetooth Open Space behind Fort Collins. This was due to smoke issues. If you look between the trees you can see the haze out east. The wind had made a tiny window of opportunity to get a run in before the smoke came back and made things unhealthy.

The next three pictures were taken on a hike / run with my oldest daughter. It was in a wilderness area called the Rawah’s. It is in Northern Colorado, about 70 miles west of Fort Collins. The elevation ranges from 8500 feet to over 12,000 feet.

This picture was taken on August 21st, 2021 at about 10am in the morning. It is a picture of my oldest daughter Kayla and me. We are just a couple of hours into a hike / run on the West Branch Trail in the Rawah Wilderness Area.

This picture was taken on August 21st, 2021 about 10:30am in the morning and it is a view of Clark Peak. It is the highest point in the Rawah’s at 12,950 feet and part of the Medicine Bow Mountain range: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicine_Bow_Mountains In this picture I am standing on the West Branch Trail looking West.

This picture was taken August 21st, 2021 at about 11:45am in the morning. Here we are sitting at the end of the West Branch Trail, elevation over 11,000 feet. It was a great hike/run and fun to do with Kayla, Marvin and Marvin’s dog buddy Cash. Again, I cannot over emphasize the issues with the smoke this year. Even though the sky in the pictures looks clear, the air quality was moderate to moderate high for 2.5 particulates and we both experienced some upper respiratory symptoms after the run. This is a great area to go hiking, running, back packing, etc… A good app to check out this area is on AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/west-branch-trail

The next three pictures are from a third and last trail run in August. The air quality had dramatically improved for a day with the passage of a weak cold front and associated rain. It is in the same general area as the above three pictures but with much better air quality on this date.

This picture was taken on August 24th, 2021 at about 12:00noon. In the first couple of miles of the West Branch trail there is a huge grove of Aspen Trees. The stark white bark of the aspens contrasting with the dark green foliage of the spruce and pines makes for an interesting landscape. I am planning to come back here later in the fall to see the leaves changing color.

This picture was taken on August 24th, 2021 at about 2:30pm in the afternoon. Here Marvin and I are on our way to Twin Crater Lakes. We took a fork in the West Branch Trail at about 3 to 4 miles in and headed up a different drainage. There were lots and lots of deadfall on this trail from the previous winter. Most of the trail clearing effort was still being focused on repairing fire burned areas from last year. It made for some interesting trail acrobatics to say the least! Lol.

This picture was taken August 24th, 2021 at about 3:30pm in the afternoon. Marvin and I had made it to one of the lakes. Here we are enjoying the sunshine at about 11,000 feet. It was a beautiful windless day. There were a few people up here with us either fishing or just enjoying the view like we were. You can check out this route via the AllTrails app: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/west-branch-to-north-forks-trail-and-twin-crater-lakes

Due to the poor air quality and high temperatures for Colorado’s front range, we decided to divide our walks with Marvin into smaller segments for August. Heavy exercise outdoors such as running was not something I wanted to do. It made no sense to put in all that effort, only to make things worse due to breathing in bad air. The days for August went something like this: easy walk in the AM with Marvin, heavy workout indoors using Rower, Nordic Track, or Spin Bike, easy walk with Marvin in the afternoon. This was one time I wished that I had a quality treadmill but that will have to wait until next year.

This picture was taken on August 26, 2021 at about 11:45am in the morning. Janet and I are just finishing up a morning walk with Marvin. The temperature was already in the high 80s but would continue to climb into the mid nineties by the afternoon. Air quality was in the moderate range as it was most mornings, but would climb to a much unhealthy level by afternoon with the addition of ozone created by the higher than normal temperatures.

With the rise of the Delta variant of Covid and the continued unhealthy air quality in Colorado the prospects of competing in my planned ultrarunning events (Leadville 100 and Run Rabbit Run) did not go off as planned. Oh well what are you going to do? I know that there were those that pushed the safety zone and did these events regardless of the risk factors. But that is not for me. I get it, it is hard to not do something that requires so much training and self sacrifice and then have the world throw you curve balls. It is like getting ready for a huge “party of the year” and at the last minute, while your heading out the door, canceling it. You experience a sense of loss. And for some, that is hard to work around. I am 59 years old and I still want to be doing the ultra running thing when I am in my 80s. So the risk was not acceptable.

