pA:10, v10.38 — The World Around Us

The World Around Us

Mountain Views News Saturday, September 17, 2016

MVNews this week: Page A:10

THE WORLD AROUND US

Mountain Views-News Saturday, September 17, 2016

MARS ROVER VIEWS SPECTACULAR LAYERED ROCK FORMATIONS

The layered geologic past of Mars is revealed in
stunning detail in new color images returned by
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover (http://mars.jpl.nasa.
gov/msl), which is currently exploring the “Murray
Buttes” region of lower Mount Sharp. The new
images arguably rival photos taken in U.S. National
Parks.

Curiosity took the images with its Mast Camera
on Sept. 8. The rover team plans to assemble several
large, color mosaics from the multitude of images
taken at this location in the near future.

“Curiosity’s science team has been just thrilled to
go on this road trip through a bit of the American
desert Southwest on Mars,” said Curiosity Project
Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The Martian buttes and mesas rising above the
surface are eroded remnants of ancient sandstone
that originated when winds deposited sand after
lower Mount Sharp had formed.

“Studying these buttes up close has given us a
better understanding of ancient sand dunes that
formed and were buried, chemically changed by
groundwater, exhumed and eroded to form the
landscape that we see today,” Vasavada said.

The new images represent Curiosity’s last stop in
the Murray Buttes, where the rover has been driving
for just over one month. As of this week, Curiosity
has exited these buttes toward the south, driving up
to the base of the final butte on its way out.

Curiosity landed near Mount Sharp in 2012.
It reached the base of the mountain in 2014 after
successfully finding evidence on the surrounding
plains that ancient Martian lakes offered conditions
that would have been favorable for microbes if Mars
has ever hosted life. Rock layers forming the base
of Mount Sharp accumulated as sediment within
ancient lakes billions of years ago.

On Mount Sharp, Curiosity is investigating how
and when the habitable ancient conditions known
from the mission’s earlier findings evolved into
conditions drier and less favorable for life.

*******

MARS IN YOUR NIGHT SKY. As soon as it gets
dark enough to see stars, look a bit west of south
and you will see three bright objects, fairly close
together. The brightest of these is Mars, having a
slightly reddish tint. Above and to the right is Saturn,
and nearby is a star, Antares in the constellation
Scorpius.

This is a good chance to test your ability to tell a
star from a planet: if it twinkles, it’s almost certainly
a star; but a planet’s light will usually be steady, not
twinkling. Distortion caused by the light passing
through miles of windy atmosphere causes starlight
to twinkle; the light from a planet, coming from
a wider object, is less likely to be blocked by the
atmosphere.

Over the next few days and weeks, Mars, Saturn,
and Antares will slip westward night by night until
they are lost in the twilight. This happens because
Earth is moving eastward in its orbit. Mars’ orbit
takes it eastward too, but since its orbit is twice as
large as ours—it takes about two Earth-years for
Mars to get around the Sun—it can’t keep up with
us.

Does all this celestial geometry boggle your mind?
Not surprising—it took humanity at least 1500
years, from Ptolomy to Copernicus, to figure it out!
But it’s a great exercise for our powers of reasoning
and mental visualization.

Nothing is more mind-expanding, for learners
young or old, than getting into astronomy. For a
great listing of astro-events and clubs in the Los
Angeles area, check out this NASA website: https://
nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/clubs-and-events.cfm

You can contact Bob Eklund at:

b.eklund@MtnViewsNews.com.

Mars’ orbit takes it eastward too, but since its orbit is twice

as large as ours—it takes about two Earth-years for Mars

to get around the Sun—it can’t keep up with us.

CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

OUT TO PASTOR

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

LOW-BUDGET CAMPING

THOUGHTS, PLOTS AND OTHER
DANGEROUS ACTIVITIES

[Nyerges is the author of
“How to Survive Anywhere,”
“Enter the Forest,” “Guide
to Wild Foods,” and other
books. He regularly teaches
outdoor classes. Contact him
via School of Self-Reliance,
Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA
90041, or www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]

Some time ago, an editor of a magazine called and
asked me to write an article for his readers about “low
budget camping.” My first question was, “What do you
mean by low-budget?”

He thought about it for awhile, and then told me to
keep the total shopping list under $2,000. Wow! That’s
low-budget? He then explained that he was assuming
that the reader had absolutely no equipment at all, and
he or she would have to go out and purchase everything
from scratch.

I eventually wrote the article, entitled “Backpacking
on a Shoestring,” and everything I suggested could
be purchased for under $300 or so, if you followed my
instructions.

