oh my god yes tell me more

Long before the days of the Frigidaire, the icebox or even a reliable means to make ice, people had to either a.) eat their food on the spot or b.) find ways to keep it from turning into a bacteria-fungus casserole at room temperature while they stored it for days, weeks or even months. Enter: curing.

Humans learned long ago that covering things in salt keeps the rot away, but it wasn’t until late in the Iron Age that we began mass-producing salt. The increase in available supply made it much more practical to use for everyday preparations like curing foods. I feel sorry for the first few generations that just covered their meats in granulated salt and left it there (dry curing) – must have been a bitter reunion when it was finally served. However, at some point in the Middle Ages we learned the technique of “brining.” Brining is submerging a cut of meat for a few weeks in a salt-water mixture (ideally you should be able to float an egg in the brine) along with some choice seasonings like pepper, garlic, coriander or whatever the local flavor may be. It is quite common to add sugar during the brining as well for an extra sweet kick in the mouth.

salt! smoke! history!

The oncologists, gun nuts and pee enthusiasts reading this may be interested to know: It used to be much more common to use potassium nitrate or “saltpeter” for brining. Saltpeter is a common ingredient for oxidizing gunpowder, can be obtained from decomposed urine and could very well give you cancer. It also has the effect of giving cured meats their distinctive reddish coloring.

Brining a cut of beef or pork brisket (or even turkey), giving it a rinse in fresh water and simmering it for several hours is called “corning” the meat. You can see where this is going, but you might be asking “Where is the corn?” Given the European roots of brining, it’s no surprise those cheeky Anglo-Saxons put a word to it – “corn” to them meant “small granule or pellet.” So in the case of cured meats, “corn” referred to the granules of salt used in the process Even up until colonial times the word “corn” meant any common grain. Thus, the maize that Native Americans introduced to settlers was called “Indian Corn” and the rest, as all the famed Etymologists of the world say, is history.

Oh, and from corned beef, the jump to pastrami isn’t a big one. Once you have a cured and rinsed chunk of meat, all you have to do is smoke it and cover it with crushed peppercorns and various other seasonings and there you have it – what the Yiddish called “pastrame,” the Turks called “pastrima,” and what most Americans affectionately call: “Holy shit that’s $3 a pound cheaper than ham!”

hello please make me a sandwich it’s important

 - Mike Beech lives in the Cleveland area and really just wanted to find out what the heck corned beef was all about.

With this in mind, I would like to tell you the story of perhaps one of the worst scientists to have ever lived. Thomas Midgley Jr. was an ivy league graduate (thanks, Cornell) and mechanical engineer who, despite his training in that specific area, chose to focus in commercial applications of chemistry.

Photo credit: chemcases.com

Five years after graduating from school in 1911, Midgley began work at Dayton Metal Laboratories (sometimes referred to as Dayton Research Laboratories), which was absorbed by General Motors and turned into one of its primary research facilities. Along with his mentor, he had discovered that a combination of lead and sodium when added to chloroethane like so…

4 NaPb + 4 CH₃CH₂Cl –> (CH₃CH₂)₄Pb + 4 NaCl + 3 Pb

…when added to standard gasoline would reduce a phenomenon known as engine knock which was apparently plaguing early motorists.

(My apologies for the chemistry.)

The additive is known as tetra-ethyl lead, sometimes referred to as TEL. It’s what years ago made gasoline “leaded.” Most people know that leaded fuel is bad, but not exactly to what degree. Midgley himeslf in 1923 had to stop all work in his lab and spend some time in Miami for some R&R due to severe lung issues associated with the dangers of working with lead. FYI, here are the effects of lead poisoning according to Wikipedia:

• Excess lethargy, abdominal pain, ^[11] headache.
• Gastrointestinal problems, such as constipation, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, or weight loss, which are common in acute poisoning.
• Neuropathy, such as muscle pain, weakness, tremors, twitches, spasms, or cramps.
• Encephalopathy, which, in extreme circumstances, is characterised by raised intracranial pressure, seizures, comas, or even death.
• Nephropathy, which occurs because the kidneys are the main route of removal of lead from the body. Acute lead poisoning may lead to development of Fanconi syndrome. Chronic lead exposure can lead to a slowly progressive interstitial nephritis. Chronic interstitial nephritis can also develop following an earlier acute lead exposure. Long-term exposure at levels lower than those that cause lead nephropathy have also been reported as nephrotoxic in patients from developed countries that had chronic kidney disease or were at-risk because of hypertension or diabetes mellitus. ^[16]
• Behavioural changes, such as inability to concentrate, hyperactivity, irritability, aggressiveness, mood swings, or insomnia.
• Cognitive problems, such as memory loss.
• Other associated effects, such as metal taste in the mouth, chest pain, anemia, impotence, and other reproductive problems.

An advertisement for Ethyl which appeared in the March, 1932 issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Click to enlarge.

The dangers of working with lead made the entire manufacturing process outrageously hazardous. By 1924, General Motors, Standard Oil (which today is more or less ExxonMobil), and DuPont had created the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation to sell leaded gasoline. Ten factory employees would die of lead poisoning between 1923 and 1924.

Ethyl Corporation headquarters in Virginia (via Flickr)

The company built a new factory in New Jersey (surprise!), but within two months five more employees suffered terrible lead-related brain injuries and eventually death. Remarkably, the company responded to this by stating things along the lines of, “These men went insane because they worked too hard.”

All of these deaths were not great PR for the company or for Midgley, so in a press conference, he poured the straight stuff, TEL, over his hands and then breathed it in for one minute, claiming he could do it every day without harm.

The State of New Jersey shut down the factory several days later and banned the production of TEL without permission by the state.

Midgley required one year of recovery from the publicity stunt.

Leaded gasoline is one of the most significant contributors to atmospheric lead and today, Americans have over 600 times more lead in their blood than those who lived prior to TEL’s introduction. It was banned in the US in 1986, though somehow is still used overseas even today.

Remarkably, Midgley had been made vice president of the Ethyl Corporation since its formation. He was relieved of this position, but remained a GM employee.

His story does not end here though.

In the 1930s, refrigeration technologies were not that great. In fact, refrigerators often used a toxic and combustible combination of gases that had an unfortunate tendency of killing or otherwise severely injuring unsuspecting users. From 1919 to 1980, General Motors also owned Frigidaire, the appliance brand. After the TEL debacle, GM charged Midgley with discovering a safe chemical for use in Frigidaire refrigerators and freezers.

Along with his mentor from Dayton Research who worked with him on TEL, Charles Kettering (the same Kettering of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York), the two set to work on what was to become dichlorodifluoromethane. I’ll space that out for you so you can actually read that: di chloro di fluoro methane. Because chemistry is just full of really long naming protocols, the duo gave the compound the name … Freon, the first chlorinated fluorocarbon, or CFC.

That’s right, the same guy who came up with leaded gasoline also created CFCs, you know, those things that are supposed to be destroying the ozone layer and all that. Talk about the sequel being better than the original. CFCs were banned in the US 64 years after they were developed, in 1994, but given their chemical properties will likely still remain in the atmosphere for quite a number of decades.

For having improved the quality of life so much, Midgley was the recipient of a number of prestigious accolades, including the Priestly Medal, the highest honor from the American Chemical Society, two honorary degrees, induction into the National Academy of Sciences. In 1944, he was named president of the American Chemical Society.

While Midglely was probably not completely aware of the destruction that his creations would wreak upon the earth, his life would end in a glorious amount of karmic irony.

He contracted highly disabling polio at the age of 51 in 1940. Being an inventive sort, Midgley built a rigging of pulleys and ropes which would raise and turn him over in his bed. On November 2, 1944 while trying to use the contraption, he had become entangled in the ropes and was strangled to death.

