Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, March 10, 2018

Mountain Views-News Saturday, March 10, 2018 11THE WORLD AROUND US 
LONG-LIVED MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY KEEPS FINDING SURPRISES 
Mountain Views-News Saturday, March 10, 2018 11THE WORLD AROUND US 
LONG-LIVED MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY KEEPS FINDING SURPRISES 
CHRISTOPHER Nyerges 
MOUNTAIN VIEWPOINTS 

On life, death, and Respecting others 

[Nyerges has led wilderness“And are you just going to jump right there?” Charlietrips into the forest for overdemanded. “You mean to tell me that you’re going to40 years. He is the author ofhit those rocks and let me or someone else clean up the“Enter the Forest,” “Extreme mess?” Charlie acted as if he was angry. The man still 
Simplicity,” “”How to Survive seemed angry but seemed to be thinking about it.
Anywhere,” and other books.“That’s not very considerate,” said Charlie. “I mean, 

He can be reached at Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041,if you’re going to kill yourself, you should at leastor www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]get a home for your dog, and figure out how to do it

Many years ago, I met a man named Charlie Lockeso it doesn’t inconvenience other people.” The man 
who was a live-in caretaker for the Angeles Forestremained on the cliff. 
Service at a camp called Oakwilde. Oakwilde is about a“I really don’t want you to jump,” continuedfive mile walk from the closest road. Charlie. “I don’t have the time or energy to clean up

I met him when I was leading a hiking class throughyour body and then go get the police or sheriff and thenPasadena City College, taking the class down the oldfind your family. I mean, I’ve got to repair my tent, and ICCC road from the Angeles Crest Highway, into theneed to clean out the fire pits for the weekend hiker, andArroyo Seco, to Oakwilde. Little did I know that the the rangers want me to keep the outhouse cleaned uptrail was washed out, and half the class turned back. The for the hikers.” He was silent for a bit. 
rest of us hiked right down the ridgeline into the camp“I’ll tell you what,” said Charlie. “You can go aheadand there we met Charlie, living there with his manyand kill yourself, but just not today. Why don’t you givetents and many dogs. Charlie was your stereo-typicalme a hand with my chores, and when we’re done, I’llhermit mountain man, living the good life naturallymake us some soup and potatoes and we can talk aboutand rustically.it. What do you say?”

We all enjoyed meeting this mountain man andCharlie says that the man slowly came off the cliff,
talking with him about his viewpoints on life, gold-and then he followed Charlie back to the camp a shortpanning, Irish coffee, and many other topics.distance away. Charlie began by giving him a tool to cut

I’d visit Charlie a few times over the next few yearsdown some of the tall wild grasses around the campbefore he had a medical emergency and had to bethat were potential fire hazards. When the man was 
airlifted out of the campsite, never to return.done, Charlie gave him another task.

Charlie told me that one day in his remote part ofCharlie told me that they had a very satisfying dinner,
the canyon, an angry man with a dog came by and toldand neither brought up the suicide attempt again. TheCharlie that he was sick of life and that he was going toman stayed with Charlie a few days, helping out withkill himself. The man climbed up a nearby cliff wherechores, before he disappeared back down the trail andhe informed Charlie he was going to jump. Charlie toldinto the city.
me that he had to think quickly.“You see,” said Charlie, “perhaps all the man needed

“What about your dog?” yelled Charlie. “Who’s was someone to listen to him, and to make him feel 
going to take care of Sampson?” The man respondedimportant, that his life meant something. I didn’t dothat he was going to kill himself, not responding toanything special, just treated him like everyone oughtCharlie. to be treated.” 

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experts that, on a scale of hundreds of thousandshave documented how those form when temperature
of years, Mars goes through cycles when the tilt orand ground conditions are right.
obliquity of its axis increases so much that someSoils with a mix of silt, sand and gravel expand
of the water now frozen at the poles vaporizes intomore where the finer-grain material is most prevalent
the atmosphere and then becomes snow or frostand retains more water. Freezing expands the soil,
accumulating nearer the equator.pushing larger particles up. If they move to the side,


“One possible explanation of these stripes is thatas well as down the general slope, due to gravity orthey are relics from a time of greater obliquity whenwind, they tend to move away from the finer-grainsnow packs on the rim seasonally melted enoughconcentrations and stretch out down slope. Whereto moisten the soil, and then freeze-thaw cycleslarger particles become more concentrated, theorganized the small rocks into stripes,” Arvidson said.ground expands less. The process repeats hundreds“Gravitational downhill movement may be diffusingor thousands of times, and the pattern self-organizesthem so they don’t look as crisp as when they wereinto alternating stripes.
fresh.” Mars’ Perseverance Valley holds rocks carved by

Bernard Hallet of the University of Washington,sand blowing uphill from the crater floor, and windSeattle, agrees the alignments seen in images ofmight also be the key in sorting larger particles intoPerseverance Valley are not as distinctive as the stonerows parallel to the slope. 
stripes he has studied on Earth. Field measurementson Earth, near the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna kea You can contact Bob Eklund at: b.eklund@ 
where the soil freezes every night but is often dry, MtnViewsNews.com. 


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder 

“CAN I GET AN AMEN?” 

