Earth's Seeds Of Life
For some time there has been much speculation about how life originated on Earth. A paper given last week at a prominent astrophysics and space symposium revealed that research on samples collected by the International Space Station showed where what are called “the seeds of life” came from. Scientists have pondered for years about whether the compounds that make up our DNA were synthesized by lightening strikes on what they call an oceanic “primordial soup” (why they call it soup, I don’t know-it probably tasted very bad) or perhaps organic compounds or virus-like materials were able to ride here and survive on meteorites. Now both theories have been proven wrong. The space station samples showed conclusively that the chemical precursors of our DNA and life- yeah, that includes you- originally came from waste that would be analogous to human urine that was dumped as aliens cleaned out their space ships into space and our upper atmosphere, just like trains used to do along the rails, as they visited planet Earth many millions of years ago,. I guess the aliens had never heard of Earth Day and if you look at our Earth now, you can plainly see that improper disposal of litter and intergalactic waste can lead to a lot of environmental damage.
©2009 Eric Stamets
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
San Diego To Take Julian Water
San Diego To Take Julian Water
There are a lot of reservoirs in the San Diego County back country such as Cuyamaca Lake and Lake Henshaw that store water for water companies in the metropolitan areas, but the water situation for the urban areas will get more desperate this summer with the cutback in supplies from the Metropolitan Water District. The reservoirs rely on natural streams and the accompanying water loss in the transport to the lower lying cities makes them inefficient. Also those waters don’t directly benefit the city of San Diego because they belong to other water districts. Reports show that the replenishment of groundwater from this season’s storms has been ample. Only 5% of the county’s residents get their water from groundwater whereas the average for the state is 30% and that doesn’t seem fair to the city of San Diego (the numbers just don’t lie). Because they have lost so much of their allotment from northern California and will have to start rationing water from their canteen onto San Diegans’ dry parched lips and in the interest of public safety and reliability, the city of San Diego will be creating an innovative pipeline to snake through Ramona to Julian (the northern line) plus another southern line to tap into all the public and private wells along the way. All this so that a condo’s automatic sprinklers can overwater its shrubs and lawns in a rainstorm. They won’t take it all- they will leave us a little. Imagine the outrage that will follow when this happens, but the hundreds of thousands of teeming masses in the city will have their way because they have their votes and have said “See if you can stop us.” Private property rights of the affected back country residents won’t be worth spit plus they won’t have the water to hawk it up. For those who say this will happen over their dead body, the city is willing to oblige. Of course the city has no plans as of yet to actually kill anyone, but the residents of the back country are aging and so if a property owner is particularly recalcitrant, the city will simply wait for them to die before swooping in with their connection. The city’s desperation for water will reach a fevered pitch as many of the 650,000 new houses are built, enabled by the Sunrise Powerlink which will be built in the interest of public safety and reliability. San Diego is also desperate to have the new houses built because it will increase the tax base and help San Diego’s budget problem, solve the construction workers’ unemployment problem, keep houses affordable if they build too many of them and make the developers happy because there is still some land left without houses and strip malls on them.
©2009 Eric Stamets
There are a lot of reservoirs in the San Diego County back country such as Cuyamaca Lake and Lake Henshaw that store water for water companies in the metropolitan areas, but the water situation for the urban areas will get more desperate this summer with the cutback in supplies from the Metropolitan Water District. The reservoirs rely on natural streams and the accompanying water loss in the transport to the lower lying cities makes them inefficient. Also those waters don’t directly benefit the city of San Diego because they belong to other water districts. Reports show that the replenishment of groundwater from this season’s storms has been ample. Only 5% of the county’s residents get their water from groundwater whereas the average for the state is 30% and that doesn’t seem fair to the city of San Diego (the numbers just don’t lie). Because they have lost so much of their allotment from northern California and will have to start rationing water from their canteen onto San Diegans’ dry parched lips and in the interest of public safety and reliability, the city of San Diego will be creating an innovative pipeline to snake through Ramona to Julian (the northern line) plus another southern line to tap into all the public and private wells along the way. All this so that a condo’s automatic sprinklers can overwater its shrubs and lawns in a rainstorm. They won’t take it all- they will leave us a little. Imagine the outrage that will follow when this happens, but the hundreds of thousands of teeming masses in the city will have their way because they have their votes and have said “See if you can stop us.” Private property rights of the affected back country residents won’t be worth spit plus they won’t have the water to hawk it up. For those who say this will happen over their dead body, the city is willing to oblige. Of course the city has no plans as of yet to actually kill anyone, but the residents of the back country are aging and so if a property owner is particularly recalcitrant, the city will simply wait for them to die before swooping in with their connection. The city’s desperation for water will reach a fevered pitch as many of the 650,000 new houses are built, enabled by the Sunrise Powerlink which will be built in the interest of public safety and reliability. San Diego is also desperate to have the new houses built because it will increase the tax base and help San Diego’s budget problem, solve the construction workers’ unemployment problem, keep houses affordable if they build too many of them and make the developers happy because there is still some land left without houses and strip malls on them.
