Questionable Church Signs #4 or, on the abuse of natural language

May 27, 2023

There’s so much good material on this two-sided sign that it’s hard to know where to begin.

Starting with the A side… Or is it the B side?

Jesus Saves From Hell

I have questions…

First question: Which bank did Jesus make a Faustian bargain with and what interest rate is he getting?

Second question: What is Jesus doing in Hell? I thought he was sitting at the right hand of God. Unless God is actually Satan, then it all makes sense. All except the suffering in the eternal flames of Hell part.

On the flip side…

Imagine my surprise when walking down Rundle Mall in Adelaide recently to see that as an unbeliever, I was included on this naughty list, along with witches, smokers, adulterers, gossipers, haters, LGBTIQ+ people, drunkards and various other awkwardly expressed nouns.

I didn’t immediately notice the incorrectly spelled “athiest“.

Other than all that, they clearly have me pegged. All except the “lukewarm” bit. As an atheist I take my lack of faith very seriously thank you very much!

I had a short chat (trying to hear myself above the triumphal music blaring out of the boom box) with the street preacher who was standing near the sign wearing a T-shirt saying “Jesus is Coming”. Was Jesus just breathing heavy?, I wondered as an aside, although not aloud. Phew!

I asked the street preacher: What makes you think any of this is true or that your holy book is right and no others (such as the Quran) are? He proceeded, in circular argument fashion, to refer to his holy book and what great things it says, and to comment that Islam is much younger than Christianity, as if that somehow makes it less likely to be true.

I suggested that everyone, even he, is an atheist. There are many gods both of us don’t believe in, such as Apollo, Poseidon, Vishnu, Zeuss. We’re all polyatheists! The street preacher doesn’t believe that Allah is the one true god, any more than I do. In this regard, the only difference between us, is that I believe in one less god, taking the count to zero instead of one.

In fact, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a “non-astrologer” or a “non-alchemist.”… Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.

Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation

As before, he referred to the multitude of great things in the Bible. After a little more time exchanging pleasantries, I said “bye” and he said “God bless you”. I didn’t realise I had sneezed. He seemed like a nice guy though. Just misguided.

We will all perish, including the street preacher. Repenting won’t help though.

In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

Posted in Atheism, Religion | Leave a Comment »

21 Mother’s Days

May 14, 2023

I do not especially like the idea that one day I shall be tapped on the shoulder and informed, not that the party is over but that it is most assuredly going on—only henceforth in my absence.

Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22

Today is the 21st Mother’s Day since Mum died.

She would have been 95 years old on her birthday in August this year.

As I’ve written elsewhere, she was a mother’s mother. Karen and I were talking today about that and something I wrote in that post about Nicholas, 2 years old at the time in 2002, playing in the front yard, running around a bit too close to the footpath and road:

Mum, having only just recovered from a major lower leg fracture, did her best to run after him, even before anyone else reacted. No thought for herself.

It’s also Dad’s birthday today. He was 89 when he died in 2020 and would have been 92 today.

They left the party too soon.

Time passes. The rest of us go on.

Posted in Dad, Mum | 1 Comment »

Ace meets ACE BASIC

May 6, 2023

Nic told me about a small Dr Who fan event in Adelaide on May 6th, so we attended it. It was too difficult for Karen to be there when sleeping between night shifts.

Sophie Aldred, who played Ace, the last companion of the last Doctor (played by Sylvester McCoy) in the old series, was the guest.

She reminisced about her time in the TARDIS, allowed photos to be taken with her, signed stuff for people. Down to earth and entertaining, her voice seems unchanged since those BBC TV days. Remembrance of the Daleks (an eminently watchable classic) and Survival (a classic in its own way, especially with respect to understanding more about Ace) were screened while rows of people single-filed out for photo-ops and autographs at various times during the day.

In the Q&A session, Sophie commented upon how she did as many of her own stunts as the producers would let her. She also related how John Nathan-Turner suggested that various costumes be taken home at the end of episodes when things were coming to an end in 1989, not being able to say directly what was coming. After having her “Ace jacket” at home for 30+ years, Sophie was able to bring it to the set when reprising her role in Power of the Doctor in 2022. The one in the photo below was made by a local fan’s Mum for the Adelaide event.

I was born 3 days after Dr Who first aired on 23rd November 1963, so grew up with all the Doctors. My vivid memories of Dr Who start with Patrick Troughton’s and Jon Pertwee’s Doctors. Before McCoy, my favourite Doctor was, and to a large extent always will be, Tom Baker’s. Visiting William Hartnell’s episodes again when I was older was necessary to really appreciate him. As for companions, there are too many good ones to choose between. Apart from Sara Jane and Ace, of course…

Karen and I started going out together in 1988, in the middle of the too-short tenure of McCoy and Aldred, so they were “our” Dr Who and companion.

In the early 90s I created the ACE Basic compiler for the Amiga. The ACE Programmer’s Reference Manual starts with:

What is ACE?

  • AmigaBASIC Compiler with Extras?
  • A Creative Environment?
  • A Compiler for Everyone?
  • A Cool Enterprise?
  • Automatic Computing Engine (ala Alan Turing)?
  • Dr Who’s last companion?

I related all this to Sophie at autograph time, along with the fact that Nic and I being there represented two generations of Dr Who fans. She seemed to enjoy hearing it all.

Contrary to a lot of my posts these days, there’s nothing particularly deep to say here, except that sometimes it’s just a Good Thing to look after yourself a little bit, have some fun, reminisce about simpler times when anything seemed possible, even spend a little money on “frivolous” things now and then.

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Killing Ducks for “Fun”

April 23, 2023

If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration.

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation

Killing a duck or any other animal can not be reasonably thought of as sport.

Some humans might think of it as fun, but that just amounts to overt sadism and absence of empathy.

What’s next: safaris with human targets?

Why is one OK but the other is not? Tradition? Voter demand? Culture?

Nothing justifies any of it. Simple as that.

A parliamentary inquiry into Victoria’s duck hunting season is underway.

During the 2022 season, 262,567 individuals were shot out of the sky in the name of “sport” and countless more were likely wounded and left to endure slow, painful deaths.

With the 2023 hunting season due to start on 26 April, let’s try to make sure this will be the last time war is waged on our wetlands. Join us in speaking up for ducks by making a submission to the inquiry.

PETA Australia

It’s not complicated. It’s not hard to understand.

Just make it stop!

I just had my say. Please consider doing so.

Our species seriously needs to grow up, for our sake, but mostly for the sake of every other species we terrorise, use, and abuse.

Posted in Veganism | Leave a Comment »

A Stunning Crime

April 21, 2023

There are calls for greater scrutiny of the pork industry after the ABC’s 7.30 program aired footage of pigs being stunned by carbon dioxide before slaughter.

ABC News, Mar 28

The footage was taken by Chris Delforce of the Farm Transparency Project.

This is not the first time footage has emerged showing the reality of carbon dioxide stunning for pigs at some Australian abattoirs. 

In 2014, Mr Delforce published the first footage ever seen from inside a CO2 stunner.

Dr Bidda Jones was the RSPCA’s chief scientist at the time.

“The concept for the Australian consumer should be that if they’re consuming an animal product, that animal has had a good life and a good death.”

“You don’t want to feel that animals are suffering every time they’re slaughtered,” she said.

“You cannot describe this as a good death.”

Stunned, ABC, Mar 27

The RSPCA Approved website has this to say:

When you see the RSPCA Approved certification on pork you can be confident that this product has come from a farm with a focus on welfare.

But as Dr Jones says:

“When you’re buying an RSPCA-approved product, that’s really applying to the rest of the life of the pig.

The RSPCA recommends a phasing out of carbon dioxide stunning and a move towards “a more humane alternative”, but Dr Jones says even its own accredited pork products can be stunned using the method.

“It’s up to the industry, who are making money from the rearing and growing and slaughtering of pigs, to address this.”

Stunned, ABC, Mar 27

The 7:30 Report interviewed a farmer who said that: “…the industry has a strong commitment to improving welfare standards for pigs and CO2 stunning is the most humane system available if implemented correctly”. He was not convinced that the footage was taken in Australian abattoirs in 2023 despite 7:30 verifying the location and timing. 

Meanwhile, the RSPCA has…

…reiterated its long-running calls for the Australian pig industry to progress alternative methods to carbon dioxide (CO2) stunning.

The call comes after footage was aired last night on ABC 7.30 of CO2 stunning, which, along with electrical stunning, is common practice across Australian abattoirs and the way most pigs (around 85% of those farmed in Australia) are stunned before slaughter.

“The RSPCA has long advocated for CO2 to be phased out and replaced with a humane alternative,” said RSPCA Australia Chief Science Officer Suzie Fowler.

In the meantime, implementing important measures such as CCTV monitoring in abattoirs,  better training in animal handling, and reducing pig stress immediately prior to stunning can help mitigate the risks.”

RSPCA, Mar 28

If we can have closed circuit TV monitoring on free range egg farms, why not on pig farms and in abattoirs?

The federal Greens have called for state and federal governments to require the installation of CCTV cameras in abattoirs and for more effort to be put into finding more humane solutions.

“For years, industry has led consumers to believe gassing is a humane way to kill pigs and that the pigs simply drift off painlessly into a never-ending sleep,” she said.

ABC News, Mar 28

What are they afraid we will see?

Australian Pork Limited chief executive Margo Andrae said the practice was legal and considered best practice by Australia’s pork industry and countries such as the United States.

ABC News article re: pork industry response, Mar 28

Does it necessarily follow from something “being legal”, that it is also ethical?

The Australian Meat Industry Council, a peak industry group said it did not comment on illegally obtained video because it was inherently biased, without context and used to push an agenda.

The Guardian, Mar 30

While not a perfect analogy, video taken by a whistleblower on a live sheep export ship shut down Australia’s summer live export trade and has contributed to the current government’s pledge to end live export, eventually, with support from the RSPCA and many in Australian society.

Surely, no matter how the footage was obtained, it exists.

Delforce commented on 7:30 that he accepted that he could be charged.

He says that “…the big supermarket chains also have an onus to ensure their supply chains are cruelty free”, since they know that animal welfare is “…increasingly important to their customers”, they “…have a responsibility to be open and honest about the … cruelty in their supply chains, so that people can make an informed choice between buying pork, ham and bacon products, knowing they’re funding such cruelty, or the great plant-based alternatives available.”

The Guardian, Mar 30

Dr Bidda Jones, now an animal welfare scientist with the Alliance for Animals, was quoted as saying:

“I’m very disappointed that [the industry’s] response is to essentially shoot the messenger,” she said.

“The problem here is not about how the footage was obtained. The problem is the lack of action to deal with the pain and suffering that pigs are subjected to through this process.”

ABC News article re: pork industry response, Mar 28

She hopes the footage prompts change in the industry.

Does it matter how good the life of a pig on a farm is, if the moments before its death are filled with terror?

To say nothing of the stress of transport from farm to abattoir.

Here’s a response of a slightly different sort from a farmer.

Lauren Mathers is a pastured pig farmer and Chair and Director of the Murray Plains Meat Cooperative, which is nearing completion of a small-scale abattoir in Barham, NSW to service local farmers. Mathers says, ‘I personally do not believe that gassing pigs is humane… This is one of the biggest reasons why small abattoirs are crucial.’

Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

Yet, all of this ignores the simple question, hiding in plain sight…

Why do any of it in the first place?

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.

Paul McCartney

For more detail…

This image shows pigs inside a CO2 stunning “gondola” in clear distress, fighting for air, in various stages of collapse.

The full 15 minute 7:30 Report story video can be viewed here and is guarded by a discretionary warning to the viewer.

Here is a much shorter but effective video (2 minutes) from Animals Australia.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

Albert Schweitzer

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It’s the little things that matter

February 26, 2023

The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.

(James A. Garfield)
Brown mouse walking on the ground

The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being?

(Jeremy Bentham 1789, in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation)

Recently, after hearing munching noises at night and finding chewed soap bars, we realised there were probably mice in the house.

A few years ago, I would have just bought regular mouse traps, and did exactly that several years ago. I still didn’t feel great about it even the last time, having appreciated mice most of my life. At least we never used anything truly horrible, like glue traps.

We talked about it and agreed that we’d try catch-and-release traps this time.

There were a few false alarms where the door of the trap had closed. They’re on a hair trigger, so quite sensitive to vibration. A couple of traps were “licked clean” of peanut butter bait, failing to catch whatever took the bait.

After almost a week, this morning I found a mouse in a trap that was reset last night.

Given that the door was closed, I donned gloves, picked up the trap, couldn’t tell any difference in weight, but could see something other than the red bait platform through the air holes on the trap door.

Opening the door a small crack confirmed something small and brown, but not moving. I thought it may be dead.

In any case, I left the house, took a short walk down to the park above the river, and opened the trap door close to the ground next to a tree.

Almost immediately, the small beastie ran out of the trap in a bouncing sort of way, pausing briefly to look in my direction. Then it hopped away over my shoe, as if it couldn’t believe its luck. Perhaps it was a species of hopping mouse, since it really was hopping, not running.

