Senor Parrot's Perch

Space Scientists have located what they believe are tunnels beneath the surface of Mars. Probably formed by volcanic activity, these tunnels may harbor existing or former microbial life. This story is reported on LiveScience.com and titled Mars Caves Might Protect Microbes (or Astronauts). They may also prove suitable to protect astronauts from manned Mars missions from some of the harsher martian environmental extremes, such as radiation or dust storms.

If you’re interested in an good introduction to the science of astrobiology, or life in outer space, check out Life on Earth — and Beyond: An Astrobiologist’s Quest by Pamela S. Turner. My review of this book from a few months ago is titled Searching for Life on Other Planets.

The New York Times reports an interesting and troubling research finding about how Hispanic children are falling behind their white, middle class peers. The article, titled Hispanic Immigrants’ Children Fall Behind Peers Early, Study Finds, discusses several things.

• Hispanic children of immigrants start out in early years equal with their peers
• By Age 3 they are already lagging middle class white children by as much as 6 months in cognitive abilities
• Hispanic immigrant households do not foster learning and cognitive development to nearly the degree that done in middle class white households
• These results may be more related to socioeconomic determinants, and be characteristic of all lower level socioeconomic groups than to race or ethnicity

They go on to emphasize the role of early learning and how its value is demonstrated by activities such as little performances of the ABCs in front of grandparents, that are missing from Hispanic immigrant homes.

The response, of course, is more money on early education. Doubtless, that would help at least a little bit. However, after reading the NYT article, I grew suspicious that either the writer chose to view only a narrow range of possible causes that may have been addressed in the research, or that the researchers had a very narrow focus and perhaps deliberately ignored other factors that influence the early childhood development from these children. My personal guess is that the researchers narrowed the discussion, which perhaps may have been outside the scope of their article.

I have a growing suspicion that we are both tolerating and cultivating a culture of poverty, which has a hallmark of racial and ethnic minorities, but by no means is confined in its association with only minorities. It is this culture of poverty that greatly influences the social and cognitive development of our children, and that it is an increasing outcome of these lifestyle choices that are in play.

The attack must be on the cultural factors and not just handing a kid a book (though I’m completely in favor of that!), nor in just integrating the child into the educational system at an younger age. For all the sniping at middle class values and culture that we often see, they result in a more nurturing and healthful environment for our children that leaves them better prepared for the own lives as adults.

Watch this LEGO Robot video and see why LEGO Mindstorm NXT 2.0 robots are so awesome!

Legos are amazing toys and the LEGO Mindstorm robots go beyond just being a toy into being an almost pure learning platform that can set free the most creative and inventive potential in any kids or adult.

Here’s an awesome bio/LEGO robots video showing one mans life with LEGO Mindstorm robots. From robotextreme.com:

My oldest daughter and I play have a Lego Mindstorm NXT that we play with. Watching this has put a shot of pure adrenaline in our veins. Time and space, it seems, are the only limits to what new things we should be able to create.

How to Be a Detective

By Barbara Mitchelhill

Illustrated by Tony Ross

How to Be a Detective, by Barbara Mitchelhill, and illustrated by Tony Ross, is one of a series Mitchelhill has written about Damien Drooth Supersleuth. Damien is quite the amateur detective. and he has built up quite a reputation in his town as an outstanding amateur sleuth. He’s a confident fellow, conceited, even. If you’re familiar with Nate the Great, he will remind you a bit of him. Written for slightly more advanced readers than Nate the Great, How to Be a Detective has more action and more humor.

When Damien opens a school for detectives he immediately has a long line kids waiting to get in. After a few short words of introduction to identifying criminals, he leads his class into the fray. They head downtown and begin to search for criminals. Watch out! If you have a beard, or maybe close-set eyes, these crime hunting kids will be onto your trail.

And in How to Be a Detective, they do find a tail! Er, a trail! at the local dog show. The whole gang gets involved solving this one and Damien’s students are ready, maybe even more than Damien is.

I’m happy to know that Damien Drooth Supersleuth is a series. I’ve already several more. This is a terrific book for grades 2-5 and could easily become a favorite. I know that my older daughter would have loved this book when she was younger. She consumed every mystery and detective book she could get her hands on, even attempting books much beyond her reading ability at the time.

Barbara Mitchelhill has a website where she talks about her life, career as a teacher and writer, and tells us about all her books.

Via ExtremeRobot, a star wars styled robot powered by a Legos NXT robot:

I suppose shaking around like that is at least something.

Robot Zot!

by Jon Scieszka

illustrated by David Shannon

Robot Zot! by Jon Scieska and David Shannon explodes with energy. Robot Zot has landed in the backyard and quickly invades the house where he destroys the toaster, an infomercial, and plenty of other things, and he rescues a toy telephone from a toddler, convinced she is captive queen. Everywhere he is followed by his faithful robot pet who looks something like a Spanish conquistador’s helmet.

Bravery is the key here. When our hero Zot faces the enemy, quaking and tempted to turn, he screws up his courage and shouts his battle cry, “Hero Zot–never fall. Hero Zot–conquers all!”

Jon Scieska has created pure boy material here, full of daring, high adventure, and zany mayhem. Then again, if your girl is the type who loves silly antics and great illustration, she’s covered here, as well.

