Addicted to String, Yarn and Crafts

Jacksonville News – William A Meehan JSU s Visitor s Center feels like home

You have probably driven by it numerous times, or if you are from around here, caught yourself staring at it and wondering what ever happened to the bank that used to be there. If you were to stop, you would find a group of smiling faces waiting to greet you and assist you in whatever way they can.

From giving lost drivers directions to leading tours for future students, the Jacksonville State University Visitor’s Center plays a larger role in the community than the tiny building shows.

Tracy Phillips, a senor admissions counselor, oversees the JSU Visitor’s Center, constantly booking tours and giving out information about the University.

SPACE.com — Astronauts Celebrate Thanksgiving in Space on Two Spaceships

A dozen astronauts in orbit will pause for a weightless Thanksgiving Thursday, despite the fact that they’re flying on two different spaceships.

The space shuttle Atlantis, with seven crewmembers onboard, left the International Space Station early Wednesday, capping off a week-long visit to stock the outpost with spare equipment. The orbiter is slated to land Friday at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In honor of the American Thanksgiving holiday, NASA replaced the shuttle with a traditional turkey icon on its Mission Control map tracking the spacecraft around Earth.

Shelby County Quarry Battle Gets Dirty – CBS 42

Representatives with White Rock Quarries handed out a two-inch thick binder to representatives of the news media during a special called press conferenced in the City of Vincent Thursday morning.

The binder contains records regarding an ADEM investigation surrounding the dumping of hazardous materials into the septic system of “Vulcan Information and Packaging” from 1970 until 1985.

The plant is owned by EBSCO Industries which has aggressively opposed White Rock’s installation of a rock quarry next to the plant.

EBSCO has gone on record saying that a quarry would increase the number of sinkholes in the area.

But Stephen Bradley who represents White Rock Quarries says that he believes EBSCO is concerned that traces of hazardous material may still be in the ground and would be exposed by the quarry.

Australia’s Rudd says sorry to orphans, child migrants | International | Reuters

CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized Monday for years of abuse and pain suffered by thousands of orphans and children sent to Australia from Britain, often without the knowledge of their parents.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is also set to apologies to around 7,000 children from state institutions who were shipped to Australia between 1930 and 1970 under the old Child Migrants Program.

Rudd told an audience of about 900 former orphans, known as the Forgotten Australians, that the abandoned policy was a shameful and ugly period in history which led to suffering, emotional damage and an absence of love and care.

“We look back with shame that so many of you were left cold, hungry and alone and with nowhere to hide and nobody, absolutely nobody, to whom to turn,” Rudd said in a speech at parliament.

“We look back with shame at how those with power were allowed to abuse those who had none.”

Water On The Moon: LCROSS Kicks Ice! | GeekDad | Wired.com

Is there water on the Moon? The NASA LCROSS mission has determined the answer to be a resounding YES! GeekDad has covered the LCROSS mission with an article prior to the LCROSS launch by Lonnie Morgan, a pair of articles on viewing what was hoped to be a visible plume from the impact by Dana Bostic and myself, and finally a follow-up to the impact about the process of data analysis and waiting for results. If you have missed all the coverage, the LCROSS mission impacted a spent Centaur booster into the Moon and captured data from the impact plume with the goal of finding deposits of frozen water. Today, the LCROSS team released their preliminary findings:

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

NASA launches shuttle Atlantis to space station | Science | Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – The U.S. space shuttle Atlantis lifted off its seaside launch pad on Monday, loaded with spare parts to keep the International Space Station flying after the shuttles are retired next year.

NASA’s fifth and final flight of the year began at 2:28 p.m. EST when Atlantis’ twin booster rockets ignited, sending the 24-year-old ship through partly cloudy skies to begin its 31st journey into orbit. Docking at the space station was scheduled for Wednesday.

The shuttle carries nearly 30,000 pounds (13,610 kg) of equipment, most of which is too big to be launched by the Russian, European and Japanese cargo ships expected to keep the station supplied after the shuttles are retired.

Following the mission by Atlantis, which is scheduled to last 11 days, NASA plans five more flights to complete the station.

The shuttle is being replaced by a capsule-style spacecraft called Orion that can travel to the moon and other places in the solar system in addition to the space station, which orbits about 225 miles above Earth.

Commission told bingo project still on | GadsdenTimes.com | Gadsden Times | Gadsden, AL

An Alabama Supreme Court ruling concerning electronic bingo will not adversely affect a proposed electronic bingo development here, the Etowah County Commission was told Tuesday.

