One Fast Cat
Sarah, a cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo, set a world record for the 100 meter dash today by covering the distance in 6.13 seconds. The event was held at Mast Farm, the zoo’s cheetah breeding facility. The race is a remote contest between Sarah and Zaza, a cheetah at Cheetah Outreach in South Africa. Zaza is expected to run her race later this month. To compare, the human world record is 9.58 seconds, held by Usain Bolt. Link to story. Link to Sarah’s blog. -via Metafilter
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Loving Day
In the not-too-distant past, it was against the law in many states for people of different races to marry. Richard and Mildred Loving got married in Washington, DC in 1958 and returned to their hometown in Virginia as criminals.
When they went to trial, the judge found them guilty and sentenced them to a jail term of one to three years. However, the judge told the Lovings that he would suspend the sentence if they agreed to leave Virginia for a period of twenty five years. Given the choice between imprisonment and banishment, they chose banishment. The Lovings moved to Washington, DC.
The Lovings filed a suit challenging the law. After a nine-year battle, on June 12, 1967, the US Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case of Loving vs. Virginia that did away with the remaining miscegenation laws. The Loving Day project promotes the celebration of this milestone on or around June 12th. Link -via Drug Monkey
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Man vs Cat in The Great Race
Martin Humphreys of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England has a one-eyed cat named Midge he adopted from a rescue center 12 years ago. For five years now, Midge has accompanied Humphreys on his daily run and hates to finish behind him.
When his workplace offered a £1,000 competition for employees to fulfil a dream, he won after proposing a children’s film about Midge’s peculiar talent.
The result, The Great Race, has been selected for the Short Film Corner at Cannes and Mr Humphreys, who wrote, directed and penned the theme song for the eight-minute production, is flying out to the French Riviera to show it to Hollywood executives. It is believed to be the lowest budget offering at the festival – the opening night film, Pixar animation Up, cost $150 million to make.
Midge is not attending the film festival. Link to story with film trailer. Link to video report. -via Arbroath
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Drag Racing the Police
If you’re over 18, can get to the Miami area, and have $25, you can race your car against police officers driving cruisers -legally! Officers from several local departments race at County Line Drag Way once a month in an event called Beat the Heat.
“You could bring your mother’s minivan. You can bring a pure racing car. It doesn’t matter,” said Officer Jose Ayala with the Medley Police Department.
“We’re actually getting a lot of kids and adults alike come here and say, ‘We used to race in Davie. You probably used to chase us around, and now we’re here on the track and we want to race your car,’” said Officer Ron Bradley with the Davie Police.
Officers said they have seen a drastic reduction in illegal street racing since Beat the Heat started in 2007.
The next Beat the Heat race is May 23rd. Link -via reddit
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"Faulty" Genes Make Jews Smarter, Said Scientists
Gregory Cochran, physicist and professor of anthropology at the University of Utah, was puzzled at the unusually high prevalence of deadly genetic disorders in European Jews. Shouldn’t natural selection flush these dangerous genes from the gene pool or at least not make ‘em appear in such high frequency in that population?
Then one morning, Cochran came upon his solution – and with the help of population geneticist Henry Harpending, he immediately touched off a charged debate in the scientific community: some genes make Jews smarter.
Cochran, 55, and Harpending, 65, say there’s no question that as a whole, Ashkenazi Jews — those of European descent — have an abundance of brain power. (Neither man is Jewish.)
Psychologists and educational researchers have pegged their average IQ at 107.5 to 115. That’s only modestly higher than the overall European average of 100, but the gap is large enough to produce a huge difference in the proportion of geniuses. When a group’s average IQ is 100, the percentage of people above 140 is 0.4%; when the average is 110, the genius rate is 2.3%.
Though Jews make up less than 3% of the U.S. population, they have won more than 25% of the Nobel Prizes awarded to American scientists since 1950, account for 20% of this country’s chief executives and make up 22% of Ivy League students, the pair write.
"People are perfectly willing to admit that some people are taller or some people are shorter," Cochran said. "But no one wants to say ‘This group is smarter.’ "
That, said another scientist, is the rub:
"What are their theories about those on the opposite end of the spectrum?" asked Neil Risch, director of the Institute for Human Genetics at UC San Francisco, who finds the matter so offensive he can barely discuss it without raising his voice. "Do they have genetic theories about why Latinos and African Americans perform worse academically?"
Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times has the rest of the story: Link
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Multiple "Races" of Neanderthals
Researchers from the Universite de la Mediterranee-CNRS-EFS in France analyzed the DNA of Neanderthal fossils and found that the species might actually be composed of several "races":
We tend to think of Neanderthals as one species of cavemen-like creatures, but now scientists say there were actually at least three different subgroups of Neanderthals.
