Iowa. Corn belt. Hawkeyes. Butt of frequent jokes made my Minnesotans. One of the most boring states in the Union. And, tomorrow, the most important place in the country. Iowa holds it caucus tomorrow. I won’t get into my feelings for the caucus system, beyond it being rather outdated. But the comment on Iowa being the most important state in the country tomorrow is not far from the truth. Tomorrow Iowa voters will decide whom they want to support as the Presidential candidates for both major parties in the General Election next November. After Iowa, then New Hampshire, South Carolina, Super Tuesday…but it all starts with Iowa.
Tomorrow we will start to decide, as a nation, if we want to succumb to fear. Fear of losing something we don’t really have. Fear of our own past, and fear of our future. We can either put a person into power who will lead us all down the slippery slope into oblivion, or we can at least try, scrap, claw, and pull ourselves into a better tomorrow. Trump, Cruz, and at least half the others would destroy our country, and, worse, possibly the world. It’s game time, and the stakes could not be higher.
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My Dad just had his knee done. Like just a few days ago. It’s something LONG overdue, and hopefully the next few days of rehab will get him back on his feet. It is stunning the advancements that medicine has made the last couple of decades when it comes to reconstructing knees, hips, ACLs, MCLs, arms, shoulders, etc. We have sports to thank for much of it, of course.
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The week we are currently in is a somber one for NASA and students of space exploration history. On the 27th we marked the anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, in which Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Roger Chafee and Ed White were killed. On the 28th we saw the 30th anniversary of the Challenger Explosion. And tomorrow marks the anniversary of the 2003 break of Space Shuttle Columbia on re-entry. Space travel is never a risk-free endeavor. It is, however, a vital one. We must continue to push the envelope, to increase our boundaries and actually LEAVE the confines of our globe, with a goal to establish a permanent colony world or worlds off planet. If we don’t, then the sacrifices of these crews, and those who certainly will parish in the future, will be in vein.
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I am working to teach myself a little bit more about astrophotography. It is not as simple as taking your camera out in the dark, pointing it up, and snapping a picture. There are techniques with the camera itself that you need to learn before taking that picture. Settings, timings, angles, learning the sky itself. There is gear to help, of course you have to learn that. Then there is post-processing…the best way to get a picture of either deep space or planetary objects is to take numerous photos, then stack them with software to enhance the image. THAT is taking a little getting used to. Sooner or later I will get the hang of it.
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Next week is of course the OTHER big game. The Super Bowl. I guess the game will be played. Not really all that interested in it. But I’ll try to watch the half time show — Coldplay with a possibility of Beyonce sounds good to me.