Last week was circus week at the daycare, which culminated in a circus performance on Friday afternoon. Even the little guys in Room 1 got to participate as “dancing dalmations.” It was pretty much the cutest thing ever, as you can see. (By complete coincidence, I wore a black and white floral print shirt, so Emma and were twins! Ha!)
I heard a great interview with Chris Hadfield this morning on NPR. You may remember that I shared some highlights from his increment back in May when he returned to Earth and called him the best astronaut ever; I haven’t changed my mind at all since he returned. I particularly enjoyed his thoughts on public outreach:
You know, you can’t support the Space Station if you don’t know it exists. People have to know it exists, and see that it serves us at a lot of different levels, everything from understanding how to extinguish flame inside a wall, to the fact that you can record a David Bowie video in weightlessness and thrill, you know, tens of millions of people. All of that is possible up there. You need to make an effort to engage people in it and show them that this is, of all the things that were choosing to do with our tax dollars, this is one of the really cool, interesting things. And then they can make their own decision as to whether we should support it or not.
There is a long walkway that runs past several buildings at work, and in the middle is a long row of flowerbeds filled with this plant. It’s got spindly leaves kind of like a pine tree, and thin elongated red/pink flowers 1-2 inches long. If you know what kind of plant this is, I’d love to know — it’d be great to have something in my front yard that flowers in the heat of July!
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And last but not least, last week I came across the University of Pennsylvania’s RHex robot, and it totally fascinates me. It looks like a cute little bug! But sometimes its front legs look like antenna. And it can jump across gaps and climb stairs. So neat!