As long as we’ve got you reading the College of the Redwood’s Board of Directors’ agenda for Feb. 3, you may have noticed in the documents packet (p. 42) that CR prof Dr. Jon Pedicino is asking for a little out-of-country travel cash ($1,800) so he can go to the Pope’s summer digs at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, this June.
There, he intends to hobnob with likeminded starry eyed folks at the Vatican Observatory.
Yes, the
Vatican Observatory
— an old-timer of an astronomical research institution that’s connected these days to the Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona.
The affair? The Vatican Observatory’s Summer Symposium.
OK, so you’re hung up on the whole Galileo thing — how the Roman Catholic Church condemned and arrested him in 1633 for saying the Earth moves around the Sun. Let that burden go: The Church did, when John Paul II forgave Sir Galileo Galilei in 1992, saying the poor man had been ahead of his time.
In fact, the Vatican and others are going all out this year to celebrate astronomy and the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope to study the sky, with a big bang of events planned for
The International Year of Astronomy 2009
.
So there. Vai con Dio, Pedicino.
This article appears in Love me, I’m a Lamprey.
Who said that old adage…about how conservatives are people who admire radicals three centuries after they’re dead…
If you ever get a chance to hear Dr. Pedicino talk about the stars, I highly recommend it. I lived through a semester of astronomy because of him and even followed his recommendation to check out the book “Galileo’s Daughter.”
Consider yourself enlightened. 🙂
You should really be looking at Eureka City Schools. Enrollment figures are a grim indicator of changing demographics and the impact of ever decreasing funds. From the board minutes:
http://www.eurekacityschools.org/pdf/minutes011409.pdf
Enrollment figures comparing last year and this year’s CBEDS were distributed. There is a drop of 244 students, but the actual drop in average daily attendance (ADA) from P-1 to P-2 is an additional 30 students; an almost 300 ADA loss in revenue from last year.