Author: scubajim

Have Spacesuit will Travel is a young adult book by Robert Heinlein. This is a wonderful book. I have read it many times since I was a youngster. Cliff, the main character a high school student, wants to go to the moon. His father grants his permission. Cliff then asks how and his dad like the typical dad replies, You asked IF you could go to the moon not how to get there. You will have to figure out the how! In the book there are people who live on the moon, but only the very rich or scientists would typically go. Cliff enters a contest to come up with a jingle for a soap company where the 1st prize is a trip to the moon. He submits 1,000s of entries. He wins a runner up prize of a used space suit. Sigh. He has all summer to keep the space suit before he returns it for the cash equivalent. He cleans and repairs the suit and gets it working. The night before he is going to send it back he wears it one more time. He is using his suit radio and playing around. He sends out a message and gets a reply. Then an alien spaceship lands, a young girl jumps out with a creature and runs towards him. He blacks out and wakes up in a room aboard the space ship…..

(I will get to my point in a minute). This weekend I volunteered at Go Beyond Racings Volcanic 50. One of my tasks was recording the finish times of the over 200 runners. I worked with a super nice mother. The last runner came in just over 14 hours after the start. The first runner came in about 5 hours 13 minutes a new course record. Anyway she is doing a job that she did not train for in College. She want to a small liberal arts college in Vermont. I probed a bit deeper and while the classes she took were not directly relevant to her current career she did use a lot of knowledge and critical thinking that she got at that small liberal arts college in Vermont. Many years ago I worked on a small data engineering team. One of my co-workers was Claire. Claire had majored in French and had a liberal arts degree. She worked with us and set up the documentation and operations documentation. She did do some of the engineering. Today she is head of engineering of this company. I can assure you she got that job based on her hard work and talent. Granted in our work we did not use French. c’est la vie! But certainly her communication and organizational skills and how she became a critical thinker got her to her position today.

My point is that Cliff, and Sue, and Claire used the skills that they acquired and their earlier preparation to open up the opportunities for the future. Cliff had a space suit and his desire and preparation made him more likely to get an opportunity to go to the moon. Read the story, a lot more happens than Cliff just going to the moon.

Finally, in the book is an alien that sort of looks like a dog with hands that communicates in a singsong voice. The character is referred to as Mother Thing. At the end of the book Cliff returns home and his mother greets him and he recognizes the underlying tone of Mother Thing. You have to read the book even if you are not a young adult.

I was talking with Mike the other day. Fretful conversation. It helped solidify my contention that one must externalize ones thoughts if you want to think. You need to write your thoughts down or talk with someone else. The actual process of externalizing your thoughts forces you to do one level of thinking. It reminded me of a course I took in high school called The History of Western Philosophy. Specifically Plato wrote mainly in what is called dialectic. Here is a good example of that in Plato’s writing called The Symposium.

The other lesson is that learning is painful. Here is Plato’s Cave Allegory. Read it. Remember Plato did not have projectors in his day. I think Plato makes the case that being exposed to knowledge can be painful. Then once you know something to try and explain it to others often leads to ridicule

Plato has a theory called Forms. We all know what a lamp is. If you take your lamp and remove its light source is it still a lamp? If you take away the base of the lamp is it still a lamp? As you remove things from the lamp when does it stop being a lamp? Plato would contend that there is an ultimate idea of what a lamp is. All other lamps meet that definition to more or less degree. The closer it gets to this ultimate definition of lamp the better the lamp is. The more “good” the lamp is. The word sin is a Greek archery term that means “to miss the mark”. We all more or less missing the mark.

In the book Unbroken by Laura Hildabrandt the story of Louis Zamperini is told. He was going to go to the Olympics and possibly set a record in the mile, but World War II intervened. His plane was shot down over the Pacific and he survived for a record amount of time in a raft. He was picked up by the Japanese military and put into a prison camp. He and the other prisoners’ were abused. One guard in particular was unusually cruel; his nickname was Bird. Eventually the war ends and he returns to the USA. He marries a wonderful woman , but he suffers from what we now call PTSD. He ended up without goals and drinking heavily. His wife offers to take him to a Billy Graham Revival. There he finds help for his addiction and PTSD.

