Wednesday, August 29, 2012
What it Takes to Become a Wildland Firefighter
Like a mini Marine Corp bootcamp! OORAH!
What it Takes to Become a Wildland Firefighter
What it Takes to Become a Wildland Firefighter
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| Digging a fireline |
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
U.S. Forest Service Scientist Joins NASA Project for Mars Exploration
And you thought the Forest Service was just fighting wildland fires (no offence Smokey!)
U.S. Forest Service Scientist Joins NASA Project for Mars Exploration
U.S. Forest Service Scientist Joins NASA Project for Mars Exploration
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| Smokey Bear in the International Space Station |
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The Nobility of Gore Vidal - Where did he get it?
By Robert Hudson Westover
Love him or hate him (you have no
other choice) Gore Vidal had a persistent and apparent nobility about him
that could never be denied--not even by those who most loathed him.
So where did he get it?
Many will attribute this nobility to
the fact that he was born into a grand political family. But so was his mother
and she, by Vidal's own accounts, rarely exhibited the noble traits of her
famous son.
So how did it develop in Vidal?
I think I might have the answer
and it might surprise you.
My dear honorary godmother, Countess
Olga Chrapovitsky Morgan, was related to Gore Vidal through marriage. Her
nephew, Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss III was both Vidal’s step brother
and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' (as well as a slew of other well
born Auchincloss children).
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| Gore Vidal |
It's interesting to me that the
"Merrywood on the Potomac" kids (the children of family patriarch Hugh
D. Auchincloss and former residents of the famed Merrywood mansion near
Washington, D.C.) who most all knew and admired Olga, had such nobility about
them. And I strongly feel they all
got part of their awareness of their inner nobility in large part from Olga.
Not that she taught them in any sort of Maria-von-Trapp-Sound-of-Music sort of
way.
No. I think it was just her day-to-day noble actions and reactions to the
world around her. I say (and believe) this because I too had
the unique opportunity to be exposed to the Nobility of Olga.
And it changed my life.
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| Countess Olga C. Morgan with me at her home in Laguna Beach |
I wish the whole world could have had this woman as their honorary godmother. To show them, as she demonstrated to so many others, that we all have a Noble spirit within us that just needs to be brought out in our daily walk and conversation—that this world can be a much more civilized world by truly (and honestly) respecting others because they're just as noble as you and me.
Admittedly Vidal fell far short
of this aspect of inner nobility! (Nobody's perfect.) But he often recovered.
Case in point. From The Guardian newspaper:
A few years ago, when I mentioned a
passage in his memoirs that admits to being unable to express any open distress
after the death of Howard Austen, his supportive partner for almost 50 years,
he drawled: "Have you seen that film with Helen Mirren? The Queen? Our
class are brought up not to show emotion."
This effortless identification with
one of the highest-born figures in history was very Vidal: both in its social
self-confidence and the fact that a question about emotional evasion was itself
emotionally evaded through a provocative aphorism.
Indeed.
#GoreVidal @GoreVidal
Friday, May 11, 2012
Why do I care about the natural world?
By
Robert Hudson Westover
My
love of the great outdoors was instilled in me many years ago when my parents
loaded up the car and took us kids on an epic camping trip to a pine covered area
of Northern California near the Shasta-Trinity
National Forest.
It
was here, surrounded by the splendor of the natural world, in a secluded
campsite near a stream that we sat around a campfire and Dad explained to us
how lucky we were to have this great outdoors wilderness—owned by all
Americas--that we can come to whenever we want.
I
never forgot that trip.
Later
in life I was further inspired by the tireless environmental conservation work
of HRH Prince Charles and tangibly
through my honorary Godmother, Olga C. Morgan and her work with Green Peace. So at an early age I began working on environmental
issues. However, this was on a voluntary basis and included things like urban
and wilderness area trash clean ups and informally educating inner city kids on
the importance of green areas.
I
didn’t start making my living in conservation until 2005 when I landed a job
with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and now the U.S. Forest Service.
