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.

Turn on Your Heartlight

VINTAGE: We enjoyed a couple of happy hours at one of our favorite Seattle spots, Living Computer Museum, yesterday afternoon.

We rode the bus down (along with a bunch of Seahawks' fans heading to the game at CenturyLink field in the same neighborhood as LCM). We thought it might be crazy busy down in the stadium district, but it wasn't too bad to navigate, after all.

We spent over an hour playing around on the vintage desktop computers, mostly playing old games, including ET on the Atari 400.


Can I just share that I played the (stupid awful) game above for ten minutes and five lives and apparently didn't score a single gol darn point?! No wonder they buried the cartridges in the desert!!!

And look at this pristine Commodore PET.


Introduced the same year as the first "Star Wars" movie, it had a whopping 4kB of memory - w00t!

Annabelle tried to get the game Joust to run on this Exidy Sorcerer, but we were doing something wrong. We'll have to give it another go on a subsequent visit.


There are also some examples of current technology at LCM, and it seemed only fitting that we give the latest AE sports NFL game a go, since the Seahawks were on the field right down the block.

It was first Thursday, so that meant it was also a free movie night there. Specifically, they were screening the second part of "Triumph of the Nerds." Originally aired on PBS, the 1996 documentary explores the development of the personal computer in the United States from WWII to 1995.

We attended LCM's screening of the first part of the show last month, and definitely wanted to see the second part of the documentary.

Here's CJ's review of the show ... 

On September 3rd, 2015, we went to the Living Computer Museum to see "Triumph of the Nerds, Part 2", the second in a classic mini-series from the 1990s about computer history. Episode 2 of Triumph of the Nerds focused on things such as IBM's leap into the PC industry, and Microsoft's purchase of 86-DOS (or QDOS, which stood for Quick and Dirty Operating System) from Seattle Computer Products, who turned it into MS-DOS.

In the late seventies and early eighties, IBM was still mostly just a company for large business computers. However, at that time, the personal computer market was booming, and IBM needed to act fast if they wanted their chance to make money in the business. One of the people working at IBM literally had some of the parts he wanted to use in the prototype and the plans in IBM's basement. IBM had to make the computer within 1 year, because if IBM didn't do it, somebody else would. When IBM decided to buy their software, they had two options: a 39-year old man named Gary Kildall, who had a computer Ph.D, and a twentysomething Harvard dropout named Bill Gates (Hmm, which one do you pick?). IBM chose Bill Gates.

Although the IBM Personal Computer was a success, there were multiple other "clones" of the machine made by other companies, because most of the parts in the IBM PC could be purchased from elsewhere. In fact, the only part that was solely IBM was the ROM-BIOS, which was protected by IBM's army of lawyers. Compaq, over the course of a year, managed to reverse-engineer it, or figure out how it works and make a copy of it. They eventually did, and made the Compaq PC, a computer that's primary selling point was being more portable than the IBM PC, being able to carry the Compaq like a suitcase. Following Compaq's innovation, several other IBM PC clones appeared on the shelves. Suddenly, it was once again difficult for IBM.

I enjoyed watching Triumph of the Nerds, Part 2, and I learned that this is the #1 rule of the computer industry, as quoted from the movie: "The prize doesn't go to the inventor, but to the exploiter of the invention."

After the movie, one of the LCM staffers busted out a slide trombone and played one of the IBM fight songs for us. 

Gratuitous cool dials and switches shot ... 

And for the first time, I noticed this poster about Moore's Law on one wall. Interesting.

Generally speaking, most sum up Moore's Law to mean the number of transistors on a 1-inch (2.5 centimeter) diameter of silicon doubles every x number of months.

Hot off the Plant

PICK A PEPPER:  Regular readers will know that CJ's gardening interests lie in hot peppers. The hotter, the better. Not that he will actually eat any of them (he won't even eat a green bell pepper!), but he is apparently impressed with the 'power' they possess. 

So this year, from seed, we have Trinidad Moruga scorpion peppers growing, along with a number of Carolina reaper plants, and several Ghost chiles. 

The Trinidad MS plants are mainly in pots on our upper deck. Most of the peppers are still green ...

but for whatever reason, one of them, in the middle of one plant, turned bright red, meaning it's ready to pick.

Using tweezers to protect his fingers from potential burns, CJ had the honors. 

It looks harmless enough, but this little beauty (about the size of a quarter), was identified in 2012 by New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute as the hottest chili in the world, with a mean heat of more than 1.2 million Scoville heat units (while some individual plants have a heat of more than 2 million SHUs!). 

STAR WARS READS:  Three years ago, a new, annual event was introduced to the Star Wars universe - "Star Wars Reads Day." Held on the second Saturday in October, participating bookstores, libraries and retailers host events all around the globe. Event partners include Disney-Lucasfilm Press, Marvel, Abrams, Chronicle, Del Rey, DK, Quirk Books, Scholastic, Workman, Egmont, Studio Fun, Phoenix International Publishing, and many more. 

Seattle's Museum of Flight has been in on the action for a couple of years, and this year, they are, once again, holding a "Star Wars Writes" contest in conjunction with their event.

This morning, CJ and Annabelle checked out the contest rules, and started contemplating their potential stories. Annabelle has honed in on some backstory for a certain Wookiee, while CJ is crafting a humorous tale about a peculiar cantina band. ... 

You can check out facebook.com/StarWarsReads for the latest info on special events.

