“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.
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 issuesfor 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
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.
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.
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
“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
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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
“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
“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
“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
“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 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 onYouTube: 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.
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.
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.
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
“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 yearsaway 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/aboutand 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 middleof 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 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 onYouTube: 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.
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
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 postI 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.
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.”
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.
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.
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
Life is good, bad, beautiful and ugly – but it is all experience, so drink it up and guzzle it down my friend, for it is all that we are given!!
