Gruffy

TRICKY: The kids received a new issue of Highlights and I flipped through it this morning. They have a new science themed section and one of the stories explained why a straw looks broken when you look at it sitting in a glass of water.

I quickly grabbed a glass of water and a straw and replicated the 'trick,' and called the kids over ready to astound them. ;)

In my best all-knowing Alec Trebek/sanctimonious voice, I instructed the kids to study the glass and asked them why the straw appears to be broken.

I stood back, smiling smugly and giving them a couple of seconds to think about it, eager to share with them my new found knowledge ... until Annabelle piped in with, "It's because of the refraction of the light!"

Doh! My shining moment was stolen. How DARE she know the answer!? hahaha

As Highlights explained, when you look at an object, it's the light that's bending, not (in this case) the straw. When light is going through different mediums it can be bent or refracted differently. In this instance, the light changes direction when it goes from air into the water, or vice versa. 
 
MOHAWK ROCK: This afternoon we tuned in to our favorite Internet based radio station, Third Rock Radio at 1 p.m. They were having a guest DJ at that time slot, NASA Mohawk Guy (Bobak Ferdowski) became a sensation following the night of Mars Science Laboratory's landing. The vast audience tuning in was expecting to see a bunch of old school, button down shirt and tie wearing dudes, not a young guy with a mohawk and stars dyed into the short hair on the side of his head. 

Ferdowski played a nice mix of music, everything from Fire + Ice to Japandroids. Good stuff. Wouldn't be surprised if they invite him back some time. That is, if he has time time. He's probably a little busy in his job as flight director for MSL's cruise mission phase and director for the surface science mission.

GRUFFY: About 7 this morning CJ asked me who the Billy Goats Gruff are. I told them they're characters in an old folk tale. I hopped onto YouTube hoping to find a picture book on line featuring the story. There were scads of them. We watched.

I also found a Web site that featured three different tellings of the story. I had the kids read each of them and then asked them to then make a couple of columns on a sheet of paper and compare and contrast the versions.

Under "Compare" Annabelle came up with these items
- Two stories used trolls, two used wolves
- All of the stories used 3 goats
- In all the stories the goats are called "gruff" (except the German one). Note to Annabelle - hmm, guess that doesn't mean in ALL then, does it?

CJ came up with these 'Compare' items
- In all the stories there are three billy goats
- In all the stories the goats find ways to take advantage of the antagonist (?! yes, he wrote this!)
- In all of the stories the antagonist gets hurt badly
- In all of the stories the younger goat tries to pin it on the older goat to avoid getting eaten

For contrasts, we have Annabelle's first
- In all the stories the billy goats live in a different place than the other stories
- There isn't a bridge in all of them
And CJ's
- In one story the antagonist is a troll, in the other it is a wolf
- In one story the goats are called Gruff, in the other they have no names
- In one story, the antagonist tries to eat the goats because they have bellies. in the other it's because of  how fat they are

BEE IN A BLENDER: I received an email today from a Photoshop wizard letting me know he'd used some photos of mine of Annabelle in ballet class to create a composite image. Check it out, it's neat-o.
http://society6.com/AndreVillanueva/Photoshop-Creative-Magazine-Issue-93-Preview-1-of-2

Old School Exploring

INTOXICATING: Annabelle was sitting on the couch this afternoon, pink sparkly guitar strapped on, ready for practice. She'd gotten through the less-than-compelling "Sight Reader 2" exercise a couple of times but she just couldn't focus, for on the TV (with the sound muted) was a NASA-TV program about propulsion. 

"I want to watch this!!!" she practically begged while the above was on the screen. ...

Seriously, who am I to say 'no'? 

I'm going to have to up my game if she keeps this up. Which she will.

EARLY EXPLORER: Today I remembered to consult the handy-dandy "This Day in History" calendar for September that I'd made up a couple of weeks ago. Glad I did, because according to it, today is the day the Magellan expedition completed the first circumnavigation of the globe (in 1522).

First we talked about what "circumnavigation" meant. Then, we talked about explorers. On a daily basis, we talk about astronauts 'round here, and I told the kids that the astronauts are all explorers and adventurers, but back in the day, there were many pioneers who really didn't know where they were going. In 1969, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins knew the moon was there and that they had a target of the Sea of Tranquility. But rewind a few centuries and explorers had no such assurances. They just knew something was out there and they wanted to go find it, so they set off to discover the unseen.  

