Earthy

EARTH DAY: Isn't it lovely? Our spacecraft, our home, our Earth.

This photo of Earth taken this very morning, on Earth Day, 2014! It was taken by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's GOES-East satellite at 7:45 a.m. EDT (4:45 Seattle time). Right then, I was wide eyed, in bed, listening to the rain pour, thinking about how our #GlobalSelfie was going to be ruined, ha ha.

The gorgeous photo was greeting me in my inbox first thing, however, immediately brightening the day. The satellite which captured the image is geostationary - it stays in the same place with respect to the rotation Earth. That allows GOES to always be on alert for changes that signal sever weather conditions. (For more information about GOES satellites, visit: www.goes.noaa.gov). 

Unfortunately, the text along with the pretty picture noted "a low pressure area in the Pacific Northwest is expected to bring rainfall in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, stretching into the upper Midwest, according to NOAA's National Weather Service."  

Today, to celebrate Earth Day, NASA was asking people all over the world to take photos and share them on social media in a #GlobalSelfie event, in part to raise awareness about the Earth-based science that NASA is involved in every day, and their Earth Right Now campaign.

There are soooooo many sunny day photo opps in Seattle, but we had to play the hand we were dealt, so where to take an outside photo that would be interesting? ... 

Before long, the good ol' Troll living under the (Fremont) bridge came to mind.

Let me tell you, he is one popular dude! It took nearly 10 minutes to find parking anywhere near him, and he was crawling with people speaking a variety of languages. We managed to get a usable shot, and I uploaded it around noon. Turns out the troll was a hit with people - he got dozens of likes on the NASA #GlobalSefie page.

It was fun looking at others' posts on the page. Response was widespread and huge! We saw posts from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, all over Europe, North and South America, down under - you name it. Students, celebrities, scientists, and everyone in between responded to the campaign. Well done!

THE COSMOS: Spoiler alert - if you haven't seen the latest installment of "Cosmos" yet, you won't want to read CJ and Annabelle's reviews, following. I will make the generic statement that the show was, as always, terrific. Neil deGrasse Tyson is a compelling storyteller, and this story tied in history, health, science, politics and more.  

CJ's recollections:

Sunday night, I watched Cosmos, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Last night's episode was about Clair Cameron Patterson, who had a very large worry about lead poisoning in the public. For a very long time, lead poisoning was a very large problem that drove people insane and killed plenty. Several people tried to deny that lead even posed a threat in the first place, but by the time Cameron pointed out that lead poisoning was indeed dangerous in the first place, it became obvious.

Not only that, but Cameron discovered the age of the Earth using lead-lead dating, which proved that earth was 4.55 billion years old, instead of the prediction that earth is 6009 years old, which was proposed by Archbishop of Armagh, James Ussher. In my opinion, I find Cameron's statement much more plausible, as there there are things that have been dated from before Sunday, 23 October, 4004 B.C.E.

Annabelle's review:

Sunday night on Cosmos, the whole thing was about how one man named Clair Cameron Patterson, who had discovered the age of the Earth (using lead) and stopped gas companies putting lead in their gas! Some of the animated sequences showed a man in a lab coat, and when he looked around, he saw a bunch of pink blotches! At first i thought they were germs, but as Neil deGrasse Tyson talked about it, it became obvious it was lead! When Clair Patterson was testing the lead in rocks, he was getting WILD results, and no two were the same! he was forced to work in a sterile environment, and study lead there. He wondered why results were so varied in the non-sterile environment, and discovered that there is tons of lead on the surface, but none in the deep sea! Therefore, it was something on land that was producing the lead. This lead (get it, lead?) him to gas companies! He campaigned to stop the lead in gas, and that's why the gas now is "unleaded".

LITTLE PRINCE: Earth Day evening we headed to The Museum of Flight for a special presentation by the B612 Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting Earth from an end-of-life-as-we-know-it asteroid impact. (You know, like the movie "Armageddon"!)
Here's a video all about B612. 

https://b612foundation.org/
Former NASA astronaut Dr. Lu was evening's featured speaker. 

Before we went this evening, I had the kids do some research on B612, and asked them if they had any idea where the unique name came from. They hadn't a clue, so I gave the kids some of the back story about the classic book "The Little Price" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.  In the story, the prince lives on an asteroid named B612. He travels around space meeting others, including other asteroid inhabitants. 

We turned to YouTube in search of video, perhaps of someone reading a bit of the story. Instead, I found an animated version from 1983, called "The Adventures of The Little Prince." It had a National Education Association endorsement, so I thought we'd give it 22 minutes of our time. Per the poster's description, it was Season 1, episode 6, "Somewhere in Space." 

http://youtu.be/EEf8qA_d4VU

I'm not gonna lie, we three found elements of the cartoon super corny. But it did hold the kids' attention for the full 20-some minutes, I'll give it that! By doing a little research, we learned it was originally broadcast on Nickelodeon back in the day.  Apparently there were 26 episodes in all. But enough about the old cartoon!

The presentation tonight was compelling. I will post a few quotes, the kids' synopses, and a few photos tomorrow.

HERDING: Forgot to mention yesterday that the weekend involved a trip to the money sucking black hole, er, I mean Build a Bear Workshop, LOL. For his birthday, CJ took ownership of the latest My Little Pony Build a Bear is offering. This go-round it's Rarity. 

The kids sure enjoy picking out the floppy, unstuffed animal, picking its heart, a sound chip, getting it stuffed, taking it to the 'spa,' adding personality characteristics, picking out an outfit (yes, ponies wear clothing sometimes) and printing a birth certificate.

The whole process is pretty impressively high tech. And rather expensive ... Good thing birthdays only come once a year. (But unfortunately, ponies have been coming out at a rate of about 4 a year. ... )

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: On our walks, we often spy little lending libraries, like this one, outside the Irish pub a couple of blocks away. 

The one pictured above happens to be part of a formal network of little libraries, called Little Free Library . Here's a video about how that network works:

Little Free Library Story from Beargrass Media on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/72957294

In looking at their Web site, Little Free Libraries are anything but free to get one started. For instance, that cute red British phone booth inspired one above will set you back $600. Yikes! 

We have seen plenty of people who have made their own libraries which aren't part of any formal network. That's definitely on our 'to do' list. I'm sure we can find something during one of our salvage yard stops which we can repurpose into a library. And we always have books around here that need to find new homes.