This reminds me of a story:

A senior monk and a junior monk were traveling together. At one point, they came to a river with a strong current. As the monks were preparing to cross the river, they saw a very young and beautiful woman also attempting to cross. The young woman asked if they could help her cross to the other side.

The two monks glanced at one another because they had taken vows not to touch a woman.

Then, without a word, the older monk picked up the woman, carried her across the river, placed her gently on the other side, and carried on his journey.

The younger monk couldn’t believe what had just happened. After rejoining his companion, he was speechless, and an hour passed without a word between them.

Two more hours passed, then three, finally the younger monk could contain himself any longer, and blurted out “As monks, we are not permitted a woman, how could you then carry that woman on your shoulders?”

The older monk looked at him and replied, “Brother, I set her down on the other side of the river, why are you still carrying her?”

Anyway the book is an excellent read. The movie is okay but it misses out on important points. Read the book.

It takes a lot to forgive. sometimes we are just not ready to put that burden down. Someday we will. Remember forgiveness is for us not for those who we feel wronged us.

This is Jordan Peterson’s Rule #8 in his book 12 Rules for Life. It can be difficult to follow this rule. Unfortunately there are some people who think the ends justify the means. That it is okay to bend the truth to accomplish a goal. As Shakespeare said “Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive”. That web will trip you up. If you have authority over people you are undermining your authority. You are losing your integrity. You will lose respect. If your goals in life are short term like the stereotypical used car salesman then go for it. If you want to gain inthe long run it is a good rule.

I got the Rona and so I have to quarantine in my room for 5 days. I feel good, no fever, and I have a slight cold. Other than that I feel good. The biggest PIA was setting up all the stuff in my bedroom. So I am watching movies. I decided to watch this excellent movie called Life as a House starring Kevin Kline.

“A man can suffer any how if he has a why” In the beginning, of the movie Kevin Kline is in the hospital and the nurse touches his face. He sighs and he says it has been years since anyone touched me. She is shocked; she points out people need touch. I think this is something we have forgotten in the pandemic. I mean not only physical touch – consensual touch of course – but also connection and interaction with other humans. We evolved in small groups. The Dunbar’s number for humans is 150 which I take as an indication of us being small tribes.

Anyway see the movie. It is well worth your time.

Mosquitoes follow humidity and CO2 in the air to find mammals to get their blood meal. When they lose these they go in random directions to zero in on the trail. This is highly effective for mosquitoes.

Peter Benchley has given sharks a bad rep. He wrote the book Jaws and the movie portray a great white shark as a boogie animal hunting people. While it is true that there are shark attacks on people and that harm is not trivial. However, most sharks avoid humans. Other strategies to avoid getting bitten by a shark are:

• Avoid areas where the great white shark is plentiful such as off the coast of South Africa.
• Do not go swimming in waters that have poor visibility. Usually clear water becomes turbid after a rain storm. The streams and rivers that feed into the ocean carry more silt down to the ocean during rain storms. This makes it harder for the shark to visually see what is on the surface. The shark detects a person on the surface by vibrations in the water and the bioelectromagnetic field you emit. So the shark detects it but cannot tell if it is a seal or not. It comes up and takes a bite. Tasting neoprene of the swimmer/diver/surfboarder the shark lets you go. However, that “taste” is large enough that if it is a seal the seal cannot get away. A big bite, not a nibble.
• Leave marine life alone. Do not try to pet a shark. So not carry food such as dead fish, chum, et al.

A few years ago I did a drift dive near Moliki. We were hopefully going to see Hammerhead sharks. On board were a few people with rebreathers. Rebreathers allow a diver to breath underwater without giving off bubbles. Fish do not like all those bubbles. This is called a closed circuit system, The exhaled breath is passed through a canister of chemical that removes CO2. There is a small tank of O2 and it is injected into the inhaled breath in the proper ratio of O2 and Nitrogen. (about 20% O2 and 80% Nitrogen. You do not want to breath only O2 at or above 2 atmospheres of partial pressure. You run a great risk of central nervous system (CNS) issues such as passing out. For example, for every 33 feet you descend in water you are breathing from your scuba tank at 1 more atmosphere. Therefore, if you have a tank of only O2 at the surface you are breathing at 1 atmosphere. As you descend to 33 feet you will be breathing the O2 at a partial pressure of 2 atmospheres. (the partial pressure of Nitrogen in this case is 0 because there is no nitrogen in the mix in our example) Recreational divers use normal air when they dive. Yes, Dr. Dominic D’Agastino in Florida found putting the body into Ketosis seems to get around this partial pressure of O2 – I do not know the details and would not experiment. I stick well within with recreational diving limits. I recommend others do also)

