Fragile Friday

Thanks to everyone who read the blog yesterday, which had the largest number of views for a day with only one post since late April. Threes And Sevens: 1963 did not actually receive an unusually high number of views, but the main page and this week’s Wandering Wednesday were clicked more than normal.

Once again, I ask that you let your friends know about this blog, share the URL, submit thoughtful comments and feel free to click on any ad in which you have genuine interest. Thanks again.

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This book was published in 1994. The title and topic seem prophetic, don’t they?

A tangent…my purchase of The Coming Plague was a source of tension between me and the young woman (ten years younger) I was dating at the time. I didn’t discover Amazon until 1999 so when I bought this book in 1996 I still frequented bookstores.

My girlfriend and I were out shopping and I insisted we stop in a Barnes and Noble. My reading tastes are exclusively non-fiction and, basically, always have been. When I pulled this book off the shelf my companion strenuously protested. She grabbed the book out of my hands and put it back on the shelf. She was not happy when I pulled the book off the shelf once again.

The Coming Plague is a sobering look at how, despite medical advances, pathogens almost always seem to be at least one step ahead of humans. The book also details how other advances, such as traveling by jet, come with a cost. Modern society is proud of its ability to visit almost anywhere on the globe, but that ability makes it possible for pathogens to spread quickly to all corners of the world. How does that saying go? NOTHING in life is all good or all bad; EVERYTHING is a trade-off.

Remember that the first super-spreader of the damn virus (COVID-19) in the US was the New York subway system. That is yet another of the countless examples of why those who want all of us to live in areas of high population density so we can “save the environment” are clueless like all of those who are blindly ideological.

I believe that the most likely cause of the extinction of the human race will be a virus that is spread via airborne transmission, has a long latency period and a very high mortality rate. If HIV could be spread that way that could have been the end of us. Don’t underestimate the fragility of the existence of any species, including humans.

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How about a more calming thought?

 

 

I took this photo yesterday around “sunset.” (The sun does not rise and set, of course; our planet spins on an axis with a full rotation about every 24 hours.) As is often the case, the scene looked better in three dimensions than it does in its two-dimensional representation. The left of the cloud was its western edge and in the lower right a little bit of Black Mountain is visible.

After living here for 19 months I still really marvel at the scenery. I hope that never stops.

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My wonderful wife and Philip Maynard–who are cousins, by the way–both passed along the info about Cadillac’s return to racing. Here is the link to the MotorTrend article about this and below two pictures of the car Cadillac will use.

 

 

From the MotorTrend piece:

 

“Cadillac revealed the car today [June 9], and it’s a gorgeous design, full of delicate touches and LED lighting that may or may not make it to the actual competition car. The taillights, in particular, recall a certain 1950s-era flourish that, while common to many American cars at the time was perfected and maximized by Cadillac. Face it: They look like tailfins—and there’s even a third tailfin standing vertically in the center, at the peak of the car’s dorsal fin. The ’50s, you’ll recall, are when the first Cadillacs raced at Le Mans.”

 

Is Cadillac returning to racing as part of its attempt to appeal to a younger demographic? In 1986, Cadillac sold more than 300,000 vehicles in the US. Sadly and scarily that figure was just 118,000 in 2021. I will once again offer the opinion of the power of halo cars and that Cadillac is best positioned to bring an American-made hyper-luxury car to the US market.

 

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