5:50 pm - Fri 4 Jul 2008 
Archive for May, 2006
Well, it is done. We can rest…at least for a little while.
Another year at college has come to a close. Last night, just a few hours ago, most of my family enjoyed something very special together…my daughter, my wife, and I all walked across the stage of our college, at graduation commencement exercises at Central Wyoming College.
This past year, between all three of us, we earned five degrees. Daughter Laurie earned Associates of Arts degrees in English and Technical Theater. My wife Annie earned Associate of Arts in English and Associates of Arts in Social Science. I finished my Associates of Applied Science in Computer Networking Technology in Web Development with highest honors.
One after another, with Annie in the lead, we strode across the stage, son Kenny pushing Annie in her wheelchair so she could accept her diploma and shake hands…then Laurie…and finally me. Son Robert and daughter in law Candi couldn’t be there, unfortunately. Candi just had our first grandson only 6 days ago, by the name of Hudson James, and a long trip across country after a very long weekend in labor just wouldn’t do. We’ll get them a DVD of the commencement.
MANY of our friends and fellow students here at CWC also earned degrees, awards, certificates and honors, including Ruhiyuh Olsen, Jolyn Zwemer, Jackie Dorothy, my coworkers at the KCWC radio station Lisa Johnson and Justin Dickman, Ryan Jevne, Lydia Dove (the OTHER web development graduate this year), Kim Ogg, several of my fellow student senators, and over 250 other graduates.
It was an amazing night…much more of a wonderful evening than we could have hoped for. I mean, we were all graduating together. That in and of itself was so cool. Before the major work of the evening progressed, we had a musical interlude provided by the CWC Jazz Ensemble, which just happens to feature our son Kenny as the guitar player/stylist/melody guy. Laurie’s best friend Cameron Fehring provided the vocals for the song that played, and it was over all too fast. But then, something even better happened.
I mentioned many weeks ago that I was named to the All-USA Academic Team for community colleges, a couple of weeks after I was named a New Century Scholar for 2006, for the State of Wyoming. Well, as a second team member of the All-USA team, I didn’t make the cut to receive a scholarship. That is reserved for first team members.
Tonight, I found out what second team members receive. After the presentation of the Valedictorians, I was next on stage…by myself with the administration and faculty. President Jo Anne McFarland read a very nice prepared statement about my winning both the New Century Scholar award, and making the 2nd team of the All-USA Academic Team. She then presented me with a beautiful medallian, very heavy and gold plated, on a red, white and blue ribbon. I had to remove my mortarboard hat so she could place it over my head. It was a little snug on my noggin, but she was able to get it on without problems, only knocking my glasses slightly askew, which she very deftly straightened for me. She also presented me with very nice framed parchment certificate from the All-USA Academic Team organization and USA Today.
I found myself with the opportunity to speak to the graduating class, the audience, the faculty, and ALL the rest of the people there watching. Did I mention that Wyoming Public TV was broadcasting the entire commencement on LIVE TV?
I didn’t think I was going to be offered the chance to say something, so I didn’t really prepare. I figured if I did get the chance, I was going to thank my family. S0, I did. I mentioned that without the support of my wife and children, I would not have been able to come back to college to finish the degrees I started over 27 years ago. I also was able to spit out, in the swirling, blinding TV lights, that I wanted to thank the college and faculty for helping make all this possible.
But I didn’t get to the point of getting to mention specific names of those such as Steve Ferwerda and Dale Smith (my two main instructors and advisors while here on campus the last 36 months or so), Terry Svilar (who gave me my first on campus job in the business lab, where Annie has been working for the past two years now), the Student Success Center (where I’ve been tutoring in many subjects almost as soon as I started here), Danielle Hood (one of the first people I saw, when I came to inquire with the college about returning to school after so many years, and How Was I Going To Pay For It…she made it all happen for me and helped me finalize the decision to return)… and on and on for dozens of other folks who have made it all worth while.
Nope, went completely blank after thanking the family and the college..said thank you to Jo Anne, and the administration…and the audience for their support, and turned to head off stage and back to my seat in the front row.
Drats… Maybe Next Time.
After that, the march of students receiving their diplomas, the exit of the students and faculty, and the reception in the Arts Center afterwards, where a couple of thousand folks mingled over cookies and punch….taking pictures and videos, saying farewells, and heading out.
