Personal Note: Gary Ropp Has Passed Away at Age 65, May He Rest in Peace

Gary Allen Ropp, 1952--2018 RIP

Gary Allen Ropp, aged 65, crossed over to the spiritual plane at 4:10 AM on Friday, July 13^th. The dog started barking around 2:15 AM, alerting me to an emergency. I found Gary passed out and gasping for breath on the floor. He was unresponsive. The ambulance arrived within minutes. The medics were unable to revive him to consciousness, although there was a weak pulse. He passed away from a massive heart attack soon after arriving at the hospital. 

Before and after his death, I quietly recited “Onward and Upward” to him, as a reminder to go forward with eyes up, seeking the Light of God. I also asked Franny and Zoey, our recently deceased dogs, to come out to greet him and help him over the Rainbow Bridge. I prayed to Christ and to the All to receive him. Gary was raised in the Christian church and was Born Again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Now it is up to his soul to complete its journey home; I will continue to recite “Onward and Upward” for a full week as recommended by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, just in case he forgets his place in Christ and his soul is confused and wandering.

Gary and I were married for 38 years. We met in an advanced-placement math class on our first day of high school. He went on to do very well in math, majoring in math and statistics, and taking a Master’s degree in Math from the University of Idaho. Gary served for eight years in the U.S. Navy and then spent his civilian career as an operations manager in support of Navy personnel management. After retiring from civil service, Gary went to work as IT support for the College of the Siskiyous in Weed, California. Gary and I also co-owned and operated a bed and breakfast in Ashland, Oregon, the Albion Inn,  from 2008 through 2014, commuting between Ashland and Weed for six years.

Gary was a wonderful pet parent and he doted on the family cats and dogs. He was a thoughtful husband who didn't mind grocery shopping, vacuuming, and taking care of our large yard. Aside from the pets, Gary’s favorite hobbies involved games—board games, card games, computer games. He had endless patience inside game worlds, and he enjoyed exhausting every single challenge a video or VR game threw at him. He was also a world traveler and always up for an adventure. He is now adventuring his way up to heaven where he will be able to see and understand it all.

Gary Ropp, 2017

Critical Thinking: Dr. Puett's Classroom Blessing

My brother, Dr. Bill Puett, retired from teaching philosophy a few years ago. This is the handout he gave to every student who passed through his classrooms over the years. I hope they remember the lesson and are practicing it. This is what an enlightened electorate would look like:

"Other than your living a loving and compassionate life, I wish for you more than anything that you become autonomous. Be fully informed on all important matters and apply critical thinking before making choices. Regard no one as an authority, challenge all beliefs, but listen to others before reaching decisions. Before offering criticism, know an opposing position so well that you can argue it better than the opponent proposing it. In so doing, you may risk your own position. Challenge even well founded beliefs. Reject indoctrination, even from the sciences. Theories never become facts. Not even the earth can be shown to orbit the sun! Once in a while, give Santa's beard a tug."

Cyd's brother, Bill Puett, Ph.D.

First confirmed image of the birth of a planet--arising from a torus!

In the article below, scientists refer to the torus around the baby planet's home star as a "proto-planetary disk."  You will recognize the familiar pattern as what the Simple Explanation calls a "proto-torus." 

This is the first clear image of a planet caught in the act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70.

It's always fun for me to see scientists run across new toroidal patterns, as each instance confirms my hypothesis that the basic material in our universe arises out of toroidal energetic patterns aggregating into material form. In this case, the energetic material is likely growing out of the center of the proto-disk and aggregating into this new planet rather than the other way around--it is not merely matter trapped by the sun.

Here is a reprint of the July 2, 2018 CNN article by Ashley Strickland, announcing the new planet:

A planet-hunting instrument has captured the first confirmed image of a newborn planet that's still forming in our galaxy.

