James Robert Wells

never stood a chance. His parents were model railroaders before they were parents! His parents were also musicians. It is this juxtaposition of media that in hindsight left him with no choice in what he would be "when he grows up".

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1948, he was already playing piano at age two, and still has fond memories of riding the Pacific Electric "red car to Grandma's house". He built and sold his first HO layout at age nine, began playing music professionally and ventured into his first recording studios at age fifteen, and became an avionics technician in the Marine Corps air wing at age eighteen (an opportunity he attributes directly to his experience with model railroad wiring). He joined the Audio Engineering Society at age twenty-two and has worked professionally in literally every aspect of music production and sound reproduction ever since. Over the years he has designed, engineered and implemented several broadcast and music recording studio facilities, innovated in the application of piezo ceramic transducers for distributed music/paging systems and for audio-animatronics, and toured nationally as a mix engineer for portable concert sound.

He met and married his understanding wife Christie in 1979, and shortly thereafter started Fantasonics (tm) Engineering, a design/consulting group specializing in the creation of music programs and audio systems for theme park attractions and animated shows. With his company of "Engineers" he has pioneered in the design of portable sound, three dimensional animated sound fields (Aural Image Animation Systems), and some of the fundamental ways in which sound is created and recreated. He has remained a model railroader the whole time, working in extremely large scales and live steam for the past two decades.

These days, his time is focused one way or another on the evolution of portable, musical, animated display for commercial application outside the theme park environment.

I know Jim as an artist. This talent is exhibited in his webiste at http://www.fantasonics.com . Jim has allowed me to invite you to observe his work in progress.
...enjoy! 

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Cambria Kiwanis Raise Scholarships to Five

Cell phones for busses, circus for adults and kids, bicycles for kids, Octoberfest fun and the Annual Spaghetti Feed are great events to benefit the community. Cambria Kiwanis provides all this and scholarships too.

Originally the Cambria Kiwanis planned on three scholarships. Two were to go to Coast Union High School.... (more)

Kiwanians Flash Alexander and Lee Bosen attended the scholarship interviews at the school and were so impressed by the students and their accomplishments that they urged the group to reconsider the two scholarships and raise the amounts and quantities.

The Cambria Kiwanis members voted to increase the scholarships awarded to five and look for was to improve upon this for next years new crop of candidates.

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The Moon is the Earth's only satellite. It is the only astronomical body that humans have visited. It is also the only body beyond the Earth that scientists have samples of known origin that can be analyzed and dated in terrestrial laboratories. The moon is large enough to pass through the stages of planetary evolution.

The Moon has a low mass and thus has a low escape velocity. It therefore cannot hold an atmosphere (which is why it holds no water). Because it has no atmosphere there are no winds. Thus, erosion cannot occur because neither wind nor water is present. So the impact craters that meteors impress on the moon are not worn away. Larger meteorites scatter pulverized rock called ejecta over large surface areas. This is very apparent where this debris forms rays, white streamers radiating from craters such as Copernicus and Kepler.

The Moon has no plates and has a small core. The lunar terrain is very sandy and divides into two markedly different regions, the lowlands and the highlands. The lowlands are called maria (singular mare), meaning seas, and are smooth dark plains with circular outlines and few craters. They got their name because the first astronomers to examine the moon with telescopes thought they were oceans. Maria are covered by a thick layer of pulverized lava. The lunar highlands are the lighter-colored heavily cratered regions that lie 3 km higher than the lowlands. They were not flooded by the lava that formed the maria because of their height, and so represent and earlier stage in the moon's history.

Like the Earth, the moon formed in four stages. In order, they were differentiation, cratering, flooding of the basins with lava, and surface evolution. The moon is now a dead body stuck somewhere in between the third and fourth stages.

The now excepted hypothesis about the origin of the moon is the large-impact hypothesis. The large-impact hypothesis states that the moon and the Earth resulted from the collision of two very large planetesimals.

Like the other planets, the moon has two periods of revolution, the sidereal period and the synodic period. The sidereal month, or period between two successive full moons, is 29 days and 12 hours. The synodic month, or average period in time for the moon's orbit using the background stars as a frame of reference is 27 days and 7 hours. We on Earth observe the moon's sidereal month.

The moon goes through several phases. The new moon is the phase of the moon when it is out during the day. Because the dark side phases us we cannot see it. Each day it rises and sets about 50 minutes later. When a new moon begins it grows, or waxes in size. It starts from a crescent, to a quarter moon, then a gibbous, and finally a full moon. During the full moon the moon's bright side faces the Earth. Then it shrinks, or wanes, to a gibbous, a quarter moon, a crescent, and finally a new moon again. The moon's period of revolution is used as the basis of the Hebrew/Jewish calendar, with each new moon starting off a new month.