Christie Knowles, an attorney for CBS Supply, which is planning the development off Interstate 59 near Pleasant Valley Road, told the commission at its work session the development plans are continuing.

HEADRIGHTS GRANTED BY THE GEORGIA COLONIAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS FROM 1754 TO 1800

WASHINGTON.

Alex Irwin, Jared Irwin, Hugh Irwin, Lawson Irwin, Pat Jarvis, Robert Jewett, Richard Jenkins, Benj Jenkins, Reuben Jackson, Peter Jackson, Randal Jackson, James Jackson, John Jackson, Job Jackson, Philip Jackson, Wm Jackson, Jonathan Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Frederick Jackson, Elias Jackson, Wm. Jackson, Samuel Jack, Joshua Inman, David Jones, Robert Jones, Simeon Jones, Seaborn Jones, Benj Jones, Jones Jones, Nathan Jones, Thos Johnson, Stephen Johnson, Daniel Johnson, Dempsey Justice, Berry Joiner.

Cherokee Cousins

I have thought long and hard about whether I should begin another blog related to my family tree research.

After months of trying to place bits of Native American genealogy data in my other WordPress blogs, I decided the time was right to begin this one. I and many of the people I know who have grown up in the south eastern US have family ‘oral traditions’ which say one or more of our ancestors were Native Americans who “remained behind” despite the massive Indian removal during the 1850’s.(…)

RootsWeb’s WorldConnect Project: Bruce Cooley Pusch

WHAT IS THE POSSIBLE INFLUENCE OF OUR EARLIEST ANCESTORS ON US TODAY?

One thing that’s important to keep in mind when going back down a family tree is that each generation doubles the number of your ancestors.

What you are dealing here with are exponential numbers.

As you double the number of grandparents with each generation, you quickly see how fast the numbers are getting very large:

For example, when you get to the 64th generation, with my ancestors like Odin Woden or Woutan of Saxony King of Scandinavia born in 215 and Clodomir IV King of the Franks born in 251 you have had 9,230,372,036,854,775,808 grandparents at the various generational levels between each of them and me.

This number spelled out is: 9 quintillion, 223 quadrillion, 372 trillion, 36 billion, 854 million, 775 thousand, 8 hundred and 8.

Just to give you an idea of how big this number is:

If you had 9,23,372,036,854,775,808 grains of rice, it would be enough rice to cover all of India knee deep.

If you had that many pennies, those pennies would fill about 4,800,000 Empire State buildings.

You can see that there would probably be little bloodline influence on what any of us might be like today because of our relationship to any one ancestor that lived that far back in time. It’s difficult to imagine that any talents or faults that existed in one ancestor living far back in time could, so diluted, could influence us in any meaningful way today.

In other words, I don’t think I share many attributes with my distant ancestors Odin Woden or Woutan of Saxony King of Scandinavia born in 215 and Clodomir IV King of the Franks born in 251.

If you go back many generations more than the 64 discussed above, the numbers of our ancestors approach the numbers of stars in the sky or grains of sand on the beach.

Another view of these huge numbers of ancestors, is that some research would probably show the total number of people who ever lived is probably less than a trillion,

If that is so, the answer to this dilemma is that everybody’s tree eventually stops forking at various places (i.e., at some point, cousins married cousins, thus reducing the number of potential grandparents).

I myself am descended from two Cooley siblings

Nevertheless, no matter the exact huge number of our ancestors, a million, a trillion or a quintillion, it’s interesting to explore back through time, discover these ancestors, think about them and learn history through them.

For example, a, to me, very interesting ancestor from my own ancestral searches, is Queen Medb

According to the “Cooley Genealogy”, “One of the earliest references to the name Cooley is spelled Cualnge and appears in the 7th century when the great Celtic epic, “Tain Bo Cualnge, or “The Cattle Raid of Cooley” (County Louth) was first committed to writing. The name Cualnge may, of course, have been a place-name, not a patronymic, but many family names are derived from place names. This great epic is described as the chief and lengthiest romance of the Ulster cycle of literature, and has to do with heroes who Irish annalists and synchronists agree in placing about the beginning of the Christian era. During this primitive Celtic civilization no native coins were in circulation. The land in a pastoral country belonged to the tribe. A man’s property consisted of cattle and cattle-raids were frequent. Hence the greatest Irish epic is of a cattle-raid, the object being for Queen Medb to gain possession of an extraordinary animal known as the Brown Bull of Cualnge.”