In that dive we did not see any hammerheads. The rebreather people went off on their own and dove to the bottom at around `120 feet. A few years pass by and I am talking with a dive master about the trip. She said she knew the rebreather guys. (Most people do not have rebreathers; the equipment is very expensive and takes a lot of training. You do not just go from standard recreational scuba diving and then just put on a rebreather unit.) She said they go down there and fix equipment that a local college uses to study hammerheads. That while they are trying to fix things the hammerheads detect them by their bioelectromagnetic fields. Since there are no bubbles they investigate. She said they are like puppies “Hey whatcha doing? “and put their heads to see what is going on. So the divers have to push them away! LOL.

When you are threatened or under stress you go into the fight, flight, or freeze response. In our modern work environment it is rare they you have a physical altercation. At least I hope so! (exception might be military or police officers) Your body releases adrenalin and your liver dumps glycogen into the blood stream. Since most of us are not physically fighting anyone this rise in blood glucose (BG) is harmful to your health. If you keep getting repeated fight or flight response you are very prone to developing depression. As a type 2 diabetic when I am understress I can see my BG shoots up 40 to 80 points in 15 to 20 minutes. I have a continuous glucose monitor. The normal range is 80 to 120 for the BG levels. I already have higher than usual BG and adding 40 to 80 points to that is very detrimental to my health.

My last job was very stressful. For many months, I felt like I was going to lose my job at any moment. My health coach saw my BG’s every day and months ago said you have to get another job. My therapist said this is crazy you must find another job.

Interestingly, when I gave 2 week notice, so I could have a good transition for my coworkers and I was fired immediately 3 days later my BG’s dropped dramatically. Into a much better range. No change in medications, no change in exercise.

I hope to recover my health.

Recently a couple got married. It was an awesome wedding. It reflected them. The music they had played coming down the aisle was a tune from Winnie the Pooh. They run a small day care together and she loves Winnie the Pooh; so refreshing from the standard. There were other elements that were not standard and so appropriate.

They did not spend a lot. The average wedding in the USA is about $20,300. Everyone had great fun at much less than that. My guess is they might have spent as much as $5,000 (all sources) for everything. It was a beautiful venue, there was music and dancing, a professional photographer, some sparkling wine, and a full dinner. People just had a great time and even helped pack up the chairs, and tables, pick up garbage (there was not a lot of garbage etc.

I know a lot of weddings are more geared to showy consumption. Yes, I remember my cousin’s wedding in the early 1980’s. She had a crew of 10 people video taping the wedding. There were 660 people at a sit down dinner. I think the price then was about $125,000 which is about $500,000 in 2022 dollars. Let me assure you I did not have 100 times a better experience at my cousin’s wedding.

I took a great year long course in high school called The History of Western Philosophy. We started with Anaximander and ended with Kant. The idea was to understand not to agree. Yes, the professor had his own point of view – after all it was a small boarding school so everyone knew everyone else – but he was not set on indoctrinating his students. It was a hard but fun class. The influence of philosophy and logic has extended far beyond that class.

The professor, who passed recently, made a point that there are 3 important events in life. Over the decades since then I have thought a lot about his opinion. I think he is right and far beyond the immediate thoughts about those events. The three events that are most important are birth, death, and marriage. For me the marriage issue is not predicated on a ceremony. It is predicated on the joining of two lives to act in unison. Yes, those two people will have differences but the intent is to be as one. Think of your own mind. There are times when you are torn over a decision; your own brain is not united in what to do. Socrates even talks about this and he follows the voice that tells him what he should not do. (See The Apology)

“You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and is the divinity which Meletus ridicules in the indictment. This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.” — Socrates, Plato’s Apology

In a way “marriage” is a type of birth. It is the birth of the joining of two into one. I extended the birth and death events to not only ones birth and death but to the people you are connected to. A mother giving birth to an infant is a very important event not just for the child but for the mother and father also. Concomitantly, the same for death; the antithesis of birth.