No cougar would take on a full-size Grizzly. …

(via besthike)

I was in Phoenix for Martin Luther King Day.

Arizona was one of the last two States to adopt this National holiday. Yet when I rode by the public festival in the park everyone looked happy. Black, white, Hispanic.

There was a large police contingent but there are a lot of police everywhere in Phoenix.

Whatever you think personally of Martin Luther King, all agree his I Have a Dream speech is one of the greatest of all time.

Click PLAY or watch a short excerpt on YouTube.

This is almost unbelievable enough to be a Hollywood movie. Watch for the pilot to eject 0.2sec before impact.

And check the “perfect” photo of the ejecting pilot at 0.1sec before impact.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Thanks Brian.

I’m interested in the future of the Middle East after the oil is gone. Dubai already has very little oil.

Islam is very big on the protection of women, even at the cost of their freedom. Yet in a boom town where men outnumber women 3 to 1, prostitution is inevitable.

Mimi Chakarova has been doing investigative journalism into prostitution in Eastern Europe for the past 4 years. It led her to Dubai.

Her 12min video expose is both more surprising than shocking. It’s an honest report. And not at all what she expected …

…

I met women working as prostitutes who told me that they were doing so because they had chosen to. Sasha, for example, was trafficked from Siberia and serviced clients against her will. But then she managed to run away from her madam and decided to continue to work as a prostitute on her own. Her English was good, so I asked her why she didn’t find a job as a salesperson in one of the many shopping malls in Dubai. She said she could earn more in one night as a prostitute than working a whole month in sales. And she wouldn’t have to stand on her feet all day. Like many other girls I spoke with, Sasha charges $500 dirhams per hour (about US$140). She told me that the money she sends home to Siberia has allowed her family to build a house.

I met another woman from Azerbaijan who was living with a “boyfriend,” the term she used to describe one of her regular clients. She told me how he would often lock her in the apartment to keep her services exclusively for himself. When I first met her, she talked about her son back home and how she had sent money to buy him his first computer. The second time we met, she was drunk and missing a front tooth. When I asked her what had happened, she shrugged it off: “We got into a fight, he punched me,” she said, lighting up another cigarette. …

FRONTLINE/WORLD . Rough Cut . Dubai: Night Secrets | PBS

You can see the video after the link above.

This video is 17min long. (I’ll understand if you skip it.)

But you and I will never be invited to the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference. To hear Skeptic Society founder Michael Shermer address a room full of people all convinced they are smarter than anyone else there.

This is your chance.

Click PLAY or watch it on the TED site.

My friend, sport scientist, Dr. Jeni has been a card carrying member of the Skeptics Society. She will appreciate it.

Bio:

Skeptic Society founder Michael Shermer dedicates his life to debunking myths, superstitions and urban legends, and also explaining why we believe them. Along with publishing Skeptic Magazine, he’s author, most recently, of Why People Believe Weird Things.

TED | Speakers | Michael Shermer

In South Africa.

The Piton: World’s Longest and Fastest Zip Line

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Why not build a 10-mile zip line?

Or longer?

Rocco and I got a few good runs in.

Here are the highlights.

Click PLAY or watch us on YouTube.

Higher Ground Skiing Video by Warren Miller

On America’s Got Talent TV, husband and wife team David and Dania floor the judges.

HOW DO THEY DO THIS?

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

Remember that time I raced the Ferrari to Montmartre to meet you?

The video is now posted on the interweb:

Tyromaniac

Though some claim it is faked, you, I and Lelouch know the truth.

(Thanks George.)

In the continuing quest to see if humans can outpace their electronic creations, the humans have lost another, perhaps decisive, round. …

A six-game chess match between Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the world champion, and Deep Fritz, a souped-up version of commercially available chess software made by Chessbase, ended today in victory for the computer, which won the final game and clinched the match, 4 games to 2.

Once Again, Machine Beats Human Champion at Chess – New York Times