Parkour on Skis

Red Bull Media

A little ways up Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica, there's a steep hill of sand, and on any given day, you'll see skiers up there. Take that a few steps further, mix in a little parkour, give or take a little snow, and you have urban skiing, aka street skiing. And you thought slopestyle was risky! (story, video): http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26297175
   If that gets you amped, you might want to check out this whole website of videos of street skiers cheating death: http://freeskier.com/videos/rock-and-roll-with-rob-heules-2012-street-skiing-highlight-reel

Keeping Birthdays on Track

Alan Crowhurst/PA

Not that I'm a proponent of horse racing and, in fact, am quite the opposite, but this is interesting nonetheless. from wisegeek.com:

In the Northern Hemisphere, all thoroughbred horses have the same official birthday of January 1, regardless of their actual date of birth. In the Southern Hemisphere, all thoroughbred horses share the birthday of August 1. The purpose of giving all thoroughbreds the same official birthday is to more accurately categorize them by age for racing purposes. This birthday rule means that a horse born in mid-December would officially turn 1 year old less than a month later, on January 1. Breeders typically try to have their horses born as soon as possible after the official date, in order to have as much time as possible to train them for racing. After a thoroughbred horse reaches its second birthday, it generally is eligible for racing.

More about horses:

• Horses are not able to breathe through their mouths — only through their noses.


• A horse uses more energy when it is lying on the ground than when it is standing up.


• Thoroughbred horses can run at a top speed of more than 40 miles per hour (65 km/h).

A Clean Stream

A San Francisco company that, as far as I can tell from its website (http://hyphae.net/journal/) does amazing green-related things just about everywhere, has come up with the ultimate portable public urinal and sink (that can be used by women, too). The PPlanter has an attached biofilter that takes in the nutrients, protein, and carbohydrates and leaves only salt behind. It's already passed the test in a crowded San Francisco neighborhood, and the city has ordered a permanent one: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25108-toilet-planter-urinal-uses-bamboo-to-deal-with-waste.html#.UwvE5l6jXgc

Simply Choose To Forget

Electroconvulsive therapy (remember One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest?) is being looked at as a possible aid in severe cases of post-traumatic stress, the idea being that if a particular memory is the problem, the solution might well be to erase that memory ~ permanently (story, video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-26255462
   Starting with the Romans, a brief history of "medical electricity" (slideshow): http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/electroceuticals

The Pirate President

Jim Roberts

So Ukraine's now-former president is gone. The first protesters and others to enter his residential compound caught a glimpse of what his life was like behind the wrought-iron gates. The perks include a zoo (of course), a golf course, and a restaurant in the shape of a pirate ship. That bit of irony surely won't be lost on anyone (story, slideshow): http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/world/europe/dazed-ukrainians-take-first-look-at-the-opulence-their-leader-left-behind.html?hp

Now, That's Cold!

Ashley Wagner became the face of Olympic ice skating 2014.         Getty/Pool

Many, obviously including Ashley Wagner herself, thought she had skated a medal-worthy performance, and South Korean Yuna Kim's loss to Russian Adelina Sotnikova has been the subject of much talk. A medal-winning former pair skater explains the new International Judging System that caused these Olympic-size controversies. Like so many blanket rules that snub the more ethereal aspects of life, like grace and creativity, this new system was an answer to the previous, more open system's tendency to fall victim to cheating (like the Russian vote-trading episode of 2002): http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2014/02/judging-figure-skating?spc=scode&spv=xm&ah=9d7f7ab945510a56fa6d37c30b6f1709

