A Note from Aubrey

I am so sorry to give you this information via email, we are unable to call everyone and unsure if everyone has gotten the news. Please forgive this format.
Early Friday morning (January 28th) Wayne passed away in his sleep.
It was very sudden and completely unexpected, in fact we all had a great time together on Thursday evening, he was joking and happy.

In order to allow those who would like to remember him with us we are trying to get the word out asap.

We will be having a funeral and burial service in Palmyra NY on Friday February 4th at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints Palmyra chapel, 10:00 am.
Burial immediately following the service will take place at the Palmyra Village cemetery.

A memorial service to celebrate Wayne's memory will take place in Las Vegas Nevada on Saturday February 12th at 3:00 pm at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints chapel on Sloan and Alcott. After we will have a party with pizza popcorn and pink lemonade to send him off enjoying the things he loved..... to the end.

His obituary will run in the Las Vegas Review Journal Wednesday February 2nd.

We love you all, your thoughts, love and prayers are felt. This has been very hard and we know it wont be easy to get on without such a large presence.

For good or ill there will be no more IGM's coming your way.

Love,
Aubrey (Wayne,s Daughter)

Palmyra: Wayne Allen Leavitt formerly of Las Vegas, NV died on January 28, 2011 at age 61. Predeceased by his parents Max V. & Marba Rose Leavitt. Survived by his wife Nita; children, Aubrey (Greg) Hannig, Jessica (Matthew) Rasmussen, Grah (Julie) Leavitt, Chani Leavitt (Scott Thompson); 10 grandchildren; siblings, Janice (James) Voorhies, Maxine (Steve) Whitney, Newell Leavitt; 14 nieces & nephews. Friends are invited to attend his Funeral Service 10AM Friday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Palmyra Ward, followed by his burial at Palmyra cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Habitat for Humanity, 755 Culver Rd., Rochester, NY 14609 in his memory. Arrangements by McGuire/Hargrave & Murphy Funeral Home.

There will be a memorial service held in Las Vegas Nevada the following weekend.

IGM Aaron Sorkin: Genius, Elitist Snob

Inter-Galactic Memo
To: All Personnel
Fr: W. Leavitt
Re: Aaron Sorkin; Genius, Elitist Snob
12-9-2010

Let me say at the beginning that I think Aaron Sorkin is a creative genius. He created and wrote West Wing, which I consider to be one of the best television series of all time—it featured a liberal, democratic president and very progressive staff and cabinet, and I still loved it. He’s done several other shows as well, all of them noted for their intelligent, fast-paced dialog and fascinating characters.
So when I add that he appears to be a disingenuous, small-minded, hate-motivated bed-wetting elitist, you can tell it is with love and concern.
Recently Sorkin took Sarah Palin to task over her “Reality show” in which she shot a caribou. He described the incident as the “first moose ever killed for political gain.” Apparently, Sorkin is not sufficiently well-acquainted with the natural world that he can distinguish a caribou from a moose. Having seen both, I can assure you this failure is troubling on several levels.
I am not what I would describe as a Palin fan. I harbor no animosity towards her, and find most of the mindless criticisms and caricatures offensively motivated by irrational feelings of sour grapes—which is odd when one considers she lost—but I find it hard to imagine a scenario in which I would vote for her. However, Sorkin’s diatribes seem both pointless and ill-conceived. I imagine spittle flying from his lips while he so causally uses his gift as character assassination.
For example, he refers to the footage of Palin killing the caribou as a “snuff film.” He’s in the movie business. He should know better. The term snuff film has a specific definition, and it is vile enough that to use it as he did speaks volumes to his own bigotry. For those of you who might not know, a snuff film is any movie in which a human being is actually killed—murdered—for the pornographic content and for profit. By definition, this can only occur with humans. We can argue until the cow comes home (hopefully unharmed) about the morality of killing animals, but murder for sexual prurience and profit cannot be ascribed to the killing of animals under any circumstances. (Unless there is a new fetish of which I am unaware.) To accuse Palin—or anyone else—of such a thing is mean-spirited and small-minded.
Sorkin goes on to say the following:
He described Palin as "deranged", a "witless bully" and a "phony pioneer girl". He also said The Learning Channel, the US cable network, "should be ashamed of itself" for broadcasting her "truly awful reality show".
He does make one valid point—as far as I can tell all reality shows are “truly awful.” Personally, I see no evidence she is deranged. And from what vast left field does he get “witless bully?” “Phony pioneer girl” is the worst though. Mrs. Palin grew up hunting and fishing, and that can be, and has been, easily and thoroughly proven. Her lifestyle has been—comparatively speaking—one of a semi-rugged, outdoors, independent woman. I get the sense that Sorkin may be secretly envious of her masculinity—a trait which he is obviously lacking. Like most people who haven’t the stomach to hunt, he tries to turn it into a venal act. Which is nonsense of the highest order. Let’s put both in the wilderness with a rifle, a knife, some matches and fishing line, and see who comes out smelling like a rose, shall we?
Palin, not the sort to run and hide, shot back.

