I now, for the first time in
living here for the past 8 years full time, have my own personal internet. So
here in my trailer in this little village I am connected at a touch with the
information highway. It is almost eerie to think of and I am both delighted and
wary. So much wonderful information yet so much grief when I see how things are
developing on our planet. With no phone, no TV and no consistent internet I
have been able to isolate myself from much of the daily stream of injustice
throughout the world. Now there is no escaping it and I must carefully choose
what I will endure. With that said here’s my first blog with the internet as an
integral part of my resources. I will avoid becoming dark in my missives but I
cannot go without some comment on the state of things. I offer two such
missives: the first simply a cartoon.
"Nature is busy
creating absolutely unique individuals, whereas culture has invented a single
mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque."
~ J. Krishnamurti
The second, a recent
completion of a NOAA study of global temperatures for 2016. I will leave it to
you to draw your own conclusions.
://weather.com/en-GB/unitedkingdom/weather/news/noaa-climate-report
Here in Baja it is windy and
cold (relatively of course) so my ocean swims are very rare, mores the pity,
but I have my friend Bert to inspire me on to regular workouts on the beach
after introducing him to my exercise regimen.
My buddy Bert, 76 and "truckin"
We have other companions on
the beach that keep us entertained and are great reminders of the unique and
wonderful place we find ourselves at 75.
Speaking of birds. We do have
a large number of Roadrunners here in the desert and they of course remind me
of the movie cartoon of the road runner and the wiley coyote. I saw this on FB
the other day and couldn’t resist passing it on.
Good thing for Roadrunner
that he’s not up against this dude.
One more little thing about
animals. The picture below is not mine but the following one is.
Sperm whale in full breach
This is a full breach by a
sperm whale (think Moby Dick) the second (third?) largest of our whale species
here in The Sea of Cortez. They are a toothed whale like the Orca and are also
very, very intelligent. The picture below was taken by me some years ago as one
of four approached our panga. I didn’t dive in but three years ago I once again
had the opportunity and swam with a herd of 27 of these critters – fantastic!
Comin' at me
Some cool stuff always
happening in astronomy and space travel. The Cassini spacecraft (left Earth
1997) is still providing excellent data on the make up of Saturn and its rings.
Come Sept. 2017 it will plunge into the planet itself as it’s orbit
deteriorates. Thank you Cassini, you have been a testament to human ingenuity
and the unique beauty of our neighbor Saturn.
This graphic shows the
closest approaches of Cassini's final two orbital phases. Ring-grazing orbits
are shown in gray (at left); Grand Finale orbits are shown in blue. The orange
line shows the spacecraft's Sept. 2017 final plunge into Saturn. Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Another bit of
astronomy/geology:
The force of gravity
can change depending on what’s under the Earth beneath you. Higher
concentrations of mass, like high-density rocks or minerals can change the
force of gravity that you feel. But of course, this amount is too slight to be
noticeable. NASA missions have mapped the Earth’s gravity field with incredible accuracy, showing
variations in its strength, depending on location.
Isn’t this picture precious
in the truest sense of the word? It actually brought tears to my eyes: tears of
wonder and joy.
Reverence
As well as this picture.
REVERENCE FOR THE BEAUTY WITHIN LIFE
Here are two men who
exemplified reverence for all life. I was fortunate to have them both
introduced to me (via books) as a young boy by my mother. She told me that they
were the only men she would marry after losing my dad in The Second World War:
I soon realized why and honored her for it.
Rabindranath
Tagora and friend
Though I was born in Tallinn,
the capitol city of Estonia, my mother’s people go back to the island of
Saaremaa. As a very young child I spent summers there at my grandfather’s farm.
Coat of arms of the island of Saaremaa
Kuressarre Castle on Saaremaa
Here’s some additional
information on that Island and it’s people.
The
Oeselians, Osilians, Esths, or Ests were a historical subdivision of Estonians inhabiting Saaremaa (Latin: Oesel or Osilia), an Estonian island in
the Baltic Sea. In modern Estonian, they are
called saarlased (Estonian pronunciation: [ˈsɑːrlɑset]
"islanders"; singular: saarlane), which also applies to present-day
inhabitants of the island. They are first thought to be mentioned as early as
the 2nd century BC in Ptolemy's Geography
III.[1]
The
superior god of Oeselians as described by Henry of
Livonia
was called Tharapita. According
to the legend in the chronicle Tharapita was born on a forested mountain in Virumaa (Latin: Vironia), mainland Estonia from where he flew to Oesel, Saaremaa.[13] The name
Taarapita has been interpreted as "Taara, help!" (Taara a(v)ita in
Estonian) or "Taara keeper" (Taara pidaja) Taara is associated with
the Scandinavian god Thor. The story
of Tharapita's or Taara's flight from Vironia to Saaremaa has been associated
with a major meteor disaster estimated
to have happened in 660 ± 85 B.C. that formed
Kaali crater in
Saaremaa.
Perhaps
the most renowned raid [yes, we were those Vikings] by Oeselian pirates
occurred in 1187, with the attack on the Swedish town of Sigtuna by Finnic
raiders from Couronia and Oesel. Among the
casualties of this raid was the Swedish archbishop Johannes. The city
remained occupied for some time, contributing to the decline as a center of
commerce in the 13th century in favor of Uppsala, Visby, Kalmar and Stockholm.[12]
Here’s an interesting
story from the same part of the world. A Russian family and their escape from
persecution to live TOTALLY isolated in a harsh part of the outback for 40
years. An incredible story. This was their “home”.
A final note:
