I voted today in MN Primary.  Simple.  Efficient.  Last day to vote August 11.

Saturday, St. Paul, the final of three program related to Hiroshima & Nagasaki.  Details: HiroshimaNagasaki_2026-81vs

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Monday, my friend Kathy, who volunteers at a place that recycles stuff being discarded by homeowners who are downsizing or are deceased, gave me a rescued CD.  There are treasures  – “pearls without price – in junk, as we all know.  And the recent acquisition, which she gave me, was Bet Midler’s 1990 CD “Some People’s Lives”, within which, #7, is one of Bet’s favorites “From A Distance“, an anthem about the World as Family.  You can easily call it up on YouTube.  The  has long been a personal favorite.  I didn’t know it was on the CD.

The next evening, I watched episode 4 of the series on the history of man in Space “Once Upon A Time In Space: Friends Forever“ on the local PBS channel.  For me, it was a powerful commentary on times together and times apart between nations possessing or desiring to be first in space, on the moon, or whatever.  There are no words I can come up with to adequately summarize the power of the last segment (I had seen the other three episodes as well).

Wednesday, I listened to Bet’s CD in the car (my vintage 2010 Toyota only plays CDs), and when Cut 7, “From a Distance”, came up I was hooked again, and the viewing of the PBS program more than set the hook.  The song is the aspiration; the film a recitation of the reality….

Humans desire peace, but we seem to covet war and attract leaders who covet enemies to dominate or destroy.  It’s a very strange dichotomy.

If you have the inclination, listen to Bet’s rendition of From a Distance; and access the series on the space program (link above).  And if you want a little extra fix about Peace, watch the 1971 film on World Citizenship, Man’s Next Giant Leap”  produced by my friend Lynn Elling and sponsored by the United Nations Association, for use is schools.  It is 30 minutes, here.  Working for peace is a worthwhile aspiration.  Like anything good, it requires effort.

This is no time to be paralyzed into hopelessness.  If you have any aspirational goals for a Better World, it is time to get to work, and keep at it.

POSTNOTES

For your weekend, if you have not already seen these:

Darryl Pederson’s thoughts (August 1) on Nuclear are especially pertinent at this time in history.  Darryl’s thoughts are informed by his 40 year University professorship.

Back on June 10 was a post related to Drones.

July 1 I started a post on Satellites but for whatever reason never completed it.  If you’re interested, here were my starting thoughts:  Especially note Larry’s comment at the end.

SATELLITES…

Two recent and related events: a forward that showed the immense recent increase in the number of satellites orbiting the earth; the ascendance of Elon Musk into the rarefied atmosphere of Trillionaire. in substantial part attributed to his Star Link program.

I am one of the dwindling number of people who can honestly say they actually saw the twinkling Sputnik pass across the night sky in the fall of 1957.  That first satellite, which was in orbit only a relatively short time,  got an immense amount of attention, and I saw it in the night sky over my grandparents farm in south central North Dakota.  We knew about it because its path was printed in the newspaper so we knew where to look.  And the night it flew over was cloudless, and there was no interfering light as is so true today.

There has been an incredible increase in the number of satellites in orbit.  Here is the NASA visualization.  I have chosen this source because it is possibly more objective than some others.  At any rate, it seems fair to say, regardless of source, that currently there are probably more than 25,ooo satellites (including space junk) orbiting the earth.

A visualization of this makes outer space look crowded, and frightening.

Here’s my attempt to get this in a reasonable perspective, using readily available data.

20,000 satellites and space junk of significant size (estimate)

197,000,000 square miles – area of the earth 

of which

57,500,000 square miles is land (U.S. 3,500,000 sq miles)

8,300,000,000 world population (U.S. approximately 349,000,000)

So long as I’m listing data: one square mile has 640 acres; urban areas such as the one in which I live are typically divided into lots, which vary in size.  A one acre lot is fairly large, there is no standard typical number of lots per acre, but in urban areas it would probably generally be perhaps four lots to an acre.  My uncle’s farmstead was about 10 acres.

The satellites have multiple uses by multiple interests and there is no doubt that can be used for less than innocent reasons.  For just one example, communication via internet can be compromised.

At the same time, if you simply consider the density of space satellites, space is not crowded.  Given that the satellites may be orbiting 100 miles or more above the earth, the surface area which they occupy is infinitely greater than the land area of the world.

Then comes the dream of settling on Mars, for example.

It would take 6-9 months for a spacecraft to reach Mars, and then the prospective settler would have to protect themselves from multiple crucial problems.

Who would want to be the first explorer to settle on the moon, or on Mars?  Not I.

We recently watched a fascinating sci fi film on the general topic of actually going to where man has not gone before.  Check out Project Hail Mary.

…AND OTHER THINGS.

Looking at the visualization of satellites, one could easily get the mis-impression that outer space was crowded – what about traffic jams?  Collisions in space?

While anything is possible, the probability of such happening is infinitesimally small.  Indeed anything haas the capacity to do evil things, if in the hands of evil people.   But it is not wise to spend a lot of time worrying about something over which you have little or no control.  There is no such thing as privacy anymore.  Care should replace fear as a reaction.

I got to thinking about a piece of junk mail I got a long time ago – I didn’t keep it, but I’m sure it was well over ten years.  It was junk.  But there was something different about this one: It was machine addressed to my home address, and the front of the envelope had an aerial photograph of a neighborhood.  I looked more closely at the neighborhood, and sure enough it was exactly where we lived, our address in the middle of it.  Why it was done, I have no idea.  But it certainly was an experiment for someone using GPS technology.  It is an envelope I wish I had kept.

The matter of drones, about which I wrote recently is a similar matter.  The technology is incredible, and subject to abuse.  But I think it best to try to keep it in its proper perspective.  We will not get rid of drones, and even if we could it would not get rid of war…best we work to assure as much control over the use of the technology as we possibly can.

Finally, Artificial Intelligence (AI).  It’s the latest think and it has huge potential for good and for misuse.  It is being discussed at many levels.  I use a minor version of AI every day.  Usually when seeking information, including for this very blog – just asking a question about most anything provides information which at minimum helps lead me in the direction of credible information from a real source that I trust.

At the same time, there is reason to be suspect of AI generated propaganda, for instance political attack literature.  The only effective antidote for this is individual discretion.  If you see or hear something that doesn’t look quite right, it most likely isn’t accurate, on purpose.  If the source of the information isn’t verifiable, it’s not trustworthy.

COMMENT:  August 2: Larry posted his own thoughts on AI from personal experience:  “Just posted my lastest YouTube essay. This is on Artificial Intelligence, today’s big buzz term. I tell in three minutes 39 seconds how I use Gemini. Of special note – you may find the opening graphic interesting. Totally created in about two minutes by Gemini A-I. I just typed in a few thoughts about what I wanted. I plan to make more use of that free service. Here’s the link: Thoughts on A I“

Caveat Emptor is the old saw.  Let the buyer beware.