California, Missions, and Astronomy...

One of the nice things about Silicon Valley is the plethera of colleges and universities who offer all kinds of unusual lectures. Where else but here would we get to hear a talk combining, for example, astronomy, ancient cultures, and the California Missions?

My 4th grade daughter, an amateur astronomer, also did a California missions project this year as mandated for all California elementary students. She did a movie on Mission San Jose, a walking tour through the recently renovated mission describing all of it's interesting history and features. One viewer said she was the "next Sister Wendy".

I recall studying some of this from a physics perspective via Heilbron at Cal, so it was interesting to see the young ernest professor struggle with discussing Heilbron - in fact, he admitted he found him very hard to read. I don't think that would have excused us at Berkeley, though, since Heilbron is a legend in the physics and history community.

An attorney with the state of California who saw my daughter's video (she used a digital camera, mission template, and the ExecProducer service - I guess it helps when mom is the CTO) mentioned there were problems with mission funding right now. In a tight state budget, missions and lots of other stuff tend to get put aside (as well as the church-state issue, which complicates matters further).

So this eager professor who had a few interesting ideas on how the mission designs were influenced by astronomical effects also admitted he couldn't seem to get a grant. I wouldn't be surprised if others are in the same boat, given what I heard. I told him to not take it so hard, and keep working on his project, try to interest schools and astronomy groups in his work, and reposition it slightly to open it up to a broader interest group.

But it's a reminder that for a professor at a small college, the academic life can be quite hard.