I did get a lot of reading done with the “Marvin Walks” in the sense that I listened to several audio books. So I would like to review a couple of them.

The first one I would like to start with is The Premonition written by Michael Lewis. Let me say that this is not a book just about the current pandemic and who did or did not do what they were suppose to do. It is about several different public health experts and their stories over the last 10 to 20 years and what roles they played at the start of the current pandemic. If you were looking for an anti-trump book then you might be disappointed. It does point out the fallacies of the Trump admiration but not in an over bearing manner. I would say that over all this book paints a very negative light on the CDC that started way before the Trump era. If anything needs to change, it is the CDC and how they advise the public, handle data and help other public health officials dealing with public health issues. None of the characters, outside of the CDC, paint the organization in a glowing light. And to me that says a lot.

The author does a good job of bringing what can be a dry topic ( public health) to life. I would say that it almost reads like a novel. I listened to this book as an audio book but I feel it would work well in any format.

From the Amazon site: Michael Lewis, the best-selling author of The Undoing Project, Liar’s Poker, Flash Boys, Moneyball, The Blind Side, Home Game and The Big Short, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their three children.

You can find this book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Premonition-Pandemic-Story-Michael-Lewis/dp/0393881555/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+premonition&qid=1632257294&sr=8-1

The next book I would like to talk about is “Why Trust Science?” by Naomi Oreskes. I first heard about Naomi Oreskes from a YouTube video from “The Royal Institution.” This is a channel were scientist talk about their research and sometimes promote their book about said research. If you interested in her talk, check out this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7PwqiiQmVM

I would have to say that the book did not disappoint. It was published in 2019 and is very relevant to the issues of today and the future. She gives a good historical perspective on science from the past all the way up to today. What I liked best is that she uses case studies to show where science got it wrong so to speak. And how we have learned from those mistakes.

In the book she does not shy away from some of the issues associated with the scientific process of today. The proliferation of what is know as “preprints” and how they are good to get information out but at the same time have a down side in that they have not had a formal peer review in a scholarly or scientific journal. And the whole idea of “Publish or Perish”, that creates issues for scientist to get something out “there” as quickly as possible before all the data collected can be fully analyzed. And she addresses some of the issues with corporate backed research. You do have to ask yourself is there going to be a “conflict of interest” in this research if XYZ corporation is backing it?

This is a great book if you want to understand, even with all of the issues in scientific research, why we should trust science. I listened to this book as an audio book but I think it would work great in any format.

Naomi Oreskes is an American historian of science and author. To learn more about her please visit this link: Naomi Oreskes – Wikipedia

Of course you can find this book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Why-Trust-Science-Naomi-Oreskes-audiobook/dp/B07W99GTG3/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1632430393&sr=8-1

Well last but not least I would like to showcase one piece of newly finished art work before I go. It is a pen and ink with water color drawing of Jesus of Nazareth, except I have given it a little more of my own personal interpretation. Lol. I call this piece “Jesus of Borg.” Now if you are not a Star Trek fan you might not know who the Borg are in the series. But in a nutshell they are cybernetic organisms linked in a hive mind called “The Collective.” They are known to assimilate others into their collective whether they want it or not. If you are interested check out this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borg

I started this piece with anger over the Texas GOPs enactment of the anti-abortion law. 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 piece 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 bad ass 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. 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. What is Jesus of Borg’s religion? Why Science Fiction of course. All religion is mythology and so is Science Fiction, therefore the largest religion in the world and the only one that has a chance of ever coming true is SiFi.

This drawing is done in pen and ink with water color and is protected with a traditional picture frame and glass. It measures approximately 12 inches wide by 15 inches tall.

