September 10, 2021

I have been wavering on whether to tear into the overgrown mess that began as my onion sets last June.  Melissa had reminded me at that time that I had vowed (several times) to never grow onions again.  My gardener friend had grown red onions last year and they were beautiful.  I had tried yellow onions.  Few sprouted and the ones that did, did not grow.  Still, I succumbed to the alure of fresh onion completing the trifecta of onions, peppers, and tomatoes from my own garden that comprise salsa.  I thought perhaps if I grew red onion this year the results would be different.  I had let my cilantro go to head without harvesting, but if I could only get an onion this year . . .

When I looked online, I found the red onion is a cultivar of the onion (Allium cepa) species, and have purplish-red skin and white flesh tinged with red.  The yellow, white, and red onion are all varieties of the same species.  Red onion is commonly used in cooking, but the skin of the red onion has also been used as a dye.  These onions tend to be medium to large sized and have a sharp flavor and eye-watering qualities.  They are often consumed raw (added to salads for color and bite), grilled, or lightly sautéed with other foods.  Red onions are available throughout the year.  Red onion is high in flavonoids and fiber compared to white and yellow onion.  Cut red onion can be soaked in cool water for a period, and the water can be drained off.  This results in less “bite” and pungency.  My thought was, why would you do that, when that is why you selected the red onion in the first place?

After planting 50 onion sets this year only 20 of the bulbs sprouted.  Still, I thought, 20 onions were better than none.  I had weeded the bed during the season and confirmed they were still doing well.  With the heat and the rain, the bed had again become overgrown and frankly, I ignored the onion sets.  When I weeded my onion patch today, I found what I expected to find.  Only two of the onion sets had survived, and they were the same size as when I had planted them.  I knew they were mature as their green tops had withered and died.  My hope of fresh onion had been dashed one more time.  This time I am not saying, “Never Again!”, but probably not next year.

Thoughts:  Much of what we do in life is based on hope and expectation.  That has been true every time I decide to once more plant an onion.  When our hope is fulfilled, we are overjoyed.  When it is not, we are forced to refocus and try again.  Last May we were told “if” people would continue to wear their mask, social distance, and get vaccinated, we would be able to gather in backyards by the 4^th of July celebration.  Instead, governments across America dropped mask mandates and vaccination rates fell dramatically.  The Delta variant exacerbated our lack of action, and hope and expectation has become another wave of mostly unvaccinated infections and hospitalizations.  Hope and expectation rarely succeed on their own.  We also need to do the work to make them happen.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 09, 2021

One of the sure ways I find to gage the season is by the displays found in the markets.  The easiest transition can be found on the candy aisle.  While there are always the old staples (candy bars, gums, and notions), even these take on a festive flare and wrappers to mark the different holidays (M&M’s feature red and green Christmas packs).  The candy corn and pumpkins are hard to find until the fall, and peeps seem to only thrive around Easter.  What is more subtle are the display changes in the produce department.  When I entered the store last week, I noticed the watermelons that had dominated the entrance all summer had been replaced by gourds.  These gourds are inedible, but they do make nice holiday displays.  Even though we are still in the mid 90’sF, this is a sure sign that fall is on the way. 

When I looked online, I found that Gourds are among the oldest cultivated plants.  Botanically speaking, there’s really no difference between gourds, squash, and pumpkins.  They all belong to the family Cucurbitaceae and are all frost tender.  Gourds are the common name for hard-shelled, non-edible cucurbit fruits suitable for decorative ornaments or utensils.  They were the early water bottles of the Egyptians, and have been used for utensils, storage containers, and dippers for centuries.  While some of the squashes and pumpkins are ornamental, they are soft-shelled and will not last longer than a single season.  The tough gourds have outlasted the civilization and appear in the archaeological record.

Gourds come in a variety of shapes and colors, but there are three general types of gourds.  The ornamental gourds (Cucurbita pepo) are the colorful gourds used for decorations. They are soft-shelled gourds that are closely related to squash.  These are native to America and are usually not good for more than one season.  The bottle gourds (Lagenaria siceraria) are hard shell gourds whose name means “drinking vessel.”  Hard-shelled gourds will last for several years and have been grown for over five thousand years for use as containers and utensils, although the immature gourds are edible.  The Sponge gourds (Luffa aegyptiaca or Luffa cylindrical) is the well-known bath sponge.  While many believe Luffas are sea sponges, they are gourds related to cucumbers.  After they mature and dry the shell is scraped off and the scratchy inner fiber becomes your bathtub scrubber.

