Why is it so hard for some to look at evidence?

If a loved one was murdered, one would want the forensic team to look for as many clues as is scientifically possible to find the killer. Remember when DNA evidence didn’t exist? Maybe I am aging myself; heck, I remember a day when our TVs were black and white, and to use the phone, you had to check to see if somebody on your party line was using it. If you listened in to their conversation was dependent on your personality, Facebook drama long before its time.

As I have told you before, we have very philosophical discussions at work. As always, I take the side of an atheist who needs to have some sort of proof before I put all my eggs in one basket.

Again as I have told you before, some people will not look at the evidence. I cannot prove my points unless they look at what I am putting down.

One person in the lunchroom said, “What difference does it make to me?”

Many people ask the same question.

My answer is this: Shouldn’t we know who we are and where we come from if we are to tackle the challenges of the future? I believe we are here on our own. We are so a primitive species, the first on Earth to use our intelligence and hands to change our world. I’m sure we will find out we are not the only life in the galaxy before I die. Will this change our vanity?

‘We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.’ Carl Sagan

 

What is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and is always in November as far as I know at this time.
Participants challenge themselves to write at least fifty thousand words in novel form in thirty days.
Why? There is no monetary rewards, no promised contracts or notoriety of any kind. So why does one take the test? The only answer is we are mostly nuts who think what we say in type means something to someone else. We who choose the road less taken feel if we can do it in a month once, we can do it again. Some authors write books at will in less than thirty days. Most of us are amateurs unaware of what to do. Nano is the straw we are grasping for this month.
This is my first attempt at it, and I am starting from scratch using some notes and seven thousand words I have twice written. Here's what I have: I started the novel I am working on many years before the publication of my first book. I accidently deleted the eight thousand words I had. I started again and am up to seven thousand words. I plan on using some of those, but mostly will be starting anew again. The story has changed in the last few weeks. I wont start writing until November first. I would only be cheating myself if I started now. I am working on it every day with notes, and thoughts. This is my challenge to myself. When I set my mind to something, it gets done!

What Have I learned in 53 years?

Do not play with thistles.

Don’t use tools, they hurt your hands.

Beer is delicious.

When you hear someone bad-mouthing someone else, they will be talking about you as soon as you leave the room.

Nature is the only reality we can even think we understand, or ever will.

Being a mentor is honorable.

If you have to pick up tools remember, righty tighty, lefty loosey.

Bees won’t sting if you don’t swat at them.

Paying bills is less painful than bill collectors knocking on your door, (just learned this one this year, [last month actually]).

Understanding women is more complicated than astrophysics, quantum mechanics and origami combined; don’t even try, just admit defeat and ride the waves.

When your wife ask what you want for your birthday, don’t say the same thing you ask for each Christmas, anniversary or groundhog’s day. You didn’t get it then either.

Don’t pet porcupines backwards, it makes them angry.

Looking at the stars on a clear night cleans out the toxins of the mind: repeat as much as possible. No one has died from an overdose of star-gazing to my knowledge.

Get into the woods as long as you are mobile…
Correction: Get into the woods as long as you breathe, you will find peace.

Life found on the Moon!

 

This will be the headline of some report put out by NASA or some other space agency in the future, but it will not be our moon where it is found. Our moon is barren, though water ice has been discovered in the shadows of some of its craters.

One hundred sixty plus moons orbit planets in our solar system alone. My bet is someday we find life on at least one of them, maybe a couple. Not intelligent life, but microbial at least. I believe multi-cellular life, (squiggly-wigglies) will be found on one.

“Aren’t all moons the same?” you might ask. In reality each one has a history that makes one as different as one can imagine.

Here are some of my favorites.

Io: A moon of Jupiter subjected to tidal flexing more than any object known. The gravity of Jupiter pulls at the crust of Io like our moon causes the ocean tides here on Earth. Io experiences more volcanic, seismic and tectonic activity than any other body in this solar system. Its innards are thrown out into space and some fall on other moons of the jovian giant.

Europa: Has more liquid water than the planet we live on, even though it is smaller than earth. The surface is covered with several miles of ice that shows signs of the same plate tectonics that shape our mountains and some of our deepest ocean trenches. The elements of life are delivered by Io. This should make a soup perfect for life. Extremophiles are plentiful here on Earth, why shouldn’t they exist where ever the environment supplies the ingredients for life?

Enceladus: A moon of Saturn. Water geysers have been observed, meaning liquid water beneath the ice. More soup.

Titan: Another satellite of Saturn is the most mysterious of the moons. A dense atmosphere obscures most data, but is a wealth of data in itself. Hydrocarbons fall like rain and snow. Liquid methane flows like rivers do here pouring into lakes. Are there slow moving squiggly wigglies wiggling around in those lakes? Only time will tell as long as we keep exploring.

I want to know, don’t you?

 

 

 

The approach of fall brings out another persona in me – one who doesn’t get out as much as he should. This part of me is more at home in the woods of the Adirondacks.

Posts on Facebook seem less important now than they did a week ago. Planning for hunting and trapping seasons stirs something in me. The loss of chlorophyll in the maples, aspen, beech and cherry not only change the view, but also the smell of the woods. The tannic smell of decaying leaves fills the nostrils, decipherable at this time of year more than any other time.

These are the seasons set by Man when we can harvest renewable resources.

My grandson harvested his first squirrel. One shot, one kill.

Why would I teach a youngster to kill for sport?

Not only did I teach him how to harvest as humanely as possible, but showed him how to skin and keep the most palatable parts inside, the heart and liver. I taught him respect for the animal we killed. We both ate all but the bones of that red squirrel.

When gutting the animal I explained how the anatomy of the rodent was little different than his or his brother’s.

Should I pass what I know of nature to the next generation? Even if some don’t like it, I must.

This aspect of nature is as real as quarks, black holes or physics; but tastes delicious.

Why I Don't Believe in the Pseudo Sciences

I don’t believe in ghosts any more than I believe in Bigfoot, crop circles or aliens.

“Why?”  You might ask, “You are a science fiction writer.”

I need proof. Nothing has been proven to support Bigfoot, ghosts or crop circles. There is no proof of ancient aliens, and why would a more intelligent species than ours travel the great distances needed to come here? What do we have that any superior race needs that isn’t already out there in the universe? The elements here on earth are everywhere else; why travel so far to get them? If all they want is to probe our anuses, there are some perverted aliens out there!

No I don’t think any of the conspiracy theories are true.  We did land on the moon, aliens are not among us and I do think this is Eden, but I don’t believe in angels.

The Ice Bucket Challenge

Everyone is doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, and ALS has reaped benefits because of it. Someday the disease will be wiped out like polio and smallpox.

I personally did not dump water and ice cubes on my head. Instead, I used my head to think about it.

How often do water and ice appear together in nature?

Really? You ask.

This question may sound ridiculous, until one thinks about how big nature is. Actually the answer is: very rarely.

Here on earth water exists in three different states: liquid water, ice and vapor. Our solar system is in the Goldielocks Zone, which is where water can take on all three states of matter. A planet closer to the sun has no ice. Any planet on the other side of the Goldielocks Zone will have ice, maybe even with liquid water under the ice, but clouds of water vapor cannot exist in these areas.

Water is everywhere in the universe.

There is a moon called Titan, in the orbit of Saturn, where ice is as solid as rock is here on earth. Neither liquid water nor vapor,exist on Titan. But liquid methane prevails, creating lakes, rivers and clouds, just like good old H20 does here on earth.

Try dumping a bucket of liquid methane on your head, forget the methane cubes.