I think that story wraps itself up quite nicely. It was condensed in a video made for the Live Earth concert events in 2007 in this video:

If you’re from out of town, you’ll in all likelihood get to Gibraltar by plane, landing at Gibraltar Airport. From the air, it looks quite standard:

A view of the other half of the runway shows something else:

At first glance, it doesn’t look like there is anything particularly remarkable. Let’s take another look at the airport at another time of day though:

“Is…. is that traffic?” you might ask yourself. And you’d be right! Gibraltar Airport is a drive-through airport, literally. The airport is actually right in the city center of Gibraltar and the street which runs across the runway, Winston Churchill Avenue, is closed every time a plane lands or takes off. Check it out:

• 1054 – The Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians (the who?) observe a supernova near the star Tauri. It was bright enough to be seen during the day for several months.
  

• 1634 – The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France. It would later become Quebec.
  

  Coat of arms of Trois-Rivières

• 1636 – Roger Williams establishes the city of Providence, Rhode Island

• 1776 – The second continental congress adopts the United States Declaration of Independence
  

  Yeah, America!

• 1778 – Kaskaskia is captured by George Clark and his men during the Illinois campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The population of Kaskaskia as determined by the 2000 census was 9.
• 1802 – The United States Military Academy opens at West Point, New York
• 1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced.
  
• 1817 – Construction begins on the Erie Canal at Rome, New York. It would take 15 years to complete the 360+ mile canal.
• 1827 – New York State abolishes slavery.
• 1837 – The world’s first long-distance railway, Grand Junction Railway between Birmingham and Liverpool is opened. Today it is part of the West Coast Main Line, a railway system between London and Scotland.
• 1840 – The first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end (as opposed to simply “whenever you get there”) takes place aboard the Cunard Line’s RMS Britannia, a 700 ton wooden paddle steamer.
• 1845 – Henry David Thoreau embarks on his two year experiment in simple and solitary living at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts.

Walden Pond

• Walt Whitman’s seminal work, Leaves of Grass, is published in Brooklyn.
  

  Walt Whitman in 1887. Check out that beard.

• 1862 – 10-year-old Alice Liddell is told a story by Lewis Carroll. The story would eventually become Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when it would be published in November, 1865.
  

  Cover of the 1898 printing of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"

• 1863 – After 47 days of fighting, the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi during the American Civil War ends. The town would not recognize Independence Day for almost eighty years following the battle.
• 1881 – The Tuskegee Institute opens in Tuskegee, Alabama
  

  The Tuskegee Institute in 1916

• 1886 – France offers the Statue of Liberty to the United States.
  

  As a lighthouse, the flames inside the statue's torch were the cause of death for hundreds of birds each night.

• 1892 - Western Samoa changes the location of the International Date Line such that the country recognizes 367 days per year.
• 1894 – Sanford B. Dole, relative of the pineapple magnate, proclaims the Republic of Hawaii.
• 1934 – The nuclear chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb is patented by Hungarian physicist, Leo Szilard, who would go on to later work on the Manhattan Project.
• 1939 – After being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig announces his retirement from baseball at Yankee Stadium. After a presentation by Babe Ruth, Gehrig addressed the crowd: –

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

–

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

–

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know.

–

“So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for. Thank you.”

• 1946 – The Philippines attains full independence from the United States after 381 years of colonial rule.
• 1947 – The Indian Independence Bill is passed by the British House of Commons, leading to British India being split into today’s India and Pakistan.
• 1959 – The 49-star-flag is debuted in Philadelphia after Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
  