“Jesus of Borg”

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

Wow! I have come to the end of another blog post and before I close, I want to say this again, if you have not thought about the mindset of “Minimalism” you should. The consumeristic culture we have created is not sustainable. That is if we don’t want to destroy the very environment that makes all human life possible. I have no doubt that the earth will survive, but will humanity? That remains to be seen.

Ever since the early 1900s when the people that make light bulbs decided to limit their lifespan so that consumers would have to buy more, we have been locked into this engineering and marketing principle of “planned obsolescence.” According to “Free Market Capitalism” we have to grow, grow and grow – therefore corporations have to sell us more stuff every year, after year, after year, with no end in sight. They have to make more in profit each year than the year before. They cannot just be profitable but have to make more each and every year or they are looked at as a failure. When I seriously think about this I am always reminded of the maxim: “Growth for growth’s sake is the definition of a Cancer Cell.” And that is what we have. Our economic system in the United States could be considered a cancer. And it needs to change.

So you might be wondering what YOU can do to help kill this cancer?! Well the first thing you can do is to become Minimalist! Stuff is stuff and you can have too much of it. Just like food. Too much of a good thing is going to cause problems. Cut out the empty calories so to speak by buying less and making good decisions on what you buy. Buy used when possible, pass it on when you are done with it, care for the stuff you already have, and if you absolutely have to buy new – look for durability, fixability, sustainable, and ethically made products that will last for years. Become the change you want to see.

Ok, ok enough of the soap box but if your interested in “minimalism” a good place to start is here: https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

So take care my friends and if you have not gotten vaccinated then get it done. Like the Nike slogan says: “Just do it!” We all want this “Groundhog Day-Covid-Marry-Go-Round” to stop. Until next time! Adios!!

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

Air Quality, Art, Book Review, Colorado, Covid 19, Dogs, Exercise, Fort Collins, Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, Leadville Run 100, Minimalism, Pandemics, PurpleAir, Science, Space, Trail Running, Wildfire

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 30TH, JULY 2021

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“Everyone forgets Icarus also flew.” Jack Gilbert

In December 2016 the United Nations General Assembly created a resolution declaring June 30th as International Asteroid Day. This was done to bring attention to the potential hazards of a large asteroid impact on earth. The day is an “observance” of the Tunguska impact over Siberia that occurred on June 30th, 1908. The above image is an artist’s illustration of our solar system’s asteroid belt. Of course it is not to scale but it gives you a good idea of how many asteroids are in our solar system. Vesta is the largest at 329 miles in diameter. Ceres is next at 292 miles in diameter. Some are as small as 33 feet in diameter. When I look at the above illustration I don’t think of the danger to mother earth but the opportunity and potential for asteroid mining. If we look critically at the limited amount of resources left on earth, asteroid mining starts to look as a viable option. Imagine the technological advances that would be needed to create a robust mining venture. This would be one way to significantly advance humankind’s expansion into space. Image credit: NASA/McREL. If your interested in more check out these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/picturing-our-solar-systems-asteroid-belt and https://www.un.org/en/observances/asteroid-day and https://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/solutions/asteroids.html

“Creative Entitlement” simply means believing that you are allowed to be here, and that merely by being here, you are allowed to have a voice and a vision of your own. Elizabeth Gilbert

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is a space telescope that was launched from the Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999. It was during the STS-93 mission. The telescope is sensitive to sources of x-rays that are 100 times fainter than any previous x-ray telescope. It has now been in service for over 20 years and is still working. The telescope is named after the late Nobel laureate /astrophysicist (American) Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar. The above image was produced from dozens of observations of a 130 light year region of space in the center of the Milky Way. The above colors represent different levels of x-ray energy: red is low, green is medium and blue is high. Using this telescope astronomers have been able to identify thousands of point like sources due to neutron stars, black holes, white dwarfs, foreground stars, and background galaxies. Image credit: NASA/CXC/UCLA/MIT/M.Muno et al. If you want to learn more about the above image or the telescope please visit these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/chandra-turns-up-the-heat-in-the-milky-way-center and https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/background/facts/cxoquick.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandra_X-ray_Observatory

