November 15, 2024

REMINDER: YOUR SUBMISSIONS ARE ENCOURAGED

Overview for this week.

1. Last weekend I raved with my friends and family at the Dusk Music, Art, and Food Festival here in Tucson. It was a blast. I learned a lot about festival and rave culture, and I had a lot of fun!

2. In the Local Spotlight, I am honoring Tucson veteran Aaron Druemmel, this Veterans Day week.

3. Tonight, November 15th, is the last supermoon of 2024, the Beaver Moon. Just in case you miss it, the moon should still appear full Saturday night as well.

4. In August of 2023, India joined the elite group of nations that have landed a craft on the moon with the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. They have recently announced plans to return to the moon's south pole in 2028.

5. I have an update on the two NASA astronauts who have been stuck on the International Space Station since last August. Four of their fellow astronauts were returned to Earth at the end of October, and they are expected to be brought home in February.

6. A pair of elephants at the Berlin Zoo have been observed demonstrating sophisticated tool use , with one even applying that skill for mischief.

7. A popular area of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park has been closed in order to protect a nesting pair of Nēnē, the rarest geese in the world and the state bird of Hawaii.

8. It's getting colder outside, so many are bringing their training indoors. I have a comparison of the benefits of air bikes vs. stationary bikes to stay fit this winter.

9. In Wellness I have a new post from the most recent issue of Sensitive & Specific: The Testing Newsletter with a very simple test of our neuromuscular systems as we get older

Now, to this week's Flock.

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My first rave & DUSK Festival was eight years ago at Rillito Park. This last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending this year’s DUSK Music Festival in Downtown Tucson, Part indie-pop concert, part EDM (Electronic Dance Music) dance party, part culinary festival, and part immersive visual arts exhibition. The diverse crowd spanned generations and enjoyed themselves dancing to fast paced music accompanied by frantic light shows. Tucson is one of only two US cities to be honored as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy and that was evident in the many culinary offerings attendees could choose from to refuel before perusing the many art installations set up throughout the downtown.

From: The Festival Voice, By: Gabbie B., November 12, 2024

My husband Michael and daughter Violet checking out the festival grounds

This past weekend, Tucson came alive as the Dusk Music Festival transformed Jácome Plaza into an energetic hub for music lovers and creatives alike. Known for its vibrant blend of live music, visual art, and culinary treats, Dusk Festival 2024 lived up to the hype and exceeded expectations, creating an unforgettable experience for all who attended.

Tyler, an old young friend from my kid's high school days is a rave pro.

A Stellar Lineup

The festival brought an eclectic lineup that showcased a range of genres, from EDM to indie-pop. Fans got to enjoy top-notch sets by headliners who brought high energy to the stage, leaving the crowd ecstatic.

A detail from Violet's installation.

Immersive Art and Visuals

Dusk also turned the streets into a wonderland of immersive installations and stunning visuals. Festival-goers wandered through interactive art exhibits that lit up as the sun went down, each piece thoughtfully designed to engage and inspire. LED light displays, vibrant murals, and dynamic sculptures added an extra layer of enchantment, making every corner of the festival a feast for the eyes.

Good Friends Eric Ryan, Hillary Ryan, and Emma Ryan down from Boston in front of Violet's installation.

Culinary Delights

One thing that set Dusk apart was its food selection, which brought together some of Tucson’s best culinary offerings. Food trucks and local vendors served up everything from street tacos to gourmet fusion dishes, catering to every taste and dietary need. Attendees could grab a quick bite, cool off with an iced coffee, or indulge in artisanal desserts between sets, making the festival not only a feast for the ears and eyes but also for the taste buds.

Community Vibes and Local Culture

Perhaps what made this year’s Dusk Festival so memorable was the palpable sense of community. Tucson locals and visitors alike celebrated the city’s culture, with the festival serving as a reminder of the strength and beauty of the community. People connected through shared experiences, whether dancing in front of the main stage, exploring art installations, or simply soaking up the electric atmosphere.

Here's something I learned about at the Dusk Festival that I did not know. Rave and festival culture has a code of conduct based on a set of principles referred to as PLUR. Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect.

From: Wikipedia

PLUR can be interpreted as the essential philosophy of life and ethical guideline for ravers and clubbers, at least insomuch as it relates to interpersonal relationships, with basic directions on how people are expected to behave at a rave gathering or in a dance club. This universalist philosophy underpinning the tribal dance culture which began circling the globe with the rise of the internet, theoretically takes precedence over any chemical or musical aspects of the rave scene. Raves represent a modern ritualistic experience, promoting a strong communal sense, where PLUR is considered an ideology. he four terms, among others – "Peace, Love, Freedom, Tolerance, Unity, Harmony, Expression, Responsibility and Respect" – are also part of the anonymous "Raver's Manifesto" (claimed to be written by Maria Pike in 2001) which has widely been spread among the international rave subculture.

The PLUR handshake is used in kandi bracelet trading.

