Transfer Agent
Blogs are dead, said a friend of mine, a relic of an older generation (referring to me, I believe). But yet when I gaze out into the blog universe, they appear to be as numerous as ever; but I could see what he was saying in just watching my own habits when I pull up an author's site or even a science site, there among the categories, nestled with the "home" and "about" and "press" subcategories rest another section which I rarely explore..."blog." And yet, people still ask me about how one goes about starting their own blog (it takes about 3 minutes to be up and running and yes, it's that easy; just type "starting a blog" in most any search engine and hundreds of free instructions will pop up); and to be fair some of today's blogs have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of followers (but not this one, in case you were wondering). Quite frankly, a blog on kitchen cabinets or on being a new mother cooking is puzzling to me, but then many of these blogs have so many readers that it boils down to the vast variety of subjects that interests people...and it's a big world out there. My only advice to anyone and to everyone even considering the thought of beginning a blog is to dive right into it. So what if you specialize in getting the scuff marks off of bowling balls or in placing webcams on top of flagpoles; it doesn't matter because more than likely readers will find you. One friend of mine loved to build model railroads accessories such as crossing guard lights and gate switches and steam-emitting tunnels and to his surprise, his blog attracted readers and his "hobby" business quickly became profitable enough that it surpassed his salaried job (he was already making $60k annually). Go figure, but get on ya, dude...okay, I shouldn't pretend that I speak such jargon but one has to extend a hearty pat on my friend's back for finding that his passion was something that others apparently yearned for...who'd have thunk?*
As I've mentioned before, I write because it simply lets me unload in a sense, taking a collective mish mash from my reading, straining it, and putting it down on this electronic paper and clearing room for other things in my mind (or so I believe; it's an old trick of sorts, that of having a pen and paper near your bed so you can write things down when your mind is chattering late at night with a seemingly nonstop array of thoughts and things you have to do in the morning). New York Times columnist David Brooks explained this feeling a bit better in his recent book, The Second Mountain: Those of us who are writers work out our stuff in public, even under the guise of pretending to write about someone else. In other words, we try to teach what it is that we really need to learn...When it comes to what we writers do, I like to apply an observation by D.T. Niles: We are like beggars who try to show other beggars where we found bread. You have to get only a few pages into this book to realize that I quote a lot of people wiser than myself. I mean a lot of people. I'm unapologetic about this. It's occurred to me many times over the course of writing this book that maybe I'm not really a writer. I'm a teacher or middle man. I take the curriculum of other people's knowledge and I pass it along. I think that is me, throwing in a few small personal notes but in truth exposing the reality that I am not even a jack of all trades and certainly a master of none. But enough of that...I again thank those of you who have read or are reading this blog, whether it has been by chance or by choice; my hope has always been that there were enough tidbits in the links and credits that you might have found yourself wanting to explore further. I know, blah-blah-blah...but it is with that thought that I throw in these random updates on some recent posts (the highlighted subjects will take you to a related earlier post).
Photons: While I tried to explain the travel of photons escaping the sun, Discover did a much better job (and yes, I've since corrected my posted error since I wrote that it took 8 seconds for light to reach us from the sun, when actually it is 8 minutes; where's my proofreader when I need her/him? But you still have to marvel that even at the speed of light our sun is far enough away that it takes 8 minutes of travel just to hit our eyes). Said the magazine: Some 93 million miles separate the sun and Earth, and it takes photons just over eight minutes to cover that distance. But the bulk of their journey occurs inside the sun, where a typical photon spends a million years trying to escape. Matter is so tightly packed at the center of our star --the hydrogen there is about 13 times denser than lead-- that photons can travel only an infinitesimal fraction of a second before being absorbed by a hydrogen ion, which then spits the photon out for another soon-to-be-interrupted journey, ad infinitum. After about a billion trillion such interactions, a photon finally emerges from the surface of the sun, having zigged and zagged randomly for a thousand millennia. The piece goes on to explain a bit about quantum tunneling and such, and even if it sounds like physics gobbledygook (it does to me), the wonder of it all should be enough to make us all feel even more humble.
