Key of Zed has been back in the studio. Always seeking to be innovative, and never shying away from new genres, the duo decided to try writing a children’s song. Three year old Clayton K. Smith helped out with some of the lyrics so we are pretty sure it will be a number one hit with the preschool crowd!

Not only is the song fun, but it has a basis in science. More details are available here, but allow me to give a few clues to how the song connects to real frog biology. There is a pond close to where I live where frogs sing through the spring and summer and then must prepare for winter. The pond is drained each fall, so the frogs must burrow down into the mud and vegetation and wait for spring. They winter in hibernacula created with soil, water, their own excretions, and a type of sugary anti-freeze that flows through their blood. All summer they live and reproduce while eating bugs from the pond and all winter they sleep in a death-like trance and await the flood of water back into the pond accompanied by the warmer spring air. Now that you have heard about the science, sit back and have some fun with the lyrics and melody.

The Frog Song
(Lyrics and Music by Mike Charko, Clayton K. Smith, and Keith Shields; SOCAN 2016)
(Listen to the song here.)

Ribbety Ribbet
Down in the mud
Oh Ribbety Ribbet
Waitin on the flood
Ribbety Ribbet
Here comes spring
Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, let’s all sing

Down by the bog
Underneath a log
He was a thinking
‘bout being a frog

The wonder of
Water and soil
Mixin it up
With some froggie oil

Ribbety Ribbet
Down in the mud
Oh Ribbety Ribbet
Waitin on the flood
Ribbety Ribbet
Here comes spring
Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, let’s all sing

Buzzes Buzzin and
And fuzzes fuzzin
Geese a flying
Robins Hi-Hi-in

Bunnies a thumpin
And bees a bumpin
Smells of pollen
Coyotes callin

Ribbety Ribbet
Down in the mud
Oh Ribbety Ribbet
Waitin on the flood
Ribbety Ribbet
Here comes spring
Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, let’s all sing

Wishin for a fly,
He licked his lips
Good old bug juice
Gonna have a sip

Oh croak your best
You’ll always be blessed
Just thank the Lord
He’ll take care of the rest

Ribbety Ribbet
Down in the mud
Oh Ribbety Ribbet
Waitin on the flood
Ribbety Ribbet
Here comes spring
Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh, let’s all sing
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, let’s all sing

 
Hope is what gets us through difficult times. Depression is the result
when we face challenging circumstances without hope. Hope is not about
knowing for sure that a good result is ahead; it is about having a
reasonable faith that a good result is ahead. There are a variety of approaches
to faith, but those of us who live by faith do
indeed find hope. The Reverend Billy Graham once said, “I’ve read the last page
of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.”
Graham has hope because he has put his faith in an ancient story. The
words of the Bible, written by many authors, over a period of many years, tell
many stories. Yet, the theme that binds the stories together is this: “God, the
one who made the universe, has a good plan for the universe and those who agree
with God and seek his good plan for the universe can have hope of a good
ending.” It is all going to turn out all right.
I know that faith is an unpopular idea right now. Faith is not in
vogue. Rather, it seems that, protest, argument, standing up for one’s rights, atheism,
and humanism are trending. Some would say that if we just love everybody, the
world would be all sorted out. Can we love without hope? Can we love without
faith in something? Can we love soldiers in Syria who believe they fight for a
cause by using men, women, and children as shields in the civil war? Can we
love a man who walks into a gay bar and kills innocent people in Florida? Can
we love his wife? Can we love without hope for change? Can we love without faith
that our love will make a difference?
I have faith that there is a plan for the universe. I have faith that
God holds the plan in his hands. I too have read the last chapter, the last
page, the last instalment. It really does have a happy ending. The ending is
redeeming, just, loving, sacrificial, and triumphant. It’s all going to turn
out all right.

