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Email to the Editor

Hello,

My name is Svenja Wichmann and I am researching an art project that aims to explore and establish interrelationships between several places named Dresden in the United States and the City of Dresden in Saxony, Germany.

I am a postgraduate student in Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden (Germany) and gained the stipend of the state of saxony in 2013 for my postgraduate studies. Since I am currently living in Dresden, Germany I plan to travel to the United States in September 2014 to visit Dresden in Maine, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Kansas.

Any information you may provide about historical or current connections and relations between your Dresden and other places named Dresden in the United States or Germany would be helpful for me. I am looking for stories, friendships, personal experiences, historic and present events, visits to Dresden, family history, political connections and anything else that may cross your mind. I am interested in stories, pictures, reports or numbers of the past and present Life in Dresden.

I would highly appreciate your help in finding any related information for my research. Please forward my contact to anyone who might be interested to share his or her experience or thoughts about Dresden.

Thank you very much in advance for your efforts! Please let me know if you have any further questions about my project.

Yours faithfully,

Svenja Wichmann
wichmann.sv@googlemail.com

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Bits of Everything

Magic Salt on Lake George Streets

Denton publications spotlights the village of Lake George using a new substance instead of traditional rock salt on local roads.

Lindsey Jacobellis: Olympic Profile of US Snowboard Hopeful for Sochi 2014

Bleacher Report profiles Vermont snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, with a video of her agonizing 2006 Torino loss.

Saturn and its Moons in Holiday Dress

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has some amazing pictures of Saturn and its moons as seen by the Cassini spacecraft.

Retired Saratoga Racehorse, Metro, Pays Medical Bills By Painting

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Now For Some History: World War I


This picture appears to show Washington County soldiers headed off to World War I.

It was given to me by Don Hart. Don’s wife, Pamela, is the granddaughter of Ruth Foote. Ruth was the sister of Earle Foote of Huletts Landing. Taken if front of what was then the Whitehall Armory, the name; H. Sullivan is written below the man sitting in the middle.

A larger version of the picture can be seen if you click on the above image. If anyone can identify any of the other soldiers or provide more details about the photograph, I’d appreciate hearing from you.

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Saranac Lake Man Makes US Olympic Luge Team


Left to right: Chris Mazdzer (Silver), Felix Loch (Gold), Dominik Fischnaller (Bronze) after the December 6th World Cup men’s singles luge at Whistler, B.C. Mazdzer finished in second place. (Picture courtesy of International Luge Federation.)

Chris Mazdzer, a luge sled racer from Saranac Lake, secured his place on the US team for the Winter Olympics in Sochi Russia that open in February while competing in Winterberg, Germany at the end of November. I was able to ask Mr. Mazdzer some questions after he finished in second place on December 6th at the World Cup men’s singles luge at Whistler, B.C.

Mazdzer, who hails from Saranac Lake, should be back in the North Country for the holidays. The USA Olympic luge team nominees were recently announced but Mazdzer’s top finishes in World Cup races guarantee him a spot on the team. He will use two World Cup races in North America in December and four in Europe in January as a warm-up for his second Olympic games. Mazdzer is a veteran of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, where he finished 13th.

Below is my interview with him.

How do you feel knowing that you’ve secured a place on the 2014 Olympic Team?

Knowing that I have already guaranteed a spot on the 2014 Olympic Team was an incredible sense of relief. The sport of luge is timed to the thousandth of a second and most race fields are within a second of the leader. There are variables that can happen and situations that can arise when sliding down a mile long ice track that can easily drop an athlete back towards the back of the field. Securing a spot on the team has allowed me to focus more on the process as opposed to the result. I can now think “how can this track help me prepare for Sochi” as opposed to concentrating specifically on that track.

As you wrap up the World Cup events before the Olympics, what are your goals?

My specific goal for the World Cups leading up to the Olympics is to be ranked in the top 12 athletes. During the Olympics the top ranked 12 athletes will go first in the order and this is a significant advantage. If there is any kind of precipitation or warm weather the first athletes will have the fastest ice and an overall advantage.

