Hawks and a Dragon

FOOTBALL FEVER: So, we live in Seattle and like football. That means this weekend was kind of a big deal, because the Seahawks were/are in the playoffs.

Since we like football and food and parties, we had a party. :) CJ and Annabelle helped with decorations, like the crepe paper fun above. Amazing what $3 worth of crepe paper and nervous energy can do.

We made some cookies, of course.

And don't you just love the "12" art project? CJ and Annabelle used bling from our junk/craft drawer to cover some cardboard numbers we bought at a craft store a few days ago.

And (yay!) the Seahawks won, which means there will be another party next weekend. Go Hawks!

DRAGON CAPTURED: So, the good news is, SpaceX's Dragon capsule attached to the ISS on Monday morning.

   This NASA TV photo shows Canadarm2 grabbing Dragon.

The not-as great-news is the rocket used to launch it wasn't recovered, as SpaceX had hoped to do.

The good news is, the first stage of the rocket did make it back to the barge where it was supposed to land. The bad news is, it landed WAY too hard. (In other words, it crashed.) But it's a start, and, no doubt, they'll learn from this attempt.

The hatches to Dragon were opened Today, a bit after midnight Pacific Coast time, and the crew set about unpacking supplies and gear, including 256 science experiments. That's a lot of science. :)

This NASA TV photo shows Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti checking out Dragon's contents.

DEMOCRATIC DOCUMENT:  We're test driving a couple of classes via Coursera this week. One we started today is called The Magna Carta and its Legacy .

The course features by Dr. Emm Johnstone, Dr. Graham Smith, Professor Justin Champion, Professor Nigel Saul, and Professor Jonathan Phillips of the University of London.

We binge watched all of Week 1's lectures Monday morning, and already passed our week 1 quiz. I've certainly already learned a lot - not just about the Magna Carta, but about British history. Today, we learned that the Magna Carta came about because King John (Richard the Lionheart's brother) was so awful. This is completely oversimplifying it, but the wealthy, influential land barons (and everyone else) had had enough of him, and so a deal was brokered between the King and his people, that deal being the original draft of the Magna Carta in 1215.

Ironically, three months after it was accepted as the law of the land, King John appealed to a higher power, in this case the Pope, and weaseled his way out of the agreement. However, not too long after, King John had a stroke, and the throne went to his 9-year old son, who was too young to govern. So, a regent named William Marshal from Pembroke and a representative of the pope, Guala, stepped in to govern. During that time, a new-and-improved Magna Carta was drafted and introduced (with much of the King John specific stuff purged from it).  It was eventually adopted as the law of the land, and it has remained in its present form since 1225. 

We were *super* fortunate to get to see one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta from 1215 at the Salisbury cathedral back when we visited England in 2013.  Look at how tiny CJ and Annabelle are at the cathedral's entrance!

Unfortunately, they prohibited us from taking photos of the document. But the cathedral does have a few shots on its web site (though oddly apparently not a photo of the entire thing, for whatever reason). 

Here's archivist Emily Naish with the Magna Carta as it was being moved to a new display for its 800th anniversary. 

And here's part of the document itself. The penmanship is exquisite!

We're also test driving a class called Introduction to Classical Music by Craig Wright of Yale University.  We're starting to learn the basics or common characteristics of classical music, and look forward to getting more in depth.