ME AND MY MOM

May these photos allow you to experience again, the warm feelings of love your Mother,~ and all the Mothers that have nurtured, protected, and supported you, loving you like their own ~ have shown you.
lovu,
Kendke

 

Uh-oh!)

 

Thank you Judy~

Claudia Alexander, NASA Manager Who Led Jupiter Mission, Dies at 56

 

Photo Credit Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times

 
 Claudia Alexander had a pioneering role in the Galileo mission and was NASA’s scientist on the international Rosetta project.  

The New York Times

 By SAM ROBERTS

JULY 19, 2015

 

Claudia Alexander, who played a pioneering role in NASA’s Galileo mission to Jupiter and the international Rosetta space-exploration project, died on July 11 in Arcadia, Calif. She was 56.

The cause was breast cancer, her sister, Suzanne Alexander, said.

Dr. Alexander was a rarity at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for two reasons: She was a woman, and she was black. She was also considered a brilliant scientist.

She joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory after getting her doctorate and was the last project manager of the 14-year, $1.5 billion Galileo mission, which ended in 2003, and the project scientist for NASA on the European Space Agency’s Rosetta project, which launched more than a decade ago. She was responsible for $35 million in instruments to collect data on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, including its temperature.

Dr. Alexander’s areas of expertise included the evolution and physics of comets, Jupiter and its moons, Venus, plate tectonics and the stream of particles from the sun known as solar wind. She wrote or co-wrote more than a dozen scientific papers, several children’s books (including titles in the “Windows to Adventure” series, “Which of the Mountains Is Greatest of All?” and “Windows to the Morning Star”) and, for fun, science fiction.

Claudia Joan Alexander was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on May 30, 1959, and raised in Santa Clara, Calif., during the birth of the computer revolution in the Silicon Valley. Her father, Harold, was a social worker. Her mother, the former Gaynelle Williams, was a librarian who worked for Gordon Moore, who became a co-founder of Intel.

In addition to her sister, she is survived by her brother, David.

“At the age of 5 or 6, the film ‘Fantasia’ opened an imaginative pathway of wonder for me about worlds other than Earth — primitive worlds — and how huge geological forces can impact life-forms there,” Dr. Alexander recalled in an interview with a University of Michigan alumni magazine. She also remembered watching Carl Sagan’s television series “Cosmos” a dozen or more times.

She hoped to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley, to study journalism, but her parents would pay only if she majored in “something ‘useful’ like engineering,” she said. She hated it.

She said in another interview, “I found it was a lot more fun to think about the flow of water in a river than water in the city sewer, so I switched to earth science.” But she had already gravitated toward planetary science, and a mentorship with the astronomer Ray T. Reynolds, during a high school summer internship with NASA.

Her favorite college memory, she said, was “staying up all night with friends arguing about which one of us was going to do the most for mankind with the research we were doing.”

She graduated from Berkeley and went on to earn a master’s degree at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a doctorate from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Alexander was so inspired by Johannes Kepler’s research into circular orbits, what she called a lifelong dedication to “searching out a fundamental truth,” that she was thrilled even to be proved wrong when the discovery of a thin atmosphere on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede upended assumptions that it was frozen solid.

“It was an exciting moment to experience something that changed my whole way of thinking,” she recalled. “I’ve never been so happy to be wrong before.”

She was 40 when she joined the Rosetta project. Rosetta’s lander reached the comet last November.

“They said they wanted someone who was young enough who would still be around when Rosetta gets there 10 years from now,” she explained in an interview with US Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine. “And they said they chose me deliberately for my ability to get along with different cultures.”

In an interview last year with The Los Angeles Times, she recalled that as a black woman in a field dominated by white men, “I’m used to walking between two different cultures.”

“For me,” she added, “this is among the purposes of my life — to take us from states of ignorance to states of understanding with bold exploration that you can’t do every day.”

In an interview with Michigan Engineer magazine, she reminded young people that “loving your work can sometimes be as important as how much money you make.”

She also compared a scientist’s effect on society with that of other careers.

“In the annals of history,” she said, “the athletes and musicians fade, but the ones who make fundamental improvements in humankind’s way of life, and in their understanding of the universe, live on in their discoveries.”

Can I Make You Smile? Maybe Even ...Laugh?

The Serena Slam

 

 Serena Williams 2015 Wimbledon Women's Champion at the 

  Grand Slam Tournament's Annual Champions' Ball

By Erin Carter

It took Serena Williams exactly 83 minutes to win her sixth career Championship and 21st Grand Slam title on Saturday, and just seconds for the world to react to her latest – and most stunning – achievement.

