Three Questions, March 14, 2025

Posted on March 15, 2025 by Michael Kane

The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to. ~ Carl Sandburg

Three Questions, March 14, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

The most beautiful thing I encountered today was an amazing shot of the lunar eclipse by @kyleforemanphoto on Threads.

What did I learn today?

I read about a super cool experiment today. Scientists in Italy turned froze light into a super solid. A super solid is a solid that can flow like a liquid with little or no friction. They turned energy into a solid, super cool and has big potential for quantum computing.

What made me happy today?

What made me happy today was having one of the lowest blood sugar readings I’ve had in some time. Important because I need to be in a certain rage to keep my April surgery on track.

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Three Questions, March 13, 2025

Posted on March 14, 2025 by Michael Kane

We’re all going to die, all of us; what a circus! That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities. We are eaten up by nothing. ~ Charles Bukowski

Three Questions, March 13, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

It’s been a rainy week here, but the sun broke out this afternoon and I took my walk on campus. Looking out over the Pacific Ocean with a nice breeze and Ravens crackling in the trees was the most beautiful thing I encountered today.

What did I learn today?

Today I learned that this year is the 100th anniversary of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Given it’s about to be peak Appalachian Trail hiking season, seemed like an appropriate thing to learn and brought back a lot of feelings about my own AT hike.

What made me happy today?

Although I had some great food in the fridge I had a craving after my ultrasound procedure today and decided to make a Buster burger. My grandfather, until I was born was called Buster and his Buster burgers were patties made of half ground beef, half ground Italian sausage. I’ve added my own twist and made them into pizza burgers with a double stack of provolone, pepperoni and tomato sauce, so good and thinking of my POW, what I changed his name to, always makes me happy. And appropriate, his birthday is in two days.

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Three Questions, March 12, 2025

Posted on March 13, 2025 by Michael Kane

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. ~ Stephen Hawking

Three Questions, March 12, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I saw today?

The most beautiful thing I saw today was an image of a nebula, Lynds 483, also known as the twin fires nebula, so beautiful.

What did I learn today?

I just learned today that hermit crabs will actually group up if they find a new shell, and do shell swaps so every crab has the best sized shell. Pretty cool level of cooperation.

What made me happy today?

Viewing the total lunar eclipse, just kidding, I live in the Bay Area so of course it’s raining tonight. What made me happy today was a decent blood sugar level, hopefully the first of many.

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Three Questions, March 11, 2025

Posted on March 12, 2025 by Michael Kane
sunset

People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure. ~ David Attenborough

Three Questions, March 11, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

As I was heading out to my car a young mother was holding her two or three year-old daughter. The little girl was completely mesmerized by the sky with the most amazing look on her face. Looking up I realized this must have been the first time she ever saw a big jet making contrails across the sky.

What did I learn today?

Today I learned about the 1906 Denmark Expedition, it’s goal was to finally map the last part of Greenland which it did. However it was a perilous and incredible expedition including long periods of isolation and near madness for the team.

What made me happy today?

I have a cold, I ended working from home today and was totally wasted tired, but getting out and going to the grocery store and seeing the bright sun shining over the bay made me happy.

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Three Questions, March 10, 2025

Posted on March 11, 2025 by Michael Kane

You are a ghost driving a meat covered skeleton made from stardust riding a rock floating through space. Fear nothing. ~ Nev Shulman

Three Questions, March 10, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

New James Webb Space Telescope photos released today, the images are simply breathtaking.

What did I learn today?

There’s been a long debate about what the moon is composed of, turns out it’s not cheese, at least not inside the moon. There have been lots of theories including that the moon was hollow and that of course led to conspiracy theories that it’s a space craft or alien base. But it turns out, it’s very similar to Earth, a solid dense core with movement under the crust, denser parts moving to the center.

What made me happy today?

Today I made corned beef and cabbage, always love this meal, made me happy to make it, even happier to eat it.

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Don’t Let Others Steal Your Happiness

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Michael Kane

Since Auschwitz, we know what man is capable of. And since Hiroshima, we know what is at stake. ~ Viktor E Frankl

Don’t Let Others Steal Your Happiness

In our society we have this funny relationship with talking about ourselves. When you talk to folks from other countries they often refer to how much Americans brag about themselves and our country. We strike people from other countries and being very bold. However in our society, if you talk proudly about your characteristics or accomplishments we really look down on those types of discussions. We will call that person full of themselves, arrogant, stuck up, etc…. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a woman once, she was one of our students and while meeting with me she went off on a tangent about her child. Her child had just won a science competition and was being invited to participate in a prestigious summer program and you could see how proud she was of her child. Then she suddenly got apologetic about bragging about her child and kept apologizing. I stopped her and let her know that it was perfectly fine for her to talk about her child’s achievements.

