Looking for a true out-of-this-world vacation? Then you are in luck! On Thursday, April 5, Texas-based start-up Orion Span announced they were taking reservations for Aurora Station, the world’s first luxury hotel in space, which is expected to launch in 2021 and begin welcoming visitors by 2022.
The pill-shaped fully modular space station, which begins construction in 2019, will measure 43.5 feet long and 14.1 feet wide — about the size of a large private jet's cabin — when complete. It will accommodate four guests in two private suites and two crew members, most likely former astronauts. Hovering about 200 miles (322 kilometers) above Earth, Aurora Station will rotate the planet once every 90 minutes, enabling guests to enjoy 16 spectacular sunrises and sunsets daily, as well as scores of the breathtaking northern and southern auroras that the hotel is named.

​While admiring the beauty of our planet, interstellar tourists can nosh on non-astronaut food and drinks or entertain themselves with playing cards and the holodeck virtual reality platform on board. Those hoping to do something more worthwhile will be able to engage in astronaut-like experiments such as growing food in the micro-g environment. The Wi-Fi enabled spacecraft will make it easy for guests to share their experiences with friends and family members on Earth. At the end of the week and half-long vacation, rejuvenated guests will be treated to a special “hero’s welcome,” similar to the one experienced by astronauts returning from a real mission.

Mention goldfish, and the image that comes to mind is that of small, colorful creatures swimming in circles in fish bowls or home aquariums. However, the one recently discovered by biologists conducting a fish survey at a South Carolina lake was no ordinary goldfish - it was a 9-pound, 15-inch-long behemoth!
The massive marine animal was discovered in the 12-acre Oak Grove Lake in Greenville, SC, on November 16, 2020. It came to light accidentally when the researchers were testing the aquatic ecosystem's health through electrofishing. Commonly used in scientific surveys, the harmless technique gently shocks fish and forces them to rise to the water's surface, allowing surveyors to determine the abundance, density, and species composition. "All of a sudden, this giant fish jumped out and into the net, and we quickly snapped a photo while examining it," Ty Houck, director of Greenways, Natural and Historic Resources for the Greenville County Recreation District, told CNN.

The experts, who released the goldfish back into the water soon after, are unsure how it got there or how long it has been living in the lake. "We think someone must have just dropped their fish in the lake because they didn't want it anymore, instead of flushing it down the toilet," Houck said. He attributes the fish's size to its large home and the abundance of food. "Goldfish grow to the size of their environment," Houck said. "To have a 9-pound goldfish survive in our lake must mean we are doing something right."
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Perhaps you need to unplug and take a walk.I suggested this to a friend earlier this week. Throughout recent weeks while our country has been so divided, he has been riddled with anxiety, fear, even anger. I looked at him and asked, “When was the last time you took 24 hours to turn it all off and disconnect? Unplug? No cell phone. No computer. No TV. When was the last time you woke up in the middle of the night, anxious, and didn’t automatically reach for your phone? When was the last time you stepped away from the noise of this world and took a long walk with the Lord?”
“He has made it clear to you, mortal man, what is good and what the LORD is requiring from you — to act with justice, to treasure the LORD’s gracious love, and to walk humbly in the company of your God.” Micah 6:8
Bridging the Gap blog #hurthealedwhole Photo credit: Vicki Hill
Unplug. Take a Walk.The answer my friend gave me was vague. Perhaps he doesn’t feel it necessary to disconnect from technology. Or, like so many, he thinks it necessary to hear the words of man. But I realized that I probably shouldn’t be making this suggestion if I wasn’t taking my own advice. It was time to unplug and take a very long walk.

Isaiah 30:15 nails it: “Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me. The very thing you have been unwilling to do.”
So I did so … after two days of procrastinating.
The truth is that once I turned the mirror on myself and decided to disconnect, unplug, and take that walk, it was harder than I thought. I needed to start dinner, I needed to pay that bill, I needed to head to that meeting at church. And what was I missing on Facebook?
We cannot text while we are praying. We cannot scroll through Facebook while we are worshipping. We can’t seek dependence on God, if our eyes, hands, and heart are continually focused on images other than Him.
But I finally listened to that sweet, convicting voice that is like none other. The voice pulling me by the hand to walk with Him. I turned off my phone and let the important people in my life know that if they wanted to reach me, they would have to wait.
Invite God to Speak.A few minutes into my walk, I passed by a neighbor. For a moment I considered asking her to walk with me. But God laid a word picture on my heart so fast: that of my neighbor agreeing to walk with me, but she set out in the opposite direction. We tried to talk, to share and listen, but the more our paths widened, the less I could hear her voice. And so it is with God’s voice.
I thanked Him for that fleeting image, and humbly prayed, “Lord, God. Allow me to walk alongside you. Please speak to me. I am listening.” These are words that God honors, just the way a father does when his child snuggles up beside him and says, “Daddy, let’s talk.”
When I checked my phone a day later, I found that nothing had happened in that 24 hours that needed my immediate direct attention. Unplugging for a day hadn’t crashed my world, after all. In fact, just the opposite. I found that when I stepped away from all my distractions, I felt comforted. I found profound peace, a mysterious reassurance that all was well, and a deep, profound love for others. His love.
The language God uses in our ears is different for each of us, but we need to unplug from the noise of the world to clearly hear His voice. Disconnect. Take a walk. Invite Him to join you, and invite Him to speak.

