Break on Through to the Other Side

EUREKA!  As referenced in yesterday's blog post, we here at MPA had managed to find our way through the first challenging six weeks of our Einsteinian physics class passing all the tests and problem sets. After trying to derive equations in my sleep all night, I got up refreshed and ready to go this morning and tried to work out the three problems we were having trouble with and guess what?!?!? I still couldn't do it. Doh! So much for sleeping on it. :/

Good thing there's a math major in the family (hi Grandpa R!). Lateish last night in semi desperation, I sent him an SOS email explaining our speed bump. Ironically, what was vexing us was not even Einsteinian, really. It was 'simple' (LOL) math. Actually, it wasn't simple, but it was *only* math, no mystery involved, unless, say, you're an 8- or 10-year old who is typically a decade or so away from this kind of math, or you're a 47-year old who is 30 years removed from this math - and didn't grasp it too well even back in the '80s. ...

As I explained to our lifeline, our course honor code allows us to work in groups on problem sets, sharing ideas and information, so asking for some guidance was AOK. As expected, Mr. Lifeline QUICKLY had us headed in the right direction. So this afternoon, while the kids were in a math class, I went ot the library, filled in the blanks and, with a shaking hand, I hit 'submit' on my problem set answers. And guess what? I could hardly believe my eyes when the score was 24/24. The kids have managed a perfect score before, but that was my first 100 percent. :) Hip hip hooray!

The score happily surprised me a bit, because the kids and I had worked long and hard (probably 5 hours plus) solving the other problems. There were a few that we could not find a 'firm' (100 percent sure correct) answer for, but we had talked and talked about them, and had chosen one of the four possibilities that made the most sense to us for good reason. And we were right on all counts! SUPER gratifying.

In other Einstein news, the class we're taking includes an optional creative project. Since our 'maths' (as the Brits would say) were bringing us down as of late, this seemed like a good time to have some fun with Einstein.

CJ decided to write an acrostic poem - one that uses the first letter of the topic word to begin each line. Naturally, that topic word was EINSTEIN. First, he wrote the poem. Then, I suggested the poem would have more resonance if it involved an image of Einstein, so he looked online for a photo he wanted to use. He chose the classic Albert in front of chalkboard image. From there, he erased the drawings on the chalkboard and then had to fit his poem on the board. He was very particular about finding the right font (one that looked like chalk writing) and the right color, so that the words would match the sepia tones of the photo.

I thought his end product was really great.

Annabelle has something in the works, too. Stay tuned.

LEMON HEADS: Last night the last show I watched was on the Food Network, so when I fired up the TV this morning for the kids, that's what flickered on. The program airing was a lemon-themed episode of "Unwrapped," and it instantly captured their attention, as it was showing how Lemonhead candies are made. I don't think the kids have ever even had Lemonheads, but they were very interested in how they were made.

It's a highly automated process, using a collection of specialized machines. We watched the insides of the candy being made, with the material being rolled out into a sheet and cut by machines, then it solidified and broke into little balls, which were coated with sugar, citric acid, and yellow coloring, among other things.

Some 15- to 20-thousand pounds of Lemonheads are produced per shift at the Ferrara plant where they're made.

The next segment of the show featured a Sunkist lemon operation. We learned that lemons are actually a hybrid of lime and a citron. When the harvested lemons are being processed, each fruit has an amazing 20 photos taken of it. Computers analyze the photos and the lemons are then sorted based on size, color, blemishes and such. We also learned that the lemons are coated in a wax before being shipped to market. Supposedly it's to replace their natural waxy covering that disappears when they're washed at the factory.

Speaking of lemons, we just had our first and only harvest of a real live lemon here on 'campus.'  While we were away this past weekend, the lone lemon on our tree (more of a plant, really), fell off.

Years in the making (it's our first lemon from the several year old plant), it's big, bright yellow. Check out the ugly little plant it came from.

ALOFT: Throughout the day, we checked in with the progress of Solar Impulse. It took off, per plan, in the wee small hours of the morning (just before 5 a.m. their locaal time) from Phoenix, headed to Dallas-Fort Worth.

© Solar Impulse | Merz | Rezo.ch
Tonight, as the kids went to bed, Solar Impulse was descending to below 5,000 feet, with Dallas-Fort Worth in its sites. Another cross country leg successfully completed.

FUNKY FOLLICLES: Today was 'crazy hair day' where the kids take their science class in Shoreline. We used chalk on Bee's locks to give her some color. CJ got to experience the joys of being a girl, with a few little pony tails. He squealed big time as I ponied him up. I suppose he has a whole new appreciation for girls now. ;)

Tuesday Doings

PULLEYS: The kids completed some science homework today for the pulleys and levers unit they're in the midst of. 

