A point to ponder:

With the level of dissatisfaction currently on display in the United States, I decided that I would share this here:

If you want to see change in your life, then let the change begin with you.
If you want to see change in your family, then let it begin with you.
If you want to see a change in your community, school, or workplace, then let it begin with you.

If you want to see changes in your nation, then let it begin with you.
If you want to see changes in the world, then let it begin with you.

If you see something that needs to be done, then do it rather than demand it be done.
If you see someone who needs help, then be the hand that lifts instead of the hand that destroys.

For if we do not do any of these things, then we are not the solution to the problem.
We are its cause.

-adsii1970

Quote of the day:

"The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us—there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, or falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries."

Carl Sagan
(Nov 09, 1934 - Dec 20, 1996)
Quote taken from his book, The Pale Blue Dot first published in 1994.

Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. He is best known for his work as a science popularizer and communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the now accepted hypothesis that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to and calculated using the greenhouse effect. (Wikipedia Commons)

I'm not very sure if there is a thread for this kind of stuff, and to be honest, I do not feel like looking for one. However, I saw this earlier today - and could imagine what kind of cool images we could get from the various probes if Mars did still have rings...

Mars' Moons Were Once Its Rings, Scientists Suggest

Now what would really be cool is if we could have rings added to Duna! No, in all seriousness, I thought this was too awesome of a story not to share it.

Quote of the day:

"We need the stars... We need purpose! We need the image the Destiny [to take root among the stars] gives us of ourselves as a purposeful, growing species. We need to become the adult species that the Destiny can help us become! If we're to be anything other than smooth dinosaurs who evolve, specialize and die, we need the stars.... When we have no difficult, long-term purpose to strive toward, we fight each other. We destroy ourselves. We have these chaotic, apocalyptic periods of murderous craziness."

Octavia Butler
(Jun 22, 1947 - Feb 24, 2006)
Quote taken from her book, Parable of the Talents, first published in 1998

Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer. A multiple recipient of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, Butler was one of the best-known women in the field. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the "Genius Grant". (Wikipedia Commons)

<-- Old avatar I've used before in the old Simtropolis forum and the SimCitySims forum... Thought I would dust the cobwebs and dust off it and use it again.

Quote of the day:

"I'm sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who write about this and made people think about it. I'm rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books."

Arthur C. Clarke
(Dec 16, 1917 - Mar 19, 2008)
Quote taken from his work, The View from Serendip, first published in 1977.

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. (Wikipedia Commons)

I've returned home after a quick trip to see my father. Personally, I do not care what your view of the Vietnam War is, but he is a Vietnam War veteran who did five combat tours between 1962 and 1975. He now is suffering from Agent Orange poisoning and all the related cancers and health conditions. He's 74 and I know we will not have too many more visits with him left - his doctors do not expect he has much longer than a year. His body is shutting down and he is not a chemo candidate - not that he wants it anyway. We may not have seen eye to eye, but he continues to be one of the heroes in my life. If you are a teen, don't ever go to bed angry at your parents. You never know when life may play one of those cruel jokes. You never know what moment may be the last chance you have to spend with them.

Overall, we had a good visit and while he was in one of the many mid-day five hour naps, I took my wife and 6-year old daughter on a quick trip to the Stennis Space Center along the Louisiana/Mississippi Gulf Coast. (This had a dual purpose. My daughter wants to be one of the first astronauts to go to the asteroid belt. She, like me, is fascinated by all things space related. And it gave my dad a chance to have some quiet time for his much-needed nap that day).

I've created a heavily edited photo album to share with you. The engine with my daughter on my shoulders is from the first stage of a Saturn V rocket, what would have been Apollo 20, had the program not been cancelled. The assembly laying on its side is from the cancelled Apollo 19 mission. And yes, I touched it!

Today's task is grading the massive amounts of assignments so that I can post grades by midnight, tonight. I figured that I'd give you periodic updates...

Update and observation 1:

Never email your professor an hour after the final exam is due to tell them, "I want to drop the course." Haha, good luck, buttercup. The last day to drop was nearly two weeks ago. Not going to happen. Out of 1,750 possible points (that's the maximum number available), this princess only earned 53. Yup, not even enough points to fail the course!

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...

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...

Folks, I am here, on-line, but am grading papers...

Today's tools of choice:

I spend more time on this forum than I do the other social media places I belong. Sure, I have a Facebook account and I'm also on another forum called Simtropolis, but by far, my on-line home is here. I've not been as active on here for the last month for a couple of reasons - and just so everyone knows, I'm not going anywhere. I had to take a step back to keep my violations on the forum low.

