Weekend Catch Up

FISH TALES:  This weekend, we made a trek out to a local park hoping to see something remarkable - salmon heading home to spawn.  Lucky for us, there were lots of chums to check out!

We parked at the south entrance of Carkeek Park and walked along a cold, frozen trail toward Piper's Creek. I'd read that salmon had been spotted there, and in all our years here, we've somehow never made it down there to watch nature take its course.

There were volunteer naturalists down by the creek, happy to share information about what we were watching. 

The fish had all made their way home, from the saltwater of Puget Sound to the fresh water of Piper's Creek. One guide told us these fish were relatively lucky, in that their journey home was much shorter than many salmon.

Once home, the fish would pair off. The females (easy to spot with a horizontal black band on their body) would try to find the perfect spot and then use their tails dig a nest to deposit their eggs in. Seconds later, the male would swoop in and fertilize the eggs. 

I don't pretend to know the habits of chum salmon, but to me, these poor fish looked very fatigued as they fought their way up to their final resting spot. 

The adult males and females we saw would be dead within a couple of days (if not sooner). Their offspring, if they're fortunate enough to survive, will start making their way out toward Puget Sound this spring. 

If you're so inclined, you can read more about the chum salmon of Piper's Creek on this Department of Fish & Wildlife Web page: http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/salmon/chum/viewing/pipers_crk.html

SPACEY SOUNDTRACK: We're still very tuned into the European Space Agency's Rosetta Mission, eagerly awaiting more news of what its lander Philae found on comet 67P last week. 

Meanwhile, the ESA has released a trio of music videos to celebrate the first ever soft landing on a comet, the Rosetta Mission. The soundtracks' composer is Vangelis, composer of the Academy Award-winning "Chariots of Fire" theme, as well as scores for the films "Antarctica," "Blade Runner," and "1492: Conquest of Paradise." Vengelis' music was also used in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos."

Per the ESA, composer Vangelis said, "Mythology, science and space exploration are subjects that have fascinated me since my early childhood. And they were always connected somehow with the music I write."

Here are links to the YouTube trio of videos
Part one: "Arrival" by Vangelis http://youtu.be/FJrUnzLsmZk
Part two: "Philae's Journey" by Vangelis http://youtu.be/W8bVOGN9jSg
Part three: "Rosetta's Waltz" by Vangelis http://youtu.be/PUpSVxoCcik
And here's an embed of my favorite one, "Philae's Journey"

Video copyright: ESA/Vangelis

MIND GAMES:  Yesterday, we played a couple of rounds of a really fun game we've played once before, "30-Second Mysteries" by University Games.

It's a little hard to explain without using my hands or drawing pictures, but you work in teams, each team having to solve an aspect of the mystery. For instance, one team might need to figure out the place it happened, and the other might have to figure out the perpetrator.

Partners get to ask the opposing team one question per round, to which the answer is 'yes,' 'no,' or some variation of "I don't know/we can't be sure," basing these answers on the clues that are revealed one at a time, one per round. 

The game is very cleverly done and the mysteries are well written. Once in awhile the obvious answer is the answer, but usually, it's a bit more tricky.  Here, for example, is a bad photo of one of the sides of a mystery card. Imagine only having the scenario and once clue at a time to solve it.

Annabelle and I successfully solved the mystery of who the lawyer was, but not until the very last clue. Christian and CJ were trying to figure out what the lawyer deserved. Fun stuff!

RUNNING ERRANDS: Today, we had some errands to run, one of which took us to Seattle Center for a brief spell. While there, the kids took a whirl on the painted-on-pavement maze outside of Experience Music Project. It's always more work than they think it's going to be!

INTERSTELLAR SCIENCE: A friend of mine posted a link to a great TED-Ed blog with the headline "The science of Interstellar: 5 TED-Ed Lessons to help you understand the film." Intrigued, we checked it out, and found out it was a series of short (5 minutes or so) videos about various aspects of the movie.

We watched an animation about time dilation, entitled "Is time travel possible?" Written and narrated by Colin Stuart, it actually made us reflect fondly on our Eisensteinian physics class we completed months and months ago.


We also watched a video about four dimensional lifeforms, by Alex Rosenthal and George Zaiden. One of the things the video referenced was Edwin Abbott's 1884 novella "Flatland," about a two-dimensional world. Intriguing! Understanding three dimensions was simple enough, but when they pushed things to the fourth dimension, it was a mind bender!