They were tasked with constructing a single fixed pulley. It took them a fair amount of talking and scrounging and testing, but they came up with something that, indeed, fit the bill.

Another part of the same assignment was to find levers pictured in magazines and cut out examples of type-1, -2, and -3 levers.  Here are some items CJ found.

 Annabelle found a couple, but got frustrated and decided it would be more fun to draw the rest.

UP WITH THE SUN: Tomorrow morning Solar Impulse, the plane that gets all its juice from our one and only sun, will be taking off again.

© Solar Impulse | Merz | Rezo.ch

Solar Impulse will take off at 5 a.m. MST from Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport tomorrow morning, bound for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It will be the second leg of its cross-country journey, which started on May 3, when Bertrand Piccard flew the plane from San Fran to Phoenix.  

Wednesday, André Borschberg will be in the pilot's seat, attempting to set an absolute distance world record in solar aviation - over 830 miles. The previous record was 693 miles, held by Solar Impulse and Borchberg on a Switzerland to Spain flight in 2012. 

The team of Solar Impulse says they hope the flights "inspire everyone to be pioneers and change-makers to bring solutions for today’s challenges." People who join their movement (by entering their contact info on the Solar Impulse Web site at http://www.solarimpulse.com/join_us/) can take a virtual ride in the plane, as their name will be on a USB key kept in the cockpit and transported across America as virtual passengers.

Each leg of the cross country journey will be streamed live on www.solarimpulse.com as well as on Twitter and Facebook. The plane's position, altitude and speed will be shown in real time, while cockpit and mission control cameras allow viewers to experience the journey.

WEEKEND REWIND: Yesterday's post about our weekend focused solely on the pig roast we witnessed. There were other goings on, of course. For instance, the kids got a chance to check out some chickens.

And here's Rudy, the fine looking and vociferous rooster.

The kids also got in a quick game of Twister. What a classic.

Funny how the mat looks so much smaller now than it did when I was a kid.

On the way down to Siletz, we stopped at a the Baldock rest area between Portland and Salem. There, we found an interesting living feature called "Grove of the States."

Once upon a time, it featured trees for each of the 50 states. Some of them looked lovely, like this New York sugar maple.

However, a lot of the specimens seemed to be really struggling in their not-native environments, like this North Carolina palm.

And some trees were missing entirely, holes where the former rootballs were located, as was the case with the Arkansas Pine.

Despite the voids and a whole lot of signs in various states of disrepair, it was a nice pit stop.

SPEED BUMP: For the first time, we seem to have hit a bit of a speed bump in our Einstein class. We finished watching all the week's lectures, took the test following each of those and aced them, took the overall weekly test and aced that, but the problem set for this week is vexing us. What's really frustrating is that overall, this week content wise had been lighter and less difficult (at least on the surface) than last week, by far.

We're trying to generate equations that will let a person transfer points from one person's point of view to another's on the same spacetime diagram. We have the starting points to work these equations, but try as we might, the ones we come up with don't match any of the four options on the problem set. Grrr. We have a couple more days to complete the problems, but I don't know what's going to change between now and then. We've already watched, rewatched and rewatched the lectures, and worked and reworked. We'll sleep on it, or as Albert would have said, we "vill t'ink" some more, but I'm not very hopeful that the physics fairy showing up and solving these puzzles. Frustrating, indeed. 

This Little Piggy

SOME PIG: Normally, I lead my blog posts with a really big picture on top.  I'm not going to do that this time, because I want to give you a chance to hit the 'eject' button. ...

If you do not want to see what pork ribs, bacon and ham look like before they reach the supermarket, this is your chance to skedaddle.

This weekend we headed to Siletz, Ore., for a very special birthday party. Part of the festivities involved roasting a real live whole dead pig. Me being me, I took lots of pictures of said pig in various states of undress.

It was a great opportunity for the kids to see that meat doesn't just come from plastic-wrapped packages in a grocery store. Rather, it comes from previously living breathing, and in some cases snorting and oinking, animals.

The subject of our roast spent a couple days on ice in a lovely bathtub before being manhandled into a wheelbarrow and carted to the garage.

There, with surgical precision, the pig was butterflied. It took some pretty heavy duty hammering with mallets and cleavers to get the job done.

Here's what delicious pork ribs look like before they're seasoned, slathered in sauce and BBQed to perfection. ... 

After the jaw and head were split open, we got a look at its not-so-pearly whites.

Once it was butterflied, the poor piggy was flipped back over. 

I put a butcher knife within its reach, but she didn't stand a fighting chance at this point. 

It was now time to strap Petunia to a rebar rack before she was barbecue bound.

I couldn't help but take the photo above. It looks like her hoof is being tenderly held to help ease her through the process. 

