Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Leaping Lemurs!

BRISK VISIT: We made a quick trip to Seattle Center yesterday, destination Pacific Science Center. But first, we stopped off in the Armory (formerly the Center House) to check out the winter decorations and visit the model train exhibit.

It's a cute, miniature winter wonderland. Look at the happy people and their cups of cheer at the saloon.

And I'll bet the Moose junkyard has most everything the villagers need.

We've visited the model train display for years now, but this is the first time the kids actually got to drive the train.

Here's conductor CJ trying his hand at it. ...

And Annabelle enjoyed her spin at the helm, as well.

Good times!

After the train station, we went to Pacific Science Center to see a wonderful 3D IMAX movie "Island of Lemurs: Madagascar."

Here's the movie's official trailer

Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the documentary was captivating both in content and appearance. We learned LOTS about lemurs. I asked the kids to share some of that - and told them Wikipedia was off limits for their research. :)

Annabelle wrote -

Lemurs are prosimian primates that live exclusively in Madagascar. They are also very good climbers, being able to hop from tree to tree to tree. Some species are common (such as the common brown lemur), while some are hard to find (such as the endangered golden-brown mouse lemur).

Another interesting fact about lemurs is they can widely vary in size and color, from a medium-sized Sanford's lemur to the tiny grey mouse lemur! The most recognizable lemur would be the ring-tailed lemur, which definitely lives up to its name. A bit of fun trivia; Did you know the blue-eyed black lemur is the only primate other than humans with blue eyes?

Lemurs are very curious and cute animals. From all over Madagascar, they've inspired many to study and help their forests, which are currently being burned to make more land. Overall, lemurs are definitely interesting and, in my mind, should be protected.

And CJ said -

Lemurs are endangered primates of different species living in Madagascar including, but not limited to, the Ring-Tail Lemur, the Mouse Lemur, the Bamboo Lemur, and the Indri Lemur (also called the "Babakoto" in many regions).

Lemurs are known for being energetic, and often jump around trees and the ground. Lemurs are on average, smaller than most other primates, but may appear similar to primates such as monkeys or gibbons (gibbons are sometimes referred to as "Lesser apes"). Many scientists speculate that the way lemurs got to Madagascar was, during the age of the dinosaurs, some lemurs' prehistoric ancestors being on a piece of a forest that drifted away from their area in Africa and eventually made contact with the island that we now call Madagascar.

Lemurs communicate mostly with vocalization (most infamously screaming to alert other lemurs in their small family groups of news) and scent markings. lemurs often look for native fruits and nuts as a food source. Despite common belief, lemurs do not have claws. Currently in Africa, there are certain wildlife research projects going on that involve lemurs, including Centre ValBio.

Fascinating, beautiful creatures are lemurs, and the movie does a wonderful job of introducing them to a wide audience.

All in all, it was a wonderful visit to the Center, which sparkled in the clear, crisp air.

ALL ABOUT ORION: We spent a couple of hours today learning more about Orion, NASA's new spacecraft for future manned missions. It's under going a Really Big Deal (unmanned) test flight on Thursday morning (4 a.m. Seattle time, ouch!).

We watched a flight test status and overview briefing live at 10 this morning on NASA TV. It was insightful and got us excited for the launch.

We also checked out a movie-theater type trailer about the Orion Flight Test. You can watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHRuyNXuLxg or right here!