Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 14, 2011

13

THE WORLD AROUND US

 Mountain Views News Saturday, May 14, 2011 


Sailing the Titan Seas: NASA Selects Mission to Saturn’s Moon

he Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics 
Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., is managing 
a project to explore the organic seas of Saturn’s 
moon Titan, one of three proposals selected by 
NASA last week as candidates for the agency’s 
next Discovery Program mission.

The Titan Mare Explorer, or TiME, would 
perform the first direct inspection of an ocean 
environment beyond Earth by landing in, and 
floating on, a large sea of methane (natural gas in 
a liquid state) on the cloudy, complex moon. 

The TiME capsule would launch in 2016 and 
reach Titan in 2023, parachuting onto the moon’s 
second-largest northern sea, the Ligea Mare. For 
96 days the capsule would study the composition 
and behavior of the sea and its interaction with 
Titan’s weather and climate. TiME would also 
seek evidence of the complex organic chemistry 
that may be active on Titan today, and that may be 
similar to processes that led to the development of 
life on the early Earth.

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn, the only 
natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, 
and the only object other than Earth for which 
clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid 
has been found. Titan has a diameter roughly 
50% larger than Earth’s moon and is 80% more 
massive. It is the second-largest moon in the 
Solar System, after Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, 
and it is larger by volume than the smallest 
planet, Mercury, although only half as massive. 

Titan was the first known moon of Saturn, 
discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer 
Christiaan Huygens (and easily visible in small 
amateur telescopes as a bright dot close to the 
ringed planet).

Except for its lakes of liquid natural gas, 
Titan is primarily composed of water ice and 
rocky material. Much as with Venus prior to 
the Space Age, the dense, opaque atmosphere 
prevented understanding of Titan’s surface until 
new information accumulated with the arrival 
of the Cassini–Huygens mission in 2004, 
including the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon 
lakes in the satellite’s polar regions. These are the 
only large, stable bodies of surface liquid known 
to exist anywhere other than on the Earth.

The climate on Titan—including wind and 
rain—creates surface features similar to those 
of Earth, such as sand dunes, rivers and lakes 
(probably of liquid methane), and shoreline, and, 
like the climate on Earth, is dominated by seasonal 
weather patterns. With its liquids (both surface 
and subsurface) and robust nitrogen atmosphere, 
Titan is viewed as somewhat like the early Earth, 
although having a much lower temperature 
(methane is a liquid only at temperatures below 
minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit). Titan has 
thus been cited as a possible host for microbial 
extraterrestrial life or, at least, as a pre-biotic 
environment rich in complex organic chemistry. 
Researchers have suggested that a possible 
underground liquid ocean there might serve as a 
biotic environment. It has also been suggested 
that a form of life may exist on the surface, using 
liquid methane as a medium instead of water; and, 
indeed, anomalies in atmospheric composition 
have been reported which are consistent with the 
presence of such a life-form, but which could also 
be due to an exotic non-living chemistry.

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 your 
questions, but I will be totally honest. My objective is to help you achieve your employment goal.

One Day Soon 

Q: I applied for a position over one month ago and was very excited to finally be contacted by the company 
recruiter for a telephone interview. The telephone interview lasted about 25 minutes. The recruiter 
informed me that he had several more interviews to conduct and that he would contact me as soon as 
possible regarding my status. He notified me one week ago that I pasted the interview and was being invited 
to take the next step, which was a written assessment. He said the written assessment would take 
about 90 minutes. The test was to analyze my writing and communications skills, critical and problem 
solving abilities, and my overall knowledge about the industry and profession. I agreed and completed 
the written assessment in their office. Yesterday, I was contacted by the recruiter and informed that I 
had passed the written assessment and that the next step would be a panel interview by staff and management. 
Is this the normal process that employers put candidates through before hiring someone? This 
process is very stressful and I am not sure it is worth it. What happened to ‘submit your resume and application, 
interview and get hired?’ Really Stressed

Dear Really Stressed,

Those days are long gone and will never return. Employers are receiving approximately 1,000 applicants 
for every position they announce. This abundance of job seekers is a blessing and a curse for employers. 
Overwhelming responses to their open positions make it very difficult for employers to search out 
the ideal candidate, screen, interview and hire. Therefore, they have added several components to their 
screening process. Some of these components are: Searching and reviewing resumes and applications, 
telephone and in-person interview, written assessment and personality test, aptitude test, panel interview 
conducted by staff and another by management, background checks, references, and some employers are 
asking candidates to spend a day, at no pay, with their organization. And let’s not forget that salary plays 
an important part in the screening process. We are at the end of 2010 and the job market is not going to 
change that much for 2011. Next year will continue to be an employer’s market. Which means that you, 
the job seeker, will have to do what ever it takes to be considered or hired for a position. I know a job 
seeker who has been interviewed 10 times by one employer over a three-month period. The job seeker 
was recently told by the employer that he is one of the final three candidates for consideration. It is very 
competitive in trying to find employment and a position that is the right match for you. Remember that 
the employer’s process is to constantly screen-out applicants until they find who they believe is the best 
person for the position….and that usually is the last candidate standing. Is going through all these various 
screening processes worth it to you? I say yes, if you want the position. So, don’t ever remove yourself 
from the screening process. Stay until the employer tells you that you are no longer being considered 
for the position. Which I hope doesn’t happen. 

