John Farrier's Blog Posts

80 Years of Reading Recorded in a Diary

Ben Myers, a professor of theology and literature at a college in Australia, writes that his grandmother, who was born in Germany, recorded every book that she read from the age of 14 until she passed away last week. She provided complete records of every book for 80 years. It's a total of 1,658 books, which is approximately one book every two weeks.

The lady was, I gather, a Serbian who lived in Germany before immigrating to Australia after World War II. In addition to English and Serbian, could read German and Hungarian.

I've done something similar for the past dozen years or so--just an ongoing reading list. Perhaps it will give something for my own grandchildren to ponder.


The Oldest Candlepin Bowling Alley in the World

Candlepin bowling is a variant of bowling that originated in New England and the maritime provinces of Canada. The cylindrical pins, which resemble candles in shape, are three inches wide. The balls are much smaller than what you might be used to measuring only four and a half inches across.

D'Amanda's bowling alley in Ellsworth Maine, which is owned and operated by one person, has a unique pinsetting machine that was built as a prototype in 1949. It's still in use, although it is fragile and requires almost constant repairs.

At the age of 19, Autumn Mowery purchased the alley and is its only employee. Mowery has to run everything because it's impossible for her to get insurance to protect workers who would have to repair and reset the pinsetting machine. WCSH News in Portland interviewed Mowery about her mission to preserve the traditions of candlepin bowling and this particular business.


This Is a Javelin Training Machine

Johannes Vetter is a German athlete who specializes in the javelin throw. His personal record is almost 320 feet and 9 inches, which is a long distance to throw anything at all.

How does Vetter do it? He trains hard and trains smart, using the best techniques and equipment available. This includes weighted sleds designed specifically for javelin training. I think that he's using this specific model, which was allows for not only weight adjustment, but also calculates the velocity of each throw. Athletes can use this machine while seated or standing.

-via Massimo


200 Waiters Race through the Streets of Paris

The Course des Cafés is a traditional race in Paris in which professional waiters must briskly walk 2 kilometers in uniform while carrying a glass of water, a cup of coffee, and a croissant--a traditional French breakfast--on a tray without spilling them. The race was first held in 1914.

The Guardian reports that the winners of this year's race were, for the men's competition, Samy Lamrous at 13:30 and for the women's competition, Pauline Van Wymeersch at 14:21. They each received as their prizes a gold medal identifying them as the fastest waiters and a stay for a night at a luxurious hotel.

-via Dave Barry


Police Insist That Imaginary Friend Doesn't Count for the Carpool Lane

The San Francisco Gate reports that officers in the California Highyway Patrol pulled over a gentleman driving his car alone in the carpool lane on Interstate 880 near San Francisco. A shirt and hat took the place of an actual person in the front passenger seat. The driver, though, said that the setup represented an imaginary friend.

The express lane system allows for reduced tolls for cars with multiple occupants. This driver, the police allege, was attempting to trick cameras into reading a passenger. This is not permissible.

What about an anime hug pillow if it depicts your waifu? I'm asking for a friend.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: California Highway Patrol


12% of Young Americans Are Licensed to Operate a Nuclear Submarine

According to the respected Pew Research Center, which conducts public opinion polling on many topics, 12% of young Americans can operate a SSBN, which is one of these:

The SSGNs are US nuclear-powered submarines that, instead of firing nuclear missiles, fire non-nuclear cruise missles at land-based targets. Navy nuke school is famously demanding, passing only the most focused, intelligent, and physically fit people into the ranks of American submariners. Yet, despite the negative reputation of Generation Z, fully 12% of them have qualified. This percentage far outstrips that of older generations.

What's going on here? Pew does not actually think so many young people have actually earned their Dolphins. Rather, Pew conducted this study to illustrate that opt-in polling produces unreliable results. Opt-in polling means that the study designers do not restrict who can participate in a poll and thus cannot argue that the participants are a representative sample.

The study found that young people and Hispanic adults were especially likely to affirm absurd claims, although I don't see an explanation of why this is the case.

Anyway, when you see the results of an online poll that says that an alarmingly large number of people believe in something profoundly disturbing, such as Holocaust denial, realize that extremely faulty survey design may be the cause of these numbers. The population has not gone completely insane yet.

-via Megan McArdle


Emergency Chute for Astronauts

The commercial space industry is exploding, which is something that the private space exploration firm SpaceX knows well. It takes astronaut safety seriously and wants to be able to evacuate astronauts from the launch pad in a hurry if necessary.

Two weeks ago, we saw that NASA uses armored military vehicles for this purpose. SpaceX instead uses this rapid-deployment chute that quickly carries the 40 members of a launch pad team away from the pad and to the ground. It looks like fun! Chief Operations Officer Gwynne Shotwell personally tested it.

