Found here.When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300 degrees Celsius. The Russians used a pencil.
"In the post-meditative experience become a child of illusion" is a slogan from the Tibetan mind training tradition. We engage the world as we experience it all the while realizing that reality is not as it seems to be.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Just because it's funny
I don't know if this is true or not (about the Russians, I mean) but it does illustrate how we like to complicate things:
Funny story, invented ca. 1997, with no basis in fact.
ReplyDeleteSee http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_zero_gravity_pen.htm
Oh, okay. Thanks for the info, Tom. Not surprising that it's an urban legend type story. Still funny, though! :-)
ReplyDelete