The Incredible Egg Drog Contest

The rules were easy - the lightest contraption that holds a raw egg in which the egg does not break when dropped from the second story of the church where we meet wins.
I also awarded a prize for most creative invention. So we had all kinds of entries this year.
I think the most creative packing material used this year was jello. A bit messy to get the egg out of to check afterwards but the egg emerged unbroken!
The lightest overall was the styrofoam cup and straws. The "Mary Poppins" look was a nice touch I thought but was pretty heavy. Diapers worked well too.
Ryan's childhood? bear served well (also very heavy) but we watched and watched as he unstuffed and unstuffed to find the egg. I was beginning to think there was really no egg in there but finally the egg was found unbroken.
Temperance and Kathleen were happy with their bubble wrapped unbroken egg.
Several tried parachutes (it was a tad windy but not too windy so they sort of
worked). Packing peanuts worked again too. Abby's was pretty - and worked well too.
I have to say Andrew's idea of a controlled drop was great BUT was fudging the rules so I had to disqualify him (awarded points for creativity). It was a simple and elegant idea but the two person control defeated the idea of "egg drop!".

Only a few eggs broke so I think the kids have this thing figured out - next time I'll have tough rules!

This past week on CSI 3 victims all had green blood and no there
were no aliens involved. When I saw the previews from the previous
week I knew that the probable cause was going to be drug related
and I turned out to be right. The producers of the show decided to
call the drug "Thiocyte" (there is no such drug) probably fearing
lawsuits but they did get the right type of drug - migraine medication.
Sumatriptan (Imitrex) is thus far the only suspected drug to cause this
effect (not yet proven to cause this but very suspect and only in
daily or above average doses).

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/06/08/health-green-blood.html

You can google Sumatriptan green blood and get a lot of hits now on
the growing number of cases (surgical).

It's the sulfur that swaps out with the iron in the blood that turns
the blood green. After stopping the drug the blood turns red again.

It was sort of fun to watch the show and be right about it before
the show even began but I'm also sure I'm not the only medical person
who was watching who had it figured out before they had gotten very
far into the show.

It was fun to see the Mythbusters guys show up but I wish they had
had a bigger role - bring them back!

Visit with Karla and CR

We hadn't seen Karla since she had married CR and moved
to Medicine Lodge, Kansas. Now she and her husband were back
with 3 children (and another on the way - due in Sept.).
Emma, Colt and Lena won our hearts very quickly.
We played and I read books (we do books well here and they are
raising readers!) to them. Then we visited the Birmingham
Art Show downtown. There was a part set aside for children
and you can tell Emma is very serious about learning how to draw.
She paid great attention to what the instructor was telling her to do
(she is four.). Karla is a talented artist and I think she has
a budding artist already.
It was too quiet when they left.

Mentos and Diet Coke World Record

http://gizmodo.com/383936/belgian-students-break-mento+and+coke-world-record

Taking the Side of Science

"We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism.
It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is an absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."

Richard Lewontin, geneticist, New York Review, Jan. 9th, 1997, pg. 31

Go See "Expelled"

Elamville

The grandkids learn to garden..

Sixth Grade Science

Charles' Law Demonstration Fun

Ivory Soap floats - most people know that.
It's because it is full
of air. How do you get the
air (gas) out of the soap?
Heat! So today in
science (all 3 classes)
we heated slices of Ivory
soap in our microwave oven.
(Best smelling chemistry
experiment I've ever done!).
Use slices. A whole bar of
soap will fill your microwave
oven (and more?) - I didn't
want to find out. It takes
less than one minute.
It is a "wow - do it again"
experiment. The white foam
left over feels like well, foam.
There is not much soap
left. As you heat gas it
expands (Charles' Law -
Increase in temperature,
increase in volume).
It was a hit...

Back by Request

This was from my granddaughter's Science
Fair Project this year. Collected in one
day - four different spots in each resturant
in one city. Results might be different in
a different resturant or on a different day.

Twin's Birthday Part II

The Twins are Two (the Party) Part 1

The dark haired baby is Cody, 6 months old now.
Darcy is the 3 year old big sister.
Aunt Amy and soon to be Uncle Matt were in attendance.
A day after bad storms but all had fun anyway!

"A student and his family have filed a federal lawsuit demanding that a popular European history teacher at California's Capistrano Valley High School be fired for what they say were anti-Christian remarks he made in the classroom.

Chad Farnan, a 16-year-old sophomore, says the teacher, James Corbett, told his students that “Jesus glasses” obscure the truth and suggested that Christians are more likely than other people to commit rape and murder.

Farnan recorded his teacher telling students in class: “What country has the highest murder rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rape rate? The South! What part of the country has the highest rate of church attendance? The South!” Farnan said he took the tape recorder to class to supplement his class notes." From FoxNews April 2nd, 2008

Now I was born in Atlanta, GA and grew up in mostly Birmingham, AL
have lived in Vidalia, GA, Mobile, AL, Jacksonville, FL, Tampa, FL
and Auburn where I attended college. So I'm a child of the South.

I did not know that the South had arisen again (as my ancesters said
that it would) and we have once more become a nation! I must have missed
that news story! They were sure it would happen and now it has.
They are teaching it as fact in California!

I am also a Christian. However, as of yet and I want everyone to
be perfectly clear about this - I have NOT murdered ANYONE.
Well, maybe in my thoughts. But that get's into Jimmy Carter
territory and is not the intention of this article.
If we are honest 100% of us have done that, I don't care where
you live...or what religion or non-religion you are. Unless maybe
you are a Scientologist. Just kidding. They probably think bad
thoughts too.

I have insight here. For the history teachers of California.
It is NOT the Christianity that is the cause of Crime in the South.
Yes, We go to church more in the Souththan other parts of
the U.S. but that is NOT the cause of the crime. You have
made a false leap of causality here.

It's the Okra.

Yep, we eat Okra here in the Deep South.

Do other places in the U.S. eat Okra? Nope. Well,
not like WE do - we eat it fried, boiled, with tomatoes..
Good stuff..
And it makes us KILL.
But we can't help it. We love it anyway.

And we won't give it up. So. there.
Pax