It’s the Holidays. Be a Sucker for the Planet

 

 

Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:

 

 

It’s the Holidays. Be a Sucker for the Planet

via adventure journal by michael frank on 12/23/11

We couldn't have made this ad any better. Well, maybe with some skiers and surfers and mountain bikers and climbers we could have, save that this two-minute spot from the BBC, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, is filled with athletes of every stripe, all more amazing and talented than any human could ever hope to be. It's sentimental and gooey and anthropomorphizes the animal world. So what. And so what that it's an ad, one that followed the final run of Attenborough with the Beeb and its six-episode Frozen Planet series (he's 85 and has worked with the network for 60 whopping years!), or that he's reciting Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World, itself plenty schmaltzy.

Cynics (humbugs?) will argue that Attenborough and the BBC are glossing a bunch of controversy about the series. There's the U.S. scandal that went down earlier this month when Discovery Channel said it would not air the final episode, which acknowledged that our frozen planet is warming, thanks to climate change, and then reversed course after an online petition reamed them for caving to climate-change deniers.

And in the U.K. the backlash came when it was unearthed that some of Attenborough's narration was not of activity at the North Pole, but that the footage of a polar caring for her young was from a zoo, and the BBC, rather than apologize, explained that lots of nature shows have to do this to capture difficult footage. Unlike the British tabloids, we are not shocked that reality TV, even in the animal kingdom, is staged, just like on the Jersey Shore.

C'mon people. It is STILL a wonderful world, and nothing is faked about how a polar bear gives birth and raises her cubs, and nothing is faked about what these animals actually are and how complex this earth actually is. And yes, it's all a big muddle and nothing is as pure and perfect as we wish it were.

But in the midst of the holiday season we're happy to proclaim awe and wonder for this world. We dig it and every natural thing in it. If you love the outdoors, we think that's the just-right attitude. Be a sap and a sucker. For once, fall for it. It's the holidays, after all. Peace.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to adventure journal using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Active in Aus

 

 

Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:

 

 

Active in Aus

via Lucky Lockie by Lachlan Holmes on 12/25/11

I'm getting some good shirtless time here in Australia over Christmas. It's been a few weeks since I last did a hard ride, but I really wanted to stretch the legs on Melbourne's renowned Beach Road. I headed out with a local racer and got my suffer on as we racked up 170 scenic bay-side kilometres.

The next day my decathlete brother took me to one of his track meets, where I had a really fun time with the welcoming Collingwood Harriers athletics club. First, Tim defied physics in a huge triple jump. Then I tried my hand at shotput, before the real reason for attending, the 5km. I started running a bit at the end of the cycling race season, but pulled my calf and spent time rehabbing under the knowledgeable guidance of Amanda at the Wellness Connection. Point being, I thought trying to get inside 20 minutes was a reasonable goal. So I was pretty stoked to run 18:08!

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Lucky Lockie using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

5 videos worth re-watching from 2011

 

 

Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:

 

 

5 videos worth re-watching from 2011

via blogTO by Derek Flack on 12/21/11

The term "viral" is thrown around a bit too loosely nowadays, especially when it comes to videos related to a specific city. So I'm going to avoid using that tag for the offerings below, even if in some cases you could make the argument that they deserve it. Most of these would be more like local viruses that spread within a given community, in this case Toronto.

For folks from Toronto, then, these are all worth re-watching as we begin to wrap up 2011. Sure, there are others that could have made it — most notably the recent phenomenon that is Shit Girls Say, but despite being set in Toronto, the super-popular original episode just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of this little list. And besides, it kind of already made it in that I'm mentioning and linking to it.

Here's five of my favourites from 2011. If you've got others, I'll embed the good ones that I've missed (there's got to be a few).

Lightning TO

Not to take away from any of the superb lightning storm videos of year's past — here's looking at you Sam Javanrouh — but Jon Simonassi's coverage of the wild electrical storm we got in late August went about as berserk as local videos go, racking up almost 740,000 views since it was posted the morning after the storm. Despite all the fantastic still photography devoted to the event, Simo's video did the best job of capturing just how bizarre and awesome the storm was.

