People

England’s answer to Emmett Brown

John Silby

Dr Emmett Brown was the eccentric inventor of the time-travelling DeLorean in Back to the Future.

Colin Furze is an English guy who loves making weird stuff. He says of himself:

everyone seems to think i’m some some sort of mechanic/engineer person but in reality i’m just a plumber. The things i make are made with tools that proper engineers would laugh at but i’m proof you don’t need an expensive lathe and huge welder to create something amazing. What you do need though is a place to do stuff and the right people to help ask when needed and also someone to tell you you will fail as that drives you on abit more. As far as a workspace i have a good workshop at home but its not always been like that as when i lived at me parents my dad would not let me in the big shed we had there and it wasn’t until he died that i could really make stuff properly. It was quiet mad as i had to do everything in my bed room at one point i even had a lathe in there which i bought of ebay for £70 and it was the oldest mucky thing ever which resulted in oil being sprayed up the wall at one point so if you have kids for god sake let them in the shed or at least help them.

His grammar may not be the best, but you can’t fault his philosphy!

One of Colin’s inventions is a jet-powered bicycle, Norah, dubbed “The most dangerous unsafe bike EVER” by Colin himself:

What’s it like to ride? At speeds up to 35mph (56km/h) it’s “ok, rather pleasant.” Between 35 and 45mph (72km/h) “it goes where it likes and is quite hard to control.” At 50mph (80km/h) “you have been lucky to stay on during the 45mph shake, and just wait for the tyres to blow…”

Guinness World Records has rewarded Colin’s efforts – he holds records for the largest bonfire (more than 1400 cubic metres), the longest motorcycle (14m) and the fastest speed on a mobility scooter (115km/h). He’s also created the “world’s fastest pram”.

We need more people like Colin with his manic laugh!

Stormy weather

John Silby

I often feel fortunate to live in Australia. We have a whole continent to ourselves, we are relatively free from earthquakes and extreme weather, and wars have mostly taken place far from us. And we have friendly cousins close by across the Tasman Sea.

Things like supercell storms happen in other places, and that’s fine with me – I don’t think I’d like to have one of these things bearing down on me. Wikipedia says, “A supercell is a thunderstorm that is characterized by the presence of a mesocyclone: a deep, persistently rotating updraft. Of the four classifications of thunderstorms (supercell, squall line, multi-cell, and single-cell), supercells are the least common and have the potential to be the most severe. Supercells are often isolated from other thunderstorms, and can dominate the local climate up to 32 kilometres away.”

The time-lapse video below was made by storm-chasing wedding photographer (his description) Mike Olbinski on June 3 near Booker in Texas. The roiling clouds look ominous and threatening… and I’m glad I wasn’t there!

A supercell near Booker, Texas from Mike Olbinski on Vimeo.

Mike talks about the storm, and how he filmed it, in two blog posts Timelapse of a supercell near Booker, Texas and A supercell near Booker, Texas.

In July 2011 a huge dust storm rolled across Mike’s hometown, Phoenix, Arizona, and he caught that on video, too:

Imagine how that much dust must choke everything in its path!

You can read more about Mike in The monsoon becoming big business.

International Space Station

John Silby

On November 18 2012, Sunita Williams, departing commander of the ISS, recorded a video tour of the station. With her friendly manner and lively commentary (in layman’s terms), Ms Williams makes the tour fascinating. The video includes a brief look at the stunning views that the space station gives of Earth.

Note: The video is 25 minutes long and I suggest viewing it in fullscreen mode to take full advantage of the tour.

Homespun Wisdumb

John Silby

Bob Tzu (not his real name, surprisingly) is a fount of wacky wisdom, a little reminiscent of the humour of Steven Wright. Bob has given me some great laughs over the last few years… and occasionally there’s a nugget of genuine wisdom mixed in with the humour.

His latest duhism… “I’m working on a new invention: it’s a spray that eliminates the smell of room deodorizer.”

There’s a whole family of Tzus – along with Bob there’s his wife Bobbie-Sue Tzu, his brother Billy-Bob Tzu, and his dog Petting Tzu – and you can find them at Duhism – The Impractical Wisdumb of Bob Tzu. Have a look in the archive for a good laugh.

Those daring young men on the… ferris wheel?

John Silby

Last Thursday, Oddity Central featured India’s Dangerous Human-Powered Ferris Wheels:

How do you keep the fun going at fairs in a country affected by frequent power cuts and blackouts? Simple, just hire a bunch of workers to dangle from the bars of manual ferris wheels to keep it in motion.

It kind of looks more like fun than dangerous, but I imagine it gets rather tiring and boring after a while. The two videos below show some of these young guys at work. The second shows the view from one of the gondolas.