The Jim Henson Exhibition

The Jim Henson Exhibition will open July 22 at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. The exhibit will show how Henson and his team created the world’s of The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth.

The exhibit will feature nearly 300 objects, including 47 puppets, character sketches, story boards, scripts, photographs and costumes. Film and television clips will be presented on more than 27 monitors.

Attendees can become puppeteers and design their own puppet character. And material from lesser known Henson projects will also be on display. In addition to the permanent exhibition in New York, the museum will also host a traveling exhibit.

The gallery for the exhibition was made possible by a grant from the City of New York. The funding for the exhibition is the result of a Kickstarter campaign, which exceeded its stretch goals and raised $144,230.

As I’ve said before, Jim Henson is one of my heroes. His creativity, gentleness and work ethic inspire me. With the opening of the Jim Henson Exhibition, I’m excited to think that Henson’s legacy will delight and inspire many generations to come.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Read about the Kickstarter campaign.

Learn about the Jim Henson Legacy here.

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Lydia Shared Her Home

Check out this week's preschool Bible story HERE.

And read the adult Bible study HERE.

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Dorcas Helped People

Check out this week's preschool Bible story HERE.

And read the adult Bible study HERE.

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Saturn's Shortening Shadow

The Cassini spacecraft sent back a wonderful image of Saturn's shadow acroSS the planet’s rings. I posted about it on my astronomy blog. Read it here!

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Gretchen Bakke Interviews

I recently heard a couple of interviews with anthropologist Gretchen Bakke (pronounced "BAKE-ee") regarding her book, The Grid : The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future (2016). I've not read the book, but I've added it to my reading list.

The book is about "the grid," which is a slang term for the United States electricity distribution system. In the interviews, Bakke talks about the challenges facing America's energy infrastructure, from aging equipment to the difficulty of going from a system of centralized power generation to a more distributed system. I found the interviews both interesting and frightening.

In her book, Bakke explains both the history and the details of how the electrical power grid works. Bakke then discusses the prospects for its future. Bakke talks about the complexities involved with the introduction of renewable and alternative sources of power into a grid that has evolved over the years based on a concept of regulated utilities with a large central source of power generation. Here are some bits I picked up from the interviews.

• The continental United States electrical grid system is actually made of three grids: The eastern U.S. grid, the western U.S. grid, and the Texas grid.

• In general, the electrical utilities do not have a large-scale method of storing electricity (no large reservoirs of batteries or capacitors, etc.). Electrical power must be used as it is generated, or it is lost. And there is no anticipated technological break through on the horizon that's going to change this situation. 

• Large-scale installation of solar and wind generation will not allow coal and gas powered generation to go away any time soon, because the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow.

• While an excess of generated electricity may seem like a good thing to the customer, it is a dangerous thing to the utility company. If the utility doesn't have a place to send the excess electricity, it could overload the grid, causing sections to automatically shut down, or be manually shut down, to prevent the network from being burned out. Imagine: A power outage caused by an excess of electricity! It has happened more than once in recent history.

I encourage you to check out these interviews. And, if you are interested in reading further, I've also included links to the book.

Interviews:

• Triangulation 298: Gretchen Bakke (YouTube)
• NPR Fresh Air

Find the book on:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• Audible

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