These unremarkable men walked 40 miles for no particular reason

Odds and Sods

Last weekend, a group of unremarkable, middle-aged men walked a long way for no reason. None whatsoever. The "50-ish" residents of Dorking in Surrey picked a random Saturday and a meaningless route and walked 40 miles just because they could. Ian Giles, spokesman for the group of "accountants, surveyors, that sort of thing", explained: "I think we had all become jaded by a series of charitable events and thought we should do something for no particular reason.
"We just wanted to spend some time with each other in some way. There was a brief conversation between us about possibly doing something for charity but that quickly turned to, 'Why don't we just do something for ourselves? Can men not just walk together in fellowship anymore?' It's a return to the daring days of when people just 'did stuff'." Having decided that the event should have no meaning, the group – Ian plus Mark Dorn, Simon Loomes, Chris Child, Chris Jarvis, Chris Shaw and Gareth Stace – chose a route which started and ended nowhere in particular.

Ian said: "We found a random bench on The Nower which was not special in any shape or form. It was falling apart a bit and half buried in a hedge. If it had had some redeeming feature I think we would have shied away, but because a few slats were missing we thought, 'This is perfect'." Starting beside a groyne on Shoreham beach at 6am, the group slogged their way along the Downs Link path via Cranleigh and Holmbury Hill, averting their eyes from interesting sights as they went. Some 16 hours later, they reached the lowly bench, to the acclaim of no-one.

"It was a fairly uneventful 40 miles, which was exactly the point," said Ian. "We didn't want banners or cheering crowds and we certainly didn't get any. In fact if there had been we would probably have taken a different route." Asked whether the event could be seen as an insult to charity fundraisers, Ian responded: "It might look that way but it didn't even have that point to it. I would never knock anyone raising money for a cause close to their hearts. It's just that you don't have to. You can go and do stuff with your mates that is memorable and challenging without then having to go and tap your friends for money. It's not anti-charity; it's pro-friends, pro doing-anything-you-feel-like-doing."

And not forgetting, of course, you can then brag to the local newspaper about it.

Body-painted models used by estate agents to market properties in China

Odds and Sods

Female billboards are the latest way to advertise bricks and mortar throughout China.

Real estate agents have begun using models with their bodies painted with floor plans to sell properties.

Housing fairs are popular with potential home buyers throughout the country, and body paint marketing was devised as a way to stand out from the scores of participating real estate developers.

China has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world, with the traditional view that the house you live in ought to be your own. And now the country's middle class is investing so much in property the government has enforced a one apartment rule.

How The Speed Of Light Was First Measured

Scientific Minds Want To Know

The speed of light in a vacuum stands at 'exactly 299,792,458 metres per second.' The reason today we can put an exact figure on it is because the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant that has been measured with lasers; and when an experiment involves lasers, it's hard to argue with the results.

But how was the speed of light first measured?

Drought drove collapse of Late Bronze Age civilizations

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Climate change may have driven the collapse of once-flourishing Eastern Mediterranean civilizations towards the end of the 13th century BC, according to research published August 14 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by David Kaniewski from the University of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France and colleagues from other institutions.

This is the region where the study was performed (Salt Lake and the Hala Sultan Tekke in the background) [Credit: Geological Survey of Belgium/ David Kaniewski]

Ancient civilizations flourished in regions of the Eastern Mediterranean such as Greece, Syria and neighboring areas, but suffered severe crises that led to their collapse during the late Bronze Age. 

Here, researchers studied pollen grains derived from sediments of an ancient lake in the region to uncover a history of environmental changes that likely drove this crisis. 

Shifts in carbon isotopes in the Eastern Mediterranean and in local plant species suggest that this lake was once a flourishing harbor that gradually dried into a land-locked salt lake. 

Map of Cyprus with an overview of the Larnaca Salt Lake (Hala Sultan Tekke) in the Larnaca Bay [Credit: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071004.g001]

As a result, crop failures led to famines, repeated invasions by migrants from neighboring regions and eventually, the political and economic collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean civilizations at the end of the late Bronze Age.

Combining this data with archaeological evidence from cuneiform tablets and correspondence between kings, the researchers suggest that the late Bronze Age crisis was a complex, single event comprised of climate change-induced drought, famines, sea-borne invasions and political struggles, rather than a series of unrelated events. 

