A musing on Systems.
I have seen a couple of articles recently that prompted me to write this essay. If you are a builder, an architect, a student of complexity, a ordinary average human being, a soldier, a teacher, a farmer, a police officer or a prisoner: each of us have a stake in building a system that can take care of itself. The caveat of course is that we must have the ability to change the system we find ourselves in. We must see the glass cage and that is not easy given the transparency of that which surrounds us.
The first article stated something to the effect of: a few agricultural scientists or horticulturalists took an abandoned piece of land, stripped it of all its seed, overturned it several times just to be sure and then left it alone. And with patience they observed. One year passed into one decade until about 25 years had passed. The land repopulated itself of course with a variety of plants every season. However, with the passage of time, what was observed was very interesting. Diversity increased instead of decreasing. It seemed as if left to its own devices, the land conspired with the plants and trees to create an extraordinarily beautiful landscape that was teeming with nature’s abundance. The System, if there is one, that operates on earth without human intervention, is capable of healing and renewal. And more. It’s capable of bounty, beauty and thriving.
The other article was similar. The U.S. dumped 500,000 tons of oyster shells back into the ocean. In terms of tonnage that exists on earth, that isn’t a lot yet in terms of oysters? That’s a lot of oysters. Therefore, I am uncertain as to the veracity of the article in question.
What once looked like waste has become a powerful tool for restoring marine life along Florida’s Gulf Coast. Between 2007 and 2024, the state returned more than 500,000 tons of recycled oyster and clam shells to the Gulf of Mexico as part of a long-term effort to rebuild damaged oyster reefs and coastal habitats. Rather than coming straight from the ocean, the shells were collected from seafood restaurants and processing plants.
Clearly these naturalists have not yet bought into renaming the Gulf of America. Now that I have provided more information, it does seem plausible, a span of 17 years implies 17×12 =204 months. That’s still about 2450 tons of oysters and clams. Adding clams does change the math a bit more towards…plausibility. Still to collect about 81 tons a day of that stuff over just one state…. it boggles one mind, if I was being thoroughly honest. Anyway, the article goes on to say that over a period of time, bacteria went to work, broke down the shells, made them perfect homes for new oysters to form and eventually reefs were built that now provide harbor to a teeming multitude of sea creatures. One just needs to be a bit more selective in deciding what waste to dump into our oceans.
Please don’t dump newsprint nor should you drown in news. I promise you I am not a pissed off YouTube AI writing this. I have never actually met a Finnish person. (For new readers, you have to read the older posts for some of the jokes to make sense). I refuse to link posts only because when I do, there has to be some meaning to it. Readers are more likely to flag it as unusual behavior and more likely to read the posts. In order to combat ocean acidity which I was mildly baseline aware was a problem, researchers have also decided to dump large quantities of NaOH into the oceans. In case it wasn’t clear, sodium hydroxide is an alkaline substance and ought to reduce acidity. The approving process for said procedure was about 20 years.
I am mildly curious about such trivia. And I speak as someone who, unlike a lot of people, truly cares about the earth. In 2006 someone somewhere proposed a solution that what was becoming, I am guessing, a major problem. You can imagine a bespectacled man waving his arms wildly “the oceans are getting acidic!!!!” Adding NaOH to water is something some dear to me used to do often for her fish tank. I watched her do it everyday for about 7 years. The fish did turn over but not because of the NaOH. Time and age got to them. I am simply curious about the 20 years… the environmentalists blocked even a pilot project that would have meant a small trial in a tiny part of the ocean. To save the environment.
Meanwhile, a superpower recently conducted a test of a nuclear explosion also in the oceans.
I rest my case. It’s not Trump who is insane. Thank you for your attention!
Yes, a 3.9 magnitude experimental explosion occurred off the coast of Central Florida on Thursday, July 16, 2026, at approximately 3:04 p.m., sparking public speculation and confusion.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) detected the blast roughly 91 miles east-northeast of Ponce Inlet, noting that the seismic signature was more typical of an explosion than a natural earthquake. The U.S. Navy confirmed the event was a controlled detonation conducted by the USS Ted Stevens (DDG 128) as part of Full Ship Shock Trials (FSST) to test the destroyer's resilience to simulated combat conditions.
Key details include:
Location: Atlantic Ocean, off the Florida coast near Daytona Beach.
Cause: Naval testing involving large explosive charges to validate ship shock hardness.
Impact: The explosion was felt across Central Florida, including areas near Walt Disney World, but caused no damage or injuries.
Context: This was the ninth classified "experimental explosion" in the region since 2016, with previous similar tests involving the USS Gerald R. Ford in 2021.
