Near Earth Science
From: rriverstone
Date: Sun, Jun 3, 2001, 9:40am
To: saganfeynman ('The Sagan - Feynman List')
Subject: near earth science

I guess I'm still back at my childhood days of 2001, A Space Odyssey. The station was multi-national and did have corporate sponsorship.

I'm sorry we're only marginally there.

I was hoping for: research station, telescopics, floating hotel/bus terminal, hospital, loading dock, communications' antenna/relay, conference center...... looks more like a Tinker Toy on steroids, right now.

The potential for benefits is astounding, if we really committed ourselves, as a species, to space.

New technologies, produced in countries whose need for economic growth (without, say, environmental exploitation).

Fabrications and products whose uses could radiate out into the disabled community, medical professions. Food storage, air purification, water, fuel and energy production. Using minimal space for maximum output (saves on construction, maintainance, etc. of brick and mortar on earth). Waste disposal/recycling, communications, transit.

Basically, a fully-operational, global space program addresses just about all our current terrestrial crises and challenges us to find viable solutions.

And it would help alleviate political and social probs, too; we'd have to learn to work together, listen to each other, learn manners and diplomacy, teach us to be cooperative.

Sagan was a scary guy; all this was addressed in _Contact_, with the building of The Machine.

/me tips hat to Sagan and smiles.

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From: rriverstone
Date: Thu, May 24, 2001, 11:18am To: saganfeynman ('The Sagan - Feynman List')
Subject: Re: various

I work very hard on teaching practicle mathematics (measuring substances for cooking, for example) and the sciences. I think kids respond better when they actually see these subjects in action, rather than dry, on a chalk board, lined up in rows, in a factory like class room.

What I do isn't actually a miracle. It's actually pretty easy, once u get the hang of it.

The first, few days I lived in this hood, I decided to keep a low profile. But that's actually impossible.

Criminals notice everything about every one: assessing and sizing up. This morning, for instance, I was squinting down the street, trying to locate my run-away dog (he likes to pee on all the light poles for miles around my house).

A crack whore walked right up to me and said, "You look distressed." No, actually, I looked vision impaired. I didn't respond. I won't engage them. I don't talk to dumpsters, either.

How I look was not her concern. Replying invites the thugs into my life and my mind.

They aren't welcomed here.

Anyway, within days, I realized "keeping a low profile" would: shut me in, take a lot more effort than I could afford, be impossible anyway. Instead, I was frequently seen at four in the morning, in my pajamas, hopping around in the yard, waving a crow bar, running off crack dealers and hookers. and drunks.

Soon, other women, whose male partners also worked nights and needed us to drive them, were out in the yards with weird weapons (like garden hoses, steak knives, hockey sticls.....) and cordless phones. By summer, the streets no longer looked like Mc Donald's drive-thru. Wading pools appeared in front yards. Kids came out on bicycles and skateboards. The birds came back, cuz people started planting flowers and vegetables.

My garden here took very little time and effort. It will provide more than enough food for me and some neighbors. The craziest drunks here don't mess with it.

They think I'm crazy and are afraid to provoke me.

Hehehehehe.....

The kids are a lot of emotional energy, but they're hard workers and help me with physical stuff that's beyond me. They dig fence post holes and build fences; they help me repair things....etc.

I LIVE in this hood. I mean, I don't just survive it and tolerate it; I live. Well, fully and happily. And I'm a role model.

I always said, if I ever come into money, I'd buy that broken down old house I used to rent and run as a boarding house, on the next block. I'd not let it show that I have money. I'd sit on my porch in the evenings, like I always did, and just watch.

From time to time, a UPS truck would drive up to some neighbor's house and unload a computer. Or a lawyer would drive up with a scholarship trust fund.....all from "anonymous."

I'd say ninety per cent of my neighbors are good, hard-working, decent people. But they're scared. Many are "illegal," and can't afford to cause trouble.

In hoods like mine, the smart ones move away as fast as they can. So, the young ones coming up don't get role models. I'm staying.

xx