About this and that When a volume of ice floats in the sea, we observe it from the surface of the sea. The tip or top is visible. And while an ice berg tip may be massive and impressive, ‘it’s only the tip of the iceberg’. This is shorthand for ‘you think that’s big, but …
Category Archives: Opinion
They Lie We Die
About this and my webpage Drug Recalls and Jet Planes, oh my! Often prescribed and widely used blood pressure medication valsartan is being recalled. It is contaminated with a known carcinogen NMDA, N-Nitrosodimethylamine. Millions of people taking this have been poisoned. The drug companies bought the active ingredient for their valsartan from Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical …
Baked Alaska
About this and That Wildfire and smoke in southern Alaska 8 of 13 hot weather records of all time set in 2019 Melting Alaska ice contributes more to sea level rise than Greenland or any other part of the world according to ESA European Space Agency Summer sea ice in the far north is disappearing …
Lying Liar
About this and That According to Fact checker database and Washington Post, POTUS has on August 5, 2019: Told 12,019 lies or misleading statements Served 928 days Averaged 13 lies per day 2,404 lies, 1/5 about immigration Said the wall was being built 190 times Said 186 times US economy is best in history Said …
Hard Work
About this and That Work is defined as effort or activity to achieve a purpose or earn income. Hard work can be physically or mentally difficult. Or it can indicate volume or duration. Hard work nowadays is commonly synonymous with either dedication or physically demanding work. Ironically hard work is to be admired or derided …
Coal Mine Canary
About this and That There are many dangers in a coal mine. Dangerous gases could displace oxygen and make men sick or die. A canary in a cage would be brought into a coal mine along side workers. The canary had a much higher metabolism and would die if conditions got bad. The death of …
Hidden Cost
About this and That Our eyes are a wonder of nature. We can see very small objects and also look far away. We have a wide field of view, can discern lightness and darkness, distinguish a multitude of colors. Modern technology and instruments lets us see in the dark and in other spectral ranges invisible …
Small World
About this and That When we think of something as never ending or unlimited, we take it for granted. We can be careless, wasteful and oblivious. When we see the world as huge and limitless we cannot imagine life any other way. We can only imagine that things will go on forever. But when a …
Opportunity Cost
About this and That When we make a choice to spend our time on something or somewhere, we are making a choice to not spend time on something else or somewhere else. This is called the opportunity cost. FOMO, the fear of missing out, is related to this very thing. So the cost of our …
Time Spans
About this and That Humans are unique in our understanding of time, the past and the future. Time can be small units or very large. Seconds, Minutes, Hours Days, Weeks, Months Years, Decades, Centuries Millenia, Ages, Epochs We can make God laugh and make plans. We can visualize and dream. We might look to the …