Thoughts:  After defining the three types of gourds, the site went on to describe a fourth.  The Snake gourds (Trichosanthes cucumerina var. anguina) are a member of the pumpkin family (Cucurbitaceae) but has seeds like the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus).  Their name is derived from the long and wriggly shape which resembles a snake.  They can be eaten when young, but they are not very flavorful.  Once fully mature, snake gourds are tough enough to be turned into didgeridoos (an Australian wind instrument like a straight trumpet).  I find is fascinating that these varieties of gourds have been grown for over 5000 years and are more aesthetic than edible.  Humans obviously tried to eat them, in various stages of growth, but then continued to use the fruits for other purposes.  As the saying goes, “Humans do not live by bread alone.”  Apparently, we also need the arts and etiquette.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 08, 2021

One of the lead stories this week on my NY Times feed reported on the return of beavers to Scotland four centuries after they were hunted to extinction for their fur.  Not all have welcomed this return as it means a resumption of their age-old battle with humans.  Beavers have incurred the wrath of the farming community as they decimate trees and build dams that flood fields, wreck drainage systems, and collapse riverbanks.  Some farmers have obtained permits to kill the otherwise protected animals, setting off outrage among conservationists and igniting a debate about farming, biodiversity, and the future of Scotland’s countryside.

When I looked online, I found the scientific name of the Eurasian beaver is Castor fiber.  The North American beaver’s scientific name is Castor canadensis.  These two species are the only extant (living) species in both the Castor genus and the Castoridae family, which is part of the Rodentia order.  The main predators for the Eurasian beavers are red foxes, lynx, and Eurasian wolves.  Historically, humans were the main threat for Eurasian beavers.  Beavers disappeared from Britain due to over-hunting and destruction of habitat from farming and deforestation.  Beavers were hunted for their rich, lustrous fur, which was often made into hats.  Another use was for their castoreum, a musk-like substance contained in the scent glands of both male and female beavers.  While beavers use the castoreum to mark their territory, humans use it in perfumes.  It seems to fill the same purpose for both.

In May 2009, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, in partnership with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, and Forestry and Land Scotland, released the first wild beavers in Scotland in over 400 years.  The Scottish Beaver Trial was one of the largest field trials of its kind in Europe and aimed to help the Government make an informed decision on the future of the species in Scotland.  An independent monitoring program was carried out by NatureScot to assess the effect that the trial population had on the local environment and how well they settled in Scotland.  This evidence contributed to a comprehensive report called Beavers in Scotland, which was published and presented to the Scottish Government in 2015.  The final report for this project, Beavers in Knapdale, was published in January 2021.  While some object to the beavers, they are a major attraction and bring significant ecotourism money to the area.

Thoughts:  I took a high school class in Ecology (it was the 70’s) that required a field report on a relevant project.  I decide to take a float trip down a ten mile stretch of the Kaw River that meandered through the hills and trees of the Flint Hills.  The purpose was to record the diversity of wildlife on this low human impact section of the river.  One of the things I encountered was a family of river beavers.  The water was deep, so they had not built a dam, but they did have a beaver lodge.  The beavers were sunning on the steep bank, but as they saw me pass, they all slide into the water.  These were the only wild beavers I ever saw in forty years living in Kansas.  I was amazed not just by the beavers but by the surprising diversity that existed away from regular human contact.  We need to be willing to restore and preserve our fragile waterways.  Both for the beavers and for us.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 07, 2021

I have noticed a long tube-like structure above the entrance where I work for several weeks.  I was unsure of what this was as I had never seen one before.  My curiosity finally got the best of me over the weekend, and I did a google search with my phone on the tube.  I found it belonged to a type of mud dauber.  The mud dauber nests that I am used to are a single cell, but this one was about seven inches long.  I have never been fond of wasps as I have found they are aggressive when guarding their nests.  When I was director of the rural camp, I was constantly trying to get rid of wasp nests and the angry wasps that guarded them.  Luckily there are spray cans that shoot a spray twenty-seven feet to take out the wasp nests that seemed to accumulate under the eaves of our buildings.  

