Mountain Views News          Saturday, April 30, 2016

12

THE WORLD AROUND US


BREAKTHROUGH STARSHOT: OFF TO THE STARS WITHIN 20 YEARS?

No, it’s not Star Trek yet, but it could be a way to 
reach the stars within the lifetime of many of us.

 The initiative is called Breakthrough 
Starshot—a research and engineering project 
by Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-
of-concept fleet of light sail spacecraft, called 
StarChips, capable of making the journey to 
the Alpha Centauri star system, 4.37 light-
years away, at speeds between 20% and 15% 
of the speed of light, taking between 20 to 30 
years to get there, respectively, and about 4 
years to notify Earth of a successful arrival. The 
conceptual principles to enable this interstellar 
travel project were described in “A Roadmap to 
Interstellar Flight,” by Philip Lubin of UC Santa 
Barbara.

 The project was announced April 12 by 
physicist and venture capitalist Yuri Milner and 
cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who is serving 
as board member of Breakthrough Initiatives. 
Other board members include Facebook CEO 
Mark Zuckerberg. The project has an initial 
funding of $100 million to start research. Milner 
places the final mission cost at $5–10 billion, 
and estimates the first craft could launch about 
20 years from now.

 The Starshot concept envisions launching a 
“mothership” carrying about a thousand tiny 
spacecraft to a high-altitude orbit, and then 
deploying them one by one. Ground-based 
lasers would focus a light beam on their light sail 
to accelerate each individual craft to the target 
speed (1/5 the speed of light) within 10 minutes.

 If an Earth-size planet is orbiting within 
the Alpha Centauri system’s habitable zones, 
Breakthrough Starshot will try to aim its 
spacecrafts within 1 Astronomical Unit (93 
million miles) of it. From this distance, its 
cameras could potentially capture an image of 
high enough quality to resolve surface features. 
The spacecraft fleet would have about 1,000 
spacecraft, and each spacecraft would be a 
very small centimeter-sized craft weighing a 
few grams. They would be propelled by several 
ground-based lasers of up to 100 gigawatts. Each 
tiny spacecraft would transmit data back to Earth 
using a compact on-board laser communications 
system using its sail as an antenna. Having 
a swarm of a thousand spacecraft would 
compensate for the losses caused by interstellar 
dust collisions en route to the target.

 The technical challenges are formidable. Light 
propulsion requires enormous power: a laser 
with a gigawatt of power (approximately the 
output of a large nuclear plant) would provide 
only a few newtons of thrust. The spaceship will 
compensate for the low thrust by having to have 
a mass of few grams. The camera, computer, 
communications laser, a plutonium power 
source, and the solar sail must be miniaturized to 
fit within a mass limit. All components must be 
engineered to endure extreme acceleration, cold, 
vacuum, and protons. The spacecraft will have 
to survive collisions with space dust; Starshot 
expects each square centimeter of frontal cross-
section to collide at high speed with about a 
thousand particles of size 0.1 micron and up. 
Focusing a set of lasers totaling one hundred 
gigawatts onto the solar sail will be difficult, 
due to atmospheric turbulence. According to 
The Economist, at least a dozen off-the-shelf 
technologies will need to improve by orders of 
magnitude.

 

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


CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

“THE MEDICINE FINALLY WORKED… 

Some experiences with the Remarkable Aloe Vera Plant

I LOST MY MIND BUT I REALLY 

HAVEN’T MISSED IT

[Nyerges is the former 
editor of Wilderness 
Way magazine, and 
the author of 14 books, 
including “Guide to Wild 
Foods,” “How to Survive 
Anywhere,” “Foraging California,” and others. He 
leads regular outdoor field trips to identify edible 
and medicinal wild plants. He can be reached at 
www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com or Box 41834, 
Eagle Rock, CA 90041.] 

 Sometime in late 1978, my mother shared with 
me an experience she had with the Aloe vera plant. 
My mother, Marie, was a Registered Nurse who 
worked at a Pasadena retirement home as the staff 
nurse. About three months earlier, a housekeeper 
who lived on-site at the retirement home began 
to break out in a hive-like rash that caused her to 
itch constantly. The cause was said to be a nervous 
condition. The patient’s thighs, back, arms, 
shoulders, and neck all broke out in this rash, 
which the patient described as “burning like fire.” 

 My mother offered to apply the juice of the aloe leaf 
to the patient’s red spots, but the patient responded, 
“No, I’ll have the doctor check it.” The doctor came 
and prescribed Atarax (internally) for the itching 
and allergies, and cortisone (externally), which 
was applied as a cream. The doctor also prescribed 
tranquilizers for sleep. 