"Unless you've never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat, save your condemnation.”

Sorkin, in a fascinating display of unconscious guilt, manages to step right into her obvious point. He retorts:

"I eat meat, chicken and fish, have shoes and furniture made of leather ... I'm able to make a distinction between you and me without feeling the least bit hypocritical,"

Seriously, he might as well just admit he wants to have sex with his mother while he’s at it.
There are in fact important distinctions between Palin and Sorkin, but he has managed to completely miss them. He hates her politics. He hates her lifestyle, her independence and lack of sophistication. He hates her celebrity and popularity. In his perfect world someone like Sarah Palin would not even exist. In my perfect world, I would rather never have seen a single episode of West Wing if it meant never having to listen to this kind of drivel. I like my drivel better.

IGM Denver International Airport

Inter-Galactic Memo
To: All Personnel
Fr: W. Leavitt
Re: Denver International Airport
12-5-2010

Is anyone else curious about the history of the Denver International Airport? I think it’s time for a little old-fashioned paranoia.
Once upon a time the city of Denver had a perfectly nice, functional, modern airport called Stapleton. Remember? Then, suddenly, without much warning and against massive protests from the locals, who said things like “but we already have one!” And “that’s a helluva lot of money for something we don’t need!” the state, and the federal government (Congress was in collusion) announced the new one. We were all told it would be the best, most efficient, statest-of-the- art airport in the whole world. It was rammed through in record time despite all the protests.
The new airport is smaller than Stapleton. Fewer gates, terminals, runways, etc. And it is built under a tent. But the land it is on takes up half of Colorado. It cost five times what it was supposed to. People complain constantly of the place making them sick—headaches, stomach problems. They complain of odd vibrations and high-frequency sounds. The super-modern baggage-handling system sends luggage into the Wickenburg Triangle with depressing regularity. Entire construction teams were routinely fired as soon as they finished their part of a project and new ones were brought it. The upshot of that was no one had any idea what the overall plan was, or what the blue-prints looked like. (Except the big bosses.) The heavily-fenced property is under ridiculously overkill security measures. And there are dozens of concrete formations dotting the unused land, which resemble mini-cooling towers, or air vents.
Remember that scene in Independence Day when Judd Hirsch tells the President (As they enter the underground sections of Area 51) “you don’t really think they spent five hundred dollars on a toilet seat, a thousand on a hammer do you?”
No one wanted that airport built. It wasn’t needed. It was so far over budget that they could have built five or six of them. And they took ten times the land they could possibly have ever needed. Does that suggest anything to anyone?
OF COURSE IT DOES! Obviously, there is a huge underground base of some kind down there, probably with aliens living in secret luxury. Or preserved in big bottles. Odds are tunnels connect it to Cheyenne Mountain and Area 51. Maybe others.
As you know our government has dozens of secret bases like this, scattered around and under the country, doing all kinds of nefarious but cool research on things like the 19th chromosome of the human genome, element 115, anti-gravity, alien technology, light, immortality, genetic engineering for super-soldiers, and why Barbie remains so popular.
I think it’s time we ask congress to fess up and share some information. Our government is up to something. The deficit, the rate of spending, and the disappearance of hundreds of billions of dollars is not an accident, and not the result of poor book-keeping. They’re UP TO SOMETHING. I mean, c’mon . . . thirteen trillion? Really? That’s a lot of toilet seats.
Here’s a clue. Years ago John and Dever and I went to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, and spent the weekend. (Nothing Brokeback was going on) When the Ranger asked us if we had a good time, John said yes, but we were disappointed to not have seen any UFO’s. The Ranger apologized, saying the “machine was broken.” True story. I think it speaks for itself. You should take the trouble to visit Chaco Canyon, the premier Anasazi site in the country. And when I say trouble, I mean it, but it’s well-worth the effort. It’s probably more other-worldly than Stonehenge. And I’m pretty sure there is a tunnel underneath it leading to the Denver International Airport.

