Friday, June 24, 2005
Have A Wetass Weekend...
In honor of the A Cat Worlds, currently being dominated by TWC friend Pete Melvin...
Department Of Dumbassery...
Give this guy credit for guts ("Life's too short not to go big. You gotta go big")...and hubris...and stupidity. Big cliff, plus mountain bike equals, well, click here to watch...
"Looks great. Hey, I think I'll jump my bike off it..."
"Looks great. Hey, I think I'll jump my bike off it..."
Holy Hydroptere...
Hold on tight. Alan Thebault's wild design--a cross between a trimaran, a hydrofoil, and a waterbug--will set out tomorrow from Cadiz, Spain for San Salvador in the Bahamas in an attempt to break the east-west transatlantic record. The current record is held by Steve Fossett's PlayStation at 9 days, 13 hours, 30 minutes and Hydroptere certainly has the legs to beat the required average speed of 16.2 knots if--and it's a huge IF--the spindly thing can stay together for the passage. I'm skeptical, but you never know. Regardless of what happens, Hydroptere is a spectacular machine, and if you want to see what she looks like at speed, go to the updated and much-improved website and click on the movie. This is going to be a good one...
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Cool Clouds...
Space, A Crumbling Frontier...
Want to be the first one on your block to fly into space, to experience zero gravity, to puke your guts out? You're in luck. Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, the first commercial space airline, is now open for reservations. You can sign up to discuss your booking (and whether you need to update your will) here. And if you are welcomed aboard it will only cost you a cool, umm, $200,000. If you are not sure mortgaging your entire life will be worth a brief fling into space, you can watch this very slick simulation to get your rockets running. Will I be signing up? Nope. If NASA can't fly people safely into space and back, I'm not sure I think Virgin Galactic can either. This thing has Titanic written all over it...
"Now, remember, make sure you hand out the barf bags before you pass the champagne..."
"Now, remember, make sure you hand out the barf bags before you pass the champagne..."
Annals Of Animal Achievement: How Deep Does A Dolphin Dive?
Well, thanks to an innovative satellite tag tracking program we now know the answer. Early this month, Bermudiana, a wild dolphin fitted with a tag, went down to almost 2000 feet. That's pretty damn deep. No wonder the U.S. Navy has long been interested in trained dolphins for rescue and recon work. You can read all about Bermudiana and the tagging program here. And here's a cool website, devoted entirely to, you guessed it: dolphins...
"I could have gone deeper, but I ran into a mean-ass sperm whale..."
"I could have gone deeper, but I ran into a mean-ass sperm whale..."
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Wetass Video Of The Week: El Gigante...
Time to leave the office for a little BASE jumping break. Click here to get inside Damian Doucette's head as he leaps off the highest rock face in Mexico. You'll be reaching for the rip cord...
Whopping Wall: "I'm a big ol' bast*rd, no...?"
Whopping Wall: "I'm a big ol' bast*rd, no...?"
Wetass Wildlife...
It's not easy being an elephant seal on Macquarie Island...
The Fight: "Hey, you bit my ear off..."
The Prize: "Okay, ladies. Looks like we're gonna have to live with the fat one with big teeth..."
The Fight: "Hey, you bit my ear off..."
The Prize: "Okay, ladies. Looks like we're gonna have to live with the fat one with big teeth..."
Geronimo's Junket...
You are Olivier De Kersauson, proud owner of a 120-foot white elephant. Bruno Peyron and Orange II have put the Jules Verne record out of reach and you are stuck in Australia after breaking down during Tracy Edwards' lame race around the world. What do you do? You could sell the boat...or you could make up a new record to attack. That record would be the outright round Australia record, and today Geronimo took off on her lonely quest to maintain some sort of relevance in the world of mega-multihull record breaking. This will be a record of dubious distinction, and there are million more of a similar ilk (around Tasmania, around Long Island, Cape Town to Rio...you get the idea) that De Kersauson can invent if he wants to keep at it. Anyhow, at least he has put together an excellent website, on which you can follow his minor league quests. Don't get me wrong. Geronimo is a great boat. You can see why in this short video clip. But she belongs to a previous design generation that has been surpassed. De Kersauson is going to need a new boat if he wants to go after real records again...
"Hey, Olivier! After this one let's try to set a Sydney-Ushuaia record..."
