TOP 100 CAMPING SITES
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| John's early mornings annoy camp (Digital Spy) John's early morning habits start to annoy the camp after he wakes up at 4.21am and noisily cleans up. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Skiing accident survivor gives thanks (Tribune Chronicle) HOWLAND — A 60-year veteran skier, Ned Gold describes what he did on a western New York ski slope Feb. 