Thanks to Rhani at Anomalies-Unlimited. Check the site out.

IGM The Writing Process

Inter-Galactic Memo
To: All Personnel
Fr: W. Leavitt
Re: The Writing Process
11-8-2010


There is a writer, I know of—I’m a fan—who writes backwards. He’s a famous one, with awards, and millions of books sold, and even an academy award for a screenplay. But how does he write backwards? He explained it in one of his novels, through a character who is also a writer. He has to have the last sentence, has to hear it and feel it, before he can start. And then he writes backwards, so the first sentence is the last one he writes. And it takes him a long time. Years. He’s only written twelve books in his career. I’ve written more than twice that in the last ten years. And he has this strange habit of writing sentences, or fragments of sentences, and tacking them up on a board where he can see them and think about them. I guess when he has enough sentences he can write a paragraph, and then a chapter—backwards. Once he knows the whole story, and is familiar with the characters, he can start writing, filling in. That’s what he says at least.
It was nice to find out that this technique was an accident; just the way he started doing it and it became a habit, and then a process. At first he thought it was an immature phase, but it turned out to be the way he writes.
I’m pretty insecure about my writing, and it is a little comforting to discover that famous writers sometimes feel that way too, and wonder if their ‘method’ might be off kilter or out of bounds. It doesn’t bother me that this writer is much better than I am. He writes, I write, we both do our best and hopefully get what we are looking for out of the experience.
On the other hand, my ‘method’ is so different from his, and from any other method I’ve read about, that my insecurities come raging forward again, and I worry that I’m missing something, that my writing is hampered or limited by my method, or lack thereof.
The truth is, I don’t have a method that I am aware of, based on any known and accepted process used by professional writers.
I start writing when it feels like the right time to start. Sometimes I’ve had the idea for months or years, and sometimes I’ve had the idea for five minutes. And a few times—two that I remember for sure—I’ve started with no idea in mind at all.
I’ve started several with only a title because I liked the way it sounded and knew something would come if I began writing. Car Dancing and Evil Alien Artifact were both written that way. For Car Dancing, I had the title and a one sentence description of the main character. For Artifact, all I had was the title, which was a throw-away line from That 70’s Show, and a vague idea that I wanted to do a send-up of sci-fi stories. Another book was worse. I started The Seaweed Bar and Grill with no title, no plot, no characters and not a single idea as to what it might be about. That was on purpose; I had just finished reading a book by Thomas Pynchon and took it as a challenge to try and write something blind, because it felt like that’s what he did—even though I knew this wasn’t true. He’s just a genius and can do things like that. So I just put my fingers on the keyboard and started, and things came, and a few pages later the title magically appeared (although I didn’t know it at the time). It’s one of my favorites. I have no idea if it’s any good or not. I was trying to see if it was possible to write with no pre-conceived ideas, and make the story entirely character driven, rather than by plot. I guess it is.
I never plot anyway. I don’t know how. That is the secret of my ‘method.’ I’ve never taken a writing class. I’ve never attended a writers conference, or gone to a writers workshop, or joined a writers group, either real or virtual. As a writer, I have three things going for me. One, I love doing it, and always have. It comes easy. Two, I’ve read thousands of books across a wide range of types, styles, authors, genres and subjects. And three, I have a pretty good imagination. But I don’t know process. I don’t know how to plot a story—I’m not sure I even know what that means. I don’t know how to build a character. And I don’t know how to write backwards. For me, knowing the end of a story, and what will happen in each chapter and in what order, before I start, would ensure that I never start. Why write it if I know how it’s going to end? At some point in the writing, I usually figure it out, but sometimes that doesn’t happen until I’m on the last page. I knew how Car Dancing would end by the time I was half way through, and I spent the last half trying to prevent it, change it, but I couldn’t. Stories and characters are powerful. Inevitable.
In other words, I’m an ignorant writer. Or an innocent one. But good or bad, talented or a hack, I love it. Nothing makes me any happier than sitting there, typing away, caught in a continuing moment of discovery. I start at the beginning and characters show up as I need them, and things happen that surprise me, shock me, make me happy and sad and angry. I’m telling myself a story I haven’t heard before, and that’s my method. I have an audience of one.
Now I’ve written at least thirty books, and can’t stop. I don’t want to stop. I read things writers have said about writing and I don’t get it. For them it is a struggle, a horrible, lonely, excruciating experience. For me it’s just the opposite. I love everything about it, can’t wait to go somewhere everyday and write. I love how every time I sit down, not know what’s going to happen, something comes. And I never get writers block—I just work on something else, or don’t write that day. The only thing I worry about now is this: since my heart attack, I worry about having enough time to get them all out and onto paper. I’m working on it though; unlike my backwards-writing hero, I write pretty fast. Probably because I don’t know what I’m doing.

