Lake Forest: the other Webb; David McCullough: a successful diet; wild flowers

I felt quite honored until someone told me the sign is not for me, but the other Webb, the James Webb Space Telescope.  Disappointed again.

By chance Carol and I saw James launch live on television last Christmas Day.  Last evening we watched a fascinating Nova episode about its development, launch, and deployment a million miles above Earth.  I highly recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF-7eKtzAHM

A few of our species are very clever.  There were if I recall correctly 344 individual fail points in the launch and deployment of the telescope.  All the planning, all the construction, all the calculations had to be perfect.  They were.

As I had forgotten the Hubble telescope was found to be out of focus after it was launched, but it was within range of astronauts who were able to reach and repair it.  The James Webb is far beyond astronaut range.  

The project cost ten billion dollars, far more than the original estimate, and was years behind schedule.  I am reminded of the former Illinois senator, Evert Dirkson, who reportedly said several decades ago, “A billion here.  A billion there.  And soon you are talking about real money.”

I do not begrudge the cost of the James Webb.  I am in favor of the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake without any practical application even when it tends to demonstrate our own insignificance.

For that matter ten billion dollars is not all that much today.  I goggled the list of the world’s richest people.  The one I found only showed the top thirty, starting with Elon Musk at number one with 251 billion to MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife, with 41 billion.  Any one of these people as well as several more could have paid for the entire project and never even missed the money.

If you have any exposure at all to the news you know that Olivia Newton John died yesterday.  You probably don’t know that David McCullough, the author and historian, died the day before.  I  saw four separate articles about Olivia Newton John’s death on Apple News this morning.  One, far down the screen, about David McCullough.  I like Olivia Newton John and regret that she or anyone suffers as I expect she did.  But I admire David McCullough more.  Celebraty rules.  But that is not news.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/08/08/david-mccullough-dead-american-history/

I weigh myself each morning just after I get up.  Four days ago I was horrified to see that I had gained a pound and a half.  I want the scale to read just under 153 pounds.  Almost always it does.  But I was confronted two mornings in a row with an undeniable 154.  So I went on a diet.  And I am proud to say that the past two mornings I have seen a satisfying 152.6 and 152.5.  I really don’t see why there is so much fuss about dieting.  It is easy.  I gave up ice cream.  Nothing to it.

After a front went through over the weekend the upper flatlands have been delightful.  In the 60s F this morning, high teens C, so I went for a long bike ride.  In t-shirt and shorts I was almost too cool at the start, but I warmed up.  There are several fine bike paths around Lake Forest.  The one I took today is lined for miles by wildflowers.  Lovely.