Thoughts on a Random Wednesday

MUTANT "MIGHTY MICE" ARRIVE IN SPACESHIP: A.I. knows what I like to read, so I'm forever getting space-related stories 'pushed' my way by browsers and social media. Yesterday evening one story certainly got my attention. It was about "genetically enhanced "mighty mice" arriving (back) on Earth. My mind immediately skewed toward the sci-fi/horror realm, picturing super-strong mutant mice attempting to take over the world. 

In reality, these space-traveling mice in the story had been scientifically altered to have beefed-up muscles, as part of a study aboard the International Space Station. The experiment they participated in was called Rodent Research-19. It studied myostation and activin, the molecular signaling pathways that can influence muscle degradation, according to NASA. Astronauts always experience muscle and bone loss on extended space missions, so researchers have been studying ways to prevent this, as well as help physical recovery efforts once astronauts return to Earth.

The experimental mice splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in a SpaceX capsule on Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Image: SpaceX

HOP TO IT: This week, pretty steady background noise at MPA is the annual Games Done Quick marathon broadcast. Annabelle can tell you more about it. 

Games Done Quick is an organization dedicated to raising funds for charity through ‘speedrunning’, the art of exploiting and perfecting the way one plays a certain video game in order to complete it in the shortest time possible. Games Done Quick has two major events during the year and other smaller ones between; Awesome Games Done Quick, which usually occurs in early January; and Summer Games Done Quick, which is held in July. These events regularly raise over 1 million dollars for cancer research and similar causes, all given by members of the public watching the weeklong non-stop livestream. Games Done Quick can be viewed for free on the Twitch website, and ends this Saturday. 

TROUBLING: Living in Seattle, you have a front row seat to thousands of humans in misery, living outdoors. Sidewalks, underpasses, greenbelts, parks, you name it, there are tents and shacks and people living in them.

There is unending talk about how to solve the "homeless" problem, and millions of dollars are thrown at the situation, with no perceptible improvement. One of the biggest problems regarding solving the issue is it really isn't primarily a housing issue, IMHO. 

Yes, the cost of housing is astronomical in Seattle and its surrounds, and yes, there are way too many people who simply can't afford shelter. That is, indeed, a homeless issue.

However, regarding the city campers seen around Seattle, housing affordability doesn't really seem like it's the actual crux of the problem. The majority of the people living chronically on the streets seem to be there due to addiction and/or mental health issues. This is a problem years-in-the-making, with no simple or easy solutions. 

Study after study has shown the advent of opioids has had a tremendously negative affect on the size and health of the homeless population. That sad fact is in addition to a terribly inadequate system for dealing with people in mental health crisis, 'thanks' to cruel cutbacks reaching back to the Reagan administration.

Yesterday, I came across an important article in Psychiatric Times, "Dungeons and Back Alleys: The Fate of the Mentally Ill in America." By Dr. Allen Frances, professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University, it is a bleak and very real recount of how we got to a place county jails are now the biggest providers of psychiatric care for people suffering from severe mental illness. (Let that sad fact sink in for a moment.)

Dr. Frances is retiring, and he says his career is ending on a sour note. He proposes a "moon-shot mentality" toward meaningfully treating mentally ill patients. One bit of encouragement he offers is his belief that "it doesn’t require rocket science or new research. We have known for 50 years how to provide good care for severe mental illness." It's mainly about switching priorities, he contends. I hope people are listening. This is an issue that affects all of us.

I highly recommend his article: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/article/dungeons-and-back-alleys-fate-mentally-ill-america/page/0/1?fbclid=IwAR2MimE65DtHx60mpdoZkx61q6iTzAxWR3cIYaGpUQcITSIVfGMB6M2tlXA

Right Back at It

Falcon 9 lifts off Moday night with 60 satellites on the Starlink 2 mission - photo by Ben Cooper

LIFT OFF: Monday evening, we tuned in just in time to watch SpaceX's third launch of Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Not only did we get to see the launch, but after stage separation, we watched Falcon 9’s first stage descend and land on "Of Course I Still Love You” SpaceX's droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean. Then, about 45 minutes after liftoff, SpaceX’s fairing recovery vessel, “Ms. Tree,” attempted to recover half of the rocket's nosecone, but apparently just missed. It's worth trying, as each piece of the faring is worth around $3 million. SpaceX would love to be able to save some money by reusing them on future flights. (Before Monday night's miss, Ms. Tree (the vessel formerly known as Mr. Steven),  has made two successful recoveries.  

