As a retired science teacher, I live with my wife, Mary, plus a few chickens and many wild birds, in Sooke, a small town west of Victoria, BC, Canada. Below are a few of my hobbies over the years, hoping to do my little bit to help people. Click on pictures to go to webpages
The Earth Today Many links for weather, tides, river levels, lightning, earthquakes, tsunamis, emerrgency sites, etc. Amateur Seismology    I grew up in California and became fascinated with earthquakes, so I built my own seismograph. The trace on the logo at top was my recordingon my classroom seismograph of the M5 quake that triggered Mt. St. Helens. At right is a Mag. 6.5 quake I picked up from Northern California.      I also work as a volunteer for the Pacific Geoscience Centre near Victoria making earthquake models.	The Sun Now Solar Activity, Ionosphere, Radio reception, etc.    Many links useful for amateur radio. The image at left is the current ionization of the ionisphere. Amateur Radio VA7SSE     I earned an Advanced amateur radio license in April 2010 to help with radio work in the local Emergency Program.     I have a Yaesu FT450 6m-160m radio, an MFJ 1796 vertical 2m-40m antenna, plus a 20-40-80m horiz. dipole. My main interest is DX (distant contacts) and HF Networks for emergency use.
Tsunami Rider novel    I'm writing a novel about the next big earthquake and tsunami on the West Coast. It includes many useful details how a small neighbourhood can not only survive without services, but have fun doing it.    Because I've taught teenagers for over 25 years, and have been married for 46 years, the novel is a pro-marriage teen romance with tips about how a girl, an artist, can catch and keep Mr. Right, a float plane pilot.	Tsunami 1700 Nootka Sound ..."You are there."    As a prologue to the main story (left)-- I developed a "you are there" description of the effects of the 26 Jan 1700 earthquake and tsunami on the First Nations villages, culture and history of the Nuu-chah-nulth on the west coast of Vancouver Island, and the Mowachaht-Muchalat Band in Nootka Sound. In 2009 I visited an old village site with Head Chief Norman George and met with elders at Gold River.     I have given PowerPoint shows on this to scientists at the Pacific Geoscience Centre (21 Jan 2010), and at the University of Victoria with the Victorian Natural History Society (26 Apr 2010).
Hidden Talents.org -- How Your Brain Works    As a teacher of subjects ranging from academic physics to vocational logging, I wanted to learn about why my students had such varied talents. After studying textbooks on neuropsychology, I developed simple diagrams about how the brain works, and brain maps to help people understand talent differences.    I'm working on a book called "Hidden Talents" that shows how parents and teachers can respect natural differences in children, including helping find the right music instrument, sport or career to fit a child's talents.     I put the material on a website, HiddenTalents.org, and then I got many requests to use the brain maps in hospital out-patient clinics for brain inuries, in university psychology and neuroanatomy textbooks, and for various popular books and self-help groups. (see feedback).     In Google, type "brain women" --- In 2010, there were over 60 million webpages with those words. My page on Hidden Talents about male vs. female brains comes up near #1, which means that more pages link to my page than the others, which is a big compliment. I have done no promotion and make no money from it, but I'm happy that my work has been useful.
Colorblindness     About 1 in 15 men have some form of color vision deficiency, or one boy per classroom (but only 1 in 300 women), yet never was I told which students in my class had color vision problems. As part of the Hidden Talents project, I developed some on-line tests that can help parents check their children to see if professional testing might be appropriate. 1=Normal vision    2=Most common (weak green)   3=second most common (no red)...how all mammals but primates see color.
Vocational Education     I have taught both academic physics and vocational logging programs in high school, and I respect both talent areas. However, more than 90% of youth do not go to academic universities, and non-academic youth are often treated as "dummies" and 2nd class citizens by teachers. I promote high respect and high standards appropriate for all talent areas (physicsand farming, music and mechanics, art and sports, etc.). The Hidden Talents program above was motivated by the desire to understand talent differences.
.High School Logging     From 1973-1983 I developed and ran for 10 years a production logging operation in grades 10-12, putting out 17 truckloads of logs per year in rural high school. We completely rebuilt a 1960 Kenworth truck, and owned a bulldozer and skidder. Students learned logging, heavy duty mechanics, truck air brakes, forestry principles, blasting with dynamite, and many other useful career skills. The program is still running in 2010.	High School Career-Prep     Based on the success of the logging course, the BC Ministry of Education in 1975 asked me to work with several other shop teachers to develop a better plan for vocational students. We developed the "Career-Prep" program for the province, which is still the main plan for almost all serious high school vocational training in every high school in the province.     Examples of Career-Prep Programs: Central Okanagan, Victoria High, Esquimalt High,
<-- Grade 8 ------- Grade 10 --> Flying     I got a private pilot's license in 1964, but couldn't afford to keep it up. Instead I have encouraged other youth to fly by running Flying Clubs in many schools, ranging from grade 5 (10 years old) to grade 12. After learning on Microsoft Flight Simulator, students take demonstration flights at local airports with professional flying schools. Parents love to see their youngsters in such a responsible activity.     Youth can fly a plane solo at age 14. In my Tsunami Rider novel, the boy is a natural pilot taking lessons while 15. On his 16th birthday he gets his Recreational License, and can legally take his girl friend for a 2-hour "flying date." He is now old enough to apply for a "learner's license" so he can learn to drive a car.
Prostate Cancer     What the doctor is talking about -- After I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002, I did some research on the web which might be useful to other men to explain the terminology. (I had a successful operation in 2003.).	Rotary Club of Sooke     Member 2003 - 2010. Rotarian-of-the-Year award in 2004. I did the weekly newsletter, Audio-Visual, and much of the computer data processing for a big auction...the "club-nerd." I had to leave to give me more time for my other projects."
Physics theory Higgs bosons as bonding virtual pairs     A muon may be just an electron bonded to a virtual pair, hence a "massive electron." Therefore, Higgs bosons may be just another name for virtual pairs.	I worked out a simple bookkeeping system showing that all decay modes of all particles differ in only virtual pairs (mass) and neutrino pairs (bonding angular momentum). It predicts the list of components for particles up through the neutron and proton. Muons as the simplest bonding combination are very important to study. Neutral pions apparently are a very stable combination of 4 virtual pairs.