When I went online, I found the Organ pipe mud dauber (Trypoxylon politum) is a predatory wasp in the family Crabronidae that ranges from Southeastern Canada to Eastern US.  These are large wasps, ranging from 1.5 to 2 inches (3.9 to 5.1 cm) that are active from May to September.  The female and male are similar in color, being a shiny black with pale yellow to white hind tarsomere.  The Organ pipe mud dauber feeds on various species of the orb-weaver (Araneidae) spiders.  The female dauber forms a long mud tube consisting of multiple cells, each fortified with a paralyzed spider.  The female then lays an egg in each cell, and when the egg hatches the larvae feed on the spider.  The larvae then pupate until they become adults.  The female generally constructs 5 to 6 pipes in a cluster, either side-by-side or on top of each other.  A newly hatched adult female will usually begin building her new nest within 48 hours of leaving her birth nest.  Interestingly, our nest had only one pipe.

The Organ pipe mud dauber is said to be an exceedingly docile species of wasp.  They also serve to keep down the spider populations that thrive in and around buildings.  Stings to humans are only in self-defense, such as if a wasp is squeezed (whose bright idea found this out?).  The tufted titmouse (Parus bicolor) is a known predator of the mud dauber and may feed on them more commonly than previously thought.  The holes made by the titmouse are similar in shape and size to those made by a mud dauber leaving the nest after pupation.  The mud tube I found was located near an abandoned paper wasp (vespid subfamily Polistinae) nest under the portico at the entrance of our building.  A barn swallow nest is located against the light in the center of the portico.  It made me wonder if the barn swallow that lives in the nest had feasted on both types of wasps before they could complete building their nests.

Thoughts:  While I have never been too concerned about the mud dauber nests, I cannot say the same for the paper wasps.  I once walked into a bathroom at the lake where I worked and was immediately stung five or six times by the wasps who had taken up residence there.  Then it became my job to get them out, so it did not happen to other campers.  I could have used one of the spray cans on that day.  The single Organ pipe mud dauber tube reminded me of the interrelated cycle of life.  The orb spiders create spiral webs to capture small flying insects.  The mud dauber captures the spider and leaves it as food for its larva.  The dauber is caught and eaten by the swallow.  Usually, all three nests would be destroyed by the humans who live in the building.  While the nests were created to continue the cycle of life, their destruction by humans occurs for aesthetics.  The different nests serve as a reminder for me to respect the creatures who live around me.  If I do not get stung.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 06, 2021

Labor Day is a federal holiday in the US celebrated on the first Monday in September in any given year.  The day falls anywhere from September 1 through September 7.  The day was created to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers.  Beginning in the late 19^th century, trade unionists proposed a day be set aside to celebrate labor.  “Labor Day” was promoted by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor, which organized the first parade in New York City.  In 1887, Oregon was the first state of the United States to make it an official public holiday.  By the time it became an official federal holiday in 1894, thirty states in the United States officially celebrated Labor Day.  Canada’s Labor Day is also celebrated on the first Monday of September.

While the US and Canada celebrate in September, more than 80 countries celebrate an International Workers’ Day on May 1, the ancient European holiday of May Day.  May Day was chosen for recognition by the Second International of Socialist and Communist parties to commemorate the Haymarket affair (riot) which occurred in Chicago on May 4, 1886.  The Haymarket affair, or the Haymarket massacre, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois.  It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour workday, the day after police killed one and injured several workers.  An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians.  Dozens were wounded.

Before it was a federal holiday, Labor Day was recognized by labor activists and individual states.  After municipal ordinances were passed in 1885 and 1886, a movement developed to secure state legislation.  New York was the first state to introduce a bill, but Oregon was the first to pass a law recognizing Labor Day on February 21, 1887.  During 1887, four more states; Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York passed laws creating a Labor Day holiday. By the end of the decade, Connecticut, Nebraska. and Pennsylvania had followed suit.  By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.