We hung around to the hall was almost empty. Dozens of teachers, fellow students, faculty, friends, and even strangers came over to where we were hugging one of the walls as a family unit, with Terry S. and others hanging out with us, and shook hands, exchanged hugs, said congrats, and spent a few moments just being friends…in other words, it was a wonderful night for the entire family.
Afterwards, Annie and I went out for a burger and shake, drove west of town for a few miles, just past the airport up on the hill, found a nice wide spot off the side of the road overlooking the airport, and the town of Riverton below in the Wind River Basin, and enjoyed some quite time looking at the stars and the full moon, while staving off a bit of hunger.
We both took a lot of deep, satisfying breaths…concerning our completion of this phase of our college careers, talking a little about our summer plans, and a few things we’d like to do together THIS summer, that we have been putting off to get through school.
We’ve going to hit Yellowstone this year, go camping up in the Sinks, and maybe Boysen Resevoir, try do some flyfishing I’ve been wanting to do ever since we moved up here, and finally, put all the work and new skilks I have planned into getting my website ready and working with state of the art technology I just earned a college degree in.
Next fall, a return to the books, with plans for both of us to earn bachelor’s degrees, and then I’ll start on that Masters Degree I want to finish with in Homeland Security soon after.
Now…a summer of fun, some peace and quiet, and some planning for how we’ll spend the REST of our lives after college degrees earned at middle age.
Oh yes…and time will be WELL spent…playing grandma and grandpa to two wonderful, beautiful, and incredible grandkids. It’s going to be a great summer.
Til next time,
Rich
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/W. Reach (SSC/Caltech)
A Million Comet Pieces
This infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 skimming along a trail of debris left during its multiple trips around the sun. The flame-like objects are the comet’s fragments and their tails, while the dusty comet trail is the line bridging the fragments.
Comet 73P /Schwassman-Wachmann 3 began to splinter apart in 1995 during one of its voyages around the sweltering sun. Since then, the comet has continued to disintegrate into dozens of fragments, at least 36 of which can be seen here. Astronomers believe the icy comet cracked due the thermal stress from the sun.
The Spitzer image provides the best look yet at the trail of debris left in the comet’s wake after its 1995 breakup. The observatory’s infrared eyes were able to see the dusty comet bits and pieces, which are warmed by sunlight and glow at infrared wavelengths. This comet debris ranges in size from pebbles to large boulders. When Earth passes near this rocky trail every year, the comet rubble burns up in our atmosphere, lighting up the sky in meteor showers. In 2022, Earth is expected to cross close to the comet’s trail, producing a noticeable meteor shower.
Astronomers are studying the Spitzer image for clues to the comet’s composition and how it fell apart. Like NASA’s Deep Impact experiment, in which a probe smashed into comet Tempel 1, the cracked Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 provides a perfect laboratory for studying the pristine interior of a comet.
This image was taken from May 4 to May 6 by Spitzer’s Multiband Imaging Photometer, using its 24-micron wavelength channel.
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About the Object Object Name: 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3
Object Type: comet
About the Data Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ W. Reach (SSC/Caltech)
Instrument: MIPS
Wavelength: 24 microns
Exposure Date: 4 to 6 May 2006
Exposure Time: 21 Hours
Release Date: 10 May 2006
Observers William Reach (Spitzer Science Center)
Michael Kelley (University of Minnesota)
Mark Sykes (Planetary Science Institute)
Carey Lisse (Applied Physics Laboratory/Johns Hopkins University)
Masateru Ishiguro (Seoul National University/Korea)
Asteroid-watchers worry about cosmic Katrina
Former astronaut presses campaign for global preparedness
By Leonard David
Senior space writer
Space.com
Updated: 8:47 p.m. ET May 6, 2006LOS ANGELES - Natural events such as hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes rock this planet from time to time. But when Earth gets stoned by an asteroid, consider it akin to a Katrina from outer space.
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the United States in August of last year, it became a deadly, destructive, and costly episode — one that has also become a metaphor for lack of government action, both pre- and post-strike.
At the current time there is no agency of the U.S. government — or of any other government in the world — that has the explicit responsibility to develop and demonstrate the technology necessary to protect the planet from collisions with near-Earth objects, or NEOs.