  Congressmen celebrate Alaska's new statehood

• 1960 – Ten months after its admission as the 50th U.S. state on August 21st, 1959, the 50-star flag is debuted once again in Philadelphia.
• 1966 – The Freedom of Information Act is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
• 1969 – The Zodiac Killer attacks his first two victims in Blue Rock Springs, California. One survives.
• 1976 – In 53 minutes, Israeli commandos rescue 102 hostages from a hijacked Air France flight from Israel to Paris who were being held in Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
• 1976 – On the other side of the globe, America celebrates its bicentennial.
  • Among other things, New Jersey offers a Bicentennial Lottery where the winner would receive $1,776 a week for 20 years ($1,847,040, all before taxes)
  • NASA paints an American flag and the official bicentennial logo on the side of its massive vehicle assembly building. Each star on the flag is six feet across, the blue background behind the stars is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each stripe is as wide as a road lane
    

    NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building in 1976. The bicentennial logo (the star on the right) wasn't replaced with the NASA logo until 1998.

• 1987 – World War II Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie is convicted of crimes against humanity.
• 1997 - NASA’s Pathfinder lands on Mars
  

  The surface of Mars upon Pathfinder's landing in 1997

• 2004 – The cornerstone is laid on the former World Trade Center site in New York City for One World Trade Center (no longer “Freedom Tower” — it’s official!)
  
• 2006 – North Korea fires six test missiles — four short-range, one medium-range, and one long-range, which is rumored to have failed mid-air above the Sea of Japan.
• 2009 – After 8 years of closure, the crown of the Statue of LIberty re-opens for guests.
  

“We won’t be signing off until the world ends. We’ll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event… and when the end of the world comes, we’ll play ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ before we sign off.”

• Launched a short-lived competitor to MTV in 1984, the Cable Music Channel, which lasted 33 days. The story behind CMC is actually pretty interesting and almost warrants its own post.

• Attempted to buy CBS, instead bought the MGM/United Artists for $1.5 billion just to sell parts of it back to others in an effort to reduce debt. Turner retained ownership of a gigantic film and television library, which now includes

  The Wizard of Oz
  A Christmas Story
  Gone With the Wind
  Tom & Jerry
  North by Northwest
  Gilligan’s Island
  2001: A Space Odyssey
  Looney Tunes

  … along with a significant chunk of the pre-1986 MGM/UA TV and film library, the RKO Radio Pictures Library, and the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film library.

• Used to own theatrical and television rights to Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
• Had to start an entire company (Turner Entertainment) to manage all of his film assets in 1986.
• Bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1988, later sold it to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
• Launched the philanthropic Turner Foundation in 1990 which distributes grants for environmental and population-relatd work. As part of this, he created Captain Planet. That’s right. Ted Turner made Captain Planet.
• Created the United Nations Foundation in 1998 to manage his $1 billion donation to the UN’s causes. The one billionth dollar was donated by 2006.
• Served in the Coast Guard, receiving the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism (not to be confused with the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism).
• Is the recipient of 42 honorary degrees.
• Bought Hanna-Barbera Productions and acquired Castle Rock Entertainment (distributors of Seinfeld, among other things) and New Line Cinema in the early 1990s.
• In 2001, launched the Nuclear Threat Initiative to “close the growing and increasingly dangerous gap between the threat from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the global response.”
• Was Time’s Man of the Year in 1991 and Broadcasting & Cable (Magazine)’s Man of the Century in 1999. How an industry which has not existed for more than a century can have an industry publication that awards such a designation remains a mystery.

And now, the complete listing of his media properties (thanks, Wikipedia!)

TV

• CNN
• CNN HD
• HLN (CNN Headline News)
• CNN Airport Network
• CNN International
• CNN en Español
• CNN Chile
• CNN+ (Only in Spain)
• CNN IBN (Localized to India)
• n-tv (HLN Germany)
• CNN Turk (Localized to Turkey)
• truTV (formerly CourtTV)
• NBA TV
• TBS
• TBS HD
• TNT
• TNT HD
• TCM (Turner Classic Movies)
• WPCH-TV, Atlanta
• Cartoon Network
  • Cartoon Network Studios
  • Adult Swim
  • Williams Street
• Boomerang
• Boomerang UK (+ multiple localized European versions)
• Cartoonito (UK)
• Cartoon Network Too (UK)
• Fashion TV Latin America
• Infinito TV (Latin America only)
• Space (Latin America)
• Retro (Like TV Land, but for Latin America)
• China Educational Television Network (approx. 40% ownership)
• Nuts TV (UK-only, if Maxim had their own network, it would be this)
• Pogo (Cartoon Network for India)
• Boing (Cartoon Network for Italy)