Thoughts:  While Labor Day was created out of a long struggle to acknowledge the rights of workers, the only thing most now seem to remember about the celebration is that they get a day off during the first part of September.   This began as a day of revolt when workers simply refused to come to work.  When enough workers refused, it was acknowledged by states and then the federal government.  A similar action occurred when Blacks Lives Matter activist took to the streets during 2020.  The movement demanded the government recognize police needed to provide the same rights to Black citizens that was shown to others.  Somehow this is seen as controversial.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 04, 2021

The Kansas State Wildcats kicked off their football season today with a home game hosting the Stanford Cardinal.  Well, sort of a home game.  The Cats chose to open at a neutral location in Dallas’ AT&T stadium.  The Cats were originally scheduled to host Stanford this year at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, but athletics director Gene Taylor decided to move the game to the home of the Dallas Cowboys in exchange for $2.8 million.  The Cardinal only played six games last year and went 4-2 but ended the season winning their last four.  The Cats went 4-6 but ended losing the last five.  The game will be treated as a K-State home game and the Cats will have a significant fan advantage as the Cardinal travels from the West Coast.  The Cats were a 3-point favorite, but won 24-7.

The Cats’ mascot (Willie the Wildcat) is patterned after the bobcat (Lynx rufus), also known as the red lynx.  This is a medium-sized cat native to North America, and ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous US to Oaxaca in Mexico.  This wide range and large population place it as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2002.  It has been hunted extensively for both sport and fur, but populations have remained stable even if declining in some areas.  The term bobcat comes from a stubby (“bobbed”) black-tipped tail.  A wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species, the European wildcat (Felis silvestris) and the African wildcat (Felis lybica).  The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe and the Caucasus, while the African wildcat inhabits semi-arid landscapes and steppes in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia, into western India and western China.  Neither is found in America, but their similar size and appearance led to the American species being mistakenly called a wildcat.

Stories featuring these cats are found in Indigenous cultures of North America and have parallels in South America.  One story of the Nez Perce depicts the bobcat and coyote as opposed, antithetical beings, while another version represents them as equal and identical.  In a Shawnee tale, the bobcat is outwitted by a rabbit, which gives rise to its spots.  After trapping the rabbit in a tree, the bobcat is persuaded to build a fire, only to have the embers scattered on its fur, leaving it singed with dark brown spots.  The Mohave believed dreaming habitually of beings or objects would afford you their traits as supernatural powers.  When you dreamed of two deities, the cougar and lynx, the belief was it would grant the superior hunting skills of other Tribes.  European-descended inhabitants of the Americas also admired the cats for their ferocity and grace.  It is this ferocity that earned Willie the title of mascot.

Thoughts:  Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss argued the opposing depictions of the cats in Nez Perce stories are a later adaptation resulting from regular contact between Europeans and native cultures.  The concept of twins representing opposites is an inherent theme in New World mythologies, but that they are not equally balanced figures.  The animals represent an open-ended dualism rather than the symmetric duality of Old World mythologies.  The earlier version of the Nez Perce story is of much greater complexity, while the version of equality seems to have lost the tale’s original meaning.  It seems when different cultures meet and interact, crossover of ideas can go both ways.  Europeans embraced bobcats into their tales and Indigenous altered the story to reflect world changes.  Adjusting to a new reality does not have to be one sided.  Do the work.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 03, 2021

Earlier in the week Melissa had asked me to make my meatloaf.  After she asked it became so hot outside that she did not want me to heat up the house by turning on the oven for an hour.  While it finally cooled down last night, this was our usual date night and Melissa wanted to go out instead.  That was when we hit our dilemma, where to go.  The covid rates have skyrocketed now that the children have gone back to school (nearly 8,000 cases in the state’s schools, along with closures) and this meant our choice had to be both what we wanted to eat, and in a location where we could safely dine.  After struggling for an hour to find a solution that met both criteria we gave up and opted for meatloaf.

Melissa knows I do not use recipes and am willing to try to make nearly anything, so she asked if we could put other things in the loaf, like perhaps corn.  I got a funny look on my face as I thought about it and that prompted her to say, “Never mind, I just wanted something different.”  Rather than different, what I heard was fancy.  I went online to find a fancy way to make meatloaf and hit on an Italian stuffed meatloaf.  The recipe centered around combining hamburger and sausage (which I always do) and then stuffing the mixture with vegetables.  It also spoke of coating the loaf with flour along with other steps that would transform the dish from the “dry bland traditional serving” to an exquisite meal.  While it sounded interesting, if they were making dry meatloaf, they were doing it wrong in the first place.

