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3C THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2016 BOOKS WHAT ARE THEY READING? he Daily Astorian invites people to submit titles of books they are reading and share a few thoughts about the work. This week, Jean Hooge, who worked as a nurse, taught nursing, and was a psychotherapist for many years, shares some of her favorites. To submit, send to news@ dailyastorian.com T I got rid of giant stacks of books on moving to Asto- ria a little less than year ago from San Antonio, Texas. I love books and even with the best of intentions the books are piling up again. ‘The Wright Brothers’ ,MXVW¿QLVKHGUHDGLQJ³7KH Wright Brothers” by David McCullough. We all know the story of the invention of the ¿UVW DLUSODQH EXW WKLV WHOOV VR much more. The brothers were so dedicated to the precise sci- ence of their work. They went about everything so methodi- cally and never seemed to get discouraged no matter what happened. They were never self-glo- rifying. They were honored and celebrated on two con- tinents but never let it go to their heads. There was never a hint of scandal associated with their name. They took off what time they needed to work in their bicycle shop to support themselves. They never quar- reled with each other or their sister. It is a fascinating story about a great invention and a study of two beautiful Ameri- can heroes. Jean Hooge “In a Special Light” ‘A Common Struggle’ “A Common Struggle” by Patrick J. Kennedy is one of the most enlightening books I have read on mental health and addiction and I have a mas- ters in psychiatric and men- tal health. According to Ken- nedy we have wasted so much money, time, and lives impris- oning the addicted instead of realizing that addiction is a mental health problem and we need to put the needed resources into treatment. Kennedy, a former con- gressman an son of the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, NQRZVDERXWWKHSUREOHP¿UVW- hand as he admits to belonging to a family of addicts and how the sickness is handed down because of the denial. He explains how he worked 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives trying to get the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act passed. It is a story of a family and a prescription of how we can get out of this serious public health problem. ‘Rogue Lawyer’ “Rogue Lawyer” by John Grisham is just another one of his books that I have to gobble up immediately like a choco- late donut. They are not nec- essarily nourishing but they are real entertainment. Grish- am’s books make me feel good because they seem to advocate against our system of punishing the poor more than the wealthy for the same crimes. Sebastian Rudd, the rogue lawyer in this book, does things very differently from the standard lawyers and accepts clients they would not take. All told in the easy read- ing Grisham style. ‘In a Special Light’ “In a Special Light” is writ- ten by Elroy Bode, who is a longtime friend living in El Paso. This is the last of the eight books he has written. He writes about where he lives and the hill country where he was born. As an avid observer of his world — and the art with which he describes the sim- Some of Hooge’s favorite books. ple world around him — has obtained him many followers. In this book he describes searching for his son, what it was like teaching high school for 48 years, and his experi- ences as an intellectual pro- tester to bigotry and the Viet- nam War in Texas in the ’60s. ‘Team of Rivals’ “Team of Rivals,” by one of my favorite writers Doris Kearns Goodwin, doesn’t need me to sing its praises. It is the Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian The underwater robot is shown on a table in the Clatsop Community College physics lab. GH¿QLWLYH ERRN RQ $EUDKDP Lincoln. Goodwin explains how Lin- coln put his rivals in his Cabi- net and learned to govern with their wealth of opinions. She so beautifully tells how this humble man guided this nation through its most turbulent time. There are a host of books on Lincoln but none so well researched. Another goal of Goodwin’s was to show that there can be decency and com- passion in politics. Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Georges Oates Larsen activates the robot simulator on his computer. Robot: Success at regionals could lead to spot in international competition Continued from Page 1C by their interest in mathemat- ics and engineering. Pat Keefe is a focal point for the techni- cally minded students through his physics in calculus course. Budget robotics The competition chal- lenges students to become entrepreneurs who develop a robot on their own dime to perform simulated real- world tasks underwater and in outer space. The college, which has at times outperformed larger research universities on a shoestring budget, has been in the competition for at least a decade. The college stu- dents were recently joined by several more teams from Warrenton High School tak- ing part in the lower levels of the competition. Two months before last year’s competition, Larsen said, the college decided to overhaul its robot, dropping out of the competition in order to perfect its design. “I was just mucking pro- gramming with a little video game, and I was like, ‘You know, I wonder if I could come up with a way to con- trol a whole bunch of thrust- ers on a space ship,’” Larsen said during a robotics club meeting last month, paus- ing for a self-deprecating laugh, “‘automatically so it moved the way I wanted it to move.’” For less than $2,000, the college’s team has built a sparse, cubical metal- lic frame ringed by six con- verted RC airplane motors. In the middle is the encase- ment holding the submers- ible’s control module, the brain translating commands from the team above water through a power and Ethernet tether to the robot below. Real-life video game Pool time is a premium for the college. But Larsen, drawing on his program- ming skills, needs only to plug the robot into his Mac- Book through a USB cord DQG¿UHXSDYLUWXDOHQYLURQ- ment he programmed to sim- ulate the underwater oil well the robot needs to explore for the competition. Using a game controller, he pilots the robot on his com- puter screen, while the sub- mersible’s engines — high and dry — whir on a work bench in the background. “Once we’re done, then it’s just a matter of going to the pool to calibrate it, then we’re good” he said. “That’s quite useful. It’s also useful for giving people something tangible to actually play with, other than motors spinning, which is cool to me, but — you know — not necessar- ily the coolest thing in the world.” Larsen handles the elec- tronics and programming. As captain, he also assigns tasks, from soldering and water- SURR¿QJ WKH URERW¶V FRPSR- nents and building the claw to fundraising to buy parts. Darby Cullen, from Asto- ria, and Jonathan Kaminski from Jewell, engineering stu- dents who joined the team this year, focus largely on another submersible the col- lege is building to dive for shipwrecks this summer in support of the Maritime Archaeological Society. From the Gulf to Jupiter NASA has called for a robot able to survive in both deep space and ocean envi- ronments on Europa, one of at least 67 moons orbiting Jupi- ter and on which scientists believe exists a large ocean underneath a sheet of ice. Hypothetically, the col- lege’s robot needs to be able to survive transport to Europa and deploy instru- mentation underneath the ice sheet. The competition also has the robot simulat- ing a damage assessment in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and turning a wellhead into DQDUWL¿FLDOUHHI Another prospect that gets Larsen and other local robot-builders giddy is the possibility that, if they succeed at regionals, they can earn a spot in the international com- petition at the neutral buoy- ancy lab at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. 3 W AY S TO GE T Y O U R CO PY TOD AY ! OR DER ON LIN E w w w .DiscoverO urCoast.com /order S TOP BY ON E OF OU R 3 LOCATION S A storia • 949 Exchange St. Seaside • 1555 N . Roosevelt Dr. Long Beach • 205 Bolstad A ve. E. #2 o r CALL HOLLY LAR K IN S at 503-325-3211, x227 Em ail: hlarkins@ dailyastorian.com
