Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 2, 2015

THE WORLD AROUND US

14

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 2, 2015 


NASA’S NEW HORIZONS SPACECRAFT DETECTS SURFACE FEATURES, POSSIBLE POLAR CAP ON PLUTO


For the first time, images from NASA’s New 
Horizons spacecraft are revealing bright and 
dark regions on the surface of faraway Pluto—
the primary target of the New Horizons close 
flyby in mid-July.

 The images were captured in early to mid-
April from within 70 million miles (113 million 
kilometers), using the telescopic Long-Range 
Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) camera 
on New Horizons. A technique called image 
deconvolution sharpens the raw, unprocessed 
images beamed back to Earth. New Horizons 
scientists interpreted the data to reveal the 
dwarf planet has broad surface markings—
some bright, some dark—including a bright 
area at one pole that may be a polar cap.

 “As we approach the Pluto system we are 
starting to see intriguing features such as a 
bright region near Pluto’s visible pole, starting 
the great scientific adventure to understand this 
enigmatic celestial object,” says John Grunsfeld, 
associate administrator for NASA’s Science 
Mission Directorate in Washington. “As we get 
closer, the excitement is building in our quest to 
unravel the mysteries of Pluto using data from 
New Horizons.”

 Also captured in the images is Pluto’s largest 
moon, Charon, rotating in its 6.4-day long orbit. 
The exposure times used to create this image 
set—a tenth of a second—were too short for the 
camera to detect Pluto’s four much smaller and 
fainter moons.

 Since it was discovered in 1930, Pluto has 
remained an enigma. It orbits our Sun more 
than 3 billion miles (about 5 billion kilometers) 
from Earth, and researchers have struggled to 
discern any details about its surface. These latest 
New Horizons images allow the mission science 
team to detect clear differences in brightness 
across Pluto’s surface as it rotates.

 “After traveling more than nine years through 
space, it’s stunning to see Pluto, literally a dot of 
light as seen from Earth, becoming a real place 
right before our eyes,” said Alan Stern, New 
Horizons principal investigator at Southwest 
Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “These 
incredible images are the first in which we can 
begin to see detail on Pluto, and they are already 
showing us that Pluto has a complex surface.”

 The images the spacecraft returns will 
dramatically improve as New Horizons speeds 
closer to its July rendezvous with Pluto.

 “We can only imagine what surprises 
will be revealed when New Horizons passes 
approximately 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) 
above Pluto’s surface this summer,” said Hal 
Weaver, the mission’s project scientist at the 
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics 
Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland.

 

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


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TO OUR 
ECONOMIC WOES by Christopher Nyerges

 


[Nyerges is the author of “Self-Sufficient Home,” a member of the local environmentally-focused non-profit 
WTI, and an occasional blogger of current events. He can be reached at Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041, or 
www.ChristopherNyerges.com].

WHEN DID CUTE STOP BEING CUTE?

I was rearranging 
some bookshelves 
to make room for a few new books when 
it happened. I was in for a surprise and 
did not quite know it. There behind some 
books on my bookshelf was an old family 
photo album I had not seen in years. 
When I say old, I mean these were 
pictures taken when cameras were really 
cameras with film in them. Nobody knows 
what those cameras were like today. 
Today, you take a picture and instantly 
it is on your cell phone. Back in “the day” 
cameras had film in the and you had to buy 
film and then when you took the pictures you 
had to take the film out and send it away and 
hopefully within four weeks you get those 
pictures back.

 Sometimes when those pictures did come 
back, nobody could remember them. We had 
to get together and sort them out because 
my father usually took all the pictures. 
My father was a great camera buff, not a 
good photographer, but he had his camera 
with him everywhere and was always taking 
pictures. One thing my father could not 
understand was, you had to pose the picture 
and adjust the lens so it would be clear. He 
just pointed the camera and click.

 I remember one summer we went to the 
mountains for a week’s vacation and as usual, 
father brought his camera along and clicked 
all week long. We could hardly wait to get 
back and get those pictures processed so we 
could relive our vacation.

 That was the longest four weeks of my life. 
Every day someone in the family would say, 
“Have the pictures arrived yet?” It got so 
bad that when anybody started a sentence 
with “Have the...” my father just glared and 
nobody could finish the sentence.

 Finally, they arrived. Everybody was 
excited to relive our summer vacation around 
the old family table. At least we thought we 
were going to do that.

