A speculative mind

  We (humans) tend to be rather biased against any system or trait that is not as highly evolved as our own.   Consider the comparison of gills with lungs.   Both organs perform virtually the same function but since humans have lungs and things like fish and clams have gills, then gills must be primitive, simple and less efficient right? Let's see . . .   Respiration is not the act of breathing (unless you are taking a CPR class).   Respiration is the chemical breakdown of the food we eat into energy.   We all know that eating sugar gives us energy but sugar is only one component. It is the process of respiration that takes that sugar and converts it into a form of energy that our bodies can use. Once starches and sugars are broken down into glucose, that glucose is further broken down into smaller and smaller molecules. Each time a molecule breaks, energy is released. That energy is captured and stored in the form of another molecule called ATP.   A...

  There was a moment when I discovered that l liked dark music. I do like dark music. I like minor keys and a haunting theme. I like other kinds of music too, but that darkness speaks to me in a special way. What does that say about me? Am I messed up? I don’t think so. Maybe I am just built that way that haunting tunes or lyrics imparts some inner truth to me. It resonates. I know precisely when I discovered this about myself. It was Summer of 1971. I was 12 years old. I was on a plane with my family heading to Illinois. Airplanes back then did not have much in the way of entertainment, but what they did have were headphones and music channels you could listen to. I was listening to a channel of popular current hits, and a song came on called “That’s the Way I Always Heard it Should Be” by Carly Simon. I had never heard of Carly Simon. This was before “Anticipation” and “You’re so Vain.” She was not yet famous. But this song came on and, I don’t know, it did something to me. It...

  Back to Biology for a bit:   Do you ever wonder why two very different kinds of species share a common trait? Why do birds and bats both have wings if bats are mammals?  Whenever two organisms share the same characteristic there are two possible pathways to explain it. They are "divergent evolution" and "convergent evolution.”   The word divergent means spreading out or radiating from a common point. Divergent evolution then is where a common ancestor gives rise to a number of species that share some of the same traits. For example, humans have hair and mice have hair. Somewhere in our ancestry there was an animal that had hair which gave rise to both lines. That does not mean we came from mice, but rather there was a common ancestor that had hair and from that animal sprung the lines of many of the creatures that have hair.   The word convergent means approaching the same point from different directions. So convergent evolution is where two unrelated ...

  Earlier I posted a review of Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I have now finished the trilogy (well, the first three books of the series). While the first book had the feel of The Hunger Games , the series as a whole feels more like A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George R. R. Martin. There are lots of houses vying for power and a lot of shifting loyalties. Politics as well as battles. Unlike A Song of ice and Fire , The Red Rising series has more of a space opera feel to it. But whether the events are happening in space or on the firm ground of a planet or moon, there is lots of action: battles, duels, strategy, and tactics. Just when you think you know where the story is headed, it takes a jarring twist in a new direction. This is a good thing. I don’t like books that are completely predictable. But there are sad twists too. Just like Game of Thrones , no character is safe. It is at times heartbreaking, but it is a good kind of heartbreak, the kind that adds weight to...

  I retired this week. So, big lifestyle changes for me? Not so much. I retired on Thursday. My office had an amazing party for me on Wednesday, lots of food, lots of cards, lots of personal connections. Gifts too, I wish I had told them, no gifts. I really don’t need anything. But all this does make one feel appreciated. It also makes me feel appreciated that they want me to come back on a contractual basis every now and then to impart my institutional knowledge. It is always the case when someone retires, knowledge is lost to the organization. Things have to be relearned by the next generation. This is somewhat offset by the fact that the world is changing through advancing technology etc. So, the knowledge that the retiring person has might eventually become obsolete anyway. Better to go out while you are still on top. We have all seen professional athletes who stayed on well beyond their prime. It would have been better to go out while still on top. But it is a hard thing to ...

  It is interesting what children take from a conversation. I remember when my family took a trip to see Crater Lake. I was young, maybe three or four. I did not know what Crater Lake was. It was not that far from where we lived, maybe a three-hour drive. But a three-hour drive to a three-year-old is a near eternity. Not to mention that it is hot in southern Oregon in the summertime and our old Oldsmobile station wagon did not have air conditioning. The car carried my parents and my three siblings and me. Not that I remember much of it, but I imagine the drive must have been tedious for all concerned. In fact, I don’t remember much of the trip at all at this point, but I do remember my father’s explanation of Crater Lake. He explained to me that the mountain had a hole in it and water went in the hole and made a lake. Those weren’t his exact words, but it was something like that. Anyway, what I got out of this explanation was that there was a hole in the mountain. As we drove thr...

  As a writer, I thrive under a deadline. Deadlines keep me motivated and focused. I like participating in NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month), where I have one month to write a 50,000-word novel. It is a good challenge, and it gives me motivation to write every day. There have been other small projects where I have had a deadline, like the recent anthology Rainbows Aren’t Just for Leprechauns . I had a deadline to get the story in, and I made it. Without a deadline, without something pushing me forward, it is just too easy to not write. Procrastination is my nemesis. Give me a deadline. I am happy with a deadline. But there was one project I signed up for where the deadline proved downright terrifying . . . I joined a twenty-four-hour theater project. You can sign up as a writer, or an actor, or a director or tech crew. The idea is that each play goes from conception to performance in front of an audience in the course of 24 hours. I signed up as a writer. The writers com...