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I consider myself a well read person with an interest in a large variety of topics.
So when I saw this headline the other day?
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I admit I was perplexed.
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20 years ago?
Where was I?
What was I doing?
How did I manage to miss…
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This?
🤣
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I saw something in the news recently that made me do a double take.
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And it made me wonder if flamingos are now an official NASA unit of measurement.
If so,..
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Nothing to be scared of there.
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Before humans went to space, there were chimps. And not all of them were lovable.
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With a name like Enos, it was inevitable.
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Naked space travel. Who knew?
And if that’s not enough of a mental image for you, here’s a paragraph about the horrors of elimination while floating above our planet.
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The fact that there are slews of researchers and scientists being paid the big bucks to design high tech Pampers makes me chortle.
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No gravity means no showers. That would be it for me.. sayonara NASA.
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Nope. No way. Not this chick.
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🤣
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Until I read this book I never gave much thought to inhaling space vomit, but trust me… NASA has.
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On that happy note much research has gone into vomit training and simulation.
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I’ve never eaten Progresso vegetable soup, and now? I’m quite sure I never will.
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There’s a job for which you will never see me volunteer.
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Since motion sickness is a natural response to a novel or sensorially perplexing motion or gravitational environment, astronauts have to go through it all over again when they return to Earth after a long mission. During the weeks or months of no gravity, their brains have been interpreting all otolith cues as acceleration in one direction or another. So when they move their head, their brain
tells them they’re moving.
Astronaut Peggy Whitson described her first moments on Earth after coming back from 191 days on the International Space Station like this: “I stood up and the world was going around me at 17,500 miles per hour, as opposed to me going around the world at 17,500 miles per hour.” It’s called land-
ing vertigo, or Earth sickness.
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How bizarre is that?
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Avoid turkey vultures at all costs.
Got it!
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Yes, I’ve found another one of those quirky Mary Roach books to share with you. This time… we’re going to space.
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If you missed the last few books I shared, you should know Mary’s research tends to go a little beyond the norm and there will be some colorful as well as uncomfortable subjects discussed in future posts.
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“Early in my research, I came across a moment-
forty minutes into the eighty-eighth hour of Gemini VII-which, for me, sums up the astronaut experience and why it fascinates me. Astronaut Jim Lovell is telling Mission Control about an image he has cap-
tured on film.
“a beautiful shot of a full Moon against the black
sky and the strato formations of the clouds of the earth below.” reads the mission transcript. After a momentary silence, Lovell’s crewmate Frank Borman presses the TALK button.
“Norman’s dumping urine. Urine [in] approximately one minute.”
Two lines further along, we see Lovell saying, “What a sight to behold!” We don’t know what he’s referring to, but there’s a good chance it’s not the moon. According to more than one astronaut memoir, one of the most beautiful sights in space is that of a
sun-illumined flurry of flash-frozen waste-water droplets. Space doesn’t just encompass the sublime and the ridiculous. It erases the line between.”
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Sun struck frozen pee.
And we’re off!
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For all the excitement of preparation and training, I can imagine there would also be a lot of mind numbing down time.
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Butt lubrication is probably not highlighted in the NASA press pamphlet.
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The lunar two step?
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Want to test how astronauts react to stress? No toilet would definitely do it.
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Because the headlines just keep on coming.
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Great. Like we don’t have enough earth born pathogens…
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If there’s a better name for a female aardvark than Princess Dirt Pig, I don’t know what it is.
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I adore this idea!
Though it may mean longer waits for the bathroom at dinner parties.
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I have to disagree with this one. My MIL aged at a normal rate…
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Holy crap, I hope so! In their case, total annihilation can’t come soon enough.
No pun intended.
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Yes, someone just paid half a million dollars for a few specks of dust. And while the bunnies under my bed may not be nearly as exotic, for quantity… they can’t be beaten.
Here’s the gist of the moon dust saga : In 1969 Neil Armstrong gathered moon dust in a bag, which was put in another bag for transport to earth. Apparently the government is very greedy about their dust and forbids private citizens from owning it ….so instead of handing it out as party favors, the dust bag was loaned to a space museum in Kansas.
Problem. Museum directory Max Ary was a crook who was convicted of auctioning off space artifacts in 2005. The Marshall Service seized and then auctioned some of his items much to NASA’s dismay. The woman who bought the bag of dust… for $995… figured it might be worth a bit more and shipped it to NASA for verification.
NASA refused to give it back. She took them to court and won her dust, as well as $1.8 million. But NASA had used carbon tape to pick up a few grains of the dust to test, and these were not returned… so she sued again. It’s these tiny flecks that just brought half a million.
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So please, if you have extra cash lying around and are interested in purchasing some dust? Let me know. Mine may not come from outer space but collection is not an issue.
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In which we discuss gas.
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Admit it, you’ve known people who could power your stove, no problem.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but the rectum is not a place from which one wishes to launch a torpedo.
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Vancouver, Washington? Take a bow. You were once the prune capitol of the world! And though I found that photo of the Prunarians, it was rather boring…. So I’m including this one instead.
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If ever a face screamed Queen of Prunes? It was Miss Pierce’s.
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It’s good to know NASA doesn’t just spend billions on rockets and shuttles. A fart proof space suit? That’s surely worth its weight in gold.
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Next week a contractor will be here to build a bar in our barn.
Yes, you read that correctly, a contractor… one we will pay. Actual money. That surprised me since the husband has does most of the Barn Mahal construction himself, but this guy also built the bar at our local pub… so instead of having a spouse made amateur facsimile, we’ll have a serious bar.
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With these giant extremely heavy boards the husband has kept from the original framing back in 2012.
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The boards that have been moved, shifted, relocated, bumped into and cursed for 8 long years…. so all I can say is, yay.
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Of course the other day we had to move them one last time.
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Because my other half wanted to get an idea what the future boozer would look like.
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And yes, that’s a driftwood Christmas tree on the right.
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My girlfriend made it, used it one year, then gave it to me for our porch. Unfortunately we experience a cross breeze from our neighbor’s field equivalent to the Ames research center wind tunnel NASA uses to test its rockets. That tree literally flew. Which is generally not what you want Christmas decorations to do.
So it’s been inside the barn for a few years and despite my pleading that it would be a nice addition to the bar room, husband wants it gone.
Tons of useless rusty crap? He’ll find the room. One unique and quirky decorative tree? Bye bye.
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A woodpecker pecks wood 12,000 times a day.
But I did, because…
Did you know…
Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time?
Well, you have to admit, a pair will definitely last longer that way.
Did you know…
The liquid inside a young coconut can be used as a substitute for blood plasma in an emergency?
It’s official.
I shall never bleed out…
Did you know…
During his lifetime, Herman Melville’s classic novel of the sea Moby Dick only sold 50 copies?
That’s a frighteningly small number of Dicks….
Did you know…
Alfred Hitchcock did not have a belly button?
It’s true, but you have to admire his work out routine.
Did you know…
Apollo 11 only had 12 seconds of fuel left when it landed?
That’s some high tech NASA equipment right there.
Did you know…
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his hat to keep his head cool and changed it every two innings?
Why not…
Anything beats eating it.
River's world..... 