The moon revolves around the Earth in an elliptical orbit. The moon has a mean distance of 238,866 miles from the Earth. At perogee, or its closes approach to the Earth, the moon is 228,000 miles away. At apogee, or its furthest approach to the Earth, the moon is 252,000 miles away.

About twice a year a lunar eclipse occurs. This takes place during the full moon, when the Earth is between the Sun and the moon. But it only occurs if the moon falls under the Earth's shadow. If it falls under the Earth's umbra, or the totally shaded region, than it is a total lunar eclipse. If the moon falls only under part of the Earth's umbra or only falls under the penumbra, or the partially shaded region, than it is a partial lunar eclipse.

During a total lunar eclipse, it takes about an hour for the moon to reach the umbra. Totality can last up to an hour and 45 minutes. At this time the moon is not completely dark but glows a bright coppery red. The light seen is the Sun's light refracted from the Earth. It can only be seen with a telescope, though. A total lunar eclipse is not as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, but it can be seen from anywhere on the ground as long as the observer is on the side of the Earth which faces the moon during the eclipse.

Bibliography:

	Muirden, James. The Amateur Astronomer's Handbook. Copyright 1974. Thomas Y. Crowell Company. New York.
	Seeds, Michael A. Horizons. Copyright 1991. Wadsworth Publishing Company. Belmont, California.

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Rotary brings three outstanding programs to Cambria teens. Four Way Test Essay Contest, Interact Club, and College Scholarships. The Cambria Rotary Club has always taken an interest in the youth of the community. Perhaps this is due to so many of its forty plus members being parents, teachers and or school administrators. 

Four Way Test

The Four-Way Test

Of the things we think, say or do

Is it the TRUTH ? Is it FAIR to all concerned ? Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS ? Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned ?

Middle School 7th graders are annually challenged to write a minimum of 250 words explaining how the four way test has or should have impacted their personal lives. Essays are collected and reviewed by the club's members. An overall winner is selected and awarded a check for $50.00. The winning essay is then passed along to the District level where it is entered for a district prize of $250.00.

• The Rotary Four-Way Test is one of the most widely printed and quoted business ethics statements in the world.

• It was created by Herbert J. Taylor in 1932. Herb later served as  President of Rotary International during 1954/55.

• The Four-Way Test was adopted by Rotary International in 1943.  To date it has been translated into more than 100 languages.

• Rotarians are expected to know  The Four-Way Test and to conduct their business and private lives accordingly.

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Interact

Interact is an international organization of service and social clubs for young people of secondary school age that fosters leadership and responsible citizenship and promotes international understanding and peace. The name was created by combining the words "international" and "action." Interact clubs are sponsored by Rotary clubs as a program of Rotary International. Rotary clubs provide guidance and inspiration, but the Interact clubs are self-governing and self-supporting. Clubs take a variety of forms, both single-gender and mixed as well as large and small. The membership base of a club can be drawn from the student body of a single school or from two or more schools from the same community.

Each year, Interact clubs complete at least one community service project and at least one project that furthers international understanding and goodwill. Interactors develop a worldwide network of friendships through exchanges with local and overseas clubs. Along the way, Interactors develop their leadership skills and initiative while meeting new friends.

Through their service activities, Interactors learn the importance of:

 

• developing leadership skills and personal integrity
• demonstrating helpfulness and respect for others
• understanding the value of individual responsibility and hard work
• advancing international understanding and goodwill

The first Interact club was initiated in 1962 by the Rotary Club of Melbourne, Florida, USA. Two months later, the first Interact club outside the United States was established in Tanjore, India. Today there are more than 6,650 Interact clubs in some 103 countries and geographical areas, making Interact a truly worldwide phenomenon.

Scholarships

Cambria's Rotary club give $2,000.00 annually to selected graduating seniors of Coast Union High School. The money is divided equally among four persons.

This year  over thirty applicants were interviewed. The review panel was stunned by how well prepared and deserving the candidates were.  Many applicants were able to sustain over a 4.0 grade point average throughout grades 9 - 12.

GPA's, Class Rank and Career Goals don't come close to telling the real story behind who these people are. Listening to them speak, seeing their presence, their demeanor and discovering where they came from, how they found their path and that they have a clear and focused vision of what their future will be gives the Rotary scholarship committee confidence in a good investment. This is an investment that will garner good will for all whom these graduates come in contact with.

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