What if nearly everything you usually keep on your computer was stored online? 
Your machine would be much speedier and perhaps needed a lot less because you 
could simply use another machine to access your data should you lose your laptop. 
This liberating premise is behind Google’s upcoming Chrome OS, which will make 
notebook computers more like netbooks than most actual netbooks. The software 
powering Chrome OS, which is based on Google’s Chrome browser, serves mainly 
as a tool for connecting your computer to the Web. Since much of what many people 
currently use is housed, the day when true cloud computing is the norm is getting 
closer and closer. 

In Google’s Chrome OS, users would have to login into a Google account (if you 
already have a Gmail account those credentials would suffice) leading to a homepage 
that would show the apps the user had previously purchased and “installed” from the 
Google Web Store ( HYPERLINK “http://chrome.google.com” http://chrome.google.
com). There appears to be a healthy market already for these apps and the introduction 
of the Chrome compatible computers will probably boost public demand for 
more in the near future. Many of these apps work independent of the Chrome OS 
but analysts expect that number to decrease in the future as Google promotes the 
widespread use of its new OS. 

As to be expected some industry critics and analysts are not exactly gushing with 
high expectations for what this new mode of computing is attempting to do to business 
as usual. While fans of cloud computing will point to the speed, simplicity and 
security that appear to be built into Chrome OS, naysayers point out the fact that not 
everybody wants to be online all the time. For all of its speed and new-fangled slickness, 
Chrome OS is absolutely nothing without an active connection to the internet. 
When Chrome OS is not connected to the internet the entire concept of cloud computing 
is hobbled. And then there’s the whole issue of just who the target market for 
this new OS is in reality. A large percentage of the market is comprised of the very 
young and the very geeky. These groups would probably have very little difficulty adjusting 
to a totally-plugged-in lifestyle and in many ways are already living and working 
as such now. These people would probably enjoy testing the bells and whistles of 
this new mode of computing. Then you have the “Will-This-Thing-Help-Me-Do-My-
Job-Better” group. These people may or may not personally be interested in a new toy 
but if the new toy offers the real promise of being a better work platform than what 
they currently may be using, this group will not be shy about voting with their dollars 
and desktops for the new system. At this early stage of the game even the best release 
of the new OS will not be able to win over a significant share of this crowd for the simple 
fact that it won’t be ready to do what so far the iPad and other platforms of great 
promise have been unable to do and that is replace the traditional workplace desktop.

Everything you ever wanted to know about how to get a job ….but did not know who to ask. ASK jai. Send your 
questions to: jai@resumeandcareerservices.com or visit website www.resumeandcareerservicesc.


CANINES AGAINST 
CANCER - A NEW LEASH 
ON LIFE

Happy Tails

by Chris Leclerc.

Canyon Canine Dog 

Walking & Pet Sitting Services

SHAMELESS PLUG … 

ON A FORK

What do Americans love more than reality TV, Pizza Hut, and Double 
Western Bacon Cheeseburgers? A good conspiracy theory! I’ve got great 
news for you; the film, “Forks Over Knives” has all these covered. In case you 
think you’ve wandered into the movie review section, that’s a couple pages 
toward the front. And no, I do not have any financial connection with “Forks 
Over Knives.” Decades of work in science and medicine culminate in this tell-all exposing the ways 
our diet is killing us (no news there, but that’s not all!). “Forks Over Knives” exposes the guilty 
hand major government lobbyists, such as the dairy council, medical insurance, and pharmaceutical 
companies, have in blatant promotion of meat and dairy: all the while conveniently keeping us sick 
enough to require expensive “life-saving” surgeries and a long-term regimen of drugs. The film also 
names several dairy and cattle spokespersons on government panels that create legislation affecting 
food options from army rations to school lunch menus. Sounds like just a slight conflict of interest. 
Sobering as all this may be, perhaps most frightening is that it appears to be conspiracy fact rather 
than theory.

Let’s look at some old adages of American nutrition. You need copious amounts of meat for 
protein and “milk does a body good.” Yes, protein is essential, but you don’t need as much as you 
think you do, and a whole-food, plant-based diet provides more than enough. In the film, Dr. Colin 
Campbell describes how he fed cancer-infected rats diets of 20% or 5% animal protein intermittently. 
He found that the 5% diet literally turned off cancer growth, while 20% turned it on. It’s true 
that milk is the perfect food… for calves. Consumption of casein found in milk, and particularly 
cheese, causes an acidic reaction in your blood. In order to offset this pH imbalance, your body saps 
calcium from its most readily available source – your bones. So, it’s quite ironic that the more dairy 
you consume the weaker your bones become.

