Slice of Life

PI DAY: 3/14, or 3.14 is now recognized as Pi Day. A kind of fun holiday for math and science minded folk. The photo above was posted by Canadian Space Agency Astronaut David-Saint Jacques from on board the International Space Station. Pi Day just happens to be Albert Einstein's birthday, as well. 

Pi, as Wikipedia describes it is "a mathematical constant. Originally defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, it now has various equivalent definitions and appears in many formulas in all areas of mathematics and physics. It is approximately equal to 3.14159."

Here's a fun video about pi


Today, we took a a hundred-plus forks and plates and a big ol' apple pie (thanks, Costco) to a Pi Day celebration. It was impressive listening to some kids who had memorized Pi to the nth (like dozens and dozens) of decimal point number! It was also impressive looking at the dozens of pie plates, with pumpkin, key lime, apple, marionberry and more up for grabs thanks to donations. Super sweet!

UP AND AWAY: Great news from the Soyuz. Today a cosmonauts and two NASA astronauts successfully lifted off from Kazakhstan, destination International Space Station. And thanks to the speedy route that is the norm these days, they've already successfully docked with the ISS!

Two of the folk on board, NASA's Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, were on the mission just a couple of months ago that had a kind of hard fail and rough landing. So glad they were safe and got another shot.

Soyuz MS-12 arrived at the International Space Station at 9:01 p.m. ET, 255 miles just west off the coast of Peru. Image Credit: NASA TV

Calculating

COLLEGE PREP: We're gearing up 'round here for CJ to start Running Start (a state program where high school juniors and seniors can take college courses for free). One part of that is making sure you can qualify for college, and that involves placement tests. Therefore, today we concentrated on was a practice test pertaining to college math placement. (We found it on the Highline College website.)

Let's just say the test was a good reminder that practice is important. It's not that the kids didn't know how to do a lot of the problems, it was just that they hadn't done anything like s few of the test questions in awhile, so some rust needs to be knocked off. And practice can help that, right? For instance, we couldn't remember what the "FOIL" method is for solving an equation.

A quick Google reminded us that it's Firsts Outsides Inner, Lasts. This diagram from Wikipedia helps demonstrate the approach.

None of the math was particularly 'hard,' it was just a matter of familiarizing oneself with some terms. (After all, how often in real life do you calculate the area of a circle? Oh, and if you need to it's π*r-squared.

PARTING SHOT: Likely you already know about the dearly-departed Opportunity rover. Its mission on Mars was declared complete on Feb. 13, 2019, after NASA scientists could no longer communicate with the rover (following an historic dust storm on the Red Planet).

Right up until 'the end,' Opportunity continued to conduct important science operations. For instance, over the span of 29 days last spring, Opportunity documented a 360-degree panorama from multiple images taken from its final resting spot, Perseverance Valley. The photo is now known as "Opportunity Legacy Pan."

This image is a cropped version of the last 360-degree panorama taken by the Opportunity rover's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) from May 13 through June 10, 2018. The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU 

Perseverance Valley is a system of shallow troughs descending eastward on the inner slope of the western rim of Endurance Crater. The valley is about the length of two football fields from the crest of Endeavor's rim to its floor.

"This final panorama embodies what made our Opportunity rover such a remarkable mission of exploration and discovery," Opportunity project manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a press release.. "To the right of center you can see the rim of Endeavor Crater rising in the distance. Just to the left of that, rover tracks begin their descent from over the horizon and weave their way down to geologic features that our scientists wanted to examine up close. And to the far right and left are the bottom of Perseverance Valley and the floor of Endeavour crater, pristine and unexplored, waiting for visits from future explorers."

In all, Opportunity spent nearly 15 years on the surface of Mars, exploring. 

Wildlife Walk

ON THE PROWL: Yesterday, we took advantage of free tickets available through our local library system to visit the Woodland Park Zoo.

We haven't been there to see the animals in ages. (The last time we were at the zoo was for a "Zoo Tunes" concert featuring Adam Ant.)

It was chilly yesterday, in the low 40s, when we were walking around the zoo. We weren't sure how many animals would be 'out' given the weather, but were happily surprised to see a good number up and around. Case in point: We stood and watched the lions for several minutes. 

 This guy was lumbering slowly around the savanna exhibit. 

 The lioness was lounging on a large boulder. 

 Eventually, the male approached her.

 He spent several minutes grooming her. 

 They were a pretty pair, to be sure. 

 We also enjoyed an aviary full of colorful birds. Talk about a redhead!

 The penguin enclosure is always entertaining. This guy was a half second away from jumping in the water.

This is our first visit to the zoo since the elephants were sent away (rather awfully), and some rhinos were brought in.

 There is a pair of two-year-old males at the zoo now.

 Their skin looks so much like armor! 

A pair of squishy hippos were laying in the mud, alongside a ducky friend.

This pair of giraffes seemed keenly interested in me. Annabelle speculated it was because I was wearing khaki green, and perhaps they thought I was a zoo keeper.

 We watched warthogs from on high.

This beautiful jaguar paced his enclosure.

 He did the exact same thing last time we saw him. I wonder how much of the day he spends doing that.

I'm always sad when I see the apes at the zoo. It hits too close to home.

 One orangutan was walking around the enclosure shrouded in burlap sacks!

 Somehow, she got her hands on a paper cup. She proceeded to eat it while we watched. Afterward, she draped herself in the burlap again. She looked just like a human putting a shawl on. It was a strange sight to see.

The male silverback gorilla didn't seem too pleased yesterday. Right when we walked up to his enclosure, he jumped toward the crowd and gestured in an aggressive way. Kind of a 'get off my lawn' message, it seemed.

While we were there, a zoo keeper started throwing food (carrots, oranges and sweet potatoes) down to the gorillas. At one point, the gorilla closest to the wall threw food back at her!

 The largest gorilla was such a beautiful, impressive creature.

Truth be told, I'm always a little depressed after visiting the zoo. I know that many of the animals wouldn't be alive if they weren't in the zoo, but it still pains me to see them caged, in effect. The Seattle zoo has nice enclosures, to be sure, but still ... 

It is heartening to read about successful conservation efforts, including the new rhinos at the zoo. 

At the zoo, we were able to 'vote' for the conservation project we were most interested in. We chose saving the gorillas.

 Here's what Annabelle had to say about our zoo visit ...

Yesterday, my family used some free tickets from Seattle Public Library to take a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo. We don't usually visit the zoo due to the ticket prices, so this was a welcome treat. The first thing we noticed was that the grounds themselves seemed a bit lackluster, especially in comparison to similar places such as Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, but besides the subpar landscaping the atmosphere was pleasant.

The animals were remarkably active and noisy despite the cold weather, notably including the lions and the zoo's two brand new rhinos (Taj and Glenn). It was interesting to watch the rhinos explore their exhibit, even attempting to eat off the various stumps and logs scattered throughout.

The other exhibits had little activity, most likely due to the time of day and season. The animals we did see only walked around a bit, though ones in heated enclosures (such as birds in the tropical rainforest segment) were obviously in a better mood. Overall, the zoo visit was a good way to get ourselves out of the house in walking, but somewhat disappointing in terms of visuals and animals.