Earth

Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber's “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a For the Record specifying the details will be appended to the piece. L ast Friday I wrote about a new world fashioned by my 11th-grade students whose goal was to avoid the fate of planet Earth, which had been destroyed by thermo-nuclear war. The human experiment turned out to be a dismal failure, and it was incumbent on my students to work out a better way. Here are some of their suggestions, some of which did not pass, and some of which did, with laws requiring a two-thirds majority.

Students in Cathi Garcia's science class went around the world in 30 minutes — and learned a few things along the way. Kindergarten through eighth-grade students at Holy Redeemer School filed into the gymnasium during their science-class period Monday and got a crash course in geography using a huge, inflatable globe measuring 19 feet high and 22 feet in diameter. "It's just a really beautiful, big thing for the kids to see," said Garcia, who brought a similar prop into the gym four years ago. Earth's geographic features were printed on the globe using satellite images, creating a much more accurate representation of the planet than a textbook map, Garcia said.

I don't know what prompted Ray Shelton's Community Commentary on June 1 declaring environmentalism the biggest threat to mankind, but he fails to make his case. Much of his article is unsupported opinion without any reference as to source. He has to reach 15 years into the past for a quote to support his thesis, while I spent a few minutes on the Internet searching a few environmental organizations that came to mind. I found the following current information: Greenpeace mission statement excerpt: "Greenpeace organizes public campaigns for: The protection of oceans and ancient forests; The phase-out of fossil fuels and the promotion of renewable energy to stop climate change; The elimination of toxic chemicals; The prevention of genetically modified organisms being released into nature; An end to the nuclear threat and nuclear contamination; Safe and sustainable trade.

The ?Earth? experience, a compelling documentary from the Disney Nature Series, is one that shouldn?t be missed, even if you feel that you may have already seen enough of that from the old days of ?The Wonderful World of Color.? ?Earth? is a wonderful motion picture. The film crew assembled for this project counted almost 60 cameramen who followed their quarry via Jeeps and trucks, mini-submarines, and in at least one sequence in a two-man hot-air balloon that found itself tangled in the top of a tree during a particularly dicey film shoot.

Yahoo.com has offered opportunities for celebrities to ask questions to Yahoo users. Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has reportedly chimed in with a question ? "In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain itself?" Hawking has reportedly said that the ability for humans to continue living depends on our ability to colonize away from Earth as the planet is increasingly threatened by disaster. From a faith perspective, what do you think humans must do to sustain the human race?

The Glendale News-Press visited Fremont Elementary School and asked students: “What have you learned about the seasons since you’ve been tracking the sun with a compass?”   “I’ve learned that during fall, the sun’s rays are long and in winter the sun’s rays are long. Spring is kind of shorter. The sun is reflecting at a different angle.” Jennifer Mendez, 11 Glendale       “I learned that winter has longer shadows and summer has shorter ones because the sun has to go around the Earth.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge has launched a new website that has gone global, literally. The website http://climate.jpl.nasa. gov allows the viewer to explore the global climate change. ?This website has attracted more attention than any other website I have worked on,? said Michael Gunson, JPL chief scientist for Earth science technology. The website covers a multitude of areas concerning climate change from raising sea levels to carbon dioxide levels.

William O. Meichtry January 5, 1922 - August 19, 2012. The true miracle is not walking on water, it is not walking in air, but simply walking on this earth. Rest in peace, you walked this earth with vigor and influenced all who were fortunate to call you son, brother, husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, uncle and friend. Your achievements were many, among them a World War II Navy pilot, honored Stetson Hat salesman and avid golfer. Now we know you are golfing under par with your friends and family in Heaven!

William O. Meichtry January 5, 1922 - August 19, 2012. The true miracle is not walking on water, it is not walking in air, but simply walking on this earth. Rest in peace, you walked this earth with vigor and influenced all who were fortunate to call you son, brother, husband, father, father-in-law, grandfather, uncle and friend. Your achievements were many, among them a World War II Navy pilot, honored Stetson Hat salesman and avid golfer. Now we know you are golfing under par with your friends and family in Heaven!

The title of this sequel to the 2008 “Journey to the Center of the Earth” gets points as marginally clever. Since the center of the earth doesn't figure into the new film, the filmmakers have retained the word “journey” and branded it with the numeral “2” to drive home the connection; at the same time, it reads aloud as “Journey to the Mysterious Island.” The film itself can likewise be regarded as marginally clever. It employs the same conceit as its predecessor - that 21st century characters can rediscover the world within Jules Verne's novels, because the novels themselves were only disguised as fiction.

Lift off. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and I were pulling G's and climbing toward the stars. And that's the closest I ever got to space travel - sharing an elevator ride with this famous voyager to the moon. I was 15 when the Russians launched the first satellite in 1957; a spindly little aluminum ball that did nothing but whirl around the Earth and beep. At night we strained our eyes to catch a glimpse of this tiny moving dot in the sky. The first feeble efforts of the U.S. to launch a satellite were almost comical; one Redstone rocket after another crashed and burned on the launch pad. Rocket scientist Werner Von Braun became that contradiction in terms: a good Nazi.

NASA is scheduled to announce which of the names submitted by more than 11,000 students from across the nation will be picked for two lunar space probes that will map the moon like never before. The solar-powered GRAIL twins will give scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory an unprecedented amount of data on the moon, such as its gravitational field, which will allow them to better understand how Earth and other planets in the solar system came to be. More than 11,000 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, took part in a contest to name the twin orbiters, according to NASA.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists hit the desert this week to get eyeball to eyeball with a passing asteroid, using a massive satellite dish to ping microwaves off the huge space object and gain a sense of what it is made of and when it is coming around again. Scientists at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex 30 miles north of Barstow were just 200,000 miles or so from asteroid 2005 YU55. Lance Benner, the lead scientist on the project, said the close encounter “significantly refined [understanding of]

Glendale residents near the Golden State (5) Freeway at Western Avenue were dismayed this week to see dozens of 30-foot-tall trees ripped out to make room for carpool lanes. Jocelyn Perez, who lives 50 feet from the southbound ramp on Justin Avenue, said she and her neighbors had no idea the trees were scheduled for removal. "It is really bad on my side," Perez said. "My son has asthma. I barely take him outside. " California Department of Transportation officials said that the project has been in the works for years, and that it went through all the appropriate environmental review requirements.

On a recent hike in the trails of Deukmejian Wilderness Park, La Crescenta resident Mareta Kreher and her 8-year-old son Lucas noticed a variety of colorful flowers blooming along the hillsides. So when Kreher learned that restoration ecologist Melanie Keeley would be leading an educational wildflower walk on Saturday morning, her interest was piqued. “Not being native to California,” Kreher, who was born in Germany, said, while waiting for the hike to begin, “I'm kind of curious to learn all the names.” The wildflower walk was one of a variety of activities hosted throughout the day at the wilderness park for the city's Earth Day events, sponsored by the Glendale Community Services & Parks department.

November 1, 1938 - December 16, 2010 To our loving wife, mother, and grandmother, We thank you for the life you shared with us and rejoice in knowing you are home with God and Grammie. She is survived by her loving husband Sam, children Carrie Jacoby, Shawn (Dana) Jacoby, Tammy (Mike) Hunter, Jamie (Hildi) Jacoby, Coralie (David) Semerad and Sam (Wendy) Jacoby, grandchildren Tiffany, Sarah, Ashley, Brandon, Brittany, Nicole, Courtney, Lindsay, Lauren and Jordan, and great grandchildren Emily, Autumn and Matthew.

With the release of former Vice President Al Gore's 2006 Academy Award-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," environmental activism reached a tipping point in the country, as millions of Americans were exposed to the negative effects green house gas emissions had on the planet. But for Glendale resident Gary Gero, a longtime environmentalist and current president of the Downtown Los Angeles-based Climate Action Reserve, the Gore documentary served as more of a validation to his life's work.

Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber's “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a For the Record specifying the details will be appended to the piece. L ast Friday I wrote about a new world fashioned by my 11th-grade students whose goal was to avoid the fate of planet Earth, which had been destroyed by thermo-nuclear war. The human experiment turned out to be a dismal failure, and it was incumbent on my students to work out a better way. Here are some of their suggestions, some of which did not pass, and some of which did, with laws requiring a two-thirds majority.