Over the years, of course, I have gradually acquired
camping gear that works for me, and that I feel is worth
having. I don’t mind spending extra money on an item
if I know it’s the best and if my life can depend on it. On
the other hand, to this day I don’t care much for useless
gadgets that just take up space and add weight to the
pack. I like to go as light as I possibly can.

So, I thought that readers would enjoy hearing how
we went hiking on no budget. Some of you will chuckle
at our youthful enthusiasm and silliness. A few of you
might even think we had a few good ideas.

CLOTHING

We NEVER purchased special clothes, designed for
hiking or backpacking. We just wore what we called
our “play clothes” -- clothes that we didn’t worry about
getting dirty or torn, but durable enough for a weekend
or a week in the hills. We simply dressed for the season,
and took an extra sweatshirt along if it was cold.

The one area that could have used improving was
footwear. I usually had poor footwear on the trails, but
I never let it bother me. The worst time was when I
had some old suede shoes while hiking in the snow. My
feet were wet and cold the whole time, so I was either
constantly moving or sitting by the fire all the time.
Eventually, I learned that you could put a plastic bag
over your socks and keep your feet sort-of dry in the
winter.

But since most of our hiking was in fair weather,
wearing our “city shoes” into the hills was usually not a
problem.

KNIFE

Heck, every kitchen has a knife, doesn’t it? We just
wrapped a small kitchen knife in a piece of cardboard for
safety and put it in with our gear. Eventually, we received
Boy Scout knives as gifts one Christmas, and we carried
them all the time. Now, I wouldn’t leave home without a
Swiss Amy knife.

CANTEEN

Back in the mid-1960s, plastic wasn’t as ubiquitous
as it is today, and the plastic that was around back then
was low quality. So we didn’t have plastic containers to
use for water. On occasions, I actually carried a glass
mayonnaise jar as my canteen, and I wrapped it with
cardboard so it would be protected. Eventually, I spent
about $1 and purchased a metal WWII canteen. It was a
very good investment.

However, we tried to plan so many of our hikes around
the known water sources, that I never bothered to carry a
canteen half the time.

Today, inexpensive water containers can be obtained
just about anywhere, so humanity seems to have solved
this problem.

STOVE

Stove? We simply cooked right on the flames of our
small camp fire. I’ve never carried a stove -- to this day!

FLASHLIGHT

Sometimes we’d find a flashlight in a drawer at
home but more often than not it simply didn’t work.
Perhaps the batteries were no good. So I never got
addicted to needing a flashlight at night. Did you
know that the average adult has the ability to see in the
darkness almost as good as an owl after 30 minutes in
the dark?

TENT

Tent? Those are heavy and expensive. I have never
carried one. The closest I have ever come to packing a
tent was when I used tube tents a few times in the early
to mid-1970s. But otherwise, you can usually avoid the
need for a tent if you simply pick your campsite well.

SLEEPING BAG

On many of my first backpacking trips, I never carried
a sleeping bag. I slept in a hammock with a tarp. I was
cold.

My first sleeping bag was loaned to me from my older
brother, and it was a layered paper sleeping roll designed
for just a few uses. I was cold.

TOILET PAPER

Sometimes we went into the bathroom before our
camping trip, grabbed a roll of toilet paper and tossed
it into our pack. But often we forgot to do this, and
discovered that the woods are full of “toilet paper.”

MAP AND COMPASS

Get real! We simply went up to the mountains and
followed the trails, and often had no idea where we were
going, other than some obscure rumor from someone
that a friend of a friend talked to and suggested that
maybe this particular trail actually led to some really
good place. It all sounds very silly and imprecise as I
think back on it, but that’s how we did things.

FIRE STARTER

We would take book matches that we got for free at the
local supermarket, and stick matches from our parents
kitchen, and wrap them up in several wrappings of
plastic. Back then, there were no Bics, no magnesium
fire starters, and none of the high-tech devices that today
assure fire for even the village idiot.

PACK

Again, remember we had no budget. We have actually
carried bags of stuff into the mountains, which made
us look more like we were running away from home
than campers. Eventually, we purchased canvas packs
at the Army surplus shop that used to be in downtown
Pasadena. We spent a few dollars on what was an
excellent investment. Still, those heavy old packs are
dinosaurs compared to the packs of today.

FOOD

Food in the backpacking shops always seems to cost too
much. Freeze-dried, specially portioned exotic meals,
MREs, special candy bars, juices, etc. etc. Why? We
would just go to the supermarket and purchase dry
things like rice and buckwheat groats and spaghetti.
Then we purchased dry soup mixes and instant potatoes.
Then we’d get a bottle of dried spices, and then some nuts
and seeds, and some fresh fruit like apples and avocadoes
and perhaps some cheese. After awhile, you have good
food at a reasonable cost.