Prior to jumping out, it was huddled at the back of the trap. After leaving, only a few faecal pellets remained as evidence that someone had been there.

Watching the mouse escape, covering ground quickly, I felt that I had at least tried to do something good.

I was about to walk away when with an odd mixture of horror and fascination, I watched a large magpie rapidly swoop down and grab the mouse in its beak.

My first thought was that I had not done the good thing I had intended to do. My second thought was: “that’s nature in action”, followed by “hoping” that the magpie suffocated the mouse or broke its neck quickly. But there’s no guarantee of that…

No matter how I look at it, I contributed to the death of that mouse, even though I did not intend to. I built up false hope, if only briefly, before the predator had its way.

I was reminded again that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

A criticism that is often levelled at vegans is that even they cause the deaths of animals, such as rodents, for example during harvest. My response is usually to say that, of course that’s true (sometimes with more sarcasm than other times), but it’s different from intentionally farming animals for the sole purpose of consuming them.

So, which is better here? A quick death in a traditional mouse trap or a fighting chance to live in a catch-and-release trap?

Immediately after the event, I felt confused, but upon reflection, I would still choose the catch-and-release trap with the corresponding fighting chance to live, just with a better choice of release location. Indeed, I have opted for the catch-and-release approach, since more traps await. We will see what the next few days bring.

In the rose garden across the road from my workplace where I like to spend some lunch breaks doing recreational mathematics when the weather is nice, mice are often seen tentatively peeking from a bush or scurrying between bushes. Perhaps something like that nearby, but not too nearby, can be found for the next time a release is necessary.

Animals don’t understand our world, nor do they care about our notions of property. We may not want them in our house, but we should at least try to treat them with care if possible. After all, they’re mammals like us, and they feel, and just want to live, like us.

The “right” approach is not always clear. I’m trying to do my best, even if it isn’t always good enough.

EDIT: More than a month and various trap configurations later, another mouse entered a trap today. This time, the release location was near long, dense grass along the bank of the river a few minutes walk from our house. After placing the trap (“The Big Cheese”) on the ground and opening the door, it took awhile for the timid and probably very frightened mouse to exit. I had to tip it up and give it a gentle shake. The mouse scurried away quickly into the cover of the long grass. No matter how long it lives, at least it’s living on its own terms now.

Posted in Life Musings, Veganism | Leave a Comment »

A Mismatch made in Heaven: The Australian Catholic Church and Reproductive Health

December 10, 2022

“In sexual and reproductive health matters, the responsibility of Catholic health care is to give counsel which is both medically accurate and a witness to the teachings of Christ and his Church,” the code of ethics states.

In good faith (ABC News), referencing Catholic Health Australia’s Code of Ethical Standards
Free holding catholic rosary image

The 2021 census showed a continuing decline in the importance of religion in the Australian psyche, but as revealed by a recent (December 2022) ABC News story, once again we see that the Catholic Church still has more power in our modern world than we collectively think it should.

First our private schools, now our hospitals, and we all know about the institutional abuse of children by those in power in the Catholic Church.

Forget the overturning of Roe vs Wade in America. Catholic hospitals in Australia today can refuse an abortion (except if there is a “grave risk” to the mother’s life), a tubal ligation or even the replacement of an intra-uterine contraceptive device (IUD)!

One shocked doctor working in an Australian public Catholic hospital said:

[My supervisor] asked me to change the wording to say that we had supplied [the IUD] for acne, rather than birth control.

In good faith (ABC News)

At least in this case, people of good conscience were trying to work around the rules I suppose… But they should not have had to!

In another case, a clinician who…

…worked at that same public hospital told Background Briefing when they booked a patient having their third caesarean in for a tubal ligation, “All hell broke loose”.

“It was a big incident. I was taken to the Director’s office, told, ‘Did I realise this was not allowed in the hospital?’ And I was like, ‘Why is it not allowed? I’m not Catholic, the patient is not Catholic, why should it matter what I do?’”

In good faith (ABC News)

The ABC article goes on to quote a Catholic Health Australia official:

Catholic Health Australia, which represents the hospitals, said in a statement: “Most providers of public health and aged care will have services they do not provide … For our members, this includes the intentional termination of pregnancy. These limits are well known, given our members have been looking after the Australian community for more than 150 years.”

In good faith (ABC News)

But are these limits really “well known” and what about those services “they do not provide”? Shouldn’t that mean less funding for the private or public Catholic hospital in question? MSI, a national, independently accredited safe abortion, vasectomy and contraception provider thinks so.

