Remembering

REFLECTING: Another 9/11. Fourteen, in fact, since the day September 11th became 9/11, a day America will never forget. 

It's a 'where were you' type of day, where everyone alive and of a certain age can tell you what they were doing as news out of New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania streamed through televisions and the Internet and via radio.

We were in New York City on 9/11 a couple of years ago, and although more than a decade had passed, you could still feel the hurt. It was palpable. 

We attended a Mets' game that evening, and the crowd was subdued, to say the least. I'll bet you this same logo is painted outside Citi Field today.

This morning, we watched an interview with Frank Culbertson, the only American off planet when the attacks were underway. An astronaut, Culbertson was on the International Space Station at the time. How lonely and helpless he must have felt as he watched it unfold from low Earth orbit.

GARDEN NEWS: Our tomatoes are all but a memory, but other things are going on in the garden. The tomatillos are coming on strong, and peppers are peeking out from behind leaves all over.

We even have our first (and maybe only?) dahlia. We planted bulbs back in early May and have waited and waited and waited. Finally, we saw our first one around the first of September. I'm wondering if the drought is responsible for our lack of luck with the rest of the bulbs. That said, we're thrilled with what we've got.

Isn't it lovely? A big thanks to Nonnie and Bops for the bulbs! 

LECTURE CIRCUIT:  This morning we took a long stroll down to Fishermen's Terminal, through the fishing-related business district, and back home. 

While at the marina, we had to go wave at the ice cream tour boat we *still* haven't managed to take a trip on. Soon, very soon. But I digress. ...

While we walked, we listened to a couple of lectures for our "Dog Emotion and Cognition" class. Today's lectures were about how dogs are better than other animals (including apes) at following human's directional cues (like pointing to a box, and then the dog will go to that box). 

Interestingly, wolves, close relatives of the dog, are not good at following the same type of directions. But our professor, Brian Hare, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke, found that a group of domesticated red foxes (part of a 50 year program of them being raised with/by humans) were almost as good as dogs at following human's directional prompts.

MEN WHO FELL TO EARTH: Late this afternoon, we watched three guys go through a well controlled fall from the International Space Station back down to Earth (Kazakhstan, specifically).

One of the men on board was European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, Denmark's first astronaut.

During his 10 day stay on station, one of the experiments Mogensen conducted was filtering station waste water through a ‘biomimetic’ membrane from Denmark. Per the ESA, the membrane mimics nature to create clean drinking water using a nano-technology that requires no energy. The output from the experiment will be analyzed to see if it can be used in space in the future.

Before he left the ISS, Mogensen snapped this photo ... imagine how proud his fellow countrymen must be of their first astronaut!

He posted the photo with the caption, "Dannebrog, verdens ældste nationalflag (1219)...
(translated: Dannebrog, the oldest national flag in the world!).

REIMAGINING: This evening, we watched a one hour special, "Think It Up." It was mostly a telethon-type fund raiser with many, many celebrities. But it also shared some booths on the ground stories of teachers and students doing some remarkable things in United States Schools.

One segment featured info about XQ: The Super School Project. Per its Web site, "The Super School Project is an open call to reimagine and design the next American high school. In towns and cities far and wide, teams will unite and take on this important work of our time: rethinking and building schools that deeply prepare our students for the rigorous challenges of college, jobs, and life. This is a challenge to empower all of America to change high school. Together, we can transform communities and build schools that inspire new possibilities. Over the next few months, we will accept your proposals. We will partner with winning teams and provide them expert support and a fund of $50 million to support at least five schools over the next five years to turn their ideas into real Super Schools."

Very intriguing. We'll have to see if MPA can come up with some ideas!

FLY GIRL: FYI- a cool freebie from the Museum of Flight. On Sept. 26-27, the museum will offer free first flights in small planes to girls and young women ages 7 to 18. More information and a reigstration form here: https://secure.jotform.us/pjclearwater/FlyingItForward

We took Annabelle down there to fly one year, and it was a blast (as well as educational)!

