Population density

I'm fascinated by population density maps. Here are a few interesting ones I've come across:

Population density of Africa:

Population density of Australia:

This is something called the Yuxi Circle, the world’s most populated area:

Here's a photo taken by NASA of the Iberian Peninsula at night.

Here's what the population of New York City would look like if it were spread out according to current population density in the red areas.

Here's a similar depiction of Los Angeles County's population:

And Chicago's:

Here's Australia's population, split in half.

Here's another view of Australia's population.

How about states with a smaller population than Los Angeles County:

Apparently 50% of Canada's population lives south of the red line:

Look at all the empty places in New Zealand:

How about this? (The red nation is Bangladesh.)

Or this:

This link gives world population densities.

And this fascinating website allows you to drag-and-drop to compare the true size of one country against another.

So there you go. Just some food for thought for the week ahead.

Lest we forget

Never forget.

No hot water

Our water heater went kaput a week ago.

At first Don thought he could get away with replacing just the heating element (singular; it only has one element), but quickly realized he couldn't disconnect it. Arrggh.

So we bit the bullet and ordered a replacement water heater. For good measure, we also ordered a small portable propane water heater as well, as a future backup.

But as you can guess, with the current supply-chain issues, neither item is scheduled to be delivered for several more weeks. Whee!

Nor could we purchase either item "off the shelf." We called various places (home improvement stores, hardware stores, etc.) in an ever-widening radius around us to no avail. Because we live in a manufactured home, the water heater had to be a certain size and have only one heating element (a second heating element would likely fry our electrical system).

So, we wait. Fortunately, due to past experiences with water woes, we were ready.

First of all, this faithful tea kettle is seeing a lot of use. I heat a kettle of water, add it to cold water, and use the resulting warm/hot water to wash dishes (though rinsed in cold water).

But the biggest help has been these solar shower bags, one of our better purchases in years past. We have a two-gallon and a three-gallon size.

However since the weather is (finally!) getting cooler, the bags tend to cool off before we're ready to take our evening showers. So the faithful tea kettle is pressed into service once more, as we add a kettle-full of hot water to the coolish water in the shower bags.

It's a little inconvenient for Older Daughter and I to wash our long hair with these shower bags, but we're making do. We're just grateful beyond words we have them, especially since it's going to be several more weeks before we get the water heaters delivered.

Still, we'll be glad when we have hot water again. It's definitely something we take for granted until it's not available.

The sentinel

Early one morning I glanced out the window and noticed one of our trees had acquired a new shape.

Here's a close-up.

I'm fond of owls, having spent many years surveying various species during my days as a field biologist. However we seem to have far fewer great-horned owls here than at our last home, which is why I was pleased to see this sentinel on the property.

Of course, I may feel differently when we get chickens again ... though rest assured, their nights will be spent locked inside a coop for just such a reason.

I spent a few minutes admiring the visitor before it flew off. The sun was close to rising, and doubtless it was heading out for a day of rest. Au revoir.

Rest in peace, Queen Elizabeth

I just learned that Queen Elizabeth has passed away.

Rest in peace, your majesty.

The preparedness paradox

Today I learned about something called the "preparedness paradox," which means preparing for a danger (an epidemic, natural disaster, etc.) can keep people from being harmed by that danger. Since people didn't see negative consequences from the danger, they wrongly conclude that the danger wasn't bad to start with.

I had never heard of this paradox before, but I told Don the first thing that came to mind was the economic crash of 2008. It entirely passed us by. In fact, I was inclined to dismiss its impact since we weren't affected. It really wasn't until much later that I realized how bad it was and how many people were financially devastated.

Breezing through 2008 wasn't a "planned" thing for us; it just happened. There were a number of factors behind this, the two primary ones being (a) we had several diverse work-from-home income streams, so we weren't financially affected; and (b) we had low living expenses due to an extremely frugal lifestyle.

Here's another example of the Preparedness Paradox. Don mentioned a friend of his who worked in the tech sector during the Y2K scare. So many people mocked Y2K as a big "nothing burger," but this tech friend absolutely disagreed. He said they did  a lot of controlled test runs on their legacy systems and they crashed big-time. Had that frantic work not taken place, the results would have been devastating for their large company and a lot of other tech firms. But since those not directly involved in the tech sector were largely unaware of the behind-the-scenes activity, they wrongly concluded Y2K was No Big Deal.

