On this bittersweet last day of the Winter Olympics, the world's best will participate in only two final events: the gold medal men's hockey and the 50km cross-country skiing race. Among the many great contenders you will see today is Brian McKeever, a 30 year old skiier from Canada who, like the other athletes, has trained for decades to get to this point in his career. Brian is one of the best in the the world and is also the first Olympian to ever compete in both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in the same year. You see, Brian is legally blind.
Full of hope and promise, Brian was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease at the young age of 19 years, still early in his skiing career. The illness is a type of juvenile macular degeneration that gradually results in blindness. Instead of throwing in the towel, Brian kept pushing, and twelve years later, with only 10 percent of his vision remaining, he is sitting on the cusp of becoming a legend. In our eyes, he already is one.
Brian hopes that whatever the outcome of today's race will be, it will serve as an indicator to spectators that Paralympians are every bit elite as other Olympians.
“It’s the Olympic Games for people with physical disabilities and I hope people will realize through my story the gap is not that big,” McKeever said in an interview last month. “Just because somebody has a disability doesn’t mean they are not training hard or are extremely fit.”
No matter who you are rooting for today, take a minute to say a little cheer for Brian, who serves as inspiration to those of us who let trivial circumstances stand in our way of achieving greatness. Good luck, Brian!
Read more about how Brian copes with his disability at mental floss.
We spend a lot of time around here campaigning to end to the annual Japanese whale slaughter and encouraging our members to get educated and take action. While our passion behind this lies mostly in protecting these fascinating creatures and their habitats, research shows that in addition to being a cruel and unnecessary practice, commercial whaling also releases millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere - an event that has a enormous impact on, you guessed it, global warming.
You see, each time a whale bids adieu to its life on Earth, it sinks to the bottom of the great blue sea, carrying with it tons of carbon that has been sucked out of our atmosphere and stored in their body for years to come. Similar to trees that filter CO2 from our air through photosynthesis, whales clear our oceans of these ozone depleting gases. You could say it's one of Mother Nature's way of cleaning house for us. Researchers are beginning to think that repopulating the oceans with whales could have a tremendous impact on our ecosystem.
"If you think about whales and fish in terms of their carbon, there is a potential for using carbon offset credits as an additional incentive for rebuilding this population," said Andrew Pershing of the University of Maine School of Marine Science and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute who presented his results yesterday at a meeting of ocean scientists convened by the American Geophysical Union in Portland, Ore.
According to Pershing, an estimated 105 million tons of carbon has been released over the past 100 years strictly due to whaling, a figure that he says is comparable to burning Oregon's forest or driving 128,000 Hummers for 100 years. Granted, 105 million tons is small potatoes compared to the 7 billion tons of carbon released annually worldwide, but as Pershing points out, the amount is akin to many of the current proposed strategies for battling climate change - reforestation projects or planting iron in the oceans to help phytoplankton absorb more CO2.
"Over the last 100 years, whaling removed more than 2 million whales from the Southern Hemisphere alone," said Phillip Clapham, director of the cetacean program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle. For many species, this represented 90-95 percent of their total numbers.
The demand for whale blubber is directly tied to the manufacturing of margarine, lamp or industrial oil, and of course - whale meat for human and animal consumption. Tasty.
Clapham notes that in addition to whales, larger fish like sharks and bluefin tuna also house a great deal of carbon.
"These guys are huge. They don't have predators. When they die they are very likely to sink and take their biomass to the bottom of the ocean."
When asked how he feels about Pershing's theory that redistributing whales could increase carbon consumption, Clapham says "It's a great idea. I love it...presuming that they are correct, it certainly is a very novel and innovative idea and another reason to save whales."
What's the polite way to tell the store cashier "Thanks, but no thanks" when he or she offers you a plastic bag for your purchase? In most situations, "Thanks, but no thanks" works like a charm. But as fashion illustrator Julia Durgee explains, there are more than a few ways for you to have a little fun when turning down another ocean-and-landfill-clogging piece of plastic. She's also included a few fun (and scary) facts about plastic, just in case you are still struggling to rid yourself of the wasteful habit.
What's your secret for remembering to bring reusable bags to the store with you?
Of all the nasty terms we could use to describe cancer, "stupid" is among the more mild of the bunch. Zac Efron is keeping it sassy and giving cancer the finger in a new grassroots campaign for The I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation that provides support and awareness for teens, 20 and 30-somethings who are diagnosed with cancer. Their website is appropriately named stupidcancer.com.
