Autumnal Wisdom: Time to Call on Ancestors for Help

AUTUMNAL WISDOM: TIME TO CALL ON ANCESTORS FOR HELP

November (Writing) Storms Wakeup Call for Humans to Gird Our Loins Before Things get Messy

It’s that time of year again. In Europe they light bonfires, set off fireworks, summon agricultural roots. It’s pre-Celtic Samhainn, after all, start of the ancient year. In Scotland children go ‘guising’ dressed like leftover scarecrows with neep lanterns and songs to sing. This converts in America to ‘trick or treating’—slightly more scary as most houses kids visit give them candy treats—by the bushel—but no fireworks. Ancestors on both continents are on standby—listening raptly—speaking in our dreams.

“Cranking up the temperature of the entire globe by around 1.2ºC on average within little more than a century is extraordinary, with the oceans alone absorbing the heat equivalent of five Hiroshima atomic bombs dropping into the water every second.” Unprecedented temperature rise in world temperature in just 100 years—since the car replaced the horse and cart—can’t go on.” Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist Texas Tech U; also chief scientist at Nature Conservancy.

Stage props for Climate Leaders: photos clockwise from top l. Colosseum in Ancient Rome; arrival via climate-controlled Airbus British PM Boris Johnson & wife Carrie cut travel costs; Romans sacrificed goose in lieu of (New World) turkey to go with their fermented grape sauce over hypocaust-heated parsnip (ketchup & fries)—pun intended—remembering the poor pedestrian Roman never knew New World pleasures of potatoes, tomatoes, had to make do with homegrown olives, peaches, Persian pomegranates) sinister-dexter-sinister-dexter #chattinLatin; PM Boris uses 2100-year-old stage to demonstrate his (lack of) historical memory as he prepared to speak up for (bottom left) endangered capercaillie aka black grouse removal from Cairngorms and Highland glens

G20 Summit Leaders Save Fuel on Travel Rome to Glasgow for COP26 Summit

Private jet used by Britain’s prime minister top rt. is an Airbus chartered from Titan Airways, producing less than half C02 emissions of RAF Voyager that PM sometimes uses for foreign travel. Round trip charter London Heathrow to Rome, to Glasgow Prestwick, return to London “cheaper than rail”, more efficient, given PM’s heavy schedule.

“One of the most carbon-efficient planes of its size in the world, producing 50% fewer C02 emissions than larger RAF Voyager sometimes used by PM. It runs on ‘special mix’ of 35% sustainable aviation fuel mixed with 65% ‘normal’ fuel—the maximum allowed. Prime Minister will off course offset all emissions.”

Downing St. British parliamentary spokesman

Throwing a coin into Rome's Trevi fountain ensures good fortune—and secret assignation to return with the same companions—Mutti knows this—don't think the others do! l.-rt. Boris Johnson, MP, M Emmanuel Macron of France, Italian host Mario Draghi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel G20 2021 Summit

Most of the world’s government leaders have been getting together in unprecedented intensity over last week. European leaders hosted their international counterparts in Rome end October; with a follow-up exceedingly more crucial rendezvous in Glasgow in Scotland’s west industrial belt for COP26 first week November 2021. Prime ministers, premiers, princes and presidents posed for photo calls, using world media as a means to get their combined message across: reduce world temperature rise to 1.2ºC/1.8ºF.

Hate to say, but some of the hi-five elbow bumping goings on between political ‘buddies’ on the climate leadership circuit are huge reminder of #cool-hip-gangsta ‘Turkey!’—stage-version:element of surprise usually part of the embrace. Turkey, left above, isn’t: he’s Scotland’s emblem of grousemoors, a black grouse male displaying red eyebrows and chortling love-call.

Hallowe’en a Broken Dream, November Remember Virtual Turkeys Yet to Come

World leaders—political, business, charitable and entertainment heads—get to speak during first week of the United Nations Glasgow conference with bureaucratic follow-up after they leave. November in West of Scotland is pretty basic. Icy Cold. Where the city’s homeless may be sheltering under the airport overpass, HRH Prince Charles, Jeff Bezos, President Biden and Frau Merkel will stay cozy in their upper-storey overheated hotel suites. HM the Queen, most sensibly, addressed the throng by video.

Perhaps of all the great-&-good worldwide who choose this time to gather together and share a single commitment—with the eyes of the world upon them—HM the Queen may be closest to keeping her word. Not one year of her life has gone by without her planting a tree or unveiling a naturalized parkland. Her royal estates are dedicated to natural growth and management. Crown lands include 135,000 acre Duchy of Cornwall—Duketh Kernow—run using ancestral ways. Following on from Malta’s Commonwealth QCC initiative in 2015, she’s proudly touting her Platinum Jubilee Queen’s Green Canopy for 2022.

And she’s 95. Rôle model par excellence. God Save the Queen. She chats with the Ancestors all the time.

It’s been said Virtual Reality acts as a substitute for real life in the many worlds inhabited by our younger generations: the so-called post-Boomer years occupied by iGens, GenXs, Millennials and now Meta-gens ❤

If all the world around is virtual—as some families have experienced in these last two tumultuous years—there may be an answer: WRITE IT DOWN!

Amid the Frivolity, Spare a Thought for NaNo Writing Marathoners

Daily journaling has been known for decades to be a self-healing mind-releasing blow-by-blow therapy. By writing each day—thoughts, feelings, encounters or just personal epiphanies—our mind-body dualistic strangers come together: communicate: and we writers feel better for it.

That’s NOT to say everyone has it in them to be a NaNoWriMo marathon junkie: writing as many words per day for 30 days as their physical body (+refrgerator pre-cooked stored camp-out food) will allow. I know. I’ve done it. But not everyone can be a runner. Sometimes it’s good just to walk. Day by day, with a little journaling to cap off the evening. p.s. blogging does this well.

After all, patron of writers, large & small, famous or insecure, Egyptian god Thoth, the Ibis-headed scribe who writes down all our deeds both good and bad and weighs them to see if we can enter the Afterlife—he is probably our best ally-Ancestor.

Writerly advice: if you ‘got’ it, enjoy it. Set off virtual fireworks in the brain: who’s to say the Ancestors aren’t enjoying the show. ©2021 Marian Youngblood

Sparrow in a Leopard’s World—SpaceHab Man who Lived many [Earth]Lives

SPARROW IN A LEOPARD’S WORLD—Bob Citron was a Giant under the Sheepskin Rug
No Wolf-in-Sheep’s Clothing, He Changed Space Travel Forever

Leopard from triclinium floor, preserved after Vesuvius eruption A.D.79

Buckminster Fuller said: I live on Earth at present and I don’t know what I am.   I do know that I am not a category, I am not a thing—a noun. I seem to be a verb. An evolutionary process—an integral function of the Universe.

Carl Sagan: The Universe is within us. We are capable of so much more than we allow.

Bride put her finger in the River
On the Feast Day of Bride
And away went the hatching Mother of the Cold. — Carmina Gadelica

February 2nd—sacred to pre-Celtic goddess Bride—Candlemas, Americans’ Groundhog Day celebrates Return-of-the-Light as Winter loses her grip. A cross-quarter day six weeks after Solstice, six weeks before Spring Equinox, the Spirit of Earth growth begins. In Scotland they hear first wrens building nests. Groundhog goes back to sleep for six weeks if the sun shines.