Since
then I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to some of the most brilliant
minds in environmental conservation including several winners of the IPCC Noble Peace
Prize for climate change science.
Now
I blog and tweet regularly on environmental issues. Below are some of my blogs (and
articles) on climate change and sustainability dating back to 2006:
Friday, March 23, 2012
Noble world in shock after Lord Westover “punked” by comedy competition
From FNN -- News Flash -- News Flash
Gentlemen clench fists and ladies clutch pearls across Noble Diaspora
Gentlemen clench fists and ladies clutch pearls across Noble Diaspora
Fainting couches and dueling gloves fly out the doors of retailers
The Vast Estate (obviously), March 23, 2012 – In what can only be called the most shocking event since the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, His Grace, Lord Westover, was informed by a producer [so called] of the Funniest Feds competition that he will be put on “a waiting list” in case one of the selected contestants drops out. Read more at: http://fullnoblenews.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
The DNC's FreeDem.com man!
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At the 2000 Democratic Convention in 2000
After my failed run for Congress in 2000 I was hired as the Democratic National Committee's national spokesperson for their free ISP (it was a big deal in those days!). My goal was to get a million CDs distributed before the Presidential election in 2000. I succeeded and had a great time doing it! For more info go to: http://www.ilusa.com/News/081200dems_online4n.htm
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Making Gay History!
I was the first openly Gay man to seek a national office in the state of Virginia's history. Had a lot of terrible battles but in the end was highly respected on a national level for my effort. I then got to work for the Democratic National Committee during the Gore 2000 campaign as their spokesperson for FreeDem.com.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
We Are Not Amused!
The Vast Estate (obviously) March 12, 2012 – Royal watchers were shocked (and absolutely horrified) by the news that His Grace, Lord Westover, attended and actually auditioned for a spot in an obscure comedy contest called “Funniest Feds” To read more go to:http://fullnoblenews.blogspot.com/
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| His Lordship in comedic attitude |
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
My Green Hawaii
The first stories of Hawaii were told to me by my grandmother who visited there in the 1950s. She wasn't the first family member to be there, that distinction was held by my great grandmother. It seemed only natural that my family would visit the most remote archipelago on earth since Hawaii's closest continental landmass was the west coast of the United States -- a region of the country my ancestors pioneered in the mid to late Nineteenth Century. And since the 1930s, we have lived, visited and loved these beautiful islands.
My life-partner, Tom, and I will be going to Hawaii on our tenth trip there together (not including the year we lived there in 2003). We'll be staying at the Hilton Hawaii Village resort on the island of Oahu. Since I work in environmental public affairs, I will be taking particular interest in the sustainability programs this and other Waikiki resorts have to offer. You can keep up with what I'm discovering about "Green Hawaii" on my twitter at #mrclimatechange and my follow up postings on this blog. Until then, Aloha!
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| Classic postcard set sent to my grandmother in the late 1930s by my grandfather |
My life-partner, Tom, and I will be going to Hawaii on our tenth trip there together (not including the year we lived there in 2003). We'll be staying at the Hilton Hawaii Village resort on the island of Oahu. Since I work in environmental public affairs, I will be taking particular interest in the sustainability programs this and other Waikiki resorts have to offer. You can keep up with what I'm discovering about "Green Hawaii" on my twitter at #mrclimatechange and my follow up postings on this blog. Until then, Aloha!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
World War II Veteran Talks About Heroes
My Grandfather speaks about his service as a Marine in WWII and the Korean War.
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| Three Generations of Westover Marines |
Pearl Harbor Attack Remembered At 70th Anniversary - NewsChannel5.com Nashville News, Weather & Sports.htm
My Grandfather and I also appeared on the History Channel's The Story of Veteran's Day (2004) as well as being interviewed by the Wall Street Journal on Flag Day.
Patrick K. O' Donnell's recent best selling book "Give Me Tomorrow" is based on George Company, my Grandfather's unit, that fought so fiercely in the Korean War. For more info on the book go to: http://givemetomorrowbook.com/description.html
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