A4
East Oregonian
Thursday, July 18, 2019
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Editor
WYATT HAUPT JR.
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Legacy of the moon landing still benefits agriculture
F
ifty years ago the entire world
turned its eyes to the heavens
as astronauts from the United
States landed on the moon.
Those alive at the time remember
the story. Younger readers may need a
brief tutorial.
The space program was as much a
political operation as it was a scientific
pursuit. In the midst of the Cold War,
the Soviets launched the first satellite
in 1957 and the Space Race was off
and running.
The military applications of rocket
technology were obvious and mostly
went unstated. To the public, the Space
Race was a competition between capi-
talism and communism for ideological
bragging rights.
In 1962, President Kennedy com-
mitted the United States to sending an
American to the moon and back before
the end of the decade. On July 20,
1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
landed on the Sea of Tranquility as
Michael Collins orbited the moon.
NASA astronauts made five additional
landings, the last in December of 1972.
Since then NASA has concentrated
on unmanned exploratory missions
and manned earth orbital flights.
The innovation that led to the suc-
cessful exploration of the moon, and
those that have followed in the post-lu-
Photo courtesy of NASA
Man landing on the moon created many benefits for people on earth.
nar space program, have been of great
value to earth-bound agriculture.
NASA has documented several
examples over the years. Here are just
a few:
• Wireless telemetry — the collec-
tion of measurements and other data
at one location and transmitting it to
another location — was not born in the
space program, but it was perfected for
manned and unmanned space flight.
Experiments left on the moon by
the Apollo astronauts relayed data to
earth for years afterwards. Sensors
in farm fields use telemetry to relay a
variety of data regarding a variety of
crop conditions directly to a farmer’s
cell phone. It also makes it possible
for farmers to monitor and control
irrigation equipment without enter-
ing the field.
• Global Positioning Systems make
it possible to pinpoint the location of
an earthbound receiver by triangulat-
ing the signals of multiple orbiting sat-
ellites. GPS makes possible precision
agriculture and self-guiding tractors
and combines.
• Satellite imagery makes it possible
to monitor crop conditions and forecast
yields. Through remote sensing satel-
lites help keep track of the snowpack
and aid in water resource management.
• Fertilizer developed for use
onboard space stations has found its
way to fields on earth.
At some point in the 1970s it
became fashionable, given the growing
social problems of the times, to ques-
tion the expense of the space program.
But the technology produced as a
result of the U.S. space program has
changed, for the better, virtually every
industry and the lives of every person
alive today in ways that could not have
been imagined in 1957. Certainly that
is true for agriculture and farmers.
The moon landing was a singu-
lar achievement in human history. But
the practical applications of the tech-
nology that made it possible, and that
have been developed as a result, are
the enduring legacy of our quest for
the moon.
OTHER VIEWS
It’s a computer bag,
not a man purse
D
Legislature fails to deliver fire help
Medford Mail Tribune
T
he 2019 legislative session will be
remembered more for what it didn’t
accomplish than for what it did,
thanks in large measure to the two walk-
outs staged by Senate Republicans to block
legislation they didn’t like. That makes it
all the more frustrating that a relatively tiny
request by Southern Oregon lawmakers to
address the issue of wildfires fell through
the cracks of the dysfunctional session,
missing an opportunity to tackle the prob-
lem right away.
As a result, this region must wait through
another fire season and maybe longer before
anything close to real action can take place.
Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, who sits
on Gov. Kate Brown’s Council on Wildfire
Response, spearheaded a proposal to allo-
cate $6.8 million to thin forests around cit-
ies in Jackson County. Despite bipartisan
support from Rep. Kim Wallan, R-Medford,
the proposal did not pass.
We were critical of the governor’s deci-
sion to appoint yet another committee to
address the very immediate threat of wild-
fires and the smoke they bring to our region.
We remain disappointed that more is not
being done this year, not next year or the
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of
the East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
one after that — although Marsh’s presence
on that council was a bright spot, and she
did her best to convince up-state legislators
of the urgent need for more funding.
