Balancing Medical Decisions

The Friday appointment with the attorney had to be cancelled due to emergency transfusion on Friday morning. I am sure she wasn’t a happy camper when she learned that news. Couldn’t be helped.

Went into full crash mode on Thursday afternoon, so when I called the Center for advice, they told me 2 units were already ordered while we were speaking and since I was already in a crash scenario just continue to chill, rest and do as little physical activity as I could get away with until I arrived at the Center in the morning.

That was easy to do. All I wanted to do was lie quietly so as not be short of breath and be as careful on my feet to be aware of any possibility of falling. Took a painkiller and high dose of Tylenol before sliding between the sheets where I stayed until morning when I had the tedious struggle to get dressed (hard enough with the use of BOTH hands, a real torture test without) and try to be ready when Jeffrey arrived to transport me. He did have to help me with the sling (the dear!)

It all went smooth yesterday and though I was, by this time, very weak and finding it difficult to put a coherent thought into words there was no panic. I had enough trouble following instructions and answering questions posed by the staff. I managed.  I now know that I can go from a moderately low red blood cell count to a dangerously low one in less than 24 hours. For no apparent reason and without any change to normal daily activity.

At least I was able to recognize and be aware of these quick changes nowadays. Glad I made the right decision early enough that no harm was done and the attorney couldn't whine about wasting her time.

Also, this latest blood - O Positive with modifiers for me - gave me a positive kick, or booster and I feel better today than I have following transfusion in the recent past. For this, too, I am thankful.  I am not going to be doing anything crazy, but I feel like I could put on my dancing shoes and boogie around the living room for a bit.

I am amazed.

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The Essence of My Education Today

PHILOTIMO:  Love of Honor.

The Greek Secret.

A lot to process and work through, especially since I am not Greek. I think it's worth the time, study, and meditation.  What say you?

I am amazed.
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Remember.

Nine Years Ago.

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Just a Thought: Understanding

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When Jupiter and Venus Align

This is something I'd like to see.  If I’m up and functioning I’ll be on the boardwalk with a tripod and long lens, facing the northeast waiting to see this happen. Clear shot right over the Atlantic.

From The Guardian:
Look up. A flurry of UFO “sightings” is expected early on Monday morning when a spectacular “double star” is created as the two brightest planets in the sky align almost completely.
In what is said to be one of the highlights of the astronomy calendar this year, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus will be visible shortly before sunrise at 5am on the north-east horizon.
They will appear to be only 0.2 degrees apart, less than half the width of a little finger when held out at arm’s length.
“They will be so close together that it’s going to be quite a striking sight,” said Robin Scagell, vice-president of the Society for Popular Astronomy.
“Undoubtedly people could mistake them for a UFO, especially being so low down. They might appear to move around because of the distortion effect of the atmosphere.”
It will be the closest conjunction of Venus and Jupiter since 2000 but although the planets appear to be kissing-distance apart as seen from the Earth, they are separated by hundreds of millions of miles.
Venus and Jupiter pair up about once a year on average, but their conjunctions vary greatly in separation and visibility. Some are missed completely because they occur in daylight.
The next conjunction between the two planets is due to occur on 30 June next year, but will be less close.
During Monday’s conjunction, Venus will appear six times brighter than Jupiter even though its diameter is less than a tenth that of the larger planet, which measures 86,881 miles across.
That is because Venus is much closer to the Earth and also nearer the Sun, causing its clouds to be lit more intensely.
Those hoping to get the best experience from the conjunction have been advised to use a pair of binoculars or a small telescope to get a dramatic view and watch it from a high unobstructed vantage point.
Venus will mimic a tiny full moon, while Jupiter appears three times wider. Jupiter will also be accompanied by its four brightest moons strung out in a row.
“People who have buildings, hills or trees in the way might miss it, but even a rooftop in London should offer a good view,” said Scagell.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2014

Now, if only there is a clear sky and I have the energy...

And so it goes.

