Some Stargazing Ideas While Camping Out
Recently I received the following email from Joe Garcia who reads Stargazer in the Kingsville (Texas) Record: “I am a Cub Scout leader and am taking my boys camping June 11-13. I want to do an astronomy section one of these nights, something that the boys will enjoy and learn from. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you might have. I am new to this and want my boys to learn and have fun. Thank you for your time.”
Recently I received the following email from Joe Garcia who reads Stargazer in the Kingsville (Texas) Record: “I am a Cub Scout leader and am taking my boys camping June 11-13. I want to do an astronomy section one of these nights, something that the boys will enjoy and learn from. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you might have. I am new to this and want my boys to learn and have fun. Thank you for your time.”
After re-reading my response to Joe, it occurred to me that my ideas might be of interest to others, especially those who, like Joe, work with kids. So here are some of my offerings.
As the Sun is setting in the west, have the kids watch the western sky and see who can be the first to spot the “evening star.” After it gets darker and other stars begin to appear, it will be apparent that this “star” is much brighter than all the other stars because it’s not really a star — it’s the planet Venus, the nearest planet to Earth.
Then as it gets darker, have the kids look all around the night sky and try to find the Moon. They won’t be able to, so ask them why there’s no Moon out. Answer: June 12 happens to be new Moon when the Moon is in the same direction as the Sun, thus it sets at sunset and won’t rise until sunrise the next morning. Each night thereafter, the Moon rises and sets nearly an hour earlier than the previous night. This can lead to a discussion about the phases of the Moon.
Depending upon how near to a city you are camping, you will likely encounter light pollution. Point this out to the kids, especially if you can see more light pollution in one direction than another. Show how the more light pollution there is, the fewer stars one can see. If you happen to be far from city lights, show them the Milky Way which they can’t see from town.
For a final activity, help the kids learn to use the stars to find north and the other directions. Have them search the sky for the Big Dipper. Then show them that the two stars at the outer end of the dipper’s bowl are “pointer stars” pointing to Polaris, the North Star. As they find and identify Polaris, have them notice that it is NOT the brightest star in the sky as many think.
To dig a bit deeper, these and other topics are elaborated in previous “Stargazer” columns which are archived on my Web site, and in my book, Learning the Night Sky, about which you can also learn more on my Web site.
Sky Calendar
* June 14 Mon. evening: The crescent Moon is below Venus low in the west at dusk, and to its upper left the next evening.
* 16 Wed. evening: The crescent Moon is below Mars, and to its left the next night.
* 18 Fri. evening: The 1st quarter Moon is below Saturn.
* 19 & 20 Sat. & Sun. early evenings: Venus passes within two moonwidths of the Beehive star cluster low in the west; use binoculars to see the subtle cluster.
* 20 evening: The Moon is below Virgo’s bright star Spica.
* 21 Mon.: Summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere
* 26 Sat.: The full Moon, called the Flower Moon, Rose Moon, Strawberry Moon, and Honey Moon, shows a barely visible partial lunar eclipse low in the east just before dawn.
* July 2 Fri.: The midpoint of the year 2010.
* 3 Sat. morning: The Moon is above Jupiter.
Naked-eye Planets. (The Sun, Moon, and planets rise in the east and set in the west due to Earth’s west-to-east rotation on its axis.) Evening: Venus is prominent in the west northwest, Mars is mid way up in the west, and Saturn is high in the southwest. Morning: Jupiter, rising around 2 a.m., is brilliant in the southeast by dawn.
Stargazer appears every other week. Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Contact him at 918 N. 30th, Waco, 76707, (254) 753-6920 or paulderrickwaco@aol.com. See the Stargazer Web site at stargazerpaul.com.
Saving American Veterans and Saving American Money – Dr. Gay Larned Has a Solution
Surviving & Prospering in the New Economy
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said in a speech that “health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive.” For returning active duty troops and veterans the problem goes way beyond considerations of the cost to the VA system. These veterans are returning but the war is coming with them in ways none of us imagined possible. An alarming percentage of America’s military are returning home with from Iraq and Afghanistan with Traumatic Brain Injuries and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to a system of health which is sadly lacking.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, because of increase in head injuries and the rise in mental health issues, substance abuse and suicides, there is a driving need to redouble efforts to protect veterans.
Additionally, Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD has also announced recently disturbing news. Results of his research into the “series” of veterans’ deaths acknowledged by the Surgeon General of the Army cast questions on the present use of medications for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Baughman reports these drugs may account for veterans dying in their sleep.
Andrew White, Eric Layne, Nicholas Endicott and Derek Johnson, four West Virginia veterans, died in their sleep in early 2008 and their deaths were reported as suicide. Baughman’s research suggests this was not the case. All were taking Seroquel (an antipsychotic) Paxil (an antidepressant) and Klonopin (a benzodiazepine). All were diagnosed with PTSD. All seemed “normal” when they went to bed. Over medication, and medication, which may not be called for, could be killing vets even after they return from war.
