Mountain Views News, Sierra Madre Edition [Pasadena] Saturday, February 18, 2017

THE WORLD AROUND US

11

Mountain Views-News Saturday, February 18, 2017 


DOES OUR SOLAR SYSTEM HAVE AN UNDISCOVERED PLANET?

YOU CAN HELP ASTRONOMERS FIND OUT


Arizona State University astronomer Adam 
Schneider and his colleagues are hunting for an 
elusive object lost in space between our Sun and the 
nearest stars. They are asking for your help in the 
search, using a new citizen-science website.

 Astronomers have found evidence for a ninth 
planet in our solar system. The evidence comes from 
studying the orbits of objects in the solar system’s 
Kuiper Belt. This is a zone of comet-like bodies 
orbiting the Sun out beyond the orbit of Neptune. 
The Kuiper Belt is similar to the asteroid belt that 
circles the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, but it lies 
dozens of times farther out.

 This hypothetical Planet 9 could be similar in 
size to Neptune, but it may orbit up to a thousand 
times farther away from the Sun than the Earth 
does. So while astronomers can see its effects on the 
Kuiper Belt objects, no one has yet observed Planet 
9 directly.

 “If it exists, Planet 9 could be large—maybe 10 
times the mass of Earth but orbiting far out beyond 
the Kuiper Belt,” says Schneider, a postdoctoral 
researcher in ASU’s School of Earth and Space 
Exploration.

 In addition to searching for a distant planet 
orbiting the Sun, this new project will help 
astronomers identify the Sun’s nearest neighbors 
outside of our solar system.

 “There are just over four light-years between 
Neptune and Proxima Centauri, the nearest star, 
and much of this vast territory is unexplored,” says 
the lead researcher for Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, 
Marc Kuchner, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard 
Space Flight Center.

 Astronomers expect the Sun’s neighborhood will 
contain many low-mass objects called brown dwarfs. 
These emit very little light at visible wavelengths, 
but instead glow dimly with infrared—i.e., heat—
radiation.

 So how do astronomers find such objects in 
space? That’s where you can contribute, using a 
website that enlists the help of citizen scientists. 
It’s called Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 [http://
backyardworlds.org], and it uses images taken by 
NASA’s WISE space telescope.

 WISE, which stands for Wide-field Infrared 
Survey Explorer, was launched in late 2009, and 
it has mapped the entire sky several times during 
the last seven years. WISE detects infrared light, 
the kind of light emitted by objects at room 
temperature, like planets and brown dwarfs. This 
sensitivity to infrared light makes WISE uniquely 
suited for discovering Planet 9, if it exists.

 But there’s a snag: Images from WISE have 
captured nearly 750 million individual sources in 
the sky. Doubtlessly among these lurk the elusive 
brown dwarfs and possibly Planet 9. The question is 
how to sift through the data and identify them.

 The trick to finding these needles in haystacks 
of WISE data is to look for something in motion. 
Planetary objects and brown dwarfs roaming near 
the Sun can appear to move across the sky, leaving 
other celestial objects such as background stars and 
galaxies, which lie immensely far away, apparently 
fixed in place.

 So the best hope for discovering these worlds is 
to systematically scan infrared images of the sky, 
searching for objects that move.

 Automated searches for moving objects in the 
WISE data have already proven successful, but 
computerized searches are often overwhelmed 
by image artifacts—visual noise—especially in 
crowded parts of the sky.

 As Schneider explains, “People who join in the 
Backyard Worlds search bring a unique skill to the 
search: the human ability to recognize movement.”

 For instructions on joining the program, see the 
Backyard Worlds website, http://backyardworlds.
org

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


OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder

CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

TO LOVE YOUR DOG

I’LL DO IT FIRST THING TOMORROW

[Nyerges is the author of 
such books as “Extreme 
Simplicity,” “Self-Sufficient 
Home,” “How to Survive 
Anywhere,” and others. 
Information about his 
classes and books is available from Box 41834, Eagle 
Rock, CA 90041, or www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.
com.]

 Sometimes in the morning, I listen to Dennis 
Prager on the radio talking about everything under 
the sun. Not long ago, he spent the morning having 
a discussion with listeners who called in about the 
love of their dog. Some loved their dog more than 
other people, and some said that while they loved 
their dog a lot, they placed people ahead of dogs. It 
was an interesting discussion, where Prager asked 
questions and listened, and, tried to find personal 
clarity on the issue of love of dogs. As Prager often 
says, he’s far more interested in obtaining clarity on 
an issue than getting others to agree with him.

 At the end of the show, Prager concluded that 
people who have a great love for dogs do so only 
because they haven’t developed the ability to love 
people. They, therefore – according to Prager’s 
conclusion – are loving dogs as a second-best 
to loving people, because they lack, or haven’t 
developed, the ability to love other humans.

 Though Prager conclusion could be right in some 
of the cases, I knew it was incorrect. I am one of the 
dog lovers, and yet I do not regard myself deficient 
in the art of loving other humans. I think the reason 
that Prager came to this conclusion is most likely 
because he has never developed a close relationship 
with a dog. (However, I am just speculating on that 
point).

 Dog are such unique beings that there is 
absolutely no reason why people cannot have deep 
relationships and deep love for their dog, without 
sacrificing love for other humans. In fact, I see no 
reason why the inquiry must be framed that way at 
all! 

 In every case where I had a pet dog, the regarded 
the dog as a part of the family. I talked to the dog. 
I got to know its idiosyncracies. I learned that dogs 
are just like people. There are some generalizations 
that you can make about all dogs, and yet, each 
is an individual, with their own preferences, and 
fears, and food likes and dislikes, and patterns of 
behavior. 

 I think it was W.C. Fields who said you cannot 
fool dogs and children. This is because neither 
has the ability to lie or be deceitful. Furthermore, 
dogs have the ability to detect as aspect of human 
nature that lies just beneath the surface which other 
humans usually don’t detect, or choose not to. For 
example, I have often wondered why my dog will 
growl at one visitor to my home, but will be happy 
and playful with everyone else. What is the dog 
detecting? Even more, shouldn’t I be listening to 
what my dog is telling me by that growl?

 Once when I was driving along a busy street in the 
business district, my dog Ramah suddenly perked 
up and zoomed in on one man who was jogging. 
She began to wildly and angrily bark at that one 
man. Why? What did Ramah see, or smell, or 
detect, in that man which I did not? Whatever it 
was, you’d be wise to observe what your dog notes, 
and don’t ignore it. 

 I had a dog who lived with me when I lived alone, 
and since he was an older dog, my schedule was 
always worked around him. I never stayed out too 
late, because he came in from his penned yard and 
came inside with me at night. I tended to his feeding 
and washed him. He was very much like a child. I 
developed a close and loving relationship with this 
dog – he was a purple ribbon pit bull named Cassius 
Clay.

 I began to study Beatrice Lydeckers book, “What 
the Animals Tell Me,” and I began to apply her 
principles of animal communication. All of this 
was a very revealing and insightful journey as I 
began to learn what it was like to think like a dog, 
and to attempt to view the world through his senses. 
And I felt such a great pain of loss when he died in 
my arms one Sunday evening.

 And yet, none of that in any way deprived me 
of any deep human relationships. If anything, this 
enhanced my relationships at the time, and allowed 
me to have even better relationships than I would 
have otherwise. Cassius Clay taught me to be a 
better person!

 I will continue to listen to the broadcasts of 
Dennis Prager on the radio in the morning, because 
he is a deep thinker who seeks the answers to some 
of life’s most fundamental issues. But in this case 
about dogs, I encourage Prager to get to know a 
canine more intimately, and he’ll realize that love of 
humans never needs to suffer just because you also 
love a dog!

You would think being a 
husband as long as I have 
been I would have learned 
the fine art of negotiating with my wife. And trust 
me, it is an artistic creation.

 When I got married, somebody told me that 
marriage was a 50-50 proposition, which being 
the naïve young man that I was, believed it 
entirely.

 The problem I have discovered is that 50 from 
a man’s point of view may not necessarily be 50 
from a woman’s point of view. If I knew then what 
I know now, I would have asked that person to 
define what they meant by 50.

 Through the years, I discovered that at times it 
is a 25-75 split. Other times it is a 0-100. Nobody 
can be 100% right all the time unless of course 
they are married to a husband.

 When men get together, they talk about sports, 
hunting, cars and so forth.

 When women get together, they talk about how 
to deal with their husbands.

 I know it does not sound fair, but then it is our 
fault as men for not getting our act together.

 Although, I must admit that at this point in my 
life I do not have any regrets. The only thing that 
I have trouble with is the word “tomorrow.”

 I am not quite sure what that word means from 
my wife’s perspective. From my perspective, 
the word “tomorrow” is just a way of putting 
something off and possibly not even doing it.

 I never really thought anything of it until 
recently. To me the word “tomorrow” was just a 
casual word I used to postpone things. It was not 
until last week that it really came to the forefront.

 The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage asked 
me to do something for her. I was really busy at 
the time, I’m not sure what I was busy doing, but 
I was not paying too much attention. I smiled at 
her and said, “Okay.” Then, I went back to doing 
whatever I was doing.

 The next day she approached me and said, “Did 
you do what I asked you to do yesterday?”

 I really was not quite up to date on what she 
asked me to do yesterday, but I said, “No, but I’ll 
do it tomorrow.” To be fair, I actually forgot about 
it. I did not mean to forget about it, but it does not 
change the fact that I forgot about it.

 The next day she queried me rather sternly, 
“Did you do what I asked you to do the other 
day?”

 At this point I was marinating in that husband 
fog that seems to plague every husband and so I 
said, “No, but I’ll do it first thing tomorrow for 
sure.”

 If I thought that was the end of the conversation, 
I was thinking in vain.

 “Today,” she said as sternly as I have ever heard 
her speak, “is the tomorrow you promise to do it.”

Now I am swimming in that husband fog. How 
in the world can today be tomorrow? At this 
point, I did not know if she was confused or if I 
was confused. To keep things safe, I will admit to 
being the one confused.

 “Yesterday,” she began explaining, “you said 
that tomorrow you would do the task I asked 
you to do. Well,” she continued, “this is that 
tomorrow!”

 For the life of me, I could not understand why 
today was actually tomorrow. Then she said 
something along the line that tomorrow would 
actually be today. What I want to know is, is 
today tomorrow or is tomorrow today?

 By this time I was so confused I had forgotten 
what she had asked me to do. My dilemma was, 
do I confess to her I had forgotten and ask her to 
remind me what she wanted me to do? Or, should 
I promise to do it tomorrow?

 As you can imagine, the latter was completely 
off the table. I had to humble myself and ask her 
most sorrowfully, “I’m sorry, what did you ask me 
to do?”

 With both hands on her hips, she stared at 
me and said, “That’s exactly what I thought. You 
weren’t listening to me the first time, were you?”

 Getting back to that 50-50 split; it is now 0-100 
split. I am at the 0 and she is 100% right.

 The art of negotiating with your wife begins by 
humbling yourself and saying that you are wrong. 
Nobody wants to say that, but that is where 
everything begins.

 I must confess that I do not always hear 
everything and even what I do hear it does not 
really register, as it should. I tried to use the old 
excuse that I am too old and I forget. However, as 
you might imagine, that really does not work.

 After explaining to me what she wanted me to 
do, I went off to do it. While I was on my way to 
accomplish that which I had put off till tomorrow 
a verse seemed to reverberate in my mind.

 It was the apostle Paul writing to the 
Corinthians where he said, “Wherefore let him 
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” 
(1 Corinthians 10:12).

 If I am going to think something through 
carefully I need to hear what is being said, 
especially who is saying it. I hope I learned my 
lesson that today is the tomorrow I kicked down 
the road yesterday.

 

 Dr. James L. Snyder is pastor of the Family of God 
Fellowship, 1471 Pine Road, Ocala, FL 34472. He 
lives with his wife in Silver Springs Shores. Call him 
at 352-687-4240 or e-mail jamessnyder2@att.net. 
The church web site is www.whatafellowship.com.


