Great post Phil.

Oh, lighten up! It’s just a birthday party! So the mom went overboard in the construction department; is that a crime these days? I saw lots of fun and creativity done relatively cheaply–much better than renting out the local entertainment centre/Chuck-E-Cheese or hiring entertainers for mucho $$. And I bet the guests at the party had a ball.

Our family (as does our neighbourhood) tends to go overboard on Halloween–we start costume-making for our son months in advance (samples on our site). Ego boost for the parents? Okay, sure. Fun for the kids? Definitely. But, please, try not to read too much into it, that OMG the parents must be competitive harpies trying to outdo everyone else… I guarantee you, we’re pretty chill the rest of the year.

She wanted a “science” party so we did “experiments” with mentos and diet coke, separating the colors of magic markers using filter paper, and had red cabbage juice to test acid/base of various substances (vinegar, etc.)

Our older daughter (now 11) has asked for “mad scientist” parties the past few years. Of course, we had the aforementioned Diet Cola and Mentos. We also had things such as the liquid from boiled red cabbage (which is blue), plus lemon juice (yellow), and then mix blue and yellow to get red. Then we usually just let the kids loose with the remaining things — vinegar, baking soda, and so on — and experiment until the supplies run out. Fortunately, the weather is usually good enough to do this outside, since it’s rather messy, and we haven’t killed the lawn yet.

Now, maybe someone here can help me out… Many years ago, I saw a video where two clear liquids were mixed, by pouring them back and forth between two jars. Then, several seconds after the mixing was started, the entire thing (including the liquid in mid-pour) would change color all at once. I’ve looked all over, and can’t find out what those liquids were made of.

My two favourite birthday games, if people want to borrow them, are these:

Spider Game –

A giant spider has got loose and twisted web around furniture: set out a patch of chairs and tables, measure out string to be the same length (don’t make it to long!) for each kid, tie one end of each bit of string somewhere on the furniture and wind the string around and over the furniture so there’s a massive ‘web’ of string among the chairs. Let the loose end of the string end up on the outside of the web so it’s accessible and tie it to a pencil.

At the party, eveyone must follow their string, winding it around a pencil, until they get to the end. At the beginning, they must climb over and under each other’s (or perhaps their own) string. The first person to reach the end of their string wins.

Smartie Game –

From a simpler time. Put out plates in a row along the ground and a smartie (m&m for Americans) on each plate. The idea is to go along and vacuum up each smartie with your mouth. Time each person and wipe and reset the plates each time. Person with the shortest time wins.

We created a scale model of our solar system in my neighborhood (3000 feet from Sun to Pluto). Due to popular demand, we included Pluto, but we all watched Neil de Grasse Tyson’s Pluto Files to understand its new classification. We even broke open a space-man pinata full of Milky Ways, Starbursts, Pop Rocks, and I even splurged for Astronaut Ice Cream. I had disc one of Cosmos playing in the back ground during meals and we also sat down for an episode of The Universe on the Sun.

If any of you are interested in created a scale model of our solar system that is walkable, start with an 8 inch bowling ball for the sun. Everything else is pins heads except for Jupiter (walnut), Saturn (acorn), Uranus and Neptune (coffee beans).

We also had a store-bought cake. Spent all of the time preparing for the experiments.

When I said Private Companies I also meant companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, every company with a ‘dyne’ suffuix, etc. Yes the smaller private companies (which are somehow thought of as the only private companies, not just by you but most people I talk to about government v private space) are using old tech, they can’t afford large R&D projects yet. But the lucky engineers with the big budgets are ones working for companies rolling in military money, and only treat civilian space as a side project.

But then you linked this astronaut party.

I did not know just how capable I was of envy. Or how deep and brilliantly incisive that bitter envy could run. And now you have made me aware.

And that makes me irrationally unhappy with everything having to do with that birthday party.

I hate you, Dr. Plait. I never even had *a* birthday party growing up, much less one so in line with my hobbyist interests.

The closest thing to that we had in my neighborhood was a dad that made a “haunted trail” for halloween. All sorts of those sorts of simple props (crazy dude jumping out with a chain saw, ghosts hanging from trees etc) just done with lots of polish and drama.

Kids really enjoy those sorts of things. It’s easier for them to let their imaginations loose when the adults participate and put in some effort too!

The invitations were done like a letter from Hogwarts, and included a “secret password” (written in invisible ink, along with the “spell” required to read it) that you needed in order to get in. We had the Sorting Hat (with a baby monitor hidden inside it, so it could “talk”) divide everyone into two teams. You were given a bag of gold coins (pennies spray-painted) and had to “buy” your supplies. (Things for your goodie-bag, like magic wands, chocolate frogs, and the like.) The games included things like “pin the tail on Dudley”. Food included “pumpkin juice” (orange fruit punch, with the label replaced), along with a sample of “Muggle foods” (like pizza).

Again, simple (for the kids) but still fun.

We still get comments every now and then from parents of the other kids. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to do things like that anymore.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA

Burt Rutan, Elon Musk, and Robert Bigelow (i.e., “Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, or Bigelow Aerospace”) all got to space by obtaining technologies which NASA has already passed over. Specifically, SpaceShip One implemented a ’60′s engineering study using modern materials; the Merlin engine was taken from two or three Marshall Space Flight Center tech demonstrators; and Bigelow bought the IP rights to NASA’s TransHab lock, stock, and barrel.

Although I’ll freely and repeatedly admit that electronics are being advanced by outside research (both private companies, and academic groups). Space just isn’t a big-enough market to outdraw terrestrial applications, so space gets the leftovers.