Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, October 23, 2021

MVNews this week:  Page 6

6

ALTADENA-SO. PASADENA-SAN MARINOALTADENA-SO. PASADENA-SAN MARINO

Mountain View News Saturday, October 23, 2021 

U.S. Capitol Christmas 
Tree Harvest Ceremony


Kidspace Museum is set 
to Celebrate Halloween

San Marino 
Book 
Character 
Pumpkin 
Contest

 It’s pumpkin time. And as 
our special treat, from October 
12-31 Kidspace Children’s 
Museum is hosting the most
adorable Halloween event ever
for you and your little pumpkin. 

 Everyone is invited to 
march, dance, and strut the 
orange catwalk in our fanciful 
Halloween parade—costumes 
encouraged. We’ll have free 
pumpkin decorating, silly story 
times, and up-close visits with 
our hairy-not-scary spider 
friends every day starting now. 
Get creative making costumes, 
masks, crowns, and accessories 
out of carboard in Ye Olde 
Costume Shoppe, a free family 
program at Imagination 
Workshop.

 As an extra-special treat, on 
Halloween weekend October 
30 and 31st, Bob Baker 
Marionette Theater presents 
HaLLoWe’eN SpoOkTaCuLaR!, 
a spirited Halloween puppet 
show featuring Dracula and 
Vampira, the infamous BLACK 
CAT, the Invisible Man, and 
the sweetest sourpuss, Grumpy 
Pumpkin. 

 You can join the Kidspace 
Halloween parade weekdays 
at 11:15 a.m. and 3:15 p.m., 
and on weekends at 11:15 
a.m., 2:15 p.m. and 4:15 p.m.
For more information about 
celebrating Halloween at 
Kidspace, to buy tickets online, 
visit kidspacemuseum.org. 
Don’t forget to stop by our 
Nature Exchange to visit our 
Sssensational Sssnakes every 
day through Halloween.

 All Halloween activities 
and access to Kidspace 
exhibitions and outdoor spaces 
are included with general 
admission, which is $14.95 for 
adults and children over the age 
of 1. Tickets must be reserved 
online at kidspacemuseum.org.

 In order to allow for social 
distancing and protect the 
safety of visitors and staff, 
availability of indoor spaces 
is subject to capacity. Some 
features, including indoor 
climbing towers, remain off 
exhibit in compliance with 
health and safety guidelines.




 This year, the San Marino 
Crowell Library is getting 
into the fall spirit by hosting a 
pumpkin decorating contest. 

 All ages are invited to 
decorate a pumpkin like their 
favorite book character and 
enter to win a gift card to 
Vroman’s. Participants may 
bring in a decorated pumpkin 
(no carving, please!) with 
completed entry form to 
Crowell Library and enter it 
into our contest through today. 
All entries must be received 
by at 5:00 p.m..Winners will 
be announced October 30. 
Pumpkins will be accepted at 
Crowell Public Library 1890 
Huntington Drive.

 For more information and the 
full rules visit: cityofsanmarino.
org.

 Entries must be 
received by 5:00 p.m. 
today



 The U.S. Capitol 
Christmas Tree is set 
to make two southern 
California tour stops 
including at the Rose 
Bowl Nov. 6.

 After almost a year of 
planning, the U.S. Capitol 
Christmas Tree, an 84-foot 
white fir nicknamed “Sugar 
Bear,” will be harvested 
from the Six Rivers National 
Forest in a virtual ceremony 
on Oct. 24, 2021 at 10 AM. 

 The harvest ceremony will 
include a blessing by the 
Lassic Band of Wylacki-
Wintoon Family Group 
Inc., as well as brief remarks 
by USDA Forest Service 
leadership, local elected 
officials, project partners, 
and the yet-to-announced 
local youth tree lighter. 

 The public is invited to view 
this significant milestone 
during a livestream of the 
ceremony available on the 
Six Rivers National Forest 
Facebook page, starting at 
10 AM. 

 The People’s Tree will be 
harvested using a two-
person crosscut saw, which 
is more eco-friendly and 
fire safe, as well as celebrates 
decades of U.S. Forest Service 
crosscutting tradition. 
It will be supported by 
cranes provided Mountain 
F Enterprises, and then 
transported by West Coast 
trucking carrier System 
Transport using a specially 
decaled Kenworth T68O 
Next Generation truck. 