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SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2015VOLUME 9 NO. 20Inside this week: 
PASADENA/ALTADENA 
Pg. 6ARCADIA NEWS 
Pg. 7FOOD & DRINKARTS Pg. 11OPINION Pg. 15THE WORLD AROUND 
US Pg. 14CALENDAR Pg. 2SIERRA MADRE NEWS 
Pg. 3/4EDUCATION & YOUTH 
Pg. 10LEGAL NOTICES 
Pg. 15GOOD LIFE 
Pg. 13HEALTHY LIVING 
Pg. 12MONROVIA/DUARTE 
Pg. 7BEST FRIENDS 
Pg. 9SAN GABRIEL VALLEY 
Pg. 8Sierra Madre, CA. - 
On Wednesday May 13, 2015 at 04:00 AM a resident on Grove Lane heard noises in the front of his residence. The resident looked out the 
window and observed a suspect breaking into his vehicle. The resident went outside and confronted the suspect, who was now inside his 
vehicle, and a brief struggle ensued. The suspect had a large silver object in his hand which the resident felt was a gun. Fearing for his safety 
the resident backed away from the suspect allowing the suspect flee southbound to a dark colored SUV. As the SUV pulled up another 
suspect ran out of the residence south of the original victims and fled to the vehicle. 
Within minutes of the original call officers spotted the dark colored SUV traveling at a high rate of speed southbound on Baldwin from Sierra 
Madre Blvd. A high risk traffic stop was conducted and three suspects were detained without incident. Stolen property and narcotics were located 
inside the vehicle. 
Police Chief Larry Giannone said “we discourage residents 
from confronting suspects for their safety but are glad the victim 
is okay. The quick response from the officers was instrumental 
in apprehending these suspects and recovering the victim’s 
property”. Police located additional property in the vehicle and 
will be attempting to identify other victims. 
The three suspects are gang members and have lengthy arrest 
records. All three suspects reside in El Monte and were booked 
at the Pasadena City Jail. Bail for each is set at $50,000.
SUSPECTS ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPT ROBBERY AND 
POSSESSION OF STOLEN PROPERTYJesus Rojas (20) Geovany Martinez (19) Aaron Vazquez (33)
There are many reasons why city of Sierra 
Madre is considered a great place to live. 
Certainly, its’ village character is one 
reason. Our independence is another. We 
have excellent schools and our own police 
and fire departments. We have our own 
library. We have our own grocery store, 
hardware store, auto repair shops, coffee 
shops, florists, restaurants and much more. 
However, if a survey were taken today, you 
would probably find that most residents 
consider safety their number one priority. 
And, according to a recent survey released 
by safewise.com, Sierra Madre ranks No. 24 
in the top 50 cities in the State of California 
and, based upon the survey’s findings, it is 
the safest city in the San Gabriel Valley! 
There are 482 cities in California that 
38 million residents call home. Safewise 
examined those cities with populations 
over 10,000 and evaluated recent FBI Crime 
Report data. and compiled a list of the 50 
safest cities based upon the incidents of 
crime compared to the national average. 
“From there, we determined the number 
of Violent Crimes, which are considered 
murder, aggravated assault, robbery and 
forcible rape, as well as Property Crimes, 
consisting of burglary, motor vehicle theft, 
arson, and larceny-theft that were reported 
in each city. Then, to create a level playing 
field and make it easy to compare crime 
rates among several cities, we calculated the 
chance of these crimes happening out of 
1,000 people. 
“The average violent crime rate among 
our safest cities was 1.12 per 1,000 people, 
and the average property crime rate was 
11.32 per 1,000 people. That means the 
average safe city listed below experienced 
70 percent less violent crime and 60 percent 
less property crime than the typical U.S. 
city. We were particularly impressed to 
discover that 42 of California’s 50 safest 
cities (84 percent) reported no murders. 
And the safest city on our list, Hillsborough, 
reported no incidents of violent crime 
whatsoever.”
Sierra Madre has had no murders 
and ranks well below the national 
average when in comes to crime. 
In the report, this is attribute 
to the use of technology by the 
SMPD. 
Other San Gabriel Valley Cities 
that make the top 50 list are: 
Temple City - No. 37; La Canada 
Flintridge – 43 and La Puente – 
46.
The incorporated cities and 
unincorporated neighborhoods 
of the San Gabriel Valley with a 
population over 10,000 include: 
Altadena, Alhambra, Arcadia, Azusa, 
Baldwin Park, Citrus, Covina, Diamond 
Bar, Duarte, East Pasadena, El Monte, 
Glendora, Hacienda Heights, Hillgrove, 
Irwindale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Puente 
Monrovia, Monterey Park, Pasadena, 
Rosemead, Rowland Heights, San Gabriel, 
San Marino, Sierra Madre, South El Monte, 
South Pasadena, South San Gabriel, South 
San Jose Hills, Temple City, Valinda, 
Vincent, Walnut, West Covina and West 
Puente Valley.
S. Henderson/MVNewsSIERRA MADRE: - 24th Safest Statewide of Cities With Populations 