What goes through your head while competing?

I would have to say that there are three components to this question. First, about 10 to 15 minutes before the actual run I am constantly doing pre-run visualizations and going over exactly what I am going to do. I find that during this step I am nervous, excited and sometimes feel uncertain as to what exactly is going to happen. Second, about 2 minutes before I go down I clear my head and try not to concentrate on the run because when going down the track everything happens so fast that if you are thinking you may be reacting too slow. Finally, when going down the track I am focused 100% on every little detail that is happening, I am just trying to let my instincts take over and focus on keeping good position and reacting to how the sled feels underneath me. In total, I find that I try to build myself up so I can feel the adrenaline kicking through my body, focus on exactly what I have to do and then try let everything go and be in the moment.

What will be unique for you about the Sochi Olympics?

The Sochi Olympics will be unique for me in the sense that this time I will be the highest ranked US Luge athlete competing. In Vancouver I had two experienced teammates that helped guide me through the process and take the pressure off. The role has been reversed this time around and I will be the experienced athlete at the Olympics for luge.

Any words for you Adirondack fans?

I first want to thank everyone who has supported me over the years and also want to tell everyone to go out and enjoy the Winter. The Adirondack’s are one of the only places in the country the breathes Winter Olympic Sports and I want to encourage every child and adult to go out into the winter and have fun !!!

Chris, I can safely say that we’ll be rooting for you in the 2014 Olympics!

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NASA Space Telescopes Find Patchy Clouds on Exotic World


Kepler-7b (left), which is 1.5 times the radius of Jupiter (right), is the first exoplanet to have its clouds mapped. The cloud map was produced using data from NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MIT

Things have been rather slow lately, but I saw this on NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s website and found it rather interesting.

PASADENA, Calif. — Astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system, a sizzling, Jupiter-like world known as Kepler-7b.

The planet is marked by high clouds in the west and clear skies in the east. Previous studies from Spitzer have resulted in temperature maps of planets orbiting other stars, but this is the first look at cloud structures on a distant world.

“By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution ‘map’ of this giant, gaseous planet,” said Brice-Olivier Demory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Demory is lead author of a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “We wouldn’t expect to see oceans or continents on this type of world, but we detected a clear, reflective signature that we interpreted as clouds.”

Kepler has discovered more than 150 exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, and Kepler-7b was one of the first. The telescope’s problematic reaction wheels prevent it from hunting planets any more, but astronomers continue to pore over almost four years’ worth of collected data.

Read the whole press release here.

It looks like the ending credits from Star Trek: Into Darkness aren’t that far fetched after-all.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-W6XIWOiMA

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A Visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania

September 11, 2001 has been chronicled by many, but the Pennsylvania field where so many heroic people died on Flight 93, fighting against terrorism, is a place which now has national significance.

One of my resolutions from this past year was to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, PA. On a trip to Pittsburgh on a clear December day last year, I was able to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial. On this 12th anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, I thought it fitting to share my pictures from that visit.

Below are my photos with captions (click to see full-scale).


As you exit the Pennsylvania Turnpike, you immediately find yourself in the mountains of Western Pa.


The road is a quiet country drive through the mountains. This shot was taken looking south toward the state of Maryland.


The sign for the Memorial from the road.


Once you enter, the road continues for about a mile into the Memorial.


A timeline of the events that occurred on Flight 93 on September 11, 2001.


The crew and passengers aboard Flight 93.


The Memorial was originally a mining operation. On the day of September 11th, there were workers on heavy equipment working on the site.


The area surrounding the Memorial as it looks today.


The visitors center is located near the parking lot. One walks from the visitors center into the Memorial.


The names of the victims are inscribed on the Memorial.


The actual crash site is off-limits but can be seen from the Memorial.


The stone marks the spot where Flight 93 crashed. The area without tall grass shows the flight path.


The crash site.


The walk back to the visitors center.