Violence in Venezuela

AP

OK, so we understand the roots of the unrest and dissatisfaction in Ukraine (http://somanyinterestingthings.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-ukraine.html). Now what about Venezuela, a little closer to home? Protests there have turned increasingly violent. In what could be called the ultimate irony, one of the victims is Venezuela's Miss Tourism 2013 for her home state of Carabobo. The protesters are mainly students, but what's their complaint? Why has President Nicolás Maduro accused the United States of trying to destabilize his government? And who is Leopoldo López? (story, slideshow): http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/20/world/americas/venezuela-qa/
   "I'm tired of the politicians of both sides," said one protester. I think many of us in the States can relate to that sentiment.
   For a recent report on the situation and more explanatory notes, see (story, video): http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/21/world/americas/protests-swell-in-venezuela-as-places-to-rally-disappear.html

Seeing the Forest for the Trees

Sumatra, Indonesia, 2010                               Romeo Gacad/AFP/Getty Images

Between 2000 and 2012, data show, the world has lost the equivalent of 50 football fields of forest every minute. But there's good news, too. In 2003-04 and 2010-11, Brazil managed to cut its annual forest loss in half. A new online program uses NASA Landsat images, Google Maps and Google Earth engines, and algorithms developed at the University of Maryland to keep track of the state of the world's forests in near real time. Companies can use it to prove that their products are sustainable, and governments and oversight groups can use it to find those who are logging illegally: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26287137

The Teacher Plant

"It's going to kick you in the pants and show you what you need to know about yourself," says anthropologist and author Jeremy Narby. So what is this substance? It comes from the Amazon rain forest, is a combination of two plants, and the trip that results from its ingestion is usually guided by a shaman. One writer joins an ayahuasca ceremony and speaks with a higher intelligence: http://www.marieclaire.com/world-reports/ayahuasca-new-power-trip?click=main_sr

Global Self Image

NASA

Are all selfies alike, or does the culture of the place we call home influence how we imagine and photograph ourselves? Do gender and age make a difference? One group is investigating, using the selfies of citizens of five cities ~ New York, Bangkok, Berlin, Saõ Paulo, and Moscow ~ and has put together an interactive website, chronicling their findings: http://www.selfiecity.net/#

Good Eggs

Anyone who's traveled to Europe may have noticed something rather surprising about the way eggs are stored there: They are generally not refrigerated. AAAAK! Don't the Europeans worry about salmonella poisoning? Not so much ~ and the reason has to do with the difference between the way we and they handle chickens and their eggs: http://www.kcet.org/living/food/the-nosh/why-do-we-refrigerate-eggs-in-the-united-states.html

Why Ukraine?

Kiev's Independence Square, December 2013 Etienne De Malglaive/Getty Images

As all ~ or many, anyway ~ eyes are turned eastward for the Olympics in Russia, its neighbor Ukraine is in the midst of a quite different showdown. Now, too, a Ukrainian Alpine skier has withdrawn from the Olympics to protest the violence in her home country. Protests in the capital city, Kiev, and other cities are resulting in killings, mass arrests, and evidence of torture. Why? (story, videos): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25182823

Marina and the Crystal Cave

screen shot from Live at MoMA

"One thing you can leave always is a good idea, and I really wanted to have this good idea to live after me."
   Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović is focusing on her legacy, on the "good idea." And, like all of her works, this one is big and brave and bold. Like all of her works, too, it is sure to be exalted by some, imitated by others, and ridiculed by still others. The Marina Abramović Institute (MAI) "will be a kind of cultural laboratory," she explains, and it will be open to everyone. Her intent? To create a "model society," one community at a time: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/reviews/marina-abramovic-profile-1113?click=main_sr
   Abramović names 10 new artists worth watching (slideshow): http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/reviews/artists-to-watch?click=main_sr
   A short interview with Abramović as she was preparing for her MoMA show (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GD5PBK_Bto

A Leg Up on Fashion

an ad from 1948

The nylon stocking (a glimpse of which ~ as well as its predecessor, the silk stocking ~ in olden days, was looked on as something shocking, but now, God knows, anything goes*!) celebrates its 75th birthday this year. I think it's safe to say that its introduction was one of those transformative moments in the fashion world (video): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26165913

