Friday Fun

ROUGHAGE:  A 'leftover' shot from Wednesday, when we were at Sky Nursery. You can certainly tell what season it is, because you can see a Christmas tree in the distance in the head of cabbage/lettuce(ish)!

It reminds me, I do love me some broccoli, but I have yet to meet a beet I'm thrilled with (nothing personal, Bee). Any great beet recipes out there!? 

STILL ON SATURN: We've been big on Saturn this week, and today was no exception. We fired up the amazing "Eyes on the Solar System" to check in on Cassini. 

I was first introduced to "Eyes on the Solar System" when I was at the Space Coast for the Mars Science Laboratory launch. It's an amazing, powerful tool. It features an interactive simulation of our solar systems, complete with planets and moons and all the NASA spacecraft within.

Here's a view we took of Cassini today. Breathtaking, indeed. 

MANDIBA: We were in the Southcenter Mall, standing next to their Santa display, when we learned Nelson Mandela had died.

I stood in silence, reading the news feeds across a screen, The name didn't mean anything to CJ and Annabelle, unfortunately. Today, we rectified that situation.

For starters, I had them watch the BrainPOP video about apartheid:  http://www.brainpop.com/socialstudies/worldhistory/apartheid/

After that, I had them watch a few videos on the Biography channel's Web site. We started with this:
http://www.biography.com/people/nelson-mandela-9397017

NIGHTCAP: Last night, the kid were up way past their bedtime (watching 'The Sound of Music: Live'). Once I realized the 11 o'clock was coming and going, I had them stay up a bit longer to see United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket Launch of #NROL39 Payload for the National Reconnaissance Office        

Post by 30th Space Wing (Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.).

Today, a post by former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly reminded me that rocket launches don't always go off like clockwork. In fact, they sometimes go spectacularly wrong. Like on this day in 1957, when NASA's Vanguard tried to answer the Soviet's Sputnik by sending an American satellite into orbit.

There was no code to embed the video, but it's 57 seconds and it's worth following this link to see:
http://youtu.be/zVeFkakURXM