Of tardigrades and why death is like chocolate ice cream.

Scanning electron micrograph of a tardigrade (water bear). Image: Eye of Science/Science Source

I haven't had the chance to watch much Cosmos (Sundays at 9pm on FOX, which is also bath time for the girls), but I have caught a bit, and although most of it is a beautifully animated review of popular science, there are some things I didn't know:

* Uruk is cognate with Iraq.

* The tardigrade (water bear) has survived all earth's extinctions and even trips into space.

* Water is chemically a catalyst.

[2014-05-22]

c0

Sometimes when I look in the mirror, I don't see myself, I see Dad, and I see him in bed, tired and thinning and dying.

I don't think of him as being dead, however, just not around right now, which is something quite different; and I don't have to convince myself to feel this way, I simply do, and don't question it.

Like him, I have no fear of what someday awaits. I can't explain it, it just is.

Just as one might say they like chocolate ice cream. Why do you like chocolate ice cream? you ask. I don't know. I just know I do. Does it matter why?

[2014-05-23]

c0