Web Properties

• PGA.com & PGATour.com
• NASCAR.com
• GameTap
• CartoonNetwork.com
• AdultSwim.com
• CNNMoney.com
• CNN.com
• iReport.com
• TBS.com
• TNT.tv
• TruTV.com
• PlayON! Sports Network

It is surprising that the guy only has a net worth of about $2.3 billion.

As can be seen, there isn't a whole lot going on here.

While drilling, the team discovered a large cavern full of natural gas. Drilling into the area led the ground on which the drilling equipment sat to collapse, leaving a crater between 50 and 100 meters in size.

Let’s say you were responsible for this accident. Would you:

a) Engineer a secure covering of the hole, similar to Chernobyl’s sarcophagus.
b) Just leave, there’s nobody in that area anyway.
c) Eliminate the threat of disaster by lighting the gas on fire.

Any guesses? Turns out the correct response is “C.” Not knowing how much gas was in the cavern, it was nonetheless decided to simply ignite it all and in turn, prevent any hazard from spreading.

Usually when chemicals explode, you might see something like this happen:

That didn’t really happen in Derweze, or Darvaza as it is somtimes referred. Instead, the gasses just … kept burning. In fact, nearly 40 years later, the hole is still burning and has received the moniker of “The Gates of Hell.” It’s somewhat of an apt title, since the scene now looks like this:

In still frames, it’s actually quite beautiful:

(Photo Credit: John H. Bradley)

Let’s say you’re an astronaut and things aren’t going your way. You and 7 others on the space shuttle are in imminent danger and you gotta get out of there. (… and by “there,” I mean still within the Earth’s atmosphere.) How would you do it?

Believe it or not there are two necessarily outrageous ways for astronauts to ditch their craft and head back to solid ground.

The first case happens if something goes awry while you’re still on the launch pad. How would you get from inside the shuttle to the ground, far enough away so that you don’t get blown into bite-sized chunks by the millions of pounds of rocket fuel surrounding you? Go ahead. Take 30 seconds and guess. Unless you already know, you’re not going to figure out how NASA does it.

• First, you need to unhook yourself from the 80+ pounds of stuff that’s in your spacesuit and head for the exit hatch.
• Next, run out onto the platform you walked into the shuttle on (You can see it in the picture above)
• There’s an elevator you took to bring you to the level you’re at. Walk behind it.
• You’ll see a number of large wicker baskets with their rims at floor level. These baskets are attached to a steel cable which runs from the platform you’re on (189 feet in the air) diagonally to the ground. It isn’t the world’s biggest zip line (that’s in Sun City, South Africa), but it might be the most expensive.
• Get into one of those baskets. Oh, and make sure you get in backwards.
• Pull the release cord and travel really fast into a pre-assembled pile of sandbags to cushion your fall.
• The basket should actually fly through a carefully placed opening in the sandbags, leaving you next to a very armored bunker.
• Get inside and close the door so you don’t get hit by flaming pieces of space shuttle.
• Now you have two options. You can wait in the bunker, or…
• …In case of emergencies, NASA keeps four M113 Armored Personnel Carriers from the 1960s at the back entrance of the bunker. They are purposely fully-fueled with their engines running and keys in the ignition so that fleeing astronauts can just hop in and get out of there if they need to. They look like this:
• There are no drivers waiting for you in those vehicles. Grab the controls and put the pedal to the floor…if you know how.