IGM Construction

Inter-Galactic Memo
To: All Personnel
Fr: W. Leavitt
Re: Construction
11-4-2010

Nita and I did something different today. We got up really early (see, already different) dressed in layers because it was chilly and drizzling, and drove into Rochester. A good-sized city which has not escaped the “downturn.” We avoid Rochester.
We made our way to one of the worst neighborhoods in the city, where every third house is abandoned and boarded up, even the pets are armed, and met several people we didn’t know—and a few we did—to build a house. Yep . . . Habitat for Humanity.
Our Stake (an ecclesiastical entity which consists of several congregations) has formed a partnership with the Third Presbyterian Church of Rochester to raise both money for, and donate time to, the construction of several houses.
Small, unassuming homes in which owners invest their own sweat-equity, move in and begin paying the mortgage. Indentured servitude (volunteers) keeps the price down. The plan is 100 new homes that will resurrect the neighborhood—take it to a tipping point where interest will turn to investment and a rebirth will occur.
Why would we do that, you might ask? Well, we’re retired. Most people go to work all day every day. It’s hard to say no. And it is a legitimately good cause. So far, we are a veritable PSA for Habitat and charity work, right? Now for the splash of reality.
Remember when I said it was raining? Not hard, but long enough to soak the ground. And it was cold. Upstate New York is like, fifteen feet from the arctic circle.
One house is up and they are hanging sheetrock. That wasn’t our house, that was just where we met. Then we drove a few blocks to the other house. And when I say house, I mean a large, rectangular hole in the ground, bordered by piles of mud, with a concrete footing and a huge pile of gravel at the bottom.
I looked at the supervisor, one-half of a identical twin team, and said:
“We’re unskilled volunteer labor. What are we going to do with a hole in ground? Fill it?” Well, sort of, it turns out.
The wooden forms were still in place. They are held in place by big nails the size of small spears which have been pounded into the ground with industrial pile-drivers and then nailed to the 2x12 forms—below the ground line. I don’t know how they did that. Our first job was pulling the forms, which meant pulling the two-foot spikes, which meant finding and pulling the nails . . . you get the picture. We were covered in mud after fifteen minutes. But we got the forms pulled. Then it was time to lay a black plastic pipe covered in fabric around the outside edge of the footing. It’s for drainage I’m told. But the key word here is drain. Which means the tubing (About 6 inches in diameter) has to start low then steadily ascend to the other end, or vice-versa. Whatever. Which means digging. Then shoveling gravel over it to hold it in place, then spreading the huge pile of gravel (Left over from those stables Hercules cleaned) into an even layer of gravel instead of a pile of gravel. That was when I went into a fugue state. I would move two or three shovels-full of gravel, and then wake up a few minutes later having gone bye-bye. I was exhausted to the point of . . . well, a few times I idly entertained the possibility that I was closing in on another heart attack. My body was resting whether I wanted to or not. But we finished the gravel while I joked about working harder than everyone else.