You can watch a replay of launch coverage here below. The actual launch happens just after the 18-minute mark. The payload deployment, all 60 satellites, is at the very end of the video.


THE NAVIGATORS: CJ's history course this quarter covers 1500-1800 C.E. As part of his homework for this week, he is learning about the Columbian Exchange, European exploration and colonization.  

This morning we watched a documentary about the navigation skills of Polynesian Islanders. (I'm not certain how that fits into the subjects listed above, but, oh well.)  Anyway, the film, from 1983, focused on Grand Master Navigator Mau Piailug, of Satawal, a flat, one-square kilometer coral atoll just eight feet above sea level. When it was filmed, just 35 families lived there.

The film centered on Piailug's desire to teach the art of "wayfinding," navigation without tools or charts, to younger members of his community. Per Wikipedia Piailug "relied on navigational clues using the sun and stars, winds and clouds, seas and swells, and birds and fish, was acquired through rote learning passed down through teachings in the oral tradition."

Above, from Wikipedia, is a photograph of a recreation of the star compass of Mau Piailug depicted with shells on sand, The stars are labeled in Satawalese (one of the Trukic languages), as described by the Polynesian Voyaging Society. (The photo is shared via the the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)

The documentary was definitely dated, but it was an interesting glimpse into a way of life so different from ours. It rather boggled my mind to think that while I was a high school senior, people on a tiny island in the Pacific were living a life so foreign to my own. I can't help but wonder what life is like on Satawal, nearly 40 years later from when the documentary was filmed. Piailug talked of his older children who had already left the island with his blessing, but that he was going to compel his two youngest children to stay. I wonder if they did.

Twenty Twenty

NEW NORMAL: How about that! Here I sit trying to play catch up again. Another whirlwind week, and I haven't had much time for logging MPA's goings on. 

One thing that happened this week: We entered a new year. A new decade, in fact.

Somewhat miraculously, all six of us (dogs included) made it past midnight. We tuned in to local TV to watch the Space Needle's fireworks show, but there was none this year due to high winds. So, we settled for the Needle's high tech light show. It was actually quite entertaining. 

In our neighborhood, fireworks were going off all around us. We have a 180-degree view to the south and could see all sorts of pyrotechnics. Fortunately, they died off by about 12:45. Our dogs were not big fans of the big booms.

Like so many others, we have big plans for 2020. CJ will continue his freshman foray into college, and we'll be right along with him. He's taking Japanese, history and good ol' English 101 this coming quarter, which starts on Monday.

This year we resolve to keep going to the gym (such fun, really!), and to use a whole lot less plastic. We want to learn more about our bees, and maybe help in a couple of elections between now and November. 

We're plan to continue our volunteering, and maybe this will be the year we actually start a little business. 

NASA has big plans for 2020. They include launching Americans from U.S. soil once again (finally!), sending a new rover to Mars, and continuing to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars. Here's a little video about that.


EIGHTEEN: At the start of the week, I suggested to the kids that they put in for a cake to donate to Birthday Dreams. We checked out the website and quickly found that there was an 18 year old who wanted a galaxy themed cake. 

CJ whipped up a three-layer chocolate cake, while Annabelle crafted an astronaut from modeling chocolate and fondant. She also made some alien faces, molded a moon, and airbrushed the first tier to a galaxy shimmer. 

As I watched them work, I couldn't help but think about the teen who was going to receive the cake. I just can't imagine turning 18 while living in a local homeless shelter. It breaks my heart. We sure hope the cake was a bright spot on his special day, and are hoping he has a stable, comfortable, permanent place to call home very soon.

Game Time

GAME FACES: On Sunday, we watched the Seahawks' final regular season game of the 2019 season. Fortunately, win or lose, they were going to make the playoffs. Unfortunately, it was lose. That means they're in Philadelphia against the Eagles next Sunday. We'll be watching, of course. 

CJ and Annabelle did their best to support the Hawks this week, donning Marshawn Lynch-related attire. One of Seattle's most beloved sports figures ever, Lynch (also known as Beast Mode) came out of retirement and made a surprising return to the Seahawks just for this playoff run. 

