Alien Ocean: NASA’s Mission to Europa

So... we're going to Europa soon. This is a big deal, or at least has the potential to be a big deal. Europa is one of Jupiter's moons and, as it turns out, is home to an enormous sub-ice ocean. In fact, despite the fact that Europa is much smaller than Earth, it's ocean is much larger than Earth's ocean.

Now, everywhere on Earth that we've found water, we've found life. Europa has a lot of water, therefore it might have life. If we find any form of life on Europa, then we can conclude that life exists virtually everywhere throughout the universe. The odds of life randomly springing up twice in the same back-road solar system and nowhere else are too small to quantify.

Of course, if the universe is truly infinite, as most physicists seem to believe, then not only does life exist everywhere, but lives that are nearly identical to this life exist everywhere. After all there are a finite number of elements and a finite number of ways these elements can bond together, meaning that in an infinite universe the exact specifications for our lives would be remade over and over and over again.

So, that's fun.

Everything Is Awesome - Lyric Video - Lego Movie- Tegan and Sara feat. ...

So... I love the Lego Movie. It's funny and insightful and really, really funny. It has Will Arnett, which pretty much guarantees a couple laughs. Anyway, my daughters are in love with this song, and they demand to hear it several times every day. I had never looked up the lyrics, and I apparently got them wrong in my head. There's a line that goes We're the same, I'm like you, You're like me, We're all broken and on our knees.

Only, of course, the song does not go like that at all. The actual line is We're the same, I'm like you, You're like me, We're all working in harmony.

So what the fuck is wrong with my head? Of course I would create some horrifically depressing lyrics to this song when the actual words are so much more... wholesome? Winning? Decent?

Jeez. Fail.

Back in the Saddle...

... Or something like that.

I am writing to you from the oppressive heat of India, which threatens to melt me down into a pool of sad liquid. And, of course, it's only gonna get hotter. The monsoon hasn't even hit yet, and when it does I'll be looking back on these days with longing.

My two daughters and I made it here just over a month ago, and our plan is to remain here through the end of the summer. We'll return back home to Chicago in the middle of August, leaving us just enough time to adjust our internal clocks before the older girl starts kindergarten and the younger one begins preschool.

And I still cannot believe how quickly they are growing.

That is it for now.