Rather than follow the recipe, I improvised and made my own stuffed meatloaf (surprised?).  I chopped up a priscilla pepper we had been given by our gardener friend and added an orange pepper from my garden.  I combined these with chopped carrots and black olives and blanched the mixture for five minutes to soften.  I made my usual meatloaf mixture with a pound of hamburger and upped the sausage to a pound.  Then I crushed half a sleeve of crackers, two eggs, and chopped half an onion, and mixed them together.  I laid out half the meat mixture on the bottom of the pan, then added the vegetables, feta cheese, and Italian spices.  The other half of the meat mixture formed the top as I shaped it into a loaf.  I popped it into the oven at 375F for 40 minutes, then covered the top with marinara for another five.  It was different (Melissa), fancy (me), and really tasted good.

Thoughts:  While we usually have baked potatoes and corn with meatloaf, that did not seem right for my stuffed loaf.  The loaf already had veggies and baked potatoes did not seem fancy enough.  I did have a bag of new potatoes that I had been trying to figure what to do with.  I quartered and spread them alongside the loaf, spritzed them with olive oil and dashed on dried parsley.  In the end this became a meal that satisfied all the criteria we had set; the loaf was different, fancy, good, and safe.   While it is at times hard to meet all the goals we set, it is satisfying when we do.  Like my Italian loaf, we need to be willing to adjust and even improvise.  That is also true with facing the pandemic.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 02, 2021

When I visited with the mayor several weeks ago, I noticed city hall had a drug disposal box located in the lobby.  It made sense since city hall also houses the police department.  We had left over drugs since Melissa’s dad died two years ago.  I did not know what to do with them, but I did know better than to either flush them or throw them into the landfill.  These dangerous chemicals tend to “travel,” especially when put into the water system.  Drop off facilities and businesses are registered with the US DEA to collect unused or expired medicines.  The collection sites safely and securely gather and dispose of unused or expired medicines and controlled substances.  There are various collection locations depending on the community.  Dropping our drugs in the collection box kept them out of the system.

As I was leaving city hall, I noticed the beautiful array of flowers blooming along the front of the building.  The vibrant colors of the Cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. cristata) made a dramatic display.  The species was likely originally native to India, where it was saved from extinction in cultivation by the religious significance attached to the variety by Indian, Burmese, and Chinese gardeners who planted it near temples.  The name cockscomb is used as the flower looks like the head on a rooster (cock).  The plants are resistant to most diseases and grow equally well indoors or out.  The perfect place is one with no shade and a well-drained soil, as the plant is susceptible to fungal diseases.  The front of city hall is an east facing building.  The cockscomb was doing well.

When I looked closer, I noticed a large bumble bee busily gleaning the flower for nectar.  The Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) is the most encountered bumblebee across much of eastern North America.  They can be found in the temperate forest regions of the eastern US, southern Canada, and the eastern Great Plains.  They are highly adaptable and can live in the rural areas, suburbs, and urban cities.  This adaptability makes them a great pollinator species, leading to an increase in their commercial use by the greenhouse industry, causing them to spread far beyond their distribution range.  They are considered one of the most important species of pollinator bees in the US.  North America’s bees are under attack from the Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa mandarinia), the world’s largest hornet.  The “murder hornet” is native to temperate and tropical Asia, but individuals were found in the Pacific Northwest in 2019.  The first nest of 1500 hornets were located and eradicated last week.

Thoughts:  Like many things in life, today’s stories are connected.  Going to city hall led to the disposal box, going to the disposal box led to seeing the cockscomb, seeing the cockscomb led to the bee, and the bees are under attack by the hornets.  This is an illustration of how we are all connected by the increasing globalization of our planet.  Being connected has its drawbacks, as the virus spread to a pandemic less than two months after being identified.  Being connected also has benefits, as digitization and the internet provide research avenues impossible two decades ago and in part led to the rapid development of a vaccine.  Humans developed as social animals who need to feel connected.  Whether we do this by touch and intimacy or through social media, being connected is critical to our understanding of self.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

September 01, 2021

One of Melissa’s bucket list ventures was to attend Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  We were finally able to do so in 2016.  Even though this was eleven years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, the aftermath was still evident in the quarters along the river where the levees had failed.  When Hurricane Katrina came ashore in August 29, 2005, there were over 50 failures of the levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans and its suburbs.  The levee and flood wall failures caused flooding in 80% of New Orleans and all of St. Bernard Parish.  I recalled our visit and the devastation still evident as Ida tested the levees over the weekend. 