For Bonney Corbin, head of policy at MSI Australia, the solution is clear: redirect some of the funding from the hospitals not providing these services to the places that are.

“It’s looking at every single region at where their capacity is, and then funding those smaller providers accordingly.”

In good faith (ABC News)

How did we find ourselves in a situation in which one of the most divisive and corrupt organisations on the planet has any control over reproductive rights in Australia?

The quote at the top of this post puts the emphasis upon the “teachings of Christ and his Church” and mentions “medical accuracy” (an awkward phrase) along the way, almost in submission to the teachings of Christ.

Anyway, isn’t the “and his Church” bit redundant? Are there teachings of the Church that go beyond those of Jesus? There are (it was a rhetorical question), for example The Catechism and Code of Ethical Standards referred to already. Would Jesus approve of such teachings or how hospitals declaring the name of the “one holy, catholic, and apostolic church” turn some patients away?

Here we see an example of Christopher Hitchens’ maxim that religion poisons everything. At least, it can, and currently appears to be doing so in the case of the Australian hospital system and reproductive health.

The need to resist the Church’s control over our lives still exists in the 21st century.

If you have any doubt about whether the Catholic Church is a force for good in the world, watch this debate in which Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry argue for the negative case. I recommend Fry’s and Hitch’s short orations starting around 48 mins 13 secs and 14 mins 56 secs, respectively. It will come as no surprise to learn that the negative side won.

In his oration, Hitch says the following, which has some relevance for the current post:

The original sin, so to say…the problem in the first place, is the belief on the part of this church, that it does possess a truth that we don’t have and it does have a God-given right, a warrant, a mandate of Heaven, to tell other people what to do, not just in their public, but in their private lives; and until that has changed, until that fantastic and sinister and non-founded claim is changed, these crimes will go on repeating themselves.

Christopher Hitchens, Intelligence Squared

We no longer have any need of a god to explain what is no longer mysterious. What believers will do now that their faith is optional and private and irrelevant is a matter for them. We should not care. As long as they make no further attempt to inculcate religion by any form of coercion.

Christopher Hitchens

Posted in Atheism, Religion, Secular Humansim | 1 Comment »

Astrology Ontology

October 22, 2022

Astronomy uses people to explain the stars.

Astrology uses the stars to “explain” people.

(Anon)
astronomical clock in prague czech republic
Photo by Dimitry Anikin on Pexels.com

Many amateur astronomers, myself included, have enjoyed Quasar Publishing’s annual Astronomy publication. Astronomy 2023 includes an article titled Astrology – the First Astronomers which at least in some forums, has generated some discussion.

The one page article talks a bit about the historical context of astrology as predating astronomy, its focus on the constellations that the Sun appears to pass through – the zodiacal constellations – due to the Earth’s annual trek around the Sun, and that the Earth’s slow wobble about its axis leads to the so-called precession of the equinoxes that has changed the zodiac’s constellation-occupying date ranges.

The article also talks about some well-known figures in the history of Science have practiced astrology including Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Ptolemy. As did Kepler, who also believed that there was some relationship between the platonic solids and planetary spacing. Today, we revere him for his Three Laws of Planetary Motion, investigations into optics, measuring the volume of wine barrels, and an early Science Fiction story (Somnium). He, like many early scientists, was on the cusp of the old and new ways. Think also of Newton, who was an alchemist. It’s easy for us to see the many ways in which they were in error now, given our historical perspective and educational good fortune.

The Astronomy 2023 authors comment on the aspect of the day of a person’s birth in relation to the Sun’s position at that time as used in “newspaper horoscopes”, and follow on with this:

Astrologers have clearly defined methods on how to create such charts, but the problem is the validity of their initial assumptions to start with. From a scientific basis, it has never been demonstrated how the arrangement of these distant bodies can influence individual’s characteristics.

So far, so good.

Earlier in the article we have this:

This article is not a criticism of astrology, but more spelling out the differences between astronomy and astrology.

That’s also fine as far as it goes. They continue with:

A bit like how science cannot be used to disprove God (whichever version) or in this case, astronomy disprove astrology.

It’s true. The existence of gods is not susceptible to proof or disproof. I’m not going to lose sleep over this or the infinity of other things we can’t prove or disprove. As an aside, the word prove shouldn’t be bandied around so much. The only things that can be proven are mathematical theorems. Science doesn’t prove things: it gathers more and more evidence in favour of a particular hypothesis or against some other.