Moon: There's been a lot of talk recently about returning to the moon, perhaps because of China landing a craft on the dark or shadowed side of the moon and making some interesting discoveries there (because we rotate in sync with the moon, we on Earth only see one side of it). Said a piece in the Wall Street Journal: A total of 66 space missions from various nations have landed on or crashed into the moon since the first in 1959; NASA estimates that those missions have left behind a total of 800 objects on the lunar surface, including 71 spacecraft and rovers, boots, camera, and bags of feces; and two golf balls. The New Yorker also talked about the moon and wrote this about what happened after those 12 men who walked on the moon came back to live out their lives on Earth: The twelve men who walked on the moon, who saw Earth as a distant object—did they lose their illusions? A couple had alcohol problems, one co-founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and one became an evangelical preacher. One became a one-term Republican senator who has denied that humans are responsible for climate change; another became a painter, of the moon. Neil Armstrong was one of the few who had a mostly steady, unremarkable post-moonwalk life. He moved to a dairy farm and became a professor at the University of Cincinnati. But as I mentioned about our failure (so far) to procreate once we leave the confines of our planet, WIRED pointed out that there may be another surprise waiting for us: ...before we set up lunar research stations or mining facilities, we'll have to reckon with one the weirdest substances in the solar system: moondust. It's superfine. It's sharp. It's got a serious case of static cling. And it may very well stand in the way of our lunar ambitions.
Microplastics: There were other random tibits such at our dealings with microplastics... they're everywhere, even in the most remote places on our planet which also means that we're constantly absorbing them because they're small enough to enter our bloodstream and even cross our blood-brain barrier. Scientists estimate that each of us currently carry enough plastic inside us to equal the size of a credit card. Said the editor of The Week: A federal study found the plastic known as BPA in the urine of 93 percent of people over the age of 6. It's been found in breast milk, too. A new Australian study has found people ingest an average of 2,000 microplastic particles a week through food, water, and air...BPA, phthalates, and some other plastics are endocrine disruptors, affecting human hormones. Research has found links between these plastics and prostate and breast cancer. Exposure to high levels of phthalates has been associated with autism spectrum disorder, obesity, behavior problems, and thyroid disfunction. Some microplastics can trigger an immune response that can cause inflammation...Meanwhile, global plastic production has reached 364 million tons a year, and is expected to triple by 2050. Rub that sunscreen in or brush your teeth? Such lotions are generally unregulated and untested (the FDA has yet to rule on any of the chemicals used in sunscreen), as is almost all makeup (still!). Said the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency): Particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Some particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Of these, particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM2.5, pose the greatest risk to health. Did I mention that moondust is 2 micrometers?
And then came this letter-to-the-editor in Barron's about China: To understand, in general, the East Asian mind-set, there are basic concepts that Americans and “Westerners, per se’” are ignorant of but need to fully understand...1) Asians think very, very long term. Americans do not. Asians understand that Americans want things done quickly. Negotiations will be delayed repeatedly ad infinitum to grind us down, just for pleasure. 2) China is not as strong as it looks. Neither is it weak. It is only a factor to deal with, nothing more. 3) Outrageous demands will be made initially, knowing that they will settle for less. They start by picking your mind. 4) Everything, without exception, is negotiable. Even after something is agreed upon, it will be changed or modified repeatedly before a contract is signed. 5) Their honor system is different than ours. While under contract, they will push the envelope far beyond the limit until caught. To them cheating is normal. To them there are no rules. 6) China knows it can stall until the 2020 U.S. elections. They also know the U.S. media is strongly anti-Trump and ready to attack him. China will capably use that. It's one opinion, right or wrong, but it's someone voicing how they feel (and respected enough to get it in print). Here's U.S. women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe in TIME: I looked out my hotel window in New York City as soon as I got here and saw the Statue of Liberty. The land of opportunity. But it has to be for everyone. A lot of people have been cut out of that dream. It’s one thing to be the biggest and baddest and best country. But if you’re not sticking up for someone else who maybe isn’t in that position, then you’re kind of just a bully. And here's author Richard Russo in the same magazine: Wars are what we know about ourselves as human beings. Whatever flaws we see in ourselves, and in our neighbors, friends and enemies, if there is such a thing as original sin, it’s that. And when it gets written large in world leaders, then yeah, it’s just hard to imagine we’re ever going to live in a world where war is not right around the corner.