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THE SUMMER EARTH FARTED

It may not be the best title for a Sci-Fi flick, but who cares.  That’s what’s happened, and is happening.

The thought that I may be alive to witness the beginning of the end of human life on the planet is intoxicating. Greed, arrogance, stupidity, quest for power, all shot to hell as most life may disappear, but the planet will heal and maybe be parent to new species when it’s damn good and ready. 

From the UK Telegraph:

Researchers investigating three giant holes that have appeared in the Siberian wilderness may have solved the mystery.
Andrei Plekhanov, a researcher who led an expedition to the original 262ft wide opening, believes rising temperatures, not aliens, could be the cause.
He said that warmer summers in the region, in 2012 and 2013, might have contributed to the permafrost thawing, before collapsing and releasing methane gas trapped underground.
His team discovered that air near the bottom of first hole,found in the Yamal Peninsula, contained an unusually high concentration of methane gas.
They say more tests need to be done to confirm their theory and want to study the methane concentration in the air trapped in its walls.
However Plekhanov, from the Scientific Centre of Arctic Studies in Russia, believes it will be difficult as “its rims are slowly melting and falling into the crater”.
He told science publication Nature: “You can hear the ground falling, you can hear the water running, it’s rather spooky.”

More HERE with more links to related articles.

This from Arctic Ice Expert Jason Box in an article at Salon:

As with everything else in the news anymore, this is one more retribution by an angry god because - - the gay!

And so it goes.

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Scientists: BP Spill Much Worse than People Think.

Don't believe the commercials and the "it's all cleaned up" propaganda

from BP.  Not if you know anyone in the areas impacted by the spill, or read the scientific data.

Yes, just as BP stalls again files yet another appeal with the SCOTUS (story here) essentially crying “foul and unfair” - again - this report is released by Climate Progress at Think Progress:

Scientists at Penn State University have discovered two new coral reefs near the site of BP’s historic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and the impacts to those reefs from the spill have been greater than expected, according to research released Monday. 

The two additional reefs found by the PSU team were both farther away and deeper than the one coral reef that had previously been found to have been impacted by the spill. That indicates not only that marine ecosystems may be more greatly affected, but that some of the 210 million gallons of oil that BP spilled into the Gulf is making its mark in the deep sea. 

“The footprint of the impact of the spill on coral communities is both deeper and wider than previous data indicated,” PSU biology professor Charles Fisher, who led the study, said.

The rest is HERE. Includes a conversation with Prof. Fisher and more.

BP commercials continue to saturate TV and radio in New Orleans and the Gulf with their lies and propaganda, but folks who know better just sluff it off because, well, they know better.

And so it goes.

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Just a Thought: Sagan on Religion

Amen!

Just a Thought: Computer Viruses

I think computer viruses should count as life. 

I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. 

We've created life in our own image.

Stephen Hawking

We Are Dead Stars

Think about that for a minute. Carl Sagan, in the original “Cosmos” series said “we are all made of star stuff” and he couldn’t have thrilled me more.

I know this scares the bejeebus out of many folks, but it’s comforting and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.  I like to think that when we die we go back to the stars to bring forth new life in another time and place.

More later.

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A Fair Weekend and a World’s Fair

Turns out those Friday afternoon storms that caused the blackout/power outage lasted for about 3 hours tying up traffic, causing bad drivers to show their lack of driving abilities (as well as their bad tempers) and shutting down businesses on a 3-mile stretch of busy commercial real estate. 

As mentioned in the earlier post, the city of Rehoboth wasn’t affected, which (thankfully) is usually the case. The rains however, didn’t let up until late evening. Leaving us with a very quiet and peaceful night. 

Yesterday dawned with blue skies and mild winds and I got out to run a few errands.  Even went down to the beach, grabbed an iced coffee and sat on a bench by the ocean for a while before taking a walk on the boardwalk, and heading back home.  The fresh air was good for the soul and body.

