The irony of listening to The Wall while grading rough drafts...

Have a lot to do this weekend. Some of the things I've put off for so long that there's now a looming deadline that requires I spend time on them. Here's what's going on:

• I need to grade exams for my HIST 101 (World Civilization to 1500) class. I am not looking forward to this group of exams...
• I need to clean out my closet. I have some clothes that since I've lost 15 pounds, no longer fit. And I refuse to get fat again!
• Grade the course project first stage for HIST 109 (U.S. history since 1865).
• Complete the images needed for the next installment of Kerny's journal.
• Complete the light curves on Nohochacyum. I've almost finished them... until the next Kopernicus update...
• Finish my real-life chores...

Hey, I cannot find the railroad thread, but here's a beta game I love playing - and it is NOTHING but trains!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/598960/Mashinky/

Things to do today:

• Try to figure out what I am doing wrong with my shuttle. I lose control once I've made it beyond the plasma.
  • This is perplexing. Once I drop below 38k and hit about 900 m/s, the stupid thing begins to spiral and flip over. The tail-end will be pointed in the direction of travel, and no matter what I do,  I cannot stop the spiral or change the orientation of the shuttle...
  • Any suggestions would help greatly.
• Work on grading some assignments students have already submitted.
• Laundry. Yeah, that time of the week. Laundry.
• Work on some requested images for forum members.
• Drink more coffee...
• Change my header for my KSP profile.
• Work on my Nohochacyum mod. I need to add the rest of the roughed planets, address the light curve issue, and try to figure out the asteroid thing.

Things to do today:

• Update the "Legends in our own minds" thread. I haven't done that in a while.
• Pester @Dman979. I haven't done that in a while, either.
• Try to figure out what I am doing wrong with my shuttle. I lose control once I've made it beyond the plasma.
• Work on grading some assignments students have already submitted.
• Work on some requested images for forum members.
• Pester @Angel-125 regarding a part. Hehehe....
• Drink more coffee...
• Work on my Nohochacyum mod. I need to add the rest of the roughed planets, address the light curve issue, and try to figure out the asteroid thing.

What I did get done yesterday:

• Images for the 2017 TOTY and the images for the 2018 TOTMs.
• Chapter 55, "When It Rains It Really Rains" in Kerny Kerman's Journal.
• Syllabus for 101 (World Civilization to 1500, Internet) is now complete.

What I did get done today:

• Made a pot of homemade beef stew for tonight's supper. I wonder if the Yankee Candle Company has a beef stew scented candle...
• Ran some errands around town, including the post office.
• Contacted the American Legion's service officer for Kentucky - getting ready to do battle with the VA.

What I needed to get done but didn't:

• Practice the cornet.
• Update the syllabus for 109, U.S. history since 1865
• Update the syllabus for 101, World Civilization to 1500 (standard class).
• Laundry.
• Complete blog entry.

Debating on staying up to get a few of these things done. It's kinda hard to do any of them once the seven-year old gets home from school and the spouse gets back home from work.

On the agenda for today:

• Finish the TOTM badges for 2018 and the TOTY badge for 2017.
• Practice the ukulele for 30 minutes.
• Restring my acoustic guitar.
• Clean off my computer desk.
• Prepare the syllabus for HIST 101 (world civilization until 1500)

I've been thinking for a while about one thing the game is missing - a way to hover over a ship in the tracking center and have a box hover above it listing the Kermen (or Kerbals, as some call them) on board the vessel.

I have spent about an hour trying to find one of my Kermen - and still have not found what vessel he's on. I know he is out there, somewhere...

Grading is finally completed AND final grades have been posted. Here's the breakdown of what the grades looked like for this semester:

Honors World Civilization to 1500:

• A = 5
• B = 11
• C = 0
• D = 2
• F = 2

World Civilization to 1500: (2 sections)

• A = 10
• B = 19
• C = 26
• D = 10
• F = 21

U.S. History to 1865:

• A = 2
• B = 12
• C = 4
• D = 5
• F = 4

U.S. History since 1865:

• A = 9
• B = 15
• C = 0
• D = 0
• F = 6

Introduction to United States Foreign Policy:

• A = 5
• B = 2
• C = 2
• D = 1
• F = 0

So, what's on the agenda today:

• Grade exams
• Grade final project papers
• Wonder why I assign so much crap
• Go watch students present projects

Going to be a long day.