The Candlemas season—five days from end January thru first week of February—holds significance not just for our pagan brothers & sisters, but for the Space world—a date when fourteen astronauts, space engineers, orbiting teachers and NASA veterans died.

It is also the time when SpaceHab designer and astro traveler Robert A. Citron, rt. below, took his own rocket ship to the stars.

Man in SpaceHab suit, dinner jacket or archaeological welly boots, Citron sponsored Gerald Hawkins & Aubrey Burl, Argyll EEI expedition, 1974.

After a lifetime of adventure travel on Earth and vicariously in Space, Bob died at home in Bellevue, WA the same year Space Shuttle Endeavour, below left, made its final iconic parade through the streets of downtown Los Angeles. He must have known. Bob had “an intense desire for opening the Space Frontier to humans”, according to former senior advisor to NASA for Commercial Space, Charles Miller. He is survived by his third wife—an author—& children/grandchildren

Space Agencies hold annually January 31st as a multiple Day of Remembrance for the many fatal orbit/re-entry disasters in their Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. Shuttle Endeavour flew over Golden Gate bridge, San Francisco on its way to a home town parade LAX-to-Edwards Air Base 2017

Hawkins, rt. and Burl l. assess Kilmartin Glen stone alignment Argyll, EEI expedition 1974, photo GSHull

With Virgin Galactic‘s planning a launch date in two weeks’ time—February 13th 2021—for its next spaceflight, all eyes are on the skies—well, in places like Edwards’ Airforce Base, Kennedy Space Center, Smithsonian and the International Space Station, that is.

Apollo’s command module—susceptible to the flash fire that swept through Apollo-1 in January 1967—is decades later seen by the Space Agency as a ‘rare opportunity to rebuild with inspired help.’ NASA recalls the Apollo-1 incident every January in an annual Day of Remembrance. It also honors Space Shuttle Challenger, (1986) and Columbia (2003) crews, whose death date was also January. 31st.

Man’s First Footprints on the Moon—1969

On the 50th anniversary of the (1967) deaths of the first Apollo mission crew in January 2017, NASA unveiled a new exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center showing the hatches of the damaged command module’s SpaceHab compartment. NASA continues to hold a Day of Remembrance every January to mark the tragic event.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin sets up solar wind sail experiment on lunar surface July 1969, photo Neil Armstrong, whose first moondust footprints are visible, right.

2017, on fiftieth anniversary of death of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee, NASA honored them. Day of Remembrance now held annually on last day of January.

Space Shuttle Endeavour’s 2017 aerial flypast Griffith Observatory, as NASA’s baby comes home to roost, following a ceremonial honor parade through streets of downtown L.A.

The Apollo program changed forever January 27, 1967, when a flash fire swept through the Apollo-1 command module during a launch rehearsal test at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Despite ground crew’s best efforts, the three men inside—breathing pure enriched oxygen—died. It would take more than 18 months of delay and extensive redesign before NASA sent more men into space. NASA held a special ceremony honoring Apollo-1 astronauts on the 50th anniversary of their deaths in January 2017, which included unveiling a new exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center showing the hatches of the damaged command module. NASA continues to hold a Day of Remembrance every January, to mark the event.

The 2017 exhibit honoring Apollo-1 crew at the Kennedy Space Center displayed the spacecraft’s damaged hatches—release doors on outside of SpaceHab interior human compartment . These release hatches were only discovered on the bottom of ocean floor—along with still-sealed SpaceHab capsule—pictured below left—in 1999.

Historical Picture puts Astronauts’ Life in Perspective

Apollo-1 crew commander, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, was an Air Force veteran of the Korean War. He was chosen among NASA’s first group of seven astronauts, the Mercury Seven. Grissom was America’s second person in space in 1961. On that mission, Mercury’s Liberty Bell 7, the hatch door blew for unknown reasons upon splashdown. Grissom ended up in the water and was rescued by a helicopter (which at first tried, in vain, to pick up the spacecraft; the spacecraft was later pulled from the ocean floor in 1999).

Some in the Astronaut Office were skeptical that Grissom’s reputation wouldn’t recover (many believed Grissom blew the hatch; he swore he didn’t). However, Grissom successfully commanded the first Gemini flight, Gemini-3, and was selected to do the same for Apollo.

Changes made to the design of Apollo spacecraft greatly improved crew safety. The crew’s flammable oxygen cabin environment used for ground tests was replaced by a safer nitrogen-oxygen mix. Flammable items were removed. Rapport developed between astronauts and contractors [SPACEHAB], pictured below left. Design changes used in the next mission series were geared to individual comfort and mobility. Most important, the door hatch was completely reworked so it would open in seconds, when the crew needed to get out in a hurry.

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  Spacehab crew quarters in Earth orbit

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Apollo-1 mission that never was—top center astronauts Roger Chaffee, Ed White and Gus Grissom, pic NASA/JPL-Caltech B
Space Shuttle launch aboard Saturn V rocket: early missions fraught with anxiety over temperature & design changes

SpaceHab, Diamond Ring, Peruvian Desert Art

Historically, none of this would have been possible, were it not for the ‘single-minded star-struck passion’ of inventor Bob Citron, whose first claim to astro fame was as a young student of aeronautical engineering at U.Inglewood: director of the Pacific Rocket Society’s ‘satellite tracking station’, he succeeded in tracking Sputnik-1 only 48 hours after the Russians’ surprise launch in 1957—the first American group to do so.

Citron worked for the Smithsonian Institution in Cambridge, Mass. for 17 years, establishing satellite tracking stations around the world, and creating and managing scientific field research projects. While at the Smithsonian he built and managed astrophysical research observatories in the USA, Spain, Norway, Ethiopia, South Africa, and India (1959–1968) and founded the Smithsonian Institution Center for Short-lived Phenomena (CSLP) in 1968. Purpose of the Smithsonian Satellite Tracking Program was to track satellites to determine precision orbits, in order to understand Earth’s atmosphere and to define the geodesy of planet Earth. Citron created and managed the Smithsonian Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLP) program for NASA during the Apollo Program (1968–1972) and established the NASA/Smithsonian Skylab Earth Observing Program (1973–1974, disintegrated over Pacific 1979) during the post-Apollo period.

After launching Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Short-Lived Phenomena (CSLP) in Cambridge, Mass, 1968, and Educational Expeditions International, EEI in 1969, he concentrated on space travel—inside his space module. He created SPACEHAB—designed as result of his involvement with CSLP, adding enormous impetus to NASA’s Apollo program and Skylab (earth observatory). After his death the company changed hands, although Citron’s self-operating habitable system is still in use.

By 1983 his SpaceHab pressurized module designed to transport human passengers in the Space Shuttle’s cargo bay, was fully operational. Although NASA was cautious about its carrying humans in the module, it continues to serve the Agency a decade after his death. It carried cargo for scientific experiments, flying over 20 shuttle missions between 1993 and 2011.

