KAW Council

10/12/2024

Real men vote for a woman for president.

02/05/2024

William Shatner in space. In this exclusive excerpt from William Shatner‘s new book, “Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder,” the “Star Trek” actor reflects on his voyage into space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space shuttle on Oct. 13, 2021. Then 90 years old, Shatner became the oldest living person to travel into space, but as the actor and author details below, he was surprised by his own reaction to the experience.
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So, I went to space.
Our group, consisting of me, tech mogul Glen de Vries, Blue Origin Vice President and former NASA International Space Station flight controller Audrey Powers, and former NASA engineer Dr. Chris Boshuizen, had done various simulations and training courses to prepare, but you can only prepare so much for a trip out of Earth’s atmosphere! As if sensing that feeling in our group, the ground crew kept reassuring us along the way. “Everything’s going to be fine. Don’t worry about anything. It’s all okay.” Sure, easy for them to say, I thought. They get to stay here on the ground.

During our preparation, we had gone up eleven flights of the gantry to see what it would be like when the rocket was there. We were then escorted to a thick cement room with oxygen tanks. “What’s this room for?” I asked casually.
“Oh, you guys will rush in here if the rocket explodes,” a Blue Origin fellow responded just as casually.
Uh-huh. A safe room. Eleven stories up. In case the rocket explodes.
Well, at least they’ve thought of it.
When the day finally arrived, I couldn’t get the Hindenburg out of my head. Not enough to cancel, of course—I hold myself to be a professional, and I was booked. The show had to go on.
We got ourselves situated inside the pod. You have to strap yourself in in a specific order. In the simulator, I didn’t nail it every time, so as I sat there, waiting to take off, the importance of navigating weightlessness to get back and strap into the seat correctly was at the forefront of my mind.
That, and the Hindenburg crash.
Then there was a delay.
“Sorry, folks, there’s a slight anomaly in the engine. It’ll just be a few moments.”
An anomaly in the engine?! That sounds kinda serious, doesn’t it?
An anomaly is something that does not belong. What is currently in the engine that doesn’t belong there?!
More importantly, why would they tell us that? There is a time for unvarnished honesty. I get that. This wasn’t it.
Apparently, the anomaly wasn’t too concerning, because thirty seconds later, we were cleared for launch and the countdown began. With all the attending noise, fire, and fury, we lifted off. I could see Earth disappearing. As we ascended, I was at once aware of pressure. Gravitational forces pulling at me. The g’s. There was an instrument that told us how many g’s we were experiencing. At two g’s, I tried to raise my arm, and could barely do so. At three g’s, I felt my face being pushed down into my seat. I don’t know how much more of this I can take, I thought. Will I pass out? Will my face melt into a pile of mush? How many g’s can my ninety-year-old body handle?
And then, suddenly, relief. No g’s. Zero. Weightlessness. We were floating.
We got out of our harnesses and began to float around. The other folks went straight into somersaults and enjoying all the effects of weightlessness. I wanted no part in that. I wanted, needed to get to the window as quickly as possible to see what was out there.
I looked down and I could see the hole that our spaceship had punched in the thin, blue-tinged layer of oxygen around Earth. It was as if there was a wake trailing behind where we had just been, and just as soon as I’d noticed it, it disappeared.
I continued my self-guided tour and turned my head to face the other direction, to stare into space. I love the mystery of the universe. I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years… but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold . . . all I saw was death.
I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.
Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong.
I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things—that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film “Contact,” when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, “They should’ve sent a poet.” I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.
It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.
I learned later that I was not alone in this feeling. It is called the “Overview Effect” and is not uncommon among astronauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Michael Collins, Sally Ride, and many others. Essentially, when someone travels to space and views Earth from orbit, a sense of the planet’s fragility takes hold in an ineffable, instinctive manner. Author Frank White first coined the term in 1987: “There are no borders or boundaries on our planet except those that we create in our minds or through human behaviors. All the ideas and concepts that divide us when we are on the surface begin to fade from orbit and the moon. The result is a shift in worldview, and in identity.”
It can change the way we look at the planet but also other things like countries, ethnicities, religions; it can prompt an instant reevaluation of our shared harmony and a shift in focus to all the wonderful things we have in common instead of what makes us different. It reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement, and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart. In this insignificance we share, we have one gift that other species perhaps do not: we are aware—not only of our insignificance, but the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant. That allows us perhaps a chance to rededicate ourselves to our planet, to each other, to life and love all around us. If we seize that chance.
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“Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder,” co-authored by Josh Brandon, was published by Atria Books on Oct. 4, 2022.

12/02/2023

11/28/2023

11/28/2023

AN UNDERGROUND GREENHOUSE FOR YEAR ROUND GROWING

If eating Fresh Vegetables and Fruits Year Round is important to You and Your Family, you might consider building an Underground Greenhouse. It will keep the temperatures warmer in the Winter and help prevent overheating in the Summer; making it possible to grow your garden vegetables year round.

For the vast majority of the country, 4 feet below the surface will stay between 50° to 60°F even if the weather above the ground gets to 10°F or colder. This is what they call the thermal constant, and what the Underground Greenhouse is based on.

The original design for an Underground Greenhouse was invented in Bolivia, and was called a Walipini, an Aymara Indian word which means “a warm place.” A Walipini is a rectangular shaped Greenhouse that is dug down 6-8 feet deep in the ground. The longest area of the rectangle will face towards the south (in the Northern Hemisphere) to take advantage of the most sunlight.

The design of the Underground Greenhouse isn’t that complicated, as it can be as simple as a hole with plastic sheets laid on top. The roof seals in the heat and insulates the area to keep a warm, moist environment for your fruits and vegetables.

