ANGELS AMONG US: We've been waiting for this day for a couple of years, no lie. It's the biggest weekend of Seafair, and that means hydroplane races on Lake Washington and the Blue Angels buzzing overhead. Squee!!!!
Last year, the Angels didn't come to town due to budget cuts. And the couple of years before that they did come, it was rainy and gray, not great flying weather, and we hardly saw them. But today - Hooah!
It's great to hear the return of the roar of their engines. They were absolutely swarming the skies of Seattle this afternoon, darting, diving, climbing and corkscrewing.
Their contrails wove white ribbons in the sky.
They fly so closely together, sometimes it's hard to tell how many of them are in formation. Once in awhile I'd think it was two planes, only to find out that it was actually four.
They should have a couple more practice runs tomorrow. You know our eyes will be on the skies again. What a treat to see!
And I have to note, just this week (why so long US Navy?) the Blue Angels added a woman pilot to their roster, Capt. Katie Higgins. She's not in the Seattle show, but is expected to start flying as a C-130 demonstration pilot in October. It's long overdue, especially considering the really awful debauchery in the Blue Angels' unit as of late (don't read this if you want to think of the Blue Angels as nothing but a squeaky clean source of national pride and entertainment).
FIRST SHOT: The images from Apollo 11 have been getting lots of media attention lately, due to the 45th anniversary of the manned moon landing. However, it was this day in 1964 that the first picture of our moon was taken by a U.S. spacecraft, Ranger 7.
It was taken at 6:09 AM West Coast time, just 17 minutes or so before Ranger 7 smashed in to the surface of the moon.
It was taken at 6:09 AM West Coast time, just 17 minutes or so before Ranger 7 smashed in to the surface of the moon.
The large crater at center right in the fram is Alphonsus, 108 km in diameter Alphonsus.
The images Ranger took were transmitted back to Earth in real time. They were used, in part, to help select the landing sites for Apollo moon missions.
Launched on July 28, 1964, Ranger transmitted over 4,300 high quality images of the moon to Earth during its mission, ending just three days later.
BECAUSE, SCIENCE: We somehow wound up watching a few videos on the Sci2.tv channel today. We learned about a wide range of topics, including why dogs like to sniff each others butts (it's chemical communication, and not socially inappropriate to them!) and how to cut a bagel into an infinity sign (I have a feeling we'd butcher a lot of bagels attempting to do so). Interesting and educational videos, for sure.
THE SOUND OF TROLLING: This morning, CJ was feeling better. How did I know? Well, he was WIDE awake at 6:09, and peppering me with questions about technical things, for which I had no answers. He wanted to encode an image to a sound that can be viewed with a spectrogram. Because that's what every 11-year old with severe GI distress wants to do at 6:09 a.m., right?
The next couple of hours were spent toiling on the computer, troubleshooting and researching. CJ was determined to use some software that converts a graphic into a sound (specifically, a bitmap file into a WAV file). He found some such thing on a Website called OhMPie.com.
Problem was, the "ancient" software was meant for LINUX or Windows 95.
But I'll be darned if CJ didn't battle his way through technical roadblock after roadblock. He was absolutely relentless in his quest to convert a troll face into a sound! And I'll be darned if he didn't figure it out all by himself after about 90 minutes.
It's not rocket science, but it was a testament to how a determined kid can make things happen.
SWEET STUFF: This video is a lovely little reminder that it only takes a couple of minutes to make a difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0gA2mxbjSY
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