Thoughts of a retired physician

  Our granddaughter, born 24 February!!!

  East Palestine, Ohio is a village of some 4700 people located directly adjacent to the state line of Pennsylvania. Railroad lines have long gone through East Palestine. On 3 February at about 2100 a 150-car Norfolk Southern freight train derailed; most of the cargo was nonhazardous but 20 cars contained hazardous materials. In total about 3 dozen cars went off the tracks and 11 of these contained chemicals, some of them toxic. Tank cars containing vinyl chloride and benzene were involved as well as other flammable but less toxic materials. Fire departments fought the resulting fires but one tank car, felt to be in danger of exploding, had its cargo of vinyl chloride released and a “controlled explosion” was done. The result is here: When vinyl chloride burns, it produces hydrochloric acid (the same acid we make in our stomachs as part of digestion) and phosgene, a poisonous gas used in World War I. The plume above undoubtedly contains those chemicals and many others. I would be terr

  A few years ago I read Stephen Novella’s The Skeptic Guide to the Universe . Novella is an academic neurologist at Yale whose Wikipedia entry is a worthwhile read itself. His book is a compendium of how our brains are hard-wired to delude us as we experience the world. It consists of short chapters on a myriad of cognitive biases that all of us possess. A good example is pareidolia, defined as “ the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern ”. This is why we see such things as the man on the moon or faces on Mars, as this image captured by the Viking I spacecraft in 1976 as it flew past Mars: Our ancestors evolved as a vulnerable species on the savannas of Africa where it was better to alert to potential dangers rather than to fail to alert and become a meal. I sometimes amuse myself by peering closely at the marble countertops in our apartment and “seeing” a face in miniature peering back at me. Of course, this is all randomne

  Margan and I do a Current Events presentation every 2 weeks here at MonteCedro which is quite well attended and usually sparks a lively discussion. She is working on the next one which will look at water, specifically the Colorado River and the looming fight over the compact that deals with water rights to that stream. Despite the recent atmospheric river events that produced flooding and mudslides, those rains did not do much to dent our prolonged drought. Although an estimated 24 trillion gallons of water fell across California (rain and snow), 80% went into the Pacific Ocean quickly. We remain behind on infrastructure projects that can capture and retain water; instead, we have concrete channels from the early 20th century intended to prevent floods.  Humans have ways to change the landscape that prevent runoff. These measures include check dams, swales, and terraces and incorporating reforestation and organic farming to hold water in the ground. That water permeates aquifers whe