“The lines we draw that make us who we are are potent by virtue of being non-negotiable, and even, at some level, indefensible. Sally will not wear synthetics. That’s who she is. Billy won’t touch eggs. That’s Billy for you. To apologize for your personal absolutes, for what Sandy Pinter calls your ‘Core Attachments,’ means apologizing for your very existence.”
| — | Walter Kirn | Up in the Air |
Lugnasa Hiroshima Moon
Watch this one-ton lab-on-wheels land on Mars.
Aug 5, 2012 10:31 p.m. Pacific
Aug 6, 2012 1:31 a.m. Eastern
Aug 6, 2012 5:31 a.m. Universal
Countdown to landing:
| 1 days |
: | 12 hrs |
: | 29 mins |
: | 6 secs |
Watch NASA TV Show Online
Begins Aug 5: 2012
8:30 p.m. Pacific
11:30 p.m. Eastern
Find Live Events in Your Town
Event Map
Mission Briefing Schedule
Where? See the following from Wired.com:
The first place to check out will be here, at Wired Science, where we will be providing two live feeds from JPL, the rover’s headquarters, via NASA TV. The first feed will feature commentary from scientists and engineers who work on Curiosity and will play Aug. 5 from 8:30 to 11 p.m. Pacific (11:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern) and then again from 12:30 to 1:30 a.m. Pacific (3:30 to 4:30 Eastern) on Aug. 6. For those looking for to get the nitty-gritty behind-the-scenes details, the second feed will carry only audio from mission controllers regarding Curiosity’s progress and will begin on Aug. 5 at 8:30 p.m. Pacific (11:30 Eastern). If all goes well, NASA has stated that they might be able to share the first image from the ground during these feeds, likely a shot of the rover’s wheel indicating that everything’s in working order.
We will also host another great feed created by Universe Today, the SETI Institute, and CosmoQuest. On their Google+ page, the team will have commentary by astronomers Pamela Gay and Phil Plait and feature live coverage from JPL and the Planetary Society’s PlanetFest with reporters Scott Lewis and Amy Shira Teitel. Those interested can find more information and sign up to “attend” the Hangout on Air. The show will begin at 8 p.m. Pacific (11 p.m. Eastern) and go four hours, covering the entire landing sequence and aftermath.
One more feed will be from the Exploratorium in San Francisco. This webcast will start at 10:15 p.m. Pacific (1:15 a.m. Eastern) on Aug. 5, just when the rover is expected to be touching its wheels down on Mars. The museum’s staff and visiting scientists will be on hand to talk all about the exciting mission and provide updates as they come in.
Lugnasa Hiroshima Moon
Into the Midway Doctor’s Building this morning for a surgical consult. A hernia needs repair. Not very exotic, not carrying dire warnings, but significant nonetheless. Hernia’s are common. Common enough for hernia repair to be the most common surgical procedure in the US. Who knew?
Dawn Johnson, in her early 40’s, has practiced for 20 years. She had the brisk, almost brusque, approach Kate says means professional. We chatted briefly. she examined me (with no wine before hand) and said that, yes, surgery would fix it. Would I prefer laparoscopy or open?
Faced with a menu of only two choices I chose the one that did not require a general anesthetic. Open. Well, there were other reasons, too. It seemed to fit my situation and it has the additional virtue of being frequently performed, a known quantity. I’m very conservative when it comes to things medical. No experiments on this body except as a last ditch effort. Tried and true, efficacious and low risk. That’s what I want.
So, on September 28th, I’ll go to Abbott and Kate will drive me home the same day. Key consideration in the date was the requirement that I not lift anything over 30 pounds for 30 days. Hive boxes full weigh around 50. Couldn’t do this surgery until the bee season has calmed down.
Lugnasa Hiroshima Moon
After Lake Minnetonka, with a wonderful orange full moon, its size magnified by its nearness to the horizon, the full Hiroshima Moon, rising, I headed over to the airport to pick up my brother, Mark, arriving on a somewhat delayed flight from Chicago.
Mark was full of stories of Saudi students, bad driving, camel–well, let’s just say breeding, walks in the market with a friend, the only two white men there. Saudi Arabia is a country still grappling with modernity, the Sauds only in charge of all of Saudi Arabia since 1927. The desert is not far out of their daily experience.
