LAKEPORT, Calif. – Pearl Harbor Survivors, Chapter 23 North, Lake County, will observe the 75th anniversary of the attack of Pearl Harbor during a special ceremony on Wednesday, Dec. 7.

The event will begin at 9 a.m. at Library Park on Park Street in downtown Lakeport before moving across the street to Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St., from 9:15 to 10 a.m.

Honored guests are Lake County’s last Pearl Harbor Survivor Bill Slater, and sweethearts Alice Darrow and Charlotte Bower, whose late husbands were Pearl Harbor survivors.

The ceremony's guest speaker is Brock Falkenberg, the Lake County superintendent of schools.

As a U.S. Army veteran, with more than 21 years of service, Falkenberg has received extensive leadership training and opportunity. He has brought that experience throughout his 24 years to education, and has been recognized with many awards in education for exemplary leadership abilities.

Military ceremonies will be performed by the Lake County Military Funeral Honors Team.

April Knoll, owner of the Travel Center in Lakeport, will sing the national anthem. 

Local Boy Scouts will perform the raising and lowering of flags to half mast.
 
After the ceremony the public is welcome to attend the annual luncheon at the Boathouse Restaurant & Bar, 2685 Lakeshore Blvd., Nice. The no host luncheon will start at noon.

Reservations for the lunch are requested by Nov. 30 by calling Janeane Bogner at 707-998-3280.

Astronomers using observations from NASA's Kepler and Swift missions have discovered a batch of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than 100 times the peak levels ever seen from the sun.

The stars, which spin so fast they've been squashed into pumpkin-like shapes, are thought to be the result of close binary systems where two sun-like stars merge.

"These 18 stars rotate in just a few days on average, while the sun takes nearly a month," said Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and leader of the team. "The rapid rotation amplifies the same kind of activity we see on the sun, such as sunspots and solar flares, and essentially sends it into overdrive."

The most extreme member of the group, a K-type orange giant dubbed KSw 71, is more than 10 times larger than the sun, rotates in just 5.5 days, and produces X-ray emission 4,000 times greater than the sun does at solar maximum.

These rare stars were found as part of an X-ray survey of the original Kepler field of view, a patch of the sky comprising parts of the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

From May 2009 to May 2013, Kepler measured the brightness of more than 150,000 stars in this region to detect the regular dimming from planets passing in front of their host stars.

The mission was immensely successful, netting more than 2,300 confirmed exoplanets and nearly 5,000 candidates to date.

An ongoing extended mission, called K2, continues this work in areas of the sky located along the ecliptic, the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun.

"A side benefit of the Kepler mission is that its initial field of view is now one of the best-studied parts of the sky," said team member Padi Boyd, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who designed the Swift survey.

For example, the entire area was observed in infrared light by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer observed many parts of it in the ultraviolet. "Our group was looking for variable X-ray sources with optical counterparts seen by Kepler, especially active galaxies, where a central black hole drives the emissions," she explained.

Using the X-ray and ultraviolet/optical telescopes aboard Swift, the researchers conducted the Kepler–Swift Active Galaxies and Stars Survey (KSwAGS), imaging about six square degrees, or 12 times the apparent size of a full moon, in the Kepler field.

"With KSwAGS we found 93 new X-ray sources, about evenly split between active galaxies and various types of X-ray stars," said team member Krista Lynne Smith, a graduate student at the University of Maryland, College Park who led the analysis of Swift data. "Many of these sources have never been observed before in X-rays or ultraviolet light."

For the brightest sources, the team obtained spectra using the 200-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory in California. These spectra provide detailed chemical portraits of the stars and show clear evidence of enhanced stellar activity, particularly strong diagnostic lines of calcium and hydrogen.

The researchers used Kepler measurements to determine the rotation periods and sizes for 10 of the stars, which range from 2.9 to 10.5 times larger than the sun. Their surface temperatures range from somewhat hotter to slightly cooler than the sun, mostly spanning spectral types F through K.

Astronomers classify the stars as subgiants and giants, which are more advanced evolutionary phases than the sun's caused by greater depletion of their primary fuel source, hydrogen. All of them eventually will become much larger red giant stars.

Forty years ago, Ronald Webbink at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign noted that close binary systems cannot survive once the fuel supply of one star dwindles and it starts to enlarge.

The stars coalesce to form a single rapidly spinning star initially residing in a so-called "excretion" disk formed by gas thrown out during the merger. The disk dissipates over the next 100 million years, leaving behind a very active, rapidly spinning star.

Howell and his colleagues suggest that their 18 KSwAGS stars formed by this scenario and have only recently dissipated their disks. To identify so many stars passing through such a cosmically brief phase of development is a real boon to stellar astronomers.

"Webbink's model suggests we should find about 160 of these stars in the entire Kepler field," said co-author Elena Mason, a researcher at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics Astronomical Observatory of Trieste. "What we have found is in line with theoretical expectations when we account for the small portion of the field we observed with Swift."

The team has already extended their Swift observations to additional fields mapped by the K2 mission.

