Happy 50th Apollo 11

It was 50 years ago today that the Nation was glued to their television sets to see the world's first Moon landing. At 4:17 EST (eastern standard time) we heard the words that the Eagle had landed on the moon.

"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed," Neil Armstrong radioed Mission Control at 4:18 p.m

A short while we saw Neil Armstrong step out of the lunar lander and start the descent to the surface of the Moon. We watched him back down the ladder until he reached the bottom rung and jumped down to become the first man to step on the surface of our Moon.

"That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong said.

Shortly after commander Armstrong stepped on to the lunar surface we see Buzz Aldrin step out of the capsule. He starts his slow descent to become the second man to set foot on the Moon. Once Aldrin is down, the two men begin their mission of collecting rocks and conducting various experiments. The two men spent two and a half hours on the lunar surface before blasting blasting off in the lunar module. Moments later they coupled with the command capsule being piloted by Michael Collins.

After completing their mission the three heroic Astronauts headed back to Earth. After a few days in space the capsule splashed into the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.

The mission actually started on July 16^th as all eyes were focused on the Kennedy Space Center in Florida a three men (Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins) took the long walk to the space capsule at the top of a Saturn V rocket. Once they entered the capsule and hatch was secured we kept watching and praying as we listened t o the counted down. Once the engine roared to life we cheered and the cheering grew as we watched Apollo 11 lift-off the platform.

“Thirty seconds and counting. Astronauts report it feels good. T-25 seconds. Twenty seconds and counting. T-15 seconds, guidance is internal. 12, 11, 10, 9 ... ignition sequence start ... 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0 ... All engines running. Liftoff! We have a liftoff ... 32 minutes past the hour, liftoff on Apollo 11. Tower clear.” was the commentary we heard from our news stations.

It was a thrilling sight that we have witnessed many times before with 9 previous successful, Apollo 1 ended in disaster, launches. This one was special though since it would end with the first man stepping out on the surface of the moon. We watch as the rocket soared into the heavens and maneuvered into the proper course as it headed for its final destination.

“Neil Armstrong reporting the roll and pitch program which puts Apollo 11 on a proper heading. “ We heard the reporter say.

The days following that thrilling site we eagerly awaited to hear news of our three astronauts. We couldn't get enough of seeing video straight from the flight deck seeing Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins as they went through their daily rituals in space. Then 4 days later, as we watched the moon landing, we all let out the breath we have all been holding since watching the launch on July 16, 1969.

"There were so many things that could fail and result in our astronauts being stranded on the moon or killed," retired NASA engineer Brooks Moore of Huntsville remembered this week.

So, today we say happy anniversary to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) for giving us that thrilling site 50 years ago.

Review: Butterfly Islands

What do you get if you mix the Robin Hood, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Princess Bride, and the Goonies? You get the thrilling fictional adventure of Butterfly Islands by Chris Seabranch. Once you start reading you will be hooked as you follow young Casey Archer on this thrilling adventure that takes her from a life of misery to the swashbuckling life of piracy. Along her journey Casey finds herself all kinds of situations that change and mold her into the strong, powerful young woman by the end of this first book in the series.

The author really brings the characters in book to life with excellent descriptions of the way they look and their mannerisms. One such description is the 6 foot tall, masculine stature, broad-shouldered Wall Brown. He also makes great use of cliff-hangers like when he ends one chapter with Casey being attacked by deadly parasites. The next chapter cuts to the pirates and keeps us glued to the book to find out Casey's fate.

Some of the situations in the book might be a little to graphic for the pre-teen and younger crowd. I think that older teens, young adults, and the more mature crowd that are looking for a good adventure will love this book. I give it a 5 out of 5 stars.

Small garden ideas

Not too many years ago many individuals across the country had their own home gardens. In the years since then open land has become less easy to come by. Now, most people rent or can only afford to buy a house in an area with small or no yard. This has them thinking that having their own garden is out of the question. That is not the case though. The following are just a few ideas on creating a garden where there is a limited area:

1. Make your garden vertical. If you have a small yard with a fence then why not use the fence for the garden? You can have brackets attached to it to hold flowerpots, have boxes built on it to grow your flowers or vegetables, or grow climbing plants. If you don't have a fence then could try making a step pyramid of wooden squares.
2. Make indoor terrariums. To accomplish this you can use just about anything already laying around the house. A jelly jar could be used for growing herbs, a cleaned out whipped topping tub make a good planter, or even a plastic milk jug with the top cut off. You want to make sure that any of these items is washed clean. In the case of a plastic milk jug you could cut off the top and poke a few drain-holes in the bottom and you have a planter deep enough for vegetables. Just make sure you place it on something to catch the water that drains out.
3. Add planter boxes to existing areas. Most of us have seen an old movie or television show where there are planter boxes attached to the outside of a window ledge. These can be great for a garden area. Just make sure the boxes are well secured. Other places to add boxes would be patio furniture like benches, chairs, or even picnic tables.