Did I mention the wall forms? Next to the giant hole were stacks of steel and something-else modular forms, two by eight feet and very heavy. They needed to be in the hole. Apparently this was a good job for unskilled volunteers. So four of us began to relocate the forms. We made six stacks about five feet high. Then one of the supervisors had the clearly inappropriate idea of taking us from unskilled to semi-skilled volunteers. He showed Nita and another guy how to assemble the forms. They made four corner sections. We had to carry them to the corners and stand them up. Then he showed us how to attach the two-foot sections together. They wanted us to make walls! The forms were for the concrete basement walls. So five of us began assembling wall-forms.
Oh, I forgot. Somewhere in there the Roach Coach showed up (How do they always find us?). I bought a Pepsi, Nita fed me two tuna sandwiches (with potato chips inside—yum!) along with half a banana and several Ibuprofen. I was a new man. It is scary how much better caffeine can make you feel. I wasn’t exactly a human dynamo—mostly I stopped feeling like an imminent heat attack, but I managed to find a groove and work steadily-if-not-heroically until quitting time. I am happy to say we got the entire outside half of the form built—all the way around the footing. Wow!
Truthfully—we had a blast. I’d attach a photo of the wall in the giant hole, but I don’t know how to get it off my phone. (Newell, you may now invoke the “Dork” word.) Neither of us have been that dirty in decades. We all had not just a sense of accomplishment, but a sense that it meant something as well. Some family, the working poor, with whom most of us can identify and/or sympathize, will get a new home in a few months. We interacted with several people from the very scary neighborhood, and they all were glad we were there and told us so. I feel this reduces the chance of being shot on the job. Which is good, because we’re going back. Tomorrow. I recommend it.
This evening, neither of us can move, and everything hurts. But it’s a “good” hurt, in the same sense that Vegas heat is a “dry” heat.

IGM: The Great Climate Change Debate

Inter-Galactic Memo
To: All Personnel
Fr: W. Leavitt
Re: The Great Climate Change Debate
9-15-2010
Link: http://rps3.com/Pages/Burt_Rutan_on_Climate_Change.htm

I suppose I’ve written a dozen pieces on this topic by now. And today I feel vindicated. A good friend sent me a link to a website put up by Burt Rutan. I could write an IGM just about Burt—he’s one of my heroes. Burt is an aeronautical engineer and a living legend. If I were given to hyperbole—and I am—I would say that in the last 30 or 40 years he has been responsible for more true innovation in the aviation industry than all the giant conglomerates combined. You know those vertical tips at the end of nearly every wing in the commercial airline industry? Burt Rutan. Space Ship One—the first private vehicle to take a human into space? Burt Rutan. He is a genius of the first order, and a maverick—probably why I like him so much. Burt decided to look into the whole “Global Warming-Climate Change” issue from the viewpoint of an aeronautical engineer as opposed to a scientist. Why?

My focus is on an Engineering Approach – where
data are critical and there are consequences for
being wrong; not the Scientist approach – where a
theory is the product and it can be right or wrong
without repercussions.

