Bright Light at Night is a Fright

 "Thank God men cannot as yet fly and lay waste the sky as well as the earth!" --Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

Last month, my brother and sister in law described UFO lights they saw in the early morning sky. Then one evening we met a guy that was out looking for the Starlink satellites--his description made it sound like this is what my in-laws saw. We Googled it, and yes, it was.

Satellite watching has always been a fun part of the stargazing experience. Getting a glimpse of one used to seem rare and special. When bright ones like the ISS could be seen, it was--and still is--an event to watch for.

But now, this is becoming excessive, and satellites are becoming part of the light pollution that plagues our night sky. SpaceX is intending to put 42,000 satellites in orbit--this article, which is more concerned with impacts to astronomy than stargazing, states that as of 2019, there were only 2,200 operational satellites orbiting Earth. So if you think you see them often now, just wait.

Islands in the Sky

 Fog--often surrounding ridges and peaks like water surrounding an island--is shown in the following photos, which were taken on eight different days during five different months in 2020. Enjoy.

Toppling John Muir

In my 20s, I remember reading an article that lamented the loss of heroes for youth to emulate. It made me ask myself who my hero was.

The answer was John Muir. Muir and I share many attributes, and I've lived my life in many ways parallel to his, reading his works and repeating his adventures.

It is hard when your hero falls from grace. The first times it happened were when I read things he wrote that I disagreed with: his opinions on fire and irrigated agriculture were not helpful, and likely harmful given his influence. Examples:

Learning about equity from Monopoly

In recent months, when I played Monopoly with my kids, I realized how insidious the rule is that you don't have to pay someone who doesn't notice that you landed on their property. That rule encourages dishonesty and bad sneaky behavior--and could be responsible for the downfall of western civilization. Wait, never mind, the me-first capitalist mindset preceded Monopoly. But still, we don't play with that rule so as not to encourage dishonesty--at least while they are young and impressionable.

Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter. While this statement is true, I dislike it for the same reasons I dislike the term "environmentalist." Of course all human lives matter! Of course we all care about our surroundings! Everyone should embrace both ideals, making both terms completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, the need for both terms reflects the presence of--and pushes back on--people in our society who behave irrationally, and who don't care about people or the environment--or more accurately, people who do not act to change the way things are due to past practices and decisions that weren't in the best interest of people and the environment, and continue to influence our society today. And with both movements, people can be harming progress just by doing business as usual, because of a lack of education. We all must strive to educate ourselves, listen to experts, and do the best we can to help make the world a better place.

I went to the beach

Has anyone else been reading headlines and news articles as if they were from The Onion during regular times? The video of the guy cleaning his groceries is classic and will be watched in disbelief by incredulous audiences many times in future years (but honestly, it is helpful, and right now we are following some of his guidance). The Point Reyes Light's "Sheriff's Calls" is full of people reporting other people doing very normal things, like going to the beach, surfing, etc. On social media too, from people's reactions, you'd think going to the beach was somehow dangerous--for people who only are familiar with crowded Southern California beaches on summer weekends, this attitude is excusable--but the world is full of lightly-traveled beaches with few virus-carrying humans where it is perfectly safe to be (and probably one of the safer places to be in the spectrum of risk).

So last weekend I went to the beach (yes, this used to be normal and acceptable behavior). And I wasn't going to let anything stop me--not the dirty dishes (partially dealt with), screaming kids (handled), lovely wife, cute cats, social media shamers, poorly-worded closure signs, or lingering symptoms. I'm so done with being sick. After seven months of sickness and disease (with two kids in two schools we get plenty of colds), and having had the latest cough for over five weeks, I was finally feeling well enough for a big day of exercise. I needed to get out.

By the way, my SARS-CoV-2 antibody test came back negative. So I had the flu shot last fall, plus I probably had the flu or something similar twice since January. But I digress.

The bike ride from San Geronimo to Limantour Beach is about 20 miles (40 miles round trip). After passing through the Samuel P. Taylor State Park campground on the Cross Marin Trail, I was catching up to three cyclists ahead of me. Not really wanting to deal with passing, I followed at a slower pace, then at Platform Bridge they disappeared and I merged onto Sir Francis Drake Blvd adjacent to another cyclist. I tried to get ahead but couldn't, then fell back, then passed, then was passed. This was my first time over Olema Hill on a bike, and it was hard to find my pace while at the same time trying to be adequately physically-distanced ahead of or behind the other rider, who was much older but frequently rides long distances. He disappeared ahead before I reached the top.

Coronavirus Pandemic Misinformation and Mislabeling and Musings

First of all, I want to start by expressing gratitude and appreciation for everyone that is leading us through these uncharted waters. Nevertheless, there is always room for improvement and better ideas, and I may have a few here. Or maybe not.

Social Distancing
"Social distancing" has been with us for over two months, but it is an inaccurate term. In the age of social media, "Physical distancing" is much more accurate and it is nice to see many people and agencies switching to this term.

Shelter-in-place
It has been six weeks since the poorly-named "Shelter-in-place" orders were issued. The consequences of the misnomer "Shelter-in-place" really hit me when I spoke to my mom one day, and she told me she was afraid to go outside in her yard, and that the Coronavirus was washing up on the beaches from the ocean. Now, the latter belief was a result of a single person's ill-chosen remarks that were widely reported in the Southern California media and quickly retracted. But the former--fear of going in the yard--was certainly related to the "Shelter-in-place" terminology, since "stay home" does not equal "stay inside," but "shelter" implies staying inside.

This is a poor name because it is inaccurate--depending on where you live, it is generally safer outdoors than indoors. The purpose of the shelter orders is to keep us away from each other, not to keep us away from the outdoors.

Your chances of catching the virus when you go outdoors is extremely low, provided you’re keeping a safe distance from others. “Outdoors is safe…unless if we are in a very crowded place — which is not allowed now anyway. It is safe to go for a walk and jog and not to worry about the virus in the air..." Lidia Morawska, professor and director of the International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.
NYT 4/17/20