Here’s an old chestnut: the original Star Wars trailer exhibited six months before the film’s release. It’s a collection of seemingly random clips—probably because much of the unfinished movie has yet to be filmed—when the movie studio wasn’t sure what the film was about or if the film would bomb or hit. The trailer also lacks the firms musical score. Note the voiceover’s unintentionally tentative tone!
When I was growing up, I was a big fan of the mountaineer John Harlin II, who tragically was killed when a falling rock severed the rope he was hanging from during the first directissima ascent of the Eiger‘s legendary North Face, a climbing route that’s subsequently became known as the Harlin Route.
So, I was pleased to see his son John Harlin III, who was age nine when his father died but nowadays also is a mountaineer and the editor-in-chief of the American Alpine Club‘s American Alpine Journal, and who is now my age, is endeavoring to circumnavigate Switzerland by traveling entirely along that country’s borders.
If that doesn’t sound hard, understand that:
All of that is a formidable endeavor for any athlete or outdoorsman. Indeed, Harlin fell while climbing the alpine Franco-Swiss border on the tenth day of his journey, broke a rib and five bones in his feet, and had to suspend his endeavor.
He’s now resumed his journey, but this time is starting at the headwaters of the Rhine and by tomorrow should reach Basel, completing the Rhine river portion of his journey. Swissinfo.ch, the website of Swiss Radio International, is sponsoring the journey, and you can read Harlin’s daily trip blog there.
This photo makes me look so stupid that I had to publicly post it!
It’s Gin & Tonic time at sunset on the plains of the Shamwari Game Reserve, near Sidbury, Eastern Cape, South Africa. At left, Safari guide Jamie Keenan and Australian surfing photographer Jan Wainwright-Wilson with hors d’oeuvres, mainly cheese and dried antelope jerky. Photo by Emma Rodriguez Suarez. Immediately after this photo, I remember watching a herd of rhinoceros a few hundred meters to my left. Beats any bar in Manhattan!
Prior to World War II, airline flight attendants were required to be registered nurses. How the qualifications for that jobs has changed! Here is a recent (yesterday) video a passenger shot aboard a Cebu Pacific Airlines flight on which flight attendants danced their recitation of the airline’s Airbus safety instructions.
No surprisingly, six months ago Cebu Pacific, a discount airline based in Manila, was banned from flying to European Union countries. EU officials decided that the airline’s safety and aircraft maintenance practices weren’t safe enough. The EU also banned most other airlines based in the Philippines.
The Willimantic Experience from Jake Williams on Vimeo.
’Romantic’ Willimantic, my hometown, from the viewpoint of students at Eastern Connecticut State University in the Prospect Hill neighborhood where I grew up. Not quite the ‘Heroin Town’ CBS’s 60 Minutes portray it as 7 years ago. Willimantic is also the market town for the University of Connecticut (UCONN), 7 miles north in rural Storrs.
1. SYRACUSE, NEW YORK “Cold,” “clammy,” “snowy” are three great ways to describe Syracuse weather—from October through April. Winter starts very early and lasts late, with plenty of snow and extremely cold temperatures. Winter daytime temperatures average in the lower 30s, with nighttime lows in the teens, but temperatures as low as minus 25°F have been recorded. Snow also makes winter uncomfortable in Syracuse, averaging almost 120 inches per season. During the winter of 2009–2010, Syracuse was again the winner of the prestigious “Golden Snowball Award,” celebrating the city with most snowfall for the winter in upstate New York, beating out such snowy cities as Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Binghamton. Syracuse also made our Farmers’ Almanac “10 Worst” list in 2002. Another reason why this city makes the worst winter weather list — December, January, and February are typically gloomy, with Syracuse receiving only onethird of the sunshine possible, because of considerable cloud cover.
Remind me again how lucky I am to live here!
I’m bemused that the controversy about plans to open an Islamic community center in lower Manhattan is occuring in the same year that Miss USA is a Muslim, Rimi Fakih.
Shortly after I biked to work one day this summer, the Navigate New Media blog interviewed me about the the Monetizing Online Business conference that I co-chaired on June 25, 2010, in New York City. I must begin keeping a spare shirt in my office. And if only they could build a shower in my office, too!
Masato Akamatsu, outfielder for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, runs up the wall and denies Yokohoma’s Shuichi Murata a home run during a game on August 3, 2010.
American, Russian, French, British, Swedish, and Chinese anti-ship missiles that fly at supersonic speeds and are now programmed to maneuver evasively as they attack. For several decades, the defense modern navies have used against those threats are computer-automated, radar-guide modern Gatling guns that fire hundreds of spent-uranium bullets at attacking aircraft or missiles. However, even those guns can overwhelmed if too many aircraft or missiles attack a ship.
The U.S. Navy is experimenting with laser guns defenses. Here’s a video, shown at the Farnborough (UK) Airshow this summer, which shows a 32-kilowatt infrared laser illuminating and setting fire to the wingtip of a remotely-controlled drone aircraft. The laser was built by Raytheon Missile Systems of Tuscon, Arizona. “Three similar drones were also successfully engaged at militarily significant distances by the solid-state laser” in May and June, said Mike Booen, the firm’s vice president. “It’s a world first over open sea.”
Ray gun warefare is a reality.
I was honored on Wednesday, July 14, 2010, to give the Singapore Press Holdings Foundation’s third annual Media Lecture, before an audience of 400 people in the Drama Centre of the National Library of Singapore. Here is Razor TV’s news coverage of the speech.
Bookmakers’ odd are out for the 2010 World Cup. Most favor Spain. In fact, bookmakers StanJames.com will refund new client’s betting registration fee if Spain wins. The firm currently gives these odds on the favorite teams: