Voyager Spacecraft Greatly Exceed Expectations

Pasadena Star-News - Voyager Spacecraft Greatly Exceed NASA Expectations
By Elise Kleeman Staff Writer

Quotes:
>>They have visited four planets and 48 moons, and in another 10 years both will pierce the boundary of the solar system.
[snip]
The Voyager spacecraft are now rushing away from the sun at almost 1 million miles a day.
[snip]
In December 2004, Voyager 1 passed a boundary in the solar system known as the termination shock.<<

Fascinating reading. My father and other members of my extended family once worked at NASA's JPL in Pasadena, so I have always taken an interest.

I Was Quoted

I was quoted in a recent article that appeared in several sister newspapers. It's a good article with great pictures online.

Whittier Daily News - San Gabriel Dam Being Cleaned up
By Ben Baeder - Staff Writer

Quotes:
>>The dredging is needed to clear the area behind the dam that filled up with dirt after the Curve and Williams Fires of 2002, said Public Works spokesman Ken Pellman.

Without plant roots to hold it down, mud flowed down hillsides into the river and collected behind the dam, Pellman said.
[snip]
"The contract calls for the removal of 5 million cubic yards of dirt," Pellman said. The sediment-removal project kicks into high gear each spring when the storms stop and the San Gabriel River's waters subside, he said.

"Each year, before we release water, we have to give everything that collected behind the dam a little time to settle," he said. "Waiting for the settling keeps us from gumming up our system and it makes it so we let cleaner water go down stream."

The released water is siphoned into spreading grounds along the San Gabriel River near Pico Rivera, where it percolates into wells and is pumped up for use, he said.

The money for the dredging came from funds designated for flood control and water conservation, Pellman said.<<

My Latest Book Review

Go to http://www.laughingplace.com/News-ID510340.asp to read my review of _The Secrets of Disney's Haunted Mansion_, a new book presented by DoomBuggies.com.

Things They Never Taught Us in School

TIMES PAST
The principal who resorted to a gun
Los Angeles Times
May 6, 2006

Quotes:
>>May 6, 1940: Soon after learning that he would be fired as principal of what was then South Pasadena Junior High School, Verlin Spencer pulled out a gun at a board meeting and shot six colleagues — five fatally.<<

I grew up in South Pasadena, attending the public schools, and I lived there for a while again in my adult life. My nephews currently attend the schools there. Things have calmed down just a tad.

>>Cornered in the empty school cafeteria, Spencer shot himself in an attempted suicide, the newspaper said.
[snip]
Spencer pleaded guilty and was given five life sentences. He was paroled in 1970, on the condition that he leave California.<<

Wow! That's what I call history!

The Mouse Needs People

Disneyland Resort Goes Intern-Shopping
The park's ever-growing staff needs have inspired a new program that awards college credit. The low-paying service industry is competitive.
By Dave McKibben - Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 5, 2006

They'll do anything to avoid raising wages, because the costs of employees rise a lot more than just the pay, when you factor in all of the other costs employers have when they employ someone.

Quote:
>>Faced with the perennial challenge of filling about 4,000 jobs for its busiest season, the Anaheim theme park has turned to a staple of white-collar industry — the summer internship — to lure young people such as Rook amid stiff competition from other low-paying service jobs.<<

And yet I had to quit because working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and any holidays all summer was not enough for them. They'd rather have people like me 0 days a week instead of 3. That makes sense, right? The low pay was not a hinderance to me, because this was a job I had on the side just for fun.