Playing Catch Up

ALL ABOUT ALBERT: We continue to slog along in our Einstein/Theory of Relativity class. We've spent hours and hours watching lectures and taking assessment tests. Tomorrow, we should be ready to tackle this week's problems, and take this week's test. 

Perspectives, paradoxes, frames of reference, combining velocities, this is heady stuff. But we're holding our own, so far - able to get 100 percent on the post-lecture assessments. Fingers crossed we'll fare as well on the week's test. 

Annabelle's unique note-taking style (see above) continues to amuse.

FOUND: Two weeks to the day since Christian's car was stolen, the police called with news it had been found.

We're pretty sure it's been parked in the same place for nearly the entire 2 weeks, as it was recovered about 2 blocks down the road from where the thief used one of Christian's credit cards at a Rite Aid. (For those playing catch up, yes, Christian had left his wallet in the car. Don't try this at home.)

The kids and I went out with Kennedy to retrieve the car. However, when we got there, it wouldn't start, and even if it had, the dumb ass who stole it wrecked it, crunching the right front quarter panel, pushing it into the tire. (Which is probably why he or she only drove it as far as they did before parking it.) 

So, we left it there - after talking to the homeowner who had called it in to the police. He was very interested to hear the long and tangled story about how a stolen car wound up in his side yard parking strip in Wedgwood.

This afternoon, Christian caught a ride to the car from a coworker, and man-handled the bumper away from the tire. They gave it a jump-start and he drove it home.

FROM SCRATCH: CJ and Annabelle had Scratch class today. Here's one of CJ's creations (click the green flag to launch it). 

If the embedded link above doesn't work, check it out here:
http://beta.scratch.mit.edu/projects/10109261/
In addition to Scratch, Annabelle has also been playing around with a software tool called Pivot Stickfigure Animator. It's lots of fun, and she's able to make animated gif files, like this cowboy ...

BEANTOWN: Along with the rest of America, we've been following the events in and around Boston since the Marathon bombing, which occurred while we were enjoying the tulips on Monday. 

Terrorism, religious extremism, mass casualties, mob mentality - ugly subject matter to have to cover, but it's part of a real world social studies education. Of course, there have been lots of opportunities to talk about heroes, including the amazing account of a man whose legs were both blown off.   He was wheeled from the crime scene in a wheelchair, with a stranger in a cowboy hat holding/pinching one of the arteries left danging from his right leg. As soon as the victim awoke from surgery, he asked for a pad to write on and let everyone know he'd seen one of the bombers place the backpack. His description was instrumental, and it helped law enforcement isolate the suspects in videos from the scene. Amazing. 

We've also talked about crowdsourcing - how crime fighting via social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, 4chan and more is both a boon and a potential mess (for lack of a better term).   

STILL ON THE PAD: On Wednesday, we watched as Antares, the rocket Orbital Sciences Corp. hopes will eventually serve as a cargo ferry to the ISS, failed to take off due to an (electrical) umbilical cord detaching while the rocket was just 12 minutes from lift off. Bummer. It was set to go off today, but Mother Nature said 'no.' Tomorrow is another possibility. Saturday's launch is tentatively schedule for 2 p.m. Pacific time, with coverage on NASA TV starting at 1:30 our time. 

You can track updates here, on Spaceflight Now: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/antares/demo/status.html

While you're waiting, you can watch Antares roll out to the launch pad in this NASA video: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=153244401

MONDAY HEADS UP: Monday is Earth Day, and via an Education Express email, I learned about NASA's Digital Learning Network event, "Celebrate Our Beautiful Earth."

At 9 a.m. Pacific time, there will be a broadcast from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center with a musical and visual tour of Earth from space with interactive discussions through the Beautiful Earth program. 

The program will feature musician Kenji Williams, who will narrate BELLA GAIA^®, or beautiful Earth, a multimedia show, and discuss his inspiration and why art and music are important in science. Williams will be joined by NASA's Dr. Claire Parkinson, project scientist of the Aqua satellite mission, which measures Earth's processes including temperatures, clouds, vegetation cover and water vapor. Dr. Parkinson will discuss climate change and how NASA is studying our home planet.

The public can participate by viewing the webcast on the DLiNfo Channel at http://dln.nasa.gov. During the event, an email address will be provided for participants to send questions.

For more information about the Beautiful Earth program, visit http://beautifulearth.gsfc.nasa.gov.

SOCIAL SIGN UP!: For anyone interested in all things NASA, you owe it to yourself to sign up for a chance to get a spot in a NASA Social at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Per NASA, lucky attendees will get to ...

• Speak with science researchers whose work is enabled by the International Space Station
• Ask questions of the space station program manager and the associate program scientist during a May 22 press conference about the upcoming Expedition 36 mission to the International Space Station
• Tour unique facilities, including:
• the Robonaut Laboratory
• the Mission Control Center
• the Astronaut Exercise Equipment Training Facility

Big fun! More info and a link to the registration page here: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/social/social_jsc_iss_april2013.html