401 Truck Crash

This one stretches the local tag a bit far, but this video of a driver almost getting fed a tractor trailer on the 401 near Guelph is just too good to pass up. Originally posted on CP24, the story was eventually picked up by CNN, which gave it some international traction. How did the driver get the video? Apparently, he once had problems with his insurance company and thus decided to record all of his car trips. Serendipity! Oh, and his verbal reaction is priceless.

Toronto Tempo

Of the timelapse sequences we've posted on the site — and there's been a few — none have been quite so well received as Ryan Emond's Toronto Tempo, which features that perfect mix of stunning visuals and a slick soundtrack. When we first posted it, I called it a love letter to Toronto, and I still like to think of it that way. Who could forget that SkyDome sequence?

Time Travel

The second most popular timelapse to capture Toronto in 2011, Ben Lean's Time Travel ain't no slouch. In fact, even though it didn't generate quite the traffic that the above video did, it wouldn't be hard to make the argument that it's every bit as good. Some people think these sequences are pointless and cheesy, but that's to miss the point. As far as pure eye-candy goes, this is great stuff.

Sex on the TTC!!!!
And the last video is also the most recent. Just over a week ago a couple were filmed getting their hump on at Spadina Station. The video itself actually isn't altogether, hmmm, stimulating — but the mere idea that one could get so wrecked and horny on a Sunday afternoon is remarkable in and of itself. Watch the NSFW video here.

Photos by picturenarrative and Alex Luyckx, respectively.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to blogTO using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

The Year in Pictures: Part I

 

 

Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:

 

 

The Year in Pictures: Part I

via The Big Picture on 12/19/11

Any "best of" list must surely be subjective. This one is no different. Choosing the best photographs of the year is an enormously difficult task, with many terrific photographs slipping through the cracks. But with major news events as a guide, and with single images I fell in love with throughout the year forcing their way into the edit, I look at my favorite pictures from the first four months of the year. Two main stories dominated headlines in the first part of the year: the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the rising of the Arab Spring. The protests in the Middle East would spread to Greece, Spain, and eventually inspire the Occupy movement in Western nations. Other stories included a historic wave of tornados in the U.S., a Royal wedding in London, and the creation of the world's newest nation in South Sudan. Images from the rest of the year will follow in posts later this week. -- Lane Turner (36 photos total)

A wave caused by a tsunami flows into the city of Miyako from the Heigawa estuary in Iwate Prefecture after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake struck Japan March 11, 2011. (Mainichi Shimbun /Reuters)

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to The Big Picture using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Soccer, Once Thought to Be One of the Safest Sports, Turns Deadly

 

 

Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:

 

 

Soccer, Once Thought to Be One of the Safest Sports, Turns Deadly

via Health : The Atlantic by Michael J. Gertner on 12/18/11

Using an advanced MRI technique, a new study shows that heading in soccer damages the nerve cells and axonal tracts in the brain

Soccer has increased its popularity among American sports players in recent years, but the practice of heading -- directing the ball with one's head -- has been a cause for concern.

MORE FROM THE DOCTOR

• Diet Sabotage
• Can Pollution Cause Diabetes?
• The Ultimate Mouthwash

---

Awareness of the risks of sports-related concussions is rising in light of problems among professional American football and hockey players. Now, a new study suggests that repeated "heading" of soccer balls among amateur and professional players can result in brain damage and a gradual decline in thinking and coordination skills.

It also has the brain images to prove it. The study was the first to image the brains of soccer players using an advanced MRI technique, called Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). DTI measures the rate of water diffusion within neural tissues to produce three-dimensional images of the brain and its tracts and connections.

Using DTI, the researchers, based at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, were able to report that amateur soccer players who headed the ball over 1,500 times a year suffered from damage to their nerve cells, specifically the axonal tracts that link neurons together and are essential for cellular communication throughout the brain.

The study was conducted using 32 amateur soccer players with an average age of 30.8 years. All of the subjects played soccer since childhood. The participants filled out surveys estimating how often they headed the ball on a yearly basis and the researchers ranked the players based on heading frequency. All of the subjects then underwent DTI and the investigators compared the brain images from those with the highest heading frequency and looked for differences with images from the remaining players.