The town is packed with people for the weekend and the weather is supposed to be lovely, in the 70s throughout. I want to get the shopping done early this morning before anyone begins to stir or get on the roads.  Also early enough that I can enjoy another iced coffee on the boardwalk before the hordes finish breakfast/brunch. 

Sounds like a good plan to me. The 2 units of blood seem to have boosted my energy level this weekend. Still not sleeping much, (the Benadryl only offers a few hours at best) but I’m not falling all over myself in a stupor, either. 

This is a new book I’m currently reading and since I worked at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair it’s a eye-opening look at the overall picture of what NYC - and the world - was like during the years from 1960 through 1967 and how the events of the time played a big role in the failure of the Fair. Yes, Robert Moses was the biggest problem, but the entire country played a huge part in the changing attitudes of the times, mocking the message and theme of the World’s Fair both years. “Peace Through Understanding” was hardly a realistic outcry of the times. 

I’m little more than 60% through and it’s a good read. Anyway, it brings back memories and forces me to think of where I was while the world changing events were taking place all around me. I remember many of the incidents sited in the book only vaguely since I worked 6 - 7 days a week for the 2 years of the exhibition, spending the other hours either under ground on the subways to and from work, or at home, pretty much sleeping as much as possible. 

The fact that I would become part of the social unrest and the anti-war movement less than 2 years later, the gay rights movement 3 years later, makes me chuckle today.

That said, I made lots of money and had a great time. The Fair was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.  The book is giving me an overall view of what I was only slightly aware of all those years ago.

And so it goes.

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O.M.G. "COSMOS - 2014"

I mean, if you haven't seen this already, just look at the promo for the new series. Breathtaking!!!

Thirty four years (half my lifetime) ago, for the first 3 months of 1980 I sat glued to the tiny black & white TV set in my West 4th. Street, NYC apartment. I was captivated, mesmerized watching all 13 episodes of Carl Sagan's masterpiece series, "COSMOS: A Personal Voyage."  I also made a point of watching the series when PBS ran again it during their annual Pledge Drive later that same year.  Talk about dedication!!!

Cosmos is one of the brightest jewels in the PBS crown and, as I've viewed  episodes on YouTube, the series holds up beautifully even today.

Now I see that the late Carl's partner in life and science crime,  Ann Druyan, has taken the plunge once more providing all new information, and updating what wasn't (couldn't be) known 34 years ago. The new series begins airing this weekend on FOX and National Geographic stations. 

The frontman (presenter) this time round is my hero of Astrophysics, (after Sagan, of course) Neil deGrasse Tyson. The story of Tyson's history with Sagan going back to when Neil was 17 years-old,  proves that this series was destined to happen. It was written in the STARS, as they say.  Hey, don't laugh.  I'm holding back a gusher, here.

I have to say that THIS series would be the only reason I would love to have access to television service today.  Sadly, I do not have service and at this point, I couldn't afford it, anyway.

I won't embed it here, but if you're curious about how exciting Tyson can make you feel about science, here is a LINK to a video of his appearance on Moyers & Company back in January. The video is less than a half-hour and full of wit, humor, science, questions and answers. Enjoy.

It's off to bed for me now.  A transfusion appointment is scheduled for 7:30 am tomorrow; I think that means I'm in for a 2-unit, all-day marathon.

And so it goes.  

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The World's Longest Joke

Honest.  I've come to this. 

Well, what else does one do when the winter wonderland has passed you by and the winter worldofsuck has closed in, instead?  

Well, one may want to waste spend some time reading the longest joke in the world.

I am not kidding.  I wish I was. I survived it and you can, too.  But, do you have the desire and patience to do so?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.  No, really.

And so it goes.
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Virgin Galactic: Never Dreamed I'd See This in my Lifetime.

Late to the party. But this really set me back on my heels.  I mean, they kept the PR going that it was to happen 'soon' but that was all.  I am beyond thrilled by this story and the amazing video footage.  