When I looked online, I found the Army Corps of Engineers had assured the city the new $14 Billion fortified system would hold.  The new levees and retaining walls had come into question as early as 2017.  “These systems that maybe were protecting us before are no longer going to be able to protect us without adjustments,” said Emily Vuxton, policy director of the environmental group Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.  The cost for needed repairs could be hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly paid for by federal taxpayers.  Vuxton believes the work and cost are necessary to protect the people of New Orleans.  The protection system was rebuilt over a decade and was finally finished in 2016 with installation of the last pumps.

After the work was completed, the Army Corps projected the system will “no longer provide [required] risk reduction as early as 2023.”  This projection illustrates the rapidly changing conditions brought on by sea levels rising faster than expected and erosion wipes out protective barrier islands and marshlands in southeastern Louisiana.  The primary concern are the earthen levees that form the backbone of the 350-mile maze of protection that includes concrete floodwalls, pump stations and gated structures.  The levees are losing height as they start to settle.  This is a natural phenomenon but is exacerbated by the soft soils in southern Louisiana.  Some floodwalls are built into the levees, so they are sinking as well. 

Thoughts:  Much of the flooding during a hurricane comes from the storm surge as winds push sea water inland.  Fortunately, estuaries can help protect the coast from some of the harmful effects.  The wetlands surrounding an estuary act like sponges, soaking up the storm surge and reducing the impact on coastal communities.  Sand dunes help absorb much of the energy of lashing waves, and salt marshes help reduce erosion caused by heavy rains accompanying a hurricane.  Unfortunately, the marshes along streams and estuaries are disappearing fast.  Nitrogen from fertilizers and sewage makes marshes grow faster, but the roots grow smaller so the soil can’t hold the bigger plants, causing soil banks to collapse and marshes to turn to mud.  Nature works as a system that we have placed in precarious balance.  We need to move beyond the band-aids and address the real issues of climate change.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.

August 31, 2021

We had a conversation on our family’s weekly zoom call where the issue of computer fatigue came up.  It seemed some have been claiming that computers get “tired” after being kept on for long periods of time and needed to be turned off to let them “rest”.  I have always heard that computers get slower when they are left on for long periods of time, but I wondered if technically that is true.  Often when people claim this, they refer to “electron buildup.”  My question became, does this really exist?  Do computers really get fatigue?

When I checked online, I found electronic devices do experience fatigue, but it usually happens after more than just a few days.  In the IT world, this is called “mean time between failures” (MTBF) and is used to determine product reliability.  MTBF is usually given in units of hours, and the higher the MTBF, the more reliable the product.  Typical MTBF values for parts of a computer vary with different vendors, but on average a CD-ROM (read only memory) drive is about 15,000, while hard drives are rated at 500,000 MTBF (57 years).  The MTBF is a calculated average and should be used as a prediction and not an exact number.  The concern is several days, not months.  For personal computers, the problem is more often related to misbehaving applications, heat, and related issues.  I wish I could work for 57 years before I experienced fatigue.  Then again, maybe that is not such a good idea.

One common factor of computer fatigue is memory consumption.  If an application does not release the memory space allocated to it and keeps repeatedly doing so, the computer’s RAM (random access memory) will be fully occupied.  That means additional applications will be sent to the swap space or will fail.  Another factor is related to temperature.  Electronic devices are designed to operate optimally in an environment that is usually too cold for humans.  If they are not kept cold enough, they malfunction.   Computers that work for several days may accumulate excessive heat and might have problems getting rid of it without being turned off.  I have been told newer operating systems are designed to run constantly, but the science suggests doing so will cause fatigue.

Thoughts:  I took a computer repair class many years ago where we dismantled and then restored a computer.  This gave me the confidence to preform many repairs and upgrades on the older computers I worked with.  Like new models of cars, repairs now seem to require sophisticated equipment.  One idea I learned does still work.  If your computer or device freezes or has a glitch, turn it off, wait ten seconds, then turn it back on.  If the problem is resolved, do not worry about it.  Now I realize the glitch was probably caused by heat or fatigue.  During the pandemic many workers have reported the undue stress of their jobs has led to mental fatigue.  We all need to find a way step back, take our “ten seconds” to shut down, and then reboot.  Do the work.  Follow the science.  Change is coming and it starts with you.