Mountain Views News          Saturday, August 8, 2015

THE WORLD AROUND US Mountain Views-News Saturday, August 8, 2015 13 THE WORLD AROUND US Mountain Views-News Saturday, August 8, 2015 13 
NEW NAMES AND INSIGHTS AT DWARF PLANET CERES 
Colorful new maps of Ceres, based on data from 
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, showcase a diverse 
topography, with height differences between 
crater bottoms and mountain peaks as great as 9 
miles. 

Scientists continue to analyze the latest data 
from Dawn as the spacecraft makes its way to its 
third mapping orbit.

“The craters we find on Ceres, in terms of their 
depth and diameter, are very similar to what we 
see on Dione and Tethys, two icy satellites of 
Saturn that are about the same size and density 
as Ceres. The features are pretty consistent 
with an ice-rich crust,” said Dawn science team 
member Paul Schenk, a geologist at the Lunar and 
Planetary Institute, Houston.

Some of these craters and other features now 
have official names, inspired by spirits and 
deities relating to agriculture from a variety of 
cultures (since Ceres takes its name from the 
Roman goddess of agriculture). The International 
Astronomical Union recently approved a batch of 
names for features on Ceres. 

The newly labeled features include Occator, 
the mysterious crater containing Ceres’ brightest 
spots, which has a diameter of about 60 miles and 
a depth of about 2 miles. Occator is the name 
of the Roman agriculture deity of harrowing, a 
method of leveling soil.

A smaller crater with bright material, previously 
labeled “Spot 1,” is now identified as Haulani, 
after the Hawaiian plant goddess. Haulani has 
a diameter of about 20 miles. Temperature data 
from Dawn’s visible and infrared mapping 
spectrometer show that this crater seems to be 
colder than most of the territory around it.

Dantu crater, named after the Ghanaian god 
associated with the planting of corn, is about 75 
miles across and 3 miles deep. A crater called 
Ezinu, after the Sumerian goddess of grain, is 
about the same size. Both are less than half the 
size of Kerwan, named after the Hopi spirit of 
sprouting maize, and Yalode, a crater named after 
the African Dahomey goddess worshipped by 
women at harvest rites. 

“The impact craters Dantu and Ezinu are 
extremely deep, while the much larger impact 
basins Kerwan and Yalode exhibit much shallower 
depth, indicating increasing ice mobility with 
crater size and age,” said Ralf Jaumann, a Dawn 
science team member at the German Aerospace 
Center (DLR) in Berlin. 


Almost directly south of Occator is Urvara, a 
crater named for the Indian and Iranian deity of 
plants and fields. Urvara, about 100 miles wide 
and 3 miles deep, has a prominent central pointy 
peak that is 2 miles high.

Dawn is currently spiraling toward its third 
science orbit, 900 miles above the surface, or 
three times closer to Ceres than its previous orbit. 

The spacecraft will reach this orbit in mid-August 
and begin taking images and other data again.

Ceres, with a diameter of 584 miles, is the 
largest object in the main asteroid belt, located 
between Mars and Jupiter. This makes Ceres 
about 40 percent the size of Pluto, another dwarf 
planet, which NASA’s New Horizons mission flew 
by earlier this month. 

On March 6, 2015, Dawn made history as the 
first mission to reach a dwarf planet, and the 
first to orbit two distinct extraterrestrial targets. 
It conducted extensive observations of asteroid 
Vesta in 2011-2012. 

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

YOUR AD 
COULD BE HERE!
Call Patricia at 626-818-2698 Today!
LEARNING FROM OUR DOGS 


One Dog-Sitters’ Experience of “Listening.” 

Christopher Nyerges 

[Nyerges is the author of 

“How to Survive Anywhere,” 

“Extreme Simplicity,” “Foraging 

California,” and other books. 

He can be contacted at www. 

SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com, 

or Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 
90041]

Helen Sweany recently shared a wonderful and 
insightful story about her relationship with the dog 
she is dog-sitting. Her story sounds very much like the 
book “Kinship with All life,” and was very reminiscent 
of the great articles by “dog-whisperer” Chris Leclerc 
in this paper. 

The dog, Olaf, is about 120 pounds of Great White 
Pyrenees and a rescue animal. His age of about 7 is 
only a guess, as well as what his history may have been. 
The owners knew that Helen liked to hike and was told 
that Olaf never seemed to tire, so they told Helen, “By 
all means, take him with you on hikes. He’ll love it!” 
Helen was instructed to feed Olaf a cheap type of dog 
food located in owners’ garage, and to mix in melted 
butter and leftovers from their fridge. Olaf would pick 
through the leftovers but didn’t touch the dog food. 
Maybe he wasn’t eating because he was missing his 
“pack,” i.e., his owners. He didn’t like the 99 Cent 
store treats. Olaf ate scrambled eggs and even a small 
amount of Jack Daniels pulled-pork. Helen had never 
tended a dog who was on a hunger strike. This was 
supposed to be his standard diet and he didn’t seem 
to want it. 

Olaf loved the hikes that Helen started to take him 
on. On their first Friday, Olaf walked with Helen on 
a 5.2 mile loop, smelling many things along the way. 
When they reached the peak of a hill, Helen gave Olaf 
two and a-half bottles of water. About half way back 
down the hill, Olaf stopped, laid down in the shade 
and refused to move. He was panting heavily, so Helen 
gave him the remaining water that she had. Another 
hiker came by and gave Olaf a partial water bottle. 
Then, a third hiker came, and she gave her water to 
Olaf, and poured a little on his paws. (Dogs cool down 
through panting and also on their paws). 

Helen and Olaf had been in the shade about a half 
hour by then, and that last little bit of water got him 
to stand and walk slowly back to the car. When they 
arrived home, Olaf was still panting a good hour more. 
Helen wet a towel and tucked it under Olaf, which he 
seemed to appreciate. 

When Helen had started the hike, it was about 70 
degrees. Three hours later, it was already 92 degrees. 
The heat plus the humidity was just too much for 
Olaf, and Helen was very thankful that Olaf made it 
through alright. Helen, a mountain climber, was used 
to the warm weather and the hikes, but Olaf was not. 

Now, Helen walks him in the neighborhood in the 
coolest times of the day and she givese him shorter, 
slower walks. Olaf likes that. 

Food was another issue. It was clear to Helen 
that Olaf did not care for the food provided by his 
owner. One of Helen’s friends runs a Meetup group 
for German Shepherds, and she suggested to Helen 
a kibble that does not contain cornmeal fillers and is 
slightly more expensive, along with a large tablespoon 
of canned dog food, mixed with a little warm water. 
Helen obtained that, and Olaf loved it. 

Helen then went through the fridge and tossed out 
all the food that was past expiration date or had mold, 
and this made a very empty refrigerator. Marrow bones 
were about a month past expiration date. The bones 
could have been frozen and then thawed as needed but 
they had been kept in the fridge and spoiled. Helen 
reasoned that by giving Olaf a healthy diet, perhaps 
he’d take less trips to the vet. 

Helen emailed the owners who were on vacation 
and shared each development with them daily, but 
they never responded. Helen was told to only email 
because it would be costly to give daily phone updates. 
Helen had only one email address, which she’d used 
before they went on vacation. Maybe, she wondered, 
they didn’t have internet at their vacation location. 
But why then did they ask Helen to email? Whatever 
the case, without hearing from them, Helen chose to 
place the needs of the dog as the high priority and do 
what she thought was right, rather than blindly follow 
the instructions left by the owner. 

In fact, this is a decision that people make every 
day in the corporate world. Do I do the job that Mr. 
Boss instructed, even though his orders are less than 
desirable, and even counterproductive? Or do I do 
what is Right to any rational person, and risk losing 
my job? Obviously, you can take this analogy to all 
levels. Soldiers are trained to follow orders, but at a 
certain point, you must disobey orders. During the 
Nuremburg trials, simply following orders was no 
longer a defense for those who committed crimes 
against humanity. 

