Page 2 January 21, 2021
Entertainment
El Segundo Herald* • Hawthorne Press Tribune*
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Orbits and Awe: The NASA
Mars Student Challenge
By Tommy Vinh Bui, MLIS Associate
Librarian, Inglewood Public Library
Many an academically-sapped student might
find themselves straining their corneas on
insipid worksheet after worksheet and staring
dead-eyed at hours of zombified Zoom lesson
plans. But break away from that monotony
momentarily and cast that gaze upwards at
the wonders of space swirling above.
Ring in the scientific achievement of the
Perseverance Rover making landfall on the
unspoiled surface of the Red Planet on February
18th with NASA’s Mars Student Challenge.
This nifty and hands-on teachable moment
provides space-starved students everywhere
fun and engaging activities to celebrate this
momentous occasion. Students will have
an opportunity to design, build, and land a
Mars missions of their very own making.
And NASA will be there to lend a guiding
hand throughout.
The Perseverance Rover is a scientific
achievement to behold. The craft is equipped
with the experimental Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
and, harkening to the significance of
the Wright Brothers’ first extraordinary ascension,
will be the first attempt at a powered
and controlled flight on another planet. One
of the Rover’s primary mission objectives is
to further our understanding of astrobiology.
This includes the search for residual signs of
ancient microbial life and the study of the
planet’s geology to draw conclusions about
past climates and the potential for habitability
to help prepare NASA for human expeditions
to Mars. Perseverance has the distinction of
being the first mission charged with drilling
and collecting core samples of Martian rocks,
soil, and dust for future intensive laboratory
analyses. The craft will also test methods to
explore the possibility of potentially producing
oxygen in the noxious Martian atmosphere
and strive to identify other useful planetary
features such as subsurface water.
Landing the craft intact will prove to be a
daunting challenge. Successful landings have
only been accomplished half the time which
includes the Curiosity Rover that touched
down on the surface unscathed back in 2012.
See Student Challenge, page 4
Huber’s Hiccups
News for the City of Good
Neighbors from an Old Guy
named Norb Huber
Tommy Lasorda and
Don Sutton
One was a great ambassador for
the game of baseball and the other
the all time wins leader in Dodger
history. Both of these Dodger alltime
greats passed away recently.
Tommy will be well remembered for the wild
waving of his hands, belly protruding, running
on to the field after Gibson’s World Series
home run. Don was the master pitcher with
a fuzzy hairdo that won 324 games in his
long career. He only once had a 20 victory
season. What do we take away from these
great? Honesty, integrity, enthusiasm, hard
work and a sheer love for the game that
they played and coached. Even Giant fans
respected Tommy for his enthusiasm even
when he was on the enemy’s side. Tommy
and Don join with other Dodger greats up
there with the Big, Blue Dodger in the sky.
Change
There is change going on. The vaccine
shots are starting to be administrated. The
virus might finally be starting to subside
some. Some of the lockdown procedures
“might” be lifted in some counties.
We have a new president and vice
president and administration and
leaders who may change some
of the directives that the pervious
administration had instituted.
The southern border might be a
flash point for those seeking to
gain entrance to the US of A. The
questions that just are starting to be
asked include, higher taxes? More
stimulus money? When will the restaurants
and schools and churches reopen? Were the
lockdowns worth it? When will I be able
to stop wearing a mask? 2021 is just starting,
it will certainly be interesting see how
this all plays out. We are not going back to
total normalcy. The US and the world will
never be the same. Life is changing ever so
quickly; we just have to “go with the flow”.
Be flexible. Be limber. Have a real cold one
and bend but don’t break. Me change? It
takes a lot for a white, old geezer, who drinks
ever once in a while, writes stupid stuff, and
trusts in God to change. Who needs Twitter?
As long as “they” don’t ban me from reading
my bible and having a cold one, I’m great.
