Beyond Tranquillon Ridge

This book tells the stories of the author's childhood in China in the 1920s, how he and his family and friends survived the eight year war between China and Japan, and World War II, how he left China for the United States to pursue graduate education and landed in a TB hospital after graduation with a Ph.D. degree. Miraculously, he recovered from the disease, and with regained health and a new set of life values, he pursued an exciting career of a research biochemist. In the book, the author tells the story how he learned and practiced Qi-gong while he was a sick child, and how he refined his techniques of Qi-gong while on bed rest in the TB hospital. He explains how this meditative exercise fine-tunes the mind and body to achieve harmony within one's self and the world, and how the power of Qi brings on relaxation and self-healing. He uses the bad things that happened to him as examples, to point out the brighter side of tribulations, and how to cope with misfortune and find comfort, inner peace and happiness even when a disaster strikes.

Beyond Tranquillon Ridge is a story about a phenomenon called firestorm. In his riveting account, Joseph Valencia follows the individual characters of this tragic wildfire, from the high command; including fire chiefs and generals, down to the men on the front lines; the firefighters and airmen. Beyond Tranquillon Ridge is a place and time that stood still for twenty-four hours. It is a story of devastating wind, explosive fire, and the stranglehold of human drama amid the secret space launch facilities of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Drawing on more than one-hundred interviews, Mr. Valencia re-creates the experience while his narrative describes the confusion and fear that was part of the worst fire in Vandenberg's history the "Honda Canyon Fire." Valencia's detailed research as well as his own personal experiences completes a puzzle of nature gone wild and man's attempt to control it. The story ties together the physical and human dynamics that led to the deaths of the Air Force commander, two fire chiefs and a heavy-equipment operator. It is a sweeping reconstruction of a significant event that changed the fate of Vandenberg for years to come.

Beyond Tranquillon Ridge is a story about a phenomenon called firestorm. In his riveting account, Joseph Valencia follows the individual characters of this tragic wildfire, from the high command; including fire chiefs and generals, down to the men on the front lines; the firefighters and airmen. Beyond Tranquillon Ridge is a place and time that stood still for twenty-four hours. It is a story of devastating wind, explosive fire, and the stranglehold of human drama amid the secret space launch facilities of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Drawing on more than one-hundred interviews, Mr. Valencia re-creates the experience while his narrative describes the confusion and fear that was part of the worst fire in Vandenberg's history the "Honda Canyon Fire." Valencia's detailed research as well as his own personal experiences completes a puzzle of nature gone wild and man's attempt to control it. The story ties together the physical and human dynamics that led to the deaths of the Air Force commander, two fire chiefs and a heavy-equipment operator. It is a sweeping reconstruction of a significant event that changed the fate of Vandenberg for years to come.

An updated guide to risk analysis and modeling Although risk was once seen as something that was both unpredictable and uncontrollable, the evolution of risk analysis tools and theories has changed the way we look at this important business element. In the Second Edition of Analyzing and Modeling Risk, expert Dr. Johnathan Mun provides up-to-date coverage of risk analysis as it is applied within the realms of business risk analysis and offers an intuitive feel of what risk looks like, as well as the different ways of quantifying it. This Second Edition provides professionals in all industries a more comprehensive guide on such key concepts as risk and return, the fundamentals of model building, Monte Carlo simulation, forecasting, time-series and regression analysis, optimization, real options, and more. Includes new examples, questions, and exercises as well as updates using Excel 2007 Book supported by author's proprietary risk analysis software found on the companion CD-ROM Offers both a qualitative and quantitative description of risk Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this reliable resource covers all of the essential tools and techniques that risk managers need to successfully conduct risk analysis. Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

In August 1979, along a remote ridgeline near Santa Maria, four firefighters from a California Division of Forestry (CDF) engine crew, were preparing to defend the northern flank of the Spanish Ranch fire. Captain Ed Marty, and firefighters; Scott Cox, Ron Lorant and Steve Manley responded to the fire from the Nipomo fire station. They were all from California, but were as different as the golden state's angles, aspects and arenas. They were defined more from where they were from; Tehama, Goleta, Long Beach and La Habra. No one predicted what would happen next-but in a page from man versus nature, the fire accelerated and then swept across the face of the slope which the four young firefighters were on. At 4:25 PM their thin line of defense was cut-off and a retreating bulldozer operator was overrun. Minutes later, they tried to escape from the sweeping area ignition, but the fire cut-off their retreat and along with another dozer operator they were all overrun by fire. The tragedy that occurred and the subsequent investigation would change the way the state fire agency operated on area wildfires. Area Ignition looks back 30-years to honor the men who fought and died in the Spanish Ranch Fire. It recreates the courage, emotion and human frailties that are interwoven from the initial ignition point-to the final survivors' thoughts as they proceeded past a solitary CDF fire engine. Although much has changed since then-young firefighters still go out every year to battle California wildfires just like their brothers of the past. We owe it to them to understand a little bit of the awesome power of wildfires and the people who fight them.

This report describes the 2nd phase of a study involving a surface-layer windflow model. The model produces a two-dimensional (x-y plane) variational analysis of windflow by employing Gauss' principle of least constraints to adjust an initial windfield to effects of topography, stability, momentum advection, and mass conservation. It used detailed terrain data (100 to 200 m horizontal resolution) to compensate for sparse meteorological data available over the small areas for which the model is run (25 to 250 sq km). The first phase involved testing of the model to effects of stability and vegetation using terrain, vegetation, and climate for Ft. Polk, LA. The 2nd phase involves further model development, including changes in meteorological data input as well as changes in wind and stability initializations. Model experiments using artificially-produced terrain were conducted to test these changes. A two-part model validation was then performed using climate data and archived meteorological tower data from Vandenberg AFB, California. The area of interest is 11 x 12 km, and covers the South Vandenberg Launch Complex.