“If you begin to think you're something you're not, you're looking in the wrong mirror.” - Eugene Cernan
I have been watching the Mark Craig directed documentary, Last Man on the Moon (2014). It is great educational entertainment for an Apollo junkie like me. It describes the career path of Eugene (Gene) Cernan as he was transformed from a Navy aircraft carrier, jet pilot to an astronaut during the heyday of lunar exploration from the time of the Gemini missions and right up to the last Apollo mission. The title of the movie comes from the fact that Cernan is the last person to have stood on the surface of the moon which was on December 14, 1972, more than 42 years ago.
Cernan is fascinating. He is both ordinary and extraordinary. He is an ordinary citizen with a Texas Longhorn cattle ranch who enjoys watching a good Texas rodeo. He is an outspoken proponent of space exploration who believes that America has lost something important by not returning to the moon since he last set foot there.
“After Apollo 17, America stopped looking towards the next horizon. The United States had become a space-faring nation, but threw it away. We have sacrificed space exploration for space exploitation, which is interesting but scarcely visionary.”
He believes that humanity as a whole needs a greater degree of curiosity and pioneering ambition. He suggests that we need to ask questions about who we are and our place in the universe.
“Curiosity is the essence of human existence. 'Who are we? Where are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?'... I don't know. I don't have any answers to those questions. I don't know what's over there around the corner. But I want to find out.”
I may be a bit of a product of my own generation (I was 9 years old when Apollo 11 landed on the moon) but I tend to agree with Cernan. We do need more pioneering spirit; we do need more curiosity; we should be looking toward the next horizon. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things when the horizon is just one goal before reaching toward the next goal. Horizon after horizon after horizon will allow anyone to encircle the earth. Gene Cernan is also very practical and does not see himself as special. He says that, “People try to typecast astronauts as heroic and superhuman. We're only human beings.” May we and all of humanity be as ordinary as Gene Cernan.

Lately,
I have been thinking much about my career journey and how it relates to the
advice I have given others. I have been one of those fathers who told his daughters
to “follow your passions and get good at what you like to do. Eventually,
someone will pay you to do those things at which you have become good.” This line
of reasoning does make sense in certain job markets and economic situations. In
other scenarios, it may not be as good. Thomas Edison and Mike Rowe have some
different advice.

Opportunity
is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. – Thomas A. Edison, US inventor (1847 – 1931)

Passion is too important to be without, but too fickle to be
guided by. Which is why I’m more inclined to say, ‘Don’t Follow Your Passion,
But Always Bring it With You.’ – Mike Rowe 

Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs and Dirty Truth:
Terrible Advice: “Follow your passion.” . . .
Dirty Truth: “Just because you are passionate about something,
it does not mean that you are good at it.” . . .
When it comes to your hobbies: “By all means, follow your
passions.” . . .
Dirty Truth 2: “Follow opportunities not your passions.” . . . 
Dirty Truth 3: “Don’t follow your passion, but always bring it
with you.”

Occasionally, someone has the good fortune of being able to do
their hobby and get paid for it. Perhaps this is when passion and opportunity align.
That may be a worthwhile pursuit; yet, I suspect that following legitimate opportunities, over following legitimate passions, is the more probable road to success.

Today is the
traditional celebration day for Saint Columba, an Irish missionary who did the
work of God in Scotland. The following quotes are attributed to this man of
God.

Alone
with none but Thee, my God, I journey on my way; what need I fear when Thou art
near, Oh King of night and day? More safe am I within Thy hand than if a host
did round me stand.
O Lord, grant us that love which can never die,
which will enkindle our lamps but not extinguish them, so that they may shine
in us and bring light to others. Most dear Savior, enkindle our lamps that they
may shine forever in your temple. May we receive unquenchable light from you so
that our darkness will be illuminated and the darkness of the world will be
made less. Amen.
Columba is one who modelled the ability to rest in the hand of God and
shine the light of God into the darkness of the world. May we follow his
example.
 
In August of 2011 a NASA rocket
launch occurred. The rocket carried the Juno spacecraft on top of it and
hurtled it out into space. Ever since then, Juno has been traveling toward Jupiter.
In July of this year (July 4th to be precise), Juno will arrive and
settle into an orbit around the largest planet in our solar system where it
will begin analyzing Jupiter and sending information back to NASA scientists on
earth. It is expected that the spacecraft will orbit Jupiter for approximately
20 months and then be purposefully burned up in the upper atmosphere of the
planet. NASA scientists expect the craft to render information about the amount
of water in the atmosphere, measure cloud motions, map Jupiter’s magnetic and gravity
fields, and explore the northern and southern lights of the planet.
Once again, NASA is on the verge of amazing discoveries. We
truly are in the golden days of planetary exploration. In 100 years people will
look back on this time and see that it was very significant to our
understanding of our place in the solar system. Humans have a healthy curiosity
about our world and our universe. This is as it should be. When we look down at
a blade of grass or look up into a starry sky, it is natural to wonder about how
these things are made and the material out of which they are made. It is
natural to ask questions about what is out there beyond what we can see with
our naked eyes. Let’s celebrate this latest NASA achievement.
Timeline of the Juno Mission

How do we go about living in the present?
It seems that we are always either living in the past or looking at the future.
How do I stay focused on this moment right here as my fingers dance over the
keyboard of my laptop computer?