Illustrator David Shannon completes this book with high energy and perfectly expressive illustrations. Its difficult to imagine a better collaboration between author and illustrator. Every pose and every view is perfect. Each kitchen counter appliance seems alive and menacing. The vacuum hose is a giant boa constrictor. The wide-eyed toddler the cruel captor. A dad lurks occasionally in the background, scratching his head at the devastation Robot Zot leaves in his wake.

I love Robot Zot!. Every reading seems to get better. It’s perfect for a bedtime read, take-along in the car, for pre-readers or kids headed for the second grade

How to Speak Dog

by Sarah Whitehead

How To Speak Dog by Sarah Whitehead promises a lot and delivers more. You might call it the Berlitz or Rosetta Stone for humans who need to converse with their dogs. This book is an excellent resource for kids and adults who are crying out for a good, simple to understand, and straightforward book that will help them understand and bond more closely with their new puppy.

Last spring we bought my oldest daughter a puppy. Full of energy and armed with enough cute to overpower a roomful of Hello Kitty, our new puppy proved to be quite a challenge, especially for our daughter. Off to the library and bookstores to learn and we fortunately returned with an excellent batch of books.

We also went to Dog Obedience School where my wife and daughter learned the fine points of dog training. I swear, the women who taught that class have magic powers! My wife and daughter would dutifully copy every move and nuance to get our puppy to do what we asked, but never with success. One of the instructors would come over and POOF! our puppy was sitting, lying down, or staying.

Things were a little like Hogwarts, where, it turns out, the magic could be and was imparted. Our dog now is performing tricks at every turn and fattening herself up on the generous amount of treats she earns.

The point of that bunny trail is that these exact same magic powers, and even more, are delivered for much much less cash in Sarah Whitehead’s book, How to Speak Dog. I only attended the first two training sessions, but after I learned to speak dog, I too was a master canine communicator and I get some cool tricks myself.

Some of the things you’ll learn from this book are:

Learning Canine as a Second Language
What Dogs Really Think About Training
How to Speak Dog
Tricks, Tricks, and Tricks

I really enjoyed this book. It has a companion, too, Puppy Training for Kids, which I bought first, and also written by Sarah Whitehead. There is only a little overlap between the two, so I recommend having them both. You and your kids will return to them over and over as you refresh your Canine-speak.

Pop
by Gordon Korman

Pop by Gordon Korman is an excellent book about High School football and growing up. It’s ideal for YA readers, especially football loving boys.

Marcus Jordan is new in town and wants to play quarterback on the football team. His reception couldn’t have been cooler. Just off their perfect championship season, and led by star quarterback Troy Popovich, no one on the team offers any sort of welcome to the new kid in town. And it seems like more than just a cold shoulder, its an all out campaign to drive him from the team, lead by Troy, the golden boy who led the team to all its victories the prior year. When Marcus does get to take some snaps in practice, the offensive line dissolves and the defense thunders in unhindered. Panicked, Marcus is unable to connect with his passing.

After practice, Marcus heads to the park to practice his throwing at targets he sets up. Tossing one long he sees a middle-aged man suddenly sprint for the pass and make an amazing catch. They begin playing together and the older man surprisingly gives Marcus a bone crunching tackle. Furious, he protests, but he’s rebuffed and the tackling continues. The older man encourages Marcus to have at him, as well. The afternoon, crazy and intense, becomes a turning point for Marcus. He begins to enjoy the hard hitting style of football the older man, Charlie, likes to play. It transforms his game, no longer fearing a tackle, but preferring to deliver the bone crushing pop to his opponent, instead.

This is the beginning of a very unusual friendship with the older man. Marcus can’t quite figure out why Charlie calls him Mac, as though he were someone else. He begins to wonder if Charlie thinks he is still sixteen. Charlie’s behavior is sometimes completely erratic and constantly puzzling to Marcus. In time, though, Marcus begins to unravel the puzzle of who Charlie really is, exposing family secrets along the way.

I have to say I loved this book. There is a great deal more than only football that gets covered in these pages. Marcus’ rivalry with the quarterback Troy is at the center of much of it, complicated by the interest in Marcus that Troy’s ex-girlfriend displays. And there is Charlie, the teen-aged kid in a man’s body, and the discoveries that Marcus makes about his past and the reasons behind his current condition. The writing is straight to the point, fast moving, and full of emotional punches without any melodrama.

I have one reservation for this book. Some sites indicate that kids 9-12 would be interested in it, but the sexual content level should make it higher than that, maybe 14 or older. It’s too bad, too. There is one incident, really just some language, in an early chapter and there is a strong amount of sexual tension between Marcus and Alyssa, the cheerleader. As the book progresses, this isn’t as overtly portrayed, yet nevertheless exists and continues to work as a strong driver to some plot elements. Had the tone of the first few chapters been at the same level as the rest of the book, I wouldn’t question the appropriateness for younger readers. I do think that Korman could have easily changed the early comment from his book and not lost any of the plot driver of the relationship between Marcus and Alyssa.

Here we have historic must-see video footage of NASA rocket scientists planning the exciting LCROSS Moon-crash project, including the launch and return.

If you look closely, you’ll see top NASA scientist, Albus Dumbledore, convening the planning session. Can anyone identify any of the others in this video?

This, of course, is the work of cinematic genius Georges M�li�s.

Here’s a NASA photo/image of the LCROSS spacecraft after the Centaur separation, from NASA.gov:

Only a few minutes away now!