Mountain Views News          Saturday, January 29, 2011

12

THE WORLD AROUND YOU

 Mountain Views News Saturday, January 29, 2011


NASA Spacecraft Prepares for Valentine’s Day Comet Rendezvous


NASA’s Stardust-NExT spacecraft is nearing a celestial date with 
comet Tempel 1 on Feb. 14. The mission will allow scientists for 
the first time to look for changes on a comet’s surface that occurred 
following an orbit around the Sun.

The Stardust-NExT, or New Exploration of Tempel, spacecraft 
will take high-resolution images during the encounter and attempt 
to measure the composition, distribution, and flux of dust emitted 
into the coma, or material surrounding the comet’s nucleus. 

The mission will expand the investigation of this comet initiated 
by NASA’s Deep Impact mission. In July 2005, the Deep Impact 
spacecraft delivered an impactor to Tempel 1’s surface to study its 
composition. The Stardust spacecraft may capture an image of the 
crater created by the impactor.

“Every day we are getting closer and closer and more and more 
excited about answering some fundamental questions about 
comets,” said Joe Veverka, Stardust-NExT Principal Investigator at 
Cornell University. “Going back for another look at Tempel 1 will 
provide new insights on how comets work and how they were put 
together four-and-a-half billion years ago.”

At 209 million miles away from Earth, Stardust-NExT will be 
almost on the exact opposite side of the solar system at the time of 
the encounter. During the flyby, the spacecraft will take 72 images 
and store them in an on-board computer.

As of now, the spacecraft is about 15 million miles from its 
encounter. Since 2007, Stardust-NExT has executed eight flight 
path correction maneuvers, logged four circuits around the Sun and 
used one Earth gravity assist to meet up with Tempel 1.

Another three maneuvers are planned to refine the spacecraft’s 
path to the comet. Tempel 1’s orbit takes it as close in to the Sun 
as the orbit of Mars and almost as far away as the orbit of Jupiter. 
The spacecraft is expected to fly past the 3.7 mile-wide comet at a 
distance of 124 miles.

In 2004, the Stardust mission became the first to collect particles 
directly from a comet (comet Wild 2). These samples were returned 
in 2006 for study via a capsule that detached from the spacecraft and 
parachuted to the ground southwest of Salt Lake City.

Mission controllers then placed the still viable Stardust spacecraft 
on a trajectory that could potentially reuse the flight system if a 
target of opportunity presented itself. In January 2007, NASA re-
christened the mission Stardust-NExT and sent it on a four-and-a-
half year journey to comet Tempel 1.

“You could say our spacecraft is a seasoned veteran of cometary 
campaigns,” said Tim Larson, project manager for Stardust-NExT at 
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. “It’s been half-
way to Jupiter, executed picture-perfect flybys of an asteroid and a 
comet, collected cometary material for return to Earth, then headed 
back out into the void again, where we asked it to go head-to-head 
with a second comet nucleus.”

The mission team expects this flyby to write the final chapter 
of this spacecraft’s success-filled story. It is nearly out of fuel as 
it approaches 12 years of space travel, logging almost 3.7 billion 
miles since launch in 1999. This flyby and planned post-encounter 
imaging are expected to consume the remaining fuel.

More information about the Stardust-NExt mission: http://
stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov/

You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.

Ask jai……


Ask jai is a weekly column that will strive to honestly answer your job search questions relating 
to job searching techniques, networking skills, resume writing and interviewing. The employment 
situation is getting better, however, it is still a challenge finding were the jobs are located and how to 
get pass the “gate-keepers”. As an Executive Recruiter I was privy to working directly with Corporate 
Recruiters and understanding their process in selecting which candidates to interview and hire. I will 
candidly answer your questions, possibly bluntly answering you questions, but I will be totally honest. 
My objective is to help you achieve your employment goal.

Shutting It Down:

The Egyptian Edition

I have been interviewed by five employers within the past month. They have all called to inform me that I am 
no longer being considered for their positions. I finally asked one recruiter for feedback as to why I did not get the 
job. The recruiter said that I did not past the initial interviewing process based on my responses. She said that my 
interviewing skills were not up to date and that this made it very difficult for the hiring managers to determine my 
future success with their company. What am I missing? Is there a new way to interview? P.T.

Dear P. T.

First, congratulations, you were contacted by an employer for an interview based on your resume and accomplishment 
statements. You obviously have excellent qualities to offer.

My knee-jerk emotional reaction answer to your question, however, would be…maybe this (these) job(s) were 
not for you. Don’t sweat it, move on and keep positive! My rational answer is that for the past seven years or more 
employers have moved from Traditional Interviewing to Behavioral Interviewing. Traditional interviewing is based 
on specific and direct questions from an employer. “Tell me about yourself” or “Where do you see yourself in the next 
five years?” are typical traditional interview questions. This style of interviewing usually results in a candidate giving 
intuitive rather than insightful responses.