He did manage to score one touchdown with some big style points, but he wasn't a dominating presence, that's for sure. We'll see what next weekend brings.

TREK TIME: We still continue to play tabletop games together regularly, and Santa brought a few new ones into the fold.

We love the Looney Labs' game Chrononauts, and we love Star Trek, so you can imagine how excited we were about playing Star Trek Chrononauts.

I was excited when I drew my identity card for the first game and found I was none other than Captain James T. Kirk.

Unfortunately, I couldn't Kobayashi Maru my way to a win. Annabelle was the victor, completing her timeline and scoring the necessary artifact she needed.  Below are a few of the timeline cards.

After we were done playing, CJ started playing around with the new earbuds Santa brought him. I couldn't help but notice the name on the box, Tranya.

I told the table that that was the name of the drink an alien (Ron Howard's little brother Clint) invited Kirk to drink during the episode "The Corbomite Maneuver." 

I think knowing that gives me some pretty serious Star Trek trivia street cred. ;)

Also, can I point out that the Tranya logo looks an awful lot like Star Wars' Boba Fett's mask? Surely I'm not the only one who sees these things. ... 

PLANE SPOTTING: Speaking of Star Wars, on Saturday morning, I received a Facebook message from a friend who lives in Ohio. He told me Seattle would be getting a special visitor today, in the form of the United Airlines' special Star Wars airplane.

My friend knew about its whereabouts due to an app he uses, FlightAware. In the app, you can enter a plane's unique tail number to keep tabs on it. The Star Wars plane is ID N36272.

Unfortunately, when we were hoping to catch a glimpse, there were low clouds in abundance, and even delays due to fog at Seatac Airport.  Below, CeeJ and Bee stare out the window, hoping to glimpse the jet. (You can see the Seatac control tower in the distance from our living room and bedroom windows.)

There are a couple of other planes I'd like to track. Specifically, Norwegian Airlines' Freddie Mercury plane (EI-FVX), and NASA's "Super Guppy" (N940NS). I'm going to download that app and set up some alerts!

Happy Holidays

RELISHING CHRISTMAS: We're finally getting back into the swing of things at MPA, after having been on the road most all of last week.

While the ground wasn't blanketed in white, we did get a few flakes of snow on Christmas in Bend, Oregon. We were super fortunate the pass over the mountains was clear both ways during our holiday journeys. Lucky us (and all the other holiday travelers)!

While in Bend, truth be told, we mostly were lazy and enjoyed the culinary efforts of the great chefs there. When not lounging around, we did manage to make some deviled eggs from some pretty pickled eggs our lovely hosts had on hand. The beet coloring made them so festive! 

We also made the relish tray up tops. I had planned on having Annabelle take the lead on that, but she and CJ were really enjoying the movie "Enchanted," a favorite from their childhood (it's all relative) while I threw it together. I was really missing our star- and heart- shaped cutters, but I faked it. 

After 7+ hours of driving, we arrived home Thursday night and did our own little MPA Christmas. 

For ambiance, we streamed the original "Star Wars" soundtrack, and had good ol Darth Vader as our Yule log. It was a fun and relaxing way to wind down.

HOLIDAY DINNER: Friday morning we were up and at 'em, as Saturday was a Teen Feed service for us and we had a lot of prepping to do.

We had an "Aloha 2019" themed menu. 

We helped organize the service, and part of that meant procuring and prepping 15 pounds of teriyaki chicken. We also made copious amounts of three kinds of macaroni salad (gluten free, onion free, and 'regular').  And we prepped 50 or so servings of coleslaw. Oh, and rice. We made tons o' rice (11 cups dry). 

Other volunteers also made rice and mac salad. Other volunteers provided some beautiful aloha-inspired desserts. 

We always have main entree, side dish, and dessert options for gluten free, pork free, and vegan guests.

All in all, we had over 50 people for dinner. And most all of them get at least seconds, and many get thirds and more. That's a LOT of food to prep and serve in an hour from a bunch of kind-hearted home cooks. We have a really great crew and I appreciate how kindly and quickly they serve our dinner guests.

To help give you an idea of what's involved, for this meal 38 pounds of pork and 25 pounds of teriyaki chicken were prepared. No, those numbers are not typos. While the pork reduces about 40 percent during cooking, that's still nearly a combined 50 pounds of prepared meat our team brought this month. We did have a little of each left over, but not a bunch. The people coming in for dinner are *so* hungry and are especially craving protein. It's a challenge to keep up with their needs, but we manage to make it work every month.