 “Six Rivers, Many Peoples, 
One Tree” is this year’s tour 
theme and a logo of that 
message is prominently 
displayed on the T680 
Next Gen roof. The driver 
and passenger side both 
display graphics of the 
U.S. Capitol Building, U.S. 
Capitol Christmas Tree 
decorated with lights, and 
a background of the sunset 
over the rolling hills of the 
Six Rivers National Forest. 
The words “U.S. Capitol 
Christmas Tree, Six Rivers 
National Forest, California 
to Washington D.C., are 
placed above the images.

 Once wrapped and secured, 
the People’s Tree will begin 
its journey from Northern 
California to Washington, 
D.C., Oct. 29. On its almost
3,500 mile journey, the
tree will visit more than 20
communities throughout
California and across the
United States for a series of
outdoor festivities hosted by
local organizations.

Saturday, Nov. 6

8:30 – 10:30 a.m. Rose Bowl
Stadium (1001 Rose Bowl
Drive, Pasadena, CA)

3:00 – 5:00 p.m. Redlands
West Pearl Avenue (between
Eureka and Orange Streets
Redlands, CA

 The tree will be displayed 
on the West Lawn of the 
U.S. Capitol Building in 
Washington, D.C., with a 
tree- lighting ceremony 
hosted by the Architect of the 
Capitol and Speaker of the 
House in early December. 

Monitor website: 
uscapitolchristmastree.com 
for the latest updates.

 SAN MARINO CRIME BLOTTER

 For the period of Sunday, October 10 through Saturday, 
October 16, the San Marino Police Department responded 
to 438 calls for service. Two residential burglaries, zero 
commercial burglaries, and zero attempt commercial 
burglaries occurred during the reporting week. The 
following is a summary report of the key incidents handled 
by the Department during this reporting period. 

Sunday, October 10

10:00 A.M. / FOUND PROPERTY / 1900 BLOCK OF 
SYCAMORE DRIVE: The reporting party located a purse 
on the roadway.

Monday, October 11

2:01 P.M. / PC 647 / PROWLING / 2400 BLOCK OF 
ROANOKE ROAD: Officers were dispatched regarding a 
male subject seen in the reporting party’s rear yard. Upon 
arrival, officers located the male subject and the reporting 
party asked that the report be taken for documentation 
purposes only.

1:36 P.M. / FOUND PROPERTY / MONTEREY ROAD / 
OLD MILL ROAD: The reporting party located keys on the 
roadway.

Tuesday, October 12

1:08 P.M. / PC 484 / PETTY THEFT / 2700 BLOCK OF 
HUNTINGTON DRIVE: Male subject trespassed onto the 
listed location and took a bicycle belonging to the victim. 

Wednesday, October 13

9:27 A.M. / PC 459 / RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY / 2000 
BLOCK OF LOMBARDY ROAD: Unknown suspect(s) 
shattered a double glass sliding door on the second floor of 
the residence with an unknown object. The suspect(s) then 
made entry and ransacked several rooms in the residence.

10:13 A.M. / 901T / INJURY TRAFFIC COLLISION / 800 
BLOCK OF HUNTINGTON DRIVE: A single vehicle 
was involved in an injury traffic collision after suffering 
a medical emergency. The San Marino Fire Department 
transported the driver to the hospital.

2:12 P.M. / 902T / NON-INJURY TRAFFIC COLLISION 
/ 1300 BLOCK OF SAN GABRIEL BOULEVARD: Two 
vehicles were involved in a non-injury traffic collision. Both 
vehicles were driven from the scene.

2:12 P.M. / 901T / INJURY TRAFFIC COLLISION / 1300 
BLOCK OF SAN GABRIEL BOULEVARDHUNTINGTON 
DRIVE / SAN MARINO AVENUE: Two vehicles were 
involved in an injury traffic collision. One of the involved 
parties complained of pain and was transported to the 
hospital by the San Marino Fire Department for medical 
treatment.

2:15 P.M. / PC 459 / RESIDENTIAL BURGLARY / 2000 
BLOCK OF COURTLAND LOMBARDY ROAD: Unknown 
suspect(s) pried open the rear glass window of the residence 
with an unknown object and made entry. Once inside, the 
suspect(s) ransacked the house.

6:53 P.M. / CVC 10852 / CATALYTIC CONVERTER 
THEFT / 2800 BLOCK OF CUMBERLAND ROAD: 
Unknown suspect(s) used unknown means to remove the 
victim’s catalytic converter from the victim’s parked vehicle. 
The suspect(s) fled in an unknown direction.

7:32 P.M. / CVC 20002 / NON-INJURY HIT & RUN / 2300 
BLOCK OF HUNTINGTON DRIVE: Unknown subject 
collided with the victim’s parked vehicle and fled the scene.

Thursday, October 14

No incidents to report.

Friday, October 15

10:19 A.M. / PROPERTY FOR DESTRUCTION / 2200 
BLOCK OF HUNTINGTON DRIVE: Ammunition for 
destruction.

3:41 P.M. / 901T / INJURY TRAFFIC COLLISION / OAK 
STREET / GARFIELD AVENUE: Two vehicles were 
involved in an injury traffic collision. One of the involved 
parties complained of pain, but refused medical treatment. 
Both vehicles were towed from the scene.

Saturday, October 16

No incidents to report.

Hear Sounds From Mars 
Captured by NASA Rover

 Two microphones aboard 
the six-wheeled spacecraft 
add a new dimension to the 
way scientists and engineers 
explore the Red Planet.

 Thanks to two microphones 
aboard NASA’s Perseverance 
rover, the mission has 
recorded nearly five hours 
of Martian wind gusts, 
rover wheels crunching over 
gravel, and motors whirring 
as the spacecraft moves its 
arm. These sounds allow 
scientists and engineers to 
experience the Red Planet in 
new ways – and everyone is 
invited to listen in.

 “It’s like you’re really 
standing there,” said Baptiste 
Chide, a planetary scientist 
who studies data from the 
microphones at L’Institut de 
Recherche en Astrophysique 
et Planétologie in France. 
“Martian sounds have strong 
bass vibrations, so when 
you put on headphones, 
you can really feel it. I think 
microphones will be an 
important asset to future 
Mars and solar system 
science.”

 Perseverance is the first 
spacecraft to record the 
sound of the Red Planet using 
dedicated microphones 
–both of which were 
commercially available, off-
the-shelf devices. One rides
on the side of the rover’s
chassis. The second mic 
sits on Perseverance’s mast
as a complement to the 
SuperCam laser instrument’s 
investigations of rocks and
the atmosphere.

 The body mic was 
provided by NASA’s Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory in 
Southern California, while 
the SuperCam instrument 
and its microphone were 
provided by the Los Alamos 
National Laboratory 
(LANL) in New Mexico 
and a consortium of French 
research laboratories under 
the auspices of the Centre 
National d’Etudes Spatiales 
(CNES).

The Era of Space 
Microphones

 SuperCam studies rocks 
and soil by zapping them 
with a laser, then analyzing 
the resulting vapor with a 
camera. Because the laser 
pulses up to hundreds 
of times per target, 
opportunities to capture the 
sound of those zaps quickly 
add up: the microphone has 
already recorded more than 
25,000 laser shots.

 Some of those recordings 
are teaching scientists about 
changes in the planet’s 
atmosphere. After all, sound 
travels through vibrations 
in the air. From its perch 
on Perseverance’s mast, the 
SuperCam mic is ideally 
located for monitoring 
“microturbulence” – minute 
shifts in the air – and 
complements the rover’s 
dedicated wind sensors, 
which are part of a suite of 
atmospheric tools called 
MEDA, short for the Mars 
Environmental Dynamics 
Analyzer.

 MEDA’s sensors sample 
the wind’s speed, pressure, 
and temperature one to 
two times per second for 
up to two hours at a time. 
SuperCam’s microphone, on 
the other hand, can provide 
similar information at a rate 
of 20,000 times per second 
over several minutes.

 “It’s kind of like comparing 
a magnifying glass to 
a microscope with 100 
times magnification,” 
said MEDA’s principal 
investigator, Jose Rodriguez-
Manfredi of the Centro 
de Astrobiología (CAB) at 
the Instituto Nacional de 
Tecnica Aeroespacial in 
Madrid. “From the weather 
scientist’s point of view, each 
perspective – detail and 
context – complements one 
another.”

