Michael C. Goodwin's Blog, page 7

All the Monoliths in the Universe

After starting my first job out of college, I discovered science fiction fandom. Doing art and especially cartoons for a fan publication then, turned into a mania, which has continued off and on for many years since. Being an occasional cartoonist has left me with an interesting perspective on things for good part of my life. I really didn’t realize how much it has impacted it until I was asked to provide some commentary about my cartooning to add to a recently published collection of some 40 years of cartoon work.

What I wrote in some 24 short essays, (essentially blogs like this one), was a mini-biography. I had no idea what I had done until the editor of the book strung a number of them together as prefaces to each of the five books that I did and were presented in the collection. My little biography was a revelation to me, I had never thought much about those early years of my work and life before. To stop and think about those times and how I got a newspaper cartoon strip and eventually five books of cartoons was an interesting moment for me. The realization that I also took my wife and child on a wild ride with me, for better or worse, was also an uncomfortable admission that I had to make to myself.

The book, ‘All the Monoliths in the Universe,’ plays off the title of my original book of cartoons, ‘Who Was That Monolith I Saw You With?’ All the Monoliths is actually all the cartoons I have done, some 600, over that period of my life with my intense love/hate relationship with cartooning. The most interesting part is, I am not sure that I am done with drawing cartoons yet. I have a tentative offer of publication for two proposed books of cartoons, one of which is a dinosaur cartoon strip that I did 50 cartoons as a test, many years ago to see how it would look. It was called ‘Dino Trek, An Unnatural History of the Mesozoic.’ I have always wanted to finish it and now perhaps I will. The second is another longtime project I have had on the books, (so to speak), titled ‘101 Great Moments in Science Fiction,’ humorous moments to be sure, but it could be fun. It might work out if I can just settle down and work on it, and also if I can possibly get past that love/hate thing about cartooning once again.

(‘All the Monoliths in the Universe’ is available from Hemelein Press at hemelein.com. They also have published a number of other great books and collections, it’s well worth a look.)

Seriously Funny

A very long time ago, I started doing some humorous pen and ink cartoons, almost by accident, for a fanzine in my early working days in Salt Lake. That turned into a book of cartoons, self published by a science fiction group I was involved with. Later it became a real book printed by a small publishing house, a newspaper cartoon strip and 4 more books eventually followed over a rather long time span. I also began to paint humorous mashup illustrations of the then current science fiction media, Star Trek, Star Wars and others. Along the way I was inspired by many different SF authors who delved into some great humor in their written works, here are a few that I greatly enjoy.

Douglas Adams is a great English author who wrote the amazingly funny, ‘Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy,’ along with many others in a similar vein. The 1979 book became a BBC 6- part series in 1981 and a full length movie in 2005. The catch-phrase from the book, ‘don’t panic,’ is still one of my leading guides to modern life. Another fantastic English author is Eric Frank Russel, who placed many hilarious situations within the body of his seemingly serious works. Two of his novels, ‘Wasp,’ 1958 and especially ‘Next of Kin,’ 1959 are simply marvelous. His award-winning short story, ‘Allamagoosa,’ 1955, is one of the best.

Another one of my favorite series is from American author, Harry Harrison. ‘The Stainless Steel Rat,’ first appeared in 1961 and follows the exploits of a futuristic con man and thief, Slippery Jim diGriz. 12 novels, all with tongue firmly in cheek, details the life and times of our reluctant thief turned special agent to fight crime in the future, somewhat. Connie Willis writes some of the most amazingly serious and brilliant science fiction these days. However, her 1997 novel, ‘To Say Nothing of the Dog,’ is simply comic gold. Time traveling historians find life in the Victorian age difficult to study and even harder to cope with.

Robert Asprin is an American writer known for his pun-laden, long running, MythAdventures series of fantasy novels and Phule’s Company series. Fredric Brown’s ‘Martians Go Home’ is definitely a must read. Larry Niven’s short story collection, ‘The Draco Tavern,’ is excellent. Terry Pratchett ‘Discworld’ novels are all wonderfully humorous. ‘Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers,’ by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor is the must read omnibus edition from ‘Red Dwarf,’ the popular SF television comic series, which is one of my all-time faves.

