GRIFFEY FOREVER: Today our errands took us past Safeco Field a little after noon. Out front on the corner of Dave and Edgar, we saw a tall object wrapped in a blue, protective cover. We knew immediately that it was the brand new Ken Griffey Jr. statue under wraps. By the time we got back from our errand, they had unwrapped the statue! So, we snapped some quick photos from our car. We'll get a chance to see the real live Junior tomorrow night, when he throws out the ceremonial first pitch at the Mariners' game!
NASA NEWS: This morning, while working on making a fake fireplace and constructing a robotic art project, we listened to a a live press conference with several NASA experts with updates from the Cassini Mission to Saturn and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The missions have both produced new details about icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, each with an intriguing ocean.
Scientists associated with the Cassini probe to Saturn announced that a form of chemical energy that life can feed on appears to exist on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
From NASA, the illustration above shows Cassini diving through the Enceladus plume in 2015. New ocean world discoveries from Cassini and Hubble will help inform future exploration and the broader search for life beyond Earth. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
And the cool graphic above shows how Cassini scientists think water interacts with rock at the bottom of the ocean of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, producing hydrogen gas. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
In other news, Hubble researchers report there is additional evidence of plumes erupting from Jupiter's moon Europa.
These composite images above show a suspected plume erupting two years apart from the same location on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Both plumes, photographed in UV light by Hubble, were seen in silhouette as the moon passed in front of Jupiter. Credits: NASA/ESA/STScI/USGS
In a press release, Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington, said, "This is the closest we've come, so far, to identifying a place with some of the ingredients needed for a habitable environment. These results demonstrate the interconnected nature of NASA's science missions that are getting us closer to answering whether we are indeed alone or not.”
BASEBALL IS BACK: While the Major League Baseball season started over a week before, the Seattle Mariners didn't have their first home game until Monday, April 10. Naturally, we had to be on hand for the occasion. We arrived really early, in time to watch batting practice and warm ups.
The Houston Astros were in town. I rather fancied this player's snazzy socks.
These coaches were clowning around in the outfield.
They rolled out the red carpet to introduce this year's home team.
The big names were back, including Nelson Cruz ...
"King" Felix Hernandez ...
Robinson Cano ...
and Kyle Seager.
There were a couple of new faces, including long-locked Taylor Motter ...
and Dillon Overton. I wonder if he and Motter trade hair care tips. ;)
Jean Segura is a welcome addition. Too bad he left the game after the first inning with a hamstring injury. He's already on the disabled list. Sigh.
There were a few fireworks ...
and even a military fly over. This camera man below was watching for the Navy fighter planes.
They came right on cue, as the National Anthem finished.
While the skies were blue for the opening festivities, soon things took a turn for the worse.
There was thunder and rain, and so they closed the roof on the stadium.
Fortunately, for us, Monday's game was a good one. Ms' pitcher James Paxton let a few Astros reach base, but none of them scored!
Meanwhile, the Astros' pitchers got roughed up a bit.
ANCIENT ART: Last Friday, we were fortunate enough to get a sneak preview of a touring exhibit, Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor, at Pacific Science Center. The exhibition features real figures from the famous terracotta army, as well as a number of artifacts from the First Imperial Dynasty of China.
It was 1974, when a Chinese farmer was doing some irrigation digging and started to find terracotta fragments. That discovery led to the unearthing of a 2000-plus year old tomb of the first Emperor.
While we waited in a short line outside of the exhibit, we got to chat with Diana, one of the PacSci employees responsible for installing the exhibit. She was a great resource and very enthusiastic about the show.
Here's what CJ had to say about it all ...
Throughout the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at PacSci, we got to see dozens of different terracotta warriors. While the primary focus of the exhibit is the thousands of individual terracotta warriors, there were multiple sculptures and statues of things that were not soldiers (at least not in the traditional sense):
For example, there was one statue that, according to Reilley (an employee at PacSci), was most likely of a fisherman or a musician. The statue in question was of a man on his knees, while holding his arms in front of him in a strange position (most likely either holding a fishing rod, or playing a guitar-esque instrument). There were also some statues of animals (such as pigs, dogs, and horses, if I remember correctly). Noticeably, there were even sculptures depicting the process of building the terracotta soldiers.
One of the first things we saw was a tiny jade relic called the Pei ornament (below, #1). That delighted CJ, because he is presently obsessed with the Chinese Shar Pei dogs. Unfortunately, we did not see any actual Shar Pei, terracotta or otherwise, in the exhibit. ;)
We did, however, see a number of actual terracotta warriors, including this gentleman, believed to represent a high-ranking general.
We spent a fair amount of time checking out the dramatic duo below
The kneeling one is believed to have been made to represent an archer.
The detail on his armor was amazing.
The warriors were made a little larger than life sized. And each and every one of their faces was different.
It's fun thinking about the people whom the statues were modeled after. Were they the actual warriors? Were they the faces of the artists' family members? Were they made up?
This terracotta horse was amazing!
One of the artifacts on display was this intricate suit of armor.
Look how each little tile was cataloged.
The tiles are made of limestone, and all those holes had to be hand-drilled. Talk about labor intensive!
They even had a (contemporary) piece of art depicting the process of making the warriors.
And now, here's Annabelle to tell you a bit more about the exhibit.
The Terracotta Warriors were larger than life terracotta statues found in the first Chinese emperor’s tomb. The warriors were carved in the shapes of archers, cavalrymen, and even musicians. It is believed they were buried with the emperor to serve him as an army in the afterlife. Since they would be protecting their emperor, the workers making these statues took great care to carve in every detail, down to strands of hair or holes in plate armor. The statues were originally painted in vibrant colors, but as they were excavated the paint peeled off. The Terracotta Warriors are now displayed at the Pacific Science Center in a temporary exhibit. The exhibit shows not only the warriors, but how they were made, what they used to look like, their importance, and other relics from their time. The exhibit shows that the emperor even had statues made of acrobats and strongmen to entertain him in the afterlife! The emperor was clearly treated with the highest respect, as he even had his own lane on the roads with which he surveyed his kingdom. The exhibit goes into detail about the expensive bronze and pigments that the emperor had access to, including one known as “Chinese purple” or “Han purple”. This purple pigment has yet to be reproduced today. If chilled enough, it becomes a superconductor with no resistance to electricity. If you cool it even further, however, the pigment transforms from 3d to 2d! If the woman leading us into the exhibit hadn’t told us, we would’ve totally overlooked this incredibly unique dye, and many other amazing things in the exhibit. The exhibit isn’t too large, so I’d strongly recommend that you visit and take your time reading about these larger than life tributes to the emperor.
The gentleman in the statue below was believed to have been a musician.
An emperor in a horse-drawn carriage was one of the astounding finds.
The figures below were believed to have wooden arms back in the day.
Something about the face on this man really intrigued me.
Other artifacts included ornamental roof end caps.
And this hollow brick, with stamped patterns.
Diana, who worked on the exhibit, told us to make sure to see the goose.
She said when excavation workers found it, they could see the hand and footprints of the people who had placed in 2,200 years ago. It was like stepping back in time.