Throughout his life he was an adventurer, a discoverer, an expedition-investigator. It is ironic that on the day he died January 31st [quietly at home with his third wife and family in the Pacific Northwest] was the anniversary of so many Space-related events—he must have had a reverse-lens telescope trained (from his cloud) on downtown Los Angeles as Space Shuttle Endeavour flew in on the back of a Boeing 747—or maybe he’ll be watching the skies when Virgin takes off in a couple of days.

Educational Expeditions International—EEI funded Smithsonian’s African total solar eclipse research in Mauritania, May 1973, where first-time hands-on telescopes captured ‘Diamond Ring’, the moment when solar orb reappears after totality.

Educational Expeditions International EEI-funded

One great earthly success in ‘adventure-expedition-learning’ was founding non-profit EEI—Educational Expeditions International—later Earthwatch—in Belmont, Mass., 1969. Ideas man and chairman of the board, he left the running of this groundbreaking group of scientists/students/research wannabes and volunteers to fellow business genius, managing director Brian Rosborough, a Jacksonville, Fla. aristocrat and fellow life-long student.

Brian oiled the scientific works, fueled expeditions and staffed international research projects with knowledgeable guides, on environmental or historical projects which otherwise would never have fledged. His great successes were the Mauritania total solar eclipse, 1973, above left, Tony Morrison’s Nazca Lines and Gerald Hawkins’s Megalithic Britain series of EEI expeditions in 1973-74, pictured top left.

Gerald S.Hawkins had previously been using the Smithsonian Institution’s building-size computer, to calculate and measure megalithic solar and lunar alignments at Stonehenge—his work innovative and now fully accepted. His work with EEI in Kilmartin and Mull of Kintyre was revolutionary and has wide acceptance. Hawkins went on to study crop circles until his death in May 2003.

Aftermath & Fast-forward

A longtime fan of all of the above, I am humbled by how History has dealt with of a group of men who were geniuses in their own way, sharing their passion with us, wannabe learners. And, to passionate teachers and influencers of children in our modern times—end January/festive Candlemas notwithstanding—I thank you. ©2021 Marian C. Youngblood

Earthquake Survivors—Bronze and Beyond

IT’S ALL ABOUT LOCATION, LOCATION
Monthly Grounding of Writerly Antennae for IWSGers and Other SpaceTimers

Arcata Plaza, site of Saturday Farmers’ Market, presided over by McKinley bronze—before last week’s removal

Having been assassinated in 1901, one would have thought that statesman, lawyer and (Republican) 25th President of the U.S.A., William McKinley had paid enough for his sins…

But his century-old bronze effigy—which survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire—will be changing locations once again.

The story goes of philanthropist Georg Zehndner, immigrant merchant in frontier Weaverville, seizing an opportunity presented by the late 19thC Gold Rush boom in northern California, to become (wealthy) Humboldt County rancher and (Arcata) citizen. When the 25th President was shot in 1901, Zehndner commissioned Armenian-American Bay Area sculptor Haig Patigian—also an immigrant—to create the bronze casting of the downed statesman.

Market Street, looking west to Twin Peaks. Both sides of street lined with ruined buildings Battery-to-Powell

Arcata Plaza was chosen as a suitable site in the growing town—although currently lauded northernmost campus of Humboldt State University was not founded until eight years later. Yet it is HSU academic/radical protests of ‘settler colonialism’ and damaged Native American tribes which resulted in the statue’s removal at dawn last Thursday.
Arcata is Yurok/Wiyot = place of the Lagoon*
*Yurok oket’oh = “where there is a lagoon” (Humboldt Bay), from o- “place” + ket’oh = “to be a lagoon”. Same name given to Big Lagoon, ten miles North.

Neighboring unincorporated township of McKinleyville, CA has more claim to the beleaguered effigy than the University town, having willingly changed its name to mark its namesake’s death in 1901. Previously called Minor (aka Minorville), it was settled in the late-19thC logging boom. After the president’s assassination it joined with (unincorporated) townships of Dows’ Prairie (settled by Joe Dows, 1860) to North and Calville, settled by employees of the California Barrel Company, South, taking its new name in his honor. McKinleyville post office opened in 1903. The town remains unincorporated, and is home to California’s certified “foggiest” airport—Eureka/Arcata, ACV.

Abandoned and Pointing to the North
Downtown San Francisco was on fire, consuming trolleys and neighborhoods, with horse-drawn water carts unable to dowse the flames.

No melt-down—McKinley found undamaged after 1906 San Francisco fire, his finger pointing North

Coming full blast after the deadly earthquake, many residents ran—sculptor Haig Patigian among them. He saw the bronze casting works go up in smoke and thinking all was lost, fled.

“‘Come on, boys, let’s save the statue of Bill McKinley,’ he cried and under his inspiration the workmen bore a ready hand.” San Francisco Examiner 1906

A passing worker—employed by the Ironworks—saw that the statue would be ruined if abandoned, and called to his co-workers who were saving their own belongings. The Examiner wrote: “They dragged the heroic figure to the center of the street and there it remained unharmed, resting on its back”, with an outstretched hand pointing to the sky.

Returning to the scene, Patigian noticed a crowd gathering near the Works. He hurried over to find his art piece lying in the street—the rescue vehicle used to haul it to safety a charred wreck. Twelve days after the great quake, George Zehndner, Arcata businessman and benefactor who ordered the bronze, received a telegram from Patigian stating the effigy had been saved.

San Francisco City Hall’s surviving dome, 1906, McAllister Street and Van Ness Avenue in charred ruins

Haig Patigian was a respected artist in his day, at the time of his death called by the San Francisco Chronicle “one of the giants of San Francisco’s Golden Age.” Many of his works survive in San Francisco, including one of Abraham Lincoln outside City Hall, itself regenerated and reconstructed after the demise of its iconic predecessor, Chronicle Archive picture, right.

Zehndner paid $15,000 for the original sculpture in 1906—lost, mourned and then recovered unblemished from the glowing coals of the surrounding foundry.

One hundred thirteen years later the now-politically-incorrect statesman found a new home—in Canton, Ohio—where the local residents appreciate his other works—including a McKinley Memorial Library and Museum. The statesman’s 8-1/2foot 800-lb bronze likeness will find a public stance nearby.

Fickle Finger of Fate and Finance
Last week brought some kind of closure to the beleaguered bronze. Through fire, earthquake, flood and (occasional student) harassment, the skilled lost-wax bronze rendering of the late 19thC politician will not bite the dust.

East along Market Street after 1906 Mag.7.9 earthquake—lavish art-deco Call building burns to ground

This time it will rise again on another plinth in another guise: Canton was McKinley’s chosen home town. He had planned to retire there. Now he will.

In Canton, the townspeople have $15,000 to spend. That’s exactly how much its benefactor Arcata resident Zehndner paid for the sculpture in 1906. And Arcata has accepted.

Insecure Challenge and Update
We IWSGers know how Fate—and our writing Muse—tend to travel hand-in-hand. But there’s no telling how fickle financial finagling will affect any outcome.

IWSG question for March

Synchronously, we may therefore empathize with our fellow Insecure Writers in our March IWSG challenge/question

[choose one] Whose perspective do you like to write from best: the hero [protagonist] or the villain [antagonist]?
And why?

Now there’s something to get our [insecure] teeth into.
In McKinley’s case, he is both bad guy and good guy—depending on our —writerly/historical— perceptions.
Which would you choose?
Thanks, blog-Cap’n.Alex for allowing me such digressions 😉
©2019 Marian Youngblood

Keeping it Light: Learning Games when Dark (Vog) Clouds Loom

KEEPING IT LIGHT: LEARNING GAMES FOR INSECURE WRITERS
Monthly Catch-up Corner for IWSGers & Insecure Historians 😉

Big Island’s southern sector smothered by lava, now adds VOG to the mix, photo USGS

While volcanic mayhem continues to play out in fresh ruptures around Hawaii’s Kilauea fissure zone, see last month’s blog update, below, our Insecure Writerly hearts go out to a duplicate blast from Mother Earth in Guatemala.

It seems superfluous to remind ourselves that the hurricane season officially kicked off June 1st—conveniently “tropical storm” 2018 Alberto already gathering speed—when devastated homeless Puerto Rican refugees from last year’s hurricane Maria still have no dependable electricity (a public service in U.S.) or back-up power source.

Meanwhile, half an ocean away, another volcanic tragedy strikes Guatemala where hope in the search for survivors underground is waning. In Central American Fuego—as with Pu’u-O’o—there is VOG—unbreathable air formed when sulfur dioxide SO2 and other gases/particles emitted by an erupting volcano react with oxygen and moisture in the presence of sunlight—to add to the mix.

Rescuers in Las Lajas, Guatemala search for survivors under the lava from Fuego volcano

It bears remembering that when Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2011, all trans-Atlantic flights were cancelled.

My intention here is not only to draw attention to severe gaps in this Administration’s compassion for human suffering—California went to the polls tonight—but to highlight past ways some of our ancestors used to make light of the heaviest subjects—including death, famine, sickness.

Our learned chieftain Alex would have a sci-fi solution, unleashing from his fantasy bag of tricks a plethora of goodies to feed our imagination—and lighten our spirits.

Science Fiction or Real Earth Scenario?
We insecure writers know that sci-fi only came to the world of literature with ‘Forties /’Fifties greats like Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert [“Dune”], Heinlein, Vonnegut and Clarke—unless you count Jules Verne and H.G. Wells’s 1895 “The Time Machine”.

So when sci-fi seems to be playing out around the Earth in new and unimaginable ways, it may serve us well to revert to childhood games we used in those times to learn what we didn’t feel like learning seriously.

Grandpa’s Alternative Method of Learning History
Hold on to your hats, IWSGers, and watch as the alternative learning rhyme unfolds.

This beauty has particular attraction for those hundreds-of-thousands who may have watched the British royal family parade through May, also below. And wondered where all the names came from. In Brit kids’ speak, these monarchs date from 1066. And we’re all heard of that. The English try NOT to remember that before the Magna Carta, there were other kings and queens of far greater lineage. Save that for another time.

Willie, Willie, Harry Stee

Elizabeth Tudor’s embossed signature, c.1589

WILLIE, WILLIE, HARRY, STEE(V)

HARRY, DICK, JOHN, HARRY THREE

ONE, TWO, THREE NEDS, RICHARD TWO

HARRY FOUR, FIVE, SIX AND WHO?

EDWARD FOUR, FIVE, RICHARD THREE,

2 HENRYS, EDWARD & BLOODY MAIREE

ELIZABETH, THE VIRGIN QUEEN,

TWO JAMES WITH CHARLIES IN BETWEEN

WILLIAM & MARY, ANNA GLORIA,

FOUR GEORGES, WILLIAM & VICTORIA.

NED, GEO, NED, GEO, LIZ.

William I 1066-1087 William II 1087-1100 Henry I 1100-1135 Stephen 1135-1154 NORMAN

Henry II Plantagenet 1154-1189 Richard I 1189-1199 John 1199-1216 Henry III 1216-1272

Edward I 1272-1307 Edward II 1307-1327 Edward III 1327-1377 Richard II 1377-1399 Plantagenet 245 yrs

Henry IV Lancaster 1399-1413 Henry V 1413-1422 Henry VI 1422-1461

Edward IV York 1461-1483 Edward reigned a few days Richard III 1483-1485

Henry VII Tudor 1485-1509 Henry VIII 1509-1547 Edward VI 1547- 1553 Mary I 1553-1558

Elizabeth I 1558-1603 Last Tudor Sovereign

James I 1603-1625 Charles I 1625-1649* Charles II 1660-1685 James II 1685-1688 Stuart

William III Orange 1689-1702 & Mary d.1694 Anne 1702-1714 last of Stuarts

George I 1714-1727 George II 1727-1760 George III 1760-1820 George IV 1820-1830 William IV1830-37 House of Hanover

Victoria 1837-1901

Edward VII Saxe-Coburg 1901-1910 George V 1910-1936 changed name to Windsor Edward VIII abdicated

George VI 1936-1952 Elizabeth II 1952-present

Length of Dynasties

We all know who he is—six wives later—

Norman Kings 88 years

Plantagenets 245 years

House of Lancaster 62 years

House of York 24 years

Tudors 118 years

Stuarts 97 years

Orange-Nassau 13 years

Hanoverians 187 years

Saxe-Coburg 9 years

House of Windsor current, adopted by Geo.V

* between 1649-1660, England was a “Commonwealth”, Oliver Cromwell & son Richard Cromwell, Protectors
In 1660 Scotland enacted the Reformation—all worship to be Protestant; Roman Catholicism outlawed.
Hope you IWSGers survived your history lesson. Thanks for your patience. You will be tested next month—lol.

©2018 Marian Youngblood

Volcanoes Can Be Friendly Neighbors

VOLCANIC GODDESS PELE IN CHARGE OF ISLAND

Natural road surfacing with new lava—Leilani Estates road gets another topping over weekend

A Shield Volcano as a Friend
Kilauea, in the southeastern part of Hawaii’s Big Island, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. The sacred mountain—domain of fire and lightning goddess Pele—has been erupting on and off for hundreds of years—possibly thousands.

This particular episode, fueled by accompanying earthquakes and aftershocks, began late Thursday afternoon in Leilani Estates, a subdivision near the small town of Pahoa, a 30-minute drive south of Hilo.

Why is Kilauea Erupting Now?

Kilauea sends volcanic messages

“We don’t know enough detail about her internal plumbing to give really good answers to this question. The short answer is that a blob of new magma from deep below the volcano got injected up into the volcanic edifice.
“That, combined with Kilauea’s instability, has allowed the magma to erupt near Leilani Estates”
Tracy Gregg, Associate Professor of Geology University of Buffalo

Big Island Hawaii’s Kilauea has been erupting continuously for more than thirty years, but new background activity flared up significantly last week after a series of powerful earthquakes—Mag.6.9 and Mag.7.0—struck the island.

A dozen new volcanic fissures have since opened up on Kilauea’s flanks, and the combination of flowing lava and noxious sulphur and methane gas necessitated the evacuation of 1,500 residents.