(Eric Frank Russel is definitely my favorite old-time SF writer, you can’t go wrong with reading any of his works. As I said before, his ‘Next of Kin,’ is brilliantly funny.)

Flying Objects

In the past few weeks, the U.S. has shot down 4 UFOs, (Unidentified Flying Objects). Okay, my apologies, I am showing my age, they are now known as UAPs, (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena). At any rate, they are flying things that are not supposed to be buzzing around our airspace. The first one, (February 4), was a well documented, Chinese surveillance balloon. The military waited until it was out over the ocean where falling debris would not be any danger to people on the ground. Some, or most of it was recovered from the water, no one is really saying so far. The other 3 were shot down over Canada and the U.S. and the descriptions of each are very vague for now.

UFO sightings have increased considerably from March, 2021 to August, 2022 with some 247 new reports, mostly from the U.S. Navy and Air Force. This is nearly an astonishing double the 144 UFO sightings in the last 17 years. Clearly something is going on. Of course, now, it is not such a stigma in reporting UFOs as it has been in the past. But perhaps, the military was concerned about secret aircraft, and wanted to discourage people from talking about things that they saw in the sky. Balloons are a very cheap way of overflying other countries. A large number of sightings, some 163 of them were balloon or balloon-like thingies in the sky while 26 were possibly unmanned aircraft or drones. Many others are admitted to have possibly been glitches due to equipment and faulty observation.

What could be a bit scary is that 171 UFO sightings were not easily explainable. They exhibited unusual performance and flight capabilities and many of these have been seen near sensitive military installations. Someone is interested in what we are doing militarily, and are not being overly cautious about snooping around. I have, of course, my own ideas. Over the years in my cartooning work, I have a character that is a UFO that buzzes around Earth, checking out our culture and observing our behavior. These benign visitors are endlessly fascinated by our many oddities and their remarks are a source of much amusement. Hopefully, that is all these sightings are, interested beings in our ability to resist an invasion or to, wait, what? No one is going to want our planet, we have messed it up to a serious degree, it would take an invading force too much money and effort to put things to right. So by my estimation, we are pretty safe for the time being. But you never know, Let’s hope that they keep shooting things down when they can find them, and making up good stories when they can’t.

(Shameless plug here. A new book of my collected cartoons from over the years is making a debut in another week. “All the Monoliths in the Universe” is available from Hemelein Press in Provo, Utah. It has almost 600 cartoons from 5 previous publications in one large book. Very fun stuff, if I say so myself.)

The History of the Future

When I was younger, (a long time ago), I was entranced by many visions of a future that our lives would become. Being a Baby Boomer, born of parents that had gone through the Great Depression and World War II, I grew up during the tremendous optimism of the late 50s and early 60s. In fact, the period between 1958 and 1963 is often described as the Golden Age of American Futurism. My young brain was filled with wild techno-utopian fantasies of what the U.S. and the World was about to become. And, there were many magazines, books, movies and the rapidly growing TV market, eager to show us the way to that future.

So what were some of these visions? To start with, there was the idea of glass domed houses and cities where the weather would not be a problem. Of course domed houses and cities would, like greenhouses, be rather warm, and we have already done that by injecting too much CO2 into the atmosphere. Larger yields and bigger crops were envisioned, but what to do with supersize veg and fruit? It still would have to be bite-sized at some point. Robotic warehouses where anything could be found in a matter of minutes and shipped out was an idea, but then Amazon is already pretty much there now. Home computers that would be shrunk down to the size of a spare bedroom was imagined, but we did much better by the 2020s, we have several computers the size of a book in our house now. Home offices, got that now. Video enhanced police protection, getting there. Robotic, bloodless surgery, working on that. Wristwatch communication with tiny TVs and other wearable devices has also been realized along with electronic home entertainment and other portable learning systems. Robotic butlers and cooks, not there yet. Wall to wall TV, getting closer. Weather control, nope. Space colonies on the moon, no. Jetpack mailmen, no. And the repugnant idea of using chimps and apes as slave labor, nope, nope, nope.