UP AND AWAY: Before the Christmas break hit, we received notice that "Connections" members (that's CJ and Annabelle in our house) at The Museum of Flight could come see the movie "The Aeronauts" on Friday, Dec. 20. I always jump on those types of emails as soon as I see them, because I know they fill up quickly.  

We were lucky to get in, and so the kids got tickets, plus one chaperone. Christian went with, because he misses out on a lot of the fun stuff while he's at work. Honestly, when dropping them off, I was worried the movie was going to be a bust, as we'd just seen the newest Star Wars movie the night before. Imagine my surprise when I picked them up and all three were absolutely raving about how riveting the movie was!

Annabelle can tell you a bit more about it. ...

"The Aeronauts" is an Amazon original movie inspired by the story of meteorologist James Glaisher and his record-breaking hot air balloon flight in 1862, where it is estimated that the balloon reached altitudes of 9,500-10,900 meters above sea level. The movie does not completely historically accurately portray the flight, including the character of Amelia Wren, who is a composite character of other female balloonists from the time. It flips perspectives back and forth between the two Astronauts on their balloon and the events leading up to the flight, including charts of how high the balloon is at the point in time. It’s quite tense and almost a bit scary at some points in time, especially if one has a fear of heights, but it also does a good job of balancing out those moments with calm and quiet – even including some completely silent scenes to mirror what it would actually sound like at that elevation.

While the movie is a quite fictionalized account of the flight, it’s not at all meant to be an educational film. Some may be upset at how much has been changed from the true historical flight, but as a standalone piece of entertainment it’s very well done and makes good sense from a narrative standpoint. I quite enjoyed the movie, even knowing that many of the things shown did not really happen.

Not only did the three get to see the movie for free, there was lots of free swag, including t-shirts and posters and pins for all of them. Nice!

If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch "The Aeronauts" for free! Christian came out saying it was a sit on the edge of your seat thriller, and the trailer seems to back that up!

Merry Makers

HOLLY DAYS:  And just like that, Christmas 2019 is upon us.

This year has seemed to fly by, and the weeks leading up to the holiday season were no exception. 

We headed over the (Columbia and Wilammette) rivers and through the (Dechutes National Forest) woods, to Bend, Oregon, for Christmas with some of the family.

We like to try to put some personalization and craftiness into gifting. This year that included everything from our home-harvested honey to home brewed beer.

Christian bottled up a Christmas brew on Christmas Eve eve. He wasn't exactly wowed by this particular batch, so we settled on a tongue-in-cheek name for it, "OK Ale."

Annabelle used the Cricut to make up some golden labels for the bottles. 

CJ and Annabelle typically make fun gift bags for four of their cousins. This year's theme was Japan, since CJ and Annabelle have been studying Japanese this fall. 

They figured out how to spell their cousins' names in Japanese, and "Merry Christmas."  Annabelle cut out the words and a red circle with the Cricut, and then applied them to the bags. (The red circle was so that the gift bags would resemble the Japanese flag.)

They carefully chose all Japanese ingredients for the bags - everything from ramen to candy, seaweed to soda pop, and some cute pens, plus a funny facial mask.

The finished product looked really professional. I think they could probably make gift bags like that and sell them this time of year.

Follow Up

DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN?: Yesterday afternoon the kids and I spent a couple of hours with a couple of dozen very enthusiast third graders at a local school. We went to the classroom to allow the kids an opportunity to create some edible art, in the form of melted snowman cookies. 

In order to get ready, we made 30 hand-cut cookies, 30 Rice Krispies heads, a bunch of gum paste carrot noses, and 15 pounds of marshmallow fondant. We rounded up sugary ribbons and all sorts of  colorful candies, plus pretzels and parchment paper.

While the kids were at lunch, CJ, Annabelle and I set up the room. We covered each student's desk with parchment paper, and put cookies, fondant, and edible decorations on it.

 At the front of the room, there was a 'buffet' of sorts, with other items for them to choose from.

We spent about 2 hours at the school, in all. It was a little bit of chaos and a lot of fun. The kids' snowpeople were all so different. The one below is holding Earth. 

