Zero-G Whiz...

The purpose of this blog is to defy gravity at the Friday night dinner table. Please print and share...
This week's podcast info below.
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Believe me, it's not like I'm looking for these space stories.

They are just, well, falling into my proverbial lap.

First we had the meteorite landing on a grandmother's pillow in the middle of the night and then the city-destroying asteroids coming too-close-for-comfort (and they're still coming).

So maybe you're wondering if you'd be better off out there in space than on this fragile blue spaceship we call Earth?

Maybe you've fantasized about going to Mars one day? Or beyond?

Well, we unfortunately learned this week that in addition to weakened muscles and bones — I mean severely weakened — a newly discovered side effect of zero gravity is apparently brain damage.

Um.... no thanks.

(Unless of course the Chinese figure out how to make artificial gravity.)

In the meantime, ask everyone at the table if they know....

• Among the many things that the Earth's atmosphere does for you, we all know it stops small meteors from hitting us (they burn up and become shooting stars) - but how many every day??? [about a million]

• You've probably heard the idea that the tropical rain forests (especially the Amazon) are like massive barely-understood pharmacies with countless plants that may contain cures to many diseases - but what percentage of the rainforest species have been studied? [less than 1%]

• Some of the species in the Amazon occur in tiny areas of just a few acres; so if you destroy even a few acres, you may be wiping out entire species...what's the current rate of destruction? [1.5 acres per second, 137 species per day]

• The tires on our cars contain a mixture of rubber, plastic, and other materials; so that wearing down tire tread means shedding microplastics into the environment; when it rains, guess where those tiny bits of plastic go? Guess what percentage of the tires is plastic? [40%]

These are just some random Earth-appreciation thoughts.

So here's two questions for your table: 

When is the last time that you learned or experienced something about Planet Earth that made you say, "Wow!"?

Imagine you traveled to another planet and discovered intelligent creatures there and you managed to learn their language. They would be of course very interested in learning about the Earth. What would you tell them? 

Shabbat Shalom


PS - Regarding the new podcast:

There are eight ways to hear it:

iTunes podcasts ... Spotify podcasts ... Google podcasts ... Sticher podcasts ...
 Podbean podcasts ... Amazon music podcasts ... Pocketcasts ... Yidpod

This week's 8-minute episode is called "Betselem or Beheima?"


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