In 1957, the Federal Highway Act was passed, providing for 41,000 miles of a national system of interstate and defense highways that would make for speedy, safe, transcontinental travel, and carmakers took note. Some of the ideas of that time are most remarkable for the imaginative approaches they envisioned for the future of personal travel on these new freeways. To start with, flying cars. We might get there someday, and we wouldn’t need those freeways. Solar powered and electric cars, working on that. Driverless cars, ditto. Rocket transportation, I don’t like that idea much, let’s get back to supersonic aircraft. Quick-change car colors, now that’s an interesting idea, instead of buying a new one every few years. Cars that hovered on a cushion of air, but then what about braking? Computerized roadways were always a big idea for the future, though I haven’t heard much about that for a while. Walking cars that could go anywhere, hummm, it has possibilities. All in all, it doesn’t seem to matter what we can imagine for the future, it always turns out to be much stranger than fiction.

(Below, a 1960s concept of a modern 21st century car, all chrome with a bubble top windshield. Now that’s what I am talking about for the future.)

Year of the Rabbit

In a couple of days begins the Chinese New Year, it will be the Year of the Rabbit. Like the old Greek and Roman astrological signs there are 12 symbols. But instead of each one being for a specific time during the months of the year, there is a Chinese one each for a year in a 12-year cycle, and not only that, there is are 5 elements for different years of that symbol, so the cycle only completely repeats each 60 years. The symbols of the Chinese cycle are animals, starting in order; Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The five elements are; Earth, Fire, Wood, Water and Gold. The year I was born in makes me a Gold Rabbit.

This is a fortunate sign, a Gold Rabbit is said to be kind-hearted, conservative, lively and enthusiastic. When encountering difficulties, we don’t get discouraged and remain persistent to finding solutions to our work and generally able to achieve success. Rabbits are good with their hands and artistic. (Which is great, I have been an artist since childhood.) Unhappily, Rabbits in my birth year are predicted to have many challenges with frequent life changes. I am advised to be more careful about all aspects of my life in 2023. Since I am already worried about this year and the next, this is not very good news. But the Rabbit is closely related to the Goddess of the Moon, so is one of the most favored zodiac signs in Chinese astrology.

So where does this leave me? I like the Chinese view of life through their astrology, since it is more specific over a longer period of time. But I am also of a scientific mind and skeptical of all things to do with what amounts to fortune telling. I also don’t need a reminder to be careful during the coming year and like the old Chinese curse, we are living in interesting times. So I guess I will rely on my Rabbit lucky symbols, like the colors blue and green, wear red underwear and socks, and carry or wear lucky dog trinkets. (Wait, what? Red underwear? And I don’t even like dogs, aren’t they enemies of Rabbits?) This only gets more confusing if you look even closer to the specifics of my supposed horoscope. So why don’t we leave things as they are. I will just be careful for the year and take things as they come, like I normally do, (with fingers crossed and a lucky rabbits foot).

(This is a photograph of me taken at the Nagasaki, Japan, Lantern Festival in early March of 2007. I am standing next to a lantern of a Rabbit, my lucky astrological symbol.)

Making Sense of It

I have been writing this blog for almost exactly nine years now. In it, I thought to explore my work in art, writing and my interests in history and science. One of my greatest concerns, which has almost taken over this blog, is the power of global warming which is driving climate change on our small planet. I have struggled to try to understand what is occurring and what will happen to us as we continue to mostly ignore the effects that it will have on our daily lives. I have come to the conclusion that I have been looking at the problem in a slightly wrong way. The destruction of our planet is not the problem, the destruction of our civilization is indeed, the real issue.