Wendell Berry speaking of universities
said, 
“It was preparing people from the world of the past for the world of the
future, and what was missing was the world of the present, where every body was
living its small, short, surprising, miserable, wonderful, blessed, damaged,
only life.”
 We all too readily race ahead to tomorrow,
only to find that the tomorrow to which we raced has become yesterday. Jesus of Nazareth said, 
“So don’t worry about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:34 New Living Translation.
Those are good words
by which to live.


Most everyone wants to do good things in this life. We want to feed
hungry children, sit with someone during their last hours of life, help someone
become employable, or release hostages from torture. Some would want to do these things without public recognition, while others would want the fame and
acclaim for wonderful things achieved. One of the most popular movie themes is
the premise of the man or woman who is “in over their head” and likely to die
in some situation but manages to escape destruction and rescue others at the
same time. This premise appeals to our sense of doing good beyond our normal
capacities. One such movie is Bridge of
Spies (2015)[1],
written by Matt Charman, Ethan Coen, and Joel Coen, and directed by Steven
Spielberg. (The rest of this blog contains spoilers. You may want to watch the
movie and then come back to the blog.)
It tells the story of James B. Donovan, an American insurance
attorney, who was known as a negotiator for spy exchanges. Around 1962 he
successfully negotiated the release of Francis Gary Powers, an American
spy-plane pilot, and Frederic Pryor, an American student in Berlin, in
exchange for Rudolf Abel, a convicted Soviet spy. After his success, Donovan was
asked by American President John F. Kennedy to negotiate the release of 1,113
prisoners following the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion. He secured the release
of 9,703 men, women, and children: in over his head and achieving more than was
normally possible.
Most of us will not have the opportunity to do the things that Donovan
did. We may never be asked by anyone to do some outstanding act of bravery or
intelligence. These sorts of things often come unexpectedly to those who do not ask for them; but, what could I do to help others? What could you do? There
are people who need our help. There are children who need someone to pack them
a lunch for school because their parents do not send
them with a lunch. There are those who are trapped in dangerous parts of the
world who need a sponsor for their status as refugees. There are still others
who, for various reasons, could use our help.
What am I waiting for; what are you waiting for; a call from the Prime
Minister? The opportunities are all around us. They may never make a movie
about us; but we can still be a powerful influence for good.

Just how thick is the ice on Europa? Europa is a water-ice
encased moon orbiting around Jupiter and scientists are beginning to ask
questions about how they might determine the thickness of this ice. We know
that there is water below the ice because geysers that spew water into the
tenuous atmosphere above have been detected. It is speculated that microbial or
even higher eukaryotic life could exist in the water below and so there is
great interest in cracking through the frigid crust to see what lies beneath.
NASA has a mission scheduled for the 2020s that would include
a flyby and possibly seismic measurements.[1]
Lately, it has been suggested that an empty propellant tank could be sent
hurtling onto the ice while the flyby-craft could measure the ripples created
by such an impact. Slower propagating waves would indicate thicker ice; faster
waves would indicate thinner ice.
The international community must weigh in on the ethics of
littering another moon surface with our cosmic space junk, even if the purposes
could be considered noble. One must also consider that any propellant tank that
originates from a DNA rich and biologically fertile world like earth, could inadvertently
introduce life (or at least DNA) to a potentially fragile ecosystem. Might
Earth-life compete with primitive life of another form and disrupt the natural
progression on that pristine world? Might our cosmic litter disrupt the fragile
ecology of other-worldly biology?

[1] Science News, “Seismic experiment
might reveal thickness of Europa’s ice,” 2015-05-25; https://www.sciencenews.org/article/seismic-experiment-might-reveal-thickness-europa’s-ice

“The future rewards
those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have
time to complain. I’m going to press on.”[1] –
Barack Obama
Those are good words
for us to hear when things feel difficult. When we lose a job, when we have
health problems, or when the organisation we manage is facing many challenges.
There is little value in feeling sorry for ourselves or complaining. Feeling
sorry and complaining simply take up time. Pressing on with whatever our role
calls for is what is required. Let’s press on together today.
I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly
prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. – Philippians 3:14
(NIV)