Buggy Whips and Extinction Events

As you all know, I am a biologist to the core. I tend to look at most things in that light. Take the current political situation. Yes, I know I try really hard to not make this blog political, but sometimes...

I have been following politics with greater or lesser intensity for nearly four decades and not much really changes, but I have to admit the last three months have been fascinating. You'll notice I didn't say awesome. The Grand Canyon and things like that are awesome. But that's another subject. Watching the Republican party lately is really one of those things you get to see once in a lifetime.

If the radical right does not stop making buggy whips in the age of the automobile they will soon be out of business. Another analogy I can think of that works here is evolution. I know a lot of the real in crowd at the GOP doesn't believe in that Law, but I do and will use it. Creatures become extinct when their environment changes and they are unable to adapt to that change.

If the right wing leaders of what is left of the Grand Old Party are not able to adapt to the changing political and social environment or learn to make tires instead of buggy whips, then it's bye bye forever. The Republicans will eventually recover, but without them.

I wonder if they'll be missed?

Cry Wolf

What in the name of whomever is going on in Alaska? I just got an e-mail from Defenders of Wildlife about the bloody slaughter of wolves up there. If they can be believed, and I think they can, Alaska's Governor has declared an 'open season' on wolves.

They are being shot from aircraft, and I guess from dog sledge, wolf pups are being shot in the head and poisoned with gas grenades in their dens.

Can anybody tell me why? I thought Alaska was a big place. They don't have room for wolves in what is advertised by Alaskans as--- the last Great Wilderness?

Doesn't sound like it if you're a wolf.

It Pays to Advertise or Talk to the Shield

In most places in Europe important folks have a crest. Many times they are in four parts and painted on a shield. Things like owls for intelligence. Lions for courage. Books on heraldry are full of stuff like that.

Now of course you have to be really important to have your own crest. They are not for the average Joe or Jill. For one thing there are too many of us, and second nobody cares about average folks. If you don't believe me just watch Congress in inaction on C-Span.

I got to wondering, if I did have a crest what would be on it? What four things or qualities do I care enough about to paint on my shield? Since I only have four things I can pick, they have to be important. I mean I like ice cream, cheeseburgers, chili and the Beach Boys, but not enough to paint on my shield. No offense guys.

It does make me think. What is really important, what would I like the world to know about me?

I'm a Loser--weight that is

I know something about diets. I've had insulin dependent diabetes for over thirty-five years. By watching my diet, exercising and checking my blood glucose levels and most of all paying attention to my disease, I've managed to head off any complications. Well good for me. Not really, because it's a no brainer. Exercise some discipline or die young and leave a good looking corpse.

Having a disease like diabetes is a lot about dieting. I have been on a diet for 35 years. Do I cheat? Of course I do. But not most of the time. Just some of the time. It takes the pressure off.

As far as the diet stuff goes, what I've found most helpful is a food diary along with measuring the quantities of food I eat. I don't do this all the time, just once in awhile to make sure I'm really eating what and how much I think I am. It is easier to stay on track if I know exactly how much and what I'm eating and yes I write down any cheating. If I have to write down everything I eat or drink, then it's harder to kid myself about what or how much I eat. And believe me I'm a great kidder. And measuring helps me develop an eye for portions. I can recognise what a cup of mashed potatoes looks like on a plate at a friends or a restaurant.

The most important thing for me is that a diet must be a life long thing. It's not temporary, it's forever. So, I take it a day at a time. I didn't try to lose weight that took me years to gain in weeks. That's too hard and too painful. I try to remember that by cutting my calories by 100 a day, I can lose 10 pounds a year or if I increased my intake 100 calories a day, over a year I would add 10 pounds. So what works for me is small changes over longer periods of time.

There are some websites that help me with nutritional values, calories in fast food or just about any food such as Calorie Count.

Busy, busy

I am in the weeds today. I'll post something tomorrow if I can catch up.

lyle

Small Airplanes

I got my pilot's certificate a few years ago allowing me to fly a small airplane. An acquaintance of one of our daughters saw the small airplane I was storing for a friend and commented, “That's small. Looks dangerous.”

Not really. Pilots receive a lot of training and practical experience before they are set loose on their own, unlike most of us who drive cars. Cars are small and really dangerous. Every year in the U.S. nearly 40,000 people are killed in traffic accidents, almost half involve alcohol. For some reason if a small airplane has an off-field landing (pilots don't like the word 'crash') the news is all over it. Now it's true that most local news reports traffic fatalities, they are just not reported nationally as are airplane misadventures.