Some of these ways that we did things might help some
of you to keep the weight in your pack as low as possible,
and to retain as much money as possible. I have always
believed that simple enjoyment of the outdoors should
be as unadorned as possible. Part of the attraction -- to
me -- is to be in the outdoors where you can think and be
with your self and your friends. Why clutter it up with all
the overpriced gimmicks and gadgets that take up weight
and occupy too much of your time?

I’d like to hear from readers who have unique low-cost
camping methods to share.

One day this past week, I got up a little earlier
than usual and to keep from waking up the
Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage I got my
coffee and went to the back porch to enjoy a quiet
early morning.

As I sat on the back porch drinking my coffee
and taking in the early morning atmosphere,
I noticed a bunch of birds sitting on the fence
in the backyard. They were squawking at me as
though I was the worst person in their world. I
believe what they were screaming about was that
I had not filled the bird feeder yet.

I screeched back at them and they only looked
at me quizzically and kept on squawking.
Obviously, they could not understand my accent.

Watching them for a few moments, I began
to think. That is a very dangerous thing to do,
especially so early in the morning and especially
with a hot cup of coffee in your hand.

I began thinking about the fact that whenever
I put the feed in the bird feeder none of the birds
ever come and thank me for it. However, when
I do not put feed in the birdfeeder they squawk
and yell at me as though I had committed the
unpardonable sin.

That’s gratitude for you.

I tried explaining that I would put feed in
the bird feeder when I got around to it. But
right now, I explained, I’m just enjoying a quiet
moment with my cup of coffee. Now, could you
just leave me alone for a moment? And, quit all
this fowl language.

I took another long sip of coffee and began
reflecting more about this and how this was
very typical of people. They complain when they
don’t get what they want, but when they get what
they want to get rarely do they thank anybody.
Their assumption is that they deserve what they
want.

It reminded me of an incident in the life of
Jesus when he healed 10 lepers. Only one of those
lepers ever came back to thank Jesus for what he
did. That seems to be very typical.

How much of what I expect do I really deserve?

Thinking about this brought me to the place of
trying to figure out some little plot against these
birds in my backyard. If they are not thankful
for what I give them and if they are screeching
at me when they do not get what they want, what
could I do to get even with these little feathered
rascals?

As I continued sipping my coffee, my brain
was running at high speed trying to figure out
how I could trick these birds into being a little
more appreciative of what I do for them. After
all, if I did not feed them they would not get fed.

One thought I had was I could put feed in the
bird feeder and then tape shut all of the openings
so that they could see the feed but they couldn’t
get to it. I liked that idea. Oh, how it would make
them so aggravated to see all that food there and
not able to get to it.

The more I thought about this idea the more
devious my thinking became.

What if I would build something, like a trap,
and put feed in the inside so that when they tried
to get to it they would be trapped and could not
get out. I could watch them and laugh and laugh
and laugh.

They could not get to the feed and they could
not get out of the feeder. Oh, how I like that idea.

Soon my mind was putting out plot after
plot getting even with these rascally, feathered
minions teaching them a lesson or two. I was so
impressed with all of these plots that I had to get
a paper and pencil and start jotting them down.
This was serious with me.

Suddenly, I heard a quiet voice from inside the
door saying, “What are you doing so early?”

Looking around, there my wife stood at the
door looking at me with the strangest of looks.
I have seen strange looks from her, but this was
the strangest.

It shocked me back into reality and for a brief
moment, I almost told her what I was doing. I
knew if I did that, I would be in deep trouble.

Coming up with a fresh plot I simply said, “I’m
just enjoying the quietness of the morning.”

“I think,” she said, “I’ll come out and join you
and together we can enjoy the quietness of the
morning.”

All my thoughts and plots came to an abrupt
end.

Then she said, “I wonder why those birds over
there on that fence are looking this way and
squawking?”

For a moment I thought I would explain it to
her, but then I figured out she probably would
not get the whole story. Or at least, she would
wonder why in the world I was talking to birds.
Then she would suggest that it was because I had
a “birdbrain.” That suggestion has come up quite
a few times.

The apostle Paul stated it this way, “Casting
down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,
and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

When my thoughts focus on Christ, it lifts me
above my circumstances.

Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God
Fellowship, Ocala, FL 34483, where he lives with
his wife. Call him at 1-866-552-2543 or e-mail
jamessnyder2@att.net. His web site is www.
jamessnyderministries.com.

We’d like to hear from you!

What’s on YOUR Mind?

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