From: Boomerang returns, even in space
“In an unprecedented experiment, a Japanese astronaut has thrown a boomerang in space and confirmed it flies back, much like on Earth.
“Astronaut Takao Doi “threw a boomerang and saw it come back” during his free time on March 18 at the International Space Station (ISS), a spokeswoman at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said.
“Mr Doi threw the boomerang after a request from compatriot Yasuhiro Togai, a world boomerang champion.
” ‘I was very surprised and moved to see that it flew the same way it does on Earth,’ the Mainichi Shimbun daily quoted the 53-year-old astronaut as telling his wife in a chat from space…”
What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, really, just a cool thing and a segue to return to yesterday’s topic. Of course, I could stretch it and say that the nature of the soul is that it has a tendency to return Home, Back To Godhead, unless acted upon by an outside force, just as a boomerang returns to the place it was thrown from (“no fall” of the jiva guys beware — if you dispute this I will ignore you).
” The Vedic wisdom guides us to understanding our relation with the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna and to acting accordingly in order to achieve the desired result of returning home, back to Godhead.”
SB 2.2.27
My returning to yesterday’s topic is less glorious.
The lap I skated brought back a lot of memories, as on the interior of the path are multiple soccer fields where I used to coach when my youngest boys were growing up. I coached for ten years, many of them on those very fields.
When Tulasi was playing high school soccer one year, the kids would go down there and run laps for conditioning. On some occasions, I would go with him and skate along. This was before the End Stage Liver Disease really dominated my life so I still had some juice.
Tulasi and another kid were the fastest and best conditioned athletes on the team so they would run ahead of everyone else. With the skates I was able to keep up with them and would play the role of irritating personal trainer exhorting them on. Seems impossible to think of it today, but it actually happened.
I was at the Team Pittsburgh meeting on Saturday. There are 49 teams competing in the Transplant Games. One of the topics covered was fund raising. The games cost money themselves, but they are a fundraiser for the National Kidney Foundation. The proceeds are used to raise awareness about organ donation. Part of the games are events honoring living donors and the families of deceased donors.
I set up a fund raising page for the Games and if any of you are so moved, you can donate through that page. This is good thing in my opinion and benefits many people. Who knows, someday it could be you or one of your family or friends, so please consider donating.
Help me raise funds for raising awareness about organ donation by clicking here.
Meanwhile, the weather is warming so I better get to getting in shape.
September 29, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I’m going to be pedantic: the boomerang article is wrong. Boomerangs don’t return in space.
Boomerangs return because of aerodynamics. They won’t work in the vacuum of space. This mix-up was because the astronaut wasn’t actually in space. It was the habitable portion of a spacecraft, with an artificial atmosphere — that’s why the boomerang came back. If an astronaut threw a boomerang while actually spacewalking, it wouldn’t come back.
The headline SHOULD have read “Boomerang returns, even in zero-gravity.”
September 29, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Nah, that’s not pedantic, it is precise. I took the title from the original article, too bad it doesn’t have a comments section there.