 As we look at the pictures and passed them 
around everybody had a very puzzled look 
on their face. Nobody could remember the 
pictures.

 My father stepped in to clear up the 
situation. “Yes, yes,” he said, “these are 
wonderful pictures and that is you, don’t you 
recognize yourself?”

 Well, I didn’t. In fact, nobody recognized 
any of those pictures.

 Then mother stepped in. You know how it 
is, mothers always solve problems. Well, she 
solved our problem.

 She looked at father and said, “Dear, where 
did we spend our vacation this summer?”

 That seemed like a very interesting 
question and rather irritated my father.

 “You know,” he growled, “we spent our 
vacation in the mountains. What’s wrong 
with you?”

 Mother was quiet for a moment and then 
in almost a whisper she said, “If we spent our 
vacation in the mountains why are there so 
many pictures of the beach?”

 My father stared at her and then stared at 
the pictures and I cannot repeat what he said. 
He never liked it when mother was right.

 For some reason we got somebody else’s 
vacation pictures who were at the beach 
and probably they had our pictures of our 
vacation in the mountains. I would have 
loved to been around the table at that home 
with everybody trying to figure out why 
there were so many trees and mountains in 
their family vacation at the beach.

 Those were wonderful days and leafing 
through my photo album from the past, I saw 
many pictures I did not recognize. In some 
of these pictures, there was a little boy I did 
not quite recognize. In fact, there were many 
pictures I did not recognize, but this little 
boy puzzled me.

 I always thought I had a good memory, but 
this really perplexed me. Who was this little 
boy that was part of my life 60 years ago or 
so?

 My wife noticed I was grimacing as I 
looked at the photographs. Incidentally, all of 
the photographs were black-and-white. Most 
do not remember those days. Finally, my wife 
queried me on what was going on.

 “I just cannot figure out who this little boy 
is in all these pictures.”

 I handed the photographs to her, she 
looked at them and then a smile began 
dancing across her face.

 “You really don’t know who that little boy 
is,” she said flippantly.

 When I assured her I had no idea who 
that little boy was, she broke out in hearty 
laughter. I did not think it was funny. There 
was this little boy all through my photographs 
and I do not know who he was.

 “Why,” she said when she could speak, 
“that little boy is you.” Then she commenced 
her laughing parade.

 I looked again and I really could not 
believe it. Here was this cute little boy with a 
mischievous smile on his face and it was me. 
I have looked in the mirror many a time and 
that cute little face has long ago disappeared. 
Whatever happened to that cute little boy in 
the photographs? When does cute stop being 
cute? And why?

 David might have been thinking along 
this line when he wrote, “O God, thou hast 
taught me from my youth: and hitherto have 
I declared thy wondrous works” (Psalms 
71:17).

 I like to think that under all of the 
grimacing and scowling and wrinkles there 
is that cute little boy that was once me.

 

 Rev. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family 
of God Fellowship, PO Box 831313, Ocala, 
FL 34483. He lives with his wife, Martha, 
in Silver Springs Shores. Call him at 1-866-
552-2543 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net 
or website www.jamessnyderministries.com. 


When I ran into my friend 
Nicole recently at Bean Town, 
we got into a discussion of how 
the recent economic problems 
are affecting the income of so 
many people. We began to consider the solutions that 
are available. 

Our discussion didn’t so much focus on how there 
was a lot of blame to go around – after all, it is true 
that the over-paid bankers in fine suits extended loans 
that the recipients were unable to pay. But why did the 
recipients accept such loans? 

Nicole and I agreed that both greed and wishful 
thinking were in abundance a few years back. We both 
thought back to my father’s good old days when the 
banker-thieves jumped off bridges as their final act of 
contrition. Today they get a bailout from Washington, 
and guess who ultimately gets to pay for the bailout?

Anyway, Nicole and I both focused upon the question: 
What does someone unemployed do? Should one just 
sit and collect unemployment and wait for someone 
to hire them? Certainly that is one option. Everyone’s 
financial situation is different, of course, but we tried to 
consider the question: from whence comes real wealth 
(for an individual or a country)? 

Obviously, one big part of the solution to unemployment 
is to get someone to hire you, someone whose business 
requires your unique skills or talents.

MAKING A LIST

But “getting hired” is only one-half of the equation. As 
I have personally done many times, and have advised 
people dozens of times, when you need to earn money, 
you should also sit down and make a long list of all your 
talents and skills, as well as all the things you can sell. 