Magellan's story is a fascinating one. Born in Portugal, though he was orphaned at 10, he had the good fortune afterward of being assigned to the Queen's castle as a messenger. There, he learned about navigation and explorations of the time. In his 20s, he asked the king of Portugal to underwrite his journey to the Spice Islands. When he was refused, Magellan turned to the king of Spain. He agreed because Spain was looking for a better, westward route to Asia than around the southern tip of Africa.  However, since the quest was uncharted and Magellan was unproven, it was hard recruiting shipmates. Many were prisoners released in exchange for signing on. 

A fleet of 5 ships (the Santiago, San Antonio, Conception, Trinidad and Victoria) set sail in Sept. of 1519. It took them over a year to find the route around the southern tip of South America (now known as the Strait of Magellan). It was rough going, and the captain of the San Antonio bailed on the mission, leaving four ships.Magellan made it to Guam, but never as far as the Spice Islands, as he was a casualty in the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines Islands, reportedly taking a stake to the heart and a poison arrow to the foot. His boat was burned and his body left behind. 

In the end, only one of the five ships (the Victoria) made it back to Spain.

Detail from a map of Ortelius - Magellan's ship Victoria

Only EIGHTEEN of the original crew of 250 men made the 'round trip. Yowza. 

BTW, Magellan is the one who named the Pacific ocean, his "peaceful sea" tag inspired by its (relatively) calm waters.

DON YOUR GLASSES: Have some funky red cyan 3D glasses sitting around? I do from the Mars Science Laboratory Tweetup/launch. :) They came in hand for the Super Awesome 3-D image (below) from NASA's Curiosity. It was taken from the rover's Bradbury Landing site inside Gale Crater, using both the left and right eyes of Curiosity's Navigation camera. 

You'll note that between the rover on the right, and its shadow on the left, is the rover's eventual target: Mount Sharp. It's about the height of Mt. Rainier, for a Northwest folks' frame of reference (however, the the mountain's highest peak is not visible in this frame). 

Per NASA, "This full-resolution, 360-degree stereo panorama was taken on sols 2 and 12 of the mission, or the 2nd and 12th Martian days since landing (Aug. 8 and 18, 2012). It requires viewing with the traditional red-blue 3-D glasses, with red going over the left eye. The right and left stereo pairs are also available for creating your own 3-D imagery."

It's totally worth checking out the right view:  http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/683940main_pia16140-Righteye.jpg
And the left: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/683937main_pia16140-Lefteye.jpg

The Future is Now

HELLO, HELIOSPHERE!: It was 35 years ago today that Voyager 1 launched.  I not only remember the launch, I remember events leading up to it, especially some of the data that was being loaded onto the first-of-its kind space probe.

As a kid, I was absolutely enthralled upon learning the probe contained a gold-plated audio visual disc ("Sounds of Earth") that carried photos and sounds from Earth. Images included photos of our planet and a map of our solar system, the sounds of a baby crying, whales 'speaking' and waves breaking on the shore. The files were in case intelligent aliens intercepted our probe, and this golden record was the story of us. 

There were printed greetings from President Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. There was also a collection of Earth music, including works by Mozart and Chuck Berry singing "Johnny B Goode."

As far as we all know, the golden record is still intact as Voyager 1 is poised to break on through to the other side - beyond our solar system.

Of course, along the way, Voyager 1 has taken in many amazing sights.  Like this one - a photo of Jupiter taken on Feb. 25, 1979. 

Check out that Great Red Spot! At that point, Voyager 1 was 5.7 million miles from Jupiter. Hard to believe. (Do yourself a favor and take a moment to check out this collection of approaching-Jupiter shots Voyager 1 took. They've been stitched together into a beautiful video: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jupiter_from_Voyager_1_PIA02855_max_quality.ogv)

Both Voyager 1 and 2 have explored all the giant planets of our outer solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; 48 of their moons; and the rings and magnetic fields of those planets). 

As of today, Voyager 1 is just over 18,211,258,021 kilometers from Earth. It is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune and the longest-operating NASA spacecraft ever. 

To honor this anniversary, we watched a couple of really interesting Voyager 1 videos:  They're short and fact-filled.

The second video we watched (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/voyager20120820.html) had a really simple (kitchen sink) demonstration of how the heliosheath works to protect us.

I loved how as we were watching the videos, CJ was comparing what we were hearing to facts he'd learned about Voyager in the super cool "National Geographic Angry Birds Space" book we got at the Angry Birds Space launch party at the Space Needle a few months back. 