USGS volcanologists had been monitoring the volcano’s southeast flank for months before last Thursday’s eruption, aware of its instability. “It will fall into the ocean someday,” said U.S. Geological Survey volcanologist Wendy Stovall.

How Long will This Episode Last?

Kilauea’s Pu’u O’o caldera erupting May 7th 2018, peppering Big Island, Hawaii’s SE coast with lava fissures

As one side of the mountain slowly tears itself away from the rest of the volcano, it creates an easy subterranean pathway for the magma—underground lava—to travel along.

“There’s more magma in the system still to be erupted. As long as that supply is there, this eruption will continue,” she said.

As lava oozes down steep slopes, it often breaks apart into a billowing avalanche of hot rock and gas, called a pyroclastic flow. Pyroclastic flows destroy anything in their path.

Lava flows have damaged areas around Kilauea for decades. Flows destroyed a visitor center at Kilauea in 1989 and overran the village of Kalapana on the volcano’s southeast flank in 1991.

Current residents of Leilani Estates have been evacuated, but allowed to return, while local agencies continue to monitor the furnace.

As lava inundates the heavily forested area outside Hilo, organic matter burns and releases methane. “That methane gas can get trapped in pockets beneath lava flows or underground and explode violently, throwing rocks and debris in every direction” said Ms. Stovall.

Fire Goddess Pele in Charge

Big island Hawaii’s SE coast lies within the precipitous lava field of Kilauea—currently erupting

Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983 and is considered among the top ten world’s most active volcanoes. In 2014 lava burned a house and overran the local cemetery in Pahoa, but this flow chose to stall outside the town this time, and has not crossed the road.

Eruptions of lava fountains continued through last week, leading geologists to prepare for further activity. “Because lava on Sunday was flowing farther than it did in the first days of the eruption, that means the magma supply is still present and shows signs of continuing”.

Flows are still moving quite slowly. USGS scientists were able to walk away from hot lava deposits fairly quickly. So far ten vents have developed within a 20-miles radius, and new fissures are expected.

Kilauea is a shield volcano—broad and domed with ten-mile wide sloping sides made up of liquid, gas-poor lava that does not explode. That contrasts sharply with a stratovolcano, such as Mount St. Helens, whose eruptions are made up of thick, sticky, gas-rich lava that explodes, creating ash.

Legend tells that goddess Pele journeyed in her canoe from the island of Tahiti to Hawaii. She tried to create her fires on different islands, but her sister, Namaka, was chasing her, trying to kill her. The two sisters fought and Pele was killed.

Hawaiians believe her body was destroyed, but her spirit lives on in the Halemaumau crater on Kilauea. “Her body is the lava and steam that comes from the volcano.”

She can also change form, appearing as a white dog, old woman, or beautiful young woman.

In addition to being goddess of volcanoes, Pele is known for her power, passion, jealousy, and capriciousness. She has multiple siblings, including Kāne Milohai, Kamohoaliʻi, Nāmaka and other sisters called Hiʻiaka—most famous being Hiʻiakaikapoliopele—Hiʻiaka in the bosom of Pele. Hawaiian mythology calls them to be the offspring of Haumea. Pele’s siblings include deities of various types of wind, rain, fire, ocean wave forms, and cloud forms. Her home is believed to be the fire pit called Halemaʻumaʻu crater, at the summit caldera of Kīlauea. Her domain encompasses the whole volcanic field on Big Island.

Agencies, emergency services and first responders are active, continuing to keep the public safe, schools open. Local residents who have experienced lava episodes before, are patiently waiting for Pele, goddess of fire, wind and volcanoes, to give the Big Island a break.

Bless you Pele—and Hi’iakapoliopele, in your bosom. We’re believers.
©2018 Marian Youngblood

The Nuclear Option—Above or Below Ground?

DEALING WITH CATASTROPHE—DEATH-or-LIFE UNDERGROUND
Monthly Drawing Breath Corner for Insecure Writers

Bruno Groth’s Pelican—a remarkable bird that may survive ocean mountains of nuclear waste

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe
Mohammed Ali

Doomsday ‘Preppers’ have been getting ready for Armageddon-aka-nuclear misfire—cultural breakdown—since the Cold War; but in Silicon Valley they have made it into an art.

One tech company C.E.O. told the New Yorker
“It’s still not at the point where industry insiders would turn to each other with a straight face and ask what their plans are for some apocalyptic event.”

But, having said that, he believes it’s logically rational and ‘appropriately conservative’ to ‘manage the risk’, i.e. plan for the eventuality.

Vulnerability of the United States was exposed by the Russian cyber-attack on the Democratic National Committee during the U.S. election, and by a large-scale hack on October 21st, 2016 which disrupted the Internet in North America and Western Europe.

World food supply is dependent on GPS, logistics, and weather forecasting, which are generally dependent on the Internet. On the Peninsula, every geek knows the Internet is dependent on D.N.S.—the system that manages domain names.

“Go risk factor by risk factor by risk factor, acknowledging that there are many you don’t even know about, and you ask, ‘What’s the chance of this breaking in the next decade?’ Or invert it: ‘What’s the chance that nothing breaks in fifty years?’”

The Final Frontier
Exactly how many wealthy Americans are really making preparations for a catastrophe is difficult to tell; a lot of people don’t like to talk about it. “Anonymity is priceless,” according to one hedge-fund manager.

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and a prominent investor, recalls telling a friend he was thinking of visiting New Zealand. “Oh, are you going to get apocalypse insurance?” the friend asked.

In the event of civil disorder, these items can be stowed in an overnight bag or go for Dome Living

“I’ve wrestled with alligators / I’ve tussled with a whale / I done handcuffed lightning / And thrown thunder in jail.”
Mohammed Ali/Cassius Clay

New Zealand, it seems, is a favored refuge in the event of a cataclysm. According to Hoffman, saying you’re ‘buying a house in New Zealand’ is kind of a wink, wink, say no more. Once you’ve done the Masonic handshake, they’ll be, like, ‘Oh, you know, I have a broker who sells old ICBM silos, and they’re nuclear-hardened, and they kind of look like they would be interesting to live in.’”

Dr. Robert A. Johnson, a graduate of Princeton, working on Capitol Hill, before entering finance—M.D. at Soros Fund Management—describes himself as an accidental student of civic anxiety. After the 2008 financial crisis, he became head of a financial think tank, the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

He grew up with financiers, company chairmen, hedge-fund managers in Greenwich, Connecticut.

“They all lived within fifty yards of me. From my own career, I would just talk to people. More and more were saying, ‘You’ve got to have a private plane. You have to assure that the pilot’s family will be taken care of, too. They have to be on the plane.’”
Robert A. Johnson, Ph.D.

Silver Better than Gold
Essentials in the Bug-Out Bag, along with the hatchet, have to include a parachute (from the private plane), foldable canoe (to cross that river of disaster) collapsible tent or Bucky Dome—Buckminster Fuller would approve.

One interesting fact is consensus that small is better than big when the S–t Hits the Fan—it even has its own acronym—TSHF—i.e. silver in small coins beats large pieces of gold jewelry when it comes to trading for food and other life essentials.