But Wallan said lawmakers from the
northern portions of the state didn’t seem to
understand the need for more resources to
fight fires and to help prevent future confla-
grations. Let us hope we don’t have to suffer
through another smoke-filled summer to get
their attention.
The Governor’s Council is expected
to produce recommendations this fall
— far too late to have any effect on this
summer’s fire season. It’s possible that a
12.73% increase in the Oregon Depart-
ment of Forestry’s budget could provide
some additional money for fire suppres-
sion, but only after the governor’s coun-
cil makes recommendations — “later this
year,” according to an ODF spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, southern Oregonians hold
their collective breath and feel grateful for
somewhat cooler-than-normal tempera-
tures so far this season. If that holds, and
lightning stays away, we could get through
the summer unscathed. But that would
be sheer luck, not the result of leadership
from the governor or assistance from
the Legislature.
espite the accusations, I deny that
To be sure, I’ve made fun of hip, mod-
ern fellows who need a man purse to
I carry a man purse.
carry their sunglasses, notebooks, body
According to the New York
spray, hair goop, diary and whatever
Post, the man purse, or “murse,” is the
other items they tote these days.
“new must-have accessory taking over
One fellow I mocked helped intro-
designers’ spring 2020 men’s runways.”
duce a “manlier looking man purse” a
Murse designs include “cross-body
decade ago because he was tired of other
satchels, fanny packs, top-handle totes
men ribbing him for carrying a more
and compact clutches” — whatever the
feminine-looking handbag. I’m lucky he
heck “clutches” are.
didn’t smack me with his murse.
Like so many other things in
I made fun of another fel-
our divided culture, the murse’s
low whose chiropractor told
growing popularity causes con-
flict that has only grown since
him to get a man purse because
2015, when the Huffington Post
keeping his thick wallet in his
asked its Facebook followers to
back pocket was misaligning
sound off.
his spine. How can we defeat
“Nope....just nope,” wrote one
tough-guy terrorists, I won-
dered, if our guys are getting
female reader.
T om
injured by their wallets?
Another woman wrote: “Does
P urcell
But on the other hand, I no
this mean I wouldn’t have to
COMMENT
longer carry a wallet, keys or
carry my husband’s stuff in my
change in any of my pockets.
bag? Then, yes.”
I keep these items in an Italian-made
One obviously hip, new-age fel-
low wrote: “I love my murse. It is the
leather computer bag that goes pretty
best way to carry my book, notebook,
much everywhere I go.
e-reader, pens, medication, ID and cash
I also keep pens, my iPhone, my
and have it all conveniently at hand when
computer, a calculator, a hair brush and
I need it.”
a handful of other unmanly doodads in
I hate to admit it, but I see both sides
there — not unlike the hip, purse-carry-
ing fellows I’ve mocked.
of this issue.
But let’s get this straight: I carry a
On one hand, it bewilders me that
computer bag, not a lousy murse!
hip, urban males choose to adorn them-
selves with fashions — purses, finger-
Which brings me to a troubling
nail polish, even eye liner, which some
accusation I encountered one morning
call “guy liner” — long associated with
at a local coffee shop, where a group
females.
of gray-haired retirees gather most
It puzzles me that fashion is being
mornings.
used to whitewash the differences
My Italian-made leather computer
between men and women and between
bag was hanging from my shoulder
masculinity and femininity. I under-
when an employee of the coffee shop
stand that fashions come and go, but I
told me, “Those old guys are making
prefer fashions that highlight and cele-
fun of your purse!”
brate the sexes’ unique attributes.
How dare those unfashionable cod-
gers mock me for keeping up with the
This is partly because of the era in
times.
which I was raised. Like other mascu-
line men, my father carried a fat wallet
———
in a back pocket, his keys in his left front
Tom Purcell is a Pittsburgh Tri-
bune-Review humor columnist and is
pocket, and lots of change in his right
nationally syndicated exclusively by
pocket — which he jangled with his hand
Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.
as he shot the bull with other men.
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