Our planet, no matter how warm it becomes, will not destroy all life on it, we only have to look back in history. Following the extinction of the Dinosaurs, the climate began warming due to plate tectonics, volcanism, and shifts in ocean currents. This all resulted in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, 51-53 million years ago. CO2 in the atmosphere grew to more then four times the levels they are now. Earth became so warm that it is thought that all of the polar ice caps melted, resulting in a hothouse climate with fossils of alligators being found in latitudes as far north as Greenland. Earth is, however, very good at self-regulating. Because of the high levels of CO2, temperature and increased precipitation drove chemical weathering, along with ocean absorption, which has the effect of sequestering excess CO2. Levels began to decline and this had the effect of slowing the processes, keeping our planet’s climate is an agreeable habitable range. And even with 5 or 6 known mass extinction events over the last 600 million years, life on our planet has always recovered and eventually thrived again.

The problem is that we don’t have millions of years for the Earth to self-regulate, we have much less then a century. With 8 billion people, we have outstripped the ability to substantially maintain our civilization. With too many people, too much consumption and our unending mania for growth, we are headed for some pretty serious problems. We are intimately tied to our world, its habitats, its plant and animal life and the very air and water we breathe and drink. If we continue to overheat our planet and degrade our environment, it will cause breakdowns in the food chain, soil infertility, water quality and the ability to provide for an ever-growing population. We ourselves are not sustainable. In order to maintain our lifestyle, mine, yours, everyone’s, we actually need several more Earths, and they are, of course, not available. All the resources that we will need in the near future, are simply are not going to be there. We are killing off all of Earth’s biodiversity, melting the ice caps and changing the weather because of the CO2 we continue to put into the atmosphere from our growing technological civilization. We are literally fiddling, while Rome burns down around us.

(Once again, I am not being very positive in my outlook. Perhaps it is time to start looking for some good things that are happening. My new years resolution it to be more hopeful, no one is listening to all of my doomsaying or anyone else’s anyway. One look at any garbage dump should convince anyone that we really consume and waste too much all the time.)

Horoscope 2023

I am a very scientific person and so, I simply do not think that what time of the year we were born under what stellar constellation has anything to do with anything. The fact that the planets, some which are billions of miles from Earth have any effect on our lives is equally nonsensical. However, since I am concerned about the coming year, 2023, I am willing to overlook the sheer foolishness of this fortune telling for any kind of useful insight it might give me. (I also intend to contrast this in another blog, on the coming Chinese New Year, which will be the Year of the Rabbit, my sign in that astrological scene.)

Since I was born in September, that makes my astrological sign, Virgo. The fact that where I live, the constellation of Virgo is not even visible at night this time of the year is quite strange. In my research, I found that there are quite a large number of web sites catering to the anxious about what is going to happen to them in the coming year, and after reading a half-dozen of these and becoming more confused about my own horoscope, I though I would try to break down what I have learned. The first thing is, that there seems to be more than quite a bit of Indian mythology involved with predicting any horoscope. This was a little surprising to me since I grew up with the idea that Greek and Roman mythology was the core of any kind of symbology concerning modern horoscopes. Oh well, whatever. We are all free to interpret cosmic concerns any way we want. And now that there are 8 billion people on our planet, that could mean that there are approximately 667,000,000 other people that were also born under my sign. The idea that there are that many people who have the same character traits and will suffer the same fate as me in the coming year is extremely frightening.

However, we must press on, even though all of my horoscopes were quite vague and noncommittal in their predictions. Overall, my life in 2023 will be more stressful or less stressful depending on what interpretation you like. Equally confusing, Saturn will cause numerous problems or offer solutions. Health will be a problem at times and then will not be. Business will be good at some times and not at others. Relationships should be carefully watched and could be quite good or bad at other times. Money, will be a problem, and since I do not have much, it will not be a problem. Friends will come and go. Soooooo, I think that I am starting to sense a pattern here. In that your life will be the same as usual, you will have good times and bad times, you should always be concerned with your health and well being. And, you should always love and care for those around you. Be frugal, thoughtful and kind, and most of all, hopeful. That will be the best way to get through the coming year.

(My sincere apologies to those who rely on and find their horoscopes more useful than I have. It was quite a fruitless and disappointing exercise for me. The problem is that I think too much and worry too much. I really hope everyone else has a very good 2023. Below, an image of the constellation Virgo from the Library of Congress. I really don’t remember Virgo having angel wings before, but that is probably due to Christian efforts to modernize Greek and Roman mythology, which in itself, is also quite disturbing.)