Not a happy scenario for a beautiful autumn day, perhaps?

But you know what they say about Silicon Valley—way beyond the Capitol Hill wall: always leading edge.

Will we Insecure writers follow? We IWSG-ers are mostly introvert—according to Myers-Briggs—that’s how we pop up after it’s all over and ask “wot hoppen?” because we’ve been so head-down in the rabbit hole.

Such a tactic could serve us well this time, or we might, like Mohammed Ali/Cassius Clay proclaim:

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
©2017 Marian Younbgblood

Rockin’ the Boat to Save the Lighthouse

Rockin’ the Boat to Save the Lighthouse

Former coal-oil-burner Trinidad Light shone out to mariners headed for home port

PETROLIA might RATTLE
McKinleyville may prattle
But in Trinidad they battle
To save the Lighthouse dear

Eureka dredges Humboldt Bay
While Arcata rescues Market Day
Weaverville firemen clear the way
So folks can go back home dear

One-lane traffic on 299
Get your gear packed well before time
You won’t get much of a warnin’ sign
Tsunami incoming, dear
Sidereal Musing 2017

Trinidad Civic Club’s Memorial Lighthouse site is a sacred one, erected on a small piece of land donated to the club in 1948 by Earl and Neva Hallmark, who in 1946 built the redwood pier at the Harbor. It was to play an important role in the lives of commercial and sport fishermen, and supported the ocean-going life of Trinidad until its steel replacement, which handles marine traffic today.

Synchronously, the Memorial Lighthouse stands on an overlook of the Bluff down towards the sacred burial ground and Yurok village of Tsurai—home to generations of First People—on Old Home Beach. The Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse and the ancient village setting are a reminder of how preservation of sacred places can exist together. The Yurok Tribe are supportive of the Lighthouse preservation fund.

Lighting the Way for a Future of Memories

WWII Danforth anchor, 1898 decommissioned bell—which strikes every day at noon—flank the endangered Lighthouse

Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse, constructed in 1949 to house the 1912 coal oil lantern, was decommissioned by the Coast Guard when the electric light was installed at the Trinidad Head Lighthouse in 1974. The area also accommodates the two-ton 1898 bronze bell decommissioned at the same time when automation came to the Bell House on Trinidad Head, pictured below right.

Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse, a replica of the 1871 Trinidad Head Lighthouse, was built by Trinidad Civic Club on a 45ft. x 50ft. parcel of the Bluff donated by Earl and Neva Hallmark in 1948 and dedicated on June 26, 1949. The lighthouse contains a 1912 coal oil Fresnel lantern, the last one of its kind, decommissioned from use by the United States Coast Guard on the Pacific Coast. It was previously installed in the Trinidad Head Lighthouse.

Later, the World War II USS Danforth anchor, recovered from the bay, was added to the site, and a bronze plaque reading “In loving memory to those who perished at sea. They shall live forever in our hearts” was dedicated May 30, 1970.

The site on the Bluff at Edwards and Trinity Streets also holds the 1898 4,000-pound bronze fog bell moved from the fog Bell House on Trinidad Head, pictured below. It also serves as a Memorial Wall engraved with the names of 238 individuals Lost or Buried at Sea. An annual Memorial Naming ceremony is held on the last Sunday of May commemorating and honoring those named, since 1995.

Lighthouse & former Coastguard cottages on Trinidad Head—foghorn & automated light remain

TRINIDAD City leaders and Civic Club have agreed in principle to raise $40,000-$50,000 to move the Trinidad Memorial Lighthouse a few yards away, outside the threatened landslide area.

Council and Civic Club are working together with professional geologists to complete the move by October 2017, before the onset of the rainy season.

Foundation Realignment or Shoring Up?
Civic Club President Dana Hope informed the City Council that her group would accept any stopgap financing, to be secured via fundraising which included online solicitation. $40,000-$50,000 in ‘seed money’ is contingent on how much more Trinidad Council can secure in financing from California’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

OES funding is reckoned likely, but FEMA’s response is ‘pending’—an understandable statement, given their current clean-up operations in Florida and Texas after two hurricanes.

Tiny Trinidad Head Lighthouse, left distance, with functioning foghorn, foreground

The slope underpinning both the Lighthouse and Edwards Street, town thoroughfare that passes just north of the lighthouse steps, need long-term reinforcement. Construction costs range from $100,000 to $1 million, according to a recent engineering report, based on drill borings, readings from slope inclinometers and aerial and field mapping, compiled over last six months by SHN Consulting Engineers & Geologists, Eureka.

Plight of the Lighthouse has attracted national and international attention and that interest is starting to pay off.

A Preservation Fund has already been set up and gifts and donations of any size are flowing in here. U.S. taxpayers may make tax-deductible donations by check for the Lighthouse Preservation Fund to

Trinidad Civic Club
for The Lighthouse Preservation Fund
P.O. Box 295
Trinidad, CA 95570

Those wishing to add a named donation, or gift on behalf of a loved one already buried at sea may wish to use this avenue of funding.

If you want to give anonymously, or make a large (private) amount, you may email for more information to memoriallighthouse@gmail.com.

Trinidad Civic Club, in cooperation with Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Coast Guard, arranges free tours of Trinidad Head Lighthouse throughout the year—a strenuous walk around ‘The Head’, but worth it. Discussion is ongoing to find the most reasonable and cost-effective solution before the rainy season.
©2017 Marian Youngblood

Drawing Breath—Speaking up for Lungs of the Planet

MONTHLY INSECURE WRITERS’ ENCLAVE—
IWSGers Speak up for the Planet

Thanks 2Alex for getting on our case—writing-wise

Happy New Year to all Insecure Writers! And to the world at large.
Mostly, thanks to our prolific host and Ninja Cap’n, Alex, for allowing us crazies free rein on his excellent forum. It opens writerly doors, and allows us to vent, when things go wrong. May we all survive—nay, plunge into—this year and follow our dreams.

Sore Patch hidden by powerful local ‘Resource company’ under umbrella of social conscience offer to ‘open woodland to public’

2015 saw many changes in awareness of common responsibility for our country’s finite resources, both nation-wide and internationally, bringing accord which would have been impossible a decade ago. Politicians are—with careful research—actually clearing desks, allocating reserve funds to deal with the atmosphere-environment.

It is no longer an ‘issue’. Climate has become real time—Western nations’ new goal—to do good by the planet, our only home.

But don’t hold your breath.

Rattle in Seattle as Farewell to Old Ways
West Coast shakes over New Year ranged from Mag.4.7 in Seattle through M.6.2 Nevada/Utah border, to M.4.1 off Ferndale, CA. Judging by whale movement—on late migration south delayed by warm northern waters—quakes and movement are happening on the coastal plate, where the Gorda fault fissures to join its subterranean sisters under (human habitat) the land. Several landslides along the coastal Scenic Drive route north of the Eel and Mad Rivers—in Humboldt County—have made travel ‘difficult’—official sources.

Once again we realize our Earth Mama is shaking her feathers—a little ruffled by now with all the oil extraction and fossil burning we’ve been up to.