 After about 45 days, the patient, Lucille, told 
my mother that she still could not sleep at night, 
and that the rash hadn’t improved. Lucille noted 
that there was a slight improvement in the rash 
when she stayed home and didn’t go to work, so 
Lucille and the doctor assumed this was a nervous 
condition associated with work. 

 So my mother, Lucille’s nurse, asked again if 
she’d like to try some aloe. Lucille responded, “Yes, 
please, bring me anything!” My mother noted that 
Lucille’s skin was hot to the touch, and there were 
big red spots all over. 

 At 7:30 a.m., my mother took a fresh succulent 
Aloe vera leaf, slit it open, and rubbed the gel on 
Lucille’s arms, legs, back, neck – almost her entire 
body. Lucille said her skin immediately felt better. 
By 3:30 that afternoon, all the visibly red spots 
were gone, and Lucille happily told my mother that 
all of the burning itching was gone. The next day 
Lucille told my mother that that night was the first 
night she’d slept in the previous approximately 45 
days. 

 My mother had been somewhat reticent to apply 
the aloe because she was subservient to the doctor, 
and could have lost her license by doing something 
without the approval of the doctor. 

When the doctor arrived, Marie told him that 
Lucille’s rash had cleared up, and she admitted 
to having applied aloe juice. The doctor was 
somewhat taciturn as he examined the patient, 
and, without commenting on the aloe, told my 
mother, “It’s good that the medicine finally 
worked.” Really?! 

 My mother always had a laugh re-telling 
this story about a doctor who couldn’t see the 
obvious! Eventually, the other nurses referred 
to my mother as the “witch-doctor” because she 
used aloe and various other natural methods of 
healing, behind the doctor’s back. 

 Over the years, I had my mother document the 
many cases where she use aloe to cure various 
skin condition, on her patients, herself, and even 
cats. 

 Marie used aloe for sun burn, burns from hot 
oil, skin sores, diaper rash, bed sores, even poison 
oak rash. 

 In one case, our family cat had a large open 
ulcer on his thigh – we weren’t sure of the cause, 
but we presumed that the cat got into a fight. My 
mother directed me to put some of fresh aloe 
gel onto the ulcer every day for three day, while 
also making some of the aloe leaf into a juice 
which was added to the cat’s water. The wound 
was completely healed after three days. “It was 
unbelievable,” expressed Marie, “but it worked!” 
My mother’s experiences took place over 35 
years ago, and today, Aloe vera is a common 
household word. You can buy it anywhere, even 
Trader Joe’s markets. And as the succulent plant 
was studied and researched all these years, many 
have come to call it a miracle herb. 

 The properties of aloe are a broad mix of 
antibiotic, astringent, pain inhibitor, emollient, 
moisturizer, antipruritic (reduces itching), as 
well as a nutrient. It apparently works because 
of the polysaccharides present, the main one 
of which is a glucomannan. Others ingredients 
of the aloe include galactose, uronic acids, and 
pentoses. The miracle qualities of the aloe is not 
believed to be the polysaccharides alone, but the 
synergistic effect of these and other compounds 
in the leaf. 

 Obviously, many have tried to create an aloe 
product that you can buy in the bottle, and some 
are quite good. I’ve had some good results from 
the aloe drink that I have purchased at Trader 
Joe’s market. But please make no mistake about 
it: the best results come from the gel from the 
freshly-broken leaf of aloe. And though Aloe 
vera seems to be the best, any of the juice from 
any aloe can be used for burns, poison oak, etc.

I am notorious for losing things. I do not know 
what it is about me, but I cannot keep track of 
anything I own. If you want to lose something 
and never find it again, simply put it into my 
trust. I am the king of losing things. My problem 
is, I do not lose the right things.

 Why I am so klutzy in this area is beyond 
my ability to comprehend. Some of my most 
treasured items have been lost for all time. Even 
the other day I lost a lot of time searching for 
something I could not find. That is the reason I 
try not to become attached to anything I own.

 The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage 
has become frustrated many times because of 
something she gave me and it is now no longer 
to be found anywhere this side of the blue moon. 
She has given me lecture after lecture along this 
line dealing with personal responsibility and as 
always, I take personal responsibility for losing 
everything that I have.

 What more can I possibly say?

