Left-handed stumbling, Amazon canals, Privatization of space resources

Good afternoon everyone,

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I got my hard cast on Thursday and had to have it redone on Friday because it was wearing a blister on my wrist. Now that that's been taking care of, I am doing great. I have use of 4 fingers – the thumb is encased in a hard cast and sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb. I chose purple so that when my students complain, I can hold up my hand and honestly say "I don't want to hear any excuses as to why the homework is not done, or why they're not in class."

It has been an interesting week being left-hand dominant. At 1^st my brain and body welcomed the challenge, and I did great. I thought that the crossover of the brain to more left side of use was going smoothly. I was able to make decisions, words can easily, walking was not a problem… But in the last 24 hours I feel like my brain and my body are rebelling. I think my body is tired of not being able to do things instinctively, and I know my brain is tired of having to watch out. I have spent the morning having trouble getting my priorities straight which is unusual for me. According to research, this has to do with switching to using the right side of the brain as dominant instead of the left side.

Figuring things out is taking me twice as long as usual. I also have noticed that my awareness of space is just a little off with the close-up stuff like pouring a cup of juice. This means that my space awareness is off more than usual with the big stuff like walking. Interestingly enough, this space awareness problem has not cause any problems when driving or parking the car.

I practiced driving yesterday and did all right. No big problems. But I did notice that just driving through the neighborhood was tiring. My better half is recommending that he take me to work instead of letting me drives the 15+ miles twice a day until I build up more stamina. I'm going to check into bus schedules so that I'm not such a burden.

I've noticed that it takes me 3 times as long to do things as normal. For instance, just doing the laundry – turning the knob on the washing machine so that I can fill the machine with water and soap takes a lot more time because my left hand keeps getting in the way of the numbers for setting how many minutes to wash; getting the laundry into the washing machine itself takes 3 trips because I can only carry one arm-load of stuff at a time instead of the usual 2 arm loads of stuff; feeding the dog is a study in perpetual motion – I guess I should not complain as I am getting better and eventually the cast will go away. In the meantime, I'm developing billions of new neural connections which should give "old stagnant brain age" a good shove into my 90s.

I have been reading a lot of science articles this week. The one that I just finished was about canals being built in the Amazon area before there was a rain forest. It is believed that these canals were built about 4 to 6000 years ago when that area was still the savanna instead of a tropical rain forest. That puts a whole new spin on the concept that maybe our current civilization is the 5^th of such civilizations throughout time. There have been ruins uncovered in Turkey that are suggesting that there were several great civilizations before now.

I also read that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening over the Western Hemisphere while it is strengthening over the southern Indian Ocean. No one seems to know why but there could be a link between the shifting of the magnetic poles. It was originally thought that it would take 2000 years for the poles to shift, but now it looks like it could happen within the next hundred years or so. The magnetic fields are used to protect us from cosmic radiation from the sun.

I also read a great article by Andrew Peek about a new space race. I remember when Sputnik went into orbit and how that galvanized the United States into a major player in the space race. The article suggests that not only should the United States support private companies developing space flight capacity, but the US should also encourage private industry based on resource extraction. Peek suggests that private companies will take the risk to invest in space projects that will have a financial gain. That gain could be as simple as figuring out how to mine an asteroid. These companies will need policy, law and regulation support – why can't the US provide this?

It is a fascinating thought! Years ago, only the US and Russia block countries had the economical support for a space race. Now, there are many countries that could step into a position of supporting and helping to develop laws and regulations for the mining of space. Hopefully the US will be involved – otherwise we truly will become a 2^nd world nation.

Can you tell I haven't decided what to research along side my research students this quarter? Previous civilizations, switching side dominance,a possible new space race or The Wired Generation? Choices, Choices,Choices. 

Have a great week folks. Iwent back to work this week to work with almost 100 new students. I'm living the adventure!

Carolyn

no pictures - it takes too long to decide!