Review: The Biblical clock

The Biblical Clock: The untold secrets linking the Universe and Humanity with God's plan by Daniel Friedman and Dania Sheldon is a thought provoking non-fiction book. In the pages we read about how through study scripture and other religious writings Biblical scholars have been able to show a correlation between the timelines set down by science and what is written in the pages of Genesis. This is the forth book in Daniel Friedman's inspired studies series.

The book starts off with a gripping story of the fall of the city of Acre during the crusades in 1291. It is through this story that we meet Isaac Ben Samuel, who miraculously survives the siege, who comes up with a formula for showing how the Earth is millions of years old long before scientist came to that conclusion. From that start you are drawn into as we travel through time meeting rabbis and other scholars as they share their wisdom and insights on how the Age of the Universe, the timeline the science gives us for the evolution of life, and the big bang.

The many interactions in this book are so real and convincing that can actually picture yourself in the pages. One such interaction was when a Rabbi was teaching Torah studies and one of the students brought up the question of what does the phase “it was good” mean. It is a simple question that probably many of us wondered about when reading the creation story in Genesis. Another example and one my favorite interactions was when the question arose of why we use different names for God throughout the Bible. The Rabbi's answer was rather intriguing when he said we do this for each enumeration of God.

I found the book the book hard to put down as I found each page took me on a journey of discovery secrets that would show how religion and science are not as different as most of us think. Some of the ideas I particularly found interesting was the idea of God days during the creation and how that each day of creation represents one of the millennium following since the creation.

I would recommend this for any that has ever wondered if science and the Bible have a commonality. I

5 little known facts about Benjamin Franklin

Today, January 17, 2019, we celebrate the 313^th birthday of Benjamin Franklin. He was born in the city of Boston in the year 1706 and died in Philadelphia in 1790.

To most people when they hear the name Benjamin Franklin you think of him as a founding father of the United States of America, his kite experiment during a lightning storm, poor Richard's almanac, his securing funds for the Revolution, being Postmaster General. All of these are major accomplishments and show how diverse of a life he lead.

There is much though that many of us may not know about the man that play such a big roll in shaping our country. The following are a few of those lesser known facts:

1. He only had two years of formal education. As a young child Benjamin attended both Boston Latin School and a private academy. After just two years at these schools he was put to work for his parents in their candle and soap making shop.
2. At the age of 12 he went to work for his brother as an apprentice in his print shop. This was were Benjamin started what would be a successful printing and journalism career. Four years after starting there Benjamin started writing essays and commentary as a fictitious Widow named “Silence Dogood”.
3. He was an abolitionist in his later life. Much like many business and land owners at the time, Yes, Benjamin Franklin was a slave owner. A few years after the Revolution, he came to the conclusion that slaves should enjoy all of the freedoms that the rest of the country receives. In 1787 he became the president of the Pennsylvania abolitionist society and in 1790 he petitioned congress to grant liberty “to those unhappy men who alone in this land of freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage”. Upon his death he not only freed his slaves but put a clause in his will that his children must release their slaves to get their inheritance.
4. He is a member of the international swimming hall of fame. Early in his life, one of his first inventions were hand paddles that he would use to propel himself.
5. He was not in favor of the Revolution at first. Benjamin lived in London for many years and received several royal appointments. Because of all this he still wanted to remain on good terms with England. So, when the other founding fathers talked about Revolution, he talk about trying to compromise with the crown. He even called the Boston tea party “ an act of violent injustice on our part”. Of course this raised some suspicions and started rumors of him being a British spy.

The Human Brain

What is the Brain?

Depending on who you ask, you will get several different answers to this question. If you ask a neurologist you will most likely get an answer about how the brain is broken down into different areas and what we believe each area controls. If you ask a computer scientist you will probably get an answer about the neuronets. A philosopher would tell you about how the brain is a wondrous device that can solve any problem and make all your dreams come true. The true answer is that the brain is all of those and much more.

Theoretical Physicist Michio Kaku once gave one of the best quotes about what a brain is when he said, “The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron is connected to 10 thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the universe.”

How much of the brain do we use?

It was once said that humans use 10 percent, or less, of their brains. This answer assumes that we know what the brain is capable of doing. That is far from the truth though since we actually have no idea of the limits of what the human brain can accomplish.

Physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson once the talked about how much of the brain we use in the following quote, “Everything we do, every thought we ever had, is produced by the human brain. But exactly how it operates remains one of the biggest mysteries and it seems the more we probe its secrets the more surprises we find.”

Over the years there have been dozens of theories on just what can be accomplished if we unleash the full potential of the brain. Some of them have suggested that we would be able to manipulate matter, read thoughts, come up with new ways of traveling through space, or see through time and space. It is amazing to think about what our future might hold for us.