The Winds of Change

A little passage from the book I just finished, The Winds of Change:

A simple look at the upward path of global greenhouse-gas emissions answers the question--in the affirmative--of whether we will continue to squeeze the trigger on the gun we have put to our own head. For me, the most depressing aspect of the calamity that we face is the implication that from the perspective of our Martian guest we are no different than fruit flies in our ability to contain our appetites and numbers and to avert predictable calamities. During times of good weather and abundance, we expand to and pass the limits of food and water, and when times turn bad, we crash. For all our vaunted intelligence, our track record suggests that our behavior as a species is ruled by short-term self-interest just like our dim-witted six-legged friends.

This statement really puts the human species in its place. For all its cultural adaptations, there's still a point where the drive to survive and procreate outmatches our intelligence. But I guess the problem repetitiously stated in this book: people/species can easily adapt to slow climatic and environmental changes, but this book argues that climate change can be rather rapid (in a matter of a couple of years) and dramatic (ice-age-like conditions) leaving the carved-out niches of human adaptation to suffer if immediate solutions for food and water aren't readily available.

Three Tree

Today I got up and visted Grandpa. He seems to be in rather good health.
His walker sits up against the wall and hasn't been used in a couple weeks.
Irene, Joan, Garrett, and I took him to the Celtic Bayou, a Cajun/Irish pub.
I had some artichoke pesto pasta which was very good.

Next I headed out to Issaquah to get a tank fill and purchase some new dry gloves.
Now when I go in the water the only thing that gets wet is my head.
My hands were much more warm than in any previous dive. Good times.

Where I did dive was Three Tree in Burien. While down there, it was much of the same: starfish, sea anenome, and sea cucumber, but today I did actually see an octopus. However it was hiding in an engine block and wasn't visible enough to take a picture.
The other thing that I missed getting on 'film' was a starfish and clam interaction.
The starfish was pissing off the clam enough to where the clam stuck out its foot which was three times the length of the shell, and catapulted itself away from the starfish. It did this twice and managed to get about 3 feet away. It was enough to confuse the slow-moving starfish.
I've seen a movie of this same incident in the past, probably something Manuel showed me, butI can't seem to come up with it again. Maybe he can find it for me *hint, hint* ;)

But speaking of movies, I happened to take one on this dive of a kelp crab. I'm having issues uploading it, but once I do get it I'll post it here. And when you do finally watch it, the blue thing prodding at it is my finger.

God

God has played many roles since his inception. He's been a rule maker (Leviticus), an instigator of war (Joshua), a revolutionary (Ezra), a hope for the future (Daniel), and an influence and guideline on how someone should live in society and under foreign rule (New Testament).
However, I think it's most important to know where the idea of God was first inspired.
It seems to me that God is an embodiment of nature.
"In the beginning God created (was) the heavens and the earth."


Take a look at the first book of the Bible and maybe it'll jump out at you as well. Adam and Eve are living in a lush environment. Everything they could ask for is virtually an arm's length away. But then they get greedy and force (eat) themselves out of house and home. This can be taken literally, or it can be taken that people who were once hunters-and-gatherers are now forced to live beyond that lifestyle and becoming more sedentary with the new generation (Cain and Able) eking out a living through the advent of agriculture and pastoralism. But after a stroke of bad luck (the killing of one's brother) drought comes and makes difficulties in providing for one's self and family.
So God once provided, but then progressively makes life harder with a changing environment coincidentally at the fault of human err.

Again this is shown in the story of Noah, where God steps up once more to throw around his nature-based weight. This is actually what brought me to this topic. Reading in my latest book, The Winds of Change, the author points out a possible site of this recorded flood. 5200 BP (3200 BC) due to the planet's alignment, the earth saw very warm winters. These were enough to raise sea level (including water levels in the Mediterranean) to the point of breeching what was the small isthmus of Bosphorus in Turkey near modern-day Istanbul. Prior to 5200 BP, the Black Sea was 500 feet lower than sea level, but after this breech, waters 200 times as powerful as Niagra were gushing into the Black Sea at a rate of 6 inches a day.
This, of course, would ruin anybody's pastures and farmland with that 500-foot increment. Now that is a disaster worth remembering, and was, through the travails of Noah and also Gilgamesh.

These being the early Genesis stories show that nature was once the ultimate deciding factor in the way people once lived and the writers of the book personified nature through the advent of a supreme overlord, which in effect, nature is actually one of the few things that people as a whole must fear and respect. Later on as societies were becoming more complicated and populated, issues arose where cultures began warring over who could best occupy the land.
Then by the time of Roman rule, somebody decided to step up and create of forum for how to interact peacefully with your bretheren. Go Jesus!
It's not like a guideline for human interaction hasn'tsprung up elsewhere in the world, but considering it's the most affluent form of manipulation in my homeland, you have to give him props.

