CANDIDATES FOR SPACE TRAVEL

Day 147 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and here is a latest summary clip.

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Did life originate on Planet Earth?  A Stanford colleague, Ron Bracewell, postulated that if you travel at 10% the speed of light, it is conceivable that Earth has been visited many times.  He suggested that, say, 3 million years ago, some early ape was fertilized, leading to us.  They could be back in a million years to check on the good done, or damage.  Then, there is panspermia, the hypothesis that life happened just once by pure luck, and has been distributed throughout by space dust, asteroids, etc.  

Astronauts and cosmonauts have be traveling in space since Yuri Gargarin in 1961.  Only 536 people have been out there, with 12 walking on the Moon.  No one yet on Mars, although Elon Musk has said that Yusaku Maezawa will join him on a planned 2023-4 launch.

Homo sapiens, though, are ill-suited for space travel.  Here are 12 challenges.

Eight years ago Stephen Hawking speculated that we had to become proficient in space or face extinction.  However, it is entirely possible that we are not made for long-term space travel, unless the science fiction of worm holes can be solved.

Life on Planet Earth is precarious.  Here is one list of potential hazards threatening our longevity.

• Could a solar flare wipe out civilization?  
• Our Sun will in time expand and consume our planet.  However, we have another few billion years before that happens.  
• An asteroid killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.  This could happen again.  

• Star system WR 104 is close enough that a gamma ray burst could destroy our ozone layer and wipe us out.
• There are one or two supernova explosions in our Milky Way Galaxy every 100 years.  Betelgeuse, a red super giant is nearing the end of its life and is only around 500 light years away.  However, it has been calculated that an exploding star would need to be within 50 light years to cause serious problems.

• Now that we seemed to have dodged the nuclear bullet, a future world war featuring biological weapons remains a concern.  I'm reading The Sixth Extinction, a plot with possible man-made mass extinction.

So what Earth creatures are better suited?

• Tardigrades, known as water bears, are about 1 mm long and were sent into space.  Most survived, some even laid eggs, and the newly-hatched young were healthy.  They are found at 18,196 feet in the Himalayas, in Japanese hot springs and at the bottom of the ocean in Antarctica.  In the lab, radiation doesn't seem to affect them, heat up to 150 C was no problem and being frozen to almost absolute zero was fine.  They have been around for 500 million years and were reanimated after 120 years of storage in dry moss.

• Speaking of worm holes, Astro Worms, or Caenorhabditis elegans, a type of nematode, is also around 1 mm long, and can withstand 400,000 g's of gravity.  Human pilots lose consciousness at 5 g.  Found in soil, C. elegans lacks respiratory and circulatiory systems and brains, and eats bacteria.  Most are hermaphrodites, although a few are males.  This was the first multicellular organism to have its whole genome sequenced.  Scientists who have studied this worm have won many Nobel prizes.

But then, what would be the point of sending these creatures to other galaxies?  However, releasing AI robots could well be our legacy, for there is no reason why non-organic intelligence couldn't be our future, and we will have provided a key transition.

There has been absolutely no compelling proof that life exists anywhere else.  Perhaps humanity is the first and last hope of maintaining life in the Universe.  But space travel today is unnecessary, dangerous and expensive.  Some day for sure, for we could well be the only intelligent life in the Universe, and it would be a shame for all of this to end forever.

From the sublime to the sordid, the third witness, brought forth by Michael Avenatti (lawyer for Stormy Daniels), is Julie Swetnick, a victim of gang-rape of the type organized by Michael Kavanaugh.  He wasn't there when she suffered, but she observed him and friend, Mike, spike drinks for this purpose.  I'd be surprised if the judge did not withdraw before the full Senate has a chance to vote.  Then, the November 6 general election will determine the next Supreme Court justice.

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Typhoon Trami is now at 150 MPH and shows a path between Miyakojima and Naha.  Then, on to Japan, where she could still be a Category 1 over Tokyo..

