In the best world, kids would not need hospitals

noGrandson Joe has been in the hospital for a few days with an infection that's dug deep into his system. The good folks at UMass have kept him comfortable much of the time, but he's had a really rough go of it. This past evening, his fever spiked.
Mike and Lynn have been with him around the clock, taking time away for a quick trip home for a shower, perhaps a nap, and a check on the other kids. We're fortunate to be just across town. Our chores have been modest: a ride to there or elsewhere for one of the kids, evening meals for whomever is home, 'n stuff like that.
And, amid the claustrophobic tedium of two MRIs, the severe pain, and the loss of his football season, Joe remains polite to the staff and grateful to family and friends.
Joe's is not the worst case in the hospital. There are kids on the ward who probably won't go home again. Still, I hope that the other parents and grandparents will understand that, as much as we empathize and share their sadness, this is our only Joe and that's where our thoughts and energies are focused.
There are explanations of why these things happen to kids, but there are never any good ones.

To my family and congressional delegation

If it's all the same to you, after I die, I wouldn't mind it if you didn't name an ice field after me. A park, maybe, or even just a rock would be fine.
Then again, the family of Sen. Ted "Tubes" Stevens is quite pleased at S.3802, the  Mount Stevens and Ted Stevens Icefield Designation Act.
Here's the icefield:

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More on sleep, Chile, work, and compassion

It's a line of context, but Dylan is good for that:

Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin' to be so quiet?
Visions Of Johanna 

As I've mentioned often before, I have a type of insomnia that my mother had. I sleep for a while and then am awake for several hours during the night. Generally, I get back to sleep in the early morning and, with a nap in the early afternoon, do ok.
Two nights ago, I dreamed that I slept a full night. I woke enthusiastically and was then disappointed to learn that it was one in the morning. This past night, I dreamed that I couldn't sleep. I woke at the same time, quietly restarted the fire in the stove (quietly so that I wouldn't wake the dog who no longer sleeps on his bed near the stove) and listened to the BBC coverage of Chilean mine rescue.
As I've very often said, whatever it is that I do, I work hard, but what I do isn't hard work. The major challenge I've had in my work is that I turned my desk 90^° so the afternoon sun isn't shining in my eyes. I didn't have to wait 10 weeks for someone to drill through 700m of stone to rescue me.
Nevertheless, I've found that comparisons rarely help me change how I feel about my situation. In the early 1980s, I went to a doctor with symptoms that I now know were the early signs of depression. "What have you got to be depressed about?" the doctor said. "Look at all those people who are losing their jobs in Detroit." Now I had three things to feel bad about - my initial symptoms, the people in Detroit, and the fact that I didn't feel bad enough about the people in Detroit.
Researchers have shown that different parts of the brain are activated when we show compassion or not in the presence of another's pain. In the sweet language of scientists, we learn that

The researchers concluded that empathy-associated activation of the anterior insula motivated costly helping, whereas a signal in the nucleus accumbens, a brain area related to reward processing, reduced the propensity to help.

via Competing motivational brain responses predict costly helping

I think that this means that the part of my brain that seeks rewards is less compassionate. This suggests that if I'm told that I should be nice to others because it's good for me, I'm less likely to be motivated to do so. Instead, if I perceive someone is part of my group, I'm already predisposed to be willing to relieve their pain.
That's a lot to ponder. And, as the guy says, "I may not be much, but I'm all that I think about."

Drudge Report unifies astronomy and politics

via

Bonus points: the article is on your favorite channel:

via Strange Signal Comes From Alien Planet, Scientist Says - FoxNews.com

Toward a theory of October and then away

I think that we had a bit of frost the other morning, but this morning's was more widespread. The outdoor thermometer sits about five feet from the ground and showed a low of 33 at 7:09 AM. Our wood stove keeps us cozy. We've not yet had to turn on the heat. It's October.
By month's end, the leaves will be down. There's an order to these things, seasons coming and going with a familiar rhythm.  The record high for this date was 86 in 1939. Two hundred years ago, there was a snow hurricane; heavy snow and brutal winds caught and killed many. Lows in three weeks will be, on average, six degrees lower, but not as low as the actual reading this morning. NECN meteorologist Tim Kelley often reminds us that weather averages are interesting, but rarely useful for anything going on today. Averages of big numbers can be useful for spotting trends, but are generally not applicable to an individual situation.
As Sandra and I sat at dinner this evening (she's doing fine after her cataract surgery this week), we took a moment to reflect. We thought about the people near to us, family and friends and neighbors, and of the many, many more who go about their lives, completely unaware of what's bringing joy or ache in our hearts. Everything that's so important to us, all of our loves and hopes and tears and dreams, means absolutely nothing to all but a few.
And this is why it's not good to brood too much. It's ok to watch the frost in the morning or the thumbnail moon at night, to listen to one of those hurts-so-good autumn songs. 

See the geese in chevron flight
Flapping and racing on before the snow

Urge For Going by Joni Mitchell

Just don't spend a lot of time chasing big answers. Big answers are like averages; they work for large numbers of people, but often aren't much help to you. My step-father, Linc, was a physician. He noted that, on average, every person has less than one testicle.

Bliss or BSOD?

For the über-nerds, 10-10-10 is 42 is base 2. 42, as we know, is the ultimate answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Therefore,   10/10/10 — a Nice Day To Celebrate the Meaning of Life.
Or will 10/10/10 prove to be the date that our computer systems grind to a halt.