Which confuses the hell out of me. The cradle of this religion lies right in the heart of region where all our current strife seems to reside. Many fundamental Christians despise the people of Mesopotamia but celebrate their ancestors. Maybe it's just so difficult because half of the world's powerhouses of religion were spawned in this small valley. Maybe if agriculture didn't have such a profound effect on giving power to those people who possessed it, other religions might not have gone to the wayside.

In any case, if God was primarily conceptualized as nature, maybe that's who he really is, meaning that nature should be feared and respected. As one of the major conclusions in the book that started this line of thinking, there is a point made that even though we have figured out some of the oscillation patterns of the earth orbit, rotation, and revolution, there are still major holes in our understanding of how climate works and is effected. Ocean currents, is one, and is now thought to be a considerable player in the transferring of heat throughout the continents. If glacial deposits decrease, making fresh water over abundant in the eyes of the ocean currents, then the ocean currents will quit acting as conveyors of heat. This is big when you consider that they move up to 25% of the heat brought to given continents.

I'm getting nowhere with a non-existant point, so I guess I'll try to make one here:
Our time of living in relatively comfortable temperatures was always on some sort of time frame, but we don't have to shorten its lifespan with an ever-increasing population and eventually very harmful carbon dioxide and methane emissions.
(That wasn't really a point, that was just a pathetic attempt at a threat with no offered solutions.
It's far too complicated for me to even want to approach.)

Alaska

HOLY BALLS!

my mediocre attempts at getting into a grad school have landed me somewhere.
I just got a letter tonight that says i got into the grad program at UAA (University of Alaska at Anchorage).

I know my parents will be pushing me to get out of the house, but I'm wondering if I really want to go to the frigid north.
On the one hand it will get my life going in a direction that isn't Fred Meyer, but on the other hand, it's so fucking far away. . .
and cold . . . and dark. . .

Crap. Something new to think about other than what the hell I'm going to do with myself.
I'll actually have to buy a coat!

Tagged

After weeks of sitting on my ass infront of the computer screen, I am finally finished with tagging every single picture that I've posted on flickr. (All 3210 of them.)

It was a daunting task, but I felt it necessary.
Now just by typing a word or two, you can find exactly what you're looking for.

For example:

You can see pictures only taken underwater.
Or you can see just people in the water (snorkel, gear, water).
Pictures of any given person (Garrett).
Pictures of random objects (toilets) and signs.
Pictures of plant life (lily) or animals (dog or starfish).
There are also pictures of land/waterformations (waterfalls and geysers).
You can even get pictures that were taken from the driver's seat of my car ("drive by").
This might explain the quality of most of them.

So I know most people might only look for their own name, but maybe there's some other reasons people might find this tagging attribute useful.

Thanks for looking.

US map

I guess I'll follow up with this one too



create your own visited states map

Apparently I hate the South.
Oh, and North Dakota.

Where have you been?

Too bad it's so small.
French Polynesia doesn't even show up.

Alki IX

I went back to Alki for another round of diving. It had been a few months since I've gone down there.

This time around I was fully equipped. Now I have my dry suit and light.
I've gone down a couple times with both, so this time I felt secure enough to take the camera again.
This was one of the most smooth dives I've done yet. Well, except for the end when I had way to little air to be surfacing with. It also made me a bit light because of the lack of air and I was wobbling around like a fish out of water.

But other than that, things went well.
I went with my usual partner, Cory, and Kathryn and a new face to me, David, came along with us.
Kathryn also has a camera. But along with hers, she has two large strobes that attach to the base of her underwater camera case.

And apparently those strobes make all the difference in the world.
If you don't believe me, compare Kathyrn's to mine.
A couple hundred dollars later and my pictures could look good too...

Three Tree

I finally got around to going diving again. I dropped Cory an email and he told me to meet him at Three Tree in Burien. (It's on the south side of the point.)
The place was a small public entrance to the water with private beach on either side.
Cory was telling stories of homeowners coming out to the beach to tell him to get back into the water when he was merely trying to walk back to his car after a dive. Rich bitches.

So this time around I felt that I am now comfortable enough with both my dry suit AND dive light to bring along my camera. I took some shots. Some of these were actually decent since visibility was pretty good, and the sunlight penetrated pretty far since it was a nice day.
There's some of the same things: starfish, sunstars and sea cucumbers.
Down there we also found a large satellite dish.
Everything else you can see in the Three Tree set.
It was good to get out again, and I actually went out with 3 other people.
I've met Bones and Cam before, but never dove with them.
Cory, I think is getting upset with my novice ways, but I'm somewhat quickly learning.
He left the final checkup of my gear to the other two divers.

After a good dive, I headed to the pool.
Since I had my underwater case on me, I thought I'd use it there.
Ashley Olson, Connie and I played tag for a bit and later on, Tyler and David had their own games to play.

Then to complete the night, I headed upstairs for some kung fu, where I'm starting to "master" my second set.

Back to diving, I've shown his pictures in the past, and now he has some more good ones.
Bob Bailey caught some photos of octopus, nudibranches and even a harbor seal.
This dude goes to my dive shop. I've heard everyone speak well of him, but I've yet to meet the man. I need to know how he uses light so well down there.