of 10,000 or more. Topped ranked San Gabriel Valley City24. SIERRA MADREYou’ll find the safe city of Sierra Madre 13 miles south 
of Los Angeles. For roughly a century, the Sierra Madre 
Police Department has worked with citizens to keep the 
community a safe place to settle. Leveraging the latest 
technology, the department uses the free online service 
CrimeReports to give residents insight into what types of 
crime are happening in their community. In all, the safe 
city cited only 13 violent crimes for the year and only five 
other cities on our list reported fewer forcible rapes and 
fewer robberies.
Violent Crimes per 1,000: 1.17Property Crimes per 1,000: 11.67www.safewise.comBARTOLAI’S NAMED 4TH OF 
JULY GRAND MARSHALSThe volunteers of the Sierra 
Madre 4th of July Committee 
are pleased and excited to 
announce that the 2015 
Fourth of July Parade Grand 
Marshal will be Sierra Madre’s 
very own Nina and Clem 
Bartolai. 
“The Grand Marshal is a 
person or persons whose 
efforts over a long period 
of time has been beneficial 
to the community of Sierra 
Madre. The title of Grand 
Marshal is intended to 
honor a person or persons’ 
volume of work, dedication 
and overall enhancements to 
our community.” Nina and 
Clem have embodied these 
characteristics for years. 
This ultra civic Sierra Madre 
couple have continued to 
donate time and service to the 
Sierra Madre community for 
over 60 plus years. They are 
true examples of the Sierra 
Madre spirit and continue to 
give back today. 
Clem was part of the first 
committee in 1964/65 to plan 
the first 4th of July Parade/
Celebration in Sierra Madre. 
Clem served the community 
as a Parks & Recreation 
Commissioner, Planning 
Commissioner, and then in 
the 1980s and 90s as Mayor 
and Councilmember. In the 
1960s he was a member of the 
Sierra Madre Lions Club. He 
is a Past President and current 
member of the the Sierra 
Madre Kiwanis Club and was 
a founding member of the 
Sierra Madre Community 
Foundation. 
Nina has served on the Senior 
Community Commission for 
over six years and has been a 
member of the Priscilla’s since 
1997. Throughout the years 
both Clem & Nina have been 
active with the Sierra Madre 
Rose Float Assoc. Historical 
Society, SMEAC and Friends 
of the Library. 
There isn’t a civic cause or 
local group they haven’t 
helped with. Together they 
are committed to making 
the town of Sierra Madre 
the community we treasure 
today. The Bartolais are 
Sierra Madreans that make a 
difference. 
For more information 
on all of the 4th of July 
Festivities, please visit www.
sierramadre4thofjuly.com. 
COMMUNITY INPUT SOUGHT TO 
HELP BALANCE SIERRA MADRE’S 
BUDGET 
With the reduction of revenue for the next fiscal 
year, July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016, and the 
reality that Sierra Madre cannot sustain the level 
of services it currently provides, Mayor John 
Capoccia, Councilwoman Rachelle Arizmendi 
led one of many outreach efforts to solicit input 
from the community as to how the council 
should balance next year’s budget. 
On Tuesday, the presentation made to the 
Sierra Madre Kiwanis Club asked residents to 
review the city’s financial situations and let their 
elected officials know what services were most 
important to them; what services should be cut; 
suggest ways to increase city revenue and ideas 
on how to address the current situation. 
The Mayor noted that the city does have healthy 
reserves, however those funds are needed for 
emergencies such as the fires of 2008 or the 
windstorm on 2011. In each instance, because 
of the size of our town and other factors, the city 
had to pay a portion (and for certain items all) 
of the funds needed to repair the damages done. 
The current decrease in revenue, which is 
projected to be approximately $600,000 for the 
next fiscal year and as much as an additional 
$1 million for the 2016-2017 fiiscal year is the 
direct result of the failure of residents to pass 
the Utility User Tax modification in 2014. The 
current UUT will decrease to 8% for the 2015-
16 fiscal year and 6% the following year. Had 
the ballot measure passed, the rate would have 
remained where it is today, at 10%. 
The presentation focuses of the city’s general 
fund, the unrestricted revenue that operates 
Sierra Madre. 
Services Provided by the General FundCommunity Services - Senior Services: lunch 
program, fitness classes, bingo, movies, health 
screenings, legal services, and excursions | Parks 
& Facilities: six parks and two community centers 
| Community Garden | Community Newsletter | 
Coordinating Council | Special Event Permits | 
Contract Services: Aquatics, Recreation Classes, 
After School Youth Programs | Special Events: 
Huck Finn, MWTR, 4th of July, Summer Fun 
in the Park, Concerts in the Park, Movies in 
the Park, Halloween | Staff the Community 
Services & Senior Community Commissions(continued on page 4)
TOTAL GENERAL FUND EXPENDITURES 
(In thousands, with transfers)
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