Sci Fi Jungle

Space Shuttle Discovery

The absolute coolest part of our trip to Kennedy Space Center was being able to see the Space Shuttle Discovery where it is waiting to be shipped to the Smithsonian in Washington DC.   It looks a bit battered and worn after its 39 space flights.

Like vintage daking sound mixers, this is a classic that will never go out of style.  This baby is going to the Smithsonian on April 17th.

According to the Smithsonian website:

NASA has announced Space Shuttle Discovery will fly over the Washington, DC metro area April 17. The flight is scheduled to occur between 10:00 and 11:00 am EDT and will fly near a variety of landmarks such as the National Mall, Reagan National Airport, National Harbor, and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

So we had a really rare chance to see the Shuttle orbiter in the NASA Vehical Assembly Building.  Cool!

Kennedy Space Center Rocket Garden

While we were waiting for our special tour of the lauch pads and VAB, we got to spend a lot of time enjoying the rocket garden.  We strolled around and listened to the tour guides.  My kids enjoyed the rocket themed play area.

These are excess rockets that were not flown, as the ones that actually went up would have been detroyed in reentry or fallen into the sea.  It is a wonderful way to get a sense of the history of the US Space Program. Makes me all myoripped with patriotism.

Castillo De San Marcos

I tried to make our spring break vacation educational.  I kind of operate in the spirit of the home schooling method called unschooling.  Except I actually send my kids to public school so they can also be socialized into whatever the school system is creating these days.

So anyway, we visited St. Augustine, which is the oldest constantly inhabited Eurpean city in the continental US. Or something like that.  The real attraction is this totally kick ass fort built by the Spanish in 1672  when Florida was a Spanish territory.  It looks like a Medieval castle to me.  Build in the bastion style, its the oldest masonry fort still in existance in the US.

The National Park Service runs the fort as a toursit attraction and do a fantastic job.  They had people dressed up as old Spanish officers, and were setting off the wall gun and muskets at different times during the day.  They even have a junior ranger program where the kids get to fill out a booklet on the history of the fort and when they send it in they get a badge.  Totally cool.

Here is the park rangers dressed as officers.  Note the glass of "grog."  Yes, those are my two cute kids in there too.  (No extra charge)

I wonder if the NPS worries about their sites getting obx foreclosures?  Just kidding.  I hope.

Here's my pic of the guys setting off the wall gun.  It's like a big huge musket on wheels.  It was LOUD.

 

 

I Touched the Moon!

I am a huge nerd so our family spring break vacation this year was a trip to St. Augustine and the Space Coast.  You will hear more about our super awesome special tour of the Vehicle Assembly Building and LaunchPads, but first let me share the simple wonder that I touched a piece of moon rock.  Me.  My actual finger touching an actual rock from the actual moon.  Of all the cool rockets, history, and fascinating things to see at Kennedy Space Center, this to me remains the most visceral.

Not Jupiter Instruments - the Moon.

Spooky Spider

I snapped this Daddy Longlegs at the Greenway linear park in Alpharetta.  Eeek!

Huge Monster Insect

The hubster went to meet me for lunch the other day and look what he found sitting on the roof of his car - this preying mantis was like 5 inches tall and 2-3 inches long.  He named it "Ginormicus" and took a picture before chasing it off the car with a piece of paper.

They eat insects so I am happy they are out there chomping up the mosquitos.  Natural composter!

HD Broadcast of Earth from the ISS Coming - UrtheCast

UrtheCast, a Calgary-based company, is set to operate and launch the world's very first live streaming high definition broadcast of Earth. Two HD cameras will be installed aboard the International Space Station.

via www.digitaljournal.com

What a cool idea - this company UrtheCast (pronounced EarthCase) is going to mount 2 HD cameras onto the ISS and broadcast HD quality video of Earth from space.

Designed to be a kind of cross between Google Earth and YouTube, I can see how cool this will be. Supposedly you will be able to zoom into global events and then watch them real time. It will be streamed over the internet.  I wonder what they will do for sounds.  Probably won't need speaker stands for this.

I am ready to paint "Hi There" on my roof!

Just Some Rain and Lightning

We has some major storms come through last night.  The lightning was almost contstant.  I took a litte video for your pleasure.  Mostly just some nice rain and thunder sounds with one or two flashes.   There was a tornado watch and hail reported locally, but we were unscathed here in John's Creek GA. 

By the way, today I learned that the French word for computers is ordinateurs.

 

Beautiful Aurora Borealis Video

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

This is an incredible stop action video of the aurora borealis.  Here is some information from the Vimeo page for the video:

I spent a week capturing one of the biggest aurora borealis shows in recent years. Here are some details from the Vimeo page for the video:

Shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east. Temperatures around -25 Celsius. Good fun.

Big thanks to the guys over at dynamicperception.com for their amazing all-in-one motion control dolly.

More info on tesophotography.com

Music is Gladiator soundtrack "Now we are free"

David Suzuki on Anti Science Republicans

David Suzuki: Politicians who reject science are not fit to lead | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

This is a good article by scientist David Suzuki. He starts out explaining how the pro-science United States furthered his academic career, but then busts into the current crop of anti-science Republicans and the damage they do.

The danger in anti-science politicians comes not only from their legislative powers, but also their effect on the public psyche.

An example of how this can be seen is the statistic that "80 percent of Canadians believe in the science behind climate change, compared to only 58 percent of U.S. citizens."

Great article. Now, can we please vote out these "dinosaur-and-people-lived-together" idiots out of office? Quick before they try to cut your Medicare part D plan.