In the brains of players with the highest frequency of headers, the investigators found axonal damage in five separate regions of the brain. These areas are critical for attention, memory, executive functioning, and higher-order visual functions.

The researchers also found an inverse statistical correlation between the frequency of headers and the rate of water diffusion throughout the axons. In players who headed the ball more frequently, the rate of diffusion was lower, indicative of damaged white matter in the brain.

"What we've shown here is compelling evidence that there are brain changes that look like traumatic brain injury as a result of heading a soccer ball with high frequency," Michael Lipton, associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and leader of the study told The Doctor. "Given that soccer is the most popular sport worldwide and is played extensively by children, these are findings that should be taken into consideration in order to protect soccer players."

The areas of the brain damage signified that soccer players with excessive headers may eventually lose some of their cognitive abilities. The results, while a blow to a sport played by millions worldwide and once thought to be one of the safest sports available, can serve to make the sport safer, as has happened with the addition of warm-up exercises before playing.

These results are beginning to motivate coaches and players to take a closer look at possible methods of protection -- including the possibility of players wearing helmets.

The study was presented in November at the Radiological Society of North American annual meeting in Chicago. It has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Image: Ronen/Shutterstock.

---

This article originally appeared on TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com, an Atlantic partner site.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Health : The Atlantic using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

Virtuosos

 

 

Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:

 

 

Virtuosos

via Family adventures by Pace-James on 12/17/11

This past January Aidan announced that he wanted to take piano lessons.

Excuse me?!?!

I ran to the phone and got him in.  This September Quinn decided he wanted to learn too, so both boys were taking lessons.

Fast forward to today, when both boys played in their first ever piano recital.  Chris and I, the girls, and Brigitte all piled into the library auditorium and waited anxiously for their songs.

Let's start with Quinn.  I was sooo.... nervous for Quinn because I wasn't even sure if he was going to be able to find middle 'C' on a piano he had never played on before.  Clearly there was no need to worry as the little man marched up to the piano, plunked himself down, and knocked his song out of the park.


Then there was Aidan.  We need to first address his wardrobe choices, particularly his Sting toque that he was wearing.  When we got to the auditorium, he took his coat and hat off.  His hair stood straight up!  Yep, he had the worst case of hat head possible.  I made an executive decision and said: "put the hat back on Aidan."  So he did and off he went.


Chris and I were so proud of our little men  Little musicians in the making!!

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Family adventures using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

 

 

From Beer to Antibiotics, the 7 Wonders of the Microbe World

 

 

Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:

 

 

From Beer to Antibiotics, the 7 Wonders of the Microbe World

via Health : The Atlantic by Maria Popova on 12/14/11

Microbes are the oldest form of life on Earth and they outnumber all other species. From the fine folks at Open University -- who previously brought us this brilliant series of six famous philosophy thought experiments, animated -- comes Seven Wonders of the Microbe World, a fascinating short documentary about what microbes have done for humanity (which, by the way, they still refer to as "mankind" -- and we've just observed the problem with that). From microbes' role in producing some of our favorite foods, including bread, cheese, yogurt, and beer, to nitrogen fixation as the cornerstone of modern organic farming to how the Black Death enabled a new class of entrepreneurs, the seven "wonders" covered include the history of beer, The Black Death, food preservation, nitrogen fixation, antibiotics, genetic engineering, and life on Mars.

One of the interesting social implications of The Black Death is that church leaders were not able to provide any explanation of how this disease was caused and, as a result, the authority of church leaders began to be eroded and people began to question whether they should listen to religious leaders at all. Some people have even said that the English Reformation was caused by the Black Death.

For more on the fascinating world of microbes, you won't go wrong with March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen. And for something a little fuzzier, there's always Giant Microbes' series of stuffed microbes -- who can resist a huggable E. coli?

Via Open Culture.

This post also appears on Brain Pickings, an Atlantic partner site.

 

 

Things you can do from here:

• Subscribe to Health : The Atlantic using Google Reader
• Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites