I have spent much of the first three hours of this New Year creating a new page. I wanted to celebrate the new year by doing a renewal-themed page. The ultimate celebration of renewal to my mind is a brass-tacks look at what actually happens to perpetuate Life. I had to leave out stuff like the exploding supernovae that make heavier elements occur in the first place, the absolutely essential floatiness of solid water, a.k.a. ice, and many other factors known and unknown. I stuck to the Nitrogen Cycle, and an obscenely simplified rendering at that, but I invite readers to do a web search on “nitrogen cycle” and find out what Life is REALLY all about, and why we would never exist without Lightning. Happy New Year, friends!

PS: “Theta-funk” is a horrible corruption of “Theta functions,” essential to the mathematics of string theory. Once William Buckley was asked why he used the word “irenic” instead of “peaceful.” He replied, “Madame, I desired the extra syllable.” Well, messieurs et mesdames, I desired Theta-funk. 🙂