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AMERICA'S GOT TALENT and DONALD TRUMP

Day 146 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and something close to wonderful has happened:  Bye Bye Vog.  For many months now, Honolulu has not had any volcanic fog, or sulfur dioxide, problem.  Emission of SO2 in metric tons/day:

• 1983 to 2008 --  2000  Puu Oo, emission from the site of the continuous eruption
• 2008 to April 2018:  5000  Summit of Kilauea Volcano, Halemaumau
• May-July 2018:  over 10,000  Lower Puna Eruption
• Since late August 2018:  under 1000  Pause or end of Lower Puna Eruption

Sure, there are major respiratory problems, especially if you live on the Big Island.  For me, BEFORE the May 3 eruption, there was sufficient vog in the air on occasion that I many times did not want to damage my lungs by golfing.  Interesting, but from May 3 when the Lower Puna Eruption occurred, even though the SO2 emission was at max, the winds NEVER brought this pollution to Honolulu.  The past couple of days, wind directions are such that there should have been haze.  Here, photos from my apartment during the intermittent pollution before May 3 and today:

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Today is flu shot day, but I nevertheless feel upbeat.  Thus, I'l merely gloss over the travails of Donald Trump, where he tweeted:

• Kavanaugh's second accuser was totally drunk.
• China started the trade war.
• Dire consequences for Iran.
• Thank you Kim Jong-un for your courage.
• Who knows what I'll do about Rosenstein.
• About Mueller's witch hunt (wait, he only did that 84 times a month ago).

Let's ignore the above for awhile.  Shin Lin, a card magician, won America's Got Talent.  Here, 20 minutes worth of his amazing talent.  I can't figure out how he does it, again and again and again.

My sentimental favorite was Michael Ketterer, who got Simon Cowell's golden buzzer.  What a life for a fabulous human.  You got to click on THIS.

Here is another must see, 13-year old Courtney Hadwin.  The reincarnation of Janis Joplin.  With The Struts.  They should immediately sign her up and go on tour.  She is from England and:

...has more than 36.7k followers on Twitter. In addition, she has over 215k followers on Instagram. Similarly, her Facebook page has more than 389.9k followers.

My absolute favorite this year, though, was Sophi Fatu, all of 5 years old.  She sang My Way, better than me and much cuter than Frank Sinatra.  Here she sings The Star Spangled Banner.  Her mother, Victoria, is an award-winning concert pianist and singer.  Visit her popularity page.

So let me end with the latest viral video, not from America's Got Talent, but from a professional soccer match.  7-year old Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja stunned the audience and world with her rendition of our National Anthem.  She is an Indonesian American actress.  Her singing debut was Carnegie Hall when she was 5-years old.  She speaks English, Indonesian and Mandarin.

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There are two ocean storms of consequence.  The potentially serious one is Super Typhoon Trami, now at 152 MPH...and strengthening.  Here are three projections:

Miyakojima and Naha are particularly in danger, then, eventually, Kagoshima and Miyazaki (wagyu beef).

Tropical Storm Rosa in the East Pacific will attain Category 2 strength, and head towards California, maybe Baja, but perhaps even further north:

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Schoolmate PEPPERMINTs Scuttle KAVANAUGH

Peppermint was supposed to be just another escape film for me.  It has now become the nexus for the future of Brett Kavanaugh and the Republican party.

My usual Sunday lunch, followed by a film or two.  Well, with Jennifer Garner as Riley North, a struggling mother/banker of a pre-teen and husband with a failing auto shop, I found the experience too intense for me to see a second movie.

I began with an ahi burger and prosecco at Merriman's:

An okay meal, but the ahi burger had no character and was a tad too thick.

Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave R-rated Peppermint a terrible 11%.  However, audiences bestowed an 80% score.  I don't ever remember seeing that kind of disparity.  Put me with the paying customers.  Sure, bloody, brutal, unmerciful...but warranted, for a vengeful mother should have no bounds for revenge.

