Posts Made By: Fred Lusk

I put some models together as a kid, mostly airplanes and cars, though my favorite was a Lunar Module. Unfortunately, lack of funds kept me from doing more. I haven't built a plastic model since probably junior high school and all the ones I did make are long gone. On the other hand, I still have some Legos and amuse myself with them from time to time.

When my brother and I were making models, my dad would make his own also....a good father-son activity. When we stopped, so did he. However, just before my dad retired from teaching (1998'ish), he started buliding models of every airplane and helicopter he ever flew in the Air Force and Army National Guard. He has more than 30 models, and think there is only one left to go to complete the series.

Robert....

Kauai is about a degree south of the Tropic of Cancer and the transit is near the summer solstice, so the sun will culminate slightly north of its horizon positions, not south like we're used to in the continental US. Thus, the 2nd and 3rd contacts will be north of the 1st and 4th contacts and this produces the odd azimuths.

Sounds like fun. You will have mid transit almost straight overhead.

Fred

Beautiful photos. Looks like a great trip.

That is excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Agreed.

Near one of the marinas at Shaver Lake is this newly exposed "stump forest."

1. This occurred to me also. I wonder if the fault that caused us to lose control of the drone somehow rendered a self-destruct impossible. Would it be too much to ask for a time-delayed self-destruct?
2. I doubt anything is truly hack-proof, though I also doubt Iran has the ability to hack this....unless, of course, the on-board computer is running Windows Vista and IE8.
3. That would be as funny as the virus that was targeted at and trashed their centrifuges. On the other hand, maybe it was full of bacon and liquor.
4. Seems very likely. This could be the Gary Powers U2 all over again except we haven't lost a pilot.

I agree. We have a lot of very nice people in our club and I have met more nice people from other clubs.

We have two semi-regular observers who can be annoying, but nothing like Ralph's friend. For different reasons, both of ours get bored after about an hour at the eyepiece, so they make the rounds. Fortunately, they usually don't bother any one person for more than about 30 minutes and when they visit me I just keep doing what I was doing and let them carry most of the conversation. I also offer to show them what I am looking at.

This really doesn't bother me too much because I observe solo (both at home and a dark site), I observe in small groups, I observe in larger club settings, and I participate in public events like sidewalk astronomy and the Glacier Point Star Party. Thus, I get to experience different types of oberserving as well as public outreach. In this case, variety is the spice of life.

Beautiful shot and I agree about the sky.

The last time I was there was a week-and-a-half after 9-11 for a pre-scheduled 3-day meeting on a new federal prison for which I was the civil engineer on the design team. During breaks or for parts of the meeting when they didn't need me I walked the mall and it was earily silent unlike my previous trip in '97.

Well, let's see. Howzabout a 10/20?

1. Have you ever worked on a factory floor?
NO

2. Have you ever held a job that caused a part of your body to hurt at the end of the day?
YES--I was a short-order cook in college, but that certainly wasn't as punishing as some people's jobs. I also helped my dad build our new house when I was 14. Since I got paid with a 10-speed bike at the of the summer, that technically qualifies as a job and not slavery (but barely). Helping him design the house was a whole lot more fun.

3. Have you seen last year's mega-hit movie, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon"?
NO--But I don't like going to the movies; I see maybe one a year in the theater.

4. Can you name this NASCAR champion?
"A" champion, YES (Dale Earnhardt, Jr, and a couple of others), but "this" champion, NO.

5. In the past five years, have you been fishing or hunting?
NO--The last time I hunted was 2005 when I killed a deer by hitting it with my Jeep Cherokee. I haven't been fishing since high school. I would rather hike and photograph.

6. Do you have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian?
YES--Quite a few, in fact.

7. During the past year, have you stocked your own fridge with domestic mass-market beer?
NO--I don't like beer. I am more of a Mountain Dew guy. It's "The Drink of the Gods."

8. Do you now have a close friend with whom you have strong and wide-ranging political disagreement?
YES--I would count three people as fitting this description.

9. Have you eaten at an Applebee's, TGI Friday's, or Outback Steakhouse in the past year?
YES, NO, and YES. It's been about two years since I went to a TGIFs.

10. Have you or your spouse ever bought a pickup truck?
NO--However, since my dad and both sons-in-law own pickups, I really don't need one. I do have a small utilty trailer that I can tow behind my Grand Cherokee that fits the bill if their PUs aren't available.

11. Have you ever attended a Kiwanis or Rotary Club meeting, or a gathering at a union local?
YES--Rotary, but only with friends, and I regularly attend professional society meetings.

12. Have you ever participated in a parade that did not involve global warming, gay rights, or a war protest?
NO--I have stood at parades (Veterans Day and Disneyland).

13. Since leaving school, have you worn a uniform as part of your job?
NO--Unless wearing a pocket protector is part of the uniform of an engineer.

14. Have you ever ridden on a Greyhound or Trailways bus?
YES--I twice did a round trip from Fresno to San Jose on Greyhound. Once in high school to visit my cousin and once in 1991 to pick up a new Dodge Caravan.

15. Did you ever watch an "Oprah" show all the way through?
YES--But only at the arm-twisting request of my wife.

16. Did you or your spouse ever serve in the armed forces?
NO--My dad was in the Air Force and Army National Guard and one SIL is in the Air National Guard.

17. Did you grow up in a family in which the chief breadwinner was not in a managerial position or high-prestige occupation (defined as dentist, physician, architect, attorney, engineer, scientist, or college professor)?
A qualified NO--My dad was a an engineer and then because a high school chemistry teacher when I was about 12. While that is not as prestigious as college professor, it was at the top aceademic high school in all of Central California.

18. Have you ever lived for at least a year as an adult in an American neighborhood in which the majority of your nearest 50 neighbors probably did not have college degrees?
YES--One neighborhood I lived in for two years early in my career probably struggled to get 30% college grads among the men and 20% among the women. It was the second worst neighborhood in Ventura, CA.

19. Have you ever had a close friend who could seldom get better than Cs in high school even if he or she tried hard?
YES--And he's still a friend. One of the nicest and wisest people I have ever met, but he is certainly below average intellectually. He got "gentlemen's C's" in high school and college (majoring in the easiet course of study at Fresno State: Recreation). He wanted to be a teacher but took and failed the CBEST (California Basic Educational Skills Test) something like a ten times, and that was after taking review courses. My mom, who took it as part of becoming a substitute math teacher told me it requires about an 8th grade level education to pass.

20. During the last month, have you voluntarily hung out with people who were smoking cigarettes?
NO--I don't have any friends who smoke and fortunately my father-in-law quit several years ago.