Spaceballs

I doubt that anyone was feeling especially deprived. But just in case, allow me to apologize for a level of output that's been paltry even by my low standards. Between one thing and the other, life's just been a little crazy lately. But I've just returned from taking my daughter back to school, and I think things might settle down a little.

Meanwhile, here's a deeply mysterious news story. It concerns a Russian's plan to hit a "golf ball" from the international space station (apparently, this is one of those thoroughly modern Russians who have embraced filthy capitalism with an intense passion. This guy and capitalism ought to get married, maybe, after an embrace of this sort:

Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin will show off his swing to promote a Canadian golf club manufacturer during a spacewalk on November 23.

NASA safety officers have cleared the stunt, saying it poses no threat to the space station or the crew since the golf ball weighs only 3 grams and will return to Earth's atmosphere in three days.

Never mind that the gram is the CGS unit of mass, not weight (weight is a force, and is measured in dynes in the CGS). Still, this must be some kind of false golf ball. 3 grams is entirely inadequate to be the mass of a normal golf ball -- it's small by an order of magnitude. So, what is this-here wily Russkie up to, anyway?

We can only wait 'til November and find out. By then, we'll know which branch of the War Party is in charge of Congress! We'll probably need a light diversion of this sort when the time comes.