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Kite Boy (1954) by William Dole. Image courtesy of the Hirshhorn.

Friday, March 26: Tibetan Buddhism: Films From Around the World: Wheel of Time

Filmmaker Werner Herzog—the German director who gave us Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Grizzly Man—explores Tibetan Buddhism in this 2003 documentary. The film includes interviews with the Dalai Lama as well as Tanka Jigme Zangpo, who spent 37 years in a Chinese prison for his role in the International Tibet Independence Movement, and offers a look into some of the religion’s rites of initiation. Free. Freer, 7:00 PM.

Saturday, March 27: 44th Annual Kite Festival

The Smithsonian Kite Festival is back, so come on out to the National Mall with your favorite kite in tow and set it soaring into the air! Go head-to head with your fellow enthusiasts in a kite flying competition or sit down, get in touch with your creative side and participate in a poetry contest. Check out the festival’s official site for more details and a full listing of events throughout the day. If the festival is canceled due to rain, the new festival date will be March 28. Free. National Mall, 10:00 AM-3:00 PM.

Sunday, March 28: Metro Mambo: Abaniquito: The Beginnings

This series of programs celebrates Washington DC’s thriving multicultural Latin music scene. Today, come join conga drummer Paul Hawkins and DC’s first mambo bandleader Hendrick Mitchell who will discuss the roots of the mambo phenomenon in this area. And be sure to stick around for a performance by Rumba Club. Free. To reserve your spot, call 202-633-4866. Future installments of this series are currently slated for April 17, May 29 and June 19. Anacostia Museum, 2:00-4:00 PM.

For news and updates on all events and exhibitions, check our companion website goSmithsonian.com

The completed sand mandala during Sunday's disillusionment ceremony. Image courtesy of the Sackler Gallery.

Some of you may have been fortunate enough to swing by the Sackler Gallery last week to watch a Buddhist monk create a sand mandala—a symbolic geometric pattern that, in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, is a meditation tool and promotes spiritual development. After waiting a whole week for the artwork to be completed, some of you may be wondering: where is it now? The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind. That’s right. The sand mandala is no longer.

Visually stunning though they may be, all sand mandalas culminate with a disillusionment ceremony, a ritual that represents the impermanence of all things. And as you can see, there was a grand turnout of people to watch the ritual.

In an act symbolizing the impermanence of all things, the mandala is swept away. Image courtesy of the Sackler Gallery.

After the grains of sand were ritualistically combined, they were returned to nature and scattered about the Enid A. Haupt Garden outside the Smithsonian Castle.

A Tibetan Buddhist monk scatters grains of sand. Image courtesy of the Sackler Gallery.

This Giant Pacific Octopus needs a name, and the National Zoo wants your help. Photo by Mehgan Murphy.

The new giant Pacific octopus at the National Zoo has been causing a stir since it arrived earlier this year.  Its growing popularity with Zoo visitors has keepers dubbing the cephalopod as the “giant panda of invertebrates.”  The only problem is the two-and-a-half-year-old creature, who will grow from its current three pounds up to 70, still doesn’t have a name of its own (which is important when you’re a rising star in the invertebrate world).

So, the Smithsonian National Zoo is handing the honors over to the public via an online vote. Naming an octopus is tough, says the Zoo’s invertebrate curator. Things you should know about this octopus’ personality: It’s “very active and not at all camera-shy.” The keepers are almost certain it’s a male, but whether it ends up being a he or a she, they can adjust the name accordingly.

Here are the choices:

• Ceph: Octopuses (Octopi?) are known in the science world as Cephalopoda, greek for “head-foot,” because their “feet,” or arms, are on the front of their head.
• Octavius: Alliteration is always fun for the tongue (Octavius the Octopus, anyone?). And the number eight: “Oct,” the prefix meaning eight, is the number of arms octopuses have, and “Octavius” is a Latin name that, in ancient Rome, was given to a family’s eighth child. 
• Olympus: Our friend arrived at the zoo just before the Winter 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Also, many visitors could consider the animal the “champion” of invertebrates at the zoo, because of its impressive size and memory.
• Vancouver: Before you go thinking this is another reference to the Olympics, it’s actually a reference to the place this octopus first called home: It came to the zoo from another organization in Vancouver, Canada.

Voting will be open until April 7 at noon, and the winning name will be announced via the Zoo’s Octocam at 2 p.m., followed by announcements on Facebook and Twitter. To vote, visit the polling page.

Personally, I’m pulling for Octavius—it would distinguished him among fellow octopi (octopuses?).

The nearby galaxy Arp 220 is similar to SMM J2135-0102 and is packed with about 200 star clusters. Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (UVa/NRAO/Stony Brook).

Even though a certain auspicious bunny has yet to make his rounds, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) are already talking eggs.

In an Easter egg hunt of galactic proportions, the astronomers have trained their sights on the distant galaxy called SMM S2135-0102, and what they found in the resulting images was a smorgasbord of stellar goodies. “To a layperson, our images appear fuzzy, but to us, they show the exquisite detail of a Fabergé egg,” said the CfA’s Steven Longmore in a statement. To the Russian royal family, the opulent Fabergé egg was crafted as a precious gift to commemorate Easter. We’re all about spring, and Easter eggs, and peeps around here, but never mind let’s get back to the science at hand.

Thanks to sophisticated telescope technology, the astronomers were able to capture the sharpest images ever seen of “star factories” located some 10 billion light years away from the Earth. These images give us an idea of the early form  of the Milky Way. This particular galaxy was only 3 billion years old when it sent out the light that is just reaching Earth’s telescopes today. At that time was a birthing zone for stars. It contains some 250 times more stars than our own Milky Way galaxy.

“We don’t fully understand why the stars are forming so rapidly, but our result suggests that stars formed much more efficiently in the early universe than they do today,” explained Mark Swinbank of Durham University.

The Zoo's clouded leopards, Ta Moon above, are one year old today. Photos by Chris Crowe

It’s hard to believe it but the Zoo’s clouded leopards turned one year old today. You might recall last year’s March video of the little darlings posted here on the Around the Mall blog.

The Zoo reports that the pair, Ta Moon, meaning mischievous child, and Sa Moon, brave warrior, were properly feted today with birthday cakes made up of delicious treats that only a clouded would love—two layers of ice with bamboo leaves frozen inside and topped with a special treat made out of a diet meat for felines. Yum!

Ta Moon and Sa Ming were the first litter born to three-and-a-half-year-old Jao Chu and Hannibal, who have since produced two more litters. Jao Chu gave birth to two cubs on Valentines Day. Native to Southeast Asia, clouded leopards are considered “vulnerable to extinction” due to deforestation and poaching.