So here's my take on it all. We live in a world of variety, a world of wonder, and those of us fortunate enough to be able to bask in it should do so and appreciate not only ourselves but our home and what we have here on this planet, as well as to recognize that there are many who are trapped in situations (physically, mentally, financially, innocently, fleeing for their lives or trapped in a war not of their choosing, etc.) who are unable to enjoy life as it was meant to be, something that is precious and should be protected and savored each and every moment. Why go to the moon or Mars when one can just step outside and see the mystery of life in a single blade of grass? And then to peek at the life which is nestled in ourselves, our thoughts and our egos and our compassion and our ignorance. What makes it all tick, and what makes it all so different and yet at times, all so the same? Here's a final thought to take away, this from the Masters At Work series, Becoming A Neurosurgeon: ...the brain as a whole: a three-pound lump of jelly-like matter whose hundred billion cells, and the trillions of electrochemical connections between them, make up the most complex system in the known universe. This system is responsible not only for all motor and sensory functions of the body but for the mystery of consciousness itself and all to which it gives rise: love, hope, memory, fear, music, poetry, art, science -- everything, in short, that makes us human. That so little is known about the anatomy and functioning of the brain is one reason neurosurgery is so demanding and dangerous. Those who expose and cut into the brain's tissues are, to a very real degree, traveling in terra incognita. Indeed, so fraught with risk is opening the skull and invading the brain --where a millimeter's error can spell disaster-- no reasonable medical professional would perform these interventions save for the fact that patients who end up in neurosurgery wards are already suffering from calamities so threatening to their life and well-being that nonintervention is not an option.
Daniil Medvedev decided that he had little to lose since he was down two sets against the world's #2 player in the recent U.S. Open Tennis Tournament final. So he went for it, winning the next set, and the next, and despite being down in the last set, staging another comeback that fell just one game shy of winning the entire thing. On watching with the crowd the highlights of victor Rafael Nadal's 19 Grand Slam wins, Medvedev said in his runner-up speech: I was thinking, "If I win, what would they show?" Blogs are dead? Who cares if that's true or not? We all have something to say and blogs still present an avenue for any of us to get it out there for others to read. If something is on your mind then the time is now to start your own blog and let the world know what you're feeling or wanting to say or write about. You may discover that in doing so you discover things about yourself and your feelings, and that there may be others out there who share some of your same thoughts. You'll never know until you try; and maybe like the 23-year old Medvedev, you may find yourself close to becoming much more well known than even you expected, and all just by trying with nothing to lose.
*This likely won't translate well with Google but it's a colloquial phrase, a shortened version of "Who would have thought it?"
As I've mentioned before, I write because it simply lets me unload in a sense, taking a collective mish mash from my reading, straining it, and putting it down on this electronic paper and clearing room for other things in my mind (or so I believe; it's an old trick of sorts, that of having a pen and paper near your bed so you can write things down when your mind is chattering late at night with a seemingly nonstop array of thoughts and things you have to do in the morning). New York Times columnist David Brooks explained this feeling a bit better in his recent book, The Second Mountain: Those of us who are writers work out our stuff in public, even under the guise of pretending to write about someone else. In other words, we try to teach what it is that we really need to learn...When it comes to what we writers do, I like to apply an observation by D.T. Niles: We are like beggars who try to show other beggars where we found bread. You have to get only a few pages into this book to realize that I quote a lot of people wiser than myself. I mean a lot of people. I'm unapologetic about this. It's occurred to me many times over the course of writing this book that maybe I'm not really a writer. I'm a teacher or middle man. I take the curriculum of other people's knowledge and I pass it along. I think that is me, throwing in a few small personal notes but in truth exposing the reality that I am not even a jack of all trades and certainly a master of none. But enough of that...I again thank those of you who have read or are reading this blog, whether it has been by chance or by choice; my hope has always been that there were enough tidbits in the links and credits that you might have found yourself wanting to explore further. I know, blah-blah-blah...but it is with that thought that I throw in these random updates on some recent posts (the highlighted subjects will take you to a related earlier post).