Seattle, Nevada, Baja Mexico echo New Year Mediterranean quakes

Lieber kleiner blauer Stern [Pale Blue Dot auf Deutsch]
Menschen habt ihn endlich gern
Tut ihm nun nichts mehr zu Leide
Nicht den Bergen, nicht der Heide
Nicht den Wiesen, Mooren, Flüssen
Nicht den Wäldern, Vögeln, Fischen
Liebt den kleinen blauen Stern
Pflegt und schütz ihn
Habt ihn gern
courtesy M.Asgardh

Snakes, ants, beetles, redwoods and humans—we all travel the Milky Way together and share the planet’s blessings
John Muir, founder of Sierra Club

Volcanoes, dormant since the dinosaurs, generating lightning storms in Nevada-Utah

Latest round of seismic unrest included quakes in Oklahoma, causing power outages, and widespread flooding damage in Mississippi basin.

In Pacific NW, several dormant volcanoes shook over New Year, alongside multiple larger (Richter Mag.4.2 or more) earthquakes rippling along faults extending N-S along West coast United States. Authorities remain vigilant, with such heavy movement currently underway.
If Mama is shaking us, what is it we’ve done to get her so annoyed?

Well, let’s take breathable air, for a start—yes, we decimated Earth’s fossil trees—so, what are we doing about it?

Headwaters Forest—Tragedy of 1990s

Trying to measure up to 1000-year Old Growth Redwoods is harder work than forestry companies imagined

“Standing among these ancient trees, a thousand years old perhaps, I am humbled by how long it takes to restore these forests. As I take one last look up into the stratosphere of canopy before heading back into the glaring light of second-growth, I wonder at the rôle of restoration in recreating the beauty I see before me. I think it will be a very long time before our forest will be what it once was”
David LaFever, Bureau Land Management Ecologist, after 2001 restoration attempt

Headwaters Forest was purchased in 1999 by State and Federal government agencies, and put under permanent protection. Clear-felling practice was legally reduced to a 20-40-acre maximum.

The logging industry finally sat up and paid attention. Its own resource was decimated; salmon runs and ecosystems had suffered in a mindless race for economic gain, with only table scraps left, in the view of Humboldt State University forest scientist Steve Sillett. ‘The challenge now is to improve management on the 95% of redwood landscape (felled) that is just starting into regrowth.’

Old Growth Sequoia Groves
Old-growth redwood forests are structurally diverse, with a range of tree sizes, reiterated tree trunks—high tree and stand biomass—and with complex canopies. Headwaters old-growth is characterized by a mixture of redwood (Sequoia sempervirens, 50-70% of overstory) and Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga Menziesii, 30-47%) with a density of 70-80 trees per acre. Conversely, unthinned second-growth stands are dominated by Douglas Fir (60-80%), with density of over a thousand trees per acre.

Sequoia sempervirens, redwoods as big as a Boeing 707

Growing trees like a crop of grain is no longer the enlightened view. Scientists from HSU have discovered that the older the redwood, the harder and more disease-resistant is the wood, and the tougher its ability to withstand weathering, damage. That there is more life-support value in one 1000-year old Sequoia, than in a thousand 10-year olds.

Forestry attitudes are changing too. Heavy Caterpillar earthmoving tractors, that caused such erosion—skid trails—with consequent pollution to streams and spawning pools, are being replaced by smaller, lighter shovel loaders on tracks that leave the forest floor intact. State law now enforces a mandatory buffer zone of trees now, along streams and rivers.

Finally the salmon and other native fish are returning.

Forestry business mantra is that they are ‘on target to create new forests’ (in one hundred years), like the ones protected in the Redwoods National and State Parks, begun by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1875-92. He and John Muir should by now roaring with delighted laughter in their (redwood) coffins.

At the time Headwaters was established in 1999, 60% of the area had been logged. In some areas, forests were only beginning to regrow from clear-cut harvests of the 1980s and 1990s. Inheriting unnatural second-growth forests dominated by Douglas Fir, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began restoration thinning in 2004. Goal of restoration was to accelerate forest development towards old-growth conditions, and restore a more natural species mix to each area—by cutting Douglas Fir and leaving Redwood and other less common species. From 2004 to 2013, BLM thinned 1,600 acres—approximately 21% of Headwaters Forest Reserve.

Thinning Understory in Attempt to Mimic Old Growth
In 2014, BLM began a second round of thinning with an idea of introducing more ‘spatial complexity’, to mimic conditions found in old-growth forests within Headwaters. BLM workers created a mosaic of tree density across second-growth stands, by building off recent restoration work completed in Redwood National and State Parks. They also completed their research project in partnership with Humboldt State University. Their report, published 2013: “Modeling Young Stand Development towards the Old-growth Reference Condition in Evergreen Mixed-Conifer Stands at Headwaters Forest Reserve, California”.

‘This study helped us understand the conditions in old-growth stands and allowed us to model trajectories towards old-growth under various restoration scenarios’
BLM ecologist D.laFever

Life without trees—lack of breathable air—would be a scenario more appropriate to Star Trek, CassaStar, or in our sci-fi leader*, Alex’s new ‘geek stuff’. But we breathe on, thanks to the lungs of the planet—threatened, decimated—broken but unbowed.
*If Alex can branch out into short stories—’geek stuff’—I can face the bureaucracy with a little non-fiction of my own—lol. Thanks, Alex and fellow IWSGers for listening.
Happy Epiphany!
©2016 Marian Youngblood

Strawberry Moon: Think Pink to Tide us Over Trying Times

MONTHLY INSECURE WRITERS’ CORNER

Tectonic shifting June 2015: Pacific Ring of Fire sets off alarm bells around the globe

On most cultural issues, Californians lead the pack. Except, that is, in their heedless determination to withstand Earth tremors of any scale. They are getting what they wished for now—High tides to satisfy the most intense surfers—literally waves to die for.

Full Moon High Tides Reflect Earth Extremes
World attention has been understandably focused on volcanic mayhem in the Himalayan chain—larger than 7.8magnitude Richter quakes, with repeated aftershocks, causing tragic loss of life in Nepal. Then, without time for humans to regroup, several subsequent 7.6mag. shocks, shattering Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga and swathes of Tibet—devastating the Roof of the World.

Mile-high Denver and hardly a drop of snow. H20 crisis throughout Western U.S.A.

Half a planet away, USGS’s reputed “insignificant seamount” of Juan da Fuca on the Gorda offshore crustal plate, in Northern Humboldt, CA, has been acting Metronome. It’s been ticking in and out of 5.1mag.-6.1mag. shifts, as high tides became higher, in runup to Tuesday’s June 2nd Full Strawberry Moon.

Tidal effects on Oregon coast have increased too, in rhythm with the rest of the Pacific. Even Hawaii and precious Galapagos Islands on the Cocos Plate have not escaped volcanic broiling. Santorini, Etna and even Vesuvius have chimed in. There seems no end in sight.

Early drought and water hose bans have made June and the rest of this parched planet feel drier—less capable than ever before of withstanding subterranean cracking—and Fracking.
Without speaking back!

Unrelated to writer’s block? you wonder.