Drug cartels have joined Russians and North Koreans as the preferred villains these days.  But viewers must get tired of one person killing a hundred, the norm for old-time Japanese samurai films.  Riley (that's Jennifer Garner, former wife of Ben Afleck, who was the struggling alcoholic in the family) gets trained in Thailand during her five-year absence after her daughter and husband get gunned down by that Latin mob.  But she returns as Peppermint, said to have been the favorite ice cream flavor (frankly, the movie should have been called Double Strawberry, which I thought was the actual treat) of her girl, and single-handedly disposes of the Garcia gang. Directed by Pierre Morel of the Liam Neeson Taken productions, and there were three of them, the first a decade ago, there is a lot of action similarity between the two films.

Will this become another Death Wish (1974, and four more with Charles Bronson, although Bruce Willis this year revived it)?  In week #3, Peppermint has earned more than the production cost.  She is allowed to escape from a guarded hospital bed at the end, so I guess that is one sign.  Another is that Jennifer Garner, who originally attained fame in 2001 with Bradley Cooper on ABC as an ass-kicking spy in Alias, seems well-suited for this genre.

In a mild Peppermint-type pay-back, Christine Blazey Ford, and now, Deborah Ramirez, extracted their revenge on Brett Kavanaugh and predatory men in general, like President Donald Trump.  Kavanaugh will escape alive, but is now, categorically, doomed, and will not become our 114th Supreme Court justice.

As hopeless now is the case for Judge Kavanaugh, a third accuser has surfaced:

Michael Avenatti

@MichaelAvenatti

I represent a woman with credible information regarding Judge Kavanaugh and Mark Judge (right). We will be demanding the opportunity to present testimony to the committee and will likewise be demanding that Judge and others be subpoenaed to testify. The nomination must be withdrawn.

1:33 PM - Sep 23, 2018

         
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The attorney began to post emails between himself and Mike Davis, the chief counsel for nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which Avenatti claimed that he has “significant evidence” of parties in Washington, DC, during the 1980s during which Kavanaugh, Judge, and others would “participate in the targeting of women with alcohol/drugs in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them.” He also tweeted about one of Kavanaugh’s yearbook entries and called for Judge to testify under oath to the judiciary panel.

Peppermints or Triple Strawberry?  Thursday could become a truly interesting conjunction of crucial events if that Senate Supreme Court justice hearing is held that day and President Trump personally meets with Rod Rosenstein and fires him.  The fallout will be takeovers of both the House and Senate on November 6 by Democrats.

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Trami could well attain super typhoon status in a day or two, and CNN reported that Taiwan could be threatened by 168 MPH winds on Thursday.  So did the Washington Post.  However, many models predict Typhoon Trami to cross the Ryukyus and head towards Japan:

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FAT IN MILK (AND WAGYU?) IS GOOD FOR YOU

Day 144 of the Lower Puna Eruption, and Kilauea Volcano remains quiet.  But not with tourists, as Hawaii Volcanoes National Park opened on Saturday.

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What was once healthy might not be so today, and vice versa.  I've reported on chocolates, alcohol, coffee and eggs and more.  However, fat in milk has mostly been bad, right?  Wrong.

But first, I love butter and cheeses.  I go out of my way to purchase half and a half milk.  Here are the fat contents:

• ghee:  100% (A clarified butter that can be stored, unrefrigerated, for 2 years!!!)
• butter:  69-90%
• cheeses:  40-60%
• yogurt:  3.3% (3.5% protein, 4.7% sugar, 0.1% omega-3/6, 0% fiber, 0% trans fat)
• milks

• half and a half (about same as sour cream):  10-18%
• condensed/evaporated:  7.5-15%
• raw:  3-5%
• whole:  3.25%
• 2%:  2%
• lowfat:  1.5-1.8%
• buttermilk:  1.5%
• skim:  0.1-0.5%

I know animal fat is not good for you, but I thrive on Japanese Wagyu Beef, which is saturated with a lot of fat.  So I checked into this and directly quote from a beef distributor:

According Nicholas Bakalar in Lancet, from a nine-year study of 136,384 people in 21 countries, total intake of two or more servings (a serving is 8 ounces of milk or yogurt, a teaspoon of butter or half-ounce of cheese) of full-fat dairy food was associated with a:

• 22% lower risk of heart disease
• 34% lower risk of stroke
• 23% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease

The study was conducted by Andrew Mente, Mahshid Dehghan and Victoria of McMaster University.  Further:

•  Research shows that the beef from long-fed Wagyu cattle naturally contains more Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, as well as more monounsaturated fatty acids (the good fat) than other beef. 
• According to research, the protein in Wagyu beef can help maintain muscle while burning fat as it increases oxygen intake, energy production, and metabolic rate. 

• Additionally, the increased Omegas 3 and 6 help transport and metabolize triglycerides and cholesterol.
•  Studies have shown that a higher monounsaturated fatty acid in the diet is associated with lower cardio vascular disease.

Is this like a cigarette company insisting that smoking is not all that bad for you, for many doctors smoke?  Here is another article, citing a range of American universities and the Journal of the American Heart Association:

RED WAGYU BEEF HAS THE LOWEST CHOLESTEROL OF ALMOST ANY KIND OF MEAT:

• Per 100 grams:
  Wagyu    – 10 mg
  Fish        – 28 mg
  Turkey    – 36 mg
  Chicken – 32 mg
  Buffalo   – 39 mg
  Rabbit   – 32 mg
  Venison – 45 mg

But American companies are sometimes known to exaggerate certain realities. So here is a study reported in a Korean scientific journal (and Hanwoo beef is the equivalent of Japanese wagyu):

• Wagyu beef has higher proportions of monounsaturated fatty acids, which lowers low-density lipoprotein while increasing high density lipoprotein
• Also, sometimes more than 60% intramuscular fat.
• In 2013, 86.5% of Japanese beef farmers fed less than 50 heads of cattle, thus attention was focused on quality.
• Article went into great detail on beef quality.

Even the American Association of Retired Persons touts the benefits of fat.  My posting a couple years ago of OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE LIVE LONGER THAN NORMAL PEOPLE!!! seems to be gaining credible support.

Enough for heavenly fat.  Next, I'll finish off my posting of yesterday, for there were additional NCAA football victories.   First my luau tailgate featured foie gras laulau, which was a waste of money, but the resultant oil poured on to the taro leaf concoction was fabulous, and, yes, those are my feet:

The game above showed the LSU Tigers beating Louisiana Tech, but the win was closer than expected.  Not really, then, a significant victory, as such.

A truly miracle victory was Stanford over Oregon.  In the third quarter with 4 min 39 sec left, the score was Oregon 24 - Stanford 7, when Jaylon Redds of Oregon made a touchdown:  score 30-7.  But a replay showed that ball was not quite over the goal line when the runner crossed out of bounds pass the pylon.  But Oregon had a few more plays from the 1-yard line.  They fumbled, but recovered, which you would have thought would have been a blessing for them.  However, they fumbled again, and Stanford returned it all the way back for a touchdown.  Towards the end with less than a minute left, the score had become Oregon 31 - Stanford 28.  

According to some official graphics, Oregon had a 98.7% chance of winning at this point.  Stanford had no timeouts, and instead of the Oregon quarterback taking a knee to end the game, they ran, and fumbled.  Somehow, Stanford recovered and Jet Toner, from Hawaii (Punahou), kicked a field goal to tie the game.  Stanford won in overtime.  No Hollywood script would pass any kind of reality test for a movie.  

The Hawaii-Duquesne game was a lesson in how to engineer a victory when everything goes wrong in the first quarter (three turnovers) and falling behind 14-0.  Hawaii won, anyway, 42-21.  Here, Cole McDonald running, but he passed for five touchdowns, and is #1 in the nation in this category.

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Typhoon Trami is a Category 3, will strengthen into a Category 4, and head for Okinawa, then up to Japan:

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