The Flywheel

Jump to program summary

Meeting of August 10th

The history and future of healthcare in America

Tom Loker, a former healthcare industry executive and Bay Area resident, has written a book about America’s healthcare system, The History and Evolution of Healthcare in America.

Tom will share an unvarnished view of where healthcare reform is now and where he believes it’s headed. What are the myths and what are the realities? What does he think will be the impact of the recent Supreme Court ruling that 1. ) upholds the universal mandate, but 2.) but does not permit the federal government to withhold all Medicaid funds to states whose legislatures decide to not enact provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

 

Meeting of Friday, August 3rd

Welcome, Invocation, Thought for the Day

President Jim Young opened the meeting with a ripping repartee of  “R” words. “Welcome Rapidly Rising, Relatively Rambunctious, Rarely Reticent Richmond Rotary Club” Right-on Pres.
Jan Brown led the Pledge of Allegiance. The invocation was presented by Stoney. Henry Kelman offered his thought for the day (more often than not, lately, a stock market report): “The Dow is up 200 points! Thanks to new employment figures.”

Visiting Rotarians

We were pleased to welcome District Governor Laura Day, and Zion Young, our President’s son and todays speaker

Rotarians with Guests

Sid Chauvin introduced his wife, Zelpha. (Two weeks in a row. is she keeping watch?)
Charlie Fender introduced his wife, Clavel.
Jan Brown introduced her guest, Susan Brand, a fellow graphic artist.
Jim Young introduced his guests, Zura Young Johnson, her two young children, Arowen & Rhys Johnson (potental Rotarians with Welsh names), and his wife, Linda.

Sunshine Report

Michelle Itagaki is on the mend. She would like a phone call or two.

Announcements

  • Mark your calendar for the meeting of October 12 which will be the first Club Assembly of the Peace Through Service year. Club business, programs, budgets and projects will be the topic of the day.
  • New club directory—it's here! Sid printed them himself as a service to the club. Thank you, Sid.
  • PDG Brian Theissen has announced that the District will participate in the National Immunization Day in Pakistan Oct. 17-26. The eradication of Polio is at stake.
  • Herb Cole reminded everyone there was another National Immunization Day opportunity in Nigeria
  • The Africa mission is from October 9-17. Herb said he had given Stoney a flyer. For more information, please see Herb.
  • Jim Young has more Peace Through Service pins if you do not have one and would like one.

Recognitions

It was Josh Genser birthday. He was told the club would “sign” and not sing The Birthday Song. After much debate—yes you did, no you didn’t—the club did neither. Josh is off to his cabin for a few days fly-fishing. Today is Michelle Itagaki’s anniversary.
Mike Winter was called for some recognition that wasn’t stated. He said he wanted to wait till next week. Oh! the suspense of it all!
Special Recognitions Watch out! Jim young presented Sid Chavin with a Sergeant-at-Arms sash. It’s now official! Sid has a badge.

Happy and Sad Dollars

  • Erle Brown said he got roped into yet another Paul Harris. So he gave a Happy Dollar check to celebrate his wifes birthday on August 4th.
  • Herb Cole gave Happy Dollars and somehow managed to concoct a way to prove there has been a USC graduate winning gold at The Olympics since1906. The mind boggles.
  • Stoney had Happy Dollars For Gabby Douglas winning gold in the Olympics
  • Laura Day had Happy Dollars as she enjoyed meeting Jim Young family.
  • Jim Young then handed the meeting over to Laura Day who recognized a new Paul Harris fellow
  • Zoin Young. She then gave a brief history of Rotary. Then reminded everyone of the up coming
  • “Funny thing happened on the way to the Rotary conference” at The Meritage on November 2-4th.  Then much to Jim’s surprise, she took Jim to front stage (he was volunteered by the group)
  • And  as Animal House music played, she showed us all how to tie a toga. As Jim modeled the outfit (which he completed with a garland of blue Thia silk) Herb informed him he should not be wearing a suit underneath.

Norm's Nonsense

Jake was on his deathbed. His wife, Becky, was at his side. With tears streaming down his face, he said, "Becky, I must confess ..."
Becky interrupted, "Hush. Don't try to talk."
But Jake insisted, "No, I want to die with a clean conscience. I must confess. I've been unfaithful to you."
Becky replied, "Yes, I know. Why else would I have poisoned you?"

PROGRAM

The LADEE Project at NASA-Ames

Zion Young previously best known for launching the West County Times on to local doorsteps. Herb Cole remembers him well. He went from paperboy to NASA Engineer, which is another small step for mankind. He described the Lunar Atmospheric and Dust Environment Explorer, mission to the Moon. The understanding of the lunar atmosphere and dust environment as one of eight major priorities for future lunar science missions. LADEE was developed to address this goal. LADEE is a low-cost lunar orbiter managed by the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) in cooperation with the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), and is designed to be compatible with light lift capability launch vehicles.

Science Goals
(1) Determine the composition of the lunar atmosphere and investigate the processes that control
its distribution and variability, including sources, sinks, and surface interactions.
(2) Characterize the lunar exospheric dust environment and measure any spatial and
temporal variability and impacts on the lunar atmosphere. To accomplish these objectives,

The LADEE instrument payload includes an Ultraviolet Spectrometer, a Neutral Mass Spectrometer and the Lunar Dust Experiment. A fourth instrument, the Lunar Laser Communication demonstration will test a highspeed telemetry system from the Moon to the Earth. This system will able the command center to reprograme the spacecraft daily/when needed with transmit data at rates varying between 50-600 megabits/second.

The Lunar Exosphere
The lunar “atmosphere” is an exosphere, a tenuous, collisionless gas of neutral atoms. Much of the exosphere is ultimately derived from the lunar regolith, although the solar wind and dust are also sources. A host of processes act to generate the exosphere from the lunar surface, including impact vaporization, photon-stimulated desorption by solar UV, sputtering by solar wind and magnetospheric plasmas, chemical and thermal release, and internal activity. So now you know.

Spacecraft and Mission
The LADEE 5 foot tall spacecraft design is based on a modular bus,think building blocks, concept developed at NASA ARC,utilizing stackable segments that can accommodate a variety of mission requirements. The nominal science orbit altitude is 100-150 km. The nominal mission duration is 100 days after a 30 day science checkout phase. The launch date is set for August 2013. The cost 274 million dollars. After orbiting the earth sevral times, the spacecraft will head for the moon, collect it’s data then it will crash onto the moons’ surface which will ironically create a hell of a lot of dust.

-Alan Blavins, Apprentice Scribe