Beautiful Saturn, Acts of Kindness Video, Help Keep Syrians Warm this Winter: A BYU Appeal, A Puzzle that stumped many Harvard Students, The Imaginarium.

Hello Troops,
A beautiful autumn evening made the drive home from Renaissance enjoyable.  In tonight's Troubadour we see an awesome picture of Saturn, we watch a video on simple acts of kindness, Emily urges us to help with a BYU class humanitarian effort, you get to try your hand at an age old math puzzle (one I bombed), and feast at the Imaginarium.

Enjoy,
Mr. W.  


True Color Image of Saturn Eclipsing the Sun

From Quarks to Quasars

Ladies and Gentlemen, after months of waiting, the new Cassini picture is finally here!

Taken on July 19, 2013, it is easily one of the most anticipated astronomy pictures of the year. While 1.2-million kilometers (750,000 miles) from the Ringed planet, Cassini once again snapped a mosaic of Saturn while it eclipsed the Sun.

All in all, the final picture is 9000 by 3500 pixels and glorious. NASA really outdid themselves with this one. All in all, Cassini took 323 pictures over the course of our hours and is colored in natural color. The picture shows an area about 651,591kilometers (404,880 miles) across. Read More

A Simple Act of Kindness 

From Emily Paxton.  CMSEC Flight Director

ATTENTION BYU STUDENTS (Or anyone, really):
Last November I had the opportunity to spend some time in a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. It was a remarkable, yet sobering opportunity. While I took a lot away from the experience, one of the things I remember most was how cold I was! Luckily, I only had to endure the freezing weather for a matter of hours. The residents, however, were not so lucky. As winter approaches, hundreds of thousands of refugees are once again facing a long, cold few months with little protection from the elements. If you can, I strongly urge you to donate new or gently used winter clothing to this cause (see flyer below for details). If you can't get donations to BYU yourself, I'd be more than happy to help out. If you have questions, feel free to send me a message! Thanks in advance!

The Ole Ball and Bat Puzzle

Harvard students get near-perfect SAT scores. These are smart, smart kids. So they shouldn't have trouble with a simple logic question, right?

Try the following puzzle:

A bat and ball cost $1.10.

The bat costs one dollar more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?

(If you answer ten cents, then you are wrong)

Read more to find out why you were wrong


The Imaginarium

Hello Extraordinary my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again....

An Amazing Technology from MIT. Toys "R" Us Slams Science Education. The Imaginarium.

Hello Troops,  

Tonight The Troubadour spotlights an amazing technological advancement from MIT.  

Amazing Technology Invented By MIT - Tangible Media

And now a true advertising blunder

Toys "R" Us Creates the Most Anti-Science, Anti Education Ad Ever!

From io9

Wrong, wrong, wrong, Toys "R" Us. Wrong. An inane commercial like this — in which children are taught that science and the environment are boring — sends the exact wrong message.

In the ad, a group of school children are loaded onto a bus labeled, "Meet the Trees Foundation." A ranger shows them pictures of leaves, while the camera pans around revealing a bus filled with restless, sleepy, and disinterested kids. But then our intrepid "ranger" suddenly surprises them with a trip to Toys "R" Us. All is saved.

Environmental scientist Peter Gleick had this to say about the ad:

Wow. What advertising company working for Toys "R" Us came up with this idea, and what executive at Toys "R" Us actually approved it?

This ad is offensive on so many levels:

- It insults science and environmental education teachers.

It insults science and environmental education programs and field trips.

- It insults science and nature in general.

- It insults children (though no doubt these kids got free toys, and maybe even money, to be in the ad — how awesome).

- It promotes blind commercialism and consumerism (OK, I know that's the society we live in, and the purpose of ads, and the only real goal of Toys "R" Us, but to be so blatantly offensive and insensitive?)

- It sends the message, as [Stephen] Colbert so cogently notes that "The great outdoors is nothing compared to the majesty of a strip mall."

My wife is an overworked, underpaid science educator, teaching university students how to teach science to elementary school children. It is an uphill battle: not because kids don't love science. They do. Frankly, young children are wonderful, curious, wide-eyed natural scientists. It is an uphill battle because the resources our society devotes to science education are pathetic. Elementary school teachers get little or no support or training for science education. Materials are outdated or confusing. There is no funding for decent field trips. And our kids are bombarded with subtle (and here, blatant) messages promoting blind, thoughtless, consumerism.

And Finally, the Imaginarium


The Imaginarium
Our staff search the word for people who've taken the dull, boring ordinary and made it extraordinary.

The London Underground, Now and Then.