Update on travels to date

No pictures on this one. I'm using the hotel computer in Phoenix, Arizona.
Fran and I drove to Los Alamos the weekend before Christmas. Then our daughter drove us, our granddaughter, grandson and three of his friends to Telluride, Colorado. Granddaughter was in an ice hockey tournament there and grandson with friends was going snowboarding.
Granddaughter is on the New Mexico state U18 girl's hockey team. They played teams from Telluride and Durango in the tournament. They played very well, but both the other teams were stronger. Ah, but it snowed every day we were there. The boys had terrific snowboarding. We had a couple of fine meals in the town restaurants,then drove back to Los Alamos on Christmas eve.
The day after Christmas, we loaded in the car again, just the family this time. Grandson is on the New Mexico U16 team and was playing in a tournament in Phoenix. His team played teams from Arizona, Alaska and Colorado. They won one, lost one and tied two. We'll see tomorrow if they made the finals.
The drive here was exciting. Interstate 40 runs all the way to Phoenix, but it is shorter to cut off early and follow US and state roads south. Remember I said it had been snowing in Colorado? All that moisture came up fromthe south. It left snow and ice on many of the roads. We made it to Payson, AZ without trouble, stopped there for a really excellent meal at Fargo's Steak House. About 20 miles out of town, we were stopped and toldthat there was black ice on the road ahead. We were steered east about 40 miles, then were able to turn back toward Phoenix. Hunddreds of cars had been steered in the same direction. It made for a traffic jam hours long. We found our hotel about 2 in the morning and collapsed.
The first game was that afternoon and the boys played very well. But they fell apart the next morning before they pulled themselves together.
I just wanted to fill faithful readers in on our adventures since from here to the end of our trip, there won't be Internet available.
Hope your Christmas was merry and that hou have a wonderful 2009.

General catching up

I haven't been writing much in the past month. Summer turning to fall, then to winter has depressed me. The dim, gray light of overcast days makes me sleepy and then I don't sleep well at night. All part of getting older, I suppose. But I don't have to like it!

Tomorrow, I'll be in surgery again for a short procedure. The battery on my pacemaker is getting low and needs to be replaced. Actually, Nurse Holly told me that they will just pull the old thing (pacemaker, defibrillator and generator) out and replace it with a brand new one. They leave the leads in place since they have scarred into the tissue around my heart. I get to keep the old one so I can look at it and know what that thing in my chest looks like. Another nugget of knowledge from Nurse Holly was that if one of the leads (wires connecting the device to the heart) goes bad, they don't pull it. Instead, the surgeon runs another lead. Pulling the bad lead out might damage the heart.






Sammi, our neighborhood cat, has returned. He jumped into the drive this morning as I was leaving. I tried to coax him into the garage so I could dry and feed him. But he preferred to run around in the rain. His owner has finally put a collar around his neck. There is no ID or rabies tag on the collar, but all the neighbors know and feed that cat. He is affectionate and very "Helpful" when Fran and I are gardening in summer. Alas, he is also an excellent hunter, He has caught and eaten two birds that I know of and has chased the lizards all over our rocky slope garden. Last summer, he caught a ground squirrel but let it go after playing with it for a few seconds. I suspect that he has taken a toll on the local rabbits as well.

Fran and I are about to depart for Christmas. Our grandchildren live in New Mexico. We'll go there next week, then drive up to Telluride, Colorado to watch a hockey game played by both kids. It will be the first time we have visited Telluride in winter. We'll have Christmas in New Mexico, then head down to Phoenix, Arizona to watch hockey tournaments that the kids will play. These "holiday hockey tournaments" have become a staple in our family. I'm not sure how we'll spend the holidays when both have grown too old for the leagues that sponsor them. I suspect we'll find something to do. There lots of jigsaw puzzles around our daughter's and, of course, there is always televised football and hockey.

So here's wishing all of you a wonderful set of holidays and hoping for the best new year that can be.

ExtraSensory Perception

Believing in ESP is almost like believing in a certain religion. While there are many experiments that fail to show it exists, a few, a very few seem to point to it being a real power... a sixth sense. Unfortunately, most of the tests that have shown ESP to be an effective force were questionably designed or simply stage shows that mystified the crowd, scientists included.

A very religious man once told me that he believed that things like witchcraft and demons simply proved that one side of the spiritual equation existed. He could then, by inference, believe in the other side... God, angels and Heaven. It was a working argument for him. Alas, I've never seen an experiment that showed ESP or any spiritual belief is demonstrable. That doesn't matter to me. I believe what I believe. That kind of belief requires no proof or duplicatable experiment. It is a gut feeling that doesn't have to be justified.

All this is leading up to what almost convinced a very hard nosed psychologist that ESP was a working force. During my senior year in university, I took a course in experimental psychology. It was fascinating. The experimental designs and statistics used to interpret the results were rigorous and could actually be duplicated with similar equipment and environment.

We were assigned the task of designing and implementing an experiment that would either show that ExtraSensory Perception existed or not. Of course, it was a given that the negative hypothesis in this case would not prove ESP's non-existence. "Absence of proof is not proof of absence." I don't remember who said that, but it applies.

We were given access to state of the art, electro-mechanical test equipment and used it to see if a subject, chosen at random from the student body could predict which of five symbols was going to appear on the screen in front of him. Results were tallied on the experimenter's control board. I was running a subject through the test and didn't notice Dr. Gardner entering the lab. The first I knew of his presence was when he asked, "How long have you been doing that?"

He had been watching me and I was recording the results without looking at the tally board. Dr. Gardner was just a little spooked. While none of our results indicated that any of our subjects could forecast what would appear, it looked like I was doing just that with the results.

Calm down. Remember that we were using electro-mechanical equipment, not digital. Each of the symbols' tally used a different electric motor and gear mechanism. My hearing was still good enough that I could detect the differences between them. That hearing is about gone now, thanks to the Army, but the memory of Dr. Gardner's face remains.

Sorry, no pictures for this memoir.

Three book reviews

Some time ago, I noted a few of the authors that I particularly like and recommend. I have just finished the books whose reviews I will write this evening.

"The Accidental Time Machine" by Joe Haldeman, Ace Books edition published August, 2008. ISBN 978-0-441-01616-7
paper back $7.99

Matthew (Matt) Nagle did not set out to invent a time machine. He was working on a calibrator. When he pushed the 'reset' button, the thing disappeared for a second. When he pushed it again, it disappeared again, for a little longer this time. Matt is a bright, young PhD candidate at MIT. It doesn't take him long to work out that he has a time machine and that each time he pushes the button, the machine goes farther into the future. After all, Einstein worked out that you can't go backwards in time.

Matt works out how to go along with the machine, then proceeds to head farther into the future. His first trip takes him just far enough that he discovers that his vehicle (borrowed from a friend) is in the middle of traffic and has no tires. He also discovers that his friend has been murdered. Matt is the prime suspect, but the authorities lock him up for auto theft. A strange person who looks like Matt pays his bail and tells him to take the car and go. He pushes the button again and goes farther ahead in time. Soon he picks up a companion, Martha. She is from a time when radical Christianity dominates the east coast of America and has nothing to do with the west. Each time Matt pushes the button, he not only goes into the future, but moves west as well.

The problem is how to get back to bail himself out of jail and whether Martha will go with him or return to her own time and place. The situation is made more interesting when he discovers that he is the only one who can push the button and get a time displacement.

Haldeman is an outstanding writer. This novel caught me within a few paragraphs and held me through the end. The physics are all too plausible. We have a good adventure story with a little romance, a lot of mystery and some humor.

"The Bell at Sealey Head" by Patricia A. McKillip, Berkley Publishing Group, published September, 2008. ISBN 978-0-441-01630-3, hard cover $23.95.

In the coastal town of Sealey Head, a bell rings at every sunset. No one knows why. Nor does anyone know where the bell is located. The bell has been ringing for so long that most town folk don't notice it anymore. Judd Cauley still notices. He runs an inn at Sealey Head, just as his father did. Dugold, his father is now blind. Judd reads to him every night. Another person who notices the bell is Gwyneth Blair. She and Judd have been friends since childhood. But her family is rich and the inn, both poor and declining. Their meetings are infrequent, but welcomed by both.

On the day the story begins, a stranger comes to Sealey Head and stops at the inn. He is Ridley Dow and he has come to investigate the bell.

Emma is a maid at Aislin House. Since she was small, she has been opening doors that do not always lead to her Aislin House. She has met Princess Ysabo, a resident of the other house. Ysabo is caught in a mysterious ritual that enfolds all the residents of her house. She is shortly to be married and is well trained in the ritual that keeps their world turning.

The owner of Emma's Aislin House, Lady Eglantyne, is old, ill and declining. The heir is sent for from the big city of Landringham. Miranda Beryl will soon arrive with her staff and friends for the death watch. Among the friends is a Mr. Moren. Apparently Beryl is afraid of him. At the same time as the guests arrive, Judd is lucky enough to hire a new cook. (His old one is possibly the worst cook in the world.) Mr. Pilchard, the cook says that he has been a sailor and can cook for two or two hundred. His cooking is superb.

Ridley makes his way to Aislin House and meets Beryl. He also meets Emma and, through her, Ysabo. Ridley does something that neither woman has dared. He crosses from Emma's world to that of Ysabo. Ridley has the talent for being inconspicuous to the point of invisibility. He stays in Ysabo's world for a few days, then is chased away by the ritual crows and the knights of the House.

Ms. McKillip writes in a fascinating, dreamy style that has always appealed to me. Her way of conveying mystery and magic are irresistible. The complex story lines of her novel are expertly woven together to produce a startling, but altogether satisfying ending.

"Carol for Another Christmas" by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Ace Books, published October, 2008 (first publishing 1996). ISBN 978-0-441-01646-4, paper back $7.99.

This is a retelling of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". What Ms. Scarborough has done is to bring the story into the 21st century, replacing Scrooge with an irascible software company CEO (Monika Banks) and Marley with her brother, one of the geniuses who began the company. The company is failing. Banks has hired a team of software specialists to develop a program for the US government that will track people without their knowing.

The ghost of her brother works a program manager into the computer system. Scrooge, now converted to a Christmas spirit gets the job of guiding Banks around her Christmases past, present and future with the desired result.

This is not the first time that Ms Scarborough has updated a fairy tale. Her "Godmother" was a wonderful look into the business of being a fairy godmother. Her style is engaging and the story has all the tender, tear jerking pathos of the original. This is definitely a six Kleenex novel. She has managed to insert believable technology, humor and a bit of romance into the original. This book is going out to most of my friends who like to read... as a Christmas present.

Tiger Toy

That's my nickname. I'm attaching some pictures so my new writing group can see them.
The kitties are Siberian tigers (also known as Amur tigers). They're the biggest of the natural cat family still in existence today. There are a couple of "ligers" that are considerably larger. But ligers do not occur naturally since the ranges of lions and tigers are pretty well separated... even in India, which has a lion area in its far west.

A few comments

Fall is a terrific season for the garden. Those dead leaves make great mulch to protect plants from lower temperatures in the winter. But another neat thing is that many of the annuals begin to go to seed. So now is a good time to begin harvesting. I have been getting seeds from the purple cone flower


and the Indian blanket flower. Both are shown here.



Of course there is the delightful changing of the leaves. They turn glorious colors as the sap leaves them to dry and to fall. The Japanese maple shown here is pretty red most of the year. But it gives an idea. The hard woods, such as maples are the most colorful. But birches, aspens, and Bradford pear also put on a fine show.



This afternoon, my wife and I were having lunch in a Mexican restaurant. There were a couple of people who sat and talked on their cell phones while feeding their faces. That's slightly rude. Ruder still was the fact that they were having lunch with other people. I fear that if one of my friends were to do that, they would get some pretty stiff words on the subject. Fortunately, most of my friends are, like me, from the stone age when almost all telephones were attached to the wall and only portable as far as the cord between the handset and the telephone body. There some radio phones. These were considered a rare novelty and were quite expensive. They were also big enough to make them inconvenient or impossible to carry anywhere but the car.

The saddest part of that cell phone attachment was a young woman who was having lunch with her children. The kids were very well behaved. And in between the calls she made, wanted to talk to her. She appeared to enjoy the conversations. But she still went back to the phone and made more calls. The kids were bored to the point of putting their heads on their arms and napping while she chattered away.

Truly, I feel a little sadder for that woman. Time spent with your children when they want to be with you gets increasingly rare as they grow up. Often, by the time they reach teenage, they don't want to even admit that you are their parents. That woman wasted half an hour that she can never get back. When the kids leave home, or just begin to be independent, she may recall that time and wish she'd talked with them instead of chatting with her friends.

My opinion is that cellular telephones are only appropriate in certain places and at certain times. Too many accidents have been caused by people talking on their phones, texting or just dialing numbers. When they are using their phones, they usually don't have a hand free to operate their turn signals. They certainly are not paying much attention to their surroundings. I sat behind a woman who didn't move through two cycles of a stop light. When I got out of my car and approached, I saw she was yakking on her phone. I guess my approach got her attention. She burned rubber getting onto the road, then stayed in the turning lane, still talking. [I heaved a big sigh here] Hey, you all, hang up and drive!!!

Postop report

Yesterday, an ophthalmic surgeon removed the cataract from my left eye and replaced with a new lens that is supposed to adjust for distance and near vision. The operation went well. My sensitivity to anesthetics is such that I'm still feeling a little loggy. On the bright side of that, I sleep long and well when I let myself lie down.

The eye is still a little swollen from the surgery. That means that I see double in an odd way. Images are on top of one another instead of side by side (what happens when your eyes cross). If I move my head to the proper angle, the images re-impose themselves on one another. It's kind of cool. But, alas, that effect is already changing back to normal vision. At present, my distance vision is binocular, but I haven't noticed any effect on near and intermediate distance vision As my eye goes back to its normal size and shape, that may change. At worst, I'll be far sighted and have to wear reading glasses. Well, that's necessary now, so no sweat.

I do have to say that this really appeals to my love for gadgets. I feel like I did the first Christmas I received an electric train set. The night before, I had been too excited to sleep. But I did get a little sleep. I awoke early that Christmas morning and crept into the living room where we had set up a live tree and decorated it. The tracks ran around the tree and the lovely steam engine with its trail of cars was on the tracks. The transformer was plugged in. It was torture to wait until the rest of the family awoke so I could run the train and sound the whistle. But then... Ah bliss; the engine even puffed steam (it had to be fed tablets to do that).

At that time, our house sat atop a basement and garage. The living room overlooked the drive and front yard. As I ran that train around its track, I could imagine the view that the engineer and passengers had, with our living room and then front yard with its persimmon trees flashing by.

This year, I don't have to imagine. But I do have to wait for things to even out and work the way they're supposed to do. Waiting is not my favorite thing. But the Army taught me patience, sort of.

The image, by the way, isn't of that old tree, but of a modern one in my daughter's home.

Archon 32

This year was the thirty-second St. Louis Science Fiction Convention. It is named Archon in honor of the St. Louis Arch.

Before getting to the convention, I must pause to review some nomenclature. SF fans (there is a minor disagreement about whether it should be SF [ess eff] or Sci Fi) have a few words of their own. Prime examples are con for convention and fen as the plural of fan. Non SF readers are called mundanes.




The convention is now held the first weekend of October. For a long time, it was held in July. The heat of a St. Louis summer made some of the costumes torture to wear. Costuming is an important part of a con. The weather in October is chancy at best, but this year was delightfully cool, allowing fen to wear an imposing array of the costumer's art.

Science fiction is a genre with many sub-genres. Some of these, like horror, are found in different parts of the book store. Others like fantasy, space opera, hard science fiction, alternate history, cyberpunk, steampunk and military SF are lumped in with the other parts of science fiction. It mostly depends on the management of the store or chain. But all of these can be taken under the mantle of SF.



Science fiction is not something new. Although Jules Verne is the father of modern SF, it goes back at least to the 17th century. During that time, Savien Cyrano de Bergerac (yes, the guy the play was written about) published his "Comic Story of the Countries of the Moon and Sun." If you're not familiar with the play, read it. There are some of the most romantic scenes ever written therein. The films based on the play are very well done and fairly faithful to the original by Rostand. However, there have been claims that science fiction goes all the way back to biblical times. When I was growing up, I read several articles that claimed that the "great wheel" seen by Ezekiel.

Fandom (another SF word) consists of a huge variety of people. There are science fiction clubs and authors all over the Americas, Europe and the Far East. In fact, each year, a world science fiction convention is held. More abut that in the parties section. While many fen are scientists and engineers, a multitude of other folk love the genre or part of it. There are teenagers, literature students, artists, clerks, accountants and policemen that I have met at cons. Fandom is also one of the most accepting, tolerant populations I have met. Almost any foible is acceptable at a con.

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The gentleman in this photo, by the way is running his computer from a solar cell.

The most common question I hear about science fiction conventions (cons is so much easier, but a little repetitive) is "What do you do there?" The answer to that is quite a bit. During the day, there are panel discussions ranging from weapons of the medieval warrior to surgery in space. Experts in writing and publishing talk about both writing and getting what you write published. Artists will talk about how they got into SF art or how they draw imaginary creatures. Astronomers can give lectures on how to make up realistic imaginary worlds or biologists might talk about what sort of aliens might exist. I even managed to give a few panels about my life with big cats.



In the evening, there is more programming, usually there is a continuous science fiction film show and the parties. Parties are an integral part of the con experience. Reasons for hosting parties can vary from the desire to get together with friends and others to a bid for a world science fiction convention (worldcon) location. You see, worldcons are held in a different city every year. There have been a number of repeat visits, to Los Angeles and to Denver, for examples. But the con itself moves each year. Attendees of the worldcon two years before vote on the location and the winner hosts the worldcon two years hence. Believe me, two years are the minimum required to organize a successful worldcon. It is usually the biggest SF con held in the year, hosting memberships from 3,000 to 10,000 in recent years. The parties are to convince fen that a particular locale is ideal for a worldcon. Since some delightful people love to throw parties, there are also fake worldcon bid parties for places like the moon or Mars.

The parties usually serve food typical of their areas and some serve beverages native to their areas. Especially notable among these was the successful Scotland bid party. Glasgow won hands down that year.

Last, but not least, many people ask about the "Trekkies". They are with us, along with fans of Dr. Who and other TV series. But Star Trek was the seminal science fiction television show and brought the medium to the attention of more people than anything until Harry Potter (there are Harry Potter fans too.)




Try Googling "Science Fiction Convention" and attend one in your area.

Arkansas State Fair part III

I see, by reviewing my older blogs on this subject, that I managed to duplicate some pictures. I'll try to get some more in this time, since my last attempt was truncated by schedule and slow upload times.






That's all for that. My next posting shall be about the science fiction convention sponsored by the St. Louis Science Fiction Society. The convention is named Archon and that will be part of the title.

Arkansas State Fair part II

Here are a couple more photos from the fair (as promised yesterday). Unfortunately, the connection is a little too slow for me to be able to post many more before leaving the house today. Perhaps later.



The kids on the rides were marvelous. Along with the very serious tots on the merry-go-round and the usual cheerful screaming as the rides did something that dropped stomachs, there was an informality in their attire that I enjoyed.



I got a kick out of the new teen style. All that extra material reminds me of the pictures of "zoot suits" that were in style before WWII. They went out of style quickly. I suspect it was due to the fact that a lot of young men were drafted or volunteered after Pearl Harbor and the shortage of cloth that came with the war effort.

Arkansas State Fair

It is Sunday evening. The Fair has almost drawn to a close. The livestock
has been taken home by the people showing it. The prizes have been awarded.

And the busy show schedule is over after nine days of hard work.

The fair continues until later tonight. Most of the vendors are doing plenty of business, selling food, junk, and all kinds of things from pots and pans, perfume to cattle panels.

There were the usual rides, carny games and other things like face painting.



There was a terrific tiger show. I love tigers and these were delightful, playful and awesome.


And of course I had a great time, finding pictures to put into this blog.






That seems to be all I can post right now. But I have many more and I will post them another time. I think I still have a con report for Archon 32 to post here as well.

First Days of Autumn

Leaves have begun to color --



and to fall on our garden.



Kids have started school. The temperature has been reasonable and the humidity low (for Arkansas). It's fall, folks. If where you life is anything like Little Rock, get out there now because our autumn usually lasts four days to two weeks. Maybe this year we'll get all four seasons for a change.



There are butterflies flitting around our pineapple sage and zinnnias.



and one, poor, confused wistaria bloomed last week. It's probably the ratio of day to night and the fact that things around here aren't used to having all four seasons. Maybe our crocus will begin to poke their noses out of the ground next.



You may notice that an enterprising bumble bee is buzzily visiting the blossoms.

We chopped the lorupetalum off our creek. It should have been a dwarf variety, but we planted the regular instead. The years we did not prune it back, it topped the roof. Alas, the blooms in spring were lovely. But we did want that space for some smaller flowers.

Sweating in the garden is a welcome break from politics, murder and football. Those are the only things on the minds of local news teams. Very sad. The fall flowers are beginning, but late summer bloomers aren't finished yet. Next month, I'm going to start planting pansies and violas.

Billions, Trillions, Zillions???

The recent news about the US government buying 80% of Lehman Brothers' Bank found me confused. The confusion stemmed, not from the buy out/bail out, but the number of dollars involved.




I have no trouble with thousands and can just about get my head around a million. After all, there are about 32 million seconds in a year and my heart beats an average of 39 million times in that time. Being trained as an engineer gave me a comfort zone with really large numbers, like the number of atoms in a "gram mole" of an element: 6.022 times ten raised to the 23rd power. A "gram mole" or mole is the atomic weight of an element in grams. That is more of a convenience when it comes to figuring out chemistry problems than a reality. Atoms are very small, too small to be seen through even the most powerful optical microscope. Scientists have to use an electron microscope to image atoms. Light is easy too. It travels about 186,000 miles per second. So in one tick of a stop watch, a ray of light will go (assuming you can get it to go around in a circle... it tends to go in a straight line) about seven times around the equator. By the way, light can travel a little less than 6 times ten to the twelfth power (trillion in the US; in Europe, a trillion is ten to the 18th).

Another by the way, there is more than one kind of second. There is the solar second, the one we use in our clocks. But some people in Europe decided that they needed a standard second based on the metric system, the System International (SI) second which is a little more than 99% of a solar second. Astronomers got into the act with the sidereal second. A sidereal second is more than 20 solar seconds. Go figure. I had to. But then I figured that we can't even use the same voltage as they do and there are three or four different kinds of plugs and outlets for electricity. Which one depends on which country you visit.

Very small things seem to make sense... to a point. A centimeter is about four tenths (0.4) of an inch. A millimeter is about four hundredths (0.04) of an inch. A mil is one thousandth of an inch when you're talking paint (my former specialty). When you get down to micrometers (0.001) meters, it gets a little harder. The nanometer is something I can't visualize. Wavelengths of light are measured in nanometers. A nanometer is smaller than an atom. I just can't get my head around that.

So when the media talk about 300 billion dollars a day for the war in Iraq or 400 billion dollars for this and that, my little brain seizes up and refuses to comprehend. When we're talking about something too small to see, there is no problem. But dollars? Not only can I see them and spend them, but when I'm lucky, I have a couple in my wallet. I guess someone like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet can understand a billion. They have several in their bank accounts. But to me, it doesn't make as much sense as the number of atoms in a mole.

Any good physics book will tell you all the prefixes (centi milli, kilo etcetera) in the metric system. You'll probably be able to find things like the mass of the Earth in kilograms or the average distance from the Earth to the moon. But for me, there is a vast difference between being able to spout those huge numbers and actually wrapping my mind around them.

Ocean reefs

In March of this year, it was announced that the World Bank had inaugurated the Year of the Reef. It is a partnership among governments, scientists and other associations. I think it fitting that this post discusses reefs and their current status... THREATENED!!!

I have no thrilling photos of ocean reefs to post with this essay. But I am adding some pictures taken of the Atlantic during my last trip to Scotland.



The health of all oceans is a major concern to the human race. Much of our food comes from them. Some economies are exclusively dependent on the sea. Ocean plants, mostly plankton generate a large part of the oxygen we breathe. To use an overused phrase, reefs are to oceans like the proverbial canary in a coal mine. The way they grow, or do not grow, is a major indicator of the state of water world wide.

At this time, it is estimated that a quarter of those reefs have been destroyed. The reef provides shelter and food for something in the neighborhood of a million different species. To put that number in perspective, it about a quarter of all forms of life in the sea. Many of these are important foods and much of the reef life provides income in the billions of dollars. Additionally, like the rain forest, there are species there which may provide us with life saving medicines. This is just now being investigated.

The major threats to reef life are careless fishing, fishing with explosives, over fishing, pollution, introduced exotic species, acidification of ocean waters and climate change. We humans can do something now to ameliorate the first four of these factors. Most of the acidification is caused by carbon dioxide uptake of sea water. It is theorized that the reduction of CO2 emissions can eliminate this threat. Climate change may or may not be a problem within the ability of the human race to solve. But seeing that corral has survived almost as long as any other life form, it may be the one we do not have to solve.



Corral reefs cover about 200,000 square miles of ocean floor. These amazing structures are built about a millimeter (about an eight of an inch) at a time by tiny animals called polyps. They reproduce a couple of times each year in the same manner as many clams and oysters. That is, the polyps release sperm and eggs into the sea water and some of them combine to form new polyps. These look like tiny jellyfish. They settle on the reef and begin the process of building their "houses" of calcium carbonate.





These photos are of a real jellyfish in an Atlantic harbor and of barnacles that cling to some of the tidal stones on the Scottish isle of Staffa.

It is mostly the developing nations in the Pacific and Caribbean which are the primary causes of bad fishing. Some of the rich nation's fishers use corral damaging drag nets and add to the damage. The sad thing about the developing nations is that the fishermen who kill the reef are destroying their only means of subsistence. We're talking about perhaps one hundred million people who are at risk due to their own ignorance. A few of these nations have begun to use their reefs as tourist attractions. While that helps, over viewing the reef can be as damaging to its environment as can overfishing.

It is essential that we begin speaking to our lawmakers and policy makers and diplomats about the severity of this problem. Polluting nations need to be educated, and in many cases, assisted in reducing the pollution they add to the sea. These nations are not only developing, but some of the richest, including the United States. While China pours raw sewage into their ocean, we dump tons of fertilizer and other agricultural chemicals into ours. Our friends in Europe and Latin America have the same problems.

Reducing pollution is costly. But the saving and reclamation of many of the materials that are dumped can be financially rewarding. What is needed is the political will to put out the initial cost. That can only be done if those in power are convinced they can do something about the problem without causing financial ruin to their countries.