Category: Science

ECLIPSED

APRIL 8, 2024 – Blogger’s note: In light (“In the darkness”?) of today’s event, this post interrupts my current series, The Neighbors. That series resumes tomorrow with a particularly amusing installment. Stay tuned. Did you hear about today’s solar eclipse across a broad swath of the United States? You didn’t? Well, I’m glad that at …

ALIEN ODDS

DECEMBER 25, 2023 – After Santa’s visit last night and in the calm before the Christmas celebration storm today, I heard an interview with a serious journalist, Garrett M. Graff, author of UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government’s Search for Alien Life Here—And Out There. I’m not particularly interested in the science (or …

BIG NEWS!

DECEMBER 12, 2022 – Nuclear fusion. Sorry to burst your bubble. With a title like “Big News!” doubtless you were half-expecting . . . big news. If it’s not exactly how we or the media would define “big news,” tomorrow’s official announcement about a breakthrough in harnessing energy produced by nuclear fusion is a critical …

DAY 12: BEING RASH

SEPTEMBER 4, 2022 – (Cont.) When my mother got older she became obsessed (apparently) about her kids being rash. “Don’t do anything rash,” was a regular part of her farewell after every visit at “the home.” I won’t speak for my generally well-behaved sisters, but I’ll readily acknowledge that at an earlier stage of life, …

CLOUDED THINKING

JULY 18, 2022 – Over the weekend, while sitting on our dock, I watched cumulus clouds billowing upward over the lake. Earlier, when our six-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter was doing likewise and seeing dragons and unicorns, she’d asked, “How are clouds made?” I explained that when the earth warms by day, the moist, heated air near the …

“JIM” WEBB, PHILOSOPHER

JULY 15, 2022 – If you’re like me—semi-normal—you’ve beheld in awe, the recently released images captured by the James Webb telescope. Perhaps you’ve explored the science behind those pictures, but again, if you’re like me, you haven’t—beyond a cursory narrative. Inside my personal universe the images prompt a feeling of déjà vu. Is NASA deploying …

THE PROMISE PEOPLE

JNUARY 23, 2022 – My two greatest fortunes are: 1. High-achieving women; and 2. High-achieving men who recognize and respect the high-achieving women. At home I learned this among my grandparents, parents, and sisters; beyond, I learned it by interactive observation. Now to the angels of my current circumstances: Chelsey, Kaitlin, Annie, Cecilia, Khia, Joy, …

THE ALIEN’S DOWNLOAD

JANUARY 22, 2022 – Periodically, I play a mind-game in which an alien lands next to me to inquire telepathically about life on earth. Always within two minutes I’m in royal trouble trying to explain matters—as I understand them. Invariably, the alien stands in silent confusion. In the middle of yesterday’s extensive treatment sessions, the …

“BECAUSE IT’S THERE”

DECEMBER 20, 2021 – “Because it’s there.” That was the reason George Leigh Mallory gave for his ill-fated attempt to conquer Mt. Everest in 1924. The phrase is often attributed to New Zealander Sir Edmund Hilary, who, in 1953, with Tibetan Tenzing Norgay, reached where no one had gone before: the summit of earth’s highest …

HO, HO . . . HO-HUM!

DECEMBER 19, 2021 – I’m a person who’s strongly affected by the amount of daily sunlight. At this time of year (northern hemisphere), I struggle to climb out of bed before our late-rising star, and when Helios calls it a day at the end of his short, low-riding, chariot ride, I’m psychologically ill-prepared. It’s only …

WIND EFFECT

NOVEMBER 30, 2021 – In our front yard stand a clump of three birch trees that now tower over our house. When I planted them umpteen years ago, they were small enough to transport home by sticking them up through the open sunroof of our car. I noticed recently that blustery weather had peeled off …

NEEDED NOW: “HOSTILE ALIENS LANDING!”

MAY 25, 2021 – Displaced by news of human beings beating up on each other are the latest reports regarding “climate change.” Like 90% of an iceberg, this climate news is below the surface. Consider the following: The May 17 study, published by Nature Geoscience, concluding that global warming will expose more of the Antarctic …

“GO RIGHT AHEAD AND TREAD ON ME!”

MAY 4, 2021 – Yesterday on my hike inside “Little Switzerland,” I cut a beeline off the bend of a border street, down a steep slope, and across the eighth tee. Recent rains had brought out “a bunch of ants”—my pre-ant education terminology—as revealed by multiple, unmistakable “ant foxholes” dotting the tee—as it were.  As …

A CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT

FEBRUARY 24, 2021 – My wife and I have been watching The Crown on Netflix. I’m surprised. I’ve never been interested in British Royalty—they’re British and they’re royalty.  Besides, I’ve always thought the current members were off kilter; not up to the job.  Now I’m learning that apparently the Queen lacks a normal range of …

TEXAS TOAST

FEBRUARY 20, 2021 – Years ago I ate occasionally at the Texas Steak House—a restaurant chain where on a budget you could pretend you were in the money by eating . . . steak. The slab of beef came with extra-large fries and a piece of “Texas toast,” about two inches thick and soaked in …

PERSEVERANCE . . . ON EARTH

FEBRUARY 19, 2021 – Every day of the ski season, I observe the same routine before heading out the door, especially when it’s radically cold. It goes like this: Turn on living room TV. Run upstairs to bedroom, remove “street clothes” and put on windblock tights, grab four layers for upper body, and photo I.D. …

THE (INCONCLUSIVE) CONVERSATION

FEBRUARY 1, 2021 – On Saturday I enjoyed an overdue telephone conversation with my good friend Derek, a 35-year old graphic designer from L.A. By the close of our talk, enrichment outweighed regret for not having talked since May. I met Derek two years ago at our co-working space in downtown Minneapolis. He worked for …

MEANWHILE . . .

JANUARY 17, 2021 – Yesterday my wife and I with son-Byron and daughter-in-law-Mylène, loaded a weekend’s worth of gear, food, and accessories into the RAV4 and headed north—first to the Amnicon Falls State Park in extreme northwest Wisconsin, then southeast from there to the Red Cabin. Byron drove, and because Mylène tends to get carsick …

NO TIME WASTED

JANUARY 2, 2021 – “Huh?!” my wife said. On her part this isn’t an unusual response what I utter out of the blue; a non sequitur that leaves her contemplating our future, when she’s living in the “come and go as you please” wing of the nursing home, and I’m confined to the “keep this …

RUGGED NON-INDIVIDUALISM

DECEMBER 10, 2020 – As I dig deeper into my “tree garden” project, I’m reminded of my reaction to Black Lives Matter. How in the world could these two matters—trees and racial justice—be connected? Read on. As revealed in prior posts, our older son’s community activism prompted my wife and me to learn more about …

RUNNING THE NUMBERS

NOVEMBER 29, 2020 – Late last night, after hauling out the garbage I stopped in the middle of the driveway and gazed at Orion and his entourage. I then did something unscientific: I made “a wish upon a star.”  I then did something more scientific: I pondered the compound odds of (a) “intelligent” life existing …