The No Good, Very Bad, Terrible Year

Since we are at the end of 2022, I would like to look forward to the near future and what 2023 may bring. From what I have been reading, it does not hold much promise for being a peaceful and pleasant time for us. To start with, in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, a La Nina is still holding on. This has been happening for three years now and is unprecedented in its length. A La Nina is characterized by unusually cooler ocean temperatures and it affects much of the world’s weather. It is expected to flip over to warmer temperatures along the equator by late spring and could develop into a hotter El Nino weather pattern. The La Nina has been credited with keeping global temperatures in check and suppressing Atlantic hurricanes, even though, world-wide, 2022 has been one of the hottest years on record. Without this world-wide moderating effect, it is feared that 2023 could give rise to much higher temperatures. It could briefly raise average global temperatures by 1.5C, the dreaded point which climate breakdown becomes possible and extremely dangerous. Cities in already hotter areas could become unlivable in summer months and drought in many parts of the world and the U.S. west could become catastrophic for farming, industrial production and the general population.

Covid, the global pandemic, is still with us and causing many problems. In the U.S., the December death rate from Covid has been over 400 persons a day. After China removed its Covid restrictions at the beginning of December, its 2022 cases skyrocketed to over 10 million, with a total of 31,500 deaths. Since the pandemic began, world-wide cases have reached 622 million with total deaths of over 6,687,000 people. It remains to be seen if Covid will increase again with new and more aggressive strains, or begin to fade for good. Recently the world’s population has reached 8 billion people, that is an increase of 1 billion in only the last 11 years. With disease and climate threats, many of the poorer nations with burgeoning populations many be the ones most impacted by climate change and pandemic threats.

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, dangerously escalating a period of conflict with them which began in 2014. This year has seen the Russians getting the worst of the fighting with many casualties and considerable destruction of its fighting war material by Ukraine. The U.S. and NATO has heavily supplied them with modern weapons and some expertise to combat the Russians. Frustrated by this overt support, Russia has escalated their threats of retaliation and nuclear strikes against NATO and the U.S. It is considered somewhat unlikely that they would use nuclear weapons, but the threat is always there, and a single accidental incident could trigger a series of frightening and escalating responses. Iran has been increasingly supplying Russia with drones and other weapons, causing contention in the Middle East and abroad. Russia has used its oil and gas exports as a weapon to limit support for Ukraine, but it is still a standoff as European countries are trying to get by without Russian gas and oil. However, winter has still a long way to go and many countries rely on these exports.

China in the past year has increased its harassment of Taiwan with almost daily incursions of planes and ships. It has made no secret of its intentions to reacquire Taiwan as part of China to the point of threatening to invade the island. The success of Ukraine, in fighting off the Russians, may have given China a pause in its intentions for the time being. The U.S. has openly supported Taiwan and has indicated that it would protect the island nation from Chinese aggression. China has been rapidly building up its nuclear arsenal and its large military forces, especially it’s navy in order to challenge the U.S. in the Pacific. China has expanded its presence around the world in places like African, the Middle East and the Pacific Ocean in direct response to the U.S. North Korea has also expanded their ballistic missile and nuclear programs. They have test fired more than 90 cruise and ballistic missiles in 2022, escalating their threat potential and putting the world on notice that they should not be ignored. The U.S. has also promised to defend South Korea and Japan in every capacity. Those two countries have also started to increase and upgrade their armed forces. Iran and North Korea have increasingly built up their nuclear weapons programs in order to increase their influence on the world stage. There is an old Chinese curse that goes, ‘May you live in interesting times.’ The next year should provide many interesting times for our world. I sincerely hope that I am wrong to worry about the dangers of these many major threats to our little planet.

(My God, I really did not intend this to be such a downer, but unless we open our eyes and begin to take steps to prepare for these possible dangers, an interesting time is not all we’re going to have. Below, a NASA photo of the recent Orion spacecraft which was sent to and orbited the moon. That one, tiny blue sphere is the only world we have and we should be protecting it as hard as we can from any and all threats.)