-via Super Punch


Python Meat Could Offer an Efficient Option for Mass Meat Production

Would you like try some python meat? We're told that it tastes like a mix of chicken and calamari.

ABC News reports on a recent study conducted by conservationist Patrick Aust and his colleagues about the sustainability of python meat production. They examined the farming of Burmese and reticulated pythons in Southeast Asia and concluded that the mass cultivation of pythons could be an efficient way to provide meat to more people.

Pythons mature rapidly, reproduce in huge quantities, and efficiently turn their food, such as wild rodents and fish meal, into harvestable meat. They are also more durable to extreme weather than mammals. So try a slice of snake. Maybe add some hot sauce because, Aust warns us, python meat can be a bit bland.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Florida Fish and Wildlife


Police-Style Kiddie Rides Uphold the Law

Pull over, exit your vehicle, and keep your hands where officers can see them. The Kiddie Ride Police Patrol has noted your suspicious behavior.

Arctic, a Dutch performing troupe that engages in public pranks, created this pair of mobile kiddie rides for use in freelance law enforcement. The officers have plenty of euros to drop in their machines, so don't even try to escape.

Watch these hard-faced, tough-minded cops patrol festivals and ensure that the mean streets stay safe for ordinary, law-abiding people in these dangerous times. They're especially wary of intoxicated people and perform sobriety tests on passersby who appear to have drunk a bit too much.

-via The Awesomer


Coming Soon: Perfume That Smells Like McDonald's French Fries

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Rumors are circulating the internet with the exciting news that the Japanese division of McDonald's will soon offer perfume that will make you smell like McDonald's iconic French fries. The above image is from the official Twitter account of McDonald's Japanese branch, so it's probably true.

When do we gaijin get to enjoy such delights in the United States? I don't know. In the meantime, prepare for your dates by just smearing french fries on yourself.

-via Spoon & Tamago


There's A Little Debbie Snacks-Themed Park in Tennessee

If you visit a particular park outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee, you may ask yourself, "Is that really a 4-foot long Cosmic Brownie?" There's only one way to know for sure, and that's to take a bite.

Continue reading

NASA's Armored Vehicles

The M113 armored personnel carrier first entered service in the US armed forces in 1960 and remains in use by dozens of nations around the world. Among the agencies in the United States that used this venerable vehicle is NASA.

Yes, that's right: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration operated a few M113s from the 1960s through 2013 at the Cape Canaveral launch complex. Military historian Mark Felton explains that these vehicles served as part of an emergency system designed to get astronauts far away from a launch pad as quickly as possible.

If astronauts needed to escape, they would take zip lines for a quarter mile down to the ground, where a modified M113 was available. All astronauts were trained how to drive them. This modified M113 was heat resistant and had an enclosed oxygen system.

NASA used these vehicles until 2013, when they replaced them with the more modern Caimain MRAPs.


Could a Nuclear Submarine Survive in Space?

How could humanity quickly create a functional long-duration interplanetary spacecraft? In the science fiction novel Vorpal Blade, authors John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor propose converting a ballistic missile nuclear submarine for that purpose. And these authors have not been alone in suggesting that the qualities of submarines might carry over to the voids of space.

Could it work? How long would the crew of a nuclear submarine survive in space? Randall Munroe, a former NASA roboticist and the cartoonist behind xkcd, looks at the physics involved in this scenario. The crew would eventually die, but not because of the reason you might first suspect.

-via The Awesomer


Airline Pilot Delivers Baby Mid-Flight

Sky News reports that a healthy baby boy was born on a VietJet flight between Taipei and Bangkok. The cabin crew informed the pilot, Jakarin Sararnkskul, that a woman had gone into labor in one of the jetliner's toilets.

Mid-flight births on commercial airliners are rare--there have been only 74 between 1929 and 2018. So, despite his 18 years of experience piloting, this was Captain Sararnkskul's first time delivering a baby.

He left his co-pilot to handle the plane and supervised the successful birth. The New York Post reports that paramedics were on the scene when the flight landed in Bangkok.

-via Jalopnik | Photo: Jakarin Saramraksul


A Country Cover of "Walk Like an Egyptian"

The Cleverlys is a comedy country music quintet that offers country-fied parodies of modern and popular songs. They perform in-character as hillbillies from an alpaca farm in Arkansas where, while not touring, they produce alpaca sausage and wool lingerie.

The band appeared on an episode of the country music variety show Larry's Country Diner where they performed a favorite song of older country fans -- "Walk Like an Egyptian" -- by the bluegrass band known as the Bangles. This song was a smash hit in 1987 when it led a dance craze of walking like the ancient Egyptians as they appear in hieroglyphics.

-via The Awesomer


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