An interesting aspect to people ishow I was doing with all of the pain and discomfort I wasthere proclivity toward hypocrisy.experiencing. I went on and on even though several timesBy that I mean we say one thinghe tried to interrupt my little speech. He asked and so I

but we really do not mean it or it does not really apply towas telling.
us personally.Three minutes into my little speech, I heard theI was complaining about this to the Gracious Mistresstelephone go “click” and there was nobody on the otherof the Parsonage this past week.end of the line. 
“Why is it,” I said most curiously, “people really don’tI sat back in my chair and smiled rather deeply. Why

mean what they say?”did this person asked me how I was doing if he wasn’tShe responded by saying, “I always mean what I say.” interested in it? 
Being the kind of husband that I am, I refused toIt was quite an afternoon, I’ll tell you that. I don’t know

contradict her reply. Therefore, I am not referring to herif the word got out that I was sick and at home, but thein these comments. People just don’t say what they mean.phone rang constantly all afternoon. Everybody asked me,

For the past month, I’ve been having issues with“Hello, how are you doing?” And, I told them how I was.
shingles and nerve pain all the way down my right arm.All that afternoon I dominated the conversation of 
It’s very painful and I hope it goes away soon. Let it beevery telephone solicitor that called. I never allowed themclear that pain and me are not friends. The sooner the painto get a word in edge wise because they asked me how Ileaves, the better it’s going to be for me.was doing and I was going to tell them.

But I digress. My condition has been a very clear focusMy wife came home from the office and saw meof my life these days. After all, it’s my pain that I have tosmiling.
live with every day.“What in the world,” she said as she walked towards me, 

It happened just the other day when somebody that I“are you all smiling about?”
was passing on my way into Publix said to me, “Hi, howAll afternoon,” I explained to her, “people were callingyou doing?”me asking me how I was. And so I spent all afternoon

Well, I thought to myself, he asked so I begin to telltelling these people exactly how I was.” I then chuckled.
him about my condition and all of the aspects associatedShe just looked at me and then broke out laughingwith it. Within a few moments I could tell he was not veryherself. 
much interested in how I was doing.

I continued with all of the details and then he suddenlyI found out the telemarketers are not really interestedlooked at his watch and said, “That’s interesting, but I amin “How you are.” All they’re interested in is sellinglate for an appointment and I have to leave right now.” something I really don’t need. But I enjoyed the day telling

Well, okay, but after all, he asked the question I didn’t. Ifthem how I was doing.

he wasn’t interested in how I was doing, why did he ask?That’s the way it is with most people today. They say oneSee how people say things they don’t really mean?thing but they really do not mean it. They do not want toThis happened to me several times with people I hadknow how I am doing. It is just something they politely say

never met before. The asked the question about how I waswhen they do not know what else to say.
doing, when I began telling them how I was doing, theyDavid understood this when he wrote, “They speakhad no real interest in how I was doing.vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips

That rather frustrated me. How I was doing was a veryand with a double heart do they speak” (Psalm 12:2).
important aspect of my life and sharing my pain wasHow often does this happen in our daily life.
someone else was something I wanted to do. However,Then David said this about himself, “My mouth shallnobody was interested in my pain.speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be

It brought me down to a point of discouragement. I hadof understanding” (Psalm 49:3).
to stay home for several days because of the condition IAs I was sitting in my chair nursing my pain, I came towas in. I could not drive and so I stayed home.at least one conclusion. I am not going to ask people how

Then something different opened up for me.they are unless I really want to know how they are. 
As I was sitting there, reveling in my displeasure anddiscomfort the telephone rang.Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God

I answered the phone and it was somebody trying toFellowship, Ocala, FL 34472. He lives with his wife insell me something. They began by saying, “Hello, how areSilver Springs Shores. Phone 352-687-4240 or e-mailyou doing today?”jamessnyder2@att.net. The church web site is www.

That is all I needed to hear. I began to tell him exactly whatafellowship.com. 

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity 
keeps providing surprises about the Red Planet, 
most recently with observations of possible “rock 
stripes.” 

The ground texture seen in recent images from 
the rover resembles a smudged version of very 
distinctive stone stripes on some mountain slopes 
on Earth that result from repeated cycles of freezing 
and thawing of wet soil. But it might also be due 
to wind, downhill transport, other processes or a 
combination. 

Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. Asit reaches the 5,000th Martian day, or sol, of whatwas planned as a 90-sol mission, it is investigating achannel called “Perseverance Valley,” which descendsthe inboard slope of the western rim of EndeavourCrater. 

“Perseverance Valley is a special place, likehaving a new mission again after all these years,” 
said Opportunity deputy principal investigator Ray 

Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.
“We already knew it was unlike any place any Marsrover has seen before, even if we don’t yet knowhow it formed, and now we’re seeing surfaces thatlook like stone stripes. It’s mysterious. It’s exciting. Ithink the set of observations we’ll get will enable us tounderstand it.” 

On some slopes within the valley, the soil andgravel particles appear to have become organized intonarrow rows or corrugations, parallel to the slope,
alternating between rows with more gravel and rowswith less. 

The origin of the whole valley is uncertain. Rover-
team scientists are analyzing various clues thatsuggest actions of water, wind or ice. They are alsoconsidering a range of possible explanations for thestripes, and remain uncertain about whether thistexture results from processes of relatively modernMars or a much older Mars. 

Other lines of evidence have convinced Mars