Month: February 2010

  • The Microcosmic Buffet

    Hmm, either Xanga got a new server while I was away or sunspots are working in my favor for once.

    I was thinking the other day about space and life and to some extent science fiction. I imagine most everyone’s seen a diagram of an atom at some point in their lives?


    It is basically a central mass which exerts a gravitational hold over the positrons and neutrons which orbit it. In affect, the positrons and neutrons fly around the a dense nucleus like planets around a star. I’ve always wondered about that, the analogy of atom to solar system.

    They say that solid matter is mostly empty space. Imagine that atoms are in fact the micro to our macro universe. When they cluster together to form mass, their different densities form galaxies within the universe that is that (so called) solid object. Pretty neat thought, eh? It would mean that you are a universe unto yourself, containing within you galaxies around which worlds revolve… some of them containing life? Gives whole new meaning to “be kind to your body” and “be careful what you eat.”

    But to refer to things in a micro and macro-cosmic way is to assume that there is only a dual polarity. We have peaks and valleys, and hills and shallower valleys, and plains and empty space. We cannot assume that atoms are the micro to our macro without realizing that there are many things yet greater than us. Micro and macro is an illusion and we might be living on the positron or neutron of our own atomic solar system within a lifeform so much larger than our own that we could never make contact with it or hope for it to know that we even exist.



    This got me to thinking about the Gaia Principle which posits that our planet is one superorganism, all its parts working together for their continued mutual existence. Would the earth be a macro organism subconsciously aware of the smaller lifeforms that inhabit it, or is that supposed awareness just our own hubris. Does the Earth create and maintain life for some purpose, to change its chemical and mineral makeup perhaps, or for simple adornment? Are we just inconsequential cells in a larger organism? A drop in the bucket towards an unknown transformative goal? Or is the Earth like the sloth, an animal which moves so slowly that it grows its own food on its back? The sun made the earth and the earth made us… the earth will eat us and the sun will eat the earth.

    I can’t decide if my derangement is whimsical or my whimsy is deranged.

  • Adapt or Die

    Taking a chance that Xanga will let me post. After all, it only took a minute for the editor to load, so maybe…

    So let’s talk about the climate.

    I personally believe in Global Warming. I know not everyone does, but I do. We can agree to disagree. But if we do disagree, let’s instead call it Climate Change. No one can argue with the changing weather patterns, not when there’s virtual drought in some areas when there’s been rain and vice versa.

    Now, get this. Regardless of our much argued impact on the environment, we’ve been looking at the sun for a pretty long time, charting sunspots and other solar activity. And we’ve been taking core samples in Antarctica for decades. We know that the sun goes through stronger and weaker cycles and this information has been correlated with core samples from Antarctica. Those who don’t believe in Global Warming may find it ironic that these studies tell us we’re heading into a new Ice Age! This is based solely on the energy output of the sun and has nothing to do with our activities here on our little ball of carbon-enhanced dirt.

    I don’t know about where you live, but where I live, Spring has virtually disappeared over the years, giving rise to more of an Autumn/Winter/Summer cycle. Not that Summer is excessively hot. Last year, I think I had the air conditioner on a total of two weeks over all. Where we used to get lots of snow early with less closer to Spring, we now get snow later and closer to the beginning of the season formerly known as Spring. I affect, snow showers make for grumpy spring flowers and polleniferous explosions (yeah, I know it’s not a real word, but for allergy sufferers, it should be) once the snow/frost finally quits and the trees and grasses start popping.

    Really, at this point I think we should stop arguing about Global Warming. Point of fact, we might be a lot colder if not for Global warming! But regardless, it’s time to start talking about Climate Change… changing weather patterns… changes in rainfall/snowfall and temperature can have disastrous affects on ecology. It can devastate farmland. Look at the American Dust Bowl during the Depression where inches of vital top soil were just blown away by lack of rain and high winds.

    So really, Global Warming, Global Cooling… it all becomes moot when you consider the affects any change in the weather has on our ability to feed ourselves. Because really, until some supervillain invents a weather controlling satellite to eventually be thwarted by a superhero who donates the oh so useful satellite to humanity, we’re kind of stuck with what we get. You can’t control the weather.

    But you can control how you deal with it. We’ve certainly come a long way from having major cities shut down for weeks by tons of snow. Despite the fact that weather prediction is still largely guesswork, it’s guesswork based on better data, which therefore gives us a better level of guesswork than a barometer on the front porch. At this point, it would really behoove us to look at the areas facing the greatest impact from changing weather patterns and adapt ourselves to those changes… begin conserving water in areas where we’ve begun to see drought year after year, not just in the years when it’s especially bad. Change the type of crop we’re growing in areas where the weather has changed… in areas of drought to combat erosion, crops with more ground cover, etc.

    Hey, I’m no expert on weather or agriculture, but if nothing else, Nature teaches us that creatures that can’t adapt die.