Once secure, it was time to transport this little piggy to the fire pit.  Here, Christian carries the front of the rack.

And here's the pit, constructed of concrete blocks, lined in foil, and hot charcoal was spread around the bottom.

She was placed skin side down, and if memory serves, she was flipped after about 90 minutes. At that point, she looked like this. ...

After her underside cooked for an hour-plus, it was time for another flip to crisp the skin. ...

And the pig did, indeed, become a crispy critter.

Cooked through and through, the pig could practically be pulled apart with bare hands.

I do believe there were two dozen people on hand eating dinner. Even after everyone had their fill, there was so much meat left, it looked like no one had eaten. A 75 pound pig could feed a much larger army.

Suffice it to say, the whole thing, from start to finish, was a spectacle to behold. If you want to take one on yourself, check out this link to a Web page where "Three Guys from Miami" teach you had to "Roast a Pig Like a Pro."  It worked like a charm for the hard working, skilled pig roasters hosting the party in Siletz!

Into the Wild

OVER THE RIVER: This is going to be a short one, as we spent 7 hours in the car today.  The reason for the lengthy drive was a visit to Siletz, Ore, which is just inland of Newport, Ore., which is on the north central Oregon Coast.

It was a full Honda Fit, what with two kids, two dogs, luggage and a few dozen carefully packed custom cookies on board.

I managed to forget the cable that connects my camera to my computer, so this blog post is entirely photo free, which doesn't happen often. My apologies.

But stay tuned, because I took lots of interesting photos today, including a series of shots of a 75-pound pig carcass being butterflied. You know you want to see that! ;) Tomorrow bright and early Petunia is going on a fire pit, poor delicious thing. As CJ said today during the process, "It's not very pleasant seeing the pig getting butchered." He shared that he much prefers just buying meat at the store.  Can't say that I disagree with him, but I think it's very educational to get to see the anatomy of the pig like they did, and to realize that meat doesn't just come from nature wrapped in plastic on Styrofoam trays.

And so we bid you adieu until Monday.  Have a nice weekend.

Ponies and Trekkies

FAMILY PORTRAIT: As I was working on cookies this morning Annabelle was creating a family portrait. She made a pony for each member in the family. I'm "Silver Word" because of my writing. Christian is "Water Works" because of where he works, Annabelle is "Paintbrush" because she likes to do art, and CJ is "Tech" because of his penchant for computers and gaming consoles.

Annabelle told me she made me purple for the Huskies with blue hair, representing the Mariners. Very nice touches. :)

KEEP ON TREKKING: This morning we watched a 90-minute Webcast from the National Air and Space Museum called "Star Trek's Continuing Relevance."

One of the panelists was Margaret Weitekamp of the museum's space history department. She shared some of the Star Trek-related items in the museum's collection, including a large model of the Starship Enterprise used in the original series and some authentic Tribbles. It's kind of amazing this stuff is even still around, because when Star Trek ended it wasn't the juggernaut it is today, with millions of Trekkies/Trekkers, conventions all over the globe, multiple spin off series, successful movie franchise, lucrative merchandising and more. Rather, it was 'just' a failed television series, canceled after three seasons. I'm glad somebodies somewhere thought to hang on to the artifacts, they're true treasures today.

Another panelist was Dan Hendrickson of the Aerospace Industries Association. Hendrickson spearheaded a campaign to get pro-space exploration ads to run before "Star Trek Into Darkness," the newest Star Trek movie, released this week.
Revenue to pay for the ads was raised through a crowdsourcing campaign (asking people who share the passion to demonstrate that with their donations). The group had hoped to raise $30,000, enabling them to screen the promo in a handful of cities. Fortunately, they ended up raising so much money (nearly $53,000), they were able to buy spots in all 50 states.

When I learned about the campaign, I immediately thought, "Well they should just use 'We Are the Explorers,' " a NASA-produced video making a compelling case for continued space exploration. And that's exactly what they did!

Unfortunately, they couldn't afford a 2.5 minute ad, which is the length of the original video, so it was whittled down to 30 seconds. Here's the edited version:

But you really should see the full length-one. :)

Heads Up

Photo credit: NASA - I've always loved this shot of Star Trek creator and cast (sans Bill Shatner, guess he was busy) alongside prototype orbiter Enterprise.

TO BOLDLY GO: All too often I write about neat-o live things only after they happen, giving readers a review of them. For once (or maybe twice), I'm actually remembering to tell you something ahead of time.