Ok, I want to start out by saying that this last flu really took a lot out of me. Far more than I realize it had. I felt myself getting sick on Thursday but chose to ignore it. I became so sick that I even contemplated going to the doctor yesterday. I cancelled my classes on Tuesday, and between Friday and this morning, lost ten pounds (4.5 kg for my European friends).

I'm beginning to feel old for the first time in my life. But I don't regret it. It hit me as I had to use my cane for the first time in four years - this flu has left me with a little left-side numbness related to one of my injuries from the First Gulf War. I'm not bitter, but now sit at 47 years old and wonder where the time went. I thought that I would share four of my favorite songs with you - as we often see ourselves as a great big "KSP family".

That's Jimmy Buffett's A Pirate Looks at 40 and if you don't get the song, it is possible you're under 40. The song made sense to me as I rapidly approached that bend of life and it seems to grow more meaningful the older I get. The second song that I'm going to share is one that most of you know - by Crosby, Stills, and Nash:

Some of you may not believe it, but when my dad retired in his hometown during the middle of my senior year of high school, I spent spring break and the first part of summer on sailboats. I couldn't get enough and learned how to sail 12' (3.65 meters) and 18' (5.48 meters) boats between March and June. that 6' (2 meters, roughly) doesn't sound like a lot, but when you are talking about a sailboat - it is the difference between driving a riding lawnmower and a semi-tractor trailer! Anyway, in 1993, while on leave at Fort Polk, I sailed the largest boat I've ever had (and have not done it again) - a 45' (13.7 meter) single mast. Since my childhood, I've always been fascinated with the sea. There is a great freedom when you're out on the open ocean that I just cannot seem to find the words to describe.

The next song that is one of my favorites is one that most who know me are surprised to learn -

Although written by Steve Goodman, I think the best rendition is either by Arlo Gutherie or Willie Nelson. The song is about the sad demise of one of the most famous passenger trains, The City of New Orleans, which was an Illinois Central passenger train which ran from Kankakee, Illinois to New Orleans, Louisiana. There are a few lines of this song that really stab deep into my being - "the sons of Pullman Porters and the sons of engineers ride their father's magic carpets made of steel...", "The conductor sings his songs again, and will the passengers please refrain, this train has the disappearing railroad blues..." and of course, that chorus:

Good mornin' America, how are you?
Don't you know me? I'm your native son!
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done.

Sure, we now have Amtrak (what a crock it is) and sure, many of the passenger train names, especially the City of New Orleans still is around, but it's just not the same.

The last song is a Simon and Garfunkel song:

There's a lot of reasons why this song rounds out the top four. But like most of these songs, they really began to mean more to me the older I've grown.

This was not meant to be a downer post, and please do not read any more into it than what I have shared. It's just been one of those weeks...

Anyone want to guess the game this flag is loosely based on?

Hey folks, I am still alive. Have had a real bad bout of some sort of flu.

One of my favorite renditions of this song...

And for your amusement...

Flu shot earlier today. And guess who feels pretty crappy...

Quote of the day:

"If it’s a new planet, sign me up. I’m tired of driving around the block, boldly going where hundreds have gone before in orbit around earth—give me a place to go and I’ll go."

Neil deGrasse Tyson
(1958 -       )
Quote taken from a lecture delivered to the group, Astronomers without Borders, circa 2004.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997 and has been a research associate in the department since 2003. (Wikipedia Commons)

From Space.com:

Plutonium Supply for NASA Missions Faces Long-Term Challenges

https://www.space.com/38427-plutonium-supply-for-nasa-missions-challenges.html

Article Abstract:

While NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) have restarted production of a plutonium isotope used to power some space missions, a new report warns of challenges that could threaten its long-term supply.