We all have things that we are happy and proud about in terms of who we are as a person. We should be proud of those features and aspects of our lives. We can’t let others diminish those aspects of who we are and especially what makes us happy. Often others want to pull you down because they’re unhappy and selfishly they don’t want others to be happy. Sometimes people pull you down because they’re jealous that you have something they don’t or because they are competitive and feel like if you have something they don’t, then somehow they’re losing. Sometimes they just don’t understand why something makes you happy, because it’s not their thing. These are unfortunate but all too common perspectives in our culture.

What I’m suggesting tonight are two things. First, that you hang on to those things that make you feel good and happy about yourself, be proud of them and forgive yourself if for whatever reason those things make someone else feel less than, that’s their issue not yours. And second, extend grace in the other direction. Be happy for the good and happy things that other people have. It would be a much better world if we could all just be happier not just for ourselves, but also for the other people in our lives. So, be proud and be gracious and you’ll have happier days my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Three Questions, March 9, 2025

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Michael Kane

A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love. ~ Max Muller

Three Questions, March 9, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

Today the most beautiful thing I saw were the flowers I encountered on my walk.

What did I learn today?

Today a learned about the quantum phenomenon of negative time. The concept is basically this, it is a complete lack of order for cause and effect. So somehow, if you’re driving, you would come out of the tunnel, before you even go in. Quantum effects are freaky as all get out, none of the normal rules that we take for granted in physics hold at the quantum level. And increasingly, evidence continues to show that at least at the quantum level, time is likely not linear.

What made me happy today?

The sunset happening at 7PM, the start of daylight savings time, made me happy.

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Three Questions, March 8, 2025

Posted on March 9, 2025 by Michael Kane

Three Questions, March 8, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

Today while driving I drove by a 1962 Volkswagen Bug, it was absolutely gorgeous. First one I’ve seen in some time and I forgot how absolutely tiny they are.

What did I learn today?

Scientists have made a significant breakthrough in artificial skin, making a hydrogel that has the three most amazing qualities of skin, strength, flexibility and the ability to self-heal. One of the most interesting possible uses is in developing the skin of robots, very cool.

What made me happy today?

At times you have an idea for dinner and throw it together and sometimes it really comes together well, tonight was one of those nights. I made a sandwich with leftover pork tenderloin, coleslaw, a little bbq sauce and pickles and holy moly it was fantastic.

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Three Questions, March 7, 2025

Posted on March 8, 2025 by Michael Kane

Three Questions, March 7, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

The most beautiful thing I encountered today was a comment on Threads from Stonekettle. It was rude and hysterical and made me laugh so hard for several minutes that I almost had to delay starting a meeting because I couldn’t compose myself.

What did I learn today?

Today I read an interesting article about the discovery of bone tools that parallel stone tools, dated a million years earlier than any that have ever been found before. A couple of weeks ago the oldest ever wood structure ever found and it was hundreds of thousands of years earlier than any found previously. It’s a pet peeve and theory of mine, we always underestimate the sophistication and skills of primitive peoples. It’s what leads to things like Ancient Alien hypotheses.

What made me happy today?

I did my quarterly blood sugar blood tests today and as I do I allowed myself a good cheat day, some really great chicken enchiladas, a coke and a chocolate chip muffin.

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Three Questions, March 6, 2025

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Michael Kane

Three Questions, March 6, 2025

You can find the background to The Three Questions in my recent post about it. I’ll be answering the questions each day for the next year and putting this experience into a book. Here we go!

What was the most beautiful thing I encountered today?

I find toddlers hysterical so I follow several accounts on Instagram of families with cute and funny kids. Today I saw a video of a two year-old who figured out how to open a cage they had a chicken in and crawled in and decided to set up shop with the chicken, it was hysterical.

What did I learn today?

What I learned today, is that there is actually good pizza in Scotland. Read an article about great worldwide pizza places and there’s a New Haven style pizza place in Edinburgh. From the images it very much looks like the real deal.

What made me happy today?

One of my nephews posted some photos of himself and his high school basketball team and my very tall nephew now has a mustache and beard and bloody looks twenty-two. Made me happy to see him looking so well.

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