Jumble Solved – 03/23/23

Visual Description:  Man-made haze.

NGORP  =  PRONG,  RYEPK  =  PERKY,  VICAAR  =  CAVIAR,  BSTIUM  =  SUBMIT   —   Giving us:  PNGPEKCAASUIT

Clue/Question:  Our view of the night sky is changing as a result of so many satellites – – –

Answer:  TAKING UP SPACE

(Great pun, but this is no joke.  We rely so much on these satellites, and everyone . . . and their brother has at least one out there.  The leaders being the U.S., China, Russia, the UK, India, Japan, Canada, France and Germany.  Numbers vary, but would you believe that there are between 5500 and 8300 satellites in various Earth orbits?  More than half are active, but nearly half are essentially space junk now.  That is nuts!  They are/were for various purposes, but the vast majority of them are/were for communications and Earth observations . . . so yes, big brother IS watching us!  As if we didn’t already know this.

All four clue words are on the ralis95 clue word database.  But it turns out that all four jumbles are new.  At least to me they are.  I saw “prong” and “perky” right away, but it took a few looks to see “caviar” from “vicaar”.  I attribute it to my bias against fish eggs, and that it was a great jumble.  It also took me a few looks to see “submit” from “bstium”.  Another superior jumble!  The answer letter layout was a triskaideka-jumble.  But the final answer came to me quickly.

Fine cartoon of a couple of Astronomers, manning some kind of observatory.  Light pollution is a real thing, but these defunct satellites also poise a threat to the active ones.  When a live one hits a dead one it just creates more and more space junk, that can cause even more accidents.  Man is always slow to learn.  Eventually, it’s going to be a major problem, just as our over reliance on fossil fuels and plastics has caused us so many problems down here on Earth.  Oy!  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google

Cryptoquote Solved – 03/23/23

“Don’t wait for someone to bring you flowers.  Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul.”   —   Luther Burbank

(Mr. Burbank revolutionized botany and farming, with his myriad cultivars!  Over 800 in all, consisting of fruits and nuts, grasses and grains, vegetables and ornamentals.  We really should not take Luther Burbank for granted.  But I’m sure that someones are going to try to “cancel” him for his belief/support of Eugenics.  People fail to realize that we, as humans, are continually evolving.  Our older biases are falling by the wayside as we become more enlightened.  And we shouldn’t discredit our ancestors because of their relative ignorance.  Right now the New York chapter of the Audubon Society is discussing dropping the name Audubon from their organization!  Why?  Because John James Audubon owned, and sold, some slaves – now referred to as “enslaved people”.  It’s not right to impose our – current – values on people who did things hundreds of years ago.  Slavery in the America – which did NOT invent the institution – was based on European arrogance, and the actual belief that other races were LESS than human.  Those beliefs have been proven wrong, but they were the prevailing thought processes of those times.  People try to point to the abolitionist movements as justification that these “bad people” should have known better, but that didn’t even start – in the U.S. until 1830 – which happens to be the same year that Audubon sold his remaining slaves.  And, like every movement, it wasn’t universally embraced.  It took time to change the hearts and minds of people.  As “enlightened” as we now claim to be, we are still a superstitious race of creatures, who are more caught up in tradition and indoctrination, than acknowledging science and rationality.  These “cancel” initiatives are an emotional response that mollify the few, at the expense of all of us.  We can acknowledge – and apologize for – past foibles, but we shouldn’t be throwing out the baby with the bathwater.  We should all remember these folks for their accomplishments, and forgive them for – what we now know as – their “sins”.  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google