   I had heard that the word "nylon" was a combination of "N.Y." (New York) and "London" because those two cities had something to do with its invention, but alas!, great story though it is, it just ain't true. Here's how the fabric was created and the name conceived (website): http://www2.dupont.com/Phoenix_Heritage/en_US/1939_c_detail.html

   *To hear Cole Porter sing his wonderful ~ and presaging ~ "Anything Goes," go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvUIq_gBfio

Just Don't Do It

You don't have to be an environmentalist to have a reason to eschew the five foods on this Sierra Club list ~ being a humanist (and, really, aren't we all?) works, too. You can probably guess which they are, but do you know why they're on the list and what to eat instead?: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife/2014/02/bad-food-for-environmentalists.html

Flu Power

In this infamously flu-ish time of year ~ and not to make you paranoid or anything ~ I thought you might want to be aware of the following, courtesy of wisegeek.com:

How long the flu virus, or influenza virus, can live outside the body varies depending on the infected surface. For example, the virus can live for as long as 12 hours on porous materials such as tissue or cloth. Nonporous materials, such as wood or metal, can carry a live flu virus for as long as 48 hours after being infected. If a surface is wet, that can increase the life of the virus to 72 hours outside the body. The flu virus tends to live on skin for only a couple of minutes, but it can spread rapidly during that time from contact with the hands or other parts of the body. 

More about the flu virus :

• The flu virus is thought to be able to travel as far as 6 feet (1.83 km) when an infected person blows his or her nose or sneezes.


• The surfaces that most commonly harbor live flu viruses include refrigerator

Get Out'a Town!

Who hasn't dreamed of chucking it all and traveling the world or just moving to a shack in the woods for a year? Here, some who have taken that road offer tips on how to make it a smooth journey and avoid the potholes (story, slideshow): http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20140204-advice-on-quitting-your-job-and-travelling-for-a-year

The Golden Ages

Martin Luther King Jr. won Nobel Peace Prize at 35.

 So, youth is wasted on the young, the ubiquitous
 "they" say, but what, exactly, is "young"? A look at the
 ages of Nobel Prize winners indicates that our most
 productive, creative, and effective years are our
 late 30s ~ give or take, depending on the area of
 specialization: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/02/big-breakthroughs-come-in-your-late-30s/283858/
    And if you don't believe it, here's a partial list of
 Nobel Prize winners over the years by age:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/age.html

Marie Curie won Nobel for Physics at 36.

At 88, Doris Lessing is, so far, the oldest winner of a Nobel in Literature.

Souvenirs of Lost Love

Now that Valentine's Day 2014 has officially come and gone, it's safe to pull this chestnut out of the fire. I first posted about this intriguing place a couple of years ago (http://somanyinterestingthings.blogspot.com/2012/10/exhibit-a.html), but it came to my attention again in this well-written column by the author of a book called The Memory of Love. Welcome to the Museum of Broken Relationships. As I said in my first post about it, yes, such a place really exists: http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/places/anonymous/broken-relationships
The person who donated this glass horse wrote, in part, "1982-1997, Maribor, Slovenia ... Old memories ~ if I remember correctly, my husband and I took a trip to Venice. It was a splendid day, the sun was shining. I was young, I was in love. I had wonderful dreams about our future. ..."

I See

example of how macular degeneration affects eyesight                from afb.org

Two interesting things in one here (such a deal!): In a story that was picked up by a few news outlets, a recent study on mice seems to show that exercise, in addition to all its other known benefits, can prevent macular degeneration, in which the eye's photoreceptors degenerate and die, leading to blindness: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25039-exercise-could-help-prevent-agerelated-blindness.html#.Uv__8fajXgc
   That's the first interesting thing. The second is that when I researched the subject a little further, I found the following: According to a 2006 story on WebMD, "A new study suggests that regular exercise can reduce the risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) by up to 70%." This study followed about 4,000 men and women in a town in Wisconsin for 15 years: http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/news/20061030/exercise-may-protect-eyesight
   Another article, from 2009, reported on two studies that tracked runners and