NASA has this whole procedure set up and ready to go with every space shuttle launch. There’s actually some video of this procedure being executed in a training exercise here.

There’s another scenario that may require a bailout. If for whatever reason you’re in the shuttle and can’t land, you and your crew still have an escape. Are there ejection seats? Maybe a secure escape pod like in Air Force One (the movie)? Nah. That’s too simple.

Luckily, on board with you is ICES, or the Inflight Crew Escape System. Fancy name, not so fancy otherwise. Basically, it’s a system that coordinates blowing out an exit panel so you can leave through it. And by “leave,” I mean hooking yourself up to an 8.75 foot long pole that sticks out the side of the shuttle, then letting go of it and falling 10,000 feet to safety at 230 miles an hour.

The pole actually serves a relatively important purpose. When you’re flying as fast as you are up there, it’s critical that when you jump out that you head in the right direction. The reason astronauts are strapped to the pole as they fall down it is to make sure that fall in that right direction.

As all this is going on, the shuttle is actually flying itself to make sure the craft stays level for the 90 seconds it takes for everyone to bail. I’m summarizing the procedure to a ridiculous extent — you can read the full official procedure from NASA (it’s long and detailed = boring) right here.

Bonus!

Part One: Check-In

I flew from Boston Logan to LAX and am writing this post on my return trip to the east coast. Walking into the terminal, one is greeted with a classy almost club-like atmosphere that continues throughout the journey for the most part

The Self Check-In system is very clean and elegant:

You slide your credit card along the right side of the display and your boarding pass pops out (like toast!) of the small slot to the left.

After check-in varies a bit by airport. At Logan, VA has its own very quick security line leading to two gates. There isn’t much in there and you can’t really leave once you’re through the metal detectors. At LAX, there’s a lot more available to do once you’re inside the gating area. I jumped to the conclusion that VA must treat its employees quite well, as I noticed they all have matching luggage while I was waiting to board:

Part 2: Getting Comfy & Red

OK, so let’s say we’re on the plane. What’s so awesome? Pretty much everything. Let’s start with a tour of  Red. The in-flight “interactive environment” is central to pretty much everything on-board.

There are a few ways to use it, either via the touch-screen at every seat, or by the remote control in each armrest:

View of the remote through the armrest (you flip it open to pull it out) while an announcement was made over the PA system. The display at the top will otherwise display the TV channel that's playing on your screen.

The remote control out of its armrest.

I tend to grasp at gadgets quickly. Too quickly, sometimes. After a minute or so of playing around, it was time for the ultimate airline safety video:

Part 3: In the Air

And we’re off! Let’s finish the tour of Red since it’s not activated until after the safety video. There are a number of modules built into the system. I’ll describe them each in no particular order.

One of the convenient things about VA is that instead of flight attendants running through the cabin every few hours asking if you’d like to buy food or drinks, it’s all done through Red. (They do a single run-through for drinks early on, then it’s up to you). So if you want to get some nosh, bang on “Eat” or hit the corresponding button on the remote with a cake icon on it and look around.  As you can see above, if you’re watching TV, it appears as PIP as you browse the selections.

One of the other neat and unrelated things about the TV part is that if you bring up the program guide, you can tap a show that will air at a later time and it will pop up later with a reminder.

First page of drink selections available through Red. Standard airplane soft drinks are available for free.

Ordering food and drinks is just like shopping online, you pick out what you want, add it to a cart, and then pay by credit card. You can swipe your card on the underside of the display.

It goes without saying that Red’s primary service is for in-flight video:

Things you can watch

TV and Music Videos are free, the rest are a nominal fee. Premium TV includes content like HBO specials.

Besides watching things, there’s also a pretty extensive audio library in addition to satellite radio. You can use the system to create your own playlist too.

There are also games!