The Oct. 4 report by the Government Accountability Office, tied to a House space subcommittee hearing on the subject, said that while there is sufficient plutonium-238 in stockpiles now for missions planned through the mid-2020s, scaling up production of the isotope faces a number of technical issues.

There are some things that when I see the article, it just shows me how much we still do not understand about our own solar system.

Astronomers Just Found an Epic Ring Around an Exotic Dwarf Planet in Our Solar System

http://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-have-discovered-a-vast-ring-around-the-dwarf-planet-haumea?perpetual=yes&limitstart=1

ARTICLE EXTRACT:

Beyond the orbit of Neptune there are hundreds or even thousands of mysterious dwarf planets, most of which we know almost nothing about – but there's a lot to learn when we catch a rare glimpse. Today, scientists are reporting the discovery of a vast ring encircling Haumea, a distant dwarf planet that takes some 284 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and it's the first time we've seen a ring in this category of minor planet.

It has been a long two weeks. There are times I hate my job - and this happens to be one of those times.

Quote of the day:

The urge to explore has propelled evolution since the first water creatures reconnoitered the land. Like all living systems, cultures cannot remain static; they evolve or decline. They explore or expire... Beyond all rationales, space flight is a spiritual quest in the broadest sense, one promising a revitalization of humanity and a rebirth of hope no less profound than the great opening out of mind and spirit at the dawn of our modern age.

Buzz Aldrin
(Jan 20, 1930 -        )
Quote taken from his editorial, "From the Moon to the Millenium," as published in the Albuquerque Tribune,1999

Buzz Aldrin is an American engineer and former astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, he was one of the first two humans to land on the Moon, and the second person to walk on it. He set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 on July 21, 1969, following mission commander Neil Armstrong. He is a former U.S. Air Force officer with the Command Pilot rating. He also went into orbit on the Gemini 12 mission, finally achieving the goals for EVA that paved the way to the Moon and success for the Gemini program; he spent over five hours on EVA on that mission.  (Wikipedia Commons)

Quote of the day:

The question to ask is whether the risk of traveling to space is worth the benefit. The answer is an unequivocal yes, but not only for the reasons that are usually touted by the space community: the need to explore, the scientific return, and the possibility of commercial profit. The most compelling reason, a very long-term one, is the necessity of using space to protect Earth and guarantee the survival of humanity.

Quote of the day:

It is unlikely that we will ever see a star being born. Stars are like animals in the wild. We may see the very young, but never their actual birth, which is a veiled and secret event. Stars are born inside thick clouds of dust and gas in the spiral arms of the galaxy, so thick that visible light cannot penetrate them.

Heinz R. Pagels
(Feb 19, 1939 - Jul 23, 1988)
Quote taken from his book, Perfect Symmetry: The Search for the Beginning of Time, first published in 1985.

Heinz Rudolf Pagels was an American physicist, an adjunct professor of physics at Rockefeller University, the executive director and chief executive officer of the New York Academy of Sciences, and president of the International League for Human Rights. He wrote the popular science books The Cosmic Code, Perfect Symmetry, and The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity (Wikipedia Commons).

Astronomy/Space Sciences in the news:

Asteroid strike made 'instant Himalayas'

Extract:

The reconstruction of the event 66 million years ago was made possible by drilling into the remnant bowl and analysing its rocks. These show how the space impactor made the hard surface of the planet slosh back and forth like a fluid. At one stage, a mountain higher than Everest was thrown up before collapsing back into a smaller range of peaks. "And this all happens on the scale of minutes, which is quite amazing," Prof Joanna Morgan from Imperial College London, UK, told BBC News. The researchers report their account in this week's edition of Science Magazine. Their study confirms a very dynamic, very energetic model for crater formation, and will go a long way to explaining the resulting cataclysmic environmental changes.

The debris thrown into the atmosphere likely saw the skies darken and the global climate cool for months, perhaps even years, driving many creatures into extinction, not just the dinosaurs. The team spent April to May this year drilling a core through the so-called Chicxulub Crater, now buried under ocean sediments off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

See the article by clicking here.