Eli Horn was a 7 year old boy fighting for his life that lived right here in Nevada. I didn’t know that he lived here until it was too late. I was following Eli since right around the beginning of January, after I saw something about him. Anyway, his life was cut too short on Wednesday morning (1/18/12 at 5:30 ET), when he died in his hospital room in NYC. Eli was fighting a deadly childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma, which he lost. He has a visitation tomorrow at Cornerstone over in Ames, followed by a funeral on Monday. Check out his blog and also his Facebook page. Feel free to also tweet them @elihorn with the hashtag #ElisArmy. Let’s try to trend #ElisArmy on Monday in his honor, because he was such an amazing boy.

I don’t know how many of you tweeted about 18yo Dyamond Ott who died on the 11th in Omaha while in surgery with the hash tag #diamondsliveforever, but this really touched me in many ways more then you, I’m sure. Any loss b/c of cancer is HUGE. I have already lost many friends and family to cancer, and I have an aunt currently battling breast cancer. And the loss of an 18yo girl who really suffered all her life from cancer treatments, tiredness, and sickness and who wasn’t able to really explore this vast world shouldn’t have died this early. Heck, no one deserves to die this early. And the way she died too. That wasn’t the outcome they were expecting from the surgery, but clearly God had other plans for her. Maybe it was for the best though, as she isn’t in pain anymore and the outcome is much more greater then it usually is, as Dyamond had a goal that was great and hopefully she is well on the path to achieve her goal of getting more organ donors to save many lives like hers. She too was an organ donor that was saved with a liver transplant a few years earlier, and now she is transfering part of herself to a boy in Iowa City. Dyamond’s death also united 2 rivals, Ankeny and SE Polk, which I think might be one of the most amazing things ever, bringing 2 rivals together for a common goal of community betterment. I was lucky enough to talk to one of her friends who said she was the bravest and strongest person they knew. I believe anyone who fights a deadly disease like this is easily 100 times, if not 1000x, stronger then a heavyweight. It is awesome the support that the community is giving her friends and family at a time like this. This might be a sad time this year, but I think it will be a sad time the next few Christmas seasons as well. God bless her, her friends and family, and all other cancer surviors, people lost to cancer, and those who are currently battling it. You will be missed Dyamond. I think Dyamond’s story shows you how fortunate you really are, not to take everyday for granted, and to live every day as your last because you never know when God will bring you to heaven.

Please remember Dyamond as she is laid to rest for the final time this afternoon. Also, please consider becoming an organ donor to help save lives when you are gone – FAQ. Also, please tweet this if you want to share with your friends and remember Dyamond.

More Reading:

Stories from KOAM on Jacob & Dyamond – some GREAT stories!

Dyamond’s story of organ donation (pdf)

Des Moines Register Article on how Dyamond’s death brought the community together (pdf)

Another Des Moines Register Article about how Dyamond’s classmates hailed her on twitter (pdf)

A WHO-TV Story on Dyamond graduating high school and the plans she never got to do (pdf)

A WHO-TV Story on Dyamond’s funeral (pdf)

A story on who her heart is going to (pdf)

Her Obituary (pdf)

Her Website

For some reason in dd-wrt when its firewall is set to filter proxy it seems to affect fah. I don’t use a proxy to connect but I suppose that fah’s traffic may have looked like proxy traffic to the router. Disabling it fixed it right up. I suppose my other clients were working because those already had user IDs and the optiplex was setup after the dd-wrt router was reset to factory defaults.

Bottom line. DD-WRT enabling filter proxy in the spi firewall = bad for fah 

Read the original post.

**FYI: Come join the esri UC backchannel to win some cool prizes via @dtsagile… http://uc.dtsagile.com/register/1Sc***

10:15-11:30 – Floodplain Modeling and Management
Integrating GIS and Climate Change into Flood Risk Mapping

Flood Analysis and Mapping for Prince George, British Columbia

1:30-2:45 – Map Makeovers: How to make your map great, Charlie Frye and Jim Herries
PDF PPT

-Pre-marked at-risk buildings
-Quick turnaround time (3-4 days)
-Measured depths at each structure and mapped them
-Heavily used Pictometry to evaluate buildings, specifically the foundations and for measuring # of stories
-Final economic loss estimated $125 million damage to residential and $30 million damage to commercial
-Geoeye captured Minot, ND and is on the ND Flex Site, with more data coming soon.

10:15 – GIS for atmospheric science
Greg Gaston, UNA – Severe Weather Patterns in the US from NWS Warning Polygons

-Tornadoes are showing up in historical clusters
-22,258+ polygon warnings
-Some states issue warnings faster then others do
-There IS a Dixey Alley

Expo

Some cute photos from the day

Starts at 2pm pt

Daniel Ericsson wins making a difference award

Jane Goodall (rootsandshoots.org) – (Video http://qik.com/video/42049868)

Charlie Fitzpatrick – Making a Difference Awards… (Video http://qik.com/video/42050104)

Rwanda video… (Project Rwanda – www.greenlivingproject.com @greenlivingprjt)
Helping Rwanda Coffee Growers.