WHAT CAN YOU SELL?

Selling stuff, of course, is a short-term solution, but 
sometimes that’s what’s needed. And the very act 
of taking inventory of the physical stuff you have 
acquired can force you to re-look at your own needs 
and priorities. The act of getting out and talking to 
people and trying to raise some short-term cash allows 
you to let others know your plight, and opens the door 
for others to hire you, or offer some advice.

Some examples of raising short-term cash by selling 
stuff includes yard sales, estate sales, sales on ebay, 
taking individual items to antique dealers, and 
calling all of your friends and offering them deals on 
something you have.

MARKET YOUR SKILLS

Then, another list should be made where you list all of 
your skills. This includes things you can do, possibly 
on a free-lance basis, for hire. The list should also 
include all the things you can make and sell. 

It is noteworthy that rarely does the politician who 
talks about unemployment ever mention the fact that 
just about everyone has latent skills that can and 
should be put into action. And keep in mind that real 
intrinsic wealth occurs when something of higher 
value is created from something of a lesser value. 
Lasting real wealth does not and cannot occur when a 
government simply prints more paper currency. Even 
the local Native Americans understood this when they 
created beadwork and basketry which served as articles 
of trade that had intrinsic value.

Of course, everyone’s list will be unique. Such a list 
of things you can make could include woodworking 
(making bookshelves, desks, canes, etc.), various useful 
crafts (candles, soaps, metal-works, etc.), and making 
clothes. If you know how to sew, you could not only 
make custom clothing but could also make repairs. 
Many larger businesses started when just this way.

GROW FOOD

You can make foodstuffs, like pies, cookies, soups, 
salsas. Unfortunately, in today’s very controlled 
society, you will need Health Department permits 
to sell foodstuffs to stores or farmer’s markets – and 
maybe you can go that route. But you could also just 
let your neighbors know that you need the income and 
are currently selling meals, pies, etc. You might be 
surprised at the response.

Growing and then selling fruits, herbs, and produce 
is another way to create something and introduce 
new wealth into the economy. I have done this part-
time for years, and did once go the route of getting the 
Department of Agriculture certification so that I could 
also sell the fruits of my labor to farmer’s markets. 

Useful artworks are also worth considering, such 
as greeting cards, posters, hand-made art pieces, 
photography, etc. Again, everyone’s list is different.

When I was laid off from a regular office job in 1993, 
I felt tinges of fear as to how the bills would be paid. 
But I quickly segued into making arts and crafts and 
selling them at craft fairs around Southern California, 
which included cards, walking sticks, twig pencils, bull 
roarers, and booklets that we wrote and published.

A NEW WAY OF THINKING

One of the personal benefits of pursuing such an 
unconventional way of “making money” is that it just 
might open you up to doing those things that you really 
enjoy doing, and you might find that you look forward 
to getting up each day. Though such efforts generally 
take time, and generally do not replace a full “hired 
job” income immediately, they can be valuable ways to 
bring a family together, and create a hitherto unknown 
sense of family and community. I know for me that 
such days have been the best times of my life. We had 
the money we needed, but not always the money we 
wanted. [By the way, the details of this are all recorded 
in “Extreme Simplicity: Homesteading in the City,” 
available at Amazon or www.ChristopherNyerges.
com]. 

Which leads to another benefit. When you have no 
incentive to save and to find other ways to fulfill your 
basic needs, you tend to do what is easiest. When there 
is a pressure, you often are highly motivated to make 
other things succeed. Plus, you learn that you can do 
things for less, that you can recycle, and you learn how 
to produce a produce with minimal waste. 

WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU?

At our home, we grew as much of our own food as 
possible, raised chickens, composted, burned our 
scrap wood in the fireplace, and never let anything go 
to waste. When we had a need, we approached others 
with the mindset of “What can I do for you?” (rather 
than “can you help me?”). This way, when we put 
the other persons needs first, people were more than 
willing to help solve our problems. And at that point, 
we were not so much “solving a problem” as we were 
doing things that we all benefited from. 

What a wonderful mental attitude. It is precisely this 
attitude put into action that can provide real solutions 
in today’s economic depression.

 

Though I have written about 10 books about “survival” 
and self-reliance issues, it is always worth reminding 
ourselves how money and the use of money seems to 
dictate so much of our daily life.