Unlike cars, airplanes are required to be inspected by a certified airplane mechanic every twelve months in order to renew it's Airworthiness Certificate. This inspection checks to see that every inch of the airplane complies with FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) Airworthiness requirements for this particular type of airplane. If the airplane flunks any part of the inspection it is declared not airworthy and cannot be flown until the problem is corrected by a certified mechanic and reinspected. Additionally, pilots are required to take a check ride, essentially a practical exam, with an FAA certified inspector every two years to insure that they are still safe pilots. Pilots are also required to take a physical exam every three to four years, depending on their age. If they fail that, they are not allowed to fly until the problem is resolved.

Pilots who fly commercially, such as for the airlines, are subject to even more training and scrutiny as are the airplanes they fly.

At this point allow me digress for a moment to dispel the notion that flying an airplane is hard. It's not. Anybody of average intelligence and health can learn. If you do, the one thing I can promise you is when on your first solo you look over at that right seat and see nobody there, you will have a life changing experience.

So, when my daughter's friend commented on the safety of that small airplane, I couldn't help thinking of his 60 mile drive here, mere feet from another car whose driver may be drunk, texting, or day dreaming.

Patriot Confusion

Patriot—one who loves his or her country and supports its authority or interests, Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition.

I am third generation military. I was even stupid enough to volunteer for Vietnam. Not one of the dumbest things I've ever done, but definitely in the top ten. Now, a lot of people would think that qualifies me as a patriot-by their definition.

Unfortunately, a lot of folks are a bit confused as to what a patriot is. Being a patriot to them is agreeing with them as to what they think a patriot is.

To me loving and supporting your country is being willing to actually do something not just pay lip service to supporting the troops or a particular political party. And that doing something includes having the courage to tell your country when you thing she is wrong. Just as we would tell a friend or child when we believe they are wrong, we should all have the courage to disagree with government policy, when after careful consideration of the facts, we believe it's going down the wrong path.

Patriotism is more than saying you support the troops while driving around in a vehicle guzzling gas, refined from Mid East oil, with American flags sticking out the windows.

Nothing New

If you've ever written a piece of fiction you probably realize how hard it is to come up with a plot nobody has thought of before. It's nearly impossible. The best we can hope for is to put a new spin on something. And there's nothing wrong with that.

If you see a lot of movies you probably realize you've seen the story before, just a different location, time and characters. Supposedly there are only seven plots and everything else is just a variation. That's why we're so seldom surprised by an ending.

Our hero has a problem. Hero tries to solve the problem. Villain or circumstance tries to stop her/him. He/she succeeds or doesn't.

It's the same with music. After all, after hundreds of years of tunes how do you come up with a new one? For instance, a lot of the music from Star Trek and Star Wars is based, and not too loosely, on The Planets, by Holst. At the end of the Jupiter Suite you hear the Star Trek theme loud and clear. The haunting and scary music of Jaws can be heard in the famous 4th movement of The New World Symphony by Dvorák and the Rocky theme borrowed from a piece by Brahms. So what you say? You're right, so what. There just really is nothing new under the sun.

The real genius of creative people is how they make it seem new.

Pets Keep Those Ducks in a Row

I was sitting here working on this blog when my cat walked in and just like that I decided to change the subject.

In a world that keeps throwing you knuckle balls, where no matter how hard you try your ducks won't stay in line and at times you think the universe is conspiring to destroy you, it's nice to have a friend. Not just any friend, but a really special friend who no matter what's going on or how well or badly you're dealing with life's surprises just hangs in there steady and constant as the North Star guiding you to more tranquil waters. ( Whoa, where're that come from??!!)

Anyway, a pet is that special friend. Always there, always constant, always a friend, never too busy to cheer us up.

Thanks for being a friend, buddy.

Oh right, I need to clean your litter box.

Hubble Can See Into the Past

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a time machine. Everybody probably knows that, but it still amazes me that HST can look into the past. For example, the sun we see is the sun as it was eight minutes ago. That's because light is fast, but not instantaneous. It takes sunlight a little over eight minutes to travel the 90 million miles to Earth. An impressive example of light's speed is that if you could travel at the speed of light you could circle the Earth at the equator 7 ½ times in a single second.