Now imagine my surprise when I saw this. Doom? Awesome! Here’s what it looks like:

You can play via the touch screen, which doesn’t really work for Doom, but that’s OK, because if you flip the remote control over, you’ve got a D-pad, action buttons, and full QWERTY keyboard:

Oh,  you can also use it to purchase items through Red with your credit card!  Check it out– I used my MetroCard for show:

There are a plethora of other neat options to play around with, including built in Google maps services with the plane’s current altitude and position, and remaining distance:

So let’s see, what else is there… each group of three seats has two standard 110v power plugs so you don’t need to drop extra cash on a special converter or anything. For those of you equipped with a laptop, that means that you can stay powered for your whole trip. Not only that, you can fly wireless! VA offers wifi access through GoGo for $12.95 per trip. I personally think it would be better to pay for wireless while in the terminal and get it free on the plane too, not so bad though. The speeds are also really great:

There is also really bright LED lighting above each seat instead of the standard incandescent bulbs.

At the end of each flight, I thought it was pretty clever how to wake everyone up, the crew just turns them all on at once. I guess at this point I should also mention that instead of typical white lighting inside the cabin, there’s really cool dark blue and purple mood lighting along the ceiling and walls. It’s like a club in the air.

So that’s it! I’ve loved the experience immensely and highly suggest flying them. It was just $119 from BOS to LAX one-way, grab a flight today at VirginAmerica.com. It’s really great to see that Richard Branson & company has dumped what I can only guess is a ton of money into the Virgin America brand, delivering a first-class experience with an economy price. The stuff they’re doing has to be keeping the folks at Southwest and JetBlue up at night.

For one reason or another, the danger surrounding Niagara Falls is attractive to daredevils. Perhaps one of the more memorable events to occur on the falls took place in 1990 and starred David Copperfield:

(The entire special can be viewed here.)

Obviously this clip was just one part of a multimillion dollar primteimte TV special.

Now get this. Fast forward to October 1st, 1995.  A wannabe stuntman by the name of Robert Overcracker tries to hit two birds with one stone. As a way to catapult himself into the stunt industry as well as raise money for the homeless, Mr. Overcracker arranged a stunt where he would ride a jetski off of the falls and safely land via a rocket-propelled parachute.

This, of course is not a particularly smart idea. As it turned out, that rocket powered parachute failed to open, sending Mr. Overcracker over the edge, his body never to be recovered, and raised more awareness for parachutes than for the homeless.

Miraculously, an Egyptian tourist snapped this incredible photo of the events:

Interestingly enough, Mr. Overcracker could have qualified for life insurance payout as a result of this ridiculous stunt too! I’m not sure whther or not he actually received anything, but hot damn, what a way to go.

The game itself is now abandonware and you can find it here. I’ve been a big fan for a long time and it’s still pretty addictive all these years later.

Last week I was in New York City for some meetings. One of them was at a building on Lexington Ave. The meeting I had was on the 10th floor, so after getting my visitor’s pass, I proceeded to the elevator bank and hopped in an open elevator. I was immediately confused because inside the elevator I saw this:

This was pretty confusing. There were no buttons and I need to get to the 10th floor. I walked out of the elevator and saw this strange little panel outside

I saw this on my way into the elevator cab but dismissed it as some type of security keypad. Little did I realize that in lieu of the standard up/down buttons, this elevator system was unique,  you punch in what floor you want to go to, and it takes you straight to where you need to be, therefore increasing system efficiency.

It’s actually pretty cool– let’s say you’re with people going to the 12th floor and then there are people next to you who want to go to the 5th floor. Instead of sharing one “long” ride with both groups and having to make a stop at the 5th floor, the system will bring 2 elevators, one going to the 5th and one to the 10th. Kind of neat, huh?

So that leaves a tiny question– which elevator are you supposed to get on? At first glance it’s really hard to tell. On my way back down to the lobby after my meeting I noticed this:

It’s pretty subtle, but every elevator tells incoming passangers what floor it’s going to. It takes a sharp eye, but it’s there.

All in all, a very interesting system.