Most people think I’m vegan. I wish I could say I am, but I do periodically indulge in chicken 
or fish, and ice cream is a guilty pleasure. But my mom’s a vegan and I never tire of bragging about 
her! No one is as zealous as a convert, and I suspect that few people outside the field of nutrition 
are as knowledgeable about it as my mom (no exaggeration, she devotes more time to this than a 
teenager on Facebook). She introduced me to the work of Doctors John McDougall, Colin Campbell, 
and Caldwell Esselstyn, all of whom are featured on “Forks Over Knives.” Dr. McDougall, and 
Dr. Esselstyn will always have a place of honor in my heart because they faithfully respond to emails 
in a timely manner. Dr. Esselstyn actually opted to talk to my mom on the phone rather than communicate 
over the web. All of these physicians do this free of charge! This is more than some of 
her doctors will do. One recently billed her insurance in excess of 
$600 for a 30-minute consultation!

So, what is the “Fork Over Knives” magic bullet against hypertension, 
diabetes, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, stroke, and 
cancer? A starch based diet with plenty of fruits, veggies, and 
plant protein; it is that simple! “Fork Over Knives” chronicles the 
recovery of at least three patients whose cancer, heart disease, and 
diabetes were REVERSED with the adoption of a vegan diet. Of 
course there’s more money to be made in pills than peas, so it’s unlikely 
your regular physician will prescribe produce in place of the 
latest Pfizer drug. Dr. Michael Greger, who’s not in the film, but 
is a leading expert in nutrition, states that most medical doctors 
receive only a few hours of instruction in nutrition during their 
training. Just think, watching this film will not only enlighten you 
and possibly save your life or the life of a loved one, but you will 
also be a couple nutritional steps ahead of your physician! Empower 
yourself! Topple the Food Pyramid! See the film!

I received a rather random phone call last week 
that turned out to be, perhaps not quite as random 
as I had initially thought. It was an anonymous call, 
based on the “unavailable” text message that came 
through on my caller ID service, and to be completely 
honest it was the type of call that I would 
typically screen out. It rang in just around dinner 
time, leading me to assume that I would most likely 
answer to the second half of a generic, pre-recorded 
voice message offering a free estimate for home improvement 
or landscape maintenance services. For 
whatever reason, in spite of the fact that I thought it 
might be a “sales call“, I felt prompted to pick up, and 
I was so glad that I did. The call was coming from 
a gentleman who volunteers with an organization 
called “Relay for Life of Arcadia”, which is one of the 
many programs organized by the American Cancer 
Society. He had seen my ad in the local newspaper, 
and was calling to find out if “Canyon Canine Dog 
Walking and Pet Sitting Services” would be interested 
in participating in an up-coming event, called 
“Bark for Life of Arcadia”. He told me the goal of the 
event is to get as many animal lovers such as myself, 
and local neighborhood dog owners and their pets, 
together for a day of exercise, fun and festivities in 
the park to help heighten community awareness and 
raise funds to fight cancer. 

There are other non-profit organizations that work 
hard to raise funds for cancer research, but as far as I 
know the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life is 
the only one that includes an event that involves participation 
of dogs and their owners, which is what 
Bark for Life of Arcadia is all about. 

Considering the ever-growing need to battle the 
blight of cancer, and the fact that this event is specifically 
designed to invite pet participation, naturally 
I was interested. The idea of having my friends and 
neighbors, along with their beloved canine companions 
taking part in such a positive community 
awareness project is irresistible in my mind, and 
what I like to call a “win, win” investment of time. 
It brings the community together in a unique way, 
where local merchants and residents can get out 
with their canine companions for an exciting educational 
& social activity that is bound to benefit many 
who suffer from a disease that absolutely must be 
reckoned with. 

On a personal note, I have two close family members 
who were recently diagnosed with cancer, and 
several friends who have miraculously survived it’s 
perils. I have also experienced the tragic loss of loved 
ones due to the disease, both human and canine, so 
at this point I feel a sense of obligation to take part 
in such a worthwhile cause. It takes so little time and 
energy to spread the word and join in the fight, and 
what better way to do so than by including the participation 
of your beloved animal companion? 

Proceeds for the Relay for Life events not only 
benefit human patients with cancer, but canine cancer 
patients as well, so it seems quite appropriate that 
those darling, spoiled little doggies of ours should get 
out there and get involved too, right? Come on out 
on May 22, 10:00am – 1:00pm at Eisenhower Park 
located at 2nd Ave. & Colorado in Arcadia bring 
your canine companion, have lots of fun and help 
fight the fight against cancer! For more information 
about Bark for Life of Arcadia, go to HYPERLINK 
“http://www.relayforlife.org/barkarcadiaca”www.
relayforlife.org/barkarcadiaca or please contact: 
Sherrie Powell-Russo barkarcadia@gmail.com 
626-375-2512, or Carter Spruill cspruill@ausd.net 
323- 309-3954.