(Photo: Andrea Francolini via Sailing Anarchy)
"Hey, Olivier! After this one let's try to set a Sydney-Ushuaia record..."
(Photo: Andrea Francolini via Sailing Anarchy)
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Now For Some Good, Clean Fun...
Which we really need, given the news just below. So sit back and take a sail in the Hobie Trifoiler, the closest you or I will ever come to setting a sailing speed record. They claim 30-knots plus. Click here to set sail and see if you believe it...
"Very nice, Bob, but what happens when we hit a ferry wake...?"
"Very nice, Bob, but what happens when we hit a ferry wake...?"
Annals Of Absurdity....
Ahh, Mount McKinley. North America's highest peak. A journey into nature, thin air and...this is bad, very bad...virus-laden human fesces. Seems the upper slopes of ol' Denali are becoming every bit as bad a minefield as any urban street, thanks to frigid temps and a multitude of climbers who can't be bothered to wander too far to take care of business, or clean up after themselves ("hey, dude, do you have any baggies...?"). A recent study shows that if the mountain doesn't get you, the diahrrea will.
"They think they're going out on a pristine climb and there's virus-laden poo all around them," said Dr. Bradford Gessner, a mountaineer and one of the study's authors...
The National Park Service already has started a clean-up campaign, including the distribution of devices called clean mountain cans to store feces for removal from the mountain, said Roger Robinson, lead mountaineering ranger for Denali National Park and Preserve, site of McKinley...
"It's just an ice pack up there. You really can't dig down and bury anything," he said.
Sad. Yet more evidence that there are not only too many climbers crawling all over the world's great mountains, but also too many climbers who don't give a sh.., err, damn, about the mountains themselves...
High Altitude Latrine: "Can you hurry up and snap the picture? I really gotta go..."
"They think they're going out on a pristine climb and there's virus-laden poo all around them," said Dr. Bradford Gessner, a mountaineer and one of the study's authors...
The National Park Service already has started a clean-up campaign, including the distribution of devices called clean mountain cans to store feces for removal from the mountain, said Roger Robinson, lead mountaineering ranger for Denali National Park and Preserve, site of McKinley...
"It's just an ice pack up there. You really can't dig down and bury anything," he said.
Sad. Yet more evidence that there are not only too many climbers crawling all over the world's great mountains, but also too many climbers who don't give a sh.., err, damn, about the mountains themselves...
High Altitude Latrine: "Can you hurry up and snap the picture? I really gotta go..."
Kiss My Grass II...
Wait, wait, it's not only the silly Brits that race lawnmowers. American suburbanites refuse to be left behind! So strip down your John Deere and hit the circuit with the U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Association. They've got video (here's a clip from the CBS Early Show), they've got photos. And I've got the taste of 2-stroke oil in my mouth. Okay, that's enough lawn mower racing for TWC. I've done my bit. And from now on I'm only interested in lawn mowers that race on the water...
"What's the difference between the US and Britain? We've got major sponsors, of course..."
"What's the difference between the US and Britain? We've got major sponsors, of course..."
Monday, June 20, 2005
Annals Of Invention: Sealegs...
Amphibious cars are hot. And tomorrow Brit Nick Fox of Amphibious Unlimited will attempt to break the cross-English Channel record of 1 hour, 40 minutes and 6 seconds set by Sir Richard Branson in his stylish Gibbs Aquada. Fox's ride, unfortunately tagged with the inelegant name "Sealegs," is a modified RIB with wheels that is built in New Zealand. The wheels are driven by an inboard motor while this hideous Frankenboat is on land (it can hit 6 mph, WOO HOO!), and can be retracted when it's in the water (where it looks like a standard RIB). This thing should lose on style points alone, and I can't imagine why you would want a rolling RIB, unless you need to park on a nearby street. I'm rooting for the Gibbs Aquada...
Ugly Duckling: "Just call me Wonk, James Wonk..."
Ugly Duckling: "Just call me Wonk, James Wonk..."
Kiss My Grass...
It's British, it's eccentric (is that redundant?), it's lawn mower racing. Check it out...
"Holy sh*t! That Number 14 dude back there is really mowing grass..."
"Heh-heh! When I told my wife I'd be out on the tractor she thought I was actually going to do some yard work..."
"Holy sh*t! That Number 14 dude back there is really mowing grass..."
"Heh-heh! When I told my wife I'd be out on the tractor she thought I was actually going to do some yard work..."
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