In other words, airplane designers are held to incredibly high, rigorous standards because when they are wrong, people die. The engineers and pilots rely heavily on accurate meteorological and climate data, which inform their designs and innovations. They must have good data.
So Burt decided to study the contentious issue for himself. I have looked at about 10% of the site so far, and it is blowing me away. Why? Because everything I have been saying for years—all the way back to the Ozone Scare of the 70’s—from a completely common-sense standpoint, using very little research—turns out to be true. And this guy did his homework. His research is comprehensive and thorough. He is brutally honest and frank while remaining professional and polite. And he does not equivocate. He interprets the data from the viewpoint of an engineer, whose life—and the lives of millions of others (and that is literally true) depends on his being right.
I am putting the link in this IGM, and I sincerely hope you at least go to it and scan the information. It is chock-full of graphs and raw data, but he explains it all simply and informally. Anyone still in the Human-Caused Climate-Change camp, or anyone with lingering doubts, absolutely needs to review this information. You owe it to yourselves.
When you get to the site you will be given two choices; a PDF version, and a PowerPoint version. I clicked on the PDF version and read it. It looks like this: Adobe pdf version - 3.7 megabytes
It will take a while, so don’t hurry. I haven’t tried it yet, but the PowerPoint version might be fun. it is vitally important that as many people as possible see this information. Pass it on if you feel like it.
At the end of this memo is a very brief synopsis of his conclusions. But we need to read the critique itself to understand why he makes these observations, comes to these conclusions, and makes these recommendations. The countries of the world—including our own—are about to bankrupt the planet, permanently cripple the global economy, and increase the death-rate and poverty exponentially, based on spurious data and self-serving agendas. It is vital that we prevent this from happening, and being informed is how we do it. We’ve all heard about the 2,500 scientists who signed the petition claiming global warming is a real, immediate, and relevant threat. How many of us have heard about the 31,000 scientists who signed a petition espousing the opposite point of view? You will find that in this report.
Who are we going to believe? That’s what it comes down to. For myself, I choose the world-class, brilliant engineer/innovator over the room-temperature IQ, career politician tobacco farmer.

By Burt Rutan:

Observations
• The only “evidence” that humans cause global warming comes from computer models. The creator of the model can make it show whatever he wants, by adjusting parameters.
• Man has not demonstrated an ability to change global temperatures, nor to forecast future climate conditions.
• It would be desirable to have more atmospheric CO2 than present, to increase crop yields and forest growth. This would save tens of millions of lives next century.
• The warming experienced in the last century and the warming expected in the next, did not and will not cause a net increase in extinctions or weather calamities.
• We do not know the important stuff - what causes the dangerous drop into the major ice ages or what causes the cyclic return to the brief interglacial warm periods.
• Is the debate over? "It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”
Conclusions
• The CAGW agenda is supported with deceptively altered science. In spite of recent, human-caused atmospheric CO2 increases, there is nothing out of the ordinary happening with our climate.
• Climate Change is real. The earth has been naturally warming since the “Little Ice Age”, with cooling cycles.
• Fossil fuel use adds a small % to an important trace gas, that is not only beneficial, but is the essence of life itself.
• We cannot burn fossil fuels to prevent the next ice age; the greenhouse gas effect is far too weak for that.
• Current fuels will become naturally constrained by cost as they become scarce. Government taxes are not required.
• If Man, in the future, achieves a capability to change global temperatures, he will likely use that technology to warm the planet, not to cool it.
• Manmade global warming is over. It existed only in the minds of grant-seeking scientists and academics, ratings-obsessed media and opportunistic eco/political-activists.

Recommendations
• Recognize that, in terms of cost and human lives, the Government efforts to constrain use and increase the cost of energy are orders of magnitude more important than the certification of a new airliner.
• We cannot assure airline public safety by using a computer model to predict airline safety; we must do extensive testing under real conditions and pay attention to all the results.
• Require an engineering task as rigid as the certification of an airliner. Apply that task to the “theory of climate modification by man”. Mandate that “engineering certification” be done before governments can impose taxes, fees or regulations to constrain our use of any product to fuel our energy needs.
• Engineers do listen to scientists and use their work to help them plan the testing/validation needed to complete their certification goals. However, using scientists to direct airliner certification, would be as disastrous as scientists proposing theories to direct National or World energy policy.

Link: http://rps3.com/Pages/Burt_Rutan_on_Climate_Change.htm