“To yell at your creativity, saying, “You must earn money for me!” Is sort of like yelling at a cat; it has no idea what you’re talking about, and all you’re doing is scaring it away, because you’re making really loud noises and your face looks weird when you do that.” Elizabeth Gilbert

This is an image of the star cluster NGC 330. It was discovered on August 1st, 1826 by James Dunlop. Of course in 1826 the image that Dunlop observed did not look anything like the above. The image above was created by using observations form Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. The crisscross light patterns on the individual stars were created when starlight interacted with four thin vanes supporting Hubble’s secondary mirror. The star cluster is about 180,000 light years from earth inside the Small Magellanic Cloud – in the constellation Tucana (the Toucan). Because the Open cluster is south of the celestial equator, it is more easily visible from the southern hemisphere. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Kalirai, A. Milone. If you want to learn more about the above image please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-sees-a-cluster-of-red-white-and-blue and http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/hubble-open-cluster-ngc-330-09801.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster

“We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.” Oscar Wilde

The above image is an artist rendition of a newly discovered exoplanet that is 90 light years from earth. It was discovered using data from TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) by an international team of astronomers led by Dr. Jennifer Burt (an exoplanet researcher at NASA’s JPL) and Professor Diana Dragomir ( an exoplanet researcher at the University of New Mexico). It is about 3.5 times as big around as Earth and warm at 134 degrees Fahrenheit. It orbits a red dwarf star and is about 8 times closer to it’s star than earth is to the sun. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. If you would like to learn more about the above exoplanet please see these links: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/in-orbit-around-a-red-dwarf-star and http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/sub-neptune-exoplanet-toi-1231b-09749.html

“The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.” Neil deGrasse Tyson

This is an image of the final launch of the space shuttle program (STS-135) July 8th, 2011. The space shuttle Atlantis was carrying supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station. The crew comprised Christopher Ferguson – Commander, Douglas Hurley – Pilot, Sandra Magnus – Mission Specialist 1, and Rex Walheim – Mission Specialist 2. I sometimes wonder if this had not been the final launch, if President Bush had not started the process of canceling the shuttle program in 2004, if Congress would have continued to increase NASA’s budget each year, if NASA would have used a different business model other than “cost plus contracting” and if and if and if. I guess the only good thing to come of this “short sightedness” in my opinion, is that Space X and Boeing were given a customer (ferrying ISS crews) if they wanted to get into space flight industry. Of course the only company to actually fill this mission so far is Space X. I wonder what would have happened if NASA could have pursued both paths? Helping to nurture private commercial space flight and working on the Constellation program and the X-33. Where would we be today? Image credit: NASA. If you want to learn more please visit these links: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/images/this-week-in-nasa-history-final-launch-of-shuttle-program-july-8-2011.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-135 and https://www.planetary.org/articles/why-nasa-pays-spacex-and-boeing and https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/history/experimental_aircraft/X-33.html

“If people don’t like what you’re creating, just smile at them sweetly and tell them to “go make their own f&%king art.” Elizabeth Gilbert

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

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

When I started to write this blog on July 8th, the death count in the USA stood at 622 thousand. That is a difference of 9,000 deaths in the last 30 days. And while this number is still high, it is a significant drop in Covid mortality from the previous 30 days when the number was 20,000. We are making progress. The question will be can we continue this downward trend with the rise of the Delta variant. It now accounts for more than half of all new infections in the US and in some states such as Iowa, Kanas, Missouri, and Nebraska it makes up about 80% of new cases.

It looks like Pfizer is asking the FDA to authorize a booster shot to extend protection and they are supposedly working on updating their vaccine so it will address the Delta Variant. The booster shot is already being tested. So all they need now is FDA approval.

It as now been 28 weeks since I got the Pfizer Vaccine for Covid and… so far there have been no side effects for me!! Yea!! And that is a very good thing. Not that I expected any in the first place. But this being a new technology you never know. I got the vaccine with this knowledge after seeing what the disease could do to people. It is not pretty. And if you do survive it you may not be back to your “normal” baseline for a very, very long time – if ever.