Silly Season—or Sell in May & Go Away
Back when there were Ninja Cap’n storytellers who created paper copies of triple best-sellers overnight—putting physical books on people’s shelves—yes—we knew what summer meant for us: Summertime business shuts up shop; people migrate. In writing—and in journalistic—circles, it’s called the “silly season”.

Now many writers—with paper dreams or even electronic ones 😉 —despair of ever finding an agent in summer—unknown, unobtainable, or elsewhere. So can you blame them at times for wanting to fly away themselves?

Maybe this summer we shall pay greater attention—keep our minds focused, senses honed, noses to the grindstone.

Funny how major shifts in our planetary home have a way of rearranging the braincells—systematizing the synapses.

More of a Moon than a Moan

Thinking pink will get you everywhere

For those legendary IWSG bloggers—of this now infamous Monthly Moan. And for friends who are brazen Saturnine-visaged Scorpios, or beloved laughing Sagittarians—who take these weather crazies in their stride I salute you—metaphorically speaking; I’ve never been a good little marine—for showing us the way through this impasse aka
astrological storm—more of a Moon than a moan. Maybe now is not the best time to mention a few archetypal cycles, coming back to haunt us—this very week in history.

Salem Witch Trials 1692
Mount Pinatubo erupted 1991 (and she’s at it again)
D-Day 1944
First AIDS virus recorded 1981
Watergate arrests 1972
Beginning of End of Cold War, June 1963—prelude to JFK Assassination, November

…On the Bright Side
In June 1963—five months before he was assassinated—U.S. President John F. Kennedy spoke on the podium of the newly-liberated Reichstag in an undivided Berlin. His famous “Ick bin ein Berliner” speech was heard by millions of Europeans, who already loved him for what he stood up for. His opening doors—and spectacular unveiling of East-West Hamburg/Potdam Autobahn* started the end of the Cold War.

Thanks and ahoy to Cap’n.Alex for indulging me in lost dreams of a better world. Otoh, if JFK could do it, we IWSGers can do it: weather this storm.
*What Americans—reputedly JFK himself—couldn’t quite handle: 1963 Bremen-Hamburg-Berlin Autobahn had and has to this day—no speed limit. The mind of frustrated U.S. roadster-wannabes boggles with vision of JFK’s phalanx of limos—he was heavily guarded, regardless of his youthful wind-in-hair image—driving sedately at max. 65m.p.h. from Air Force One to Berlin PotdamerPlatz—overtaken by, you-got-it, BMWs, Audis, Porsche and even Lamborghinis, Lotuses and Volkswagens streaming by like a sound-track: zoom—zoom—siren–squeal— zoom 😉
Happy summer. #IamWri†ing
©June 2015 Marian Youngblood

March in Like a Lion: SpaceWeather for IWSGers

MONTHLY INSECURE WRITERS’ SUPPORT GROUP CORNER

Full Virgo Moon + pre-equinoctial Pisces Sun + stellium of conjunct planets herald series of 2015 eclipses

Space Commander Lexicon Edition
Because continental U.S.A. is suffering right now—and I’ve never been one to crow during others’ misfortune—PacNW experiencing tropical weather window—I choose to commiserate for this month’s IWSG get-together, rather than stress how fortunate I am to live where I do. Breathes deeply.

Let me try to put our current earth-shivers in a more space-time perspective—as does our revered leader, Space Ninja Captain Alex, who can conjure a blockbuster sci-fi series whenever real life gets tough. Bless him for continuing to inspire—me, at least.

The space/sci-fi scenario which follows is not quite Alex’s professional air-tight Science FICTION— sadly rather it borders on Science fact. But, you know what they say:
It’s All in the Stars.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Apocalypse HQ, NWPacCoast
Earth, Sol.3
Milky Way—Andromeda Arm, 5.6
Millennium2—Einstein—Kardashev Era-Timeline Civilization.Zero

Until we cease fossil fuel drilling, we remain zero-rated on Galactic scale

All Vessels Please Respond|Relay-to-Galactic HQ
Earth and its Resources Depleting at irreplaceable rate. Counterbalance by Earth-Support Groups having little effect.
Apocalypse scenario in 50% floodplains, Emergency agencies battling counterproductive volcanic/seismic activity associated with fossil extraction, ongoing.
In spite of damage, Earth still reclaimable—with interGalactic assistance. Please help.
Despite Earth’s schism:lower echelon civilization K-type-0 in 48.2% population, there remains powerful 51.8% K-type-2-cerebral-zen-SETI-based group working to regenerate earth meadows and mountains.
All civilization please respond. Earth can be resurrected

Small explanation, in best sci-fi index/Matrix style:
In 1964, Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev categorized civilizations by total energy available to them. He isolated three levels of civilizations, based on their capacity to harness and use power. These have since been expanded to include a further four—in light of increasing speculation spawned in cross-discipline math/theoretical-physics.
Earth is a zero level civilization.

The Kardashev Scale now with seven levels of civilizations, bases its categories on (putative) galactic civilizations and their power consumption—but more implicitly on their technological advancement and enlightenment.

A type III Kardashev civilization would be able to harness energy resources of an entire galaxy

Type I civilization would be able to marshal energy resources for communications on a planet-wide scale, equivalent to the entire present power consumption of the human race, or about 10¹⁶watts.

Type II civilization can surpass this by a factor of approximately ten billion, making available 10²⁶ watts, and exploiting the total energy output of its central star.

Type III civilization is evolved enough to tap the energy resources of an entire galaxy, enabling access to power sources, approx. 10³⁶ watts.

KARDASHEV CIVILIZATIONS and SETI
Carl Sagan pointed out that the energy gaps between Kardashev’s three types were so enormous that a finer gradation was needed to make his theory work, e.g. Type 1.1 civilization could expend maximum 10¹⁷ watts on communications, while Type 2.3 could utilize 10²⁹ watts.

Kardashev estimated—on a discriminating scale—that the human race at present qualifies as approx. Type 0.7. But neither scientist figured in the extra oomph which comes, when Mother Earth decides to add a little pizzazz to the equation.
Volcanic eruptions 7.2 Kamchatka Feb. 23; earth tremors California ongoing; volcanic explosions Villarica, Chile March 2nd, ongoing.

MARCH COMING IN LIKE a LION
Weather, on the other hand, will always get a rise out of someone. We do not have to submit to wall-to-wall volcanic earth movement, or anomalous El Niño weather to get our pad out, intellectual pencils sharpened, and brandish our critique.

In 2010, I wrote how March came in like a lamb, but went Out Like a LION.
This time, the LION is biting at March’s open door. And we seem to have no reprise. Grand Cross lingers, on top of celestial fireworks: aligning in the heavens—perhaps to give us hope.

Celestial Alignment—Cosmic Crossroads
Great combination for stargazers, but poor Earth suffers under huge stresses in her—subterranean—tresses. Her petticoats are leaking out at the edge of her dresses. Pollution finally raises its oh-horrendously-ugly head.

Eclipses for equinox, with more karmic cleaning for us to do, as the celestial Grand Cross continues.
Buckle up. This year, it might be quite a ride.
©2015 Marian Youngblood