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JUNE 2020 ONE OF THE HARDEST JOBS IN THE WORLD
And How My Father Succeeded at It
None of us can choose our parents, so I feel fortunate to have had parents who loved their family and provided for us however they could. I learned a lot from my father as I grew up, and even more when I reflected on the times I spent with him. He rose through the ranks working in oil refineries for most of his career, yet he still found time to help raise five sons. That alone is worthy of celebration, but it hardly captures who my father was. My dad was born and raised on a small farm in north-central Missouri. He was the only one of his five siblings to graduate from high school, and afterward, he attended college for two years, earning his teaching certificate. Then, he taught in a little one-room schoolhouse for two years during the Great Depression. Around the same time, my two oldest brothers, who are twins, and another brother were born. It wasn’t easy raising three kids on a teacher’s salary, but other jobs were hard to come by. Fortunately, my dad’s brother found work at an oil refinery in the Texas Panhandle. He worked there a year, then sent word to my dad to come work there with him during the summer while he wasn’t teaching. My dad joined him and made more money working there for a summer than he had all year as a teacher. So, he moved the family down to Texas so he could work there full time. He started out as a general laborer, low on the totem pole, but eventually, he became a foreman over one area of the refinery. Six years later, he got an offer to work at a refinery in Duncan, Oklahoma, where I was born and where he eventually became the plant manager, supervising over 500 employees. He was a top dog in a business where most of the other managers had degrees in chemistry and engineering. My dad got his job by working through the ranks. When I was growing up, I always thought it was neat that my dad had his own office and a secretary who took his calls. I didn’t really appreciate the effort it took for him to get to that point until much later. His hard work became an inspiration to me, and it showed me what I could do if I worked just as hard as he did.
of my games and cheered me on, and he loved to take me fishing. However, one of the most impactful moments involving my dad was a time when he wasn’t even in the room. It was at the town barbershop right after he’d dropped me off. A couple of the guys who worked for my dad were there, and after he left, they mentioned that my dad was one of the finest men they had ever worked for. When you’re a teenager, you never feel like your parents do anything right, but hearing how much my dad’s employees appreciated him helped me appreciate him a little more. As important as my dad’s work at the oil refinery was, it wasn’t nearly as important as his role as my father. Parenting is one of the most important jobs anyone can do, but parents don’t get the credit they deserve. If your father is still around, please make sure you give him a call this Father’s Day.
-Doug Barnes
Even in the midst of his hard work, however, he always found time to spend with me and my brothers. Over the years, he attended most
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THE FINAL FRONTIER
TOURING THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
used to create Exoplanet Excursions, an immersive virtual reality experience that lets your family experience the Spitzer’s discoveries and control the telescope yourself. These incredible excursions are available on Oculus or Steam, so visit Spitzer. Caltech.edu/vr to start your adventure and explore deep space today!
First launched in 1998, the International Space Station is a multinational space research laboratory. Nineteen different nations have sent astronauts, cosmonauts, and space tourists to the space station to conduct scientific experiments. It’s truly the stuff science fiction dreams are made of! In 2012, Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams filmed a full tour of this amazing floating lab and even included a quick lesson on how to work out in zero gravity. “Visit” the space station for yourself at Bit.ly/ISSTour.
PLANET-HOPPING WITH NASA
Have you ever wondered would it be like to stand on another world? Then “book” your next vacation with the Exoplanet Travel Bureau! This program takes you on digital tours of real exoplanets NASA has discovered. Though we don’t know what the surfaces of these worlds look like, artists have used scientific data to create 3D landscapes to explore. See them all, from Kepler-16b to TRAPPIST-1e, at Exoplanets.NASA.gov/alien- worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau.
Commercial space travel might still be the stuff of science fiction stories, but thanks to computer programs and augmented reality, your family can still experience what it’s like to explore space. NASA and other organizations provide a wealth of free resources that make space exploration come to life for stargazers and future astronauts alike. Take some time to explore a few of our favorites today.
EXPLORING DEEP SPACE VIA VIRTUAL REALITY
On Jan. 30, 2020, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope concluded its 16-year mission researching exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system. This data was
Use Your Phone Germ-Free PhoneSoap’s Amazing Success As an entrepreneur, can you imagine declining an offer from any one of the top sharks on “Shark Tank” and seeing it pay off? For PhoneSoap founders Wes LaPorte and Dan Barnes, this was precisely the case. However, how they got on the show is what makes their story so fascinating. For the cousin duo, it all started with the cell phone health-related research they stumbled upon in 2009. During that time, scientists discovered that the average smartphone is crawling with 18 times more bacteria than a public restroom. When they saw these startling statistics, they knew they had to do something about it. However, it wasn’t easy — they experienced trial and error, along with issues with crowdfunding, before launching their product in 2014. PhoneSoap is designed with a chamber that sanitizes your phone. Once sealed inside, it uses UVC light during a 10-minute process to kill 99.99% of bacteria, viruses, and other household pathogens on the device. PhoneSoap products are carefully designed so the UVC light emitted from the chamber never reaches your eyes. The design of the PhoneSoap station is incredibly safe, small, portable, and easy to use.
on the CBS show “Shark Tank.” Some of the sharks declined due to doubts about demand for such a device. But after LaPorte and Barnes explained that PhoneSoap isn’t only for residential consumers but also for commercial use in
hospitals, the sharks changed their tune and three made offers. However, the cousins ended up rejecting their offers and, instead, made a deal with Lori Greiner, the self-appointed “Queen of QVC.” Since their “Shark Tank” feature in 2015, the company has sold over 1 million products, and they’re now selling so quickly that they require preorder for delivery. The success of Dan Barnes and Wes LaPorte’s business seems crazy to some, but components to their success were present from the beginning. Their business skill, faith, consideration of their craft, and compassion for consumers paid off and continue to help those who need it.
