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)

Stop erradicly changing profile pictures!

Gotcha!

Awesome, my brother and his other half just brought us a generator! We have (slightly limited) power! Most important, the fridge is back on!!! 

ETA on the real power being restored is Friday midnight

I can't stand it when i pull my Ipad, little kiddos and kidles immediately think im playing some stupid game and walk up to me and ask 'what game are you playing?' Or 'can i play'. I dont even have games on my Ipad. But a good way to scare them away is switch to some white wikipedia page that always works.

I also get little mad when people constantly ask what im drawing, but im going to flip the table when they ask me to draw them.

my great and triumphant return from my Month long vacation! 

I... AM... HERE!!! *Cue dramatic music*

my great and triumphant return from my Month long vacation! 

I... AM... HERE!!! *Cue dramatic music*

I'm not dead! 

*notices the 824 notifications* 

Okay, NOW I am... 

Hi, guys, I start school at August 28 2017, thank you

-SamBelanger

I'm not dead! 

*notices the 824 notifications* 

Okay, NOW I am... 

For those of you who are interested...

NASA to wake up New Horizons spacecraft for voyage into mysterious
Third Zone

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/08/12/nasa-wake-new-horizons-spacecraft-voyage-mysterious-third-zone/

Excerpt:

NASA is to wake up its New Horizons spacecraft next month following a five month hibernation, ahead of a journey deeper into one of the most mysterious regions of the Solar System. New Horizons, which captured incredible images of Pluto in July 2015, was powered down in April to conserve energy as it traveled through the Kuiper Belt, a vast region of icy debris which encircles the Sun and planets, also known as The Third Zone.

Ok, two nights ago I created a Pandora channel with music from the 1970s - Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon and Garfunkel, Harry Chapin, the Eagles, ABBA, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and a few others... Man, compared to the music today, I really think the younger generations are missing out on what real music sounds like - without the auto-tune and special effects music. 

So I'm sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a-dyin'
And my love is an anchor tied to you (tied with a silver chain)
I have my ship and all her flags are a-flyin'
She is all that I have left and music is her name

Ok, two nights ago I created a Pandora channel with music from the 1970s - Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon and Garfunkel, Harry Chapin, the Eagles, ABBA, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and a few others... Man, compared to the music today, I really think the younger generations are missing out on what real music sounds like - without the auto-tune and special effects music. 

So I'm sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a-dyin'
And my love is an anchor tied to you (tied with a silver chain)
I have my ship and all her flags are a-flyin'
She is all that I have left and music is her name

Ok, two nights ago I created a Pandora channel with music from the 1970s - Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon and Garfunkel, Harry Chapin, the Eagles, ABBA, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and a few others... Man, compared to the music today, I really think the younger generations are missing out on what real music sounds like - without the auto-tune and special effects music. 

So I'm sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a-dyin'
And my love is an anchor tied to you (tied with a silver chain)
I have my ship and all her flags are a-flyin'
She is all that I have left and music is her name

Ok, two nights ago I created a Pandora channel with music from the 1970s - Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Gordon Lightfoot, Simon and Garfunkel, Harry Chapin, the Eagles, ABBA, Earth, Wind, and Fire, and a few others... Man, compared to the music today, I really think the younger generations are missing out on what real music sounds like - without the auto-tune and special effects music. 

So I'm sailing for tomorrow my dreams are a-dyin'
And my love is an anchor tied to you (tied with a silver chain)
I have my ship and all her flags are a-flyin'
She is all that I have left and music is her name

Quote of the day:

"Knowing what we know now, we are being irresponsible in our failure to make the scientific and technical progress we will need for protecting our newly discovered severely threatened and probably endangered species--us. NASA is not about the 'Adventure of Human Space Exploration,' we are in the deadly serious business of saving the species. All Human Exploration's bottom line is about preserving our species over the long haul."

John Young
(Sep 24, 1930 -          )
Quote taken from his essay, "The Big Picture" first published in 1978.

Quote of the day:

Clearly, unless thinking beings inevitably wipe themselves out soon after developing technology, extraterrestrial intelligence could often be millions or billions of years in advance of us. We're the galaxy's noodling newbies.

Update and observation 3:
^{Now grading for World Civilization to 1500}

"Facts" I never knew about world civilization...

• The Roman Republic fell when Caesar forgot his lexicon.
• The crusades began when the Shriners put up collection points along the Silk Road.
• Early attempts for global trade didn't go well. They didn't have airplanes or good roads. They had to rely on the underground railroad.
• Columbus founded the colony of Columbia, in what is now South Carolina.
• The Crusades started as Russia began to expand into Mongolia.
• The Holy Roman Empire was made up of Romans who fought to liberate Europe from Germans who were Muslim invaders.

Other student observations:

• Student comment on an exam: "I should have taken this class more seriously. The Holy Roman Empire kicked my butt..."  _{(word changed to be forum friendly)}
• Student comment on an exam: "I don't think this exam is a fair assessment of who I am. I did really good in history in high school. You make us remember too many facts..."
• Student comment on an exam: "You claim the classical Chinese and Greeks knew the world was a sphere. This is a lie, the earth is flat. NASA lies."

I am taking a break from grading since I now have two classes done. The next class, another World Civilization, will take about three hours. It is an on-line class and has 40 student exams to grade.

Update and observation 2:

"Facts" I never knew about American history...

This is not a political thread, although the "facts" I am sharing here are actual answers that students have given for their final exam. The final exam covers a period of American history ranging from 1927 to 2000. I think a few of you might find some of the answers shockingly amusing. 

• World War II started when the Germans bombed San Diego on December 7, 1941.
• During World War II, Italy, Germany, and Russia united to defeat the Axis powers.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis happened when President Johnson tried to annex Cuba for statehood.
• The Berlin Wall was used by Sherwin-Williams to test the durability of paint. -um, NO!
• Macintosh refers to a type of apple used in frozen apple pies... (Um, the term to identify was "Macintosh (MAC)" and was in a lecture about 1980s consumer culture...)

Other student observations:

• Each semester, students are required to complete four exams for the course; each one has an assigned due date. Never submit all four exams on the same date. There's a good chance your instructor isn't going to grade the late ones.
• Students know the last week of class is the last week. Never email your instructor after final grades are posted to ask can you do extra credit.  Um, not going to happen.
• Never tell your professor the topic you chose for your term paper was dumb and your professor should have warned you (Yeah, I did that but the student insisted they could do it - sometimes you have to let them smack into  brick wall. Oh, and I keep copies of the emails...).

One class completely done - and now on to the next course! (It's World Civilization to 1500).

299 rep? C'mon!

I'm going on vacation for the next 2 months, which means I can't play KSP, but I can communicate. I'm leaving in 4 hours.

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!

Another fascinating article... thought I'd share it here.

Jupiter is the oldest planet in the Solar System

Jupiter's ancient name really is well-deserved: according to a new study, the king of the planets isn't just the largest in the Solar System, it's also the oldest. A team of researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and the University of Munster in Germany have determined that Jupiter's core was already 20 times the size of Earth merely 1 million years after the sun took shape 4.6 billion years ago. Since newborn stars tend to release energy that blows away gas and dust for planet formation, the gas giant must have had to absorb materials very, very fast. ^{(Excerpt from the article)}

Je suis tres fatigué pour profiter de ce jeu ou grand-chose d’autre.

Je suis tres fatigué pour profiter de ce jeu ou grand-chose d’autre.