The farther away an object is the farther back in time HST sees. An object a light year away is 6 billion miles distant, the miles light travels in a year. If the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is peering at it, it sees the object as it was one year ago. It's frustrating, but you can't see things at a distance in real time. But, that can be a good thing.

Astronomers tell us the age of the universe is around thirteen billion years. That means if the HST could see a galaxy that lies 13 billion light years from us, it is seeing it as it was when the universe began.

Now that's cool.

Sorry, Government, and Trust

Sorry, nothing today. I've volunteered to help a daughter write a resume.My sympathies to all of you looking for work.

It's ugly out there and it's not your fault.

Personal Comment:

As old as I am, I still cannot believe how badly our government has failed us. I am really angry that a government we trust to protect us from harm has betrayed us through inattention, greed, outright larceny and conspiricy to defraud.

But then, I'm a Vietnam Vet. I shouldn't be surprised.

Grumpy Isn't Just One of the Seven Dwarfs

OK, I'm grumpy today, I don't know why, but I believe I have that right under the Constitution, if I don't I should.

I think what brought it on was my error in not switching stations when MSNBC cut to covering Miss California's defense of her rights under the Constitution, aided and abetted by The Donald.

I guess what bugged me was the amount of time and discussion spent on a non-issue, a lot of it about how much of a non-issue it was. What I forgot is that all these cable folks are out to sell Corn Flakes,by boosting viewer ship airing hot button or busy body issues. I wish they covered science with such intensity. OK now I'm beyond grumpy and bordering on cynical.

But, as Lilly Tomlin said , “The problem with being cynical is that it's so hard to keep up.”

Nice Wolf

All dog breeds are descendants of wolves. A wolf is just a dog; a wild one. A few wolves were domesticated 10,000 years ago and through careful, and sometimes not so careful breeding, we got the family dog.

As a little kid I'd seen cartoons, movies and even fairly tales where the wolf was a vicious, cunning, slavering killer, with fiery, bloodshot eyes, the kind you see in Disney films-- 'the big, bad wolf', and don't forget Little Red Riding Hood. Are they really that bad, I wondered?

I looked for some statistics that would tell me how dangerous these big, bad wolves are or aren't and was surprised to learn that since 1900 there has only been ONE human killed by wolves in North America and that was in Canada. After all with a reputation like wolves have you'd expect wholesale slaughter of humans, not just one in 109 years.

Unfortunately, man's best friend, the domestic dog, has a much poorer record. Between 1979 and 1998 there were 332 humans killed by the family dog in the United States.

I've decided Walt Disney owes the wolves an apology.

The Piano and Target Practice

Three years ago I decided to learn to play a musical instrument. Now, this sounds like a harmless enough enterprise, but that depends on whether or not one has any musical talent. I am marginal at best.

For the last couple of years I’ve mentored elementary school kids, probably because I miss my grandkids who live in other states, and they were learning to play the Recorder flute. It seemed pretty simple so I bought one for $1.99, a couple of easy books and set out with high hopes and great expectations. But, for some reason my high notes sounded like I stepped on a mouse, so I bought a more expensive flute ($14.95!), but the mouse squeaks were still there. It wasn’t the flute.

Playing my squeaky flute did force me to learn to read music, after a fashion. You know it’s not really that hard. Since I had little success playing those pesky high notes I thought I would simplify things by getting a keyboard. I got a nice Yamaha for $99 including stand and power supply.

I had been told that keyboard playing is really just target practice so I figured I had it made. If I hit the right key, I played the right note. No squeaking here. And the neat part is I had a choice of over a hundred different instruments if I got tired of the piano.

What I didn’t realize is you get to use both hands. Now that sounded OK, until I tried it. You’ve got two hands playing different combinations of notes at the same time, arghhh. I have trouble brushing my teeth with my left hand. But, it’s still fun playing if you only use your right hand. After all the melody is played with the right hand and that’s the part you tap your foot to.

What made things easier is my realization that I won’t live long enough to learn to play classical stuff. So, by limiting myself to pop music and only trying to have fun, I have a fighting chance.

But still, how hard do you think the guitar would be?

Thoughts on Mother's Day

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and as I have never written a word about this most important Holiday, it is high time.

I lost my mother a few years ago; just as you will someday. Unfortunately, I never fully appreciated her until it was too late. Mom was not perfect, anything but, but the one thing she did better than anything else was love me. No matter what stupid or selfish things I did she was always on my side. No matter what the rest of the world’s opinion of me was, hers was always predictable; she loved me and was on my side.

