What a Badass

In an article from FOXnews.com:

LONDON — He was hit by a car in America, attacked by a crocodile in Australia, detained as a suspected spy in Egypt and had his boat capsize in the Atlantic. On Saturday British adventurer Jason Lewis finally came home, completing a 13-year, 46,000-mile (74,000-kilometer) human-powered circumnavigation of the globe.

This guy used a pedal-powered boat for the majority of his ocean crossings. It was around 26 feet long, and looked like this:

Awesome Picture

How to Sleep 4 Hours per Night

I have always wished that I could be one of those people who could subsist on just a few hours of sleep per night, and seem to be unaffected. That is why I was so intrigued by this article from Discover, which states:

The technique, transcranial magnetic stimulation, involves an electromagnetic coil that emits pulses of skull-penetrating, neuron-activating magnetic energy....previous studies have indicated that TMS applied at certain frequencies during sleep can improve memory. Even more intriguing, says Tononi, “there is the possibility that if you have particularly intense slow waves” like the ones the machine induces, “you may be able to do with less sleep.

However, the article also states that this technology is a long way off. So, I guess I'll just have to keep on sleeping the old fashioned way.

Are Our Children Learning Enough About Whales?

In The Know: Are Our Children Learning Enough About Whales?
This reminds me a lot of a sketch from the third season of Upright Citizens Brigade from Comedy Central. It was about dolphin-centric testing, and it was hilarious. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a clip of it online, and I don't have the software to edit down the episode. If you know where I can get that software for free, please let me know.

Help! Mom! The 9th Circuit Nabbed the Nativity!

I saw this on The Daily Show, and now I kind of want to buy it:

This company publishes a couple of other conservative themed kids books. But, seeing as how I live so close to the 9th Circuit, this one really speaks to me. Of course, John Oliver's proposals were quite a bit funnier, "Help! Mom! The Liberals Gutted the Patriot Act and Now There's A Suitcase Bomb Under My Bed!" and "Heather Had Two Mommies - Now Heather's A Prostitute" and "Casper, The Third Trimester Aborted Ghost." Now those are some kids books.

I Want To Live Here:

This is the Jelly-fish 45 underwater habitat. It can house up to 6 people on 4 levels. The top three levels are above sea level, while the bottom level is semi-submerged. You are supposed to chain these things up in a bay or a marine park - but I'd like to see someone live in one out at sea. I'm sure this wasn't designed to handle that, so they might need to toughen the habitat up a bit. And, I guess you'd end up starving to death or something if you were just afloat upon the waves indefinitely. So, you'd probably want to equip it with some sort of propulsion system. And a garden. And a way to get drinkable water. Then it would be awesome. Buy one here for only $2.5 million. There are a couple other cool habitats there as well, and a bunch of submersibles. [HT: Neatorama]

Think You Are Tough?

I'll bet this guy would disagree with you.


Image from this site.