Using computer simulations to analyze DNA sequence fragments from 12 Neanderthal fossils, researchers found that the species can be separated into three, or maybe four, distinct genetic groups.
The evidence points to a subgroup of Neanderthals in Western Europe, another in Southern Europe near the Mediterranean, a third in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and possibly a fourth in Western Asia. These groups have been postulated before, but this is the first study analyzing DNA data to look for genetic variations differentiating the subgroups.
(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
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Trying to Save the World by Driving to Mongolia
This July, I will be driving from London to Mongolia, in a piece of #### car, all in the name of charity. I’m taking part in the Mongol Rally. It is, in fact, as ridiculous as it sounds.
What: The Mongol Rally is an annual charity race across Eurasia where 500 cars traverse 1/3 of the world in 1-liter engine vehicles and, with a lot of luck, make it all the way to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. There’s no route and no help, but a whole lot of road and good deeds along the way.
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Gadget Grand Prix
(YouTube link)
Who will win the office race -the digital camera, the mouse, the PDA, the remote control, the cell phone, or another hand held gadget? This is another of those creative Samsung ads that go viral about once a week. -via Bits and Pieces
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David Baird's 4115 km Wheelbarrow Journey
David Baird has just completed his Herculean 112-day journey pushing a wheelbarrow across Australia (that’s 4,115 km or 2,557 mi on foot). He did this to raise money for breast and prostate cancer research.
The fit looking 65-year-old said he was feeling ‘amazingly good’, considering he had traveled a massive 4115km on foot.
Taking in about 70 towns along the way, Mr Baird said he pushed the wheelbarrow for between 10 and 12 hours a day. [...]While he never had any doubts he wouldn’t complete his journey, he admitted each day “was hard”.
“My most concern was my survival with the traffic, he said. That was quite horrendous.”
(Photo: POST Newspaper Online)
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Black and White Twins -Again!
Dean Durrant and Alison Spooner of Fleet, Hants, England had twins seven years ago, two girls, Hayleigh appearing black, Lauren appearing white. The odds of such a combination are quite high -but now they’ve done it again! Alison gave birth to twin girls November 13th. Miya has dark skin and Leah appears white.
Alison said: “I was shocked when I first found out I was pregnant with twins again — but I never thought for one second they would turn out the same as last time.
After the babies were born they weren’t breathing properly, so they were taken to a special care unit.
It wasn’t until about five days after they were born that we saw them side by side for the first time.
And when they were together it was clear that one was darker than the other. It was unbelievable.”
The babies are now home and reported healthy. Link -Thanks, Sharyn Bramscher!
(image credit: Solent News & Photo Agency)
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How a 61-Year-Old Farmer Won the World's Toughest Ultra-Marathon
Between 1983 and 1991, Australia held an annual ultra-marathon of 544 miles (875 km). World’s most elite racers ran from Sydney to Melbourne in 5 days – these athletes trained specially for this event, which was considered one of the world’s most grueling races.
One day, a 61-year-old Australian potato farmer named Cliff Young entered the race …
In 1983, a man named Cliff Young showed up at the start of this race. Cliff was 61 years old and wore overalls and work boots. To everyone’s shock, Cliff wasn’t a spectator. He picked up his race number and joined the other runners.
The press and other athletes became curious and questioned Cliff. They told him, "You’re crazy, there’s no way you can finish this race." To which he replied, "Yes I can. See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or tractors, and the whole time I was growing up, whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 sheep on 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d always catch them. I believe I can run this race." [...]
All of the professional athletes knew that it took about 5 days to finish the race. In order to compete, one had to run about 18 hours a day and sleep the remaining 6 hours. The thing is, Cliff Young didn’t know that!
When the morning of the second day came, everyone was in for another surprise. Not only was Cliff still in the race, he had continued jogging all night.
Eventually Cliff was asked about his tactics for the rest of the race. To everyone’s disbelief, he claimed he would run straight through to the finish without sleeping.
Cliff Young won the race, and became a legend: Link – Thanks Ali!
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Five Races That Make Running Fun (and one that might kill you)
I’ve just gotten into running in the past nine months or so. I went for my first run on my birthday last year – July 21. I mean, I worked out before that – I used to be a big fan of the elliptical. But I really wanted to be able to run in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in October ‘08 because my mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer just a year prior to that. So that was my motivation. I trained from July to October (and let me tell you, running in Iowa’s 90 percent humidity when it’s 90 degrees out is no piece of cake) and completed the race swimmingly. Since then, I’ve found myself getting kind of addicted to races. I did the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving at the Iowa State Fairgrounds (less guilt for gorging later that day), signed up for the Red Flannel Run in February (but ended up being out of town), completed the five-mile Run for the Egg the day before Easter and managed to show up for the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick 5k after downing an entire bottle of wine all by myself the night before (whoops). I’m just amazed at how many races are going on at any given time – there’s a whole running community I had no idea existed. This probably seems silly to you seasoned runners, but I just honestly did not have a clue. Des Moines is not a small town by any means, but it’s certainly not a bustling metropolis either. Yet, I could easily find a 5k to run every single weekend if I wanted to.