 A few things that I have lost I kinda wished I 
had back. I remember a pocket knife I was quite 
attached to and headed for quite a while until 
one day there was nowhere to be found. Believe 
me, I looked everywhere. Of course, I could not 
have looked everywhere or I probably would 
have found it. Why is it that when you lose 
something you usually find it in the last place 
you look?

The one question that I ponder more than 
anything else is, where do things go when they 
are lost? Is there a particular place where lost 
things gather and have a party until someone 
finds them? If there is I would like to know 
where that place is. Of course, with my luck, that 
place is lost.

 Everything I have lost throughout life I have 
gotten over. The aforementioned pocket knife, I 
have replaced at least 27 times. It would be great 
one day to find all 27 of those lost knives? Then 
I would march my way to eBay!

 I have gotten over just about everything that I 
have lost and adjusted my life to not having that 
particular thing. There is one thing, however, 
that I still have not gotten over.

 I am not exactly sure when I lost it, because 
I did not really use it that much. Oh, once in a 
while I might have used it, but not very regularly.

The thing I am referring to is my mind. I cannot 
find out or remember the exact date when I lost 
my mind. I am not sure where I was when I lost 
it. Maybe if I knew where I was at when I lost my 
mind, I could go back and search a little bit and 
maybe find it.

 I know that I had a mind up until I got 
married. I do remember using my mind up until 
that point. The thing is, I do not know what 
happened to my mind after I got married. Where 
did it go?

 Of course the thought is probable that I still 
have my mind, but I am not using it. It would 
make sense in a certain regard. But what is my 
mind doing while I am not using it? Is somebody 
else using my mind?

 For instance. Some people will ask me about 
something and I usually respond, “Okay, I really 
don’t mind if you do that.”

 Or, “That’s quite all right. I don’t mind at all.”

 Of course that has its limit. Someone walked 
up to me on the street the other day and ask if 
they could borrow five dollars from me. Then, 
I did mind. Where my mind came from at that 
point I will never know, but I am certainly glad 
it arrived on time.

 That brought me to the place of thinking 
that maybe I have not lost my mind. Maybe my 
mind is hiding somewhere and only appears in 
emergencies. If that is the case, I really don’t 
mind.

 I remember the old saying that goes something 
like, “mind over matter, and if you don’t mind it 
don’t matter.”

 Just the other day my wife said, “Do you mind 
if we go out for supper tonight?”

 Now I was in a dilemma. Where is my mind 
when I really need it?

 I did mind, but I could not find my mind and 
so all I could say was, “I don’t mind if that is 
what you want to do.”

 Where in the world did that come from? I did 
mind, but my mind was not available to bail me 
out of an activity closely linked to my wallet.

 I think my mind is hiding somewhere and 
waiting to have a little bit of fun with me. 
However, I really don’t mind because if I did 
mind, I would be in so much trouble and my 
real mind would be so confused that it probably 
would never mind again.

 Actually, I have not really missed my mind.

 The apostle Paul had a different twist to this. 
He said,” Let this mind be in you, which was also 
in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).

 I may have lost my mind, but my real focus in 
life is to lose myself in the mind of Christ.

 

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR 
CHANGE OF NAME 
NO. VS028327

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: 


Petitioner: JACQUELINE L. CABRERA
HAS FILED A PETITION WITH THE LOS ANGE-LES SUPERIOR COURT - NORTH CENTRAL JUDICIAL 
DISTRICT FOR A DECREE CHANGING NAMES AS FOLLOWS: 

Present Name: Proposed Name: 

BRYAN CHRISTOPHER HERNANDEZ BRYAN CHRISTOPHER CABRERA

DESTINY JULIEANNE HERNANDEZ DESTINY JULIEANNE CABRERA

DAMIAN MATTHEW HERNANDEZ DAMIAN MATTHEW CABRERA

DESIREE THERESE HERNANDEZ DESIREE THERESE CABRERA


A HEARING on the petition will be held on 05/04/2016 at 1:30PM in Dept. C at LOS ANGELES SUPERIOR 
COURT, NORWALK, SOUTHEAST DISTRICT, 12720 Norwalk Blvd., Norwalk, CA. 90650.

THE COURT ORDERS that all interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to 
show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted. 

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons 
for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing 
to show cause why the petition should not be granted. 
If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing. 

JDC - Mountain Views News 
April 9, 16, 23, 30, 2016

Jacqueline L. Cabrera

11704 215th Street

Lakewood, CA 90715

(562) 278-4577

Petitioner Appearing Pro Per

Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com