On May 16, NASA will broadcast a special program called "Star Trek's Continuing Relevance" from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Pacific time. The event will be held at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. To watch the Webast, go to this link: http://airandspace.si.edu/events/lectures/webcast/

The program is about how Star Trek has drawn upon real history for its narratives, and how the show influenced space history. The educational panel will include Nancy Reagin, editor of Star Trek and History; Mike Gold, chief counsel for  Bigelow Aerospace; Margaret Weitekamp of the museum's space history department, and Dan Hendrickson, director for Space Systems, Aerospace Industries Association. Hendrickson will be talking about why he spearheaded a crowd-sourced campaign, partnered with the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, to pay for ads promoting human spaceflight to show before the new Star Trek film in theaters right now!

WACKY AXES: Have I mentioned lately that we're taking an Eisensteinian physics class and that it's hard?  We are now just barely into week six of eight, having survived week five, barely. So much material was covered last week, and though we each managed to ace the weekly test, the homework assignment was long and difficult. But every week we learn, and so we're hanging in there.

In fact, the Einstein quotes the professor shared with us this week made us feel a bit better. One was, "The mainspring of scientific thought is not an external goal toward which one must strive, but the pleasure of thinking." The kids and I talked about how sometimes we've struggled to understand concepts in the class, but really an important part of this class for us is not about the finish line, it's about the  journey.

Another quote the professor shared was what Einstein said, in broken English, when he needed more time to ponder a problem: "I vill a little t'ink."  And boy oh boy, we've had to take pause a do a little t'inking, too.

Station to Station

   Image Credit: NASA

PREDECESSOR: Here at MPA we spend a lot of time talking and thinking about the International Space Station. We watch live updates from it, interviews with astronauts on board, and spot it flying over our place in the night sky on a regular basis. 

However, long before the ISS was ever assembled 220 or so miles or so overhead, there was another space station that was also an international effort. 

Skylab was launched on May 13, 1973, 40 years ago today. 

Yesterday, we watched a live, special broadcast about the anniversary of Skylab's launch. 

   Image Credit: NASA

The discussion panel included a couple of Skylab astronauts we've had the pleasure of meeting in person here in Seattle last fall: Gerald Carr and Owen Garriott.

Here's a (pretty bad) photo of the kids with Carr ...

and here's one of astronaut Garriott as a Museum of Flight panel member.

So many great lessons about living in a space outpost were learned on Skylab, and those lessons benefit the ISS astronauts today. (For instance, they didn't bother building a shower on the ISS, because the Skylab one was so ineffective/inefficient. 

Skylab was our the first foray into significant scientific research in microgravity. Three crews lived on station, proving for the first time that humans could live and work in space for (relatively) long durations. 

As the kids and I were reading about Skylab on NASA's Web site, we came across this conceptual drawing. ...

  Image Credit: NASA

The sketch was drawn by George E. Mueller, NASA associate administrator for Manned Space Flight, during a meeting at the Marshall Space Flight Center on Aug. 19, 1966. By 1970, the project had been dubbed Skylab. 

As she listened to the Skylab astronauts last fall, Annabelle came up with this drawing. It's pretty similar to the one above. :)

In all, three crews lived and worked on Skylab: Skylab 2 in May 1973, Skylab 3 in July 1973 and Skylab 4 in November of 1973. They conducted experiments in space and life science, Earth resources and space technology and also oversaw students' projects. 

To be truthful, I think the thing I remember most about Skylab was its orbital decay and its remnants crashing back down to Earth. What a shame. The station was supposed to be refurbished and used again, but when the Space Shuttle program was delayed, those plans were dashed an in 1979, the station fell out of orbit. 

I remember news of this impending doom, and actually worried that it was going to fall on someone(s) and kill them. Fortunately, the debris that survived the re-entry burn landed in a remote area of Western Australia, hurting no one. 

  

HANDS ON: Midday, we took a trip down Interstate 5 to Olympia to meet a friend of mine and her son at the Hands On Children's Museum. 

It's quite a place - a nice big facility, modern and inviting looking. It is also incredibly, terribly loud. Seriously. I don't know how the people who work there keep their sanity. I wanted to run screaming from the building - and that's before I even paid our admission.  Yes, the place was full of kids, but they weren't (for the most part) shrieking or being super loud. There appears to be just waaaay too many hard surfaces and a lack of any kind of acoustic controls in the place. But I digress. 

It's a neat place, with lots of fun to be had. Here, CJ and Annabelle enjoy a cozy perch.

Everyone enjoyed playing with the 'pin' wall.  

 

There was a little stage to play on. 

 CJ liked running the sound board more than acting. 

 There were a couple of fun attractions involving tubes and suction.  Such fun watching the balls and scarves go 'round and 'round.

 We stopped briefly in the arts and crafts room, just long enough for Annabelle to craft a pipe cleaner bumblebee.

Out on the patio we saw the real thing. 

And the kids had lots of fun in a construction-themed exhibit. Annabelle enjoyed directing traffic.

CJ was very into the gear and he was super disappointed the darn helmet didn't fit him better.