Nichole Carlson, Expert...

As the author of 120 and Beyond, my prostate cancer (PC) diagnosis was a completely unexpected turn of events. But it should have been anticipated as one of every eight men will experience PC.  

Now that I know first hand, my forthcoming book Beyond Testosterone, should be handed to every man at the age of 40 as a road map that will shine a pair of headlights on an alternative route, one that skirts around radiation treatment or surgery. Having that map will eliminate a surprise prostate cancer diagnosis.

Tamaki Ishihara, known to friends and family as Tommie called me the absent minded professor starting in junior high school.  She would not have been surprised to hear that I'd missed a medicare payment and was dropped like a hot potato. No insurance is not the best way to navigate PC. Patricia Vining, my wife, saved me from this fate. She immediately added me to her health insurance plan.

During this change of insurance interval, my radiologist forwarded  a bill for $5,129 bill to me after it was declined by Medicare. I call the

For Billing Questions Please call number on the invoice.

Nicole Carlson answers my call and we complete the needed records update.

Thanks to my talk today with Nichole Carlson, I can be more optimistic because of her 21 years of work in the medical care business.

For example,

For cancer patients with shockingly big medical bills some states provide oncology funding that will pay for their treatment. The problem is they don't know how to get this assistance.

Coming this week, we talk with Nicole Carlson, an expert in medical billing who is also sentient, by that I mean to say that she is a kind and empathetic expert.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE.

THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM

 

The visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum is often abbreviated ROYGBIV based on the first letters of each color’s name (red-orange-yellow-green- blue-indigo-violet).

The Appearance of the Sky

The colors we see in the sky come from sunlight that is scattered by molecules in the atmosphere. This process is called Rayleigh scattering. Nitrogen and oxygen make up most of the molecules in our atmosphere, but any gas or aerosol suspended in the air will scatter rays of sunlight into separate wavelengths of light. Consequently, when there are more aerosols in the atmosphere, more sunlight is scattered, resulting in more colorful skies.

Why Is the Sky Blue?

Sunlight is made up of all the colors of light. It appears as white light when all the colors are together. Sunlight travels as waves of energy, and different colors of light have different wavelengths. Red light has long wavelengths, while blue light has short wavelengths. Light bounces off of air molecules in the Earth's atmosphere, scattering in all directions. Blue light is scattered more than other colors of light because of its shorter, smaller waves. Because blue light is scattered more than other colors of light, the sky appears blue.

Blue isn’t the dominant wavelength in the visible part of the spectrum, but our sky appears blue on a clear day because Earth’s atmosphere scatters shorter, blue light wavelengths more effectively. 

Why Are Sunrise and Sunset so Colorful?

The angle of sunlight as it enters the atmosphere also affects the color of the sky. During sunrise or sunset, when the Sun is close to the horizon, the light must travel through more of the atmosphere than it does when the Sun is overhead. This results in more scattering of light, including longer wavelengths such as yellow, orange, and red, which creates colorful sunrise and sunset skies.

Why Does the Sky Look Different Throughout the Year?

Certain times of the year tend to have more aerosols in the air than others, which leads to more colorful skies. In certain climates, the air tends to be dustier during the summer months, due to hot, dry weather. In the fall, when many farmers harvest their crops, more dust is suspended in the air. The full moon in the fall, called the Harvest Moon, often appears orange because of the extra dust particles in the sky. As with red sunsets, the unusual Moon coloration might be pleasing to the eye, but it is a sign of poor air quality.

Sundogs

Peggy LeMone

Sundogs are brightest in winter because ice crystals are more common, but can be seen at other times of year as well. A sundog (also called a mock sun or parhelia) is a brightly colored spot that appears along one, or both, sides of the Sun. Sundogs most often form when there are cirrostratus clouds covering the sky and the Sun is near the horizon. The cirrostratus clouds are made of hexagonal ice crystals which bend light, creating sundogs and other atmospheric optics such as the 22-degree halo.

THE BEST YEAR EVER FOR our 120 AND BEYOND community

JANUARY 1, 2026 Thursday, 1:02 pm Happy New Year!

It's time for a year of experts to point the way for our 120 and Beyond community.

Corina Eckman of Denver will be our inaugural authority. At 92, she has mastered the ins and outs of this longer-health-span-journey. She knows what it takes to keep on ticking.

Her photo goes here once she picks one out, so stay tuned. In the mean time, here are her first suggestions.

Image 1:

Stay mentally turned on. For example:

1. This is Aunt Corina's list of the many scents you have in your home, like lemon, sage, vanilla extract, oregano....

see Image 2.

Feeling a little sluggish?  Take a whiff of lemon to lift your spirits. It goes right into your brain to make you more alert. Let's see, what else can we do?

Image 2: You get the idea: there are lots of scents for our

alert-the-brain

tool kit.

Image 3: Why scents get instantly into the brain. 

The blue arrows in this illustration point to how sage or cocaine, get instantly penetrates into the brain. That's why recreational drugs are sniffed, an immediate mind altering experience. Well, so too lemon or...

What's your favorite smell?

Image 4: More to come next week.