I can only imagine...

I found it worthwhile to read this article. It was unbelievable (yet true).

Lucky

A man hit the guardrail and barrier and then flipped end-over-end over this culvert.

This is one lucky dude.

Fads

From bell-bottoms to slap bracelets to JibJab, fads are an American phenomenon. Here is a great list of 37 that swept the nation.

What fad has been your favorite?

Well worth watching

The '4 generations' water buffalo movie.

Isn't it ironic?

Yesterday, Illinois senator Barack Obama announced he is forming a presidential exploratory committee. As the Chicago Tribune notes, this...

...would make him the most formidable African-American candidate ever.

His candidacy should be marked by the African-American community as a high point. Interestingly though,

Civil rights leaders who have dominated black politics for much of the past two decades have pointedly failed to embrace the 45-year-old Illinois senator who is considering a bid to become America’s first black president.

Hmm. Why is this? Notes this Times article,

HE is a media darling, a paparazzi target and a source of inspiration for millions of Democrats who dream of retaking the White House in 2008. But Senator Barack Obama, the charismatic African-American who is shaking up the presidential primary race, has not impressed some of America’s most powerful black activists.

How about these rousing endorsements:
Jesse Jackson: "Our focus right now is not on who’s running, because there are a number of allies running."
Harry Belafonte: "We don’t know what he’s truly about...He’s a young man in many ways to be admired. Obviously very bright, speaks very well, cuts a handsome figure. But all of that is just the king’s clothes. Who’s the king?”
Al Sharpton: "Right now we’re hearing a lot of media razzle-dazzle. I’m not hearing a lot of meat, or a lot of content. I think when the meat hits the fire, we’ll find out if it’s just fat, or if there’s some real meat there."

Obama, the son of a Kenyan farmer and a white Kansan mother... wait a second, could that be it? Yep. Says one strategist,

They are basically jealous. They’ve been toiling in the trenches for decades, and along comes this son of a Kenyan farmer and suddenly he’s measuring the drapes in the Oval Office.

A Sign of the Times

I've always enjoyed news items that are referred to as "signs of the time" we are living in; subtly implying they are examples of disintegrating society. Regardless of whether they indicate that, they are usually enjoyable and they do often tend to point to problematic trends in our society today.

Today I'll point you towards one which pointed something new out to me. If you ride public transit like I do, you are familiar with the all-too-frequent "This train is being delayed due to a medical situation..." on some train ahead. I have noticed it happens more frequently in the morning, but never put 2 and 2 together until reading this. It seems that our country's obsession with skinniness is delaying our morning commutes:

In all, Nelson treated five women that morning, all of who fainted or reported feeling weak.

An average of 395 delays per month are caused by sick customers. Only track work and signal troubles triggered more delays.

While flu-symptoms, anxiety attacks, hangovers and heat exhaustion also strike passengers, Nelson said, they pale in comparison to fainting caused by missed meals.

Who knew. Is this a "sign of the times"?

Where in the world was...?

Inspired by uber-blogger Jason Kottke, here's where I was in 2006:

Chicago, IL *
Los Angeles, CA
San Diego, CA
New York City, NY
Manitowoc, WI
Greenville, IL *
Berlin, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Vienna, Austria
St. Paul, MN

Where were you?

Criteria = One or more nights spent in each place. Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

Situs Inversus

I learned something new yesterday. So it turns out there is a rare congenital condition called "situs inversus" in which your heart and other internal organs are reversed -- a mirror image of the ordinary body. I had never heard of it, and frankly, it's kind of mind-bending.

Here's the kicker -- a person with this condition usually functions normally! It's kind of crazy. So basically, the portions of the body that are not normally mirrored about the body's center are all transposed, but the body goes about its business anyway. It doesn't know any different. I wonder, would a right-handed person with situs inversus actually originally be left-handed?

The reason I discovered this condition is because it turns out that Minnesota Timberwolves rookie, Randy Foye, has the condition. How unbelievable is the human body that in an instance when everything internally is backwards from the way it's supposed to be, an individual can still perform at the highest level possible athletically?