With the new DLC and the new version of KSP, there has been a subtle shift in the forum. The division between the PC players and the console players have always been there. But it seems, from my perspective, the DLC and ongoing issues with the console version have made the division worse. Then there's the influx of new forum members striving to make their mark on the forum. But this is where we all need to remember the "golden rule of Internet decorum": on the forum, treat others the way you'd want others to treat your grandmother. This unofficial rule has seemingly either been forgotten or simply ignored.

This forum has been my escape from the real world. And I have made a lot of good friends here. But because of the shift in the forum's general attitude (in many threads, there is almost non-stop insults and personal attacks from folk), I took a step back. I teach at the university level and endure this attitude in real life on the campus. I have never been about silencing people, but about having open dialogue. But on the campus, there are those, as I am beginning to see here, who attempt to silence folks they disagree with through profanity and personal attacks. They also expect others to do their will, and if not, belittle and again, use personal attacks.

Recently, there was a situation arise where I felt I had no alternative to report a post. Believe it or not, being the free speech and individual rights person I am, I don't like reporting posts. But this forum has been, since the very beginning, designed to where your grandmother can read over your shoulder and not be embarrassed over what she is reading. And for this, I commend @SQUAD and the entire moderator team. 

i do not know how many will remember, but today is the 48th anniversary of the Apollo 13 mission...

Apollo 13's harrowing week in space began 48 years ago

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Apollo-13-s-harrowing-week-began-45-years-ago-6196402.php

Extract:

This week marks 48 years since the lunar-bound crew of Apollo 13 ran into mechanical trouble on their way to the Moon, necessitating a life-and-death operation at the Manned Spacecraft Center -- now known as Johnson Space Center -- in order to engineer a way for the three-man team to return home alive.

An helpful suggestion from your friendly forum professor:

Just because you live in the same apartment complex as your professor, do not think that when you see them outside it is an invitation to come and see what they are doing.

Also, do not think it is okay to go over to your professor's dwelling with a family member to discuss your grade. Within the United States, we have a law (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) which prevents your professors from disclosing information to any third party - and in the case of my university - without written consent. It never ends well for the student.

So, can a student go to their professor's house? Yes, but only when an invitation by the professor has been extended. Since 2004, I have held five student events at my abode. Why, you ask? Three were because I had students who had earned service learning awards AND I was their advisor. The other two were to celebrate certain milestones (when I was awarded my Ph.D., I invited the students from my three courses who were in Phi Alpha Theta) and when I was asked to chair a senior history conference on the Cold War.

An helpful suggestion from your friendly forum professor:

The email client used by our campus' on-line portal (Black Board) allows those who are designated as "instructor users" in the system to set a delivery time for emails. Because of the way I chose to set up my courses, I always send bulk emails at 11:59 p.m. This way, the very first thing a student gets in the morning, as they check (or do not check) their email is the bulk email from me.

It is that time of the semester where it is about to get a little crazy in my life. Final projects and final exams will begin to be due over the next 14 day period. And every semester, I have had at least 15% of all students for that semester decide to turn in various assignments, some which were due the third week of the semester. So... with that said, two years ago, I noticed a trend - it now was closer to 25% waiting to the last minute to do everything.

This past fall, in ONE class of 45 students, I had 23 (that's 51%) who decided to wait to the last minute to submit a semester's worth of work. And that totally changed the way I do business in the classroom forever. So, this semester, I have become a major obstacle for the student who has decided to make procrastination their lifestyle.

Here's the email I sent out at 11:59 p.m. last night:

This morning, when I began working through the new round of emails which began around 6:30 this morning, I came across this gem:

Quote

I read you're email this morning and think you are being unfare. I have more than just you're class in my life. It isn't like this is an important class - its' HISTERY!!!!!

I have talked to some of my friends. There professors don't mind late work. There professors are understanding that there are things more important than class. I don't have time to do the work from you're class, algebra, English, and my nursing clases. There's too much work I have to do in the real classes besides you're's.

I don't have time to do everything you want. I will do the final project and you will grade it. I am going to see my adviser today and complain about you're unrealistic expectations.

I will need to take you're final exam early. I will be leaving on a cruise on May 2.

Ok, folks... here's the deal. When you send an email to a professor and you immediately begin accusing them of ruining your life, your chance to remain in college, or any other "student" travesty, you are inviting that professor to not work with you. You're almost begging for them to become the coldest person in the room to you. In fact, I would go as far as saying you've demanded them not to work with you.

Secondly, when you cannot even spell or use the right form of a word, you are highlighting how much of a moron you really are. You are showing the professor a complete lack of professionalism. And again, you are highlighting how little you value education.

