Milt, it is marvelous to have known people like that, not to mention to have been related to them. I am sorry about your relative who died way too young. It sounds like he had a fabulous future had he not gotten ill.

I had the pleasure of meeting Alan Shepard on a number of ocassions during engineering society meetings down here in sunny Florida. He loved to attend. He also like to give presentations to the same student organizations that I give presentations to in the local universities, so that we have crossed paths there, also. And, of course, simply because of my location, I know many engineers and scientists who work for NASA and their contractors. I also recently received another master's degree in engineering, and several of the NASA people were in my class.

Take heart in that NASA's climate data is but a percentage of the total amount of data being used in models developed around the world, with data from many organizations in different countries. For those who have the idea that any of that data is fudged, which I think is ludicrous, take heart in that their data agrees quite well with sets from other satellite system and measurement systems.

Perstare et praestare. Per aspera ad astra.