Eternal rest, grant unto them O Lord
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

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President Obama’s Statement on the Boston Bombers

“One thing we do know is that whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not — cannot — prevail. Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they’ve already failed. They failed because the people of Boston refused to be intimidated. They failed because, as Americans, we refused to be terrorized. They failed because we will not waver from the character and the compassion and the values that define us as a country. Nor will we break the bonds that hold us together as Americans.”

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The Boys of Summer are Back Tonight


The view from the Orioles dugout at Camden Yards in Baltimore.


Another view looking toward home plate and the visitors dugout.

(Click pictures to see full-scale.)

This evening is the official opening of the 2013 Major League baseball season. It’s always great when baseball season starts up again because you know that summer is getting close.

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Ireland

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Recently, Huletts resident, Ed Briody, was in the Emerald Isle visiting his cousins. These pictures are from county Cavan, in the vicinity of Cavan town. Ireland’s majestic green countryside can be seen in all of these pictures. Many thanks to Ed for taking these and passing them along.

Click on all the pictures to see full-scale.

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Happy Hanukkah

Starting at sunset tonight (Saturday), Jews around the world will celebrate the first night of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah – “the festival of lights” – commemorates the Maccabees successful rebellion against Antiochus IV Epiphanes. According to the Talmud, written about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees, the Temple was purified and the wicks of the menorah miraculously burned for eight days, even though there was only enough sacred oil for one day’s lighting.

I wish all those celebrating Hanukkah a happy and joyous holiday.


Tombs of the Maccabees, Modi’in, Israel

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Today: Saint Kateri


Kateri Tekakwitha was officially canonized a “Saint” today.

Today, Kateri Tekakwitha, known as the “Lily of the Mohawks,” became the first native American to be named a saint of the Roman Catholic church. Pope Benedict XVI added Tekakwitha and six others onto the roster of Catholic role models today.

Although she is buried in Kahnawake near Montreal, she grew up in what is now New York state, close to what is now Saratoga Springs. She is considered to have lived in areas throughout the Adirondacks during her life.

Pope Benedict XVI, speaking in Latin at St. Peter’s Basilica, declared each of the seven new saints worthy of veneration by the entire church.

Numerous miracles attributed to Kateri’s intercession were part of the canonization process. A child saved from a fatal fresh eating disease, another child cured of a 65-percent hearing loss, and an ironworker who lost 16 vertebrae, fracturing his ribs and skull through a dangerous fall – and lived tell the tale; were considered miracles attributed to Saint Kateri’s intercession.

Raised by her uncle, near present day Fonda, N.Y., Kateri was inspired by Jesuit missionaries to study Catholicism. After her baptism, she became ostracized by her family and village and was threatened and ridiculed. In 1677 she fled to a Jesuit mission in Quebec where she taught prayers to children and worked with the sick and elderly.

The Mohawk settlement where Kateri was raised was abandoned in the late 1600s. However, the old wood post molds of the defense wall and longhouse buildings were discovered after WWII. Today a shrine is built there in her memory.

She died at the age of 24 from small pox uttering her last words; “Jesus, I love you.”

Kateri’s cause for canonization started in 1932 after more than a century of beseeching from Catholics devoted to her. Pope Pius XII declared her venerable in 1943, Pope John Paul II beautified her in 1980. Finally, Pope Benedict XVI signed the decree for her canonization last December.

Today, Catholics call her Saint Kateri and view her as an example in living a good, holy life.

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Remembering September 11th

On September 11, 2001, I was about three miles from the Pentagon going through some training that the company I worked for had sent me to. I was in a computer lab, learning some new software and on a break around 10:00 a.m. someone said that a plane had flown into the one of the World Trade Center Towers. People started checking online and then all of sudden we heard fighter planes flying above us. I went outside and saw three fighter planes flying real low and smoke coming from the Pentagon. Everything was cancelled immediately. I still have a grainy picture on my phone of the military jets flying above Virginia.

The world changed that day for all of us.

Since then I’ve been to the World Trade Center site and back to the Pentagon. One of my resolutions for this year, is that I will make it to the Shanksburg, PA memorial.

Whatever you’re doing today, let us all never forget.