A Place of Brightness: lowell

Friday, February 19, 2016

The Dangers of Planet X

We have seen in the news recently the assertion that the trajectories of objects in the Kuiper Belt imply the existence of a planet nearly the size of Neptune lurking at the far reaches of our Solar System.

Respected planetary scientists Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena assert that the clustering of distant objects is only explained by the existence of this "Planet X."

The ancient peoples knew of only the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Uranus was first spotted in 1690. Neptune was found in 1846 in exactly the spot it was predicted to be based on other research.

Astronomer Percival Lowell devoted his life to the search for "Planet X," a hypothetical planet beyond Uranus and Neptune were displaced from their predicted positions by some gravitational force.

I attended Lowell Elementary School in Madison, WI, named after this astronomical great, and a sign of how progressive the city of my nurture was.

When Pluto was eventually discovered, some thought that "Planet X" had been discovered. But it turns out that Pluto has nowhere near the gravitational force to account for the anomalies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune.

Planet X remains the subject of speculation and fascination.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0984343253?creativeASIN=0984343253&linkCode=w00&linkId=5WIF2DJM6ZHW3LFX&ref_=as_sl_pc_tf_til&tag=keitmassintea-20

I included it in my novel In Saecula Saeculorum as a force hurtling toward Earth threatening life on our Planet. A group of young people were trained unwittingly to travel back in time to gain information that could then be used to change the trajectory of Planet X in the current day and thus save our world. I invite you to check it out.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Made in Wisconsin: 1st Kindgergarten in the United States

Turns out, mirabile dictu, the first kindergarten in the United States was in Watertown, Wisconsin. In 1856, Margarethe Meyer Schurz, wife of the noted German-American statesman Carl Schurz, organized the first kindergarten in the building at the left.

I lived in Watertown for a year and never knew this fact!

We live in a time when politicians are debating how to fund pre-kindergarten educational programs, knowing the benefit that early and organized programmed education can have on developing minds.

I have very fond memories of my own kindergarten experience, proof, I suppose, that my teacher must have been a committed and talented educator. This took place for me at Lowell Elementary School, on Madison, Wisconsin's blue-collar East Side. My kindergarten room was on the first floor, just left of that forested area in the middle.

And the fact that the first kindergarten happened in Wisconsin is a testimony to the commitment that State has for education in general. I am grateful for the excellent public schools I attended, from kindergarten all the way through, eventually, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Keith Massey was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. He has his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Biblical Hebrew, with a minor in Arabic. After 9/11, he served as an Arabic linguist at the NSA. He is currently a Latin teacher at a public high school in New Jersey.

Keith is the author of Intermediate Arabic for Dummies. His fiction novels follow the adventures of Andrew Valquist, roughly patterned after himself--a man born and raised in Wisconsin who gets pulled into the world of international intrigue.

Keith's novels are A Place of Brightness, Amor Vincit Omnia: An Andrew Valquist Adventure, Next Stop: Spanish, and In Saecula Saeculorum.

In Saecula Saeculorum, the 4th Novel in the Valquist Series

In this fourth novel of the Valquist Series, Andrew Valquist is retired (?) from the National Security Agency and teaching Latin at a Classical Academy in the Washington DC area. But in the world of espionage, looks can be deceiving. He's not necessarily happy with the role he has played in all this, but the school was actually a joint NSA/MI-6 Project in which four young people have been unwittingly prepared for a mission to travel back in time to ancient Rome to retrieve information from a library that may save the modern world from certain destruction. They know they have to at least try to save humanity, but can they also save each other?

Next Stop: Spanish, the 3rd Novel in the Valquist Series

This third novel in the Valquist Series can be read as an espionage action-adventure in its own right, but also you can use it as a way to either brush up on your Spanish or learn functional Spanish for the first time! John Valquist needs to learn Spanish. But he's in luck, since his uncle Andrew is a language expert and a former (?) spy who is taking him on a vacation to Spain so he can study the language. In Next Stop: Spanish, you have the chance to see and study the words John studies, and then watch him add more and more Spanish into his dialogue as the story progresses. During this vacation, they get pulled into espionage intrigue (why do these things always happen to the Valquist family?). In the dramatic conclusion, John will need to put together everything he has learned to save his uncle!

Amor Vincit Omnia: the 2nd Novel in the Valquist Series

In this second novel of the Valquist Series, Keith Massey takes you into the halls of the National Security Agency, where he himself worked for four years after 9/11 and an Arabic linguist. You follow our hero Andrew Valquist, as he starts work as a new recruit at the NSA. Little does he know that on his first on the job, he's about to fly off on an unexpected overseas assignment. He'll be even more surprised when he learns that his background in ancient Latin will be crucial to the mission!