The Behavioral Interview process has been embraced by employers in order for them to glean information about 
a candidate’s past and possible future performance in certain situations, their problem solving skills and outcomes. 
Employers believe that this style of interviewing helps them to evaluate candidates and make good hiring decisions.

How do you prepare for a Behavioral interview? Research, review and practice. Research the employer’s method 
of interviewing by networking or contacting former employees. You could even ask the employer before the interview 
if they would be conducting a Traditional or Behavioral interview. However, I would suggest that you prepare for 
either or a combination of both. 

Your achievements are the bases for you to build your behavioral interview answers. Review your resume 
accomplishment statements and develop them into “Story Telling” responses. The employer wants to hear about how 
you were involved in situation or problem, how you solved it and the result. The result should always end positive and 
about what you learned from the situation. Always listen to the question and respond only to that question. Keep 
you responses short and concise. Practice, practice, practice! I can not overly express how important it is to practice 
interviewing. Find a friend or recruiter and ask them to conduct a mock interview with you. Good luck.

Everything you ever wanted to know about how to get a job … but didn’t know who to ask. Ask jai! Send your 
questions to: jai@resumeandcareerservices.com. Please visit our website for Resume and Career Workshops. www.
resumeancareerservices.com . 

Due to the unrest currently going 
on in Egypt the government there 
decided to shut down Internet 
traffic in and out of the country. 
This essentially amounts to shutting 
down the Internet for users inside 
the country of Egypt. These days 
most areas of the planet are covered 
by the telecommunications net 
the covers the globe. This same 
net is what makes the Internet as 
we know it possible and makes it 
mirror the ease with which just 
about any Point A on the globe 
can reach just about any Point B by 
telephone. For areas not covered by 
wired access to the Internet, satellite 
communications can provide 
coverage. Under normal conditions, 
it’s hard not to be connected if one 
really wants to be connected. The 
current state of modern technical 
affairs makes it seem as if shutting 
down the Internet would be a huge 
undertaking and in reality, it is a 
big job. But just how would one go 
about accomplishing this task, such 
as the Egyptian government felt it 
needed to do earlier this week? The 
answer comes from the a part of the 
TCP\IP protocol known as BGP or 
Border Gateway Protocol. BGP is 
the protocol used by the Internet to 
connect different areas (or networks) 
to other areas on the Internet. BGP 
makes routing decisions regarding 
the best path for packets to take to 
their desired destinations. ISP’s and 
other very large telecommunications 
concerns use BGP on their routers to 
let other ISP’s know where they are 
on the network and they also use it 
to advertise learned routes to other 
networks. In other words, BGP is 
used by the big boys to make the big 
decisions about how the Internet 
works. In the case of the Egyptian 
unrest the big boys decided that they 
wanted Internet traffic to the outside 
world stopped in its track. And they 
stopped it. 

There appears to have been a well-
planned and coordinated effort that 
consisted of blocking access to the 
“.eg” top-level domain (which is 
the suffix for Egyptian addresses) 
through DNS manipulation and 
turning of the advertising feature 
used by BGP to let the rest of the 
Internet know how to reach the 
Egyptian network. It was reported 
that more than 3,500 BGP routes 
were turned off effectively cutting off 
Egypt from the rest of the world. By 
late Friday only one ISP, Noor Data 
Networks, was still operating and 
communicating with the outside 
world and this was largely left open 
for the government to control the 
flow of information. 

I have been an avid “junk picker” since I was a little 
kid, and I still enjoy going to yard sales now and then. I 
especially like it when I find rare vintage treasures to add 
to my jewelry collection. You know what they say, “One 
man’s trash is another man‘s treasure..“ (or something 
along that line). Well, a few months ago, I stumbled 
across a really interesting estate sale in Sierra Madre 
where I purchased several gorgeous vintage jewelry 
pieces, some of which I kept for myself, and others that I 
gave away or sold on eBay for a small profit. It was a lot 
of fun, but that is not the best part of the story. The best 
part of this story is the fact that my yard sale purchases 
that day helped benefit a non-profit organization called 
“Animazonia Wildlife Foundation”. I knew nothing 
about Animazonia when I stopped to shop that early 
Saturday morning, but after having spent some time 
chatting with the friendly ladies & gentleman who ran 
the sale, I left feeling informed and very inspired to 
become a part of their mission. 

Animazonia Wildlife Foundation is a non-profit 
organization whose sole purpose is to rescue and provide 
a safe haven for exotic animals in need of a home. The 
big cats rescued and housed by Animazonia were born 
and bred right here in the USA. As a Matter of fact, most 
of them were intentionally bred and sold as domestic 
pets. I must say, that fact came as quite a surprise to 
me. While I have heard tales of famous, wealthy 
individuals owning big cats or other exotic animals as 
domestic pets, I never would have guessed that there 
could possibly be enough breeding and/or selling going 
on in the US, to present the need for a wildlife refuge! 
When I first heard of Animazonia, I naturally assumed 
that they rescued wild cats who were retiring from zoo 
or circus careers; you know, those worn and weary 
creatures who had spent too many years being exploited 
by voyeuristic humans for entertainment purposes. But, 
apparently I was wrong.