I didn’t realize, until after she was gone, how important it is to have at least one person in the whole world to be there for you no matter how boneheaded you were. That’s not to say she always thought I was right. She made it clear when she thought I was wrong, but she was still always on my side.

Mom’s are like that.

Molly and the Bond, James Bond--Escape

After watching Quantum of Solace a few days ago, my attention was naturally caught by a real life adventure that took place in Montana last week. There was escape from certain death, a desperate chase, our hero hopelessly outnumbered by heavily armed villains in pursuit using every advantage modern technology could give them. Time after time there were hair raising escapes. But our hero was not a British Secret Agent, but a 1200 pound cow.

A heifer, nicknamed Molly, was awaiting her fate at a slaughterhouse in Great Falls, Montana when she saw an opportunity for escape. Without hesitation she lept over an ungarded gate and hot hoofed it down a road, just like 007. A few hours later she was seen and reported to the enemy who pursued her through the city finally trapping her between a truck and a fence. Undaunted she bolted through the fence, dodged a murderous SUV, ran across railroad tracks in front of a speeding train, cleverly leaving her hapless pursuers on the wrong side, and ran down a road barely dodging a speeding semi. Unfortunately an icy river lay ahead trapping her between it and her ruthless pursuers who quickly surrounded her and slowly moved in to put and end to her desperate escape. True to the double 'O' tradition, Molly jumped into the freezing water and swam courageously for the far bank once more eluding her now enraged pursuers. Exhausted and sinking slowly she was being swept downriver by a strong current, it looked like the end, but she fought the current and the frigid, muscle numbing water and was rewarded for her courage by finding a sand bar. Molly staggered from the river and walked slowly up the river's sandy bank.

Despite her great courage, the foe were too many and she was again surrounded and hit with a tranquilizer dart, she kept going until hit with two more. Slowed by the powerful drugs sped through her body by her noble heart she was finally captured.

Fortunately, Molly's story gained the attention of the nation and her captures were forced to free her to the owners of an organic farm who kindly granted her sanctuary. She is now retired from the fray and will spend her remaining years in comfort and security as a reward for her courage and determination to be free.

Good on you, Molly.

Bond, James Bond--Books Before Movies

OK, I admit it, I'm a move nut. Last night I watched Quantum of Solace and was lucky to escape with only singed eyebrows and powder burns. Now that was some action flick.

Years ago, when I was a student, I read all the Bond novels by Sir Ian Fleming. Sir Ian wrote 12 novels and nine short stories about our hero as well as the children's story, Chity, Chity, Bang, Bang. Casino Royal was the first in the series published in 1958. The first movie Dr. No, is the sixth novel in the series.

Sir Ian was an officer with British Naval Intelligence in WWII, holding the rank of Commander and organizing a commando group which specialized in snatching Nazi intelligence material before the enemy could destroy it. Obviously the inspiration for many of his plots.

Now to say the books are like the movies is like saying Ben Stiller and Daniel Craig are a lot alike. In the books, Bond is a slightly overweight, alcoholic, Turkish cigarette chain smoking sexist who drives a Lincoln Mark 5, has a cruel smile and sleeps with his hand on the Walther PPK under his pillow and has none of the whiz bang gizmo's dreamt up by Q for the movie Bond. As uninteresting as that sounds, the books were really fun and unlike anything I had ever read. It is the opinion of many aficionados of the Bond books and movies that fans either like the books or the movies, but not both.

I like them both and you might as well.

Good Student or Good Memory

I haven’t been a formal student for years, but something still bugs me about school.

How does the educational system differentiate between students who have good memories and can ‘psych out’ the professor or teacher and are good at taking tests from those who really understand the subject and have a talent for it, but whose memory isn’t that great or aren’t good at playing the game or taking an exam?

Of course, I’m talking about myself here, but I’m sure I have a lot of friends out there. You know who you are, the ones who sweat bullets to get by, but enjoyed and had a real feeling for the subject and in real life were good at their job despite not being the best student.

The way things are you are labeled brilliant if you can barf up the right answers, even if a month later you don’t know what the heck the course was about, and average or a little better if you scrape by, but have a feel for what you learned.