Quick, what's the most common noun?

If you had to guess the most commonly used noun in the English language, what would it be? See the comments section below for Oxford dictionary's answer.

A Sad Reminder

I don't mean to continue to harp incessantly on the topic, but numbers this stark can serve as a reminder that as we enjoy this holiday season, we must remember and continue to speak for those who will not ever be able to.

As the year ends, many year-end statistics, sometimes from the year prior, are becoming available and this one speaks for itself:

[In 2005] 122,725 babies were born in New York City.

.

The number of reported abortions in the city was ... 88,891 in 2005.

What more can be said? What more could the future of New York City offer with the added influx of human capital provided by nearly 100,000 more residents each year?

By way of comparison, since the war in Iraq began, 2,979 American soldiers and up to 57,368 Iraqis have been killed. These lives lost are just as frustrating and worthwhile as those lost here in the States, but the numbers themselves do pale compared to the grim statistics reported above.

A Double Standard?

So there was a fight in an NBA game over the weekend. Needless to say, the reaction was swift and stern. Involved players were suspended a combined 47 games, including 15 games for Carmelo Anthony, who threw a punch.

Some have pointed out that in light of fighting in other sports like baseball and hockey, where reactions are much more muted, this punishment was too severe.

Might the hubbub even be racist? Bill Simmons points out in his chat on the topic,

Chris, Seattle: The fact that everyone makes such a big deal about an NBA brawl and not so much about a MLB brawl smacks of racism, I don't care what people say.

Bill Simmons: Couldn't agree more. Everyone involved in this fight was black, so the players are now "out of control" and the whole thing is "a disgrace." But when a white baseball player charges a white pitcher, it's all in good fun. It's a little weird.

Do we hold a double standard when it comes to black athletes fighting?

Surprising Truths

Recently, I've been reading a book by Gregg Easterbrook called "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse". It's filled with facts that challenge our perceptions, and just for that reason, I'd recommend it. Many of us enjoy being a contrarian, but in this case reality backs Mr. Easterbrook up, and so I'm sure I'll be using a few of his points.
Did you know, for instance, that,

Environmental trends for Western Europe are also almost entirely positive, though Europe trails America in most categories of improvement. Despite the common perception that Europe is environmentally advanced compared to the United States, U.S. environmental rules are stricter than European Union rules--Paris has worse smog than Houston [who are the worst in the U.S.], for example, and the Mississippi is far cleaner than the Marne. Generally, Europe lags about ten years behind the United States in ecological cleanup...

Surprised?

Skyscrapers

the proposed Chicago Spire (graphic from the Chicago Tribune)

On the heels of a redesign to the proposed Chicago Spire (I prefer the original), it is worth looking at the state of the world's skyscrapers.
As luck would have it, Wired has done a great job of running it down for us:

The world's cities are getting taller – and fast. Between 2001 and 2012, almost as many skyscrapers will be constructed as were built in the entire 20th century. While vertical metropolises like Hong Kong and New York continue to mint monoliths, the most dramatic changes are happening in lower-profile places. Thanks to globalization and the steady migration of people to urban cores, cities that once had only a few high-rises are morphing into mini-Manhattans. Miami, for example, had only five skyscrapers (buildings more than 150 meters, or 492 feet, tall) in 1999 but will have 71 by 2012. Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, will soar from two in 1999 to 90 by 2012. Here's a snapshot of the world's fastest-changing skylines...

Be sure to check out the pictures showing what will be a progression of world's tallest buildings until 2012.

Link Dropping

Rather than just one link of the day, I'm gonna drop a whole smorgasbord. I hope you enjoy. Let me know which is your favorite.