©2009 Eric Stamets
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Questions and Answers 2
Questions and Answers
Every so often we accumulate a few questions from readers about some previous articles that certainly need to be answered in a straight forward manner.
Q. I looked for the new Harley dealer mentioned in your article, but can’t seem to find it. Where is it?
A. As I’ve told quite a few people, you need to examine just which store moved into a larger location recently. Don’t let the giftware, jewelry and pictures on the wall put you off- that’s just a front. However, if you ask where the Harley’s are, you will only get a blank stare and I will get an angry tirade. You need to find a Harley rider that will show you the secret hand signal (do not use a secret hand signal shown to you by a motorcycle gang member). When you go into the correct store and flash the secret hand signal, you will be immediately whisked off to the back room to see all the new Harleys and can dream of looking good on the road to your heart’s content.
Q. What happened to the claim of financial damages last April made by Brickeville, Pennsylvania against Julian for stealing their daffodils?
A. Well it turned out to be just an embarrassing mistake. Even adjusting for the unseasonably cold winter they experienced last winter, they had never seen their daffodils emerge so late in the season and were alarmed when nothing showed up in a reasonable time. If you want to see daffodils in bloom in June, visit Brickeville. We received an apology and a bag of bulbs. They have blamed the whole misunderstanding on global cooling.
Q. I can’t help but wondering, are you on drugs?
A. Yes. I was off the prescription for a while but am now back on, although at a lower dosage. Maybe that will help.
©2009 Eric Stamets
Every so often we accumulate a few questions from readers about some previous articles that certainly need to be answered in a straight forward manner.
Q. I looked for the new Harley dealer mentioned in your article, but can’t seem to find it. Where is it?
A. As I’ve told quite a few people, you need to examine just which store moved into a larger location recently. Don’t let the giftware, jewelry and pictures on the wall put you off- that’s just a front. However, if you ask where the Harley’s are, you will only get a blank stare and I will get an angry tirade. You need to find a Harley rider that will show you the secret hand signal (do not use a secret hand signal shown to you by a motorcycle gang member). When you go into the correct store and flash the secret hand signal, you will be immediately whisked off to the back room to see all the new Harleys and can dream of looking good on the road to your heart’s content.
Q. What happened to the claim of financial damages last April made by Brickeville, Pennsylvania against Julian for stealing their daffodils?
A. Well it turned out to be just an embarrassing mistake. Even adjusting for the unseasonably cold winter they experienced last winter, they had never seen their daffodils emerge so late in the season and were alarmed when nothing showed up in a reasonable time. If you want to see daffodils in bloom in June, visit Brickeville. We received an apology and a bag of bulbs. They have blamed the whole misunderstanding on global cooling.
Q. I can’t help but wondering, are you on drugs?
A. Yes. I was off the prescription for a while but am now back on, although at a lower dosage. Maybe that will help.
©2009 Eric Stamets
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Wild Turkeys Hold Pine Hills Resident Hostage For 6 Hours
Wild Turkeys Hold Pine Hills Resident Hostage For 6 Hours
A local resident of Pine Hills was held captive in her house for 6 hours last week. The resident had to go into town on some errands on Wednesday, but as she exited the house to go to her car, she realized that a flock of at least 150 wild turkeys had descended on her yard and formed a formidable barrier between her and her car. One of the turkey toms took such a shine to her she could hardly see her car, but others pushed and pecked at her and she was forced to retreat to the safety of her house. Some had flown up on her roof and accidentally landed on the wire for her land line and disconnected it and she had to wait for her cell phone to recharge before she could call for help. She got some consolation for her predicament in that she made a wonderful turkey sandwich on sourdough with Swiss cheese and avocado while she was waiting. The sheriff arrived after she was able place her call for help and dispersed the turkeys. She found out that a desperate email that she had sent to a neighbor for quick assistance was finally read three days after the altercation. The Sheriff’s Department is now trying to decide if they want to lure the turkeys into the townsite at night to assist the donkeys in patrolling town while the sheriff’s deputies are off duty.
©2008 Eric Stamets
A local resident of Pine Hills was held captive in her house for 6 hours last week. The resident had to go into town on some errands on Wednesday, but as she exited the house to go to her car, she realized that a flock of at least 150 wild turkeys had descended on her yard and formed a formidable barrier between her and her car. One of the turkey toms took such a shine to her she could hardly see her car, but others pushed and pecked at her and she was forced to retreat to the safety of her house. Some had flown up on her roof and accidentally landed on the wire for her land line and disconnected it and she had to wait for her cell phone to recharge before she could call for help. She got some consolation for her predicament in that she made a wonderful turkey sandwich on sourdough with Swiss cheese and avocado while she was waiting. The sheriff arrived after she was able place her call for help and dispersed the turkeys. She found out that a desperate email that she had sent to a neighbor for quick assistance was finally read three days after the altercation. The Sheriff’s Department is now trying to decide if they want to lure the turkeys into the townsite at night to assist the donkeys in patrolling town while the sheriff’s deputies are off duty.
©2008 Eric Stamets