Aaron Druemmel retired as a Master Sergeant after having served as a Green Beret and in the First Group, stationed in Okinawa, Japan, for nine years. He completed two four-year tours in Yuma, Arizona as a military free fall instructor. He served a total of 21 and a half years as an enlisted soldier. After retiring in 2022, he has worked as a civilian for the 68th Rescue Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson as the lead instructor for air operations (training pararescue jumpers to do advanced operations out of airplanes on land and water).

The Druemmel Family

When he was stationed in Yuma, he would jump from the plane dressed as Santa and land in the base Christmas celebration for the kids! Can you spot Aaron in this picture?

Earlier this month I posted about the last supermoon of 2024, November 15th’s Beaver Moon. There's something special about looking up at the full moon on a crisp late-fall evening. I hope you got a chance to see it Friday night, if not, it will still appear full through Saturday night.

From: The Old Farmer's Almanac, By: Catherine Boeckmann, November 6, 2024

This is the final supermoon of four consecutive supermoons of the year! This means that it will appear bigger and brighter than normal!

The Beaver Moon

Why the “Beaver” Moon? This is the time of year when beavers begin to take shelter in their lodges, having laid up sufficient food stores for the long winter ahead. During the fur trade in North America, it was also the season to trap beavers for their thick, winter-ready pelts.

Alternative November Moon Names

November’s Moon names highlight the actions of animals preparing for winter and the onset of the colder days ahead. Digging (or Scratching) Moon, a Tlingit name, evokes the image of animals foraging for fallen nuts and shoots of green foliage and bears digging their winter dens. The Dakota and Lakota term Deer Rutting Moon refers to the time when deer seek mates, and the Algonquin Whitefish Moon describes the spawning time for this fish.

About the seasonal change of November, this Moon has been called the Frost Moon by the Cree and Assiniboine peoples and the Freezing Moon by the Anishinaabe—for good reason, as winter is right around the corner!

India is one of only five nations to land a spacecraft on the moon (United States, USSR, China, India, Japan). The Indian government has announced a new mission to collect samples from the moon's south pole in 2028.

From: Live Science By: Sharmila Kuthunur, November 4, 2024

India is eyeing a 2028 launch for its Chandrayaan-4 moon sample-return mission, followed by an uncrewed lander and rover in collaboration with Japan.

S. Somanath, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), discussed the upcoming missions during an invited talk in New Delhi in late October.

Chandrayaan-4, which aims to collect roughly 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms) of lunar samples from a water-ice-rich area near the moon's south pole and deliver them to Earth, is one of several flagship missions recently approved by the Indian government to boost its space economy. The country’s return to the moon was allocated 21 billion rupees (about $250 million US at current exchange rates).

I've been following the Story of the two astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, stuck on the International Space Station since last August when their stay was extended due to technical difficulties with the Starliner capsule that was supposed to return them to Earth. The same capsule that delivered the pair to the ISS was also supposed to return four additional astronauts. Their return on the Space X Dragon capsule that docked with the ISS in early October was further delayed by Hurricane Milton. The group of four were successfully returned to Earth on October 25th. A separate mission is still planned to retrieve astronauts Williams and Wilmore in February of 2025.

From CBC News, October 25, 2024

Four astronauts returned to Earth on Friday after a nearly eight-month space station stay extended by Boeing's capsule trouble and Hurricane Milton. The two astronauts that arrived on Boeing's capsule remain on the space station.

A SpaceX capsule carrying the crew parachuted before dawn into the Gulf of Mexico just off the Florida coast after undocking from the International Space Station mid-week.

SpaceX launched the three Americans and one Russian to space in March, and they should have been back two months ago. But their homecoming was stalled by problems with Boeing's new Starliner astronaut capsule, which arrived at the space station in June with two more astronauts on board. It came back empty in September because of safety concerns. Then Hurricane Milton interfered, followed by another two weeks of high wind and rough seas.

The four returning astronauts are NASA's Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps, and Russia's Alexander Grebenkin. Barratt, the only space veteran going into the mission, acknowledged the support teams back home that had "to replan, retool and kind of redo everything right along with us ... and helped us to roll with all those punches."

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore

Their replacements are the two Starliner test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose own mission went from eight days to eight months, and two astronauts launched by SpaceX four weeks ago. Those four will remain up there until February.

Back in June, we learned that elephants call each other by name. Now, behavior by a pair of pachyderms at the Berlin Zoo demonstrates they are capable of sophisticated tool use and even the ability to apply that skill for mischief.

From: Science.org, By:Sara Reardon, November 8, 2024

Elephants love showering to cool off, and most do so by sucking water into their trunks and spitting it over their bodies. But an elderly pachyderm named Mary has perfected the technique by using a hose as a showerhead, much in the way humans do. The behavior is a remarkable example of sophisticated tool use in the animal kingdom. But the story doesn’t end there.

Mary’s long, luxurious baths have drawn so much attention that an envious elephant at the Berlin Zoo has figured out how to shut the water off on her supersoaking rival—a type of sabotage rarely seen among animals.

Both behaviors, reported today in Current Biology, further cement elephants as complex thinkers, says Lucy Bates, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Portsmouth not involved in the study. The work, she says, “suggests problem solving or even ‘insight.’”

Watch this elephant turn a hose into a sophisticated showering tool

From: Fox Weather, By: Angeli Gabriel

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park – Hawaiian geese have begun nesting near the summit of Kilauea, leading to temporary closures at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Known as "nēnē" in the local language, Hawaiian geese are the "rarest" geese in the world, according to the National Park Service. The birds are listed as endangered in Hawaii, the only place on the planet where the birds live.

Recently, a pair of Hawaiian geese started nesting near the summit of Kilauea, a popular spot for park visitors.

As temperatures drop, it's time to think about moving your training indoors. The following article looks at the differences between air bikes and stationary trainers.

From: Garage Gym Reviews, By: Lindsay Boyers, CN June 27, 2024

Regardless of the type of bike you choose, indoor cycling training has been shown to improve your lipid profile (reduce cholesterol and triglycerides), lower blood pressure, and enhance aerobic capacity—all important things for cardiovascular health. Cycling can also contribute to weight loss, especially when combined with a healthy diet.

Knowing this, you’re probably eager to hop on a bike and start pedaling, but which piece of equipment should you choose? While there are several types of indoor bikes, air bikes and stationary bikes are what we’re here to discuss.

As mentioned, any type of indoor cycling can have massive cardio benefits, but there are some individual benefits of using an air bike as opposed to other types of bikes.

Full-Body Workout

For starters, air bikes provide more of a full-body workout than other types of exercise bikes. Because the handlebars move, and you have to pump them to really get your heart rate up, you engage your upper body as well as your lower body. This makes you work harder and contributes to a higher calorie burn. 

More Efficient For Sprints

In addition to scorching calories in a short time, air bikes are considered efficient for other reasons. Sprint interval training—a type of high-intensity workout—on an air bike has been shown to improve cardiorespiratory markers, like VO2 max and METs (metabolic equivalent of task), with less volume and a shorter duration than steady-state cardio.

Benefits Of Using A Stationary Bike

Stationary bikes come with a bunch of benefits of their own.

Low-Impact Cardio

Compared to running, stationary bikes put much less strain on your knees, hips, and feet. They offer a low-impact workout for those with joint issues or anyone trying to recover from (or avoid) injury.

May Help With Joint Pain

Because of its low impact, riding a stationary bike may help reduce pain and improve joint function. In one study published in Clinical Rehabilitation in 2021, researchers found that, compared to a non-exercise group, people with knee osteoarthritis had better sports performance and less pain when they regularly rode a stationary bike.

Stationary bikes come with a bunch of benefits of their own.

Low-Impact Cardio

Compared to running, stationary bikes put much less strain on your knees, hips, and feet. They offer a low-impact workout for those with joint issues or anyone trying to recover from (or avoid) injury.

May Help With Joint Pain

Because of its low impact, riding a stationary bike may help reduce pain and improve joint function. In one study published in Clinical Rehabilitation in 2021, researchers found that, compared to a non-exercise group, people with knee osteoarthritis had better sports performance and less pain when they regularly rode a stationary bike.

I have another article from the most recent issue of Sensitive & Specific: The Testing Newsletter by Mara G. Aspinall and Liz Ruark. I always find something that fascinates me in their newsletter, this week it’s a very simple test of our neuromuscular systems as we get older.

From Sensitive & Specific: The Testing Newsletter, Volume 10, Issue 19, by: Mara Aspinall & Liz ruark, November 14, 2024

Sometimes you need sophisticated equipment to evaluate someone's health problems. Other times, you just need to see whether your patient can act like a flamingo.

A report in PLOS ONE looked at age-related changes in subjects' ability to complete various tasks that require strength and balance. After testing hand grip, knee strength, and gait across a level surface in a group of 40 adults ages 50 and older, they concluded that standing on one leg is the task that most reliably gets harder and harder to do as a person ages. Because of that reliability, it can be used as a metric to determine how a patient's neuromuscular systems are aging.

COMMENTARY: Unlike flamingo-ing, gait has been extensively studied for many years as an indicator of specific sensory/motor difficulties. (In June, Nature Communications published the results of a successful machine-learning contest to develop a model that could objectively evaluate freezing of gait, a common issue in two thirds of Parkinson's disease cases.) Standing on one leg also requires the coordination of many different body systems, so it makes sense that it should work as a metric. However, this result does not imply that practicing this one skill will actually reduce frailty.

A little polar bear pleads with a sailor to rescue his injured mother trapped in a fishing net.

These Flock regulars are always here for you:

In coming weeks: we'll be sharing more investigative articles from our roving reporter William George, original writing from Flock favorite Dino DeConcini.

Don't Be Shy: Share Your Stories!

I'm looking forward to sharing more of your personal stories - oral, written, or otherwise, as we enter our third year. I'd so love to present them to The Flock, hit a mailbox below to share your story.

Holualoa Ed Fit Wellness & Culture 2

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