Little gem of information.

Just so you know I'm still awake, alive, and generally in good form, here is a little gem of general information picked up somewher recently.
When the space race started way back in time, the Americans sent up people who had occasion to write down notes on a pad. Much money was spent on counter-effecting the effects of non-gravity, but they forget that the ink in a ball-point pen would be affected also. Result? The pens didn't work!
On return to the ground, millions of $ were spent apparantly on research into this problem. Now we can all buy the results of these researches.
The poor old Russians didn't have the money to do all this, but neede to take notes as well. What did they do?
THEY USED A PENCIL!!!!! Sometimes in a modern, technological world, it is best to start in the past and do things simply!