The Wikipedia article uses the example of levees: "Levees are structures which run parallel to rivers and are meant to offer protection from flooding. Paradoxically, their construction leads to a reduced awareness of and preparation for floods or breaches. The perception of safety also leads to unsafe land development in the floodplain which is supposed to be protected by the levee. Consequently, when a flood does occur or the levee breaches, the effects of that disaster will be greater than if the levee had not been built."

Needless to say, the "Preparedness Paradox" is not something to feel smug about. In fact, it's just the opposite: It's a warning not to get too complacent about one's situation.

I find this whole "Preparedness Paradox" an interesting concept. Everyone should make an effort to have, already in place, the necessary responses to the natural disasters to which their area is prone (wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, etc.). It's better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. But does doing so make us less likely to anticipate and therefore handle an emergency?

Have you fallen prey to the Preparedness Paradox? If so, how?

Fresh hot turkey

We've had some lingering hot days here in north Idaho. Want proof? Here's some fresh hot turkey. Notice the upraised wings (for ventilation) and the open beak (for panting).

Even the gangly babies were panting.

These photos were taken a few days ago, and thankfully the worst of the heat appears to be over.

Then, of course, the fresh hot turkeys we've been seeing will have to prepare to face a whole different set of challenges: cold and snow.

Eh, it's a turkey's life.

The Big Six-Oh

Holy cow, today is my 60th birthday.

We don't celebrate birthdays in our family, so we're not doing anything special: pouring concrete footings for Older Daughter's porch, more organizing in the barn as we select which items will get sold at a yard sale, and cleaning house. Hey, it's all gotta get done.

But you know what? I don't feel 60. I feel much younger.

Still, at this age I've acquired what could best be described as "history." The other day I got an early-birthday phone call from one of my dear friends from college, Kelly. She and her husband are retired and living in Arizona, and her children are far-flung and living their own lives. We caught up with each other and marveled over the fact that we've known each other since we were eighteen. Over four decades of friendship! We both agreed (since she's the same age) that this is a pretty nice age to be.

So I'm off to finish drinking my tea. Then we'll take the dog for a walk, and I'll help Don pour some concrete footings. Ta ta!

Danger in the strawberry bed

This is one of my strawberry beds. Notice anything unusual?

Here, let me zoom in a bit:

This lady seems to have made the strawberry bed her territory. I see her almost every day. I don't see her when I'm brushing through the plants looking for ripe berries; but boy howdy, whenever I water the plants, she comes racing to the top of the leaves, boiling mad at getting wet.

I can almost hear the stream of four-letter words issuing from her mouth at the indignity of getting soaked.

Praying mantises are vicious hunters, so I like having her in my strawberry bed. What better way to keep unwanted insects at bay?

I really should think of a name for her. Gertrude, perhaps? That seems too tame somehow....

Dance for them in heaven

When I was much younger (and slimmer), I danced with (what was then called) the Crockett Ballet Company, the feeder company to the Sacramento Ballet. I had daily lessons, of course, most of which were taught by the incomparable Barbara Crockett, founder of the Sacramento Ballet. This would have been in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

I spent years taking lessons from her as well as some of the Sacramento Ballet's premier dancers. (One of my favorite dancers and instructors was Diane McLarty, who later went on to found the Santa Cruz Ballet Theater.) I auditioned for and barely missed being accepted into the Sacramento Ballet company, then under the direction of Ron Cunningham. (I aced the audition, but my rejection letter – which I still have – specified their desire to accept young dancers, and cited my "advanced" age of 27 as the grounds for my rejection. Grrr, I'm still salty about that.)

Anyway, I very much liked Barbara. She was a strict and demanding instructor, but managed to pull the best out of her students. At the time she was my teacher, she was in her 70s, but you'd never know it.

Then Don and I moved to Oregon, and later to Idaho, and I fell away from the ballet world. I literally hadn't thought of Barbara Crockett in years.

Then last night, for whatever reason, I thought I'd look her up. She died two weeks ago. Two weeks! What are the odds I should think of her and look her up just after her passing?

It seems she passed away a month before her 102nd birthday from complications after a fall that broke her hip.

Godspeed, Barbara. Dance for them in heaven.