Anyway, in the spirit of my newfound motivation, I thought I’d write about interesting races. Whether it’s the cause that seems questionable, the costumes people wear or an interesting race route, the races below are sure to catch your attention.
1. The Oatmeal 5k – Lafayette, Colo.
Lafayette holds the Oatmeal Festival every year. In addition to a health fair, Oatie the Quaker Oats Mascot and a giant, inflatable bowl of oatmeal, the Oatmeal Festival hosts the Oatmeal 5k. The best part really comes post-run though – all runners get to eat their fill of oatmeal with all of the trimmings. Considering the race occurs in January in Colorado, I bet a nice warm bowl of oatmeal is greatly appreciated after running 3.1 miles. Photo by Cliff Grassmick
2. Beat Beethoven 5k – lots of places
When I first read about this, I got a mental picture of a guy with wild white hair dressed up in period clothing running his heart out. But no. The point is to beat Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. At 33 minutes long, this would mean the runner would have to run slightly under 11 minute miles. A challenge for some, totally easy for others. Beat Beethoven is often held as a fundraiser for music departments. I bet some people dress up like Beethoven though. At least, I hope they do.
3. Living History Farms Cross Country Road Race – Clive, Iowa
This one is my goal for the year. It’s only seven miles, but the tricky part is the terrain you’re running on. You’re running through waist-deep ponds, through trenches, off small cliffs, using rope to pull yourself up steep inclines – it’s insane. And people dress insane. Check out this photo gallery from the Des Moines Register – in just one quick run-through, I spotted Superman, Santa Claus, Snow White and a number of ballerinas. There’s even one dude running with no shirt on – in late November in Iowa, that’s just asking for pneumonia (Oh God… I think I just channeled my mother). Photo from fitnesssports.com
4. Tower of Terror 13k – Orlando, Fla.
This is my other goal for the year, but really it’s just an excuse to get to Disney at Halloween. I LOVE Disney World at Halloween. In fact, I’m a lover of all things that are campy-creepy, so the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 13k (get it… 13?!) is perfect for me. It starts at 9:30 at night and gives runners the chance to run through Disney properties late at night. Afterward, the Tower of Terror and several other rides at Hollywood Studios are open for the sweaty runners to enjoy. I. Can’t. Wait. Let’s just hope I can run eight miles by then. Photo by Stacy Conradt
5. The Doughnut Run 5k – Ames, Iowa
I’m not sure that it’s a great idea to run while stuffing your face full of glazed doughnuts, but the Iowa State Triathlon Club seems to think it’s not a problem. Here’s how it works: at each aid station along the route, you have the opportunity to scarf down doughnuts. If you eat one doughnut, you get to take 15 seconds off of your time. Two doughnuts gives you another 30 seconds off. Three doughnuts gets you 45 seconds off. So if you run the race in 20 minutes and eat two doughnuts, you get a total of 45 seconds off your race time – 15 seconds for doughnut #1 plus another 30 seconds for doughnut #2. But only the weak eat a mere two doughnuts. For every five doughnuts you eat past the first five, you get a bonus two minutes off your race. The catch? You have to keep the doughnuts down at least past the finish line.
Graphic from the Iowa State Triathlon Club
6. The Badwater Ultramarathon – Death Valley
It’s 135 miles, folks. ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE MILES. I’m in pain just thinking about it. Add that to 120 degree temps in the shade and you’ve got a marathon only the most hardcore runner would even consider running. Even then, 20-40 percent of participants don’t complete the race. The first time this race was completed was 1977, after several attempts by Al Arnold. Successful try #2 didn’t happen until 1981 when Jay Birmingham put himself through the torture. It became an official race in 1987, but only five runners completed the race. Making this race even harder is the fact that there are no water stops. Each runner has to provide his or her own pit crew complete with water, ice, food and first aid. You might think there’s a fantastic prize for finishing 135 miles in Death Valley, but not really. Runners who finish in 60 hours or less get a medal. Runners who complete the course in 48 hours or less get a belt buckle. Suffice it to say people are running for the glory, not the winnings. So far, no one has died. Photo by Geoff Tripple via badwater.com.
What crazy races have you participated in? OK, forget participation – what crazy races have you heard of?
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Drag Racing Gone Wrong
Here’s something you don’t see every day. This drag racer lost his axle on take-off. Notice the driver’s reaction as he gets out of the car in this funny video.
Link: maniacworld
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