In the USA we are now up to 56.5 % of the population that has gotten at least one shot and 48.9% that have gotten both doses. In the last 30 days we have added over 10 million vaccinated people. But while 10 million is a large number, our vaccination rates are dropping. If we have to go back into a lock down with all the economic and social repercussions it will be due to the unvaccinated.

If you want to check out the numbers yourself check out this link from NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/28/960901166/how-is-the-covid-19-vaccination-campaign-going-in-your-state and https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-19-vaccine-doses.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap

Back in June our infection rate was falling and it appeared that it would continue in a downward direction. Unfortunately this has not been the case. The much more infectious Delta Variant has become the predominate strain in this country and correspondingly we have seen a significant reversal in infections. On July 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th we saw new infections of over 30,000 each day. Fridays high on July 16th was 40 thousand plus and we topped 67,000 plus by Friday 23rd. That was a jump of over 60 percent from the previous few weeks. The top three states for new infections were Florida, California, and Texas. The death count was still down but that would be expected as there is a few weeks delay between new infections and death. My guess is that the numbers are actually much higher than this due to the fact that some states are only reporting weekly now. This in my opinion is not done out of a concern for public health but an economic one. If your state is having a surge in cases and the public knows – it is bad for business. Two examples of this are Florida and Nebraska. A good article on this is from Medical Express. You can check out the link here: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-states-scale-virus-cases-surge.html

By July 20th, CDC director Rochelle Walensky was warning that the pandemic is now a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.” Almost all of the people getting hospitalized and suffering the worst morbidity and mortality are those that did not get vaccinated.

At the end of the month, on Thursday, July 30th the US reported 92,000 new infections with Covid. Unreal. The total death count was 628 thousand or a difference of approximately 6000 deaths in 21 days but I am guessing that in the next 9 to 10 days we are going to add a few more thousand. The fourth wave of the infections is upon us….

Well enough about Covid. Time to move on to some pictures from the great outdoors for the month of June. I was hoping that the air quality and weather that we experienced in May would be the same for June, but I would have to say that it was a little complicated.

This picture was taken June 7th, 2021 at about 1:30pm in the afternoon. Here I am looking up through a stand of aspen and spruce. Janet and I were hiking in a section of the Rawah Wilderness that was not burned by the Cameron Peak fire last year. This was a view from the West Branch trail. We only went up about 3 miles before turning around due to multi deadfalls that had not been cleared from the trail. I am planning to do some running on this trail later in July and I am hoping that some of this has been cleaned up by then. But it might not happen this year due to all the fire damage being attended to on other trails in the same general area and the risk of afternoon storms causing flash flooding. Oh well it is what it is and I am just glad that it did not all burn.

The first part of June was pretty good. Cool temps, wind and more importantly moisture in the form of rain for the Front Range. This made for some excellent weather and air quality conditions at the start and toward the end of June.

This picture was also taken on June 7th, 2021 at about 2pm in the afternoon. I thought I should get one of Janet and Marvin together on the West Branch trail. It was good to get back in the Rawah’s. I had been using the south end of the Wilderness area all of last summer until the Cameron Peak fire started. The trail was pretty dry this day and I was wondering if this was going to be the norm for the summer? A good link to check out the Rawah Wilderness is at AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/parks/us/colorado/rawah-wilderness

Unfortunately the dry conditions returned to the mountains by the middle of the month and so did the fires. The air quality took a nose dive due to the added smoke. And the temperatures shot up into the 90s along the Front Range which led to an increase in Ozone levels. The smoke, the temperatures, the ozone all led to really bad outdoor air quality for most of Colorado’s front range during the middle part of June. Little did I know that these conditions were a forerunner of what was to take place in July. But I will save that debacle for the next blog post. Lol.

This picture was taken June 9th, 2021 at about 8:45pm in the evening. The temps were already starting to get warmer for the month and for Marvin it was best to let the sun set and the temperatures drop below 90 degrees before getting out. This picture is looking South West from an open space in Fort Collins called Prospect Ponds. In the background you can see some feathery clouds that give a nice look to the sunset but are actually from a forest fire in the mountains.

