My stomach is not particularly weak, but I certainly taxed it last night when I watched this entire video in its full length:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojl3aiYBOwThe interesting thing is that I didn't realize any illness at all until a couple of hours after the video ended, when I went to bed. Lying down is the worst thing to do when I've got a shaken stomach.
My stomach may have been shaken, but my mind was stirred. That's why this goes in the Love thread. I've always wanted to see something like this--unedited, full-length footage of a balloon ascent into the upper atmosphere. Such a video is hard to find, presumably because most people have neither the patience nor the interest to watch such a messy visual from start to finish. This is the first time I've seen one.
I was very surprised by how much more visible the upper cloud layer is from above than from below. This suggests a working theory to a longstanding question of mine: On weather radar and satellite images, there are these huge cloud formations that I never see firsthand from here on the ground. My theory is that they're like one-way mirrors, opaque from the bright side but clear from the dark side...except that they're not smooth so they reflect diffuse white light instead of an image of the sun.
Now I need to find someone knowledgeable to check.
