<note to self>
i started out curious (why do multicellular organisms, like you and me, die?) but became aware of a more immediate problem: over- population (a consequence of not dying soon enough), which worries me. however, what am i worried about? some think that earth can sustain many more; also, death is normal, even necessary. it’s part of life. my ego, my ‘little self’, will die, but my larger self lives forever. cuz we’re stardust. or even older.
Music
Musical couples. Last week, I profiled ShoShone Kish and Raven Kanate of Digging Roots.
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The week before, Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland of Whitehorse.
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Before that, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn.
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This week, it’s Emily Saliers and Amy Ray of Indigo Girls…
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…Perhaps their biggest hit is Closer To Fine…
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…Least Complicated was good too…
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…But do you remember Power Of Two?…
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…They also do covers well. For example, they do great versions of Midnight Train To Georgia (they’re from Georgia) and Tangled Up In Blue, just to name two.
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For A Dancer–Jackson Browne (tx sh, js)
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Shoulders–Shane Koyczan And The Short Story Long (tx, lb)
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watched rick mercer report, this hour has 22 minutes, human universe (a place in time and space), and wild shepherdess (australia)
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stephan kramp’s visitation. my old headmaster died.
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Bullfrog staff (pictured) braved the frigid waters of Lake Ontario to support WWF-Canada’s Polar Bear Dip, which raised money for WWF’s Arctic Campaign to protect wildlife habitats in the North. (tx, sh)
more a place in time and space: henrietta leavitt (pictured). dm, nt, and i had lunch at explorer’s–rob discussed wine with d. we watched automatic brain (the power of the unconscious brain), the nature of things (the spirit bear family), the story of women and art (18th century), and human universe (a place in time and space) again. and i watched the agenda (cosmology matters).
Friday, 2015 March 27
‘History is a novel whose author is the people.’–Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863)
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Oh, yeah, it’s Friday. Stuff in my inbox. Like: ‘Your smart phone is more powerful than all the computers NASA used to put astronauts on the moon in 1969 combined!’
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made roman apple muffins.
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watched songbirdsos.
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Saturday, 2015 March 28
By the way, two weeks ago, 3/14/15, was Pi Day. Pi is an endless number, but it starts 3.1415. It’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, which can be handy when you’re building a silo or calculating an orbit. It was also Einstein’s birthday. He probably knew pi to several decimal places. He also probably ate pie.
Pictured is what Brian Cox calls ‘the most remarkable picture of all time’ (see below). ‘In finding our place in the universe, we’ve come to realize how small and fragile a part of it we are. But it’s been the most glorious ascent into insignificance because our physical demotion has been the inevitable consequence of a daring intellectual climb from the puppets of the gods to that rare and most precious thing, a scientific civilization,
the only one we know of anywhere in the universe that’s been able to comprehend its true place in nature. And that is our greatest achievement.’ (Pictured, from the film: folks celebrate solstice.)
susan volunteered at the sweetwater festival. later, we watched coast australia (darwin and beyond). played scrabble.
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curiosity got the better of me: why do multicellular organisms die? actually, ‘every single-celled organism alive today has been in existence since life began over 3 billion years ago…. After cell division, the two cells that result are each as old as the single cell that preceded them…. Thus every cell in your body is over 3 billion years old.‘ cool.
even older is the cosmic microwave background, the afterglow of the big bang (see above). here is an actual photo of it. it kinda changes your perspective. truly, ‘we are golden.’
talk about changing your perspective, on december 26th, 1968, william anders took this photo…
Our mission was to discover the Moon, but our accomplishment was that we discovered the Earth. (William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut and photographer of ‘Earthrise‘, pictured.)
Rodrigo Samayoa of Leadnow invites us to ‘Quebec City on April 11th so we can tell the premiers we want action on climate. We know that a transition to a strong clean energy economy is possible. Last week, 70 scientists released a report showing that Canada can shift to 100% renewable energy by 2035 and reduce our carbon footprint by 80% by 2050.’
went to see rpr in concert. sat with j&jm, pt-w, and ap. jm called jw on his cellphone to let him know he was missing a great concert.
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visits from na and ki. watched secrets of the castle (building a window) and the ottomans (demise of the empire). played scrabble.