Nearly 70,000 Americans in this age range are diagnosed with cancer - a statistic the organization just isn't going to stand for. The I'm Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation is the voice of young adults who have survived or are living with cancer - a void that no other organization fills.
If you feel like giving cancer the finger and supporting their work, get yourself a "cancer is stupid" bracelet from stupidcancer.com and rest easy knowing that 100% of your purchase dollars will go towards helping survivors "regain their dignity and live their lives."
Drivers who want to look tough while burning through gallons upon gallons of gasoline will soon have to find another massive SUV to satisfy their needs - the Hummer brand is just days away from becoming permanently shut down. Disappointing sales numbers and an unsuccessful attempt to sell the brand to a Chinese firm are bringing manufacturing of GM's powerful vehicles to a screeching halt.
"We have since considered a number of possibilities for Hummer along the way and we are disappointed that the deal with Tengzhong could not be completed," said John Smith, GM's vice-president of corporate planning and alliances.
"GM will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner."
We can't say we are surprised at the brand's demise - they have long been criticized for their anti-environmentalist ways, earning dirty "how-could-you" looks from Prius drivers on the roadways.
The only way the Hummer brand will survive is if a last-minute bidder steps in with a purchase offer, and the chances of that happening are not good. Customers who want to scoop up one of the last remaining Hummers can still do so, there are still approximately 2500 Hummers on auto lots for sale.
Never ones to avoid a good pop culture reference, animal non-profit PETA, has just revealed a new image starring Tiger Woods for their Too Much Sex campaign that promotes animal spaying and neutering. The poster/billboard reads: "Too much sex can be a bad thing... for little tigers too." That's one way to turn lemons into lemonade (or the other way around, depending on how you see it).
Tiger is joining other campaign stars Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson, two of the brightest stars in the adult film industry. Given the recent publicity splash from his infidelity, Tiger Woods obviously did not give approval for his photo to be used in the ad, though his people have not made a fuss about it yet. PETA is one of the most satirical and controversial non-profits on the map, so we're sure they have a response ready for whenever that moment does come. They've already published a blog post explaining their motivation.
You can always count on PETA for a good laugh! What do you think of the ad?
Say what you will about your intense love of LEGOs, there are many things that the common colored-brick-lover doesn't know about the nearly 80-year-old toy company. For example, did you know that the company named itself after the Danish phrase "Leg Godt", translation: "play well?" Or that the first minifig (LEGO people) were born in 1978 but DIDN'T HAVE ANY FACES?
These fun facts, among many others, can be learned by taking a look at this illustrated History of Legos timeline from Online School.
Audiences at a live show at the SeaWorld Shamu Stadium in Orlando, FL got more than they bargained for this afternoon when a killer whale jumped out of the tank and grabbed hold of a trainer at the start of a performance. The trainer, an experienced female employee, was pronounced dead by the time the Orange County Fire Rescue arrived at the theme park.
According to one audience member, the trainer had just finished telling audiences what they could expect to see during the performance when the whale came up from the water and grabbed the woman at the waist. "He was thrashing her around pretty good. It was violent," the spectator explained. At that time, the sirens went off and the audience evacuated the stadium.
Despite their name, this particular breed of whales isn't known for attacking humans, but the facilities have had a couple incidents with Tillikum, the whale in question, including the drowning of a trainer in 1991 that the whale was blamed for. Officials stated that due to his violent behavior, 'Tilly,' as he was nicknamed, was kept in isolation away from other killer whales and that trainers were not allowed in the water with him.
Animal rights groups have long criticized theme parks such as SeaWorld for keeping these animals in captivity, claiming it makes them dangerous and more likely to snap.
"Captivity is abusive to these animals. And the abuse mounts up. And when these animals snap -- just for a minute -- they're so big and can be so dangerous that it's like a shotgun," said Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer in Fort Lauderdale. "It does an incredible amount of damage in just a moment."
A spokesperson for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed that an investigator has been sent to the facilities to research the conditions and situation further. Today's remaining shows have been canceled, but as of now, the SeaWorld Orlando park is still open for business.
What's your stance on establishments like zoos and aquariums? Is it SeaWorld's fault for keeping these animals in protected, isolated environments, or was it just a fluke accident?
Read the full story with more details at the LA Times
