Casting About

PHOTO CREDIT: Flash Forward podcast - https://www.flashforwardpod.com/ 

POD PEOPLE: On Wednesday, I realized we were going to be in the car for at least three hours running errands, and I wanted to try to utilize that time in an educational way.

I asked the kids to find a fun, science-y podcast of some sort that we could listen to while whiling away in traffic.

Annabelle did a quick web search and reported that something called "Flash Forward" received good reviews.  I'll have her tell you a bit more about it. ... 

Flash Forward is a sci-fi/educational podcast run by Rose Eveleth that explores hypothetical futures, as a sort of "what-if?" scenario. The episode my family listened to recently was "Ghostbot", part of the newest miniseason about bodies. "Ghostbot" proposes a future where when you die, your personality and knowledge can be condensed onto a robotic avatar of yourself, which can continue to comfort and interact with the living. 

The episode goes on to interview James Vlahos and Muhammad Aurangzab Ahmad, who have both programmed their very own "Dadbots" for this express purpose. The episode, while it has rather poor sound quality at times, is overall very well produced. If you don't mind the rather long and somewhat confusing skit at the beginning, it even dives deep into the ethical and legal aspects of these "Ghostbots". 

The podcast can be found at https://www.flashforwardpod.com, where all of the main episodes are hosted for free. However, Flash Forward also has a Patreon page that gives supporters access to bonus content and perks at https://www.patreon.com/flashforwardpod for a monetary fee. If you're interested in well-researched science fiction scenarios, or you just want something to listen to on your commute, Flash Forward is both entertaining and educational.

And here's CJ's take on what we listened to. ... 

On Wednesday, while travelling up to Mukilteo to visit my grandparents, we listened to a podcast titled Flash Forward. According to Flash Foward's website, "Flash Forward is a podcast about the future. Each episode we take on a possible (or not so possible) future scenario — everything from the existence of artificial wombs, to what would happen if space pirates dragged a second moon to Earth." For the episode we listened to, the scenario in question was the possibility of creating "bots" (in the form of an elaborate program that interacts with users via text) representing people who are deceased (usually loved ones such as parents).

The episode followed two men — Mohamed and James, both of whom are working on elaborate programs that talk to users using pre-generated text patterns, thus simulating conversations with the deceased person. Much of the bots' speech patterns were taken from conversations with the humans that they simulate, so that the bots' speech is similar to the actual persons' speech.

An issue that came up in the episode was the trouble (and potential consequences) of having the bots not just talk, but listen, and for their speech to change (for better or for worse) accordingly. A notorious example of a bot's speech being altered by those interacting with it was Microsoft's short-lived Tay Twitter bot, that quickly began to spout neo-Nazi propaganda after being manipulated by trolls. Another issue raised was the possibility of companies in the future offering "subscription services" of "ghostbots" to the public, making people pay on a regular basis to see simulations of deceased loved ones.

It was an interesting listen. I'm glad we checked it out, and predict there are many podcasts in our future! 

WORK IN PROGRESS: A newly-installed clean room webcam at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, everyone with Internet access a great view as technicians and engineers assemble NASA's Mars 2020 rover. The pioneering mission includes a robotic explorer that will be accompanied by a helicopter equipped with a high-resolution camera. (A helicopter on Mars will be a first for humanity!). 

The webcam stream is live 24 hours a day (with the exception of maintenance periods or technical difficulties). The Internet address for the webcam is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaNiYPglK58

JPL will have live, moderated chats on their YouTube channel Monday through Thursday at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT.

The Mars 2020 mission reached a milestone recently, with the rover's mast being raised on June 5, 2019. While Mars 2020 travels to Mars, the 7-plus foot mast will be in stowed flat on the rover's deck. Soon after touchdown, the mast will be raised. Once in place, it will provide a perch for the the rover's SuperCam, Mastcam-Z and Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer instruments, as well as for four Navcam engineering cameras.

Recently, a few JPL workers posed for a selfie with the Mars 2020 mast after it was attached.

Mars 2020 is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in July of next year. It will land at Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.

For more about the mission, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020

Way Behind

GONE MISSING:  There's been a dearth of posts this week. Apologies. I was in the hospital.

No, no - not an admitted patient myself, but was hanging out and helping out as I could while someone else underwent a procedure.

The hospital was Providence, in north Everett. Big place, well appointed. 

Each and every nurse we encountered was terrific. Seriously. They were all so different, age, gender and other- but they had two qualities in common: They were good at their jobs technically, and they had great bedside manners.

