Reunion Blues

While it is indeed unfortunate that an in-person 50th reunion is not possible in 2020, by way of consolation, I offer a fully electronic version of the Radnor High School Class of 1970 Yearbook. This PDF was scanned and OCR applied, so it is fully searchable for text. Enjoy!

Link to PDF on GoogleDrive for the yearbook

P.S. If I recall correctly, this was the first time the publishing company had ever been asked to print a high school yearbook with a color picture on the cover.

P.P.S. Also, several have asked about the images posted on this site. They are all mine, but the latest and best are available at Greymont Images online store Enjoy!

Signs of Pandemic

Friday of last week I ventured out as sunrise was unfolding to look for photo opportunities in dense fog. The harbor area was too dark to be interesting because of the dense fog, so I walked into the center of town. There I noticed some of the signs on restaurant and business doorways that explained the business closures. After reading a few I was struck with the documentary evidence they presented of the emerging pandemic.

I was also struck by the wide range of messages that were being conveyed. Some were short and business-like. Others were long and detailed. Others were warm and comforting.

It occurred to me that if I could capture these images at this one point in time, at the end of a turbulent week when everyone’s world was tossed upside down, it would show how our city was responding to this tragic crisis. So I walked the downtown area snapping each sign that mentioned a closure due to the pandemic. As I drove home I also stopped at some additional locations. In the end, I obtained over 3 dozen images.

I worked on how to present them over the weekend. I ended up designing a photo essay in the form of a slide show.

When you watch it I hope you see the character of our city, a community that responded swiftly and thoroughly, with intelligence and caring.

While we plan for the increasingly difficult circumstances we face, today I am proud of Belfast, my hometown.

Photo Essay on YouTube

Trekkies Unite!

I just discovered this site which is a tribute to the original Star Trek series. Enthusiasts have created additional episodes that look and feel just like the originals. Same sets, same music, same lighting, same costumes. The screenplays are remarkably similar, as well. Just watching a couple of episodes takes you back to the good old days!

Unfortunately, same old simplistic plots and cheesy acting. Also, some of the actors do not match the originals all that well, but a remarkable achievement nonetheless!

https://www.startrekcontinues.com

What single thing is at the root of many of today's problems?

I’m surprised that so many are focused on various problems today but ignore the one issue that underlies so many other issues. That underlying problem is over population.

Reducing the population over time would help enormously with climate change and a host of other economic problems. Anything that stems from lack of resources would be eased with a lower population.

Where has the Zero Population Growth movement gone? It was big during the 70’s but is all but disappeared! (Sort of like the movement to adopt the metric system in the United States.) Check out some history of the movement here: https://www.populationconnection.org/us/30-years-of-zpg/

But I think a couple of related issues are important to recognize today. First, this is a problem that butts up against religious dogma that preaches “go forth and multiply”. The right to procreate is stated as a duty to God. Hard to counter that.

But how about that “right to procreate”. Should that really be a right for everyone to pursue indiscriminately? The right to procreate is so ingrained in people’s thinking that it is not even debated today. Too much of a hot button, for sure.

So education is the key. Do you really need that many children? Even if it contributes to world-wide problems?

The other related area I find alarming is the population growth rate in China, India, and some parts of Africa. I say we will see wars fought in my lifetime that are largely based on over population in some of those locations. Over population and scarce resources are historical causes for wars and now I expect we will see that continuing.

Wisdom for these times

I get emails from Ryan Holiday periodically. The one from 2019-08-26 contained some observations I found very valuable. He said:

A dangerous assumption we seem to have made as a culture these days is that being right is a license to be a condescending jerk, that it exempts you from the need to persuade or even to have human decency. Being right is not enough. We need people who can be kind, who are willing to put in the time to understand those who think differently and convince them. To respect them. We need a lot less humiliation and a lot more humility.

And that starts with you. Catch the sharp or clever works before they come out of your mouth and replace them with respect, with patience, and with kindness.

Project CORONA - A Tribute to my Father

Back in the late 1950’s, at the height of the Cold War, one of the first “black ops” was authorized by President Eisenhower to develop and launch a spy satellite to obtain direct evidence about whether the Soviet Union actually had the ICBM’s they claimed. The plan was to launch a satellite containing a camera, orbit over the Soviet Union, eject the film in a capsule, and recover the film for interpretation. Originally a joint CIA and DOD effort, a new agency was created, the National Reconnaissance Office, to both sponsor this effort and interpret the data. No one had launched anything into space and recovered it before, so this team had serious challenges. The effort was undertaken with urgency which also added to the challenges.

My father, Robert Chamberlin, was tapped early on to design and shepherd the recovery vehicle. He worked for General Electric, the recovery subcontractor. He was the Chief Systems Engineer for the SRV and instrumental in the success of this mission.

Project CORONA was one of the most highly classified projects at the time. My father told me once that even knowing the code name of the project was a breach of security if the person was not on the project. None of our family or friends knew exactly what he was working on. But for some reason he always knew when a satellite was going to pass over and took the family out to watch at night.

The project lasted into the 1970’s but was finally declassified in 1995. At that point all the living personnel were invited to a ceremony to honor the team for their effort. Among other things we watched a secret video that was recorded over the life of the project where several Secretaries of State, Directors of CIA, National Security Advisors, and Presidents who spoke directly to the camera and testified about the critical nature and value this project provided in keeping the world safe. Another much larger event was held at the National Air and Space museum with several thousand people in attendance from all agencies and companies involved. The museum has on display on the the actual recovery vehicle capsules.

The original recovery vehicle project manager, Ingard Clausen, spent many years after this contacting all the remaining project members he could find and asked them to tell the story of this project from each of their perspectives. He struggled to get this material pulled together in a book. I joined him in editing the material around 2005. We finally got the National Reconnaissance Office to accept the material and combined with other history they published the book. Chapter 15 is my father’s account.

Recently the NRO has made a PDF of the book available as a PDF file you can download from their web site. The URL is https://www.nro.gov/Portals/65/documents/history/csnr/corona/Intel_Revolution_Web.pdf

There is other fascinating material on the NRO site that is worth exploring. Just check https://www.nro.gov/

How should I go social?

With Cambridge Analytica's use/misuse of Facebook data being in the news, many people are considering an alternative to Facebook because they have lost faith in Facebook's ability to safeguard their data. So where are people moving to who want an alternative to Facebook?

The Vero service is one such alternative service and it has experienced a rapid growth in new membership. Vero does not include advertising in its business model and intends to charge a fee to its users - but has not done so yet. Vero had originally decided their first million users would be able to use the service for free for life but due to the recent wave of new users they have extended this offer indefinitely. I assume they want to benefit from the wave of disappointment in Facebook and are making it easy to transition.

So, should you switch to Vero? I say go for it and create a free Vero account while you can. If it ends up being the next Facebook you will have a free account for life. If it doesn't take off you can always cancel the account.

That's what I'm doing at least.

You need to use your smartphone to download the Vero app and follow the instructions for sign-ups. You end up giving your name, email address, and smartphone number. No muss, no fuss, just as it should be. So far so good.

Hey, Teach!

Hutchinson center

I'm putting my teacher hat on this Spring to help people understand technology better. Belfast Senior College has a very active community here in Belfast and I'm scheduled to teach "Understanding Technology Today" starting in March.

This is a course that fills in the gaps in people's educational background that make it hard to understand what's happening with technology. New tech has been developing so fast that many people are left feeling like idiots when faced with using new tech. This course will help explain what is going on in their devices and networks so they have a better conceptual grasp of it all.

Should be lots of fun!

Click Source link below to go to the Senior College site.