After all the trial, error, and rejection from potential investors and customers, the team’s hard work finally paid off when they were featured
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GLAZED GOODNESS
The Sweet History of National Doughnut Day
Get ready to treat yourself because June 5 is National Doughnut Day! Contrary to popular belief, National Doughnut Day wasn’t created as an excuse for Americans to eat more doughnuts. The celebration was actually started by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor “Doughnut Lassies,” the women who served doughnuts to soldiers on the front lines during World War I. The Salvation Army still celebrates National Doughnut Day by delivering doughnuts to veterans across the country. The earliest version of the doughnut is believed to have come to North America with Dutch settlers in the 17th century. The Dutch brought with them balls of fried, sweetened dough called olykoeks , which translates to “oily cakes.” Though they were tasty, we don’t think many people would be eager to pick up a dozen oily cakes for the office. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the word “doughnut” was coined in the 19th century by a woman named Elizabeth Gregory. Her son, Handon Gregory, was a New England ship captain. She began making deep-fried dough treats with nutmeg, cinnamon, and lemon rind for her son and his crew. She would put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center of the pastry where the dough might not cook through, so she called her creation “doughnuts.”
though the exact reason is unclear. Some say it was to use fewer ingredients, while others suggest he created the hole by
accident after skewering the pastry on the spokes of the ship’s wheel when he needed to steer with both hands during a storm. Whatever the reason, that hole is still part of a classic doughnut to this day. There are lots of ways to celebrate National Doughnut Day. Recognize the history of the holiday by donating to the Salvation Army or by sending a box of doughnuts to a veteran in your life. You can also order from your favorite local doughnut shop or fry up some homemade doughnuts with your family. There’s a pretty great recipe at SallysBakingAddiction.com/how-to- make-homemade-glazed-doughnuts.
Handon Gregory also gets some credit for making doughnuts recognizable: He was the one who first put the hole in the doughnuts,
TAKE A BREAK
On Eddie Abell EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT
Sometimes, a person and a job just click. At least, that’s the case for Eddie Abell, one of Pop-a-Lock’s car door unlocking techs in Louisville. For over 18 years now, on and off, Eddie has spent his days ripping and running all over the city helping people get back in their cars — and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Initially, Eddie was going to try to be an electrician, but he changed his mind after his brother started working at Pop-a-Lock and encouraged him to work here as well. It turned out to be the perfect fit. Instead of sitting in an office all day, Eddie prefers being out around town, in the sun, meeting and working with the people of Louisville.
When he’s not out driving around the city, Eddie spends every spare moment he has with his three daughters.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
LESSONS FROM MY DAD PAGE 1
GO PLANET-HOPPING WITH NASA HAVING FAITH IN THEIR VISION: PHONESOAP PAGE 2 A DAY TO HONOR DOUGHNUT LASSIES SPOTLIGHTING EDDIE ABELL PAGE 3 HAVE THE OLYMPICS EVER BEEN POSTPONED BEFORE? PAGE 4
TIMES THE OLYMPICS WERE CANCELED And the Postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Games
In late March, amid the global spread of COVID-19, the International Olympic Committee announced the postponement of the 2020 Olympic Games. They were slated to take place in Tokyo, Japan, this summer, but they will now happen in the summer of 2021. While this is an unprecedented decision, it’s not the first time that major global events have affected the Olympic Games or which countries participated. Since the inception of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, they have been outright canceled three times — 1916, 1940, and 1944. The first cancellation of the Olympic Games happened during World War I. The German Empire was supposed to host the games in
The games were then rebooked for Helsinki, Finland, but after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and started WWII, those games were scrapped as well. Since the fighting hadn’t ceased by the time the games were supposed to happen in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in 1944, the Olympics were canceled again. Though the Olympics have happened on schedule since the end of WWII, the United States has not always participated. In 1980, when the U.S. boycotted the Olympics that were held in Moscow, Russia, in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, 64 other nations followed suit. However, those games still went on as planned and 80 countries participated. The fact that major global conflicts are the only other events that have been catastrophic enough to affect the Olympics might be distressing and elevate anxiety about our current global health crisis. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the Olympics have only been postponed this time, not canceled. We’ll still get to cheer on our favorite Olympians next year.
Berlin, but by the time 1916 rolled around, Europe was deep in the trenches of WWI. Many nations had sent their athletes to fight in the war, so the games were canceled. World War II caused the next two cancellations. The 1940 Olympics were initially scheduled to be held in Tokyo. It would have been the first time the games were hosted by a non-Western country, but Japan forfeited the right to host when they invaded China in 1937.
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