If what is being used does not work, is there an alternative. One woman, Dr. Gay Larned, believes there is. Instead of what she calls ‘talk medicine’ and ‘chemical medicine’ because of the heavy use of prescription drugs, she suggests the use of a 21st century technology called ‘energy medicine.’ In use around the world, these therapies alleviate symptoms, are not intrusive, work rapidly, and are inexpensive. This, says Dr. Larned, should be the therapy of choice for active duty troops and veterans.
Dr. Larned is a neuropsychologist with over twenty years of experience working with serious head injuries in children and adults. Her career path was, in part, dictated by a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) when she was seven years old. The massive injury destroyed one–third of her brain leaving her unable to hear, walk or talk. Recovery was slow and agonizing and continued after she received her Ph. D. in psychology. Since then, she has made it her life mission to find successful treatments for head injuries and assisting others with serious neurological disorders.
Aware of the plight of returning troops and veterans with severe head injuries and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Dr. Larned refocused her work to design a program, called the Reclaim Program for the Treatment and Prevention of Head Injuries. She is proposing its adoption by trauma and rehabilitation centers and the VA.
By testing all technologies and advances in the fields of neurofeedback and energy medicine, Dr. Larned has been able to combine the most advanced and powerful systems in the world for head injuries – and she is determined to see that American veterans have the benefits of these technologies which are now in use in countries around the world.
“Veterans deserve the very best America can offer them – and neurofeedback provides a technology which rapidly extinguishes, or eliminates altogether, the symptoms of brain injuries. The same relief can also be provided for those suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,” said Dr. Larned during a recent interview.
“Many,’ Larned said, “view PTSD as just a mental health problem, but at its source it’s a neurological issue, and the anxiety and other symptoms accompanying PTSD can be relieved or removed altogether, sometimes in just a few sessions.” Asked about the cost, Larned said, “The cost of the technology in the Reclaim Program is far lower than anything else in the world today used for the treatment of head injuries and PTSD. And this technology could be made available to all returning military, and veterans, for just a few hundred dollars a person – once the installation of equipment and training of technicians is complete. The Reclaim Program can make this available to those suffering from TBI and PTSD in just months,” Larned said.
Mental health care accounted for almost 40 per cent of all days spent in hospitals by servicemen and women (one in seven troops are women) last year, the report said. Of those hospitalizations, 5 per cent lasted longer than 33 days. For most other conditions, fewer than 5 per cent of hospitalizations exceeded 12 days, the report said.
Larned went on to the horrific number of returning troops and veterans who become statistics. At home, and on active duty, tragically – a record 6,000 last year – commit suicide, a number which shocks all of us. National figures show, “veterans constitute about 20 per cent of the 30,000 to 32,000 US deaths each year from suicide” and “of an average of 18 veterans who commit suicide each day, about five received care through the VA healthcare system. More than 60 percent of those five had diagnosed mental health conditions.” The DoD/VA has announced an outreach program and is now promoting a toll–free suicide hotline.
Along with suicide as a serious problem, returning active duty military are experiencing increasing levels of mental health problems, alcoholism and substance abuse. In an interview last week, Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Carlton Kent said “alcohol abuse is an indication of the stress, particularly since active military are being redeployed at increasing rates. Alcohol can tie into a lot of things, and we’re just keeping a close eye on it,” Kent said.
The rate of Marines, for instance, who screen positive for drug or alcohol problems, increased 12 percent from 2005 to 2008, according to available Marine Corps statistics.
“The symptoms of head injuries, PTSD, mental health problems and substance abuse can be treated very successfully with neurofeedback,” Larned continued. “We cannot fail the troops and veterans who have put their lives on the line to serve us and our country. It would be unthinkable, especially since, by so doing, we can save the Department of Veterans Affairs billions of dollars.”
According to Dr. Larned, the military has long been using neurofeedback – but not for those suffering with TBI or PTSD.
After completing studies at UCLA in 1968, neurofeedback received FDA clearance. In 1973 the United States Military Academy at West Point initiated a program called the Alpha Training Center, which used neurofeedback for peak performance training for their athletes. Results from the Alpha Training Center were so dramatic, not only in athletic improvement but in overall academic and leadership performance, the center was opened to the entire corps of cadets and the academy’s teaching staff and their families. The name was later changed to the Center for Enhanced Performance.
In September 2005, Dr. Louis Csoka, a retired Colonel and former head of the Center for Enhanced Performance at the Military Academy, announced that the Pentagon had approved and funded expansion of these same centers to three Army bases for 2006. This expansion, using Neurofeedback Peak Performance, was to be used to optimize performance for officers prior to deployment to the Persian Gulf. The program was expanded to ten more bases in 2007.(1)
Dr. Larned has kept up with the tremendous growth in this technology, and the Reclaim Program for the Treatment and Prevention of Head Injuries will use only the most advanced systems. Personnel from VA facilities and bases in the US will receive training specific for the treatment of TBI and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for returning troops and active duty servicemen and women. Bases, medical facilities and personnel in Germany, Afghanistan and Iraq will also receive similar training beginning just months after the Reclaim Program is approved.