The location of your Walipini will depend on how big you want it to be. You’ll need enough space to grow your plants and have a small area to walk into your greenhouse. The bottom of the Greenhouse will need to be at least 5 feet above the water table in your area. The recommended size for an Underground Greenhouse is 8 x 12 feet.

When planning where your Greenhouse will be located, remember that your roof will need to receive light during the winter, also. This means that you will have to make sure that trees or buildings don't block it during the winter time when the sun is in the South. In most cases, your Underground Greenhouse should be set up East to West, with the roof facing South to take advantage of the Winter Sun.

Once it's decided where your Underground Greenhouse will be located, you can start digging. Plot out the area above ground to keep track of where you should be digging. While you’re excavating, dig at least 2 feet deeper than your desired depth. Keep your soil close by to help prop up the roof.

The walls of your Underground Greenhouse should have a minimum 6-inch slope from the roof to the floor. This will greatly reduce the amount of crumbling and caving that will occur with the soil. You can also layer the walls with a clay to prevent erosion, or use bricks to stabilize the walls of the building.

While you’re digging the hole, dig an extra 2 feet below the desired depth. You’ll fill this area with stone or gravel and then 8 inches of soil. Ideally, you’d lay larger stones and gravel on the bottom layer and the gravel would become progressively smaller until you reach the soil.

The bottom of the greenhouse should be slightly sloped from the center to the edges. Along the perimeter, you should leave a space of 2-3 feet just filled with gravel. This is designed to help the water drain more easily. Many people have also created open gravel wells in the corners of the greenhouses that allows them to collect the water. This will allow you to draw a bucket into the hole and pull out water if you find you have too much.

Once the floor is filled in with the drainage system, and the soil required for growing, the doors can be installed. Place the door frame at the base of the ramp and fill in the areas around the door as much as possible with dirt and clay. Filling in these gaps will prevent heat loss in your greenhouse.

Many times, people will use 2-inch door frames that have holes drilled into the top middle and bottom of each side. They will then use wooden stakes, dowels or rebar to secure the door frame into the soil wall.

The angle of the roof will make a big difference on the sun’s ability to heat your greenhouse. Ideally, the roof should be facing directly at the winter solstice at a 90 angle. This angle will maximize the heat during the winter solstice and minimize the heat during the summer solstice.

Now, you can use that extra soil that you have left over to create a berm. The berm is basically an extension of the north wall of the greenhouse. This allows you to control the angle of the roof by adding or taking away dirt. Build up the berm to continue the slope that you used on the wall. If you’re using bricks – continue using them on the berm.

The most economical, durable material for your roof is 4-inch PVC pipe. Using PVC elbow pieces, joiners, etc, you can create a flat roof frame that will cover your Underground Greenhouse.

After you’ve created a PVC frame, lay it in place on the top of your hole. Then lay plastic sheeting across the top of the frame and make sure that it extends past the edge of the frame by at least 1 foot. This flap will prevent run off water from the roof from running back into the greenhouse itself.

Once the plastic material is put on top of the roof frame, move inside and tack another layer of plastic wrap along the inside of the roof frame. This internal plastic sheeting will create a 4-inch barrier between the inside and outside of the roof, and will act as an insulator that will keep the heat in more effectively.

You’ll want to make sure that you leave a few inches of plastic hanging down on the lower (south) end of your roof. This will force moisture that collects on the roof to drip off above the drainage system or on top of your plants instead of at the base of the roof. If you allow the moisture to run to the base of the roof frame, it may affect the soil at that location and break down your wall, etc.

Ventilation is always crucial. You have 3 options, such as: Installing two doors, one at each end; installing a vent roughly the size of the door at the top of the back wall; or installing a chimney at the center of the back wall. Good Luck on your Greenhouse.

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11/28/2023

11/08/2023

From Courtney Masterson's page. Native Lands Restorative Collaborative
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News break! 🚨: We are honored to announce we have received financial support from the Elizabeth Schultz Environmental Fund through the Douglas County Community Foundation for a new project!
The project will restore remnant prairie and install an outdoor classroom and event space at Prairie Park Nature Center 🌿. Students and faculty from the KU School of Architecture & Design will be designing and building an outdoor classroom and event space for community use just south of the nature center (so exciting)! Native Lands Restoration Collaborative will restore the remnant prairie adjacent to the classroom and assist with planning and installation of an educational trail through the prairie. The prairie will also be home to environmental artwork from community artists (stay tuned for details!).These new learning spaces will be great additions to the resources at Prairie Park Nature Center!
We're so excited to be part of this work and can't wait to see the community out on the land learning. The project, Human | Nature: Prairie Restoration, Outdoor Classroom, and Eco-Art Walk at Prairie Park Nature Center constitutes part of Suzan Hampton's practice-led research and PhD dissertation at KU's School of Architecture & Design.
Project partners include: Native Lands Restoration Collaborative, KU School of Architecture & Design, Prairie Park Nature Center, Lawrence Kansas Parks and Recreation, and USDA Extension Program - Haskell Indian Nations University
Photos show the current state of the site, overgrown with invasive plant species and woody species that colonize prairies in the absence of fire. The outdoor classroom will be designed with prescribed burning in mind 🔥 - awesome! There's a LOT of work to do to create this valuable space. We look forward to stewarding the land with all of you and our partners!
Thank you, Douglas County Community Foundation, for recognizing the value of this project and sharing your support! We're stronger together ~

10/30/2023

https://wholeearth.info/?fbclid=IwAR05P6VND4Sq7fRUqNRNDFuZoeV7lpZQN6tBRPvcX_E0gu1AIiOGCMj6zFY

Here lies a nearly-complete archive of Whole Earth publications, a series of journals and magazines descended from the Whole Earth Catalog, published by Stewart Brand and the POINT Foundation between 1970 and 2002.