As of this writing, Helen is still dog-sitting, and 
feeling very good about her decisions regarding Olaf. 

OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder 

DANCING IN THE SUMMER RAIN 


This is the time of the year when rain is a frequent visitor, especially in the afternoon. It 
is then that a person is tempted to go outside and dance in the rain. One famous singer 
was so caught up with a rainy afternoon that he did his famous, “Singing in the rain.” At 
my age, the only dancing I do is the bathroom shuffle, which has become more frequent 
than usual lately.
The early Native Americans used to do their “Rain Dance,” in the hopes that some 
rain would come their way and water their crops. It is hard to tell what their average 
of success was in that practice. Obviously, it was not so successful that it is carried on 
down today. It may very well be that their “Rain Dance,” was simply some contrived 
activity to break the monotony while waiting for the white man to steal their land.

Rain is a funny thing. Well, not so much a funny thing as something that confounds 
the average common sense, which is not that hard to do. From the advantage of many 
years of observation, rain will come when rain comes, and just when you think you 
have enough rain, it rains some more. In addition, when you desperately need rain those 
clouds are deliberately looking the other way.

When it is raining a friend of mine always says, “I guess we needed the rain.” To me 
this does not make sense. Because it rains when we need the rain and then it rains when 
we have had enough rain. Or at least when I have had enough rain. My definition of 
enough rain is, when I have an afternoon outing planned.

I have yet to hear my friend say when the sun is shining and not a cloud in the sky, “I 
guess we don’t need rain today.” The truth of the matter is, we may need rain that day. I 
have come not to pay much attention to what my friend says. In fact, I think I’m going to 
get a new friend.

Rain is a very important part of our social makeup. Without rain, much of what we do 
would simply dry up and blow away. Not only do we need rain for horticultural reasons, 
but for sociological reasons as well.

For example, we use rain to identify somebody who is not very smart, or at least not as 
smart as we think we are. We say of such a person, “He doesn’t know enough to get in out 
of the rain.” 

What we do not know is, perhaps that person has a good reason to be out in the rain. 
He may, in fact, know that he is out in the rain and has chosen to stay out for reasons 
known only to him. Perhaps, he is just so delighted with the summer rain he just felt like 
dancing in the rain. Are we really going to fault a person for indulging in such activity?

I am beginning to think that rain really gets a bad rap all the way around.

Another example comes to mind. Some people will say, “I am saving up for a rainy 
day.” All I want to know is what a rainy day has to do with saving money. Nobody ever 
says, “I’m saving up for a snowy day.” Nor, does anybody ever say, “I’m saving up for a 
sunny day.” The latter would make more sense to me. There are plenty of sunny days that 
I could use plenty of money.

All I say, if you want to save money, save money and let the rain out of it. The rain has 
enough to do without being burdened down with helping you save money. Anyway, the 
only thing the rain can give you is a rain check.

Perhaps the worst of all is the phrase, “Don’t rain on my Parade.” I have never really 
understood this. No person who has ever said this to me was involved in a parade at the 
time. 

Take last week for example. The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage was telling me 
about some plans she was putting together and I simply indicated that I did not think it 
was a good idea. I know when to keep my mouth shut; I just do not always do it.

With both hands on her hips, looking at me with one of “those looks,” she said to me 
in that familiar tone, “Don’t you dare rain on my Parade.”

At the time, I had no idea what parade she was talking about. If she was planning a 
parade, I wanted to be in on it. I love a parade. Furthermore, where did she get the idea 
that I could snap my finger and cause it to rain? I’m good, but not that good. Of course, 
who am I to argue with her?

The only thing I know for sure about rain is that God is in charge of it and he dispenses 
it at his good pleasure. Jesus said, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is 
in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5:45 KJV).

I certainly cannot control the rain but I can thank God for His wisdom in sending the 
rain when He chooses. 

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 1-866-5522543 
or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net or website www.jamessnyderministries.com.