Asked by a listener how much could be saved by the VA, Larned replied, “The VA has estimated that the total cost of long term care and treatment for veterans, over a 30-year period, will be between one and two trillion dollars. The savings for the VA are incalculable, but certainly will be in the tens of billions. This dramatic cost savings is due largely to the decreased need for expensive convalescent facilities, and a means to reduce the drain on limited VA resources for ongoing treatment for hundreds of thousands of veterans from the Persian Gulf wars and earlier. Because of the Reclaim Program, veterans will be able to receive successful treatment over a short period of time and remain with their families where they belong.”
(1) Source: Dr. Jonathan D. Cowan, Ph.D., Neurotek and Dr. Gary Ames, Ph.D., AlertFocus.com
Shenanigans In D.C.
On March 20th, about 8,000 people attended a permitted and almost lethargically tame protest in Lafayette Park, which is next to the HUGE White House. Then there was a march around in circles that landed the protest right back in front of the White House. Four people decided to lie down on the sidewalk in protest (four out of 8,000), and four of us decided to cross the police line (a metal barrier on the sidewalk between the street and the high iron-barred, sniper guarded fence that surrounds the HUGE White House), to try and join the measly four that were lying there begging people to join them.
I was one of the ones arrested for crossing the police line. I did not push the barrier down, but when it fell, I crossed — I was immediately body slammed and arrested. That was at approximately 2:44 p.m. An amended police report misleadingly lied and said that I was given three warnings to leave — I was not and subsequent evidence shows that the warnings to disperse over the bullhorn didn’t even begin until after I had been arrested. Once anyone in authority is caught in a lie-from president to the police-everything that is claimed from thereafter is immediately open for suspicion.
So, after our arrests for infractions, we were processed at the Park Police Station in Anacostia, and six of us were transferred to lock-up where we spent the next approximately 45 hours (we already spent about eight hours at Anacostia). Why were six of us held and two released? The police said because the two that were released “lived in D.C.” and us out-of-towners couldn’t leave until we saw a judge.
WE WERE ARRESTED FOR INFRACTIONS! Why isn’t the D.C. lockup constantly filled to bursting with out-of-towners who commit infractions: jaywalking, running a stop sign, speeding, littering, etc? Because as one officer “kindly” pointed out to me a few years back when I was protesting in front of the Lincoln Memorial one night: I am not “normal” because I am a “protester.” It’s a sad commentary that “protesters” are not considered “normal” in a society that was built on the foundation of a Bill of Rights.
We “Peace Criminals” were to be back in D.C. tomorrow, June 10th (two from Pennsylvania; one from D.C.; three from NY State, and me from California), at great inconvenience, and sometimes at great expense, for our trial. When we were arraigned on Monday, March 22nd, the prosecution gave all of my co-defendants the opportunity to “pay and forfeit” with “time served.” Except me-I was forced to return to DC for trial, even though one of the other detainees, Elaine Brower, has far more arrests in D.C. than I do. All of the other defendants rejected that offer in order to stand up for our rights and for what IS right.
ll together with the judge, defendants, prosecutor, and defense lawyer, we picked the date of June 10th. We didn’t just pull that rabbit out of a hat–EVERYONE agreed on that date. We arranged a legal team; and I raised money for my travel expenses and legal fees for the Peace of the Action defendants (three of us). As of Monday of this week, our lawyer had been in touch with the judge and everything was hunky-dory and the trial was on.
I had an early flight out of Sacramento this morning and on my way to the airport at 6 a.m., I got a message from one of our lawyers that the trial was going to be continued because a judge couldn’t be found due to some “judge’s conference.” So, from Monday to Wednesday, a Judge Convention (golf games?) arose which necessitated the postponement of our trial? I would like to believe that’s true, but with all of the other harassment and outright lies put together, I logically doubt the integrity of the court system. Not to mention, the officer at the Park Police station who practically admitted that I was being singled out for harassment when he said, “If you would stop protesting this stuff would stop happening to you.”
Not only all of the above, but I am calling for more protests in D.C. from July 4th to July 17th and I have a “stay away order” from the perimeter of the White House which includes the sidewalk in Lafayette Park that borders Pennsylvania Avenue. The order is in place until our tria —-whenever that is going to be. This stay away order will seriously hamper and limit my right to free speech.
I call “Shenanigans” on the entire episode — the system knows that we are correct about the wars and they know that our civil rights have been violated. The system should be on trial-not we anti-war activists.
A nation built on lies seldom, if ever, wants to hear the truth.
UPDATE: THE “LEGAL” SYSTEM IN DC IS SAYING THAT WE PROBABLY CAN’T RESCHEDULE THE TRIAL (FOR AN INFRACTION) UNTIL AUGUST, SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER. THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE FINANCIALLY AND CONSTITUTIONALLY. SINCE I HAVE ALREADY LOST HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS ON AIR-FARE AND DAYS OUT OF MY LIFE THAT I WILL NEVER GET BACK, ETC FOR THIS TRIAL, I AM DEMANDING MY SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO A SPEEDY TRIAL TO BE HELD WHEN I AM IN D.C. FOR SIZZLIN’ SUMMER PROTESTS IN JULY.
THEY WANT TO BREAK ME, BUT I WASN’T BROKEN WHEN THEY KILLED MY SON — WHAT DO THEY THINK THEY CAN DO TO ME NOW?