Photons: While I tried to explain the travel of photons escaping the sun, Discover did a much better job (and yes, I've since corrected my posted error since I wrote that it took 8 seconds for light to reach us from the sun, when actually it is 8 minutes; where's my proofreader when I need her/him? But you still have to marvel that even at the speed of light our sun is far enough away that it takes 8 minutes of travel just to hit our eyes). Said the magazine: Some 93 million miles separate the sun and Earth, and it takes photons just over eight minutes to cover that distance. But the bulk of their journey occurs inside the sun, where a typical photon spends a million years trying to escape. Matter is so tightly packed at the center of our star --the hydrogen there is about 13 times denser than lead-- that photons can travel only an infinitesimal fraction of a second before being absorbed by a hydrogen ion, which then spits the photon out for another soon-to-be-interrupted journey, ad infinitum. After about a billion trillion such interactions, a photon finally emerges from the surface of the sun, having zigged and zagged randomly for a thousand millennia. The piece goes on to explain a bit about quantum tunneling and such, and even if it sounds like physics gobbledygook (it does to me), the wonder of it all should be enough to make us all feel even more humble.
Moon: There's been a lot of talk recently about returning to the moon, perhaps because of China landing a craft on the dark or shadowed side of the moon and making some interesting discoveries there (because we rotate in sync with the moon, we on Earth only see one side of it). Said a piece in the Wall Street Journal: A total of 66 space missions from various nations have landed on or crashed into the moon since the first in 1959; NASA estimates that those missions have left behind a total of 800 objects on the lunar surface, including 71 spacecraft and rovers, boots, camera, and bags of feces; and two golf balls. The New Yorker also talked about the moon and wrote this about what happened after those 12 men who walked on the moon came back to live out their lives on Earth: The twelve men who walked on the moon, who saw Earth as a distant object—did they lose their illusions? A couple had alcohol problems, one co-founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and one became an evangelical preacher. One became a one-term Republican senator who has denied that humans are responsible for climate change; another became a painter, of the moon. Neil Armstrong was one of the few who had a mostly steady, unremarkable post-moonwalk life. He moved to a dairy farm and became a professor at the University of Cincinnati. But as I mentioned about our failure (so far) to procreate once we leave the confines of our planet, WIRED pointed out that there may be another surprise waiting for us: ...before we set up lunar research stations or mining facilities, we'll have to reckon with one the weirdest substances in the solar system: moondust. It's superfine. It's sharp. It's got a serious case of static cling. And it may very well stand in the way of our lunar ambitions.
Microplastics: There were other random tibits such at our dealings with microplastics... they're everywhere, even in the most remote places on our planet which also means that we're constantly absorbing them because they're small enough to enter our bloodstream and even cross our blood-brain barrier. Scientists estimate that each of us currently carry enough plastic inside us to equal the size of a credit card. Said the editor of The Week: A federal study found the plastic known as BPA in the urine of 93 percent of people over the age of 6. It's been found in breast milk, too. A new Australian study has found people ingest an average of 2,000 microplastic particles a week through food, water, and air...BPA, phthalates, and some other plastics are endocrine disruptors, affecting human hormones. Research has found links between these plastics and prostate and breast cancer. Exposure to high levels of phthalates has been associated with autism spectrum disorder, obesity, behavior problems, and thyroid disfunction. Some microplastics can trigger an immune response that can cause inflammation...Meanwhile, global plastic production has reached 364 million tons a year, and is expected to triple by 2050. Rub that sunscreen in or brush your teeth? Such lotions are generally unregulated and untested (the FDA has yet to rule on any of the chemicals used in sunscreen), as is almost all makeup (still!). Said the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency): Particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Some particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Of these, particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM2.5, pose the greatest risk to health. Did I mention that moondust is 2 micrometers?