What wasn't so good is we arrived at the hospital at 7:20, got the patient admitted by 7:40 a.m. .... and then the procedure, scheduled for 10 a.m. didn't happen until 7:30 p.m.!!! And let me tell you, it felt like even longer than 12 hours. My god. We got our hopes up around 12:30 when the surgeon stopped by and said there had been some emergencies, but he was ready now and he'd see the patient in a few minutes. "Fast" forward SEVEN more hours (and a few more emergencies later), and it finally went down.

After another couple of hours of waiting room "action," we were told it was over and it went well. And the surgeon said he still had two more procedures to do that day. That's downright ridiculous, if you asked me.

I get that emergencies happen, but I don't know why you schedule a surgeon for a full day of surgeries, but you also have that same person be the on call guy for everything coming into the ER. It just makes no sense to me. We finally got home about 11, and I went to bed at 1, only to wake up at 4. Instead of fighting it, I just finally got up at 5 and Day 2 began. We were back to the hospital by 7:20.

Naturally, the second day was more of the same - waiting on the doctor for discharge.

The patient was more than ready to go home in the early a.m., but the surgeon never did show up. At least he had a physician's assistant making his rounds. She showed up about 1, and we finally left the hospital at 2. 

While it was , of course it was worth the wait. The patient is recovering nicely, and we're all glad to have that in the rearview mirror. 

I had to laugh, when Christian sent me a nice photo of Mt. Rainier taken from our place. The accompanying words were "My view right now." 

In return, I sent him this photo, with the same phrase.

Good times. ;)

FULL HOUSE: This weekend was busy, as we had a house full of company again. Christian's dad, stepmother and younger brother stayed with us Saturday evening. Saturday afternoon we all went to Queen Anne to watch Christian's brother's lacrosse game. That was really entertaining, as always.

Afterward, it was back to our place for 9 pounds of corned beef and some Reuben sandwiches. (No, we didn't eat all of that, it's just how much I pressure cooked, using two pots. So good!

We went for a little stroll after dinner, to a park on the south end of Lake Washington.

As you can see, it was a lovely sunset on Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon, we went to another park. This time it was in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of Seattle. The occasion was an afternoon of music, food and fun at Detective Cookie's Chess Park.

Annabelle was a guest of honor, as she designed the logo for the park's official t-shirts.

A couple of people even asked her for her autograph. :)

Here's a photo of Annabelle and the park's namesake, Detective Cookie. She has been encouraging Seattle area kids to play chess for years and years.

And here's the detective in action, playing chess with a youngster.

Below, Annabelle stands as she's recognized for her artistic efforts. You can see CJ was applauding. :)

 Speaking of CJ, this is what he looks like when he's killing you in a chess match.

Did I mention there was free pizza?

All in all, a fun hour in the park. 

Reflections

DYNAMIC DUO: Here's a shot we staged last night at the request of Birthday Dreams, one of our favorite non-profits. They want to do a bio bit on CJ and Annabelle's volunteer efforts for their organization. I thought it only fitting that the Kitchen Aid make it into the photo. It sure gets a work out every time we take on a Birthday Dreams project. I used a Google Photos app to turn the stationary shots of CeeJ and Bee into an animated GIF file. 

75: Today, the Internet has been full of stories about remembering D-Day's 75th anniversary.

I thought it would be a good day for the kids and I to look back at photos from our visit to Normandy Beach a couple years back. 

It was breath-taking then and now. I feel so fortunate to have been able to stroll those grounds and reflect on the significance of what happened then. Our trip to Europe a couple of Septembers ago was one for the ages. 

Below, looking down at Omaha Beach on the so-serene day we were there, it was hard to imagine the carnage and chaos that happened there on June 6 of 1944. Definitely a turning point in the history of humanity.

https://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries-memorials/europe/normandy-american-cemetery

GENTLE REMINDER: If you haven't already done so, remember to get your name on board NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It takes just seconds. Simply go to this link, and sign up! https://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/mars2020/

Close to Home

STROLLERS: Monday morning we went for a little stroll first thing. We headed down to the lowlands near the Tukwila Community Center. We parked in their lot and walked north for a bit, along the Duwamish River. 

In short order we saw some Canada Geese families. One of the groups had thirteen babies!

