I s l e o f S o d o r
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y
J A C O B !
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y 🎂 T O Y O U !
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Friday, July 10, 2026
Sunday, July 5, 2026
Saturday, July 4, 2026
Earth
U N I V E R S E
The beginning of everything was about 14 billion years
ago. Creation. The Big Bang. From inside an infinitely
small speck of existence came forth all that we know
of the universe today. Conventional wisdom among
scientists fifty years ago was that the universe is infinite
and time has neither a beginning or an end.
That idea was thrown out once we discovered that
the galaxies and stars are not static. Our Milky Way,
along with the trillion other galaxies of the known
universe, is rapidly moving away from the theoretical
creation point of existence. Hmm. What was the
nature of existence prior to the Big Bang? Anything?
A previous universe, perhaps, that collapsed from
its own weight into nothing. Or was there a timeless
existence of null until there suddenly wasn't.
Mathematics won't solve this equation because
we don't know the variables. What is it we are
dealing with? Science or philosophy?
S O L A R S Y S T E M C R E A T I O N
The universe had existed nearly ten billion years
before a galactic cloud of dust began to coalesce
into our sun and its entourage of planets, comets
and asteroids. The four planets closest to the
sun's gravitational pull - Mercury, Venus, Earth
and Mars - consist primarily of metals and the
heavier elements. The gas giant planets -
Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus - consist
mainly of the lighter elements.
The dust cloud itself contains the particles of stars
that exploded once their nuclear reaction had run
its course. This is a process of renewal practiced
at the galactic scale. Stars are born from an accretion
of matter in a vacuum. A nuclear reaction occurs
giving the star a lifespan of energy. Depleted stars
may explode. The matter they release is now
available for new creations... stars, nebula,
galaxies, black holes, dark matter, and more waiting
to be discovered.
M O O N C R E A T E D F R O M E A R T H
Early in the formation of our solar system, Theia,
a planet nearly the size of Mars, collided with the
still molten Earth. The enormous quantity of magma
thrown into space resulted in the formation of
Earth's moon - itself a planetary object almost
the size of Mercury. It also rotated twice as close
to the Earth as it now does. We would be startled
by the size of the moon in the sky when it passes
so near to where we stand. Luner Phobia would
skyrocket.
H A D E A N E R A - H E L L O N E A R T H
The first half billion years on Earth consisted of
oceans of molten rock bombarded with asteroids.
Eventually the planet cooled enough to have the
beginnings of a crust form on the surface.
Volcanos were then believed to be prevalent.
This was a time of extreme heat, toxic gases
and planetary turbulence. Nothing from this
time has survived this period of constant upheaval.
S T R O M A T O C I T E - F I R S T F O S S I L S
It took a billion years from Earth's creation before
the first evidence of life appeared. A lot had to happen
before there could be life. The crust the planet needed
to support life required the surface to cool. Eventually
the thick vapor atmosphere would condense into rain.
After a few million years of rainfall the Earth's surface
will be covered in oceans.
Here was nature's nursery for invention.
There is no way of knowing how many failed
molecular attempts at producing life occurred
before something clicked and the enterprise
of life was off and running. Sort of.
It took another half billion years before life
discovered the performance advantage
displayed by cells with a nucleus.
Random trial and error over a million generations
is the method of genetics, DNA, the molecular
code providing life.
C A M B R I A N E X P L O S I O N O F L I F E
For the next two billion years the Earth's oceans
remained a soup of mostly single cell organisms.
Then multicell life appeared about 560 million
years ago. Individual cells organize to create
something greater. The various cells of the organism
had different specialized tasks. They become
dependent on the whole. It was the more efficient
path for survival.
This development brings about an explosion
of life forms that radiate out through the
Cambrian Era. The types of organisms
became increasingly specialized, and became
a part of increasingly sophisticated habitats.
Most every animal type alive today can trace
their creation back to this Cambrian period.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Happy Anniversary Marcela/Jeremy
T H E F O U R T H
H a p p y A n n i v e r s a r y !
M a r c e l a a n d J e r e m y
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l o v e
K a r e n a n d T o m
Sunday, June 28, 2026
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Yellowstone
G R A N D P R I S M A T I C S P R I N G
Yellowstone sits atop an enormous dome of magma
that comes to within three miles of breaking through
to the Earth's surface, which would create lava flows
or even a volcano of historic size. The heat generated
from this vault of intensely hot rock, fuels all of the
iconic geysers and hot springs you see at Yellowstone.
The temperature of the pond water above, reaches to
over 180 degrees at its center, where it is blue like the
sky. It is also empty of life. The pond's color bands
indicate the type of bacteria that thrives best in a specific
temperature range. The colors are pigments that act
as sunscreen to protect the particular species of bacteria.
As you see above, the waters cool as they radiate away
from the pond's central heating.
B I S O N E L K F A C E O F F
A newborn calf is standing and able to run within
minutes of being born. Welcome to the life of a bison,
a herd always on the move in search of prairie grass,
a diet both tough to digest and with little nutritional value.
Yet it is the staple of North America's largest mammal
because it's a hardy plant. It survives severe drought
and long snow covered winters. Most important,
prairie grass can handle the trampling it gets from
herds of buffalo by the tens of thousands
passing through.
W O L F
A wolf pack is a highly structured family made up of
breeding parents and their multigenerational offspring.
Wolf stamina enables the pack to pursue its prey
for days, all the while harassing their target with
lunging bites.
It's a dangerous business for a
hundred pound dog to take on a large animal
such as an elk, moose or buffalo, even if the dog
has partners. You occasionally lose a dog going
after big meals, but when you work as a pack
you need more than rabbits to fill up the group.
O S P R E Y
They mate for life. For the next twenty years they will
come back to the same nest to raise another family.
If food is tight one year they will favor the larger,
more dominant nestling, to increase the chance
that one chick survives. This tough choice has already
been made by instinct. The animal responds to instinct
because it feels right. It's intuitive.
Starve the smaller.
P R A I R I E R A T T L E S N A K E
Your eyes aren't too big for your stomach
if you have the remarkable unhinged jaw.
Now you can safely swallow the neighbor's dog
in a single bite. Of course, you will have to reengineer
your neck and digestive tract to accommodate
a large dog decomposing.
With luck, you will pass him in a few short weeks.
G R I Z Z L Y B E A R
Grizzly's rely on their salmon summer diet in order to
build the fat reserves they will need to survive winter
and its six months without eating.
A pregnant grizzly will abort its embryo in the autumn
if its body determines there is insufficient fat available
to sustain both mom and cub through hibernation.
The overriding priority of DNA is survival.
Life continues only through reproduction.
Saving the female provides another
opportunity for future birth of new life
and the continuance of DNA.
* * * * *
© Tom Taylor
OVER EASY
Sunday, June 21, 2026
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