MEANWHILE, IN INDIA: Isn't this lovely? Meet the Indian Space Research Oganisation's most powerful launcher ever, GSLV Mk-III. It has rolled out from their Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad for its Experimental Flight slated later in this month. Good vibrations are still soaring high after ISRO's successfull Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) inserted succesfully into the Red Planet's orbit a couple of months ago.
CHRISTMAS HISTORY: Thanks to a link to a home school based email list, we learned that the History Channel has a Christmas-centric site to learn more about the traditions in late December.
There are 24 short videos (2-3 minutes apiece) about Christmas, plus 11 "Christmas in Depth" articles. My eye immediately fell on one story headlined, "7 Historical Events that Took Place on Christmas." Among the events: Apollo 8 orbits the moon, and Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware ahead of a pivotal battle in the Revolutionary War. And speaking of war, another item that made the list was the spontaneous truce in 1914, on a World War I battlefield in Belgium, when scores of German, British and French troops cast off their arms. The event was filled with caroling, hand shakes, sharing cigarettes and whiskey, and even a pickup game of soccer, so the story goes.
In other news, just for fun, Dollar Tree has a cute Web site with holiday-themed games at http://www.santachallenge.com/. I suppose it's for kids, but I enjoyed some mindless distraction for a few minutes, too. :)
THE KING AND THE COLONEL: Today, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield shared a link to video of him playing his favorite Elvis song. Sweet! http://youtu.be/eAzKearicsM
There is a song about the Xmas 1914 truce that contains the saddest line I have ever heard in a song. Sadder even that those from the original "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again".
ReplyDelete