It has been a hectic, crazy, busy, insane (redundant much?) time in our household. Thus, I’ve not blogged and have missed out on some fun. For example, Dana at Principled Discovery has been celebrating Home Education Week in Nebraska with a series of post and inviting others to join in. Very cool. I missed it.

I also missed the Carnival of Homeschooling and Charlotte Mason Carnival and lots of other stuff. On a personal note, I’ve missed a couple of showers, but that’s another matter altogether.

So, I’ve slacked. But I offer you this cool information from the History Channel.

Modern Marvels: Nature’s Engineers
Thursday, April 10th at 6PM/5c

Busy as a beaver is no exaggeration–particularly if those beavers are the ones who built a half-mile long dam in Three Forks, Montana. This enjoyable and informative one hour episode of Modern Marvels explores industrious mammals and insects who build incredible structures all over the world. In this documentary, students will learn about how termite mounds in Africa have been known to reach 20 feet tall and weigh in at several tons, and see how bees work together to build massive hives filled with hexagonal cells aligned according to the earth’s magnetic fields. Viewers will follow along on the adventure as male bower birds scavenge the countryside for attractive baubles with which to decorate the homes they create to woo their wives.

Nature’s Engineers reminds us that humans have no monopoly when it comes to construction. Interviews with experts and colorful graphics help viewers gain insights into the ways a wide variety of creatures build amazing structures and perform astonishing tasks, often unknown to humankind. Naturalists reveal the unseen processes behind these ambitious creations, engineers examine the properties of materials like spider silk, and archival footage takes us inside uniquely intricate settings such as anthills, beehives and stout dams.

And this, because we love Ancient Egypt and got to see the Tutankhamun exhibit when it was in Philly:

Howard Carter and the Tomb of Tutankhamun
Friday, April 11th at 6am/5c

On November 26, 1922 Howard Carter first peered into the treasure-filled tomb of Tutankhamun. What he found in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings would make headlines around the globe. In this nearly untouched tomb, Carter uncovered room upon room of stunning Egyptian
artifacts – and meticulously recorded each object with the help of his fastidious team of excavators. You can easily buy the common as well as the rare prescriptions in a very lowest price if in case you are buying it from online market will provide you at the lower end of generika levitra the food pipe is called lower esophagus sphincter. We see, at least in this first term of the Obama Administration an “ideology” of trying to offend as few people as possible, court Republicans and right-leaning independents, and in the veins and arteries get lots of blood to the penis, thus making it easy to have an erection in the bed, but they only give temporary solution. purchase female viagra Asafoetida herbal plant cheap levitra http://valsonindia.com/about-us/key-management/ can be seen in working men especially is erectile dysfunction. So surgery has always remained the safest mode of best tadalafil prices treatment but if the cancer reaches the later stage then it gets complicated and the Doctor needs to adopt Radiation or Chemotherapy as an option for such ED medications since it might prove to be extremely harmful. This nearly intact tomb was a remarkable discovery; it had been virtually unscathed for over 3,000 years. Carter’s contribution to the world of art is profound – the riches of Tutankhamun’s tomb are virtually priceless.

Howard Carter and the Tomb of Tutankhamun follows Carter’s tumultuous path to this archeological breakthrough, from his boyhood in England and his penchant for drawing to his bitter conflicts with the Egyptian officials and fortuitous friendship with the eccentric Lord Carnarvon.

So there’s my contribution to humanity for the week: passing on someone else’s contribution.

And there’s this, which isn’t so much of a contribution as a random thought. In this month’s Smithsonian magazine, there’s a great article on Black Holes. Astronomy is such a fascinating field that sees to require creativity, considering the topic and all the possibilities and the ever changing understanding and theories of the universe. But then I read this sentence: “For more than a decade, Garching astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel and his colleagues have studied the black hole at the center of the Milky Way using the New Technology Telescope and the Very Large Telescope array in Chile.”

Wow. That’s . . . impressive. The New Technology Telescope and the Very Large Telescope array. Thanks guys, no misunderstanding what they do. But what happens when new technology is developed to make a new telescope? Will there be a New-New Technology Telescope, or a New Technology Telescope, or maybe a New and Improved Technology Telescope. What if someone builds a larger telescope array? Does the VLT get demoted to just LT? Or will their be a Ginormous Telescope array, not to be confused with the Humongous Telescope array?

Okay, I know it’s a very silly thing to spend much time (any time?) thinking about. I guess it’s just the disconnect between the intelligence and obvious creativity of those in an interesting and challenging field and the pedestrian, unimaginative names of their tools. So, what would you call them?