And then there's the "my other friend's professors aren't as uncooperative as you are..." garbage, you are trying to cause the professor to second-guess their actions. It does nothing but make us even more mad at you. First, you made the decision to not do the assignment on time. Then you claim we are the ones ruining your life because of the lack of effort you've put into the class. And then you frost that cake with the false comparison to other professors. Professors talk; we may not like each other, but we talk. Sure, your friend's professor that accepts late work probably is a volleyball instructor. But in most real academic fields, late work over a week is normally not tolerated. Ever.

Go to your advisor. Please. In fact, I beg you to. Go to your advisor and complain about my course. Your advisor stuck you in the course for a reason, and part of that is the reputation of the professor teaching the course. For every one student who complains about a professor, you'll normally find seven to ten who will praise the same professor. Besides, your advisor has NO SAY on how your professor runs their course. None.

And then, there's the demand made to accommodate another poor decision. You've booked a cruise that happens during finals week and after blasting your professor, you want to ask for an early exam date? Yeah, hell no. You can take it with everyone else OR you can go ahead on your cruise. But I'm under no obligation to help you at all, especially with your bad attitude towards the course. Nada... no compassion given... In fact, this movie clip reminds me exactly of how I feel about this kind of garbage:

I've seen several comments today asking for some sort of "defined" objectives for KSP. Do you folks think it could deserve a thread or should I just throw some mission ideas in a profile status post? I'm curious and would like to know.

Finished posting all grades today... Here's the breakdown:

• HIS 101 (World Civilization), 45 students, A: 5, B: 14, C: 10, D: 0, F: 16 (Failure rate of 35.55%)
• HIS 109 (U.S. since 1865), 17 students, A: 3, B: 1, C: 3, D: 2, F: 8 (Failure rate of 47.05%)
• HIS 435 (U.S. FP Since 1900) 20 students. A: 6, B: 7, C: 4, D: 0, F: 3 (Failure rate of 15.0 %)

Tomorrow I will begin reformatting the early chapters of Kerny's Journal.

Ok, folks... so over the last few weeks things have been far from normal for me. Looking for a return of normalcy soon. I do not do too well in a world of chaos.

Life on the university campus:
(Spring 2021 Semester, Third posting)

And there are days where I should have stayed in bed:

Friday was filled with unexpected problems. As many of you know, I teach at both a community college (a two-year school which awards either an Associates of Arts or an Associates of Science depending on a student's chosen field) and a university. And for the past three years, we've had an issue with the human resources director the community college hires. I'm not tenured at either school. At the university, I work on a five-year contract which expired a year ago. There were no issues when the new contract was issued. Just as every other contract renewal at the university, January 31st was a normal payday.

For the community college, things are not that simple. Last spring, I was put on a five-year contract with the stipulation that tenure could be awarded at the end of the contract. But the Human Resources director decided that for some reason, the pay scale as put into place in the contract would not be followed this year. So, there was no January 31st paycheck. I called the dean of faculty's administrative assistant who spent all day Friday trying to figure out why I didn't get paid.

Incompetency never dies; it's promoted into a higher position within the bureaucracy:

Now, losing 1/3 of an expected payday would be a bad thing if I lived from paycheck to paycheck. But I do not. I do have a reserve which I was able to draw from to replace the missing pay. But Friday, I called and started a process going that I have no control over and has taken a rather nasty life of its own. The dean called me back Friday afternoon, apologizing and offering to advance me money from the emergency faculty loan account to cover the paycheck I was missing. No, I didn't take it because I have a reserve account that contains enough money to cover the missing paycheck. Today, as I was leaving the campus, the dean told me what had happened - human resources messed up when they entered my pay data for the academic year (Fall/Spring/Summer).

The problem was because an on-campus rehabilitative transfer where an employee who already made a mess in the registrar's office was sent to the human resources department. And to add insult to injury, the transfer included a title change which triggered an automatic promotion. I'm the only five-year contract faculty member on campus and instead of asking for help in proper coding my pay, she did things for me as she had done for those hired from semester to semester. But with a twist - her mistake meant my first pay date is January 31, 2022. And when the dean pointed out her mistake, she simply laughed it off. But then she told the dean that the end-of-semester audit would catch it and I'd be paid on June 1 - once the audit found the error!