From Kobe Bryant to Billie Jean King, Serena Williams has been hailed a champion and a role model since winning the ladies’ final on Saturday afternoon, her fourth Grand Slam title in a row.

Within the tennis community some of the biggest names in the game raced to congratulate the world No.1 as she edges closer to becoming the most successful ladies’ Grand Slam competitor of all time.

Wimbledon 2014 champion Petra Kvitova was gracious in passing over the mantle to Williams, the new queen of SW19: “Congratulations @serenawilliams on your #Wimbledon title. Too good #21”, she tweeted, while world No.5 and close friend Caroline Wozniacki said: “Congrats Serena @serenawilliams!! What an achievement! 4 slams in a row and 21 in total! Wow!”.

There was no sign of sibling rivalry from five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, who was quick to herald her younger sister’s win: “Another day, another #Wimbledon title. Congrats @serenawilliams.”

Not long after Williams held the Venus Rosewater Dish aloft on Centre Court, tennis legend and 12-time Grand Slam title-holder Billie Jean King was already looking ahead to the next date on the calendar: “21 and counting... congrats @serenawilliams. You are unstoppable! Looking forward to seeing you play @WorldTeamTennis on July 20."

But it wasn’t just the tennis world celebrating Williams’ latest Wimbledon victory; the First Lady of the United States also took notice: “Wow! Huge congrats to @SerenaWilliams for her win at Wimbledon. We're all so proud of you! –mo,” Michelle Obama tweeted.

 
  Truly The Queen of the Ball.
As Stevie says,'Isn't she lovely~'

NBA star Kobe Bryant showed his support for a fellow sporting great, and had a few words of encouragement for seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer ahead of his clash with defending champion Novak Djokovic on Sunday: “Congrats @serenawilliams #differentanimalsamebeast #museon @rogerfederer its ur go #Wimbledon #vinoteam,” he tweeted.

Rapper Drake, who was courtside for Williams’ victory on Centre Court on Saturday, said the win was just reward for her big appetite at SW19: “Showtime Champ. A big plate for all that food you ate at Wimbledon!” he posted.

Musician John Legend, who attended The Championships with wife Chrissy Teigen just days earlier, said it simply: “#SERENASLAM”.

And acclaimed author JK Rowling added her support for the newest Wimbledon title-holder: “#SerenaSlam! I love her. What an athlete, what a role model, what a woman!” she said.

 
J.K. Rowling ‏@jk_rowling Jul 11

I'm #TeamSerena today, because you don't meet many super-talented people nicer than she is. Go @serenawilliams!

 
 


But for all the celebrations Williams was already looking ahead to her shot at a 22nd Grand Slam title and that elusive calendar Grand Slam. The 33-year-old was quick to correct retired tennis champion and now commentator Andy Roddick when he mused she must already be thinking about Flushing Meadows and the opportunity ahead.

“I hear @andyroddick said I'm already thinking about the U.S. Open 5 mins ago? Ummm Andy you are 20 mins late,” Williams quipped.

Elsewhere the BBC lauded Williams as “arguably... the most dominant single athlete in sport over the past 15 years”, while the New York Times reported Williams “has endured as few athletes in any sport have, and at age 33 she is in the midst of the most extended stretch of excellence of her career”. (Their words, my emphasis)

As the messages of congratulations continued to flood in throughout the afternoon, Williams was all but speechless: “No words can describe the feeling I have right now. #SerenaSlam Wow this happened?? It happened in my dreams and its happening again now! Thanks so much for all the support... I love you all so much. We did it... Now you know what I have on my mind now... Let's GOOOOO”.

And the festivities continue~
 

LONDON (AP) — After winning titles again on Wimbledon's grass, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams showed they can cut a rug, too.
Reviving a bygone tradition, Djokovic and Williams busted a move at the Grand Slam tournament's annual champions' dinner, dancing together to "Night Fever," the Bee Gees' disco hit from the 1977 movie "Saturday Night Fever" that starred John Travolta.
There used to be a formal ball held each year at the end of the tournament, and the men's and women's singles champions would dance there — but the musical part of the proceedings was discarded decades ago.
Djokovic called it a "tradition that was a bit forgotten," and said he suggested to Williams and the chairman of the All England Club, Philip Brook, that they bring the dancing back.



  “I was very pleased,” Djokovic said at a news conference at the All England Club on Monday, a day after beating Roger Federer in the final to collect his third Wimbledon title and ninth at a major. “Serena is a great dancer.”

Sagrada~ Sacred~ Holy~ Whole

Parishioners attend the first church service four days after a mass shooting that claimed the lives of nine people at the historic 
Emanuel African Methodist Church, downtown Charleston, South Carolina on June 21, 2015. 

Photo: David Goldman-Pool/Getty Image