Also, I have been on summer vacation since last Saturday, enjoying the sights and sounds here in San Diego. I have been a freak and have taken a TON of photos, and am SLOWLY trying to weed down some photos to post online.

Here are some pretty amazing photos! Most are via KCCI I think.

Here is a pic of damage in Van Meter via Shannon M Miller.

The US House is proposing to severely cut Smith-Lever funds needed by 4-H and Extension Services. Ohio will lose $1.3 million for the fiscal year that is almost half over, which means more than two dozen lost jobs from already reduced staff. The Extension Service provides free unbiased, researched based information and trusted educational programming. It serves a growing, increasingly diverse constituency with fewer and fewer resources. At a time Ohioans have the greatest need for the benefits the Extension Service offers, cutting its funding will end up costing Ohio far more than the proposed cuts are trying to save.

To share with you the total scope of services and benefits an Extension Service offers would take more days and pages of testimony than you or I can afford, so I will offer testimony as to how just one extension agent, in only one of her many roles as an OSU-Miami County Agent, affected just one 4-H child and her community.

In the past 4 years, my oldest daughter’s 4-H activities have resulted in her
volunteering 800 hours (a value of $5600 @ $7 hr.) for community service for programs such as:
• Operation: Military Kids Hero Camps – helping the children of military families deal with the stress of deployment.
• OSU-Miami County 4-H Camping Program, -serving children from all over the county, -not just 4-H kids.
• CARTEENS – serving as a youth facilitator for the Ohio State Patrol’s monthly traffic safety program for juvenile offenders.
• Personally raising $2,000 in 4-H fund-raising projects, benefiting local non-profit agencies such as children’s hospitals, food banks, homeless shelters; deployed military servicemen and their families; disadvantaged children; and local families in crisis.
• Now too old for 4-H, her dedication to community service continues in her volunteer work as an ENT Oncology Student Aide at OSU’s Cancer Hospital, and for Habitat for Humanity.

She has provided a total of $7600, or an average of $1900/yr., in support of her local community.
The true value of benefits received by the recipients of her community service is immeasurable.
She is but one of 844 4-H members and 1809 youth served countywide; 317,286 youth served State-wide.
Consider the volume and diversity of the community service 4-H kids bring to their community and State, and you begin to understand the Extension Services’ influence is profound, far- reaching, and undeniably life changing.

There are benefits the Extension Service offers that simply cannot be measured. Please consider the profound impact they have had for my daughter, and remember, Extension Services help so many others like her:
• Thanks to participating in Citizenship Washington Focus, Operation: Military Kids, CARTEENS, State Leadership Camp, and countless local community service projects, my daughter developed remarkable leadership and citizenship skills. Coming from a small, underfunded public high school that was unable to offer but one AP course, her high school transcript could not boast the level of rigor other college applicants enjoyed. But thanks to her 4-H experiences, she was able to demonstrate qualities colleges valued highly. As result, she earned direct-entry admission to the three most competitive pharmacy programs in our state, one of which has a 5.6% acceptance rate.
• Thanks to opportunities the Extension Service offered, my daughter was able to demonstrate leadership and citizenship that resulted in her being selected as an Ohio State University Welcoming Leader; a Dayton Better Business Bureau 2010 Student of Integrity Winner; DAR, Lion’s and Rotary Clubs Citizenship Awards winner; a Top 10 Girls Nation Finalist and City Central Committeeman at Buckeye Girls State; and class officer throughout high school, including President of the National Honor Society.
• Her 4-H resume led to her being awarded over $25,000 in local scholarships, which was especially needed her senior year due to her father’s unemployment.

The example I offer demonstrates the difference just one extension agent made, and it illustrates only one of the many roles this extension agent fulfills. She illustrates why the lost of even one extension agent is too costly, – the cuts in funding proposed by FY 2011 CR will cost the jobs of more than two dozen.

The Extension Service builds communities in ways that are perpetuated across generations. Like my daughter, I started in 4-H, and the leadership and service skills it fostered remain with me. 4-H led me to my career as a Family and Consumer Science Teacher, and being recognized as a Dickenson T. Guiler Excellence in Teaching Fellowship Award winner. The value of community service 4-H instilled in me led me to co-found and help fund the start-up of a State approved, local, non-profit early childhood center which provides high quality care and services to families of children age 3 – 13. I also volunteer as a Science Olympiad Coach and 4-H Advisor. The Extension Service is responsible for my livelong dedication to serving youth and my community. How does one put a dollar value on this? It’s difficult to appreciate until you live in a community that hasn’t a single State approved child care facility, or enough citizens willing to give their time and expertise to try to make their community a kinder and better place.

My testimony is not unique; it’s true of countless others who haven’t yet realized the need to alert you to the Extension Services’ true value and importance. At a time when Ohio continues to lose critical services due to budget cuts, it is a fool’s game to cut Extension Services that empower individuals with resources, skills and the character needed to strengthen their communities.

Please do all that is in your power to stop the proposed cuts in the Smith-Lever funds proposed by FY 2011 CR, and restore funding needed by the Ohio Extension Service. Our communities cannot afford to lose this vital and effective community building program. It is a cheap investment that has consistently yielded high returns year after year, and Ohio needs its services now, more than ever.

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