Things to Do With
the Earth & the Moon

All things considered, it’s been hard to get along these days. So in the interest of building bridges and spreading a message of goodwill to our fellow, jaded humans, we’ll highlight two things today that may bring people of the whole wild world together: an Earth Jumpathon, and a Point Your Laser to the Moon activity.
Granted, you may not have heard of any sillier ways of wasting your time before. But it definitely beats bringing guests to a shooting range, or asking for their comments on a McDonald’s whopper. Just in case, thought, we’re keeping everything bouncy and light, so you won’t get so bored as to walk out like a buzzkiller would.
Since the beginning of times, earthlings have found more satisfaction while playing and tending to apparently innocuous, mindless pastimes than when forced to perform tasks. The reason is simple: our brains are better equipped to learn when they don’t have to focus attention on a single set of duties.
It is in fact, exactly those mindless activities that better train and prepare it to times when problem-solving is required, according to recent neurobiology studies. The highly variable factor in this equation about learning brains is, of course, the other members of our species.
They can represent the difference between a playful routine of the likes that help children grow and cope with the natural world, and a wide ranging social experiment, revealing deeper links underlying any group activity. The roots of our sense of community and mutual collaboration can be traced back to how much time our ancestors spent interacting with each other for no apparent gain.
These two activities to be described below also belong to that category, ‘I always wonder about.’ It’s in such file that we keep our sense of curiosity ever simmering with new queries about life, the universe, and Continue reading →