Winter Solstice

Tomorrow will be the shortest, (sunlit), day of the year, otherwise known as the Winter Solstice. It is an average 8 hours of daylight shorter, (depending on your latitude in the northern hemisphere), then the longest sunlit day of the year, known as the Summer Solstice. Naturally, a shorter day will be much colder then a longer sunlit period, causing our seasonal variations of winter and summer. But, what happened when our planet became much colder during what has been termed, the Ice Age.

There have been many periods of ice on our planet throughout it’s long history, but the most recent and important one started 2.5 million years ago. The main trigger of these colder periods is thought to be connected to the rise of the Himalaya Mountains due to plate tectonic movement creating variations in atmospheric wind patterns along with a lower level of greenhouse gasses causing cooler temperatures. Also periodic changes in Earth’s orbit caused changes in the amount of sunlight reaching the planet. The net result being eras of ice extending down from the poles advancing and retreating every 41,000 years, matching changes in the axial tilt of the earth. About a million years ago the timing of these ice pulses switched to a 100,000 year cycle. Also these advances and retreats were often out of sync with changes on different continents.

110,000 years ago the most recent glacial period started anew and our Homo sapiens ancestors were driven to adjust to the unstable climatic conditions by developing primitive technologies such as clothing, improved hunting and gathering methods, social development, language, art and when possible, farming. It wasn’t always bitterly cold, there were a number of periods when the climate briefly warmed and landscapes rapidly changed. 12,000 years ago the climate changed for good and humans have thrived through a relatively stable period of warmer temperatures.

The Winter Solstice is an excellent reminder of the importance of sunlight in helping regulate the warmth of our world. Unfortunately our modern civilization has greatly increased the amount of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere driving an extended and unnatural warming period. More importantly it has increased seasonal variations with near future implications impacting farming and food supplies. Locally, a late and very hot summer has rapidly turned to an earlier and colder winter here for us. I do not enjoy extreme cold and warmth, it is a unstable balance that is becoming increasingly more noticeable and worrying.

(Below, looking out in our back yard following a heavy and bitterly cold storm.)

Waiting for the Catastrophe

Will a major catastrophe come soon enough to change attitudes and motivate people to really do something about climate change? This question popped into my head the other night while I was watching a news story about some change in weather patterns. What will it really take to convince most of the population that what we are doing to the climate is dangerous to our health and ultimate survival? The problem with humans is that they generally act in their self interest only when there is no other choice. What will be the final catastrophic disaster that motivates us to actually act with serious intent to help ourselves.

Some might think that we are taking steps to mitigate the rise in CO2 that controls how much our planet warms. But the sad fact of the matter is that corporations and energy producers have done little to nothing at all. They talk a great game, but as to real action they hope we believe their words and not notice the lack of progress on their part. Even the world’s leaders can do little enough. On 20 November, the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), that took place in the Egyptian coastal city of Sharm el-Sheikh. It concluded with a historic decision to establish and operationalize a loss and damage fund for climate damaged countries. But there was also consensus among the delegates that the world would not be able to meet the Paris Climate Agreement (COP 21) in 2015 of keeping global warming to under a 1.5 degree Celsius increase by 2030.

In the last 10,000 years we have benefited from a relatively mild climate that has enabled us to develop agriculture and our resulting civilization. We rely on our climate to create the essentials of life and are now nearing the point where increasing swings of temperature and shifting wet and dry seasons will severely impact our growing cycles. Certainly our oceans are also nearing a danger point with over saturation of carbon dioxide making the water increasingly acidified, expanding ocean dead zones, killing species and severely limiting important fisheries. Melting the permafrost in northern zones will release even more CO2 along with industrial and transportation emissions, taking them to a point where we will not be able to correct these additions without expensive and difficult changes to our economic and political systems, all of which we humans would be very reluctant to go along with.

With 8 billion people now on our planet, we are closer then ever to catastrophe on a unimaginable scale. Is a massive catastrophe what it is going to take to make us aware that we are all in great danger, and how soon will that catastrophe happen?

(An old painting of mine. We are not the only intelligent species on our planet, but we are the only one that can act to help save the rest of the worlds species.)