The U.S. Congress needs to be encouraged to take a step in demonstrating the ability to deflect a menacing NEO, says former NASA astronaut Russell Schweickart, chairman of the B612 Foundation. On Saturday he presented an update on dealing with troublesome asteroids here at the 25th International Space Development Conference.
Key capabilities
The goal of B612, a confab of scientists, technologists, astronomers, astronauts and other specialists, is to significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015.In detailing today’s NEO situation, Schweickart said there are several givens:
Earth is infrequently hit by asteroids that cross our orbit while circling the sun.
The consequences of such impacts range from the equivalent of a 15-megaton explosion to a civilization-ending gigaton event.
For the first time in the history of humankind, we have the technology to prevent such occurrences from happening in the future — if we are properly prepared.
“Remember, we’re dealing here with a less frequent, but far more devastating Katrina … a Katrina of the cosmos,” Schweickart reported.“NEOs happen so infrequently that even though they are orders of magnitude more devastating, people don’t naturally make that match,” he told Space.com, “but you don’t want to be caught with your pants down.”
Schweickart said there are key capabilities that will enable humanity to avoid devastating cosmic collisions: early warning; a demonstrated deflection capability; and an established international decision making process.
While some progress is being made, there remains significant work ahead in all these areas, Schweickart emphasized.
Sky-sweeping surveys
If the current pace of sky-sweeping surveys is extrapolated into the future, on the order of 10,000 NEOs with some risk of impact over the next 100 years are likely to be cataloged by 2018, Schweickart forecast. The chances are better than even that none of these 10,000 will actually hit Earth in those 100 years.“The important fact, however, is that a substantial number of them will appear as though they may be headed for impact,” Schweickart advised. Today, of the 104 currently on impact listings, “two have an elevated risk, and we are watching them closely,” he said.
At present, the two asteroids on that “keep an eye on them” roster are 2004 VD17 and Apophis, formerly listed as 2004 MN4.
“Extrapolating to 2018, we may have as many as 200 in a similarly elevated attention category and of growing concern to the general public,” Schweickart reported Saturday. “Therefore, it is certainly possible, if not likely, that in the time frame of the next 12 years we — the world — may well be in a position where we need to take action to ensure that we will be able to carry out a deflection mission if needed,” he said.
The U.S. Congress amended the Space Act in 2005 to charge NASA with responsibility to “detect, track, catalog and characterize” NEOs wider than 460 feet (140 meters) in diameter. However, thus far Congress has come up short on actually assigning the responsibility to take action, should one of these objects be discovered headed for a collision, Schweickart pointed out.
There is a bit of good news forthcoming, Schweickart explained. Congress did require NASA to provide by the end of 2006 an analysis of possible alternatives that could be employed to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth. In response to this congressional directive, NASA is about to announce a process for carrying out this mandate.
Global threat … global response
Schweickart told the audience here that a third leg of the triad for protecting Earth from NEO impacts is probably the most challenging, albeit subtle.“It is complicated by two related facts,” he said. NEO impacts are a global threat, not a national one, and the only decision-making body representing, essentially, the whole planet is the United Nations — a body not known for timely, crisp decision making, he added.
Still, in this area, steps forward are being made.
The Association of Space Explorers — the professional organization of astronauts and cosmonauts — has formed a committee on NEOs that Schweickart chairs. Earlier this year, a technical presentation at a U.N. meeting in Vienna apprised them that this issue was coming at them.
While the United Nations has been brought the problem, Schweickart said, the Association of Space Explorers is committed to bringing them a solution. This solution will take the form of a draft U.N. treaty, or protocol, formulated in a series of workshops over the next two years.
“In these NEO Deflection Policy workshops we will gather together a dozen or so international experts in diplomacy, international law, insurance and risk management, as well as space expertise to identify and wrestle with these difficult international issues,” Schweickart noted. “Our goal is to return to the U.N. in 2009 with a draft NEO Deflection Decision Protocol and present it to them for their consideration and deliberation.”
Facing the challenge
In wrapping up his ISDC talk, Schweickart said the NEO challenge, in a sense, “is an entry test for humankind to join the cosmic community.” He reasons that, if there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe “it is virtually certain that it has already faced this challenge to survival … and passed it.”“Our choice is to face this infrequent but substantial cosmic test … or pass into history, not as an incapable species like the dinosaurs, but as a fractious and self-serving creature with inadequate vision and commitment to continue its evolutionary development,” Schweickart concluded.
Leonard David is senior space writer for Space.com and the former editor of Ad Astra, the official magazine of the National Space Society. The views of this article are the author’s and do not reflect the policies of the National Space Society.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12665493/
In case you missed it, here is the video of President Bush, with a President Bush Impersonator….
Some very funny stuff!
Does this story scare you? It damn well better. This is really the way that the leaders of Iran and its allies are thinking.
My recommendations? Get out of the major cities of the US….hours after ANY U.S. attack that occurs on Iran soil. It is going to be a very bad thing should Bush and Co. push their agenda and provoke them with an attack of any kind.
Read this story carefully. Link to original source is at the bottom of the page.
Iran’s Secret Plan if Attacked by US Codenamed “Judgement Day”
Asharq Al-Awsat Exclusive
27/04/2006
By Ali Nouri ZadehLondon, Asharq Al-Awsat- Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.
The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed forces’ joint chief of staff headed by the veterinary doctor Hassan Firouzabadi,
The source added that the forces of the Revolutionary Guards’ al Quds Brigades, under Brigadier General Qassim Suleimani is responsible for coordinating and providing logistical support for the groups taking part in the execution of the plan, codenamed al Qiyamah the Islamic word for “Judgment Day”.
The plan includes three steps, which Asharq al Awsat has examined in earlier reports. The source gave more details about how the plan will be implemented. He said, “Most of Iran’s visitors in the last four months, including the leaders of revolutionary groups in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the heads of Hezbollah cells in the Persian Gulf and Europe and North America were asked, when they met with the Iranian intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezhei and his aides: are you ready to defend the Islamic revolution and vilayat e faqih? If you agree to take part in the great jihad, what would you need to be ready for the great fight?
Amongst the leaders who visited were the head of one of the Iraqi armed group who was very clear and honest. He said his men would transform Iraq into a hell for the Americans if Iran were attacked.
The source also said that the military training camps of the Guards were opened for the fighters of the Mehdi army in Iran to receive the necessary training. Iran had also increased its financial assistance to Moqtada al Sadr to more than 20 million dollars.
The same applied to Islamic Jihad in Palestine which has received large sums of money, large quantities of arms and military training for its cadres in Isfahan, including street fighting methods.
As for the Lebanese Hezbollah, several loads of arms have been sent to; they include rockets, explosives, and guided missiles. Hezbollah’s arsenal includes more than 10 thousand rockets short-range rockets and missiles including Fajr, Nour, Arash, Hadid.
An estimated 80 members underwent private training last year on how to carry out suicide operations from the air (through the use of kite planes) and undersea operations using submarines.
While denying that Hamas had joined the list of organizations ready to help Iran in its likely war with the U.S, the source indicated that the external success of the movement, which enjoys considerable Iranian support both financial and military, was strengthened following the latest visit by its leaders to Tehran. This was translated in the Palestinian masses’ support for Iran, against Israel and the United States .
According to Iran, the latest military plan includes:
1- A missile strike directly targeting the US bases in the Persian Gulf and Iraq , as soon as nuclear installations are hit.
2- Suicide operations in a number of Arab and Muslim countries against US embassies and missions and US military bases and economic and oil installations related to US and British companies. The campaign might also target the economic and military installations of countries allied with the United States .
3- Launch attacks by the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards and Iraqi fighters loyal to Iran against US and British forces in Iraq , from border regions in central and southern Iraq .
4- Hezbollah to launch hundreds of rockets against military and economic targets in Israel .
According to the source, in case the US military attacks continue, more than 50 Shehab-3 missiles will be targeted against Israel and the al Quads Brigades will give the go-ahead for more than 50 terrorists cells in Canada, the US and Europe to attack civil and industrial targets in these countries.
What about the last stage in the plan?
Here, the Iranian source hesitated before saying with worry; this stage might represent the beginning of a world war, given that extremists will seek to maximize civilian casualties by exploding germ and chemical bombs as well as dirty nuclear bombs across western and Arab cities.