Even though I was never interested in Med School, that one as well as the Nursing School a daughter attended comes to mind. Are the students who get straight A’s really going to make the best Doctors and Nurses? Isn’t there an important if not critical quality not measured by grades lurking somewhere?

I think so.

Climate Change

The other day my neighbor told me there can’t be Global Warming; we had a cold snap last summer.

It shows what an unfortunate name Global Warming is; thankfully the scientists replaced it with Climate Change. What’s in a name? Well, if you call the phenomenon global warming, people like my neighbor think it should be getting warmer all the time, when in reality the warming is a trend, going up and down in the short run, but trending higher over the long run. In the midst of the rising atmospheric temperature can be a decade or more of a drop in average temperatures. What matters is that over the last hundred years the Earth’s atmospheric temperature has risen 1.3 degrees.

Now, 1.3 degrees doesn’t seem like much, but when you have meteorological dynamics in such fine balance it doesn’t take much to upset things. I’m sure we’re all aware of the rapid melting of glaciers, permafrost, polar ice caps, etc.

I am particularly worried about the thawing of the permafrost. This can potentially release huge amounts of methane--a greenhouse gas 10 times more potent than CO2. The melting ice, whether in glaciers or ice caps, is scary too as this reduces the amount of light colored ice to reflect heat back into space exposing darker ocean or rock to absorb even more heat melting more ice. When this happens things can get out of control fast.

Of course it doesn’t help my neighbor understand what’s going on when scientists working for big energy companies say that there is no such thing as Global Warming. Fortunately their corporate remarks are mitigated by tens of thousands of scientists, who are not paid to have an opinion, saying there most certainly is and here are the facts to prove it.

It's Round??

I was listening to “Good Vibrations” and that got me to thinking about earthquakes, which led to plate techtonic theory, and how everybody thought Wegener was a crackpot for proposing such a loony idea as continents drifting around on giant plates floating on molten rock, and that got me to thinking about the over 150 year old one-sided debate about Evolution. Scary, huh?

Anyway, as we all know this debate is primarily between religion of a certain stripe and science. We’ve had many of these debates before. A monk by the name of Bruno was burned at the stake in 1600 because, among other things, he believed in an infinite number of planets all inhabited by humans. Unfortunately for him the bible didn’t mention that fact.

Copernicus was afraid to publish his discovery, in the 1500’s, that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of vice versa, as scripture revealed, until after his death.

The sun rises, and sets, and returns to its place, from which, reborn, it revolves through the meridian, and is curved toward the North. (Ecclesiastes 1:5).
In the 1633, Galileo, the father of modern science, was tried by the Inquisition for teaching the ‘Theory’ of Copernicus. The Catholic Church finally apologized some 300 years later.

Of course, there was opposition to the dissection of humans for the benefit of medical science, women as men’s inferior and a whole host (no pun intended) of other nutty ideas marching under the banner of religiosity.

Now in the 21st century we have Darwin’s Theory of Evolution kicked around in the name of scripture. (It’s unfortunate that ‘theory’ is tacked on the front as it has a different meaning to scientists than it does to the rest of us, making Darwin’s ‘Theory’ easier to attack).

Hopefully, someday we can accept, what I call, the Law of Evolution with the same rationality we accept that the Earth is not only round, it revolves about the sun.

One Hand Clapping?

I got to wondering about Buddhism, so I got a book . I was surprised to learn it's called “The Way” by many, not an –ism.

The Way as originally taught and practiced has absolutely nothing to do with religion. We humans just love to religify things. A lot of The Way is about paying attention to what's going on right now, not what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow.

I realized I spent a lot of time thinking about the past---and doing a lot of cringing---or worrying about the future and worrying. I was not paying attention to the now which is where I am and all I can really do anything about.

I have to admit I have a lot of trouble staying in the present. It's like driving a car. The past's in my rear view mirror, the future's out the windshield. In real life I see a lot of things through the windshield which never happens and a lot of what I don't see does. When I pass it and see it in my rear view there's nothing I can do about it.

The hard part is the present, closing my eyes, neither looking through the windshield nor the rear view mirror. Sort of like the suicidal practice of texting while driving. Sooner or later I just have to look up to see what's coming and before I know it I'm taking a peek at my rear view mirror.

Of course, in real life I need to learn from the past and prepare for the future. I just have to be sure I'm not dwelling on things I can no longer do anything about or imagining things that probably won't happen.

Paying attention is a lot harder than I thought.