On this tenth day of December, 2025, I feel that I have easily undergone enough rounds of brain cancer treatments at UF Health to more accurately size up my reactions, especially negative side effects. The TMZ chemotherapy capsules I daily consume each and every morning have brought with them warnings of nausea and digestive issues. But so far I fail to feel any of these drawbacks, although things can tend to go pretty slowly "down there". And neither have my weekly blood draw readings indicated that this treatment method might be dangerous. No, regarding side effects of the radiation therapy given on non-holiday weekdays, the standouts have been headaches and lightheadedness. Hopefully, when that regimen finishes at year's end I'll have a reasonable grace period to recover from any deleterious effects resulting from those rounds of treatments. Fatigue was also mentioned as a potential side effect from my capsule-form chemotherapy treatments, but I'm just not feeling that way. No, instead I'd say that sleepiness descends on me earlier in the day although I still retain a good level of energy and cardiovascular fitness. For the past two days I have gotten serious about accumulating virtual-equivalent miles from exercising with me standing on our living room floor while watching YouTube videos, chief among them of others' recorded experiences in years past (especially 2022). Yesterday I covered 8.2 virtual miles while today I reached 12 virtual miles. These are good workouts in that they put me into a Zone One cardiovascular state without putting too much stress on my legs' soft tissue. Someday I hope the benefits from this "rock-running" will transfer to regular road running. Still thinking optimistically. I do know that I recently shared this training method I invented with my chief oncologist and she reacted with enthusiastic approval...
Showing posts with label Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Energy. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Monday, May 3, 2010
Gulf Oil Spill Disaster: My Take
As anyone who has been paying any attention to the news for the past several days already knows, the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding states are in the midst of an severe environmental crisis due to uncapped oil spurting through an ocean-bottom opening caused by an oil rig explosion off the Louisiana coast. The accident and all of its ramifications should put to death the lie being spread for the past few years that Florida was somehow being "selfish" by not allowing off-shore drilling near its own coastline. The irony is that Florida beaches, heavily dependent on tourism, along with its seafood industry, will still drastically suffer economically from another state's decision in this regard.
I understand, I think, the apparent paradox that high energy demand presents for the public. On one hand, we want energy for transportation, heating, electricity, and a variety of other reasons. And that requires an enormous amount of energy that has to come from somewhere. On the other hand, the very nature of high energy production is dangerous and messy. It matters not where it comes from or how it is converted into a usable form: there are hazards with all kinds of mass-produced energy. Some may argue that this is not the case with wind or solar energy, but I would counter-argue that this is because those forms are not yet being used on a large enough scale to make but a tiny dent in satisfying energy demands. I predict that, once means to greatly enhance energy production from those "clean" sources are developed and implemented, we will discover some nasty side effects from them as well.
Barack Obama, sensing the high demand for energy in America, launched on a policy of encouraging energy from a variety of sources, including nuclear, "clean" coal, and yes, more offshore drilling. It is inevitable that, from time to time, accidents will happen, some of them being disastrous. This Louisiana spill looks to be the worst oil disaster in this country's history. And who will ever forget the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown in USSR in 1986? Energy is volatile, pure and simple. If you want to use it, sometimes it will bite back. Sometimes very, very hard.
Since I don't see energy demand dwindling at any point in the foreseeable future, I can only see us continuing along our president's vision about exploring and developing all feasible possibilities for producing and supplying energy for America's needs, while learning from accidents and instituting safeguards to help prevent others in the future. Only now I wonder whether that same president has the political will left to continue on this ambitious quest. Only time will tell, I suppose. In any event, maybe the rest of the country will finally get off Florida's back (although by now this may be a moot point anyway).
I understand, I think, the apparent paradox that high energy demand presents for the public. On one hand, we want energy for transportation, heating, electricity, and a variety of other reasons. And that requires an enormous amount of energy that has to come from somewhere. On the other hand, the very nature of high energy production is dangerous and messy. It matters not where it comes from or how it is converted into a usable form: there are hazards with all kinds of mass-produced energy. Some may argue that this is not the case with wind or solar energy, but I would counter-argue that this is because those forms are not yet being used on a large enough scale to make but a tiny dent in satisfying energy demands. I predict that, once means to greatly enhance energy production from those "clean" sources are developed and implemented, we will discover some nasty side effects from them as well.
Barack Obama, sensing the high demand for energy in America, launched on a policy of encouraging energy from a variety of sources, including nuclear, "clean" coal, and yes, more offshore drilling. It is inevitable that, from time to time, accidents will happen, some of them being disastrous. This Louisiana spill looks to be the worst oil disaster in this country's history. And who will ever forget the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown in USSR in 1986? Energy is volatile, pure and simple. If you want to use it, sometimes it will bite back. Sometimes very, very hard.
Since I don't see energy demand dwindling at any point in the foreseeable future, I can only see us continuing along our president's vision about exploring and developing all feasible possibilities for producing and supplying energy for America's needs, while learning from accidents and instituting safeguards to help prevent others in the future. Only now I wonder whether that same president has the political will left to continue on this ambitious quest. Only time will tell, I suppose. In any event, maybe the rest of the country will finally get off Florida's back (although by now this may be a moot point anyway).
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