Regardless of where they are from, or why they 
end up in need of a home, the animals rescued by 
Animazonia Wildlife Foundation are welcomed 
with open, loving arms, and given the kindness, love 
and accommodation they need to live out a healthy 
full life in captivity. One of the big cats that receives 
big love at Animazonia is named “Saba”. She is an 
African lioness who came to the refuge as a cub in 
1989. Her rescue was the result of commercial breeding 
gone bad, but the good news is that she now has a home 
where she is cared for and loved. Her powerful presence 
helps teach visitors at AWF about the intense nature and 
remarkable intelligence of big cats. “Sheba” is another 
resident who was taken in and given refuge at AWF. She 
started out as a “photo booth” cat, (if you can imagine 
that) but at four months old, her large size and natural 
god-given instinctive behavioral traits apparently over 
rode the value of the cute face she had to offer for 
photos. Thank God there was a place for her to go and 
be loved and cared for, when her enterprising owner 
was ready to give her up! “Majic” is an Asian black 
leopard who was rescued by the foundation as a baby, 
in 1990. Following a disastrous de-clawing operation 
that resulted in her fear of humans and refusal to eat, 
“Majic” required physical and emotional rehabilitation. 
Fortunately, she was given the care she needed by the 
volunteers at AWF.

Many individuals have “come to the plate” by 
providing professional animal health care, time and 
money to keep Animazonia Wildlife alive. One of the 
ways they have succeeded in keeping the foundation 
workable, is through fund-raising events such as the 
Wine & Chocolate Tasting gala to be held this Saturday, 
February 5 from 4:30 - 7:30 PM at Historic Lighting, 114 
East Lemon Ave. in Monrovia. All are welcome to join 
in on the festivities. Come and taste a variety of good 
wines & chocolates, and learn more about the exotic 
animals who are being rescued and cared for by AWF. 
For more information visit their website at: animazonia.
org.

Big Cats, Big love


Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc

HAPPY RABBIT

Gung Hay Fat Choy! “Best wishes and congratulations! Have a 
prosperous and good year!” February 4 marks the beginning of Chinese 
New Year 2011. 2010 was the year of the tiger, a bold and impulsive 
creature. According to my unquestionable sources, tiger years are 
plagued by disasters, wars, and major public acts of stupidity. So now 
we know the reason behind all those tragic and scandalous headlines of 
2010! 

2011, however, is the year of the rabbit, and will be a placid time of 
discretion, refinement, and amiable international relations. Sure… As for parents of children 
born under the sign of the rabbit, they can breathe a sigh of relief that they didn’t get tiger 
children, purported to be strong-willed live-wires who constantly test the limits (my apologies 
to my tiger friends!). Rabbit children, on the 
other hand, are sweet tempered, obedient, and 
quick to learn. Well, five of my friends are 
expecting these hassle-free bundles of joy, so 
I’ll have to check back with them in two years 
to see if these predictions held true.

For single folks, Chinese New Year is 
auspicious for finding love. In certain parts 
of Asia, girls write their contact information 
on oranges and toss them into the river. 
Downstream the men eat them and if they 
are sweet, they might call the number. I guess 
risking infection from water parasites for the 
chance of finding your soul mate is pretty 
romantic. I wonder if any girls think to package 
their oranges in zip lock bags? “Call me! See, 
I’m already looking out for your health!”

No matter what year it is, lion dancers and 
dragons are always prominent. However, their 
presence in the iconic Chinese New Year parade 
actually started in 1860’s in San Francisco! 
Residents of Chinatown decided to incorporate 
their favorite New Year’s creatures into a non-
Chinese event - the parade. Apparently the Chinese invented everything except the idea of a 
large group of people following each other down the street.

Having a Chinese husband entitles me to participation in mildly authentic Chinese New 
Year celebrations. For die-hard traditionalists, the holiday is a 15-day-long event, preceded 
by a thorough house cleaning to remove all of last year’s bad luck. We never get around to 
that. Chinese New Year is kind of like Thanksgiving, in the sense that everyone gathers at 
a big family dinner to recall all the good things that happened last year and look forward to 
future blessings. At Thanksgiving, we wait in a line that stretches around the block outside 
Honey Baked Ham. For Chinese New Year, my husband and father-in-law join a slow-
moving queue leading to a Chinese restaurant or deli, the kind that has whole ducks and 
dismembered pigs suspended from hooks under heat lamps. They buy two chickens that 
make it to the table in their entirety, except for the feathers. While having chicken heads 
staring back at you induces some guilt, at least the kids learn that their KFC drumsticks were 
once living things. Kids love Chinese New Year though, especially since they rake “lai see” 
money in little red envelopes. All in all, everyone leaves the holiday feeling pretty lucky, 
except for the chickens!