 The microphone also allows 
for research on how sound 
propagates on Mars. Because 
the planet’s atmosphere is 
much less dense than Earth’s, 
scientists knew higher-
pitched sounds in particular 
would be hard to hear. In 
fact, a few scientists – unsure 
if they’d hear anything at 
all – were surprised when 
the microphone picked up 
the Ingenuity helicopter’s 
buzzing rotors during its 
fourth flight, on April 30, 
from a distance of 262 feet 
(80 meters).

 Information from the 
helicopter audio enabled 
researchers to eliminate two 
of three models developed 
to anticipate how sound 
propagates on Mars.

 “Sound on Mars carries 
much farther than we 
thought,” said Nina Lanza, 
a SuperCam scientist who 
works with the microphone 
data at LANL. “It shows you 
just how important it is to do 
field science.”

Sound Check

 There’s another aspect 
of space exploration that 
could benefit from an audio 
dimension: spacecraft 
maintenance. Engineers 
use cameras to monitor the 
wheel wear on Curiosity 
rover and dust accumulating 
on InSight’s solar panels. 
With microphones,
they could also check a 
spacecraft’s performance the 
way mechanics might listen 
to a car engine.

 The Perseverance team is 
amassing loads of recordings 
from the rover’s chassis mic, 
which is well-positioned to 
listen to its wheels and other 
internal systems. While there 
aren’t enough recordings yet 
to detect any changes, over 
time, engineers may be able 
to pore over that data and 
discern subtle differences, 
like additional electric 
current going to a particular 
wheel. This would add to the 
ways they already monitor 
the spacecraft’s health.

 “We would love to listen to 
these sounds regularly,” said 
Vandi Verma, Perseverance’s 
chief engineer for robotic 
operations at JPL. “We 
routinely listen for changes 
in sound patterns on our test 
rover here on Earth, which 
can indicate there’s an issue 
that needs attention.”

 For more about 
Perseverance: mars.nasa.
gov/mars2020 and nasa.gov/
perseverance





The Pasadena Public Health 
Department (PPHD) joins 
the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention 
(CDC)in offering advice 
on celebrating Halloween 
in a lower-risk environment
to help reduce the spread
of COVID-19. As children
under age 12 years are not
yet eligible for COVID-19
vaccination and COVID-19
is still widespread in our 
community, precautions are
highly recommended at this
time.

Recommendations

include:

 Wear a face mask that fits 
well and covers the nose, 
mouth, and chin. Masks 
must be worn indoors in 
accordance with the health 
officer order, and should be 
worn outdoors in crowded 
situations when it’s not 
possible to maintain 6 feet of 
physical distancing.

A costume mask is not a 
substitute for a protective 
mask.

If you are sick, or you 
have been in contact with 
someone who is sick with 
COVID-19 or has symptoms 
of COVID-19, stay home 
and away from others.

Activities should take place 
outdoors.

Avoid confined spaces; stay 
away from indoor spaces 
that do not allow for easy 
distancing of at least 6 feet 
between you and others.

Stay at least 6 feet away from 
anyone who doesn’t live 
with you, especially while 
talking, eating, drinking, 
and singing.

Wash or sanitize your hands 
often.

The City reminds residents 
of Halloween fire safety tips, 
including using battery-
operated candles or glow 
sticks in jack-o-lanterns and 
keeping exits and escape 
routes clear of decorations. It 
is also a good time to make 
sure that all smoke alarms in 
your home are working.

 During the holiday season, 
it is especially important 
to avoid driving under 
the influence. Remember 
that “DUI Doesn’t Just 
Mean Booze.” If you 
take prescription drugs, 
particularly those with 
a driving or operating 
machinery warning on 
the label, you might be 
impaired enough to get a 
DUI. Marijuana can also 
be impairing, especially in 
combination with alcohol or 
other drugs, and can result 
in a DUI. The City also urges 
drivers to plan routes in 
advance and avoid texting or 
otherwise using a cell phone 
while driving.


Celebrate 
Halloween 
Responsibly


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com