Sakura In Space!!!

No, anime fans, this is not a mashup of Naruto and Cowboy Bebop.

By now I'm almost getting used to Japan's announcements that it's launching everything but the kitchen sink into space, from paper airplanes to boomerangs to highly advanced underwear.

Now, according to AFP, the next suborbital "tourists" will be cherry trees, one of the most beloved plants in Japan and a national symbol of beauty and renewal.


This week the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced plans to send the seeds from ten varieties of sakura to the International Space Station in October.

Among the spacebound is a type of tree called the Takizakura, or "cascade cherry blossom," an ancient breed designated by the government as a national treasure. The trees, some of which are more than 1,000 years old, draw hordes of tourists when they bloom in the small northern town of Miharu.

In addition to violets and lilies, JAXA's cherry tree seeds will stay in space for six months to see how they are affected by reduced gravity. Some of the seeds will even be planted once they return to Earth.

But as you might expect from such a venture, sending cherry trees into space is really half science, half marketing.

"Since the seeds will be returned with a certificate that they have gone to space, we hope to use them to promote tourism here while drawing children's interest in science," Miharu town official Sadafumi Hirata told AFP.

But hey, at the rate things are going, maybe in 500 years when we get that colony on Mars we'll be celebrating a cherry blossom festival around Hellas Basin in addition to the Tidal Basin …

Recipe: Migas in the Morning

I first had this Tex-Mex take on scrambled eggs at a family reunion in Corpus Christi, and I've been experimenting with it ever since.


The version I like best so far uses most of the traditional ingredients plus a dash of cumin for smokiness. I also prefer my migas with the tortilla pieces a little crunchy, but there's a way to cook them up soft if that's what you prefer. Here's my recipe for a quick two-person plate.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons minced red onion
• 1/2 a green chili, minced (this can be adjusted depending on your heat tolerance)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 a roma tomato, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 corn tortillas, cut or torn into bite-size pieces
• 3 eggs, beaten

Directions

• Heat the oil over medium heat in a nonstick skillet.
• Add the tortilla pieces to the pan and toss to coat. Cook the pieces until they get puffy and are just turning golden.*
• Add the onion, garlic, chili, and cumin. Cook until the onion starts to brown.
• Lower the heat to almost a simmer. Add the tomato and stir for 30 seconds.
• Add the beaten eggs. Scramble until the eggs look almost done then remove immediately to serving dishes. Do not overcook the eggs, or they will get rubbery.

Top with grated cheese and/or fresh chopped cilantro if desired. This goes great with a side of guacamole and some fresh fruit.

* For softer tortilla pieces, only cook them in the oil until they are heated through, then add the tomato along with the other veggies.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Hoax

I have to admit the movie snob in me has been avoiding at all costs any talk of the latest Indy installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Harrison Ford at 66? And that annoying kid from Transformers??? Pass.

But that was until some friends got into a discussion in my vicinity about what the titular crystal skull is supposed to be and why the ever-present Nazis would want to get their hands on it. So I did a quick Google search and right at the top of the hit list popped a very familiar picture:


Not two feet away from my screen sat the very same picture, a postcard from the British Museum I've had somewhere on a wall near me since 1996. Turns out the crystal skull in question is the same museum artifact I had admired as a teenager. According to the fine print on the back of the card, copyright 1988, the object is a

Skull of rock crystal. Mexico. Probably Aztec.
c.AD1300-1500. The style of this piece suggests that it dates from the Aztec period. If, however, as one line of the carving suggests, a jeweller's wheel was used to make the cut, the piece would date from after the Spanish Conquest.

The museum acquired the shiny crystal noggin in 1897 from Tiffany & Co. via a French art dealer.

In the 1940s the first of such skulls took the world by storm when Brit banker F.A. Mitchell-Hedges announced that his adopted daughter Anna had found the crystal skull tucked under a Mayan temple in the jungles of Belize in 1920. He called it the "Skull of Doom" and claimed it had supernatural powers.

"According to [Mitchell-Hedges], it had been made 3,600 years ago. Mayan priests wielded it to invoke gods and devils. Its curse could bring misfortune and death," the Smithsonian Institution, which now owns the mystical relic, reports on its website.


Well, almost.

Actually the skulls are a huge hoax. Researchers at the Smithsonian estimate that the artifacts could not have been made any earlier than the 19th century based on craftsmanship—and the fact that no such skull has ever been credibly excavated from an authentic pre-Columbian site.

—A painted stucco relief in the museum at Palenque, a Maya ruin in Chiapas, Mexico, from one of the recently excavated buildings. A facsimile stands at the original location.
Photo © 2004 Jacob Rus

Smithsonian experts used scanning electron microscopes to reveal that their skull and two others over at the British Museum showed absolutely no signs of ancient Aztec or Mayan tool work.

“We discovered that all of the crystal skulls had been carved with modern coated lapidary wheels using industrial diamonds and polished with modern machinery,” Jane Walsh, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, said in an online article.

Of course that has not stopped many New Age believers from insisting that the skulls are not only genuine, but magical. A crystal skull has healing properties, it can show you the future, it can talk, it's an alien supercomputer.

And that's where Indy comes in, although this time the Nazis are out. It's 1957, and Soviet agents plan to use the powers of the crystal skulls to do, uh, Soviet things. So our older and wiser hero enters the fray, sullen love interest and whiny sidekick in tow.

I don't think I need a mystical crystal skull to tell me that this flick will be tragic. But then Spielberg and Lucas will surely be grinning evilly all the way to the bank.