'Five rubles says I can hit Mir from here'

Spacewalkers to go golfing outside station today
- Spaceflight Now

At this exact moment, somewhere above the Earth's mesosphere, there is a 3-gram golf ball hurtling through space around the earth. All I have to say is ABOUT FUCKING TIME.

Leave it to the Russians to actually make something worthwhile out of space travel. This totally makes up for the rabid squirrel thing. I mean who cares about science experiments that can better mankind when you can take the second greatest game on earth into space?

Huzzah for Mikhail Tyurin, I have a new role model to tack up on the wall in my garage. Until someone grows the balls to kill Jim Nantz that is. This 'Golden Tee' douchebag drones on and on in the article making it painfully obvious that finding a 'celebrity' angle was left until 45 minutes before the deadline.

I guess some kudos have to go to Element 21 Golf Co. too. I would love to know how much they actually paid to put on this stunt and then compare that with their increase in sales over the next year. Aside from never before hearing about their clubs, my initial take of their website was: daaaaaaamn. If you're not on dial-up, check it out. The amount of flash they use left me teetering on the edge of an epileptic seizure. They even have a promo video for the shot that looks like it was animated by Pixar. I wonder how well their clubs perform in a environment where gravity, wind and the obligatory pre-tee off, 4-beer-buzz factor into the equation.

One last thing - the ad guy that dreamed this whole thing up has pretty much established bragging rights for all time with this idea. This is one hell of a precedent for future advertisers to look to and, with the Russians and Richard Branson pushing the envelope for the commercialization of space, new opportunities will soon abound. I'm counting the years until I can go outside at night, look up at the moon and see a big ol' Nike swoosh right through the middle. It can't be long off now.