This is Vince Needham's personal page.
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LCROSS Hits the Moon

Brace for Impact!

Early Friday morning, 09 October, a Centaur upper stage and its companion LCROSS spacecraft hit the south pole of the Moon. The goal is to create a plume of lunar material, including maybe water ice, and study it up-close-and-personal. Besides the suicide mission of the LCROSS itself, pretty much every other spacecraft and telescope that can see the Moon will be watching.

To the left you will find links to all of my various pages. My old personal page was a hodgepodge of eclectic content; I've created a few new pages to try to compartmentalize and organize that creative chaos. The most popular content here is my genealogical work and my Boy Scout Space Exporation merit badge presentation. Those sites and any other new and exciting content will get showcased in the paragraphs directly below this introduction.

Cricket Still Jacobs Tubbs

Genealogy

The Needham genealogy was updated on 20 January 2007. There are quite a lot of changes, which are outlined on the introductory page of the site. Besides updating the lineage, there are three new photo galleries and a variety of other added documents.

The Simmons family tree has finally received its long-promised update as of 20 June 2007. The big news here is the discovery that Daniel Boone is my sixth-great-uncle. The Boone line is a well-researched one, so many new families have been added to the database.

I've discovered that I'm an eighth cousin of the new President of the United States, Barack Obama. His mother, from Kansas, was a Dunham and descended of Jonathan Singletary/Dunham (1639-1724). I've also learned of a similar relationships to the Bushes, by way of John Prescott (1604-1681), and to Richard Nixon on both sides of the family through Henry Howland (father of Pilgrim John Howland) and Martha Strode (a grandparent of Daniel Boone). I'll get all the details posted to the family sites soon.

Buzz Aldrin on the Moon

Space Exploration

Every April Kansas State University hosts a Boy Scout merit badge conference, where local experts counsel Scouts concerning a variety of topics. I've counseled the Space Exploration merit badge for several years now. The first half of the class includes a PowerPoint presentation focusing on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. After that, we go out and launch model rockets (usually into the teeth of a strong Kansas spring breeze!).

Several of my presentations are archived here. The requirements were finally updated last year, but since the Vision for Space Exploration is revolutionizing our approach to space travel, I'll be rather freely interpreting things to stay current.

Other Stuff, Rants & Raves

  • As newspapers die from their inability to think in new ways, the Kansas City Star has hatched the most incredible of schemes. They plan to charge extra for their advertising-bloated Thanksgiving edition! Not just a little more either: newsstand prices go from $0.75 to $2.00, and subscribers get to pay an extra $1.25! We were notified of this via a junk mail postcard that trumpeted the glories of this "special" edition, with fine print at the bottom mentioning the price hike. All subscribers would automatically get the issue and be billed for the privilege without their permission. This is at best unethical, and I suspect illegal. Fight back! I e-mailed my disapproval to the Star and was quickly promised a credit to my account for the excess charge. Even the Star seems to know this is a shady deal and won't go to the mat to defend it.

What I'm Reading

  • Dr. No, Ian Fleming, Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1958
  • Ice Bound, Jerri Nielsen & Maryanne Vollers, Miramax, 2001

Twitter & Facebook

  • KC Star admits extra-cost Thanksgiving paper scam. See pg A14 of 18 Nov paper. Call or e-mail and tell them no. They'll refund the cost.
    Twitter: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:33:51 GMT (3 day 19 hr ago)
  • The KC Star is finally advertising their extra-cost Thanksgiving issue scam in print. They intend to charge you more for an ad-stuffed edition without your
    Facebook: Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:49:47 CST (3 day 19 hr ago)

Last updated on Thursday, 08-Oct-2009