And then came this letter-to-the-editor in Barron's about China: To understand, in general, the East Asian mind-set, there are basic concepts that Americans and “Westerners, per se’” are ignorant of but need to fully understand...1) Asians think very, very long term. Americans do not. Asians understand that Americans want things done quickly. Negotiations will be delayed repeatedly ad infinitum to grind us down, just for pleasure. 2) China is not as strong as it looks. Neither is it weak. It is only a factor to deal with, nothing more. 3) Outrageous demands will be made initially, knowing that they will settle for less. They start by picking your mind. 4) Everything, without exception, is negotiable. Even after something is agreed upon, it will be changed or modified repeatedly before a contract is signed. 5) Their honor system is different than ours. While under contract, they will push the envelope far beyond the limit until caught. To them cheating is normal. To them there are no rules. 6) China knows it can stall until the 2020 U.S. elections. They also know the U.S. media is strongly anti-Trump and ready to attack him. China will capably use that. It's one opinion, right or wrong, but it's someone voicing how they feel (and respected enough to get it in print). Here's U.S. women's soccer star Megan Rapinoe in TIME: I looked out my hotel window in New York City as soon as I got here and saw the Statue of Liberty. The land of opportunity. But it has to be for everyone. A lot of people have been cut out of that dream. It’s one thing to be the biggest and baddest and best country. But if you’re not sticking up for someone else who maybe isn’t in that position, then you’re kind of just a bully. And here's author Richard Russo in the same magazine: Wars are what we know about ourselves as human beings. Whatever flaws we see in ourselves, and in our neighbors, friends and enemies, if there is such a thing as original sin, it’s that. And when it gets written large in world leaders, then yeah, it’s just hard to imagine we’re ever going to live in a world where war is not right around the corner.
So here's my take on it all. We live in a world of variety, a world of wonder, and those of us fortunate enough to be able to bask in it should do so and appreciate not only ourselves but our home and what we have here on this planet, as well as to recognize that there are many who are trapped in situations (physically, mentally, financially, innocently, fleeing for their lives or trapped in a war not of their choosing, etc.) who are unable to enjoy life as it was meant to be, something that is precious and should be protected and savored each and every moment. Why go to the moon or Mars when one can just step outside and see the mystery of life in a single blade of grass? And then to peek at the life which is nestled in ourselves, our thoughts and our egos and our compassion and our ignorance. What makes it all tick, and what makes it all so different and yet at times, all so the same? Here's a final thought to take away, this from the Masters At Work series, Becoming A Neurosurgeon: ...the brain as a whole: a three-pound lump of jelly-like matter whose hundred billion cells, and the trillions of electrochemical connections between them, make up the most complex system in the known universe. This system is responsible not only for all motor and sensory functions of the body but for the mystery of consciousness itself and all to which it gives rise: love, hope, memory, fear, music, poetry, art, science -- everything, in short, that makes us human. That so little is known about the anatomy and functioning of the brain is one reason neurosurgery is so demanding and dangerous. Those who expose and cut into the brain's tissues are, to a very real degree, traveling in terra incognita. Indeed, so fraught with risk is opening the skull and invading the brain --where a millimeter's error can spell disaster-- no reasonable medical professional would perform these interventions save for the fact that patients who end up in neurosurgery wards are already suffering from calamities so threatening to their life and well-being that nonintervention is not an option.
Daniil Medvedev decided that he had little to lose since he was down two sets against the world's #2 player in the recent U.S. Open Tennis Tournament final. So he went for it, winning the next set, and the next, and despite being down in the last set, staging another comeback that fell just one game shy of winning the entire thing. On watching with the crowd the highlights of victor Rafael Nadal's 19 Grand Slam wins, Medvedev said in his runner-up speech: I was thinking, "If I win, what would they show?" Blogs are dead? Who cares if that's true or not? We all have something to say and blogs still present an avenue for any of us to get it out there for others to read. If something is on your mind then the time is now to start your own blog and let the world know what you're feeling or wanting to say or write about. You may discover that in doing so you discover things about yourself and your feelings, and that there may be others out there who share some of your same thoughts. You'll never know until you try; and maybe like the 23-year old Medvedev, you may find yourself close to becoming much more well known than even you expected, and all just by trying with nothing to lose.
*This likely won't translate well with Google but it's a colloquial phrase, a shortened version of "Who would have thought it?"
Comments
Post a Comment
What do YOU think? Good, bad or indifferent, this blog is happy to hear your thoughts...criticisms, corrections and suggestions always welcome.