The Old versus the New

 When I was very young, I don’t remember exactly how young.  I was young enough to be playing on the kitchen floor, looking in the cupboards under the counter.  I suspect pre-school, but don’t really know.  Maybe others will know when kids get old enough to not follow their mother around and play on the kitchen floor.  

In the cupboard was a can of condensed milk.  Gee, I had never seen one before and did not have any idea what it was for.  Mom said it was to make milk to feed babies.  Well, that was interesting.  Parents had to make special food for babies.  I didn’t know that.  And this brought up another question,

“Where do babies come from?”

Mom told me that when a mommy and a daddy got married, God gave them a baby.  

“How does God know when a mommy and daddy get married?”  

That was the last question I got to ask, and Mom ended the discussion.  

It was some years later that Dad responded to my request for a set of medical books, that had a factual discussion of the matter of conception.  I suspect when I was 10 or 11. 

So, here, I was presented two very different views of life.  One from Mom was based on religion and old stories.  The other from Dad, based on science and new discoveries..  These different disciplines of thought returned in a number of important discussions throughout our lives.  Mom, clinging to the old, Dad willing to examine the new and reconcile that with his religion.  

One of the most graphic examples was in the early 60's when integration became a national issue.  We went to the largest Methodist church in town. A black family had never attended any service there, with the exception of a missionary to Africa.  However, there was a rumor that a black family from “the other side of town” was going to attend our church. 

Mom said, “Why would they want to come to our church, instead of their own?”

I said, “Maybe they want to attend our church for exactly the same reason we like to attend our church.”

Dad looked at me, trying not to grin while keeping his mouth closed.  Then, he looked at Mom (who was not very happy with my insubordination ) with “that look” that meant, “Don’t say anything”. 

When the first black family ultimately attended our church, Mom and Dad were among the first to welcome them and tell them they hoped they choose to attend FUMC.   I can not tell you how proud I am that Dad could take a lesson from his kid, and convince Mom that the child  was right.   This is why, when I say, I had great parents, I really believe it. 

The best words Dad ever said to me were, “I know how important that is to you.”   Dad’s ability to listen and understand someone else’s viewpoint was the reason he was a great boss and leader

Copyright, B Keim, 2020

Mr. Roy G. Biv

Periodically we get asked, "What was it like growing up in Oak Ridge?" I'm sure we all have our favorite answers. I have a few I choose from, depending on who is asking the question. Here is one of my favorites.

Virtually every little kid eventually gets around to asking why the sky is blue. When I asked Daddy, I didn't get the pat answer, "Because God made it that way.”

We were in the car with the rest of the family and my older sister grew impatient with my questions which ended the lecture prematurely, but not after I learned that it took 8 minutes for the light to get from the Sun to Earth. WOW!

I got a lecture about the refraction of light and moisture in the air. The air is filled with little bitty drops of water. And light changes color when it goes through those little bitty drops of water. Very cool!

Then, a few months later I went next door to my best friend Arthur Snell's house. His Father, Dr. Snell (one of the leading nuclear physicists in the world at the time) had a glass prism on the coffee table. At my young age, I was really impressed at how big it was. Dr. Snell watched me pick it up without saying anything, except to warn me that it might be heavier than I anticipated. It was! To a preschool kid, it seemed like it was a foot on each side .

The quality of the prism was very exciting and captured my attention completely. The triangular shape of the prism bent the light and separated it into the colors of rainbow with great clarity. 

I told my friend, "look at how this refracts the light!" 

Dr. Snell whipped around to look at me and asked, "Bobby, how do you know that word?"

I preceded to give Dr. Snell a lecture on the refraction of light into the colors of the rainbow.  LOL, he responded with his own lecture on the subject  demonstrating the difference in light coming in the window from the light of a light bulb.   Oh my!

And that is how I was introduced to Mr. Roy G Biv, before I even went to Kindergarten.

Scientific Note: Roy G Biv, is an acronym for the colors of the rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet in the order of longest waves to shortest.

Copyright B Keim, 2020

The technology of the Bin Laden operation

Imagine the President and his staff watching the operation live in the situation room, while the CIA director oversees the operation from Langley, VA.  I doubt the Seals had a camera man, so that almost certainly means they had helmet cams.  So, if they can have one helmet cam, couldn't the special ops folks have 2, or 4 cameras on their helmet?  What if each member of the team had 4 cameras and 4 support folks literally watching their backs!  The capability of just that one aspect is mind blowing.

Wifi (for lack of a better description) from the helmet cams to the helo.  Then to a satellite network to the US.  The fog of war is getting burned off with bright sunlight.

Then take the ability to fly through mountainous terrain, at night, with a very small moon.  Night helo flying has certainly reached the zenith.  Close formation, in a valley with as little visible light as possible.  I suspect the small amount of moonlight was just enough for them.   Amazing.  Wouldn't it have been fun to be on the team that provided the detailed mapping for their GPS? If we have satellites that can measure waves at sea, creating these maps could provide a finer degree of accuracy than imagined even 20 years ago.

It all started decades ago with night vision goggles.  And before that, the very first satellite we orbited took spy pictures.  So, in 2011, we set up surveillance on OBL's house without using drones because the President didn't want to take the chance of them detecting the drones.  Do you think we positioned the spy satellite so that it was in a direct line with a bright star, so OBL couldn't detect it?

Then there is that little technology of infra red.  I suspect that everyone moving in the compound was tracked by some infra red group.  The prospect of the level of this technology is pretty interesting.

It's enough to make me sorry I didn't study more, get a Ph.D in math and get involved in this sort of stuff.  Well, except there are not many people who have had more fun than I have!   LOL

Born in an Army hospital

I was born in Oak Ridge in 1947.  The town was still under the control of the Army, so  I was born in an Army Hospital by an Army Doctor.   My government run health care started at an early age.

I have had to laugh at background checks and US citizen questions.  I don't think you can get much more American than those of us born on the Manhattan Project reservations after being conceived in celebration of VJ-Day or the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. 

Until the Army turned over the city, we were all treated by Army medical staff at no cost.   I always figured when the ultimate health physics report came out, citizens of Oak Ridge and kids born in Oak Ridge would be way out on top of the rest of the country, since we had government provided health care from the time we were born to the time we left home, or graduated from college.  First from the Army, then from our parents' Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance.  In fact Dad still had a BC/BS insurance policy when he passed away.

Nothing beats great health care and good genes!  Thanks DOD for getting us off to such a good start.  Particularly with that fluoride experiment on our teeth we participated in at Cedar Hill school.