The cancel culture will never ban me or shut
me down, they don’t read stupid crap like
See Huber’s Hiccups, page 4
Classifieds
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you have any doubts about the nature of a company, contact the local office of the Better Business Bureau, (213) 251-9696. Herald
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Employment
Part-time Sales. Looking for motivated
part-time workers. Inside sales: work
from home and make sales calls.
15% commission on all sales. Outside
sales: territories are Torrance and
El Segundo. Includes walking and
interacting with business owners. 20%
commission on all sales. Seniors and
students welcome. Send resume to
management@heraldpublications.com.
For Rent
Room for Rent in House; 1 private
BDRM, $1000, all house access,
utilities paid. Available now. ALSO
King size bed. Complete, like new.
$195. 310.365.1481 or 310.641.2148.
Wanted
WANTED. Vinyl, vinyl, vinyl records,
anything musical. Collectibles/
antiques. Typewriters, sewing
machines, military, silver, Japan,
records, stamps, coins, jewelry,
Chinese, ANYTHING. Buy/Sell/
Trade. We sell for you on EBAY.
Studio Antiques, El Segundo.
310.322.3895.
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CLASSIFIED ADS – ONLY $40
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The Magical Retirement Community, And Fantasy
Masking Darkness, in ‘Some Kind of Heaven’
By Ryan Rojas, Cinemacy.com
Fulfillment, satisfaction, completion, contentment,
peace. It’s what we’re all striving
to achieve in our lives.
Yet life is hard, and we don’t always stay on
this track. Our flaws and insecurities, measured
against our boundless imaginations, can make for
a hard reality to adjust to if we’re not content
with where we’re at in life. Especially living
in present-day America, where reality has been
proven to be whatever personal construction
we make it to be.
And as we make it into the twilight of our
lives, our shortcomings become even more
magnified. So, wouldn’t a place that offered
aging seniors the opportunities to pursue those
fantasies be a good thing?
A new documentary, directed by Lance Oppenheim
and executive produced by Darren
Aronofsky and The New York Times, shows
retired living at The Villages, America’s largest
retirement community. This magical oasis offers
its local community an unlimited number of
recreational activities to do and, with that, an
infinite amount of people you can be.
Home to 130,000 residents, the Florida-set
retirement community is shown as a place
where the aged have escaped to live out their
final years, experiencing the fountain of youth
(which is what The Villages founder Harold S.
Schwartz advertised to baby boomers).
Some of the gray-haired are clearly okay with
having a good time, living out their hedonistic
pleasures of “nightclubbing” and meeting new
singles. But others, who Oppenheim centers the
film around, see the falsehood in the proscenium
and grapple with the darkness that lingers at bay.
The characters who Oppenheim follows are
strong and distinct: there’s married couple Reggi
& Ann, who are trying to maintain a marriage
under Reggi’s cratering mental state (tai chi
and drugs assisting). There’s Dennis Dean, a
van-living man seeking to get close enough
into The Villages to find stability (and a sugar
mama); and Barbara Lochiatto, a widowed
woman looking to step back into romantic life.
Oppenheim crafts Some Kind of Heaven into
a wonderfully off-kilter experience, in which
the dreamy surrealism of The Villages is seen
as being in a magical trance. Captured in 4:3
aspect ratio, the cinematography by David
Bloen captures the oddity in the manufactured
synchronicity. And it very much captures the
illusion of fantasy making our darkness.
Some Kind of Heaven is a must-watch. Its
sharp observations make for a documentary
that plays like a comedy and a dark drama.
And underneath it all is a film about identity.
I’m reminded by a quote from Shantideva:
“All the suffering there is in this world arises
from wishing our self to be happy.” There may
be something to that, here. But if all that’s too
much for you, I know a place where you can
go to make all your life’s troubles disappear.
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures, ‘Some
Kind of Heaven’ is now available to watch
on-demand. •
Some Kind of Heaven, courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Ryan Rojas