From the LA Times:

MOJAVE, Calif. -- Virgin Galactic, British billionaire Richard Branson’s commercial space venture, reached its highest altitude yet Friday in a supersonic rocket plane that’s set to carry paying customers into sub-orbit later this year. 

The company’s SpaceShipTwo blasted through the sound barrier and sped to Mach 1.4, climbing to 71,000 feet in its first powered test flight of the year.

The flight, the program's third rocket-powered test flight, is the latest milestone in Virgin Galactic’s goal to take dozens of people into space multiple times each day.

The test flight took place shortly after sunrise Friday beginning on the desert runway at Mojave Air and Space Port, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. During the test, SpaceShipTwo was taken to about 46,000 feet by a carrier aircraft and dropped like a bomb.

After a short free fall, test pilots Dave Mackay and Mark Stucky engaged the hybrid rocket motor, powered by nitrous oxide and a rubber compound, for about 16 seconds, at which point SpaceShipTwo accelerated to Mach 1.4.

Mackay, who left his job as an airline captain at Virgin Atlantic to become chief pilot for the space company, was at the controls. It was his first powered flight. “To be behind the controls and fly it as the rocket ignited is something I will never forget,” he said. “She flew brilliantly.” 

The two pilots tested the spaceship’s reaction control system, which will allow it to maneuver in space, and a newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle’s tail booms. All of the flight objectives were successfully completed, the company said.

The idea of Virgin Galactic routinely taking passengers into space this way was developed by retired maverick aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and his Mojave company, Scaled Composites.

Until now, astronauts have reached space packed tight in a capsule or shuttle attached to a high-powered rocket.Instead, Virgin Galactic will use a WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft that will fly with the reusable SpaceShip Two rocket plane under its wing to 50,000 feet, where the spaceship will separate and blast off.

The amazing video:

Read the rest HERE.

And so - off we go into the wild blue yonder…Oh, don't I wish.

I just have to add this to the mix.



And so it goes.

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Rains Before the Cold

Haven't ventured outdoors since before the storm hit.  Brutally low temperatures and extremely high winds shook things up here pretty bad. 

Opting instead for the relative calm and quiet of home, I made that pot roast, a beet salad, and a side of egg noodles for dinner.  Delicious!  There. Be. Leftovers.  

I streamed 4 recent episodes of "Making Things" from NOVA presented by David Pogue, which took up the better part of yesterday afternoon.  Pogue is the Tech Geek at the NYT and leads the occasional TED lecture on all things techie. Fascinating, amusing and sometimes LOL 4 hours of entertainment.

Granted I'd already seen some "innovations" in BBC docs from 2012, but this is Murrica, folks.  We're not the swiftest at reporting science and geeky stuff.  Still there were a few new promising research projects in the US that may prove worthwhile using natural resources, not fossil fuels. 

Having done nothing to save the world, or humanity, over the weekend, there is little to write about.  I am mulling over a recap of the medical mishap from last week.  There is an old saying "Bad decisions and stupid mistakes make for a good story."  If that's true, I may have a great one on my hands. I'll run it up the flagpole later and see what happens. 

Right now, while the temperatures hover in the 50s and the rain comes down in buckets, I've got to check on the car and run a few errands before all that changes and another winter blast sets in this evening.  Besides, I just need to get out into the fresh air.  Warm air!

Going to get as much done as possible before awaiting another call from Christiana surgeon's office due this afternoon. Yes well, in the best of all possible worlds that could happen.

More later.

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A Sagan-ful of Stars!

(In memory of Carl Sagan's oft-used phrase, "Billions and billions of stars" so billions = a "Sagan-ful" of stars.) 

This cluster of stars is known as Messier 15, and is located some 35 000 light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus (The Winged Horse). It is one of the oldest globular clusters known, with an age of around 12 billion years. 

Both very hot blue stars and cooler golden stars can be seen swarming together in the image, becoming more concentrated towards the cluster's bright centre. Messier 15 is one of the densest globular clusters known, with most of its mass concentrated at its core. As well as stars, Messier 15 was the first cluster known to host a planetary nebula, and it has been found to have a rare type of black hole at its centre. 

