On the Move

We covered LOTS of ground this weekend. Take a a deep breath and off we go ...

BRAIN BOOST: Saturday night we had the pleasure of attending a lecture in the Seattle Science Festival's Luminaries series. Evolution was the theme of the evening. On the bill were Dr. Jack Horner, the paleontologist who is perhaps best known for inspiring a Jurassic Park character; Dr. Leroy Hood, a dude who knows volumes about DNA; and the headliner was none other than Stephen Hawking. SO amazing that we had a chance to see him in person! Don't ask me why, but I only took ONE photo of the kids outside and as you can see, it's not exactly the greatest ... 

The show started with the very entertaining Baba Brinkman, a Canadian who raps about science and evolution.  (Intrigued, check out the "Rap Guide to Evolution" Web site! According to their "about us," it's a "hip-hop exploration of modern biology.")

By far, the kids' favorite rap Brinkman performed was "I'm A African." Rapped to the tune of the Dead Prez's song of the same name, it was a brilliant take on how, at least from an evolutionary standpoint, we are all Africans. The audience full of science geeks on Saturday night raucously sang along with Brinkman. I'd encourage you to check out the video:

Up next was Dr. Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies in Montana. He strolled the stage in his cowboy boots, sharing his dream of hatching a new old dinosaur. He made the point that we don't have to make new dinosaurs, since they already exist in the form of birds. So what Horner et al are trying to do is look for throwback traits - called  atavisms - and find away to bring them to fruition again.

After Dr. Horner, a dance troupe performed. For a long time. They were talented dancers. And they danced a really, reeeeeally loooooooong time. 

Finally, after intermission, it was back to some hard science. Dr. Leroy Hood, founder Seattle's Institute for Systems Biology shared an approach to health care he calls P4 - predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory medicine.

And much to the crowd's delight, next up was The Stephen Hawking. Squeeee! Here's a really awful photo, taken illicitly, in the dark, with my cell phone. But it's the best I have to offer. ...

Hawking had lots to say, and all of it was said through a high tech device that is able to convert  twitches in his face into a synthesized voice. Though the process is a little slow, and there were some delays, Hawking was able to communicate clearly and he had lots of mind blowing ideas to share.  

CJ's take on the evening: 

Evolution was an event that happened on June sixteenth, two-thousand twelve. (6/16/2012) In Evolution, it talked at first about how all of our descendants came from Africa, with the song "I'm A African" made by Baba Brinkman. In Evolution, you would get to meet Stephen Hawking. It talked about a lot of intresting things, like how some snakes have legs, some humans have tails, and even how Chickens are related to Dinosaurs.

The "Chicken-Saurus" was interesting. They said it would require altering the D.N.A of a chicken. They showed that before, scientists already figured out how to give chicken teeth. They said the next step would be altering the chicken tail.

The final speech was done by Stephen Hawking. In the final speech, Hawking talked about M-Theory, the theory to everything. If M-Theory is correct, that will mean every particle has a superpartner.

And here's what Annabelle has to say about it: 

Stephen Hawking, a scientist, one of the most famous people on earth, was at the Seattle Science Festival to talk about the world we live in, and another dimension, both on what we call a Brane. The Brane, like i said, holds one single dimension. Our Brane seemed to be leaking gravity, having the neighboring Brane, holding "The Shadow World" which had planets with no star for them to orbit around, used the gravity to make the planets with no star like our sun, act like our solar system!

Stephen Hawking is possibly the smartest person on earth. He is very smart. Trust me.

At the conclusion of Hawking's lecture he told us he wanted to plug his latest book. A children's book co-authored with his daughter Lucy, it's called "George and the Big Bang." It's the third in a series. had no idea Hawking had written children's books! We'll definitely be hunting a copy down!


I realize I've done a somewhat crappy job of recounting the evening, especially the Hawking part, as there was more than a little bit in his presentation that I didn't just couldn't fully wrap my mind around at first introduction. Fortunately, there is an EXCELLENT review of the show on MSNBC.com's Cosmic Log: I'd encourage you to check it out.


RETRO-RAMA: Saturday morning we headed to Bellevue for the second annual Seattle Retro Gaming Expo. We've been looking forward to it for about a year - since the last/first SRGE.


The event Web site clearly said that the gaming room would be open to all at 9, as did the official program at the event, and so when we arrived a few minutes after 9 a.m., we were surprised to find a long, non-moving line way out the door. We finally started creeping forward, only to be told once we nearly reached the front that the event wasn't open until 10 a.m. for people who hadn't pre-registered. Grrrr. Nothing like making the rules up as they go along. After handing over a wad of cash to a guy, we finally got in a few minutes before 10 a.m., and even then the game play room was nowhere near being ready for show goers. So, we meandered through the vendors area and saw approximately 3,238 things CJ and Annabelle wanted to buy. We settled for just three or four "new" things, however, including a Toy Story game for GameBoy for $1, a Super Famicon Dragonball Z game for $8, and the big ticket item was a super cool new SupaBoy - an aftermarket device that's a portable gaming console that plays old Super Nintendo and Super Famicom games. Sweet!


The free play room was finally open after 10:30. We were surprised to find the number of consoles to play was less than 1/3 there were last year and the first and supposedly smaller show. Curious. But CJ and Annabelle each got to play some classic games, and CJ and another young gamer were like two peas in a pod, speaking their own language while playing River City Ransom and Contra on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. 


In our couple hours there, Annabelle was THE ONLY young girl (say under 20) I saw.

And CJ was definitely the only one wearing a Famicom Disk System t-shirt (that got a LOT of comments from classic game gurus, all of whom were even more shocked to hear that CJ actually owns and plays the rare console). 


SUNDAY AT THE SAFE: For Father's Day, we headed to SoDo, for a date with the Seattle Mariners. Rick and Ken joined us, which was nice, and we met one of the kids' cousins and his parents there. Tons of fun for everyone! 


The sun was shining and the roof was open. It was a glorious day for a baseball game. 

King Felix was pitching and the King's Court was in session, just to the left of our seats. It was fun watching and listening to their ruckus. 

The Mariners pulled off a bottom of the ninth miracle and actually won - an all too rare occurrence as of late.