Just when I thought the month of June was going to be a total wash, the last week got a lot better. The high country got some much needed moisture and the temps cooled a bit on the Front Range and this led to a subsequent increase in air quality. So the last part of June was pretty good for being in the outdoors. Like I said, it was a little complicated. Lol.

This picture was taken June 10th, 2021 at about 3:30pm in the afternoon. Marvin and I got out for a trail run in the Colorado State Forest. Most of the wood smoke had moved south and further west as you can tell from the blue sky. This is a beautiful area that is located at Cameron Pass in the Never Summer Mountains. The peak is a rock formation called Nokhu Crags that is derived from the Native American Arapaho language meaning Eagles Nest. Marvin and I were trying to get up to an area called American Lakes but ran into deep snow and had to turn around. The road we are on is called Michigan Ditch Road. Here are a couple of links to check out more on this area: https://www.summitpost.org/nokhu-crags/151713 and https://publiclands.colostate.edu/digital_projects/dp/poudre-river/moving-storing/ditches-dams-diversions/michigan-ditch/
This picture was taken June 14th, 2021 at about 9pm in the evening. It is looking West at a beautiful sunset. It was another hot day and Marvin and I were running late in the evening due to lower temps and better air quality. The day had been in the 90s and the air quality index was close to 100, but later the temps had fallen into the lower 80s and the AQI was closer to 60. Also the ozone levels had come down a bit too. The beautiful yellow color of the sunset is actually due to particulates in the atmosphere. In this case, I believe most of the particulates were wood smoke from fires in Colorado and Arizona. The big fires out in Oregon, California, Washington and Idaho did not start until the first week of July. If you interested in seeing what your air quality is for “particulates”, check out the Purple Air Website: https://www2.purpleair.com/ It is free to use and it is in real time. If you live in area that does not have a monitor, think about buying one. Knowledge is power and being informed is the first step in claiming that power to protect your health.

Training for the Leadville 100 run is coming along better than I had expected. Or that is the way I feel about it right now. As it gets closer I get a little nervous and wonder if I am doing enough or too much. I swear I was much more fit just 5 years ago? I am not sure what that is about except maybe I am 59 now and 5 years older?! Lol. My mother used to say when she was in her 80s that “Old age is not for sissies.” And I am thinking that I am starting to understand what she meant by that. Oh well it is what it is and you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and be grateful for each day you wake up. Dang how morbid is that?! Lol.

This picture was taken June 15th, 2021 at about 10pm in the evening. Janet and I again had waited late to walk dog boy due to the heat and poor air quality for the day. But you do what you have to do. Marvin did not seem to care much.

Did I say earlier that the air quality got better toward the end of the month? Why yes I did and it really did get better. The mountains got a little rain and so did the Front Range, temperatures dropped a bit and life was good again so to speak.

This picture was taken June 25th, 2021 at 4pm in the afternoon. Marvin and I were doing some intown running along the Poudre River Bike trail. The temps were in the low 70s and look at those rain clouds. Nice!
This picture was taken June 29th, 2021 at about 3:30pm in the afternoon. Here I am at the top of Tower Road in Horsetooth Mountain Park looking North by Northwest. Look at that beautiful blue sky.
This picture was taken June 30th, 2021 at 2:45pm in the afternoon. This is looking North long Horsetooth Reservoir. Even though those clouds could mean danger due to lightning on an exposed ridge – they looked really good to me after the heat and poor air quality in the middle of the month. Another beautiful Colorado afternoon!

So the month ended on a good note! Yea! But what is the old saying that nothing last? Well that was the case and the first week of July did not disappoint! But I will save that tale for the next blog post.

