Two news reports from Down Under have left me shaking my head. First, Mr. Jason Grant was collecting crocodile eggs on a croc farm when he was attacked by one of the beasts. His unnamed co-worker fired two shots at the crocodile, hitting it with one but shooting his colleague in the arm with the… Continue reading Does marksmanship in Australia leave something to be desired?
Tag: Interesting facts
The Mile High Club’s origins
It seems that the Mile High Club may be rather older than one might imagine. It’s said that the first recorded incident of mile-high mischief may have been undertaken by a pilot, one Lawrence Sperry, and his trainee pilot passenger, Mrs. (!) Waldo Polk, in November 1916. The two were airborne in his Curtiss flying-boat… Continue reading The Mile High Club’s origins
Surgeons and video games – a natural combination?
This one makes me wonder . . . A study by the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona has found that surgical residents performed better during simulated surgery after playing games on the Nintendo Wii console for an hour beforehand. The study found that “only those games requiring precise movements, like Marble Mania… Continue reading Surgeons and video games – a natural combination?
Twenty days, 10,000 visits!
At 8.11 p.m. on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008, this blog went live. At 8.15:02 a.m. this morning, Sunday, January 20th, 2008, my 10,000th viewer arrived. In 19½ days of blogging, that averages to a little over 500 visitors per day – a wonderful start for this blog. My heartfelt thanks to all of you who’ve… Continue reading Twenty days, 10,000 visits!
Racing car versus airliner – who wins?
Today an interesting race took place in New Zealand. It was between an A1GP racing car and an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200, each occupying adjoining runways at the Auckland International Airport. The plane won the first heat, but the racing car won the second. There are two good videos of the event. The first… Continue reading Racing car versus airliner – who wins?
Way To Go, Marines! Semper Fi!
I can’t tell you how pleased I am to read reports like this. It seems that the US Marine Corps, through a ‘junior military reserve program’, is organizing highly disciplined schooling for teenagers in troubled areas. An article discusses the program at the Marine Military Math and Science Academy in Chicago, which is described as… Continue reading Way To Go, Marines! Semper Fi!
An historical treasure-trove is now online
This is huge, friends. Huge. At least, if you’re at all interested in the history of knowledge, how we’ve come to understand ourselves and our world, and how we’re going to tackle the problems currently facing humanity. The British journal Nature was founded almost 140 years ago. Its first issue appeared on November 4, 1869.… Continue reading An historical treasure-trove is now online
Two adventurers make it across the Tasman Sea – by kayak!
Last year two adventurers in Australia, James Castrission and Justin Jones, decided to take their kayak for a paddle . . . a fourteen-hundred-mile paddle, to be exact. They would attempt the first crossing by kayak of the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. Their morale can’t have been helped by the news that… Continue reading Two adventurers make it across the Tasman Sea – by kayak!
Harbin Festival
During this month the Harbin International Ice And Snow Sculpture Festival is under way in northern China. It’s one of the great festivals of its kind in the world, and one of my ambitions is to visit it at least once before I die. Last month “15,000 workers began cutting ice blocks from the river’s… Continue reading Harbin Festival
The most important car in years?
Although I’ve put a question-mark behind the title of this post, I think the just-announced Tata Motors ‘Nano’ car really is the most important car to come along in years. It’s certainly got other major manufacturers thinking hard, with Volkswagen, Ford, Renault and Nissan already announcing plans for their own bare-bones vehicles. The reason it’s… Continue reading The most important car in years?