Danny Baza Blas

Yael Averbuch plays soccer for the U.S. National Team Yael Averbuch plays for the United States Women's Soccer team, and she recently wrote an amazing and inspiring essay on following dreams, and how pressures from the outside world forces the vast majority of people to abandon their dreams. At 27 years, Yael wrote she continues to sleep in a bedroom in the house of her parents; most everything she does has been in pursuit of this undefinable dream that defies all worldly logic. Logic tells me what I’m supposed to do. Logic tells me to put a timeline on my goals. Logic tells me to compare myself to other players. But I say that logic is for those bound by fear. It explains the world if you don’t have the guts to explain it your own way. Everything extraordinary — passion, faith, love — goes against logic.

As reported previously on this blog, Arctic sea ice rebounded this summer. About half of the sea ice survived the summer melt. Last summer's sea ice hit a record low. The rebound did not seem to surprise some scientist because two record lows in a row have yet to be recorded since Arctic sea ice levels have been tracked. During my visit to the Arctic (Aug. - Sept. 2013), on-board the USCGC Healy, many observers commented on the relative abundance of polar bear sightings . This news of a sea ice rebound would also be welcome to the native Inupiaq peoples of Alaska, since subsistence hunting of whales is a continuing cultural practice. More on the Arctic sea ice rebound here .