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Retirees’ Corner |
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Gus Carlson (Mechanical Engineering, 2000) proudly reports that Ace/Penguin has just
published his son Jeff’s first novel. PLAGUE YEAR is a high tech thriller about the
accidental release of a deadly self-replicating nanotechnology. Interestingly, one of the
front cover “blurbs” is by ex-LLNL employee and New York Times bestselling author Kevin J.
Anderson, who calls it “A grim and fascinating new twist on the post-holocaust story”.
You can find cover art and the first two chapters at Jeff’s web site, www.jverse.com,
along with book-signing dates in the Bay Area and advance information on the sequel,
WAR DAY, coming from Ace in Summer 2008.
Gus (Engineering Directorate, 1993) and Jane (Mechanical Engineering, 1993) Olson, along with Jackie and Alan Mode (NAI, 2000) and granddaughter, Brittany, recently spent 10 days in Alaska. They flew into Fairbanks, spent the night and took a boat tour the next day. They saw moose, an Iditarod sled team in training, and some fantastic maneuvers by a sea plane. They also saw a section of the Alaskan Pipe Line and then visited the University of Alaska Museum before the bus ride to Denali Park. They spent two nights in Denali and went 94 miles into the back country on a school bus. Unlike many visitors to Denali, they did get to see Mount McKinley. They saw many wild animal and birds, including 13 bears. The next morning they visited an Iditarod dog kennel of a 4-time Iditarod winner. They even got to hold new puppies at the kennel. They traveled by the Alaskan Train to Talkeetna passing some of the most beautiful scenery in North America. They spent one night in Anchorage before being bussed to Whittier to catch their Cruise West vessel to tour Prince Williams Sound for 3 days. They saw many glaciers of varying size and shape. Because it was essentially daylight all day and night, much of the glacier viewing happed between 10 p.m. and midnight. They saw beautiful scenery all of the time, enjoyed great company with only 60 fellow cruisers and ate delicious food each meal. They stayed in Anchorage 3 more days, with Gus and Jane exploring, and Jackie, Alan and Brittany visiting Alan’s daughter and family. All went to a 4th of July party, which was a very enjoyable event, even though there were no fireworks since there was no darkness. After two previous Inland Passage cruises, they finally got to see some of the larger part of Alaska. (299) The August Retirees’ Luncheon will be held at noon on Wednesday, August 15th, at the Elks Lodge in Livermore: The speaker for the August meeting is George Farquar. The title of his talk is: "Homeland Security Applications of Single Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometry: Recent Developments at LLNL.” George Farquar is currently a research scientist in the Chemistry, Materials, and Life Sciences Directorate studying aerosol mass spectrometry for homeland security and environmental applications. George was a Glenn T. Seaborg Institute postdoctoral fellow at LLNL where he expanded the use of Bioaerosol Mass Spectrometry (BAMS) detection to include explosives, chemical warfare agents, and drugs." Gus and Jane Olson have been doing the Retirees’ Corner for over four years now and are ready for a change. They would like to give some other retiree the opportunity to take on this job. The only requirement would be that you have a computer and e-mail. Perhaps someone who is retiring soon would enjoy this volunteer job. If you are interested, please send them an email at Jane@LLNLRetirees.org or Gus@LLNLRetirees.org. This article appears in the first August issue of Newsline, 2007 Please send any news or input (please include the date and department from which you retired) to Jane or Gus Olson. E-Mail: Jane@LLNLRetirees.org or Gus@LLNLRetirees.org. |