To the right of the black circle at the center of the image, the round bright planet can be seen within the disk of gas and dust around the young dwarf star PDS 70. Of course, the center isn't naturally this dark. Instead, the researchers used a coronagraph to block the bright light of the star in order to look at the disk and the planet.

It's carving out a path through the disk around the star, which is in the Centaurus constellation. The protoplanetary disk is the "planet factory" full of gas and dust around young stars. The planet was found in a gap in this disk, which means it is close to where it was born and still growing by accumulating material from the disk.

The planet, dubbed PDS 70b, was detected by an international team using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile and its planet-hunting instrument, called SPHERE. The instrument is considered to be one of the most powerful planet hunters in existence.

The discovery by two teams of researchers is detailed in two papers published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on Monday.

"These discs around young stars are the birthplaces of planets, but so far only a handful of observations have detected hints of baby planets in them," Miriam Keppler of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, who led one team, said in a statement. "The problem is that until now, most of these planet candidates could just have been features in the disc."

André Müller, also with the Max Planck institute and leader of the second team, said in a statement that "Keppler's results give us a new window onto the complex and poorly-understood early stages of planetary evolution. We needed to observe a planet in a young star's disc to really understand the processes behind planet formation."

SPHERE was able to measure the planet's brightness at different wavelengths, which enabled the researchers to determine the properties of its atmosphere.

This is incredibly challenging, because even though SPHERE used the coronagraph to block the star, it had to seek out the planet's signal in multiple ways.

Researchers were able to determine that it's a giant gas planet and has a blisteringly hot surface temperature of 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit. This is at least a few times the mass of Jupiter, the largest gas giant in our solar system, and well above the highest temperature recorded on any planet in our solar system.

They also deduced that it has a cloudy atmosphere.

Although the planet looks close to its star in the image, it's 1,864,113,576 miles away. That's the same distance as Uranus from our sun. It takes the planet 120 years to orbit the star, which fits with astronomers' predictions that gas giants would need to form quite far from their stars.

Directly imaging the planet is a game-changer. Going forward, researchers will be able test models of how planets form and learn more about the history of how the earliest planetary systems formed, like our own solar system.

"After more than a decade of enormous efforts to build this high-tech machine, now SPHERE enables us to reap the harvest with the discovery of baby planets!" Thomas Henning, director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and leader of the teams, said in a statement.

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Proto-torus shape. Energy from the middle; containment from the boundary. Chalk drawing by Cyd Ropp.

Process Note: the absurdity continues...Cyd Onstage in "Once"

The musical production of "Once, the Musical" has just finished its run, but it turns out we are not allowed to post videos from the show. So, I've pulled a couple of still frames out to post instead.  If you are one of my friends, followers, or family, please email me and request the videos. I am allowed to privately text or mail them; just not post to social media. I've converted the videos to mp4, so they are small and easy to mail.

I was understudy for the character of "Baruska," usually played by Livia Genise, and I had the opportunity to plug into four of the shows on her behalf. This production was directed by Valerie Rachelle and featured so many wonderful actors and musicians. I was honored to be among them.

Cyd Ropp (center, gold jacket) as Baruska, in Oregon Cabaret Theatre's production of "Once, the Musical." With Charlotte Morris, Paul Henry, Michael Spencer, Olivia Nice, and Christopher Fordinal.

In the scene below, my character, Baruska, tells a tragic parable about lost opportunities in Czech, which her daughter simply translates as, "Good luck!" The two other actors onstage are "Girl" played by Olivia Nice, and "Guy" played by Christopher Fordinal. 

 Uh oh. Busted. So quickly, too. videos removed by union rules. Here's a still shot instead.

In this scene, Baruska (Cyd Ropp) joins with the flat's Czech roommates to sing "Ej Pada Pada."  Spivat!

What a great production and wonderful theatre company. Terrific troupe of players! Please visit this link for complete list of production credits. True professionals in every job! I thoroughly enjoyed working with so many people who knew what they were doing and did it so well.

Thank you, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, for the opportunity!