Category: Life on Earth (Page 14 of 23)

First of all, I’ve never been a big fan of eggplant, but I have a few variations of vegetable stew I like to make that eggplant is so right for. Sadly, here in Wyoming, most of the eggplant that finds its way into the produce departments of the grocery stores during winter has been frozen due to the long travel times from the distribution centers. A soggy, spongy, brown mess.

Eggplant isn’t the only vegetable that gets the deep freeze, it’s pretty much anything you find in the produce department. The other day I bought some fresh(?) basil to put in a stew, and by the time I had trimmed off the freeze damage, I had twice as much fodder for the compose pile as I did useable basil. Green peppers don’t take well to freezing temperatures either and are usually wrinkled and soggy. With all the waste, it would almost seem better to just close the produce departments from November to say, February in these parts.

I wish it were as simple as packing up and heading to places with less extreme winters, but at this time, it is not simple.

I’m on my way to the grocery store for veggies in a little bit. Wish me luck.

Forget about the threat that mankind poses to the Earth: our activities may be shortening the life of the universe too.

I subscribe to the Schwartz Report which is produced daily by Stephen A. Schwartz and he never fails to post articles that are of interest. In the November 26, 2007 report, he includes an article from the telegraph.co.uk called, Mankind ‘shortening the universe’s life.’

In the article they talk about how cosmologists are applying quantum physics – the theory of what happens at the subatomic level – to the universe in an attempt to better under it. Quantum theory suggests that we, simply by observing an event, can affect the outcome of that event; in this case the universe, which has brought up a troubling thought for researchers.

New Scientist reports a worrying new variant as the cosmologists claim that astronomers may have accidentally nudged the universe closer to its death by observing dark energy, a mysterious anti gravity force which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.

The damaging allegations are made by Profs Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and James Dent of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, who suggest that by making this observation [of dark matter] in 1998 we may have caused the cosmos to revert to an earlier state when it was more likely to end. “Incredible as it seems, our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life-expectancy of the universe,” Prof Krauss tells New Scientist.

Although I’m convinced that our choices, thoughts and actions have an effect on everything and everyone around us – and on the universe – I am not convinced that the life span of physical-matter reality is determined by time, but by a destination or goal. In other words, when we (we being the entirety of existence) have gleaned as much as we can from this experiment, it will end and another different experiment will begin. Time has nothing to do with it.

For many this is the stuff headaches are made of. Take heart though, I have it on good authority that regardless of whether they are right or not, we all survive no worse for the wear. As Seth told one of Jane Robert’s ESP classes, “you are as dead now as you will ever be.”

Here in the US, today is Thanksgiving and I would like to thank all those wonderful people out there that visit my blog and make it such a wonderful experience. We all have so much to be thankful for.

My friend, Frank DeMarco, has a short, but wonderful post on Thanks-giving that I think you will like.