January 9, 2014: Today we celebrate Balloon Ascension Day, when Jean Pierre Blanchard first took a trip up into the skies above America (he’d actually taken his first balloon trip near Paris in 1784, but we Americans are all about us). It’s also National Static Electricity Day — the weather is cold and dry, so why not build up a charge by putting on your Shocky Socky Suity-Suit and giving your friends a zap?