I spent ten years at the Aspen Center for Physics, once a year lecturing Michael Turner on accounting and financial statements, helping him understand; the whole while reveling in the absurdity of me lecturing him. Now I come across World Science University, and a chance to watch Michael in action in the area of *his* expertise. Wow. You have to log in to see the lecture. http://www.worldscienceu.com/ You can watch any of the videos for free. After a brief sign-up, you can click on Master Classes, All Master Classes, then click on Michael. It’s Michael Turner lecturing on Cosmology; specifically Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and Inflation. Now here is a guy who knows what he’s talking about. He knows so much, he can explain it in English, and he even knows what he doesn’t know; the questions that remain unanswered, and the mysteries that don’t even have questions yet.
I’ve been watching the presidential debates
There you have it. I’m not proud of it, but I feel better now that it’s out there. So far I’ve learned three things:
- Our election process is now a reality television game show about who can deliver the best applause line.
- I am consumed by terror about ISIS killing me and I can’t think of anything else.
- Our election is totally about who can kill ISIS the best. Who is the leader that can deliver us from our terror?
I still don’t have perspective on this, so I google causes of death per year and I get: Illicit drugs 46,000Motor vehicles 35,000Gun violence 33,000Alcohol 29,000Cannabis 0Suicide 41,000Tobacco 556,000Aspirin 450 Terrorism 30 in the last ten years The most recent numbers I found were for 2013, so they’re somewhat dated, but not terribly. The pace of terrorism is picking up. Of course we need to do something about it. But I just can’t understand why our hair is on fire. Why is every other issue we face irrelevant compared to defeating people in another part of the world, when the rest of the people in that other part of the world can’t even come to any agreement to defeat them? ISIS is a problem for us, but so are a lot of other things. ISIS is a GIANT problem for the other people in the region. Why aren’t they leading the attack?
More archive pics
Pied billed grebe
With legs mounted way far back, they swim a lot better than they walk. They spend a lot of time underwater eating crustaceans, fish, amphibians, and insects
With legs mounted way far back, they swim a lot better than they walk. They spend a lot of time underwater eating crustaceans, fish, amphibians, and insects A tough night for Annie
She has been getting older naturally; her eyesight failing, her hearing failing, her rear legs even failing. But she has been hanging in there, still eating, pooping, peeing, and having fun. As late as Sunday morning, she was alert and active. She ran and played a little bit with Henry after breakfast. Life started getting difficult for her about dinnertime. We’ve been having this conversation about knowing when it’s time; not waiting too long before we help her on her way. That’s our job, to help her when it’s time. By eight pm she was in enough discomfort we decided it was time. We took her to the car and drove to the 24 hour vet in McAllen. She died on the way. That was as good a place as any for her to take her last breath; she has always loved riding in the car with us. Best of all, we didn’t have to take her inside to get a shot; she didn’t have to get scared at the vet’s office like dogs do. They were kind to us. We stayed with Annie for about half an hour to finish our goodbyes. It was very peaceful. She was warm and relaxed. Annie hasn’t looked that comfortable lately. It was a tough night for Annie. It was a tough night for us. She lived a good life. She made a lot of people smile. The picture says it all.
No trip report tonight
I’ll write one tomorrow.