Conrad Memories from the Future

Circumstance 1: As I was going to create this post my mother-in-law, aged 95, developed bleeding. Circumstance 2: My 30-year old daughter approaches her 7th year of debilitating pain. Circumstance 3: My last blood work in the pandemic showed certain parameters going out of range. This is one aspect of what it means to be human, bodies work to maintain balance in a tricky world. Sometimes they succeed better than others and often we ourselves know how to regain that balance.  It might be to change diet, change sleep patterns or change activity.  Sometimes the worry about the problem actually is the problem. There are so many sources of "knowledge and wisdom" on the internet, some quite trustworthy and some obviously quite insane.  Some doctors are general practice, some are specialists.  Some hospitals and clinics are among the highest rated by both patients' reviews and good outcomes, some much less so. How do we choose among options and how do we know when to seek m...

  How many of you remember HAL?  The computer that decided that Dave was a bit of a threat to his mission.  Indeed, HAL had no compunction about killing his "crewmates" when he saw it necessary.  And, now, I drive one of HAL's grandchildren. This is a picture of one of my car's cousins eating.  Note, if you would, where its mouth is and understand that it eats energy (as do all of us, of course), but its energy comes in the form of electric current.  So, we have the main player in the drama set before you. On Thursday late morning in the Pacific Time Zone in America, each week I write my blog for the week.  This week, the topic was suggested by Maria.  But, before I began writing it this week, we needed to get the ash from all the fires off of our cars before it ate away the paint.   Below is a picture of that ash gathered on our trash can (normally solid brown) so you can see how insidious it is.  It clings like glue and then begin...

  Albert Einstein has become a cultural icon of genius and most people are aware that he came up with something called Relativity, but they don't really know much except that it is some really heady thing and kind of cool to people who don't live in the real world.  So they think! Einstein is one of my leading heroes of history and it is because he was not just quirky and brilliant, it was because at the heart of things he was actually a theoretician that could work wonders in his head and bring them down to earth in such a way that they could be proven true or false.  They weren't just nice or fun ideas, they were resolvable as facts in the universe.  And, oh the implications of those facts! Let's deal with one of his proven facts of Special Relativity (and I am leaving out the implications of General Relativity on purpose, even though some of what I explain, like the clock in orbit, incorporate parts of it).  I won't go into any detail because it requires way ...

A boy, quite close to his father, comes to him with a big question on his mind: Son: Dad, I've been thinking about the term "the sky's the limit."  Does it mean that we can do anything? Father: Well, let's examine it together.  Jump as high as you can in the air. (The boy jumps.) What did that tell you? Son: Well, I can only jump so high. Father: Can you go higher? Son: No. Father: But, what if I give you a ladder and you climbed to the peak of the house?  Would you then be higher? Son: Well, yes. Father: Did you do it through your own effort? Son: Yes.  And if I had a mountain to climb I could go even higher! Father: What would it take to go higher still? Son: A plane. Father: So, is there anything above that is holding you back? Son: No, I just require the means.  Like a ladder or a plane. Father: What would it take for you to go, let's say to the moon? Son: A rocket ship.  And being an astronaut. Father: Could you become an astronaut? Son: I don't know....