Scuttlebutt Pipeline

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I’ve been very fortunate in that all of the people who I care about that have reached their later years have never suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease. I have had friends though who were not so fortunate.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that robs people and their loved ones of time and it hurts and impacts all those involved. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia that is most commonly found in people ages sixty-five and over. It is estimated that over twenty-four million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer’s. Here is a textbook definition of what the disease is and what it does:

[…] Alzheimer’s is characterized by progressive cognitive deterioration, together with declining activities of daily living and by neuropsychiatric symptoms or behavioral changes. […]

Which is a very clear and cut way to say that a person who suffers from this disease essentially loses their selves, their identity, and can no longer truly process and understand the world around them. This definition does not even begin to touch upon the pain that is felt by the victim’s loved ones. Currently there is no known cause of Alzheimer’s, and as you can guess, that makes finding a cure incredibly difficult.

Memory Walk is a non-for-profit organization that has raised over $225 million dollars towards finding a cure. Memory Walk was begun in 1989 and has been dedicated to “walking” for a cure. You can visit their official website to locate a team near your location to join, or even better yet, you can sign up as a Team Captain and create your own team. If you’re in my position however you might not have a schedule that is very flexible, in which case you can select a walker and choose to sponsor them.

There is a local team in my area whom I plan to sponsor, which other Southern New Mexico residents may want to take notice of. Lizzie has put together a team that will meet and walk on October 13, 2007 at Young Park in Las Cruces. Please see the team’s page for more information on how to sign up or to sponsor a walker.

Please consider donating your time or money to a very charitable cause.

LAS CRUCES — An Anthony, N.M., teen allegedly shot and killed another teen early Sunday and made no attempt to escape, walking back into his home after what Doña Ana County Sheriff’s investigators are calling a gang-related homicide.

Sunday’s is the second gang-related homicide in Anthony this year and the third overall in the county outside the Las Cruces city limits.

Martin Leonel Nevarez, 17, was just outside his home at the 300 block of Lincoln Street when he shot 14-year-old Alberto Soto once in the chest at close range at about 1 a.m. Sunday, Investigator Richard Chavez said.

Soto died at the scene.

Nevarez then apparently walked back into his home where he was arrested about five hours later, during which time officers were outside investigating the incident…[]

Full Article

This was truly a pointless and senseless death if ever I saw one. Not only did Soto, the 14 year old victim, and his friends start the incident, but after getting out of the frying pan so to speak he literally leapt right into the fire. They drove around and antagonized Nevarez which resulted in him shooting at them with a sawed off shotgun. Now tell me, what person with even the smallest amount of self preservation and common sense would then go back to that house and start another altercation?

If you go looking for trouble you will find it:

[]…Chavez said the incident began when Soto and as many as five other people were riding in a car, circling the neighborhood and looking for a confrontation.

Canadian actor James Doohan’s remains along with two hundred other people were launched on the first commercial sub-orbital launch today from the new Spaceport America site.

Spaceport launch a success
By Jose L. Medina Sun-News reporter
Article Launched: 04/29/2007 01:00:00 AM MDT

UPHAM — Same place, much different result: Spaceport America is officially open.

For the first time, a vehicle launched from New Mexico’s fledgling commercial spaceport in southern Sierra County reached space as the SpaceLoft SL-2 rocket — built by UP Aerospace of Farmington, Conn. — made history at 8:58 a.m. MDT Saturday.

“You’re standing on hallowed ground now. Spaceport America is now an official spaceport,” said UP Aerospace President Jerry Larson, who helped design the rocket.

Wende Doohan and Suzan Cooper, widows of Star Trek actor James Doohan and Mercury 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper, pressed the “go” button which sent the SL-2 and small amounts of their husbands’ ashes and 200 others on board into space.

“Keep going, keep going. That’s it. Eleven, twelve, that’s it. We got it!” said Eric Knight. The UP Aersopace CEO counted the seconds it took for the SL-2 to burn off all its fuel, putting the 20-foot rocket at a coasting speed of 3,400 miles per hour and a sure trajectory to space. It reached an altitude of almost 73 miles before falling back to Earth, splitting in two, deploying parachutes and landing safely at White Sands Missile Range, 33 miles east of the launch site. A sonic boom thundered down on the remote site and the hundreds of onlookers watching about four miles away from the mission control center. Among those witnessing the historic event were the BBC and CBS. The launch was carried live on CNN.

“This just put us on the map,” Knight said. “We’re a small company. We don’t have the millions and millions of dollars in marketing to put the word out. It’s really to show off what we can do. We were really not on the map. We are now.”