“Blessed be agriculture! If one does not have too much of it.” – Charles Dudley Warner in 1870

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – What's not to like about eating local? A century ago it was the only way to dine. Before petroleum power, a person had no other choice than to eat local.

We are fortunate here in Lake County to live in a landscape rich in agriculture, with many of us tending home gardens and frequenting local farm stands, along with farmer's markets.

As “locavores” we can enjoy the benefits of good health by eating fresh and local, as well as take pleasure in supporting our community's economy.

Now is the time of harvest for our county's famous pear crop, wine grapes and walnuts.

Everyone loves Lake County's famous walnuts. When I was a kid, my grandmother sent two milk cartons full-to-the-brim with shelled walnuts from her Upper Lake orchard to Southern California each winter. What a treat!

The humble walnut, that crunchy, mild-flavored, versatile seed of a drupe, has been farmed in Lake County since the 1870s.

It is typical for Lake County's English walnut varieties to by grafted onto black walnut root stock for a more robust tree. Shelling of English walnuts is much easier than that of the black walnut, as well.

If you want to see fall color, take a motor-tour around the county for some eye-popping color.

Walnuts are not only prized for their flavor and texture, but are powerhouses of nutrition. The benefits of eating walnuts are many, and include their healthy high-protein content. Walnuts are packed with B vitamins, fiber, magnesium and vitamin E among many other virtues.

Walnuts are a favorite in holiday cooking and make a great addition to any salad, cereal or stuffing year-round. Keep them stored in a cool, dry place and you can munch on them for months to come.

A favored way to enhance their flavor is to lightly sauté them with a dollop of olive oil in a pan on the stove for a minute or so, then add a dash of salt, or your favorite condiment.

According to the Lake County Department of Agriculture's 2015 Crop Report there are 3,750 bearing acres of walnuts in Lake County. The report stated, “ The gross value of walnuts was $5,383,560, a decrease of 25 percent and production slightly decreased.”

The report continued, “There was a big difference in the price per pound for conventional growers. ($.65) and organic growers ($3.00).”

Local walnut farmer Jeff Mannisto, who is also a resource teacher at Coyote Valley Elementary School, is the owner of “Sky Diamond Ranch.” He has been farming walnuts for 44 years and has 40 acres. I asked him some questions about walnut farming in Lake County.

Question: What is one of the joys, or positives about farming walnuts in Lake County? What is the hardest, most difficult part?

Answer: Knowing that I provide quality, certified organic walnuts for the market and receive a fair price for my walnuts. The most difficult time is if our machinery breaks down during the harvest which can delay our harvest. Early rains and falling leaves can also be troublesome.

Question: What does a typical year of walnut orchard operations entail, and are you able to do most of it yourself?

Answer: Winter, pruning; spring, planting new trees, mowing the orchard floor, selective tilling around the buildings for fire prevention; summer, cutting suckers, machinery repair if needed; fall, harvesting. Yes, my two sons and I do most of the work along with hired labor for picking and sacking the walnuts.

Question: During fall, one of the last steps you take is to send walnut to a dryer, correct?

Answer: Yes, to Ellis Ranch Hulling and Drying which has dried and shipped our nuts since the early 70s. After hulling and drying, our nuts are shipped to Dixon Ridge Farms for marketing.

Question: I have seen Lake County walnuts in the Canary Islands, where my family resides. Do you know where yours end up?

Answer: Yes, Europe, Germany, Spain, Japan, China, South Korea, India and Turkey. TV and magazine ads by the California Walnut Commission/Walnut Board have  promoted significant demand for California walnuts.

Question: Did the drought have a big impact on your crops, or other walnut farmer's crop yield?

Answer: My orchard is dry farmed so my trees are not dependent upon water allocations as some of the Sacramento Valley walnut growers are dependent. My trees have had stress from less rainfall over the course of the drought causing limb die back and death to some whole trees. I estimate my yield has declined about 10 percent for each year of the drought.
 
Question: Even though we had a pretty typical rain year, we are still, technically in the drought. What precautions do you take to ensure a good yield?

Answer: For one precaution, using the mowed clippings as mulch tends to preserve moisture in the ground and helps ease soil erosion. For another precaution, keeping the harvested nuts as dry as possible to prevent mold prior to sending them to the huller and dryer.

Question: Is this an early year for the walnut harvest in Lake County?

Answer: The earliest that I have seen my walnuts mature was mid-September-however the usual maturity time is between mid to late October for my variety which tends to follow the grape harvest. This has been good timing in the past as harvesting labor is more readily available after the grapes have been harvested.

Question: What happens on the farm after the fall?

Answer: Walnut sacks, pails and machinery are put away for the winter and a completed harvest dinner is enjoyed!

Thank you, Jeff!

For information on where to buy local foods visit the Lake County Local Food Guide at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Assets/Administration/Docs/EatFresh.pdf .

For a video on budding, grafting and planting, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQv65gYTtNU&feature=youtu.be .

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.