Mercurial is the word Mark uses to describe the Saudi’s he had as students, alternately affectionate and interested, then disdainful and slothful. Sounds like certain American high schools I know.
He brought me a handcrafted pair of sandals, “A small guy in a caftan, squats on the floor all day and makes these sandals by hand.” and Kate an incense burner used in an Arab hospitality ritual. Very nice gifts, carrying the feel of the Peninsula.
While he is here, he wants to get a bank account, another shot at his driver’s license and a new passport.
A guy in a much better place even than when he left last August. Good to see.
Lugnasa Hiroshima Moon
Rembrandt tour this morning with some developmentally disabled adults. These were severely disable folks, four responded with only token replies to questions, not out of shyness but out of lack of cognitive resources.
We concentrated on faces, seeing if any one was there. We also investigated the things Rembrandt did really well such as eyes, background, clothing, jewels, black. One young man, Kong, had a piece in the foot in the door show. He followed much of what went on, at some level.
We talked several times at Rembrandt self-portraits about Kong using a mirror to paint himself. I think he might try it.
It was a tough tour in some ways, but gratifying, too.
Lugnasa Hiroshima Moon
Lotta moving around today. Into the museum by 10:40 for an 11:00 am tour with a group of developmentally disabled adults. Rembrandt. Back home for a bit, then out to Lake Minnetonka for an evening boating with the Woollies. Then, swing over to the airport to pick up brother Mark, flying in from Ha’il, Saudi Arabia.
Lughnasa Hiroshima Moon
Lughnasa (Lugnasa, Lugnasadh) falls between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox. The cross-quarter holidays, in the Celtic calendar, came before the solar holidays. Originally, the year divided only in half: May 1st, Beltane-Summer to October 31st Samhain-Summer’s End. After the solar holidays became part of the calender, two more cross-quarter holidays, Imbolc and Lugnasa, got established.
This is a time of joy, the harvest has well begun. Our neighbor brought us a colander filled with vegetables from his garden, a first fruits gathering. We gave him some honey. Our garden is a bit behind his because he has a wonderful open spot for his and we have woods around all of ours, limiting sunlight. Still, we harvested onions this week and garlic a month ago. Kate has also put up several pounds of beet greens, chard and kale with more to come.
The workload, too, changes, as the garden begins to die back after its summer of growth.
Lughnasa is the first of three harvest holidays, coming later are the Mabon, the fall equinox and Samhain, summers end, which marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the fallow season.
You could almost call this a fifth season, Harvest, with three holidays. Imagine how important this time of year was to agrarian societies where it determined the quality of the long fallow season. No wonder there are so many traditions, fairs, queens of this and that associated with it.
It might be a good time for you to check your life. What’s had a long growing season and is ready for harvest? Today I began work on the revision of Missing, its first draft finished in May and now ready for revision. I will also begin, at some point in the next week or so, Missing’s sequel, Loki’s Children. These represent the fruits, the harvest of much work and thought over the last couple of years.
Sewing projects? Home renovations? Jon and Jen have the plumber coming tomorrow to connect their two new bathrooms, their sinks and their stove. Overnight they’ll go from a one bathroom to a three bathroom home and a home with a remodeled kitchen and dining area, a new deck, new landscaping in the back and new bedrooms for all. But it took all the last year to get to this point. Harvest.
In fact, the whole summer olympics, coming as the calendar turns over to Lugnasa, are a harvest festival. Thinks of the hours, the weeks, the months, even the years most of these competitors have trained, just for this moment. A growing season perhaps begun in their youth, or, for some like the gymnasts, realized in their youth.
The state fair celebrates the agrarian culture that feeds us and its celebration comes during the Lugnasa season. Cattle, chickens, pigs, rabbits, honey, cakes, political campaigns, art all come to the fair. These fairs are the outgrowth of village markets that sprang up around the cross-quarter and solar holidays. Usually a week or so long, they gathered in the larger community, shared music and food, brokered deals, signed labor contracts or fulfilled them with payment, sanctioned marriages, sometimes handfast marriages for a year and a day.
It’s a festive time of year. Celebrate, celebrate, dance to the music.