UP has plans for as many as six additional flights later this year. A date for the next launch has not been set.

With the launch, UP Aerospace not only gave themselves more credibility, they also gave the $198 million commercial spaceport project more viability and gave families of those whose cremains were on the rocket a great source of comfort.

“He worked in aerospace for 40 years,” James De Carufel, 60, of Atlanta, Ga., said of his late father, Arthur. Some of his ashes were on UP’s rocket.

“This is probably the best thing that could happen … when he hit space, I’m sure he had a big smile on his face,” De Carufel said.

Family members paid $495 to place a few grams of their relatives’ ashes on the rocket. Celestis, a Houston company, contracted with UP to send the cremated remains into space.

Charles Chafer, chief executive of Celestis, said last month that a CD with more than 11,000 condolences and fan notes was placed on the rocket with Doohan’s remains.

Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85. The cremains of Gene Roddenberry, who created “Star Trek,” were sent into space in 1997.

Cooper died in October 2004 at the age of 77. Cooper piloted the sixth and last flight of the Mercury program and later commanded Gemini 5.

Saturday’s launch was in stark contrast to UP’s first attempt to reach space last year from the spaceport site.

On Sept. 25, after more than a seven-hour delay, UP launched its SpaceLoft XL. The XL corkscrewed out of control seconds into its flight and never reached space. With officials powerless to control it, the rocket crashed west of WSMR and was destroyed. Company officials blamed the failure on a faulty fin design.

UP’s second rocket made it off the ground less than half an hour behind schedule Saturday, thanks in part to someone mistakenly wandering into a secured area.

On the technical side, almost all systems on the rocket performed well, Larson said. The lone malfunction was a signal beacon that kept WSMR from being able to track the vehicle in the opening moments of the 13-minute flight.

The weather also cooperated with surface winds staying below 20 miles per hour and opening a window for launch.

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, is said to be developing the spaceport north of Van Horn, Texas. Bezos’ Blue Origin is working to develop tourist space flights.

British billionaire Richard Branson also has announced plans to launch a space tourism company, which is expected to have its headquarters at the New Mexico spaceport.

source: Las Cruces Sun News

The “official” outcome may not be announced until Tuesday but the fact remains, the Spaceport Tax has been approved and it is a go.

At the end of Thursday, ballots in favor of the tax totaled 8,947 — or 50.8 percent — while ballots against totaled 8,682, or 49.2 percent.Some spaceport tax proponents watching the election review appeared jubilant soon after realizing the results had gone their way. (source)

There really is no denying this no matter how much I may want to. In the end it looks like money and pretty flowery words won out over common sense. And while I realize you can’t win all the time, I had hoped that the outcome would be anything but this. I hope that this will not come back to bite the citizens of Dona Ana county in the butt, but somehow I doubt it.

“This is another situation where money topped the power of the people,” Vado resident and activist Mitch Boyer said. “If we had anywhere close to the amount of money they had we would have won it because the information we were disseminating, once people looked at it, they changed their minds. We just didn’t have the resources to do that.” (source)

Damn Straight.

No that’s not a horrible typo on my part. Justin Brady of Las Cruces, New Mexico has formally and legally changed his name to, you guessed it, Ynot Bubba. I’m not sure why anyone would want a name like that, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that aspect either. But to each their own. Though really, Mr. Bubba says he can’t understand what the interest in his name his.

Well we apologize profusely Mr. Bubba. It’s just not everyday we see people do such idiotic things and then expect us to look at them like intelligent adults, not to mention expect us to take them seriously.

Man changes name to Ynot Bubba
Sun News Report
Article Launched: 04/04/2007 01:00:00 AM MDTLAS CRUCES — Justin Brady was asked what he wanted to be called and he politely responded, “Yes, Mr. Ynot Bubba.”

On Monday, state Judicial District Court Judge Jerald Valentine granted Brady’s request to legally change his name to Ynot Bubba.

Bubba said afterward he had no celebration plans, instead he planned to spend the day notifying people, like his insurance agent, of the name change.

Bubba, 43, a California native whose legal address is now Las Cruces, has worked as a truck driver for more than 20 years. He asked to change his name because he no longer had a relationship with his adoptive parents, the Bradys.

Bubba said he wanted his name to stand out and since some close to him had nicknamed him “Bubba” he decided why not change his name to Ynot Bubba.

Since his story first appeared in the Sun-News in mid-March, Bubba has received several interview requests.

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Bubba said when he learned of the interest in his story. “It’s just a name.”

Bubba had also considered Lacon Marlboro or More Chek as potential names.

article source