A couple of book reviews and a piece of art work before wrapping things up. The first book I would like to talk about is a science fiction one called “Recursion” by Blake Crouch. You might be familiar with Mr. Crouch from another of his science fiction novels called “Dark Matter.” If you have read Dark Matter and liked it then you are going to be happy reading this one. I found the book entertaining due to the fact I did not have any idea what was going on “until further than usual” in the book. In my mind I was going thought all the possible scenarios of what the problem might be and then was surprised when I found out. There are several character arcs that are going on in the story at the same time, but with a twist. Some die out and never morph but others move wonderfully forward. It is a story about time and memory but not in a traditional sense. Mr. Blake creates a story, like in Dark Matter, out of what would be considered the frontiers of theoretical physics in my opinion. Bottom line – excellent read! I listed to the book as an audio book but I think it would work just as well in any format.

To learn more about the author please visit his web site: http://www.blakecrouch.com/

You can find this book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Recursion-Novel-Blake-Crouch/dp

The next book I would like to talk about is called “Big Magic written by Elizabeth Gilbert. Yes it is that author from “Eat Pray Love” and no I have not read that book. Yet. If you have read Julia Cameron’s book called “The Artist’s Way” and liked it then you are going to like this one. I loved this book by Elizabeth. I have been what I call a “struggling artist” since I was old enough to talk. My mother was a dominating woman and ran the household. She was the driving force in the family and if she said you were going to do or not do something then you did it or not. There were no exceptions. She had it in her mind that anything to do with “art” was a total waste of time. Or that is how I perceived her reaction anytime I wanted to do something creative that did not fit in with her idea of creativity. The only slight deviation she might allow was if you sang or played some kind of musical instrument. Both of which I hated.

So when I listened to this light hearted take on living the creative life (It is not a step by step guide) I was immediately drawn in. It felt like I was being given a drink of water after dying of thirst, stranded in the desert.

Some would say this is an excellent book for those who are looking for inspiration to live the “creative life.” But, I think it really goes much further because being creative is in our genes no matter who or what we do in life. If you go back far enough, some one in your family tree made things by hand – we all have the ability to be more creative.

I listened to this book as an audio book (I am on the forth listen) but I think it would work well in any format.

To learn more about the author please visit her website: https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/bio/

You can find this book at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Magic-Elizabeth-Gilbert-audiobook/dp

Well last but not least one piece of art work before I go.

I have always been interested in the science of the very, very small. What do things look like at the nano and quantum scale? Recently I was listening to a few lectures on particle physics and the different particles that make up electrons, protons, and neutrons: The Quarks, Leptons, Gluons, Photons, Bosons, and the Higgs particles to name a few. Then add in the quantum field theory or the “quantum glue” that holds it all together. I tried to capture what this might look like if you could see it on that level with the naked eye.

This drawing is done in pen and ink and is protected with a traditional picture frame and glass. It measures approximately 12 inches wide by 15 inches tall.

I call the piece below “Quantum Goulash.”

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

Well that is going to be about it for me on this blog post. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Before I close I would again like to give a shout out to minimalism. The world that we live in is a very big place and it can seem overwhelming at times. Especially when trying to think about making a positive difference in the world. But minimalism is something that we can all do to fight back against our over rampant consumeristic culture. When I first heard about the idea of minimalism I thought of a monk living in a monastery, bare walls, owning nothing, eating the same gruel each and everyday, etc… But in reality this is not the case, though I guess if you wanted to do this you could. Lol. Minimalism is different for each individual. You choose how much “minimalism” you want in your life and how much you don’t want. It is about understanding what matters most in life and removing the things that do not support the “what matters most part.” Of course this usually translates to getting rid of all unnecessary material goods as a first step. But Minimalism is so much more than just this. And a good place to start is here: https://www.theminimalists.com/minimalism/

Becoming minimalist is just a change in mindset. Nothing to buy, nothing to purchase, just a change in how you look at your life and the world.

So take care my friends and remember to wash your hands, stay informed on current Covid 19 developments, especially on the Delta variant, and wear your mask (N95 – if you have one) when appropriate. And get vaccinated – no excuses. As the Nike slogan says – “Just do it!” Adios!!

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

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

MUSINGS FOR FRIDAY 25TH, JUNE 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I call this sculpture “SQUIDWARD SUNFACE”

The inspiration behind the sculpture. Lol

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

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

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

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

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

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