I should have stayed in bed this morning:

I came really close to losing my temper today. Luckily, the dean has already taken the steps to make sure the problem is corrected. In fact, she has asked the human resources director to personally handle my file. Today, I've spent time on the phone with this lady to learn something else - my pay has been wrong for the past two years! Since I am not tenured, I am supposed to receive extra pay for any full time assignments given me - and this includes advising. As of this morning, not only does the college owe me my normal end of the month paycheck, but an additional $3,500+/- for advising assignments. The bad news is if I get it paid in one lump sum, it messes up my paycheck withholding for 2021, putting me in a higher municipal, state, and national tax brackets. So, I will be getting the money spread out over each pay period for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, I will be getting paid, but not until February 15th.

The most frustrating part of all of this is the corporate structure's need to rehabilitate people who clearly do not have the aptitude to do the job they were hired to do. Someone else always pays the price for their incompetence. And someone else always has to go back and fix their mistakes. They win - they don't have to fix the mess they created, they don't care about those they inconvenience, and they usually get promoted to keep them from making any more messes where they are. Yeah, I've been in a foul mood all day.

Life on the university campus:
(Spring 2021 Semester, Fourth posting)

There's a reason online courses don't get snow days:

In the central United States, February 14th brought in really cold temperatures and a lot of winter weather. Right now, along the banks of the Ohio River, there's six inches (15.25 cm) of snow on the ground. Last night, the low was -4° F (-20° C). This is not the typical weather for my area this time of the year. But then again, it's the first year of the second decade of the new millennium, so why should the un-normal things that's happening surprise any of us...

As many of you know, I teach primarily online. Out of the seven courses I am teaching this semester, only two are "traditional" style lectures. The issues with COVID-19 and the cancellation of classes because of the winter weather of this week have had an impact on those classes. But the remaining five classes - all Internet-based classes - should have not had any significant impact at all.

This morning, while taking out the trash at my townhouse complex, I was unfortunate enough to come across one of my online students. She also lives in the townhouse complex, but with her grandparents. She said she saw me outside and wanted to tell me that it is unfair of me to change the due dates for the course because of the traditional courses being cancelled this week (Monday was Presidents' Day, no class. Tuesday and Wednesday classes were cancelled because of the winter weather). I explained to her that the campus being closed has no impact on an online course.

Online courses are the way colleges and universities will be in the short and very near future. The concept of going onto campus will become obsolete within the next decade. Already, there is a push in our tri-state area to  move as many core courses into an online format as possible. It's more economical - no physical limits on class size, no insurance-per-student requirement, no expenses of maintaining temperature in classrooms, no money for large janitorial or grounds maintenance staff, and no expensive libraries with climate control to maintain if the campus experience is moved to an online format. Revenue generated for even a public college will be significantly more than its financial liabilities. Online courses are not dependent upon the weather, time of day, or any other physical happenings that impact a traditional course. From a business model, it makes sense.

There are a lot more positive features from moving to an online delivery format for classes. It means a student can complete the course as rapidly or as slowly as they desire, as long as it fits within the designated time allowed. But there are a bunch of downsides to online courses, too. The most severe issue are students who lack motivation. If you are not a self-starter or cannot manage your time well, online courses will be difficult.

So, what was her complaint? She wanted me to extend all the due dates for one of the course modules by one week. (The module's original due date is Sunday, February 28th). She told me it was unfair of me to expect her to spend this week doing coursework when the college was closed. So, I asked her if she was dependent upon the community college's Internet to complete the course, offering some sort of a benefit of a doubt. Her response was "no, I have Spectrum; I'm not poor and ignorant..." And right there killed any desire for me to offer any sort of help. Yes, she is ignorant. She is ignorant of the fact it's an online course and as long as her ISP (internet service provider) is online, so is her class. And she's also ignorant to the fact she can do more to complete her work by a set deadline than I can help her by extending the deadline. Procrastination is not a friend. It is the enemy of an online class.

Wait! We are creating real Krakens?!

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57339989.amp

I found this video in my recommended feeds on YouTube. For years, I believed, as many did, that the brave seven astronauts aboard Challenger probably died during the explosion and break-up of the shuttle. Now, after seeing this video, I am questioning that line of thinking...

Forgive me if many of you already knew this; I was 14 years old and living in Hanau, Germany at the time of this disaster...

During my office hours, I go through my "recommended YouTube" video feed. Every once in a while, I actually come across a great video that I cannot but help to watch at least two or three times. This video is one of them...

I would have loved to see this in person - from INSIDE the cockpit. Wow, what a beautiful craft!

This just popped up on my YouTube video recommended feed. Wow, I remember watching this in real time. If you've never seen this video, enjoy!

As a reminder, this launch took place om April 12, 1981 and was the first mission of the STS Columbia.

The next major explosion is going to be when genetics and computers come together. I'm talking about an organic computer - about biological substances that can function like a semiconductor.