We walked across a kinda scary bridge over the water (pictured at the top of this post), and strolled through a quiet neighborhood on the other side. There, we saw some ENORMOUS leaves of a plant none of us had ever seen before. Later in the day, we did a little research and we think that they are Japanese butterbur (Petasites japonica).

Per a city of Portland's Environmental Services webpage, it's an invasive species. "Japanese butterbur’s kidney-shaped leaves can be up to four feet wide and are fuzzy on the underside. It emerges in late winter or early spring, sometimes with clumps of white or pale yellow flowers appearing before the leaves, and can grow up to six feet tall," says the site.  

Later in our walk, we spied a station of sort surrounded by screened chain link fence. I immediately thought it the air quality station that's part of the state network. 

During the last miserable air quality summer, I repeatedly checked the official site for local air quality readings, and I do believe this just has to be the site listed for Tukwila. This photo makes it look like it's out in the wide open, but I shot it between slats. It's completely fenced in.

ONE LAST TIME: As documented here, we've been doing birthday bulletien boards for the kids' former school for months and months now. 

The last one of the year is always the hardest, as you have to incorporate June, July, and  August birthdays.

We decided to do a fishy theme, and incorporate info about local libraries' summer reading programs. 

We really enjoy this project, but we think it's time to pass the torch to others. There are so many gifted artists at the school ... it's time to see some of their work, we do believe.

PARTY PARTING:  Monday afternoon, we headed down to South Lake Union for a final gathering for the Ultimate Frisbee team that Annabelle has played for for the past two years. 

The spot had free games like pool, darts, and a couple of arcade games. The kids had fun and it was a nice way to wrap up a good season for the team.

Tacoma Trip

GAMERS DELIGHT: On Sunday, we made our annual trip down to Tacoma for the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show. 

CJ will tell you a bit more about it. ... 

From May 31st of this year to June 2nd, the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show was held at the Tacoma Convention Center. The event has been held annually since 2008, so this year marked the 12th iteration of the event.

As with previous iterations, there were over 400 different pinball and arcade machines, according to the event's official website. The machines themselves were held in a large auditorium, where countless attendees (likely more than the number of games) played the plethora of games available. Many of the machines from the previous events (example: Joust) returned from previous Pinball and Arcade Shows, while other machines (such as Contra) were newcomers.

I played a few games, but truth be told, I'm really more interested in the artwork on the machines.

This old "Faces" pin has always been a favorite. 

This year I noticed a couple of vintage pinball machines that seemed to be made to try to appeal to female players, like this Flip a Card machine (1970).

 Who wouldn't want to hang out with those groovy girls?

 This bumper with a typist on it cracked me up.

And this snow-racing themed pin seems to be urging girls to get in on the competition.

Naturally, there are also always PLENTY of pins that are trying to appeal to hetero males.  Annabelle took one look at this machine's artwork and said, "That's not how a shirt's fabric works." Astute observation.

 Not sure exactly to whom Alien Poker was supposed to appeal.

 Bizarre.

I'm always interested in checking out games I've never seen before. One such case this year was this one, Chicken Shift. It had an interesting game play concept. You used two controllers to flip levers to get eggs into crates and such. 

We watched a pair of guys play it for awhile before Christian gave it a go. It looks so simple, but it actually gets pretty tricky pretty quickly.

While Chicken Shift was an old (1984) game we'd never seen before, there are always brand new games at the show, as well.  One was a Primus pinball machine. 

I really don't like the band Primus, after whom the machine is themed, but I did like this pin. I loved its old school analog/rolling counter. (I am weary of newfangled digital machines where even terrible players score 47,000,000 points in a round. It's ridiculous.)

I also liked the Primus plunger.

Turns out there were only 100 of these machines made. Each one is autographed by all of the band members.

CJ played the enormous Hercules. The pinball was the size of a pool ball.

I think my favorite game of the day was the re-imagined PONG. Lordy, how many hours I spent playing that in my youth, when the oh-so-simple game was 'cutting edge.'

This new 3D-version is fun, with game play just like the old school one.

All in all, the show was a very fun way to spend a couple of hours.

OPEN AT LAST: We made a stop for lunch after the show, finally getting to check out the new McMenamins Elks Temple, on the Tacoma waterfront.

Over ten years in the making, this place is five floors of "WOW!"

We didn't come close to seeing all of it. This visit was limited to their front lobby (complete with an eclectic collection of regal chairs and couches).

And we only saw a little of the artwork on site.  

The place as absolutely crawling with people. We'll go back on a more sedate day to check it out from top to bottom.

