My thoughts on climate change!

Rough draft - OK, I'll admit that this may or may not be my final words on a tough subject! Yes, the earth's climate, she is a changing. And yes, us humans are having an effect. (Actually, all life has had an effect on the earth, most of which has been for the good. Were it not for the CO₂ and Oxygen in the air, we humans would not have made it this far). In point of fact, the climate today is complex and evolving. A fact most climate scientists will agree on. What they may may not be agreeing so much on is whether or not our industrial technologies are messing with the composition of the atmosphere as well as the massive release of so-called greenhouse gases. CO₂ and Methane come to my mind almost immediately. Not only do machines emit carbon dioxide, but so do the 7 billion humans that wander around on our planet. As far as methane goes, it is generated generated in large quantities by micro organisms and also some insects. Each termite (for instance) produces, on average, about half a microgram of methane per day, a seemingly insignificant amount. However, when this is multiplied up by the world population of termites, global methane emission from this source is estimated to be about 20 million tons each year. Also, remember that methane is much more an active green house gas than CO₂ is! The truth be told, it is more a question of how much moisture is in the atmosphere as that has a much greater impact on the amount of heat it can even hold. In dry climates like death Valley, the temperatures often drop, when the sun sets, to freezing even though the CO2 remains at the same concentrations! Food for thought!

Then, there are all those pesky deep sea thermal vents. Seems there are a lot more of them than many first thought! Results of research being done by the likes of Dr. Nicole Dubilier at the MARUM Center for Marine Environmental Sciences and the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge indicate that many more of these small active thermal sites exist along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge than was previously assumed. According to Dr. Dubilier, “This could change our understanding of the contribution of hydrothermal activity to the thermal budget of the oceans.” These vents spew hot fluids of up to 300 degrees Celsius that contain large amounts of both methane and hydrogen sulfide. And, they've apparently been doing it 24/7 for many thousands of years! Now, am I saying that these vents may be contributing to the heating of the planet's atmosphere? No, not at all. Much more in the way of  research is needed!

What is not needed are those of us who attempt to carry forward some personal political agenda based on half truths and outright lies.The bottom line, the truth will out, perhaps a few thousands years from now...

Earth and the moon from a million miles out....

Hey! My name is DanO and I occasionally live on a distant rocky asteroid that is very dark, except for a lighted cross, just down a small path from my modest home. (One I built both over a long time).

Every once in a while, when I'm there, I will walk over to a small window and view the earth which looks a lot like a bright star a this distance.  No, it's not really a star, but a solitary planet along with its special moon. It's special, you see, as that moon was part of the ejecta due to a very remote collision and which gave Earth both a spin and a tilt. It gave the planet a 24 hour day and the seasons that allowed for the creation of life over billions of years. (Perhaps that was Gods' way of kick starting us all on our evolutionary path). Billions of years later, this world is now fighting for its very surival.

An atomic hotdog!

I found that sprinkling even a small amount of fresh Habanero pepper (little red bits in the picture) on your typical plain Jane hotdog will definitely make a statement of heat in the overall scheme of things. Thankfully, the very small amount made for an over pleasant experience! This meal came in at about 340 calories!

The 300 Calorie Toaster-Burger!

While I've always enjoyed eating the traditional deluxe hamburger, all those calories coming from the bun has bothered me. Hamburgers also suffer from what I like to call the 'add-ons'. Those are the little items like a slab of cheese, dressing, onions, pickles and all the rest that take a standard burger into the caloric stratosphere! Compare, if you would; the Burger King's Whopper at 650 calories, McDonald's Big Mac at 530 and Wendy's offering of Dave's Hot and Juicy Single at 580! Add in an order of fries and you can see how very easy it is to pack on those unsightly pounds!

The Whopper, Dave's H&J and a Big Mac!

Enter, my own home brewed creation that is easy to make, satisfying and low calorie! I call it the Toaster-Burger. The ingredients include a single slice of toast, a 100 gram lean ground beef patty with some veggies on top! (There's no cheese, fancy sauces or any other high calorie ingredient to blow everything out of proportion). It boils down to only about 305 calories, which also gives you plenty of room to add a side or two of fruit and veggies to help better the overall nutritional profile!

The meal, pictured above, came in for a total of 520 calories! It included the Toaster-burger, some fruit and veggies for a more balance dietary intake! Now, having said all that, I still like to make a bi-monthly trip over to some fast food franchise and pig out!

Aging water lines are prone to breaks in rural neighborhood!

Living in Valley View Village in Forsyth Missouri has many nice little perks! It's a rural neighborhood that is generally quiet and an all around nice place to live in. Unfortunately, it's also been in existence long enough to have begun to develop problems with its water system! This break near the corner of Brook and Baker Streets, while minor, is the third break in the same area over as many years. That points to an aging infrastructure problem that will have to be addressed at some point in time!

Get Back! - Original Beatles studio footage!

When this song was thrown together! A very pivotal moment for me, in so many ways! Young, hurting, and naive - I never-the-less, marched forward into life! That was then, and even now, the residuals of actions I took remain today!

And oh yes, the audio track is not quite in sync - I don't plan to fix it either - A state of affairs that was emblematic of the time back then and the time in 2014 - You see progressives never clean up the mess they left....Wow! Another double entendre.... I rock!

Herman's Hermits - Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter!

I saw this man at a venue in Schaumburg, IL many years ago. - And, on the night he performed, he had a bad cold and so asked someone in the audience to sing this great song.... That man (not me), did an outstanding job! A great night, so long ago, when I was very young...

'There are deep teleomeric harmonics in our basal and primitive cells that resonate, when we hear this old style music, don't ya know!'