And I LOVE this sweet photo taken by Voyager 1 on Sept. 18th, 1977, as it bids adieu to Earth and our moon. 

THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT: The garden continues to produce. Christian and the kids pulled up about a dozen carrots yesterday. Most were in the 4- to 6-inch range, but there was this lunker.

And some were puny, too. Here, Annabelle makes her "is not amused" face, per the post-Olympic Internet meme.

MEASURING UP: On our "to do" list this morning was measuring up the addition's floors so we could go out to Lowe's and order the flooring for it. It was a good math exercise for the kids. First, they had to make sure they were using the measuring tape correctly and next, they had to learn how to calculate square footage, by multiplying the room's length by its width. 

Once we had our actual total, they then had to help me figure out how many more square feet we needed if we were going to order the industry standard 10 percent overage (to account for waste).

HISTORY OVERHEAD: This morning during the kids' breakfast, since "My Little Ponies Friendship is Magic" was over, we switched to NASA TV. Good call.

We watched a looong space walk outside the ISS. One of the space walkers was Suni WIlliams, and via a Facebook post by NASA, I learned that while we watched, Williams became the record holder for total spacewalk time by a female. Fantastic!

Suni Williams and Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide successfully completed the installation of a Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) today. It wasn't easy due to misaligned threads and stripped bolts - stuff we've all struggled with down here on planet Earth from time to time. 

Not Back to School Day

CLINGING TO SUMMER: Many kids - and adults - went back to school today, but not the student body of MPA. We decided to celebrate our non-traditional schedule by going to a (very small) amusement park, Bullwinkle's Family Fun Center in Edmonds.

It was our first trip there. An instant attraction was the water bumper boats, which the kids hadn't experienced before. They had fun floating and shooting (a small stream of water) at each other.

They were pretty wet when they were done, so for the second go-round, they both donned ponchos. I couldn't help but think CJ looked like Emporer Palpatine.

They also drove the standard bumper cars, and played some putt putt golf. I think it's only the second time the kids have played miniature golf. Annabelle's short game is a little rough, and in putt putt golf, it's all short game ;) . On the other hand, CJ scored a hole-in-one on hole 11! Go CeeJ!

One of Annabelle's favorite attractions was a bungee-assisted trampoline, where they got to bounce several feet high. "I feel like I'm on the moon!" Annabelle kept exclaiming with glee.

 CJ wasn't as enthused. He didn't really trust the apparatus.

While we had fun for sure, if I were mystery shopping the place the review would not have been stellar. The facility was completely devoid of sparkle and shine, and some spots were just rough looking, including this durpy dragon, whom Annabelle tried to impersonate, complete with peeling paint and covered by dead vines.

By and large, the staff who worked there seemed to be zombies, definitely not in love with their jobs, and not in like with working with kids, either.

In other news, I can't tell you how many times today I thought of Rick, starting his new job as a third grade teacher at Kent Elementary School. I have no doubt the kids loved him and he did great.

MARK YOUR LUNAR CALENDAR: You'll want to save the date of Sept. 22 on your calendar. It's International Observe the Moon night, inspired by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's mission to scout the moon.

Today, Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted a video about the event on Facebook. The video is fantastic. Not only does it inform people about Observe the Moon night, it does a wonderful job of explaining why we always see the same "face" of the moon - a topic that can be tricky to describe to kids (or adults for that matter!) I'd highly recommend checking it out: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1135

PUT YOUR THINKING CAPS ON!: Another day, another NASA contest. The one I posted about yesterday had to do with choosing a target for the Cassini mission, but it is only open to grades 5-12, which took Bee and CJ out of the running. The contest announced today involves naming an asteroid, and it's open to students around the globe. From the NASA press release: "Students worldwide have an opportunity to name an asteroid from which an upcoming NASA mission will return the first samples to Earth. "Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission is called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). Samples returned from the primitive surface of the near-Earth asteroid currently called (101955) 1999 RQ36 could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth. NASA also is planning a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025. A closer scientific study of asteroids will provide context and help inform this mission. The competition is open to students under age 18 from anywhere in the world. Each contestant can submit one name, up to 16 characters long. Entries must include a short explanation and rationale for the name. Submissions must be made by an adult on behalf of the student. The contest deadline is Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012." The asteroid in need of a name was discovered in 199 by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research survey (LINEAR) survey at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. The asteroid has an average diameter of about one-third of a mile (500 meters).

There's a Web site with more info about the contest, and NASA Goddard has a cute video about it, too. 

Before you get too crazy with your asteroid name ideas, know that there are rules for naming asteroids. For example, it has to be 16 characters or less long, and it's preferably one word. It has to be pronounceable (in some language) and written using Latin characters. Naturally, it also has to be non-offensive. And it cant' be identical with or too similar to an existing name of a minor planet or natural planetary satellite.

Golden Weekend

Graphic courtesy Glenn Wright

IT'S A WRAP: For months, weeks and days we've been working on plans for my parents' 50th anniversary party, which was held on Saturday. One of the related projects was a 'flash mob' dance. In preparation, CJ and Annabelle picked some of their favorite moves from their "Just Dance" Wii games and we weaved them together to make a dance to go with David Bowie's song "Golden Years" for the occasion.

Getting the dance choreographed was only the beginning of the project, though. The next question was how in the world do we get people from Alaska to Albuquerque to California and the Carolinas to learn the dance before the party? Enter the magic of the Internet. We posted two videos to Vimeo, and sent people links to them.

The first video was a tutorial. It was a break down of each of the moves in the dance, with CJ and Annabelle taking turns demonstrating them.
golden years tutorial from Kristine Kisky on Vimeo.
The second video was a run through of the dance. One of the challenges for CeeJ and Bee was to literally learn the dance forward and backward - because in the videos they had to perform them in opposite, so that they functioned like mirrors for the folks dancing at home.

In the end, all the work was worth it. There was amazing, widespread participation and people really knew the dance! My parents were completely surprised and overwhelmed by it, and when the dance was done, the crowd erupted into a spontaneous cheer for what we'd all pulled off. I never dreamed we would have such widespread participation by people of ALL ages. Yay everyone!
Golden Years Run Through from Kristine Kisky on Vimeo.
It was pretty funny, at the party, so many people Annabelle and CJ had never met before already knew their names/who they were from practicing "with" them ahead of time.   

Naturally, the party also involved a few cookies and a little cake. Thursday was Operation Cookie Day for us. The cookies we made told a story - each representing somewhere my parents lived during their 50 years of marriage.  We started with Space Needles, since they met and married in Seattle. Next, they moved to Las Vegas, so I made the iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. (Those were my favorite.) After that, they moved to Portland, the City of Roses, so we made some rose cookies. Then they moved to Vancouver, WA, so we made little state of Washington cookies, putting a little heart down in the southwest corner, where Vancouver is. We also had to make some cookies to represent Pennsylvania, where they lived for a couple of years in the early 1990s. I made a Pittsburgh Pirates' "P," as the Pirates won their division both years my parents were there.

Friday was Cake Day. I made four batches (for four big layers) of chocolate cake, and raspberry filling for that. The next cake required two big batches of banana cake (oh SO good!) with a cheesecake and cinnamon filling bro in law Jim helped me come up with. The top layer was good ol' white cake with a blackberry filling - fantastic! Renee and I spent hours and hours and hours covering the cake in fondant and then decorating it with retro/atomic shapes in two shades of purple, two shades of teal and gold. It was topped with Elvis in a classic car atop a gold record. And I don't have a SINGLE PHOTO OF THE ENTIRE CAKE AT ALL if you can believe that. I feel like such a loser for that fact. Hopefully someone at the party got a shot of it.

I do have this shot of my parents cutting into it from the side, though ... At that point, cake topper Elvis had already left the building, so to speak. ;)

SUNDAY SOCCER: We pulled out of my parents' house early Sunday morning, destination Seattle. It would have been nice to maybe sleep in a bit, but we had a date to keep! Christian's niece was playing soccer in Seattle at 1 p.m. and we didn't want to miss that. 

We arrived home at 12:30 and by 12:45 we were pulling back out of our driveway, destination Capitol Hill where Portland State University would be taking on the Redhawks of Seattle University.

We got to see Torie play the whole second half, and the kids were especially excited when she had a corner kick right by us!

CALLING ALL FIFTH (& UP) GRADERS: CJ and Annabelle are just a bit too young to enter, but plenty of 10 and 11 year olds out there might be interested to know about the 2012 Cassini Scientist for a Day contest. It's an essay contest (just 500 words), and entrants have to write about one of three potential targets to be studied, and write a persuasive essay describing the scientific merits of their choice.