Notes

         You are up at mid-morning with a light breakfast and today you and Carol are meeting family at Max and Erma’s for a birthday lunch for Aunt Patsy, then shopping at Polaris and back to Cleveland in the later afternoon.

         Yesterday, Aunt Patsy (the only one other than yourself who is interested in genealogy) had some information on a Ulysses Grant Orendorff who owned a plow works company, joined with Parlin-Orendorff and became (at one time) Canton, Illinois only millionaire. (Aunt Patsy likes success stories.) He was one of the two Orndorff brothers who came north to Delaware County from Virginia (horse traders) because of the Civil War. Two other brothers stayed in Virginia. The ones who came north disowned their slaves. As an aside, one of the two brothers who stayed had a direct descendant who worked at Mason Public Library and she gave you lots of information she had about the Virginia Orndorffs.

         Small world. I couldn’t believe she had all the early records of coming over from Germany (ship manifest) in 1732 if I remember right. Aunt Patsy also gave me her latest rendition, Uptown, People, Places & Events incorporating a bicentennial journal by Patricia Orndorff Ernsberger. While this is still exciting to me, it has nothing to do with these writings, Amorella, and to be honest, it is rather embarrassing to bring up.

         Why? Are you that arrogant, boy?

         (I was afraid of this as I wrote “embarrassing”.) It was a wrong word choice. I did sound arrogant. I didn’t mean it that way (maybe it was, I don’t know – that is what is confusing.) Being a mix of polite and honest is a nightmare sometimes. Secret thoughts creep in from who knows where “embarrassed” being the latest one. It is strange because I was thinking about how proud I am of Aunt Patsy, which I am. Her Uptown is personal history, a real history of personal stories about Westerville and the people who lived here. I felt like I was bragging and that is part of the embarrassment because bragging is impolite. Yet, when I wrote the word it took on a sense of arrogance which was not consciously meant, but unconsciously perhaps it existed. This is all rather complicated and I assume a general human dilemma from time to time; it is such a little event. Yet, it grows into a monster to be slayed in the mind. Such is this tiny aspect of being polite and honest in being human, at least in my sense of humanity.

         Writing helps you to understand, orndorff. Why don’t you do your aunt a favor and check out this Ulysses Grant Orendorff as she requested. You found several pages worth of information and also that the spelling is Orendorff, so UGO is more closely related to your fellow high school classmate, Diana Orendorff, and her father, who was City Manager of Westerville back in 1960.

         Dusk. You had turkey tacos for supper, but missed 'Sixty Minutes'. You want to get on with scene seven but now is not the time. Later tonight or tomorrow. Relax, orndorff. Enjoy the family moments. Post. Later, dude. – Amorella. 

         Checking BBC you found a short article on Hawking and aliens. Place it here.

Hawking warns over alien beings

Aliens almost certainly exist but humans should avoid making contact, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned.

In a series for the Discovery Channel the renowned astrophysicist said it was "perfectly rational" to assume intelligent life exists elsewhere.

But he warned that aliens might simply raid Earth for resources, then move on.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said.

Prof Hawking thinks that, rather than actively trying to communicate with extra-terrestrials, humans should do everything possible to avoid contact.

He explained: "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet."

In the past probes have been sent into space with engravings of human on board and diagrams showing the location of our planet.

Radio beams have been fired into space in the hope of reaching alien civilisations.

Prof Hawking said: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."

The programme envisages numerous alien species including two-legged herbivores and yellow, lizard-like predators.

But Prof Hawking conceded most life elsewhere in the universe is likely to consist of simple microbes.

In the recent BBC series Wonders of the Solar System, Professor Brian Cox, a physicist from the University of Manchester, also suggested life may exist elsewhere within our solar system.

He said organisms could be present under the ice sheet that envelops Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.

Professor Cox added: "Closer to home, the evidence that life could exist on Mars is growing.

"We will only know for sure when the next generation of spacecraft, fine-tuned to search for life, are launched to the moons of Jupiter and the arid plains of Mars in the coming decades."

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/8642558.stm

Published: 2010/04/25 09:35:02 GMT    © BBC MMX

**

         I am rather disappointed in Hawking. It is true, and I agree, such a contact may turn out like the American Natives for us to be in their place. It is hard to know. I would like to think the aliens would be more civilized because they would have existed longer as a species to become knowledgeable enough for such long distance space travel.  To do this (without killing themselves with the new tech they would develop along the way) then they should be more perceptive to an alien form such as ourselves. Why would they come all this way to exploit? It doesn’t seem like it would be worth their energy and cost to me. Besides, exploration would be more fun. - rho