The snowies at the top of the post were made today by CJ and Annabelle, with the leftovers from yesterday's festivities. Before we left the classroom yesterday, we also put together a cookie kit for the teacher to take home to her own daughter. 

ANOMALY: First thing this morning (which was actually pretty early, because I took Christian to the train at about 5:45), I checked news about the Boeing crew capsule test flight from the Florida Coast.

I was super happy to read that the liftoff seemed to go perfectly, and read that the capsule was inserted into orbit. Yay!

A couple of hours later, the news became less encouraging. It seems there was an anomaly - a rather significant one at that - and that the crew capsule would *not* be making its way to the International Space Station, as was the plan.

Unfortunately, crew capsule Starliner wound up having some technical difficulties shortly after liftoff. As a result, it was inserted into an orbit that's incompatible with an ISS rendezvous. Intial reports point to Starliner's onboard timing system as the point of failure. Apparently the craft's software seemed to think it was conducting an orbit-insertion burn when it actually was not. What happened next was the capsule performed a series of unnecessary orientation-maintaining firings of its small reaction-control thrusters. These maneuvers used up a bunch of propellant, and which means no space station trip for it. 

Darn it.

The kids and I watched part of a rather morose press NASA conference after the news broke. The bottom line is, right now it's too early to tell how big of a setback this is going to be for Boeing, NASA and the United States' return to manned space flight. 

Early reports suggest that if it had been a manned mission, that astronauts on board could likely have corrected the misfirings before they became a mission-breaker.  Also, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said during today's news conference that handlers tried to troubleshoot the issue in real time, but in a slightly different patch of sky, .

NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Bettina Inclán, NASA astronauts Michael Fincke and Nicole Mann, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, United Launch Alliance President and CEO Tory Bruno, Boeing Space and Launch Division Senior Vice President Jim Chilton, NASA Commercial Crew Program Deputy Manager Steve Stich, and NASA ISS Program Manager Kirk Shireman, participate in a press conference following the launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, Friday, Dec. 20, 2019, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky

"By the time we were able to get signals up to actually command it to do the orbital insertion burn, it was a bit too late," he said. "And the reason it was too late is because it appears — and remember, all of this is very early and preliminary, and we're learning things moment by moment — but it appears as though we were between TDRS communication satellites, which meant we couldn't get the command signal to tell the spacecraft that it needed to do the orbital insertion burn soon enough."

The new OFT mission profile has been worked out in a broad sense, however. Starliner won't dock with the ISS now after all, and the mission will be significantly shorter than its originally planned eight days. The spacecraft team now aims to bring the capsule down on Sunday morning (Dec. 22) at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico (which was also the primary target site for the originally envisioned OFT).

Later, after the press conference, Bridestein issued a formal statement. You can read it here:
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-statement-on-boeing-orbital-flight-test

The news conference can be viewed here: https://go.nasa.gov/2Z6GbeG

SKYWALKER SAGA: Last night was the first opportunity to see the newest episode in the "Star Wars saga, "The Rise of Skywalker."

It was dumping buckets last night, so there wasn't going to be much outdoor posing going on. I got one misty shot of the kids under the marquee, across the street from me. 

We got to the theater about a half hour before show time. That gave us an opportunity to watch the cosplayers do their thing, and check out some Star Wars costumes on display. 

The late Paul Allen owned Cinerama, and Allen owns all sorts of cool sci-fi artifacts, including the original robe Alec Guiness wore in the first Star Wars movie.

Luke's flight suit from the first two episodes was also on display. Neat-o

I'm not going to say anything about the movie itself (no spoilers!!!), other than the fact that there were cheers and tears throughout the theater. I can't wait to see it again.

SPECIAL DELIVERY: So, yesterday I posted about us leaving a little 'comfort station'/treat box on the porch for delivery drivers.

While we were gone to Star Wars, we had two deliveries. At least one of the delivery people helped themselves to some snacks, which is great. What is less great is that BOTH delivery drivers left the boxes out in the pouring rain - they didn't put it in a plastic bag or in the enormous empty plastic tub I'd left out for packages. The boxes were both completely saturated when we got home. Which is a really not good thing if, say, one or both of them contained electronics. 

I really couldn't believe it. 

Sigh. I guess the saying is true: No good deed goes unpunished.