LONG WALK: Midday, we watched part of International Space Station Expedition 30 Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Anton Shkaplerov's six-hour spacewalk. They were working in the area of the Earth-facing Pirs docking compartment. It was interesting listening to them speaking in Russian and then hearing the translation into English.
The spacewalkers were moving the Strela-1 crane that's currently onboard to begin preparing the spot for its replacement next year with a new laboratory and docking module. More info about the space walk is available on the ISS mission page.
Speaking of Russians in space, Christian pointed me to a blog today containing several posters from the early Soviet space program years. Very interesting graphics and messages, to be sure. Make sure you click on the link to the second collection of posters, where you'll find gems like this:
TESTED: The kids have both aced Accelerated Reader (comprehension) tests for "The 2,000 Year Old Man Goes to School." I saw the title on the spine at the library last week and wondered if it was based on Carl Reiner-Mel Brooks skits of my infancy. Sure enough, that's what it was. And inside the front cover was a plastic case containing a read-along CD. So, we listened to it in the car on the way to science yesterday. Ugh. I didn't think it was funny AT ALL. In fact, to me it sounded like a rather poorly edited together cobble of 'jokes' (complete with nightclub applause) from Reiner's stand up routines of decades gone by.
But CJ and Annabelle LOLed at it, and the "zany comedy" has good reviews on Amazon (where you can buy it for 1 cent), so I guess I'm in the minority here. Hmpf.
SCRUBBED: We were all geeked up about the launch of an Atlas V rocket down in Florida this afternoon. The mission - Mobile User Objective System - 1 (MUOS-1) will be the heaviest payload ever for an Atlas V. The rocket will launch the U.S. Navy's newest generation of mobile communications,
Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed just 75 seconds before liftoff due to upper level wind conditions.
The launch is rescheduled for Friday at 2:46 p.m. PST, but the weather forecast is rather abysmal right now. We'll be watching though, you can be sure. Live coverage is available on the United Launch Alliance Web site.
ORDERED: This morning, with glee, CJ announced that pre-orders for the upcoming Minecraft flavored LEGO sets were being taken. I took a look at the link CJ found for ordering, and it looked legit (CJ showed me the same link Forbes magazine had in an article about it), so we ordered a couple of sets. CJ wanted to order SEVERAL, but we settled for two (his and hers). It's not supposed to be shipped until summer. Hopefully CeeJ and Bee are still interested in Minecraft then.
If, for some strange reason, you want to watch the 'trailer' for the Minecraft LEGO set, here's a link to it. However, as a PSA, I must caution that if you're allergic to gamers or geeks, do NOT watch it. :)
FILED: While CJ and Annabelle were in their music and LEGO classes, I managed to get our monthly, 'really, we do lots of schooly-stuff at home' reports done for the district where they attend classes 2-days a week. It's always a big chore, but when I'm done, I always have a sense of satisfaction. By gosh, it makes makes me feel like we actually DO do lots of schooly stuff at home. :)
WHEN BOOKS COLLIDE: This morning, on the way to Shoreline, in the backseat, CJ was reading a book about ancient Egypt's tombs and treasures, while Annabelle was reading a book about space rocks. Like a tag team, they'd take turns sharing interesting factoids from the book they were reading. CJ shared a story about one Egyptian tomb having the bodies of around 70 servants in it, each found with a small cup next to them, presumably which once held the poison they drank - committing suicide - before they were entombed. CJ was appalled, asking why anyone would do such a thing. I reminded him that religion and cultural customs can be powerful - and told him that if they people hadn't killed themselves, there's a good chance they would be offed anyway, for the master supposedly needed servants in the afterlife.
Shortly thereafter, Annabelle shared a photo of the two-tailed Hale Bopp comet. (The image below is courtesy of NASA.) Hale-Bopp is thought to be the most widely observed comet of the 20th century. It was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, which is twice as long as the previous record holder, the Great Comet of 1811, per Wikipedia.
Naturally, with the talk of mass suicides and comets, my mind IMMEDIATELY went to the cRaZiEs of the Heaven's Gate tragedy in 1997. And so, I told the kids about the religious sect/cult whose members, for whatever inexplicable reason, came to believe that the Hale-Bopp comet was being trailed by a mothership coming to take them home, and in order to get on board (in effect), they had to kill themselves (well, leave their Earthy bodies behind) to hop on board. Thirty nine people died (one of them being Nichelle Nichols' - Lt. Uhura of Star Trek's - brother).
Tonight I discovered that the Heaven's Gate cult's Web site is still up and running. Its (long dead) voice is in the present tense. Freaky.
It leads with "RED ALERT (flashing) Hale-Bopp Brings Closure to: Heaven's Gate." Whoever authored the page said that the arrival of Hale-Bopp was the "marker" which "made it clear" that the "arrival of the spacecraft from the Level Above Human" had come to take them home. Wow. Just wow.
I found it super curious that one of their links was to a page titled "Our Position Against Suicide." Uh huh ...
I'll never forget in the news coverage of the mass suicide the photos showing the departed all wearing the same black Nikes with white swooshes. They had on matching black shirts, sweat pants, and armband patches with "Heaven's Gate Away Team" on them. Guess that getup was part of their religion? So bizarre. They each had $5.75 in their pockets, too? Is that the admission price for heaven, you suppose?
CJ is poring over the Wikipedia article on the group right now. Yikes.
BOOKED: Last night, realizing we have a 4-day weekend coming up (the kids have no school/classes next week and Christian has Monday and Tuesday off), I got a wild hair and decided we needed to go somewhere. So, after just a bit of research, it has been decided that "somewhere" will be the Olympic Peninsula. Christian has never been there and so that was one deciding factor. That, and it's close, it's scenic and I'd really like to go check out Fort Worden (I've wanted to do that ever since I helped Rick design a brochure on it when he was in middle school). And so, come Sunday we'll be heading to Port Townsend for a couple of days. Should be fun!
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