They conclude that this event underlines the sensitivity of these agriculture-based societies to climate, and demystifies the crisis that led to their end.

Late Roman ring to ward-off 'evil eye' found in Croatia

Scientific Minds Want To Know

Archaeologists in Croatia have found an interesting ring from the 3rd century. At the depth of two meters in the soil in eastern town of Vinkovci they have found the ring with an "eye" that was, according to experts, used to protect the holder from spells.

The ring's "eye" protected the holder from spells [Credit: Croatian Times]

Researchers have at the same place found a lot of ceramics that date from first to sixth century.

"The ring has a drawn rabbit that tastes a flower and that was seen as a symbol of happiness, while the "eye" represents protection against disasters and spells", Vinkovci City Museum director Hrvoje Vulic has told to local news website Cibalia.info.

Researches have started before some building works in center of Vinkovci, the area known for Roman times area of Cibalia.

The Duplex

Daily Comic Relief

The 'On the Job' Edition

World Map Showing Areas with the Same Population as China

Odds and Sods

China has a population of 1.35 billion people. That's a lot of people crowded into the red area of the map above. Every other color also represents 1.35 billion people. So all of the Americas, western Europe and Australia are equal to the population of China.

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Google Street View driver made to swear on statue of the Buddha that he was not a spy

Odds and Sods

Google's Street View project to map the world by taking pictures from passing cars ignited a minor uproar in northern Thailand where villagers detained a driver and made him swear on a Buddha statue that he was not surveying the area for an unwanted dam project. Villagers in Phrae province have now apologised for mistaking the Google worker for a government snoop.

Deeprom Phongphon was stopped by villagers at Ban Sa-iap, in Song district of the northern province, on Tuesday as he drove through in a marked Google car with a camera attached to a turret. Villagers suspected him of being sent by the government to conduct a survey for a controversial dam project that has stirred local opposition.

They surrounded the man's car, questioned him and then took him to Wat Don Chai in the village to swear in front of a statue of Buddha that he was not working for the government. Devout locals said the man would face bad luck within a week if he lied in front of the Buddha's image. "Villagers apologise to Google for the misunderstanding that he came to survey the area to build the dam," a spokesperson for locals opposing the Kaeng Suea Ten dam said later.

The spokesperson also said that villagers will welcome Google if the firm sends a worker to the area in the future. Acknowledging the incident, a Google spokesman said the company "sometimes encounters unexpected challenges, and Street View has been no exception". But he insisted Google "abides by Thailand's local laws, and only features imagery taken on public property".

An Aerial Tour Of Iceland

Planet Earth

Aerial tours of Iceland are a growing business, and it's not hard to understand why. Most of the country is inaccessible by car; only a handful of roads crisscross the ungovernable interior of the country, and even these can only be traversed with 4-wheel drive jeeps.

And even then, they're still dangerous, require river fording, and are completely off-limits during the winter. There are a lot of spots in Iceland which, if you want to see them, you have to do so from the air.

The Amazing Colors of the Danxia Landform

Planet Earth

It may look like a painting, but this is a real landform. The Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park in southeastern China has beautiful rippled shapes of red sandstone.

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Good news about that horrific brain-eating amoeba

News of the positive sort?

Turns out, it doesn't kill absolutely everybody it infects. A 12-year-old girl in Arkansas is recovering from her battle with the killer single-celled organism. She's the third known person to survive. Nobody knows yet how she, or the other survivors, made it through. Why? Well, that's more (sort of) good news. There have only been 130 recorded cases of brain-eating amoeba infection since 1962. It's so rare, that it's difficult for doctors to study.

Shar Pei who has never had puppies began producing milk after owner took in stray kitten

Animal News

Ba Boo, a 3-year-old Shar Pei from Kodak, Tennessee has many scratching their heads in disbelief. Her owner, Sherry Brandt, describes her as a sweet dog who likes to be at home. Ba Boo has everything a single dog could want, her own house, her own yard, her own space. That all changed when Ba Boo's owner brought home a new friend.

Sherry's daughter rescued an abandoned kitten from a local parking lot. They took the kitten in and named her Ally. It didn't take long for Ba Boo and Ally to hit things off, constantly playing and wrestling.

After a few weeks, Sherry noticed that Ba Boo was looking swollen. "I thought, she couldn't have milk because she's never had puppies, she's never been bred," she says. None of that mattered. It was official, Ba Boo was now a mother.

