FROM SPUTNIK to APPLE SKINS
Monday, July 12, 2021
How we see issues is a matter of perspective.
And our atmosphere is 4% carbon dioxide, without which no plant or animal could survive. We talk about the environment, climate change and weather interchangeably, even though those aren’t interchangeable realities.
We need experts to help us understand, to bring perspective, and to change ours.
Case in point:
I couldn’t help it yesterday – but to recall watching Sputnik fly overhead from our backyard, watching Shepard and Glenn go into space, play-by-play by Walter Cronkite …
Well, yesterday was another milestone in my space education, as I was watching TV coverage of the Richard Branson ‘almost go into space’ flight yesterday – launching a new race, the space tourism race …
Neil deGrasse Tyson described how things fly, rockets rolling and flying sideways downrange v. space plane behaviour at high altitude. Fascinating information, and he’s very skilled at explaining scientific concepts to ordinary people.
We talked about the flight, how the Branson/Virgin flight by space-plane differs from the Bezos/Blue Horizon launch coming up in a couple of weeks.
His explanations were enlightening; it happened fast but with little apparent fuss – not a rocket launch countdown with flame and smoke billing, but simply a plane taking off and returning to the same runway at Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Yes, that’s their headquarters.
Then he surprised me, gave me a new perspective when he described it this way: “The atmosphere is to the earth, as the skin is to an apple.”
He said what?
I looked this up:
- Earth’s diameter – 12,742 km / 7,917
- Earth’s atmosphere – 480 km / 300 miles (most of its density and air we breathe is within 17km/10 miles of the surface)
The skin of the apple? Indeed.
Our planet is vast unless you compare us to the larger planets, and then we are small.
And our atmosphere is massive unless you compare it to the skin of an apple, and your perspective changes – and with new information – truth has consequences.
My space and atmosphere knowledge grew.
My perspective changed a good deal more …
Reader feedback:
They say you meet your Soul Mate when you’re not looking and most people, have already met that soul mate but they have their blinders on and can't see it. But there is a trick to that. Most people look at the surface first, then what's beneath. I think people need to look what's inside first. Who cares what the cover looks like if the insides are damaged. I have a joke that I share with people. Some get it, most don't. But one thing is certain, when you are your authentic self, going about your business, your soul mate appears. It's a known fact. Mark you most likely have met your soul mate in your business, your social group. But you weren't ready. Maybe you are now. So sit and ponder this. Who in your sphere of people, who are single, do you most identify with on all levels. If you find your answer then you will know you have already met her, your Soul Mate. So now it's time to go for coffee, for dinner and make it happen.
You are your destiny. Jump in with both feet, MJ, Calgary, AB