Ball Pit Mania!

This has nothing to do with us, but it was just too good not to share :-) The picture above is of an actual ball pit in an apartment. The people decided to buy playground balls and a cage to contain them instead of a new couch (seriously). I am deeply jealous and want a ball pit of my own! There is only one problem: my wife.

You see, Jen was never allowed to go in the ball pit as a child. Her mom didn't want her playing in the gross germs that inevitably get all over the balls. While this makes perfect rational sense, it is hard to reconcile with my fond memories of diving, swimming, and lounging in the balls in the ginormous play areas. Given our different experiences, it is not surprising that we have differing opinions about the ball pits.

However, it is still a really cool idea and gets 100 bonus points for originality! And once they figure out how to wash the balls efficiently, I am so getting a ball pit... if Jen lets me ;-)

Falling into Orbit

Here is a funny little space factoid Craig Damlo made for Yuri's Night.
I laugh out loud every time I read it...

Falling into Orbit

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about flying: "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part—the missing—that provides the difficulties." Although mankind may never fully learn to fly, we have become very proficient at falling. And on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to miss the ground.

That is all there is to space travel—falling, continuously falling. In the simplest of terms, a space launch works like this: take an object—in this case a space capsule—and throw it toward the horizon; if you throw it far enough, it simply will miss the ground as it falls back to Earth, and will enter an orbit around the planet. This may be, in fact, the greatest benefit of living on a round planet—well, that and the stability and strength of a sphere.