This new image is made up of observations from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys in the ultraviolet, infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. 

(Click the image to embiggen.)

So beautiful. Makes everything else seem small and insignificant, doesn't it?

We are all made of 'star-stuff'…Carl Sagan (Cosmos)

And so it goes.
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Another Bit of Lost World Discovered

In the past I've posted a few stories like this one and each is more intriguing than to one previous. These stories give me hope.

So much for the world's oceans being "the last frontier" as is frequently touted.  There are still discoveries to be made, and quickly.  Lest the hand of Man destroy them beforehand.

Sydney (AFP) - An expedition to a remote part of northern Australia has uncovered three new vertebrate species isolated for millions of years, with scientists Monday calling the area a "lost world". 

Conrad Hoskin from James Cook University and a National Geographic film crew were dropped by helicopter onto the rugged Cape Melville mountain range on Cape York Peninsula earlier this year and were amazed at what they found. 

It included a bizarre looking leaf-tail gecko, a gold-coloured skink -- a type of lizard -- and a brown-spotted, yellow boulder-dwelling frog, none of them ever seen before.  "The top of Cape Melville is a lost world. Finding these new species up there is the discovery of a lifetime -- I'm still amazed and buzzing from it," said Hoskin, a tropical biologist from the Queensland-based university.  

"Finding three new, obviously distinct vertebrates would be surprising enough in somewhere poorly explored like New Guinea, let alone in Australia, a country we think we've explored pretty well." 

The virtually impassable mountain range is home to millions of black granite boulders the size of cars and houses piled hundreds of metres high, eroded in places after being thrust up through the earth millions of years ago. 

While surveys had previously been conducted in the boulder-fields around the base of Cape Melville, a plateau of boulder-strewn rainforest on top, identified by satellite imagery, had remained largely unexplored, fortressed by massive boulder walls. Within days of arriving, the team had discovered the three new species as well as a host of other interesting finds that Hoskins said may also be new to science. 

The highlight was the leaf-tailed gecko, a "primitive-looking" 20 centimetre-long (7.9 inches) creature that is an ancient relic from a time when rainforest was more widespread in Australia. The Cape Melville Leaf-tailed Gecko, which has huge eyes and a long, slender body, is highly distinct from its relatives and has been named Saltuarius eximius, Hoskin said, with the findings detailed in the latest edition of the international journal Zootaxa.
"The second I saw the gecko I knew it was a new species. Everything about it was obviously distinct," he said. Highly camouflaged, the geckos sit motionless, head-down, waiting to ambush passing insects and spiders. 

The Cape Melville Shade Skink is also restricted to moist rocky rainforest on the plateau, and is highly distinct from its relatives, which are found in rainforests to the south.
Also discovered was a small boulder-dwelling frog, the Blotched Boulder-frog, which during the dry season lives deep in the labyrinth of the boulder-field where conditions are cool and moist, allowing female frogs to lay their eggs in wet cracks in the rocks. 

In the absence of water, the tadpole develops within the egg and a fully formed frog hatches out. 

There is more HERE.

And so it goes.
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Celebrating the Cuttlefish

Yes, I know, I know. I really need to get out more.   I have way too much time on my hands. (and feet, and backside and...) All things  being equal (to what, I don't know) the many YT documentaries I've watched this week contained some reference to the bizarre creature in the title.

Cousteau, BBC, PBS, Oceans, Attenborough, and Coastal programs, just to name a few. In any one of these films someone along the line is just dying to find a Cuttlefish to learn more about it. I thought to myself, why didn't you just watch any one of these other programs beforehand and you would already know what I know and save time for something more important . Nah.  I guess that would be too obvious.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this little film this morning. It is sort of like one of those films you had to watch for science class in high school, but unlike any educational film ever produced. Too bad, that.   This ought to tickle your funny bone today.