Apple a Day

ON THE OUTS:  Seattle Public Schools are in day two of their strike, and even though we access their services just four hours a week, we're BIG TIME supporters of the striking workers' cause. To that end, today we delivered a couple dozen cookies to the picket line at Chief Sealth High School in West Seattle. 

Annabelle made a cute card for the top of our delivery box, and that led to a series of apple-school drawings later this afternoon. 

OH, THE HUMANITY: We spent a couple of hours today reading stories and talking about the AMAZING discovery in South Africa of a link in our evolutionary chain. 

In a remote cave that required risking life and limb to reach, a treasure trove of ancient bones were hidden. Homo naledi is the name being given these newly-discovered ancestors.

These new clues to our past come compliments of some super slender modern day explorers, checking out caves 30 miles southwest of Johannesburg. The National Geographic story is long, but oh-so-worth your time reading: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150910-human-evolution-change/

And after you're done with that story, check out the videographer's account of going into the cave that held the secrets of ancient ancestors. 

It launched so many ponderings and postulations today. One thing I told the kids is that I *really* doubt our evolution was the nice, orderly, stair-stepped stuff you see on bumper  stickers. 

Rather, I think it was a bit of a tangled mess from time to time, with starts and stops, progress, and then devastating dead ends and sideways winds. Discoveries like Homo naledi would seem to bolster this likelihood. 

THINK IT UP:  Hat tip to Grandpa R for pointing us in the direction of a special to air on ABC tomorrow (9/11/2015) night. "Think It Up" is about helping student-powered, teacher-led crowd-funding learning projects.  It airs at 8 p.m. Pacific time. 

I wish their press site was better. It's a bunch of links to feature stories, but there's not any obvious meat about the organization and its genesis. They  do have an "About Us" page, which explains the initiative is borne out of an entertainment industry initiative, partnering with DonorsChoose.org.

One Strike You're Out

                 Today MOHAI shared this image of teachers demonstrating at Seattle school district office in 1971. 

NOT BACK-TO-SCHOOL DAY: The big news out of Seattle today is that teachers and support staff for Seattle Public Schools (SPS) are on strike, starting today.

That meant no first day of school on Wednesday for 50,000 plus SPS students. And that also meant no first day of school for CJ and Annabelle, who take a couple of classes a week through SPS. Obviously, the strike isn't as disruptive to our family's schedule as it is to others with traditional/full time students, so we're lucky in that regard. But this isn't about us! It's about Seattle teachers and building a better public school system in the Emerald City.

The fact of the matter is, this strike is overdue, in my humble opinion. Year after year, teachers have been told to be patient, their compensation was coming. And, it hasn't. And this year, the district wanted to extend their work day and initially proposed a total recess time of as little as 15 minutes per day (!) for students. (That's crazy? How is that even a thing?!)

If you read the very anti-public education Seattle Times' stories, they stress that teachers are asking for an 18 percent pay hike over the next three years. Of course, that would prompt most anyone to think, "Wouldn't we all like an 18 percent pay increase?"

But the truth of the matter is, Seattle teachers haven't received even a cost of living increase in the past SIX years. So if you look at no COLA for 6 years and add in the next three, for a total of NINE years, that's only a 1.85 percent 'raise' per year. Meanwhile, inflation can be computed to be over 18 percent over that same time period. In other words, the 18 percent would let them just keep up with inflation. It's no raise. Especially when the school days are longer, recess is shorter, and more and more is expected of teachers (your class better keep up with the standardized tests or else!). 

I've actually read multiple comments following news stories from people complaining about the Seattle teachers striking "again." 

You know when the last time Seattle teachers went on strike was? THIRTY years ago. Three decades. A generation and a half ago. That doesn't seem too recent to me. ... 

Naturally, we decided to show our support for striking teachers and support staff in cookie form.

We whipped these up this morning and will take them to a picket line tomorrow. 

When not baking and fondanting (that's probably not a word). the kids practiced guitar, worked on their Star Wars stories, and did some math today. We were busy!

