United States of Chaos

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The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. - Isaac Asimov

Wednesday thoughts

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A parallel Universe?

    I bet you've been reading the news lately, I have. I have actually never really been into politics that much, well maybe certain issues, but there are a lot of things I don't understand when it comes to politics, so I stay in behind the scenes. To be honest I have no clue if this government and president (ok I know for a certain fact they are VERY different) are any different from previous governments and presidents. I mean, I know a whole lot more about the government and politics now, compared to what I knew a couple of months ago. I listen more, I try to read more and so on. But how can I be sure that the reason I am doing this is because of all the hiatus that is going on right now, were there similar (OK maybe not THAT similar, but still...) issues that happened behind the scenes of the previous government and president, that I didn't know about, because the sources I read and listen to weren't upset or thought that things were wrong? (I know, I  know, probably not...)

Be careful which way you lean

    Unfortunately I am leaning more to one side (left, democrats), rather than another, and the problem that arise, when you lean in either direction, is that you tend to read news that are somewhat leaning towards your side of view, you listen to news and friends that are leaning in the same direction as you. The problem here is that you almost never quite understand why and how someone can NOT agree with you, or can lean the other way. I think it is really important (as hard as it is) to try an read other news sources (BUT what are the other reliable news sources please help me out?) in order to get a more nuanced view of the world (no not that view, not changing the concept of for instance evolution etc, but just get a different point of view). 

    I have been listening to many many podcasts, to get a better understanding of the current situation, well the current view of left leaning (mostly) podcasts. Here are a few of the podcasts I follow:

The guardian posted an article not long ago that covered some popular podcasts, left, right and alt-right if you want to know more about the other side:

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/18/podcasts-trump-presidency-political-left-right-alt-right

When it comes to articles these are the major ones I usually check:

http://www.motherjones.com/

https://www.theatlantic.com/

http://www.amerikaanalys.se/

What do you read or listen to about the political situation?

Natures Magical World

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Diamond Dust

Flashback Friday

Sun dogs and Diamond dust

    When the temperatures drop enough ice crystals form and together with some sun we get these beautiful sund dogs around the sun. If you are lucky enough, you can see part of this ring (the sund dog) right in front of you. This phenomenon is also called diamond dust, because obviously that is what it looks like. 

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Sun dog

Skiing

    These pictures makes me miss the snow and cold weather a lot. Being able to ski every day, in one way or another. I could choose between biking (as long as the temps were not too low since I never winterized my bike) or ski to school. The morning commute was always worse than the afternoon, not because of the cold, but because of the darkness and moose. Imagine skiing into a dark forest on narrow skitrails at 7 in the morning. Sure, a headlamp helps, but the forest is really dark at that hour. In Alaska you loose about 6 minutes of daylight leading up to equinox, however after that you start to gain several minutes per day. So, before you know it, the mornings are light and soon the summer arrives, well after like 4 months.. 

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Aurora Borealis

    Fairbanks is the main hot spot for Aurora in the whole world. I can say that the last year I saw aurora almost every day, to the point where I chose when I wanted to get up and out in the cold to take pictures depending on social media and live aurora cams. Now, of course, I really really miss having this opportunity, I mean even just going to pee in the middle of the night (to the outhouse) and look up and see this magical phenomenon going on. It's out of this world.

Aurora

Northern Lights

Magical Lights

    I have a deep connection with sunrises and sunsets. Nowadays I seldom get the opportunity to take as beautiful pictures as the one below, because I do not have that view while leaving work any more. 

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    What is your favorite thing about nature? Have you ever seen Diamond Dust?

Cli·mate Change

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Thermokarst

"This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, soundtracks, cartoons, photographs—to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance." - George Orwell - 1984

Wednesday Thoughts

    The past few days has made me sick to my stomach over and over again. It makes me so sad that a person with no interest of the environment, now is the leader of such a large country as USA. It makes me upset when people don't seem to understand the consequences with this man in power, a man who over and over again tweets out nonsense and put gags on agencies that studies and/or supports climate science. Human caused climate change IS TRUE, it's not an alternative fact, IT IS A FACT. There is no debate in it when 97% of the per reviewed articles on climate change states that the change in climate is caused by humans.  There is something fundamentally wrong when tweeting climate facts is called "going rogue" at the same time as choosing alternative facts as the truth is completely ok. 

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/048002

    Do you have any thoughts?