The article follows on with:

They are just different. Astrology and religions are belief systems which are effectively non-falsifiable…this means there is no test known (or perhaps even possible?) that would disprove a concept. By religions, we include all the gods, including those that used to be worshiped by the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East cultures, responsible for the mythological figures immortalized in today’s constellations.

To be honest, by the time I had tossed around the content of the article, the initial knee-jerk reaction of “why the heck is there anything about astrology in Astronomy 2023?” had given way to: “how could the article be improved?”

My main feedback to the authors is that we need to be careful not to encourage the perception that all forms of knowledge are equal. Having an opinion isn’t enough, especially for things that matter in some important way. It’s okay to criticise ideas and systems of belief. More than that, we must criticise ideas because otherwise no progress can ever be made! Sometimes ridicule is also valid, in the case of truly toxic belief systems. Kinder, constructive criticism is better. Let’s face it: we’ve all had bad ideas.

The authors do make the point that belief of the astrological and religious kind are not falsifiable. They also mention that astrological assumptions and mechanisms are suspect.

Perhaps the case could have been made even more clearly by saying that systems of belief such as astrology and religion have no predictive or explanatory powers, whereas Scientific theories do, and further that the latter are open to question and revision. That’s not to say that Science is not a human process. There’s ego and politics aplenty. But the Method wins in the end.

I would also suggest that if all someone does when reading their daily horoscope is to have a laugh, then there’s nothing to worry about. If astrology or religion leads to important life decisions, then I think it is more than reasonable to apply a bit more scrutiny.

To prefer the hard facts over our dearest illusions, that is the core of Science. 

(Carl Sagan commenting upon Johannes Kepler)

Posted in Astronomy, Life Musings, Life Quotes, Science | Leave a Comment »

Waiting for Artemis 1…

August 29, 2022
source: nasa.gov

I’m currently watching NASA TV waiting for the launch of Artemis 1, the first test of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew capsule, albeit unmanned this time with “crash test dummies”, mannequins that will be used to measure forces and radiation, and the first mission to the Moon of its kind for 50 years, since Apollo 17 in 1972.

There was an unplanned hold at 40 minutes before launch due to an operating temperature problem in engine #3.

There are a couple of launch opportunities in early September if today’s launch is cancelled.

This is an important precursor test mission for Artemis 2, a crewed mission scheduled for 2024 that will orbit the Moon and return its astronauts to Earth, Apollo 8 style, before the first crewed landing mission, Artemis 3, in 2025, 53 years after Apollo 17 and 56 years after Apollo 11.

I must admit that life keeps me pre-occupied enough that I wasn’t thinking about this much again until recently. For someone who remembers being sent home from school, even as a 5 year old boy, to watch Apollo 11 on the family B&W TV along with the blurry pictures of Neil Armstrong on the ladder of the LEM, and as a lifelong fan of spaceflight, manned and robotic, the fact that Artemis (the twin of Apollo) is happening seems just a bit special.

NOTE: While writing this, the Artemis 1 launch was scrubbed for today. The next earliest possible launch date is September 2nd, pending the outcome of the analysis of test data from today’s engine problem. Here’s hoping!

EDIT: More than 2.5 months after I wrote this post (Aug 29 2022), Artemis 1 has finally launched!

Posted in Astronomy, Life Musings | Leave a Comment »

20 years since Mum died

August 16, 2022

August 17 2022 marks 20 years since my mother died.

My first inclination was to title this post 20 years since Mum’s passing. Even though I sometimes find myself using the word “passing” in this context, as an atheist, the word makes no sense to me here.

So, what’s changed in 20 years?

Everything and nothing.

And yes, I am aware that’s not a logically consistent statement…

Here’s a personal, random (that’s me in a nutshell) and partial list of things that have and have not changed:

  • A little over a year after we lost Mum, Karen and I had a daughter, Heather, who we dearly wish had known my mother.
  • The Kepler spacecraft has shown us that the universe is likely to be teeming with planets.
  • I still think Mum was the kindest, wisest, sanest of us all.
  • Some countries think war is still a fine idea. Sigh…
  • Our species is beginning to understand that consuming resources at the current rate is problematic. Note that’s not the same as doing something about it…
  • The world as a whole is still not taking climate change all that seriously.
  • I changed employers a few times.
  • The future of computing is still exciting and scary in equal measure. Technology is not value free.
  • I still think of Mum most days. I still miss her, and that’s how it should be.

Posted in Mum | 1 Comment »

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