Without any further ado, here's a look at some of the articles I've been reading online this past week:

Absolute Must-Reads:
What It Takes to Make a Student
Three Things You Don't Know About Aids in Africa

Worth a look-see:
A Free-for-All on Science and Religion
The Leastern Conference
The God Who Lives and Works and Plays in Russia
A man who hated government
The Gospel According to Jim Wallis

Peculiar and interesting:
A Russian skyscraper plan
The last cargo cult

The Way Things Go

In 1987, Peter Fischli and David Weiss made a film called The Way Things Go. In 2003, Honda made a car commercial. Certainly any similarities were purely coincidental. Regardless, both were breathtaking.

This film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work and they would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. It took three months to complete and cost six million dollars. Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) is parts from two disassembled Honda Accords.

When the ad was shown to Honda executives, they liked it and commented on how amazing computer graphics have gotten. They were surprised when they found out it was for real.

In 2003, Fischli and Weiss threatened legal action against Honda.

(HT: Arloa)

Why Marry?

That is exactly the question that Europeans seem to be asking themselves as marriage rates decline across Europe. This article notes that it is especially the case in one particular country:

In France, the country that evokes more images of romance than perhaps any other, marriage has increasingly fallen out of favor.

Growing numbers of couples are choosing to raise children, buy homes and build family lives without religious or civil approval of their partnerships. In the past generation, the French marriage rate has plunged more than 30 percent, even as population and birthrates have been rising.

"Marriage doesn't have the same importance as it used to," said France Prioux, who directs research on changing social trends for France's National Institute of Demographic Studies. "It will never become as frequent as it once was."

Marriage is in decline across much of northern Europe, from Scandinavia to France, a pattern some sociologists describe as a "soft revolution" in European society--a generational shift away from Old World traditions and institutions toward a greater emphasis on personal independence.

But French couples are abandoning the formality of marriage faster than most of their European neighbors and far more rapidly than their American counterparts: French marriage rates are 45 percent below U.S. figures.

As noted, many couples are instead opting for civil partnerships or no formal arrangements at all, while still raising children and functioning as a household.

The increase in out-of-wedlock birthrates is even more dramatic: Last year, 59 percent of all first-born French children were born to unwed parents, most by choice, not chance. The numbers were not driven by single mothers, teenage mothers or poor mothers but by couples from all social and economic backgrounds who chose parenthood in the absence of marriage vows.

The question is, what ramifications for society does this trend hold?

Did You Know?

Domesticated turkeys can easily drown when it rains because they tend to look up to see what's hitting them and their tiny, oval-shaped nostrils are "perfect funnels" for falling rain.

I thought you should.

Compassion

A buzz-phrase of six years ago was 'compassionate conservativism'. Is it even possible, though? Many liberals voiced the underlying perception that liberals are more generous to those less fortunate, and thus compassionate, than conservatives. They went so far as saying that there was no such thing as a compassionate conservative.

While it can continue to be debated whether liberal, moderate, or conservative political policies are more 'compassionate' or effective in pursuing social justice, now we are able to see which type of person is more generous.

Arthur C. Brooks, a professor at Syracuse University whose work involves public policy and philanthropy, has written a new book called Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide: Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, and Why It Matters. His boldface conclusion? As summarized in this interesting article, Brooks found that “religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.”

Wanted: Man to Save Earth in 2036

Yes, it's true.

Astronomers have for awhile now known that there is the potential for an asteroid to collide with Earth and wreak havoc on our planet. They know it has happened before. Now, a smallish asteroid called Apophis has been identified as a possible threat to Earth in 2036. While it likely will miss Earth, further refinements to the modeling being done are necessary to determine for sure.

This is where science fiction meets science, however.

[NASA] is drawing up plans to land an astronaut on an asteroid hurtling through space at more than 30,000 mph. It wants to know whether humans could master techniques needed to deflect such a doomsday object when it is eventually identified. The proposals are at an early stage, and a spacecraft needed just to send an astronaut that far into space exists only on the drawing board, but they are deadly serious.

Bruce Willis, are you available?

The Game

Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Michigan Wolverines.
Scarlet and Gray. Maize and Blue.
The Horseshoe. The Big House.
Script Ohio. Winged helmets.
Woody and Bo.
Hang on Sloopy. Hail to the Victors.
Are you ready for this?