Field Trips

FLOATING CLASSROOM: Last Tuesday, we reported to the Seattle waterfront at about 8:30 a.m. for a 5.5-hour Puget Sound field trip.

Our floating classroom for the day was the Spirit of '76, a vessel that Pacific Marine Research charters for their Marine Science Afloat educational program. 

The experience started off with an orientation. It included an explanation of how Puget Sound was formed, and how its present-day watershed works.

It was an educational presentation, but it was down in the belly of the boat, and seemed to take a looong time, probably because it's like, "Hey! We're on a boat on the Sound! Why are we sitting on the floor down below? I want to see the water!"

Once that was over with, things got a lot more entertaining.

CJ can give you an overview.

On May 28 of this year, I went on a (relatively) short boat trip as part of a school activity (though I am no longer a student at the school the boat ride was affiliated with, I was still able to go on the ride). The boat ride lasted 5.5 hours, and the main activities involved teaching students about the Puget Sound. Before students boarded the boat, they were separated into three categories (my sister and I were placed in the "Orcas" category).
The activities I remember from the trip are as follows (in more-or-less chronological order):

• We went over to the boat's deck, lowered a large net into the water, and caught certain types of plankton. There were two cups of water: One had a smaller variety of plankton, and another had a larger variety of plankton. Afterwards, we analyzed the plankton underneath a microscope, and attempted to match the kinds of plankton we saw in our water samples with illustrations of them on a sheet of paper (to varying degrees of success).

• We watched a "lecture" (for lack of a better word) by a teacher, providing his own analysis of a water sample provided to him. He briefly described some of the plankton he noticed.

• We briefly gazed over the Puget Sound while eating our pre-packed lunches.

• After finishing up with lunch, we watched a presentation by two SCUBA divers. The divers had a camera with them, broadcasting a video signal to TV screens on the boat. While the divers were diving, they showed up multiple different rockfish (a species of fish than can live to be octogenarians), as well as certain crabs, and even a juvenile octopus.

• Towards the end of the boat trip, we went sightseeing for two sea lions on a floating platform near our boat. The one I noticed was rather chunky.

• Lastly, the students went down in the cabin to watch a short presentation about preserving the Puget Sound from dangers such as pollution, acidification, and waste dumping. 

Following are a few photos from the day's activities.

One of the first things the kids did was pull a water sample from Puget Sound to check for plankton and other life forms.

 Annabelle got to help lower and raise the collection device.

 The water was teeming with tiny lifeforms.

The facilitators took some of the Puget Sound soup and put it under a video microscope.

 It was absolutely fascinating seeing all the different critters down below the waterline.

 They come in so many different shapes and sizes.

The students all had several minutes to use their own microscopes to scope out the situation.

There were also ample opportunities to check out larger Sound dwellers, like sea cucumbers, crabs and such.

At one point, I looked toward Alki Beach and saw something in the water. At first I thought it was a seal, but I quickly realized that it was a diver.

 In fact, it ended up being two divers, and they were swimming toward our boat.

Turns out they did a live dive showing us what was under the waterline, near the vessel we were on. We saw everything from sea pens to rock fish to an octopus!

Between activities, we did have a chance to do a little bit of sightseeing. For instance, we spied a ferry under repair.

 And we saw the Alki Point Lighthouse.

I zoomed in on the Alki Beach Bathhouse, too. We went to a fun party there once ... Rick and Rachel's wedding reception. 

We couldn't help but stare at T-Mobile Park (it's hard not to still call that Safeco Field, by the way). 

 And we even spied the diminutive Statue of Liberty replica along Alki Beach.

Toward the end of our trip, I was disappointed we hadn't seen any whales or dolphins or any above-water creatures. Fortunately, these two male California seals fixed that deficit.

CLOSER TO HOME:  On one of our walks last summer, we discovered an iris specimen garden just a couple of blocks from home. I made a mental note to visit it during the height of iris season this year.

Truth be told, we were more than a couple weeks past the prime time, but Leonine Iris was still an interesting sight, well worth checking out. They specialize in Pacific Coast Irises. 

FLYBY: Recently, NASA shared some footage was taken by astronaut Nick Hague, who has been onboard the International Space Station since mid-March. It's 30 minutes' worth of footage condensed into 60 seconds. (The 30 minutes of filming is about one-third of an orbit of Earth on the ISS, by the way.).  This clip shows cloudy skies over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.