​The fact that New York bagels are delicious is undisputed. After all, who can argue with the incredible taste of the freshly-made hand-rolled delights that are available at the city's numerous bakeries. So how does one improve something that is already perfect? By adding a splash of color or in the case of The Bagel Store, multiple colors.
The Brooklyn-based bakery has been rolling out 'rainbow' bagels or what owner Scott Rossilo refers to as the 'world's most beautiful' bagel for two decades. However, though extremely popular with the locals, the rest of the world is just discovering them.

Rossilo says that creating the bagels is so complex that the store can bake just 100 every five hours. To put it in perspective this is the same amount of time it takes the team to make 5,000 ordinary bagels. Since a bagel this gorgeous cannot be eaten with just ordinary cream cheese, the bakery has created a smear that features colorful funfetti. As a happy customer quips, "it is like eating cake for breakfast!!"
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In September 2015, Purin, a nine-year-old female beagle made headlines when she broke the record for the most goals (14) caught by a dog with the paws in a single minute. On March 22, which happened to be National Puppy Day, the talented dog that lives in Japan, did it again.
This time, the pooch won the admiration of the folks at the Guinness World Records for traveling 10 meters on a ball in a speedy quick 11.90 seconds. We wonder what record the super beagle will break next!

Extreme athletes have been using wingsuits — unique jumpsuits with fabric stitched between the arms and body and between the legs — to fly untethered for many years. However, while the "birdman" or "squirrel" suits allow daredevils to soar in the skies, the pull of gravity makes it impossible to accelerate or fly higher. To push past the limitations, Austrian stuntman Peter Salzmann teamed up with German car manufacturer BMW. The result is an electrified wingsuit, which allows flyers to zoom to higher altitudes at speeds of up to 186 miles per hour!
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​The 33-year-old professional wingsuit pilot first thought of creating the revolutionary design in 2017. “At the time, I was developing suits for skydiving and base jumping with a friend and base jumping mentor,” he explains. “In a relaxed atmosphere one evening after a day of testing, we threw out lots of ideas about how we could improve performance. One of them was a supporting motor – and it’s an idea I just couldn’t shake. I found the idea of being able to jump from my local mountain wearing the wingsuit and land in my garden fascinating.”

To help with the process, Salzmann reached out to the experts at BMW’s Designworks Studio. It took the team three years, numerous prototypes, and multiple tests jumps to perfect the design. The result is a modified wingsuit with two chest-mounted 5-inch (13-cm), 25,000 rpm carbon propellers. Powered by a 50-volt lithium battery, the propellers can be controlled using an on/off switch and even stopped mid-flight using the emergency button, if the flyer encounters an airplane or a flock of birds.
Salzmann had initially planned to showcase the radical suit by flying over three skyscrapers — two of the same height and the third slightly taller — in Busan, South Korea, in spring 2020. However, after the coronavirus pandemic caused the public demonstration to be canceled, Salzmann opted for a more picturesque location — the Hohe Tauern mountain range in Austria.
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The residents of Florida, which is home to over one million alligators, are no strangers to the apex predators. The massive animals are frequently encountered in swimming pools, ditches, and garages. In 2019, Palm Coast resident Donna Heiss even saw a 7-foot gator peeking through her window! However, the giant reptile recently spotted in Naples, Florida, impressed even the most jaded Floridians.
The approximately 10-foot-long alligator was seen lumbering toward a pond by the 17th hole at the Valencia Golf and Country Club on November 13, 2020. Tyler Stolting, a golf professional at the club who filmed the now-viral video, told The Post, “I was a little shocked, obviously. It was pretty big, biggest one I’ve ever seen!" However, alligators are a common sight at the golf course, and neither he, nor his colleague, Jeff Jones, are concerned about the predator's appearance. When asked if it posed any danger to golfers, Jones quipped, "As long as nobody is feeding him, they will be fine."

As if being home to alligators is not enough, Florida is the only place in the world to also harbor crocodiles. Though the two reptile species often get mixed up, they are very different and do not even belong to the same biological family. Alligators, which sport a dark blackish-gray color, dwell in freshwater habitats and have shorter, more rounded snouts. Thanks to a larger upper jaw, their teeth disappear when their mouths are closed.
Crocodiles, meanwhile, are equipped with special glands in their tongues that can excrete excess salt from their bodies, allowing them to live at sea for weeks. The olive-colored reptiles also have longer, sharper snouts and show their teeth even when their large jaws are shut. Adult crocodiles can grow up to 19 feet long — a full 5 feet more than alligators, which peak at about 14 feet.