Happy World Water Day! – 3 second water movies from Surfrider

The Story of Water: Surfrider Foundation’s 3 Second Movie Collection

In celebration of World Water Day, the Surfrider Foundation, Teva and GoPro challenged our supporters to try and capture the essence of water in just three seconds. These are their stories…

Founded in 1993 by the United Nations, World Water Day is a global observance that highlights the need for care and management of our world’s water resources. The Surfrider Foundation celebrates World Water Day to help educate and drive awareness and support for its various clean water campaigns and programs.

For additional information on the Surfrider Foundation’s World Water Day activations, visit http://wwd.surfrider.org.

California traffic fatalities down 37% – lowest level since 1944

The California Office of Traffic Safety celebrated their fifth year of consecutive declines in traffic related fatalities.

In 2010, the number of fatalities in the Golden State dropped to 2,715.  That is nearly a 12 percent drop from 3,081 traffic deaths in 2009.  And since the peak in 2005, with 4,333 deaths, California’s numbers have declined by more than 37 percent.

The number of traffic fatalities in California have not been this low since 1944, when only one-tenth the number of vehicles were on the road, driving only one-sixteenth the number of miles California drivers traveled in 2010.

via The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation

 

A very, very big deal considering that driving is one of the top killers in the U.S.:

  • Heart disease: 599,413
  • Cancer: 567,628
  • Automobiles: 359,000
  • Chronic Respiratory: 137,353
  • Stroke: 128,842

 

Statistics from 2009 reports by the CDC and U.S. Census.

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Another report claims that the drop could be due to new cellphone bans, “deaths blamed on drivers using hand-held cellphones were down 47 percent.” via Huffington Post

Man flies like a bird for 100 meters – using “selfbuilt wings”

Subtitles from Dutch

  • I was running…and…(breathing heavy)
  • At one moment you see the ground moving away, and then suddenly you’re free, a really intense feeling of freedom.
  • The true feeling of flying. A **cking magical moment!
  • The best feeling I have felt in my life.

 

From the project website, humanbirdwings.net –

Right here, on this blog I share everything about my crazy plan to build my own wings. My goal? To fly with it! Something Leonardo DaVinci, my grandfather and I dreamed of for a long time. But this summer I decided to really start building it.

 

There was some discussion about the authenticity of this video, but the MythBusters team tackled that:

The video of Jarno Smeets’ flight is cool, and I don’t see evidence that it was faked. It seems reasonable to accomplish, and is something I have wanted to try for a long time.

The still photos of the parts on a table are helpful and the components are appropriate to what the item does in the air. The motors are rare earth magnet low RPM, high torque, outrunners that look in the neighborhood of 3000 watts or so each. So you could have an output of just under 10hp there. The speed controllers look to be appropriate to those motors, and the batteries are lithium ion. This is all appropriate…

via Tested

 

Thx to Don Burke

Images of Albert Einstein’s 1921 Nobel Prize medal and certificate

In 1922, the Royal Swedish Academy awarded Albert Einstein the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics. The official announcement came when Einstein was on a lecture tour in Japan. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was, at that time, still controversial and members of the Swedish Academy avoided the issue by granting him the prize for his groundbreaking contribution to the understanding of the Photoelectric Effect. Some of them did support General Relativity, but a mere eclipse was not enough proof for all committee members to risk their reputations on Einstein’s new theory.

via The Einstein Archives – His Personal Life

 

Much more available in the Einstein Archives.

Thoughts on writing from John Steinbeck

“Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.”

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“If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that makes a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story.”

via Brain Pickings

From the leading company in the Obstacle Course Industry – Tough Mudder

Tough Mudder events are hardcore 10-12 mile obstacle courses designed by British Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie.

…with 25-30 military-style obstacles. As the leading company in the booming obstacle course industry, Tough Mudder has already challenged 500,000 participants worldwide.

FACT #1 – Marathon running is boring.
FACT #2 – Mudders do not take themselves too seriously.
FACT #3 – You cannot complete a Tough Mudder course alone.

via Tough Mudder

Complaints Medieval monks scribbled in the margins

“Now I’ve written the whole thing: for Christ’s sake give me a drink.”

“Oh, my hand.”

“Thank God, it will be dark soon.”

“I am very cold.”

“As the harbor is welcome to the sailor, so is the last line to the scribe.”

 

Find more at Brain Pickings

 

// Photo via Muffet

World’s longest bridal train – 1.85 miles long and in a hot air balloon

A model rides in a hot air balloon to show the worlds longest wedding dress train during a Guinness World Record attempt in Bucharest, Romania, Tuesday, March 20, 1012. Romania has set the world record for the world’s longest bridal train. The nearly 3-kilometer (1.86-mile) long ivory train, which took 100 days to stitch, was showcased dramatically on Tuesday on the boulevard leading up to the giant palace built by late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, seen in background. The previous record was 2.488 Km.

via UT San Diego

 

// Photos via Daily Mail and The Telegraph.