Kids - Because of Winn Dixie

Summer reading requirement for entering Anthony’s new grade at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is “Because of Winn Dixie” by Kate DiCamillo. I saw Anthony reading it at the end of the last school year and he claimed to have read it after we recently checked a copy out of the local public library. In Texas we are on Central Standard Time. I didn’t see Anthony read it this summer but he is on Vampire Standard Time and stays up sometimes until 4 am so he may have read it

I just finished reading it and gave him a pop quiz to make sure he remembered the main characters, plot and incidents and he did very well. I also rented the movie from Blockbuster. Anthony and I watched it today. The movie screen play took artistic liberty with many scenes created from thin air. Something of a modern version of Pollyanna.

For some reason it triggered a memory of an incident when I was in the 7th grade. I had to do an oral book report and I had chosen a book called “The Wooden Horse” by Eric Williams. It was a true World War II story about British aviators set in the German Stalag Luft III POW camp who used a exercise work horse to conceal their tunnel digging to escape the camp. Three officers escaped the camp and found freedom in neutral Sweden.


I received an “A” on my oral book report but never read the book. The Sunday night before the oral book report was due the 1950 movie “The Wooden Horse” was on television so I watched the movie. Boys prefer to watch and visualize three dimensional things rather than read which is why video games are so popular.

I wish I had the Internet when I was young and below is a great World War II blog that notes this escape and a host of weaponry.

Wooden Horse

[Image credit of Winn Dixie to franklincollege.edu and Wooden Horse to anonymous-generaltopic.blogspot]

Biz - Standard Oil saved the Sperm Whales?

I’ve been very slowly reading “The Prize” by Daniel Yergin which chronicles the development of oil. In the 19th century, lighting was provided by whale oil and not petroleum. There was no electricity at this point. Sperm Whales were being hunted to extinction.



Specifically, “Abraham Gesner saved more whales than Green Peace ever will. In 1849, Gesner devised a method to distill kerosene from petroleum. In 1846 there were 735 ships in the whaling fleet. Thirty years later, in 1876, the fleet was down to 39 ships. Kerosene had taken over the whale oil market.” (See the link below.)

Abraham Gesner

But kerosene was far more dangerous than whale oil. It was prone to be as explosive as gunpowder and was responsible for many injuries and fires. John D. Rockefeller addressed this problem by developing a standardized from of kerosene that was safe and reliable. Hence, the name “Standard” Oil. Consumers knew it was safe. Rockefeller made a fortune on kerosene. That pesky by-product, gasoline was discarded or sold as a lubricant.

Rockefeller developed the refining and distribution systems both domestically and internationally. He was so efficient and ruthless he created a monopoly which was eventually broken up by the United States Government.

Thomas Edison developed electricity that replaced kerosene for lighting but Henry Ford mass produced automobiles that began an insatiable thirst for gasoline.

[Picture credit to itsnature.org]

Kids - Bonnie's Sargassum Mess

Today was the second week we visited the Galveston Island State Park. Last Friday we visited the historic Strand distinct in Houston before we went swimming at the State Park. Unknown to us, almost all the structures and the sand dunes at Galveston Island State Park were destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

We were well aware of the damage caused by Ike when we visited Houston in January 2009. We drove through the Crystal Beach area east of Galveston when we visited Houston during Christmas Vacation 2008 and saw the incredible devastation.

Last Friday when we visited the beach I was amazed how clean the beach and water were even though the water color was a sandy brown. There are several geological reasons for this . Part of this brown color is runoff from the Mississippi River carried by strong Gulf currents plus nearby rivers. The Galveston area is very shallow water and the wave action churns up sand and sediment. Apparently, shallow water in the Galveston area has been brownish for several thousand years. Once you go out several hundred yards into deeper water, the water color is as blue as Florida or California.

This Friday was totally different and disappointing. The brewing tropical storm “Bonnie” seemed to blow in brown Sargassum seaweed from the open ocean. It was everywhere on the beach and in the water. The waves were much larger than the week before but with the seaweed in the water it wasn’t the same as the prior week.

Below are comparison photos of the beach looking eastward from last Friday and today.


Last week, ever so clean.


This week, so much seaweed.

Even still, the boys managed to have fun digging in the sand which they enjoy most of all and playing on rafts in rough water. Notice the level of wave action from the two different weeks.


Last week.


This week.

Kids - First Moon Landing 41th Anniversary

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth." – John F. Kennedy in 1961

I was a teenager on July 20, 1969 when the Eagle lunar module from Apollo 11 touched down on the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface. It seemed there was nothing we could not accomplish. The spinoff of technology from the space program was enormous whose benefits we enjoy today.



[Credit video post to NASAexplorer]

Kids - We are blind in a sea of light

Steven asked me why there are rainbows around water. I told him it was a natural phenomena that displays the visible spectrum of light.

In high school my physics professor would tell us “We are Blind in a Sea of Light” when beginning to discuss electromagnetic radiation (light). We can only visually see a very small portion of light that exists in the Universe. We cannot see television, radio, cell phone, or internet signals all around us yet we are aware of their existence because we use devices which depend upon this light for information.

In the video below, visible light is represented by only 1 inch on an electromagnetic scale of over 2,000 miles.



The video below is a song about the electromagnetic spectrum which can be used to torture children. Actually an informative video from the Physics is Fun channel on You Tube. Given their singing they should not quit their day jobs. There are numerous physics experiments on the Physics is Fun channel.



[Credit to sparkleystitch for the scale video and “The Electromagnetic Spectrum Song” by Emerson & Wong Yann (Singapore) posted by phyisfun]

Kids – Schlitterbahn Water Park

Last week we visited Galveston and went to the Schlitterbahn Water Park. We’ve been to a lot of water parks.

In Houston we visited Splash Town in June before the public school finished as it was not so crowded. I refer to it as Cash Town because we laid out a lot of cash for little value. The boys are not too keen on water slides and prefer waves and sand. The wave pool wasn’t always working and no one was allowed in the deep portion of the pool. At Cash Town it seems you have to pay for everything.

Schlitterbahn had more bang for the buck, was cleaner and they didn’t nickel and dime you to death like Splash (Cash) Town. The wave pool was not too good but they had the best lazy river we have ever seen. In addition, they had a rapids river which was very cool. Steven was a little under the weather but we still managed to go down a few slides.


Anthony down a slide.


My niece Laura down a slide.


Dad down a slide.

Kids - Gun Myths

My sons do a lot of things revolving around guns via video games, YouTube videos or play guns. They have numerous Nerf guns including but not limited to the Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 Blaster. They also have numerous low velocity air guns for use only in the garage shooting range.



Steven and Anthony in the garage shooting range.

They are taught to respect and always be careful with guns. They are taught in real life there are no reset buttons when someone is killed. They are taught what they see in movies is make believe.

The humor site Cracked.com recently had an article on ridiculous gun myths from Hollywood.

For example, a M4 Carbine holds 30 bullets in its magazine. Some fully automatic weapons fire 700 round per minute so it doesn’t take long to empty the magazine. In the movies, it seems as if there are infinite bullets in the magazines. Watch how fast the magazine empties.



Below is video of an AK-47 with a 75 round magazine.



In video games and in movies you can fire forever but in real life there are limits to how often you can fire a weapon.

[Credit to video posts of Killerofdoom1012 and 1964hmc]