Boing Boing again!

I sent the info about the Van de Graaff generator to boingboing late Monday evening.

As I was leaving home Tuesday morning, there it was!

My whuffie increased quite a bit that morning.

Atlanta Youth Symphony Christmas Concert - New Dresses

We attended the Atlanta Youth Symphony's Christmas Concert today.

It was very good.

Marie made new holiday dresses for the girls to wear to the concert.

 

Louisa, Mary, Julia

 

Louisa's dress

 

Julia's dress

 

Mary's dress

 

At the concert - Mary, Julia, Louisa, and Marie

Julia's Coke Can Van de Graaff generator

Julia made a Van de Graaff generator out of PVC pipe and a coke can. She did a science fair project where she was testing static charges with an easy to build charge detector (seen here in all its alligator clip and LED glory).

It was a pretty neat thing to do.

All of the projects came from Billb's HV/Electrostatic Build-it Projects and Scitoys

And NO, I did not build it for her. I did drill a couple of holes and gave suggestions for dealing with the problem of the rubber band that was moving electrons around getting stuck, though.

The Coke Can Van de Graaff generator does its thing. That is a napkin cut into strips and taped to the can.

 

Julia testing the Ridiculously Sensitive Charge Detector

 

Julia working on the science project

 

Sand Mandala of the Buddhist Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery of Tibet

At the church where Mary takes Chinese dance lessons, The Buddhist Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery of Tibet are constructing a Sand Mandala.

Last year it took the monks just over two weeks to construct it and we were able to watch for 3 Sunday's in a row. Yesterday was the only day we were able to see it this year. We did not have dance class over Thanksgiving weekend and Mary's dance performance is this coming Saturday, so there will be no dance practice on Sunday.

It is fascinating to watch the monks make this.

The Mandala from the Balcony

 

Working on the Mandala

 

The Mandala

 

Working on the Mandala

Click here for a 4.31MB Quicktime movie of this

 

The Mandala

 

Close up view of the Mandala

 

My 10 year old Geek

Marie sent me this email about a recent conversation she had with our middle daughter - the 10 year old.
---
Well, last night, I was looking at a website about Trichoplax adhaerens, a 'wee beastie' I only learned about a few days ago. There was some video of it dividing and Julia watched it over my shoulder. I told her that it is the simplest multicellular animal known, grows up to 3 mm in diameter so it is barely visible to the eye, has only 4 cell types, (gave a comparison to the 200 cell types in humans), and the shortest DNA sequence of any known animal. I pointed out that it was simpler than sponges, which have about 12 cell types. I also mentioned that they have no idea where T.adhaerens fits in the taxonomy, so for now it is in it's own phylum.

Julia pondered that, then asked, "Shouldn't it be in --- I don't remember the name of it but it starts with a P."

I gaped at her. "You mean Protista?"

"Yeah!" she responded."

No," I said. "Protista are mostly unicellular organisms and this is multicellular."

"Oh"

My goodness, that kid is soaking up information like a member of the Porifera (sponges). I used the words in my conversation with her that I have typed above, and she understood everything that I said, or asked for clarification. I told her that for an experiment I am going to collect some sea water when we [next go to] Florida and see if we can get some T. adhaerens. I don't think it will work because the water may be colder than they like (subtropical to tropical), but worth a try. And if that doesn't work, I will hit the pet stores and ask for some salt water samples. Could be interesting!

A Bartlett-Sloan Thanksgiving

Louisa and Joylyn peeling potatoes.

We combined forces with old friends (at their house) for Thanksgiving this year. It was a blast.

Marie got the measurements of the Mayflower and we drew an outline of the ship in the cul-de-sac.

 

Joylyn labels the ship.

 

Julia is standing in the Windlass room in the bow.

 

Julia shows Louisa how to be a figurehead (even though the Mayflower did not have one)

 

Joylyn coloring something in the gun room. Alana in back drawing sharks while Mary gets more chalk.

 

Marie getting ready to make the final touches while being shadowed by Julia. Louisa is drawing a mouse in a little boat.

 

The Mayflower drawing gets the final touches. 102 Pilgrims + 30 Crew + Chickens + 2 Dogs. You can see a Hatch to the hold and the place where the capstan was (just above the "102")