Aside from my increased knowledge of the Cuttlefish, the days creep by with no new information or stats from the doctors.  Waiting for reports to file claims for disability and other benefits I may be entitled to in my present situation.

Just thought I'd share. Oh well, time for another dive.

And so it goes.
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BBC Documentaries With Sexy Presenters

Yes, I know.  Here we call them Hosts, but in the UK they are Presenters and the quality programming they present is astonishing and beautiful. As are the presenters themselves. Since I was out of commission Sunday and Monday with a fever (thanks to a delayed allergic reaction to the blood products received on Friday) I spent many hours - nine to be exact - viewing three amazing, enlightening, and intelligent series on three very different subjects presented by three very hunky hotties knowledgeable gentlemen. Oh, and by the way, there were three episodes to each series.  Did you follow all that?

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Presenters and the Programs:

Locomotion - History of the British Railway. Presented by Dan Snow.

The Code - Mathematics in Nature, the Universe, and Humans. Presented by Marcus du Sautoy.

Miracles of Nature - Animal abilities that inspired human invention and scientific innovation. Presented by Richard Hammond.

I found the programs compelling and, as you can see, the presenters very easy on the eyes.  If you have an interest in these subjects you can check them out for yourself on YouTube. Each episode runs just under an hour and there are (so far) no annoying commercials.

Hope to get out and about tomorrow as the weather is supposed to be warm for the end of October - the upper 60s!  I'll take it.

And so it goes.
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Saturn As Only a Spacecraft Could See it.

This got my day off on a happy note. Launched in the late 90s (after about 15 years in development, I believe) and sending back

incredible images since the early years of this new century, Cassini is the gift that keeps on giving. These latest images are from a recent rendezvous with the beautiful planet. Just look at that image! Wow!  Just, Wow!

It's nice to know that even while the tea party-inspired government shutdown brought science and industry on Terra to a halt, Cassini was doing what comes naturally - even if no one gave a damn! Fortunately, many do give a damn.
From Universe Today:

So what did NASA do during the US government shutdown? You can’t just turn off spacecraft that are operating millions of miles away, so missions like the Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn continued to send back images to Earth during the 16 days that most of NASA wasn’t up and running like usual. On October 10, 2013, as Cassini flew high above the planet’s equatorial plane, the spacecraft’s camera took 36 images of Saturn, a dozen each using the various red, green, and blue filters used to create color images. 

The images were transferred back to Earth and put on the Cassini raw images page. Gordan Ugarkovic from Croatia, and a member of the image editing wizards at UnmannedSpaceflight.com, grabbed the raw files, processed them, then assembled the images into this jaw-dropping mosaic. 

This is a view from Saturn that we could never get from Earth; only a spacecraft orbiting the planet could take it. You can see the north pole and the swirling maelstrom of clouds that creates the hexagonal polar vortex, the thin bands in Saturn’s atmosphere, and — of course — what really stands out is the incredible view of Saturn’s rings. To see the original 3 MB version, see this page on UMSF. 

“You shouldn’t be surprised to see processing artifacts here and there,” cautioned Ugarkovic via email to Universe Today. “It is, after all, based on raw JPEG images only.” 

See more of Gordan’s work at his Flickr page. 

But in the words of UMSF’s Astro0, “That’s the sort of view I’ve dreamed I would only ever see in a science fiction movie or if we had some kind of amazing futuristic spacecraft orbiting around that distant ringed planet….WAIT! We do!” 

For more of what NASA did during the shutdown, Bill Dunford at Riding With Robots put together a great summary, quoting the @SarcasticRover that “You can’t shut down awesome.” Bill started the #ThingsNASAMightTweet hashtag that reminded everyone of all the things NASA does, but they couldn’t tweet about during the shutdown. People from around the world chimed in, adding what was important to them about NASA, and as of today, tweets with that hashtag have passed 27 million impressions.

Click through the links within the story or check out the other interesting stories at the Universe Today website for yourself.

More later.
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