YouTube link.

"She seemed to have faith that this was her mom and that she'd get milk. Ba Boo seems to believe that she's the cat's mom. It's just a miracle that she got milk and she is nursing this kitten," Brandt says.

Hairy dog masquerading as lion at Chinese zoo exposed when it began barking

Animal News

A Chinese zoo's supposed "African lion" has been exposed as a fraud when the dog used as a substitute started barking. The zoo in the People's Park of Luohe, in the central province of Henan, replaced exotic exhibits with common species.

A customer surnamed Liu, who wanted to show her son the different sounds animals made, pointed out that the animal in the cage labelled "African lion" was barking. The beast was in fact a Tibetan mastiff, a large and long-haired breed of dog. "

The zoo is absolutely cheating us," Liu, who was charged 15 yuan (£1.60, $2.50) for the ticket, said. "They are trying to disguise the dogs as lions." Three other species housed incorrectly included a white fox in a leopard's den and another dog in a wolf pen.

The chief of the park's animal department, Liu Suya, said that while it does have a lion, it had been taken to a breeding facility and the dog, which belonged to an employee, had been temporarily housed in the zoo over safety concerns.

Searching for the Elusive Meerkat

Animal News

The family that reddits together, stays together -even when they are in different countries. Robotswana posted this picture, saying it's just another day at his Dad's job. Then his father, Todd Pitock, stepped in to explain.

I'm the guy in the photo. I was visiting the Makhadikhadi, which is in the Kalahari in Botswana. People are doing research as part of something called the Meerkat Project. The meerkats are wild but habituated -- meaning they're used to people and don't see them as a threat. So if you sit down and wait, eventually the alpha male, who is like the chief sentry, will mosey over and climb you like a rock. As one poster noted, he's looking for good viewpoints to gauge threats. The photo was NOT photoshopped. In fact, it wasn't even edited for color. And yes, those are my Brooks trail running shoes, and many thanks to the guy who advised on the new generation of them. The story will appear in National Geographic Traveler, though I don't know when. -- Todd Pitock

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Animal Pictures

Animal Pictures

Awesome

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Today in History

Today in History

1743		By the Treaty of Abo, Sweden cedes southeast Finland to Russia, ending Sweden's failed war with Russia.
1812		Napoleon Bonaparte's army defeats the Russians at the Battle of Smolensk during the Russian retreat to Moscow.
1833		The first steam ship to cross the Atlantic entirely on its own power, the Canadian ship Royal William, begins her journey from Nova Scotia to The Isle of Wight.
1863		Union gunboats attack Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, for the first time.
1942		Marine Raiders attack Makin Island in the Gilbert Islands from two submarines.
1943		Allied forces complete the conquest of Sicily.
1944		The mayor of Paris, Pierre Charles Tattinger, meets with the German commander Dietrich von Choltitz to protest the explosives being deployed throughout the city.
1945		Upon hearing confirmation that Japan has surrendered, Sukarno proclaims Indonesia's independence.
1960		American Francis Gary Powers pleads guilty at his Moscow trial for spying over the Soviet Union in a U-2 plane.
1978		Three Americans complete the first crossing of the Atlantic in a balloon.
1987		93-year-old Rudolf Hess, former Nazi leader and deputy of Hitler, is found hanged to death in Spandau Prison.
1988		Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq is killed in an airplane crash suspected of being an assassination.
1998		President Bill Clinton admits to the American public that he had affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
1999		A 7.4-magnitude earthquake near Izmit, Turkey kills over 17,000 and injures nearly 45,000.
2005		Israel begins the first forced evacuation of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, as part of a unilateral disengagement plan.
2012		Moscow's top court upholds ban of gay pride events in Russia's capital city for 100 years.

Non Sequitur

Daily Comic Relief

The "A wee bit too far" Edition

Seven Really Weird Musical Instruments

Odds and Sods

Ever heard of a wheelharp? A hardingfele or a holophonor? Folks are always inventing new ways to produce sound. At the same time, we learn of traditional instruments from all over that are unlike any we've seen before. Here are some strange and wonderful musical instruments.

Did you know ...

Did You Know ...

About the shady overlap of disease charities and drug companies

Here's Joe Gandleman, on the San Diego mayor fiasco

That a study shows spiders have personalities

That evolution punishes mean people