LEFTOVERS:  Here are a couple of shots from Monday's abysmal Mariners' game. They really illustrate just how vacant the stadium was.

The kids walked from our seats (where we had sections and sections to ourselves) all the way around the stadium through the empty rows to the other side. I added a red arrow so you can spot them.

 Here they are via a small telephoto lens.

A number of kids their age noticed what they were doing and followed along in the vacant stadium parade.

MEANWHILE, IN LOW EARTH ORBIT: Check out this cool photo of the International Space Station transiting our sun!

The image above was stitched together by shots NASA chief photographer Bill Ingalls captured from Shenandoah National Park on September 6th. He must have had a heckuva lens and a sun-safe filter!

And speaking of the ISS, the European Space Agency has shared a neat animated bio about Denmark's first astronaut, Andreas Mogensen, who's on board the ISS right now.

Mogensen is on board until Friday, when he, Expedition 44 commander Gennady Padalka of Roscosmos, and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency will undock their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft and fly back to Earth. NASA TV will have coverage, with the following times (all Pacific) of note: 

• 10:45 a.m. -- Farewell and hatch closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled for 2 p.m.)
• 2 p.m. -- Undocking coverage (undocking scheduled for 5:29 p.m.)
• 4:30 p.m. -- Deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled for 7:59 p.m., with landing at 8:51 p.m.)
• 7 p.m. -- Video file of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities

Rewind Time

ON THE WATERFRONT:  We're playing catch up from Friday, when we took a noontime trip down to the Alaskan Way seawall to meet a friend I met at the Mars Science Laboratory NASA Tweet up.

It's still summer, so despite the waterfront being in complete construction disarray, there were hordes of people milling about. 

Away from the crowds, we found a 'Points of Interest' sign, and the kids took turns identifying places on the horizon. Right above CJ's pointed finger is Terminal 91, with the cruise ships at the base of our peninsula/hill, Magnolia.

We walked around with the tourists, checking out waterfront piers and standing under the Great Wheel, wishing we were going for a ride. 

We took note of an anchor on display, and moved in for a closer look at the plaque attached.

Turns out it had to do with the opening of trade with the Eastern world back in the late 1800s.

We also took some time out to check out the construction along the new (and very expensive and over budget) seawall project.

Of course, we had to take time out and ogle the stadiums, to the south. So many good (and bad) times there ... 

Imagine our surprise and delight to find out Friday afternoon along the waterfront was part of the city's official "Out to Lunch" concert series. 

There was a decent crowd on hand to listen (and dance!) to the reggae beat of Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band.

If you're down on the waterfront, you pretty much *have* to visit Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. According to a 1927 story in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, “Everything in the world is there, sardined into Ye Olde Curiosity Shop... It’s the world boiled down.”

CJ's favorite attraction was Laughing Jolly Jack, a rather creepy animatronic oddity. 

If one Googles Laughing Jolly Jack, you get a sizeable number of 'hits,' and they reach far beyond Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. Apparently he is a 'thing,' and there are many versions all the world over. We saw one at auction that said it was "based on the 1950's Bolland pattern," but I couldn't find anything else about a Jolly Jack and Bolland. ... 

Curious. we poked around the Internet a bit more. We learned of a Jolly Jack who was a miner in British Columbia, and supposedly a former Navy man. We don't know if that's a connection or not. 

Regardless, Annabelle felt compelled to draw our dog Laika as a Jolly Jack. 

Clearly, we need to do more Jolly Jack research.

MONDAY: We spent a "good" chunk of our Labor Day watching the Seattle Mariners play terrible baseball. 

We didn't quite have Safeco Field to ourselves, but I can't remember seeing a smaller crowd than yesterday afternoon. Guess that's what happens when you continue to trot a bad product out onto the diamond day after day.

For fun, the kids walked around the stadium through the aisles, unimpeded. 

The field was gorgeous on Monday. I think our recent rains have helped. Too bad the Mariners had to sully it by playing such horrible baseball. 

Sigh. 

There's always next year.