FISHY: One of the fun features on the kids' Nintendo DS units is a program called Flipnote which lets them create animations. Annabelle is especially fond of it. Yesterday she asked me what to draw. I suggested a pelican who was going fishing. 

Geek Feature

GEEKS R US: This afternoon we took a fun field trip to the Fremont neighborhood, just north and a bit east of the Magnolia Preparatory Academy campus. 

Seattle-based GeekWire is national technology news site with a large audience of tech-savvy readers around the globe.
We went to their offices in response to a 'casting call' GeekWire posted a few days ago. I didn't see the post, but friends contacted me about it. Apparently they think I have geeky kids. I suppose some might be offended, but I was flattered. ;)

I responded to the casting call via email, and lo and behold, Annabelle was invited to come into their offices to interview. (I didn't put in for CJ, because he was well outside their age 5 to 10 range in the notice.)

We got to the GeekWire offices a little early, so we strolled around Fremont for a bit. We love that neighborhood - so cool and quirky!

One of the first things we spied was this sign tied to a chain link fence. 

Of course, we had to Google Street Feather Project. We learned it's "Positive messages to change the world. Peace, Love, and Creativity. ✌️❤️🎨 #artforall Contact: streetfeatherproject@hotmail.com"
We found an urban oasis garden, complete with a hard cider in its natural habitat (ha ha).

Politics are always big in "The People's Republic of Fremont."

About 2:20, we headed to GeekWire for our 2:30 appointment. The child being interviewed ahead of Annabelle was just coming out, so she went right in. Annabelle was in there about 15 minutes, and most of the time CJ was peppering me with questions about what she was doing and asking if we'd ever get to see her whole interview. I told him no and not to worry about it, it was her thing, no big deal.

That said, about three minutes before we left home this afternoon, I told CJ to brush his hair and get on a geeky t-shirt. I had a feeling that he might get a crack at being interviewed, as well and lo and behold, when Annabelle came out of the room, one of the principals spied CJ in his Oregon Trail t-shirt and conscripted him to be interviewed. CJ was happy to oblige. 

CJ didn't hesitate to share his thoughts with GeekWire. Here are some highlights. ...

On September 2nd, 2015, we went to GeekWire Headquarters in the neighborhood of Fremont to be interviewed. According to Wikipedia, GeekWire is a technology news website that covers startups and established technology companies. The reason Annabelle managed to get interviewed is when mom learned that GeekWire was looking for "geeky" kids to interview, and Annabelle made the cut (because of her age). Although only Annabelle was supposed to be interviewed, I was pulled in the room at the last second.

First of all, I was wearing an Oregon Trail t-shirt saying "you have died of dysentery", one of the most common things you'll see in the game, and I was asked where it came from. I explained the t-shirt was inspired by Oregon Trail, and that it was notorious for being a luck-based mission and near impossible without save scumming*.

Afterwards, when I was interviewed, I was asked multiple questions. Some of these questions were the following: "Do you like video games?" I answered yes. "Which occupation would you prefer: astronaut, firefighter, entrepreneur, or scientist?" I responded that I would prefer to be a scientist, as both astronauts and firefighter have to frequently put their lives on the line, and I don't think I'd be a very good entrepreneur.

"Will robots take over the world?" I said that if we continue to make better AI and fail to take action about their ever-growing capabilities, then they may cause disaster.

"Which do you prefer: Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft?" I replied by asking "Is there a fourth option?"** They laughed and asked me if it could be one of the three they listed. I said Nintendo.

"If you could invent anything, what would it be?" I asked if it had to be within the bounds of known science and physics. They said no, and I said I'd make a Portal Gun.***

Lastly, they asked me if I wanted to say anything before I left. I said "Never give up, never surrender", a quote from Galaxy Quest. They proceeded to laugh. Overall, I had a good time being interviewed by GeekWire.

*Definition of save scumming: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SaveScumming **My choice, had it been available, would have been PC. ***Article about the Portal Gun: http://combineoverwiki.net/wiki/Portal_Gun

Here are a few of Annabelle's thoughts about the experience. ...

On September 2, I went to GeekWire to be interviewed. The people at GeekWire interviewed multiple kids to put into a compilation video. They asked me multiple questions about technology and other ‘geeky’ things. The interview was short, but I enjoyed answering the questions. Some of the questions included whether I liked Google, Apple, Microsoft, or Sony more and if I knew what a “Walkman” was. One thing that surprised me was that John Cook, the founder of GeekWire and person interviewing me, did not recognize my Boba Fett dress, nor my brother’s Oregon Trail shirt. GeekWire has been doing interviews for a couple of years now, and they’ve made videos showing some of the questions. I thought it was fun, and I can’t wait to see if I make the video.

MORNING STROLL: This week was supposed to be cold and wet all week long. Imagine our delight when this morning was blue skies and friendly temperatures.

To celebrate, we look a long walk down to Fisherman's Terminal. We were rewarded by some beautiful sights.

UP AND AWAY: Last night, we watched three men rocket off Earth in a Soyuz capsule. On board were Sergey Volkov, a second-generation cosmonaut, along with Andreas Mogensen - Denmark's very first astronaut ever! - and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency.

While Volkov will spend six months on station, Mogensen and Aimbetov are super short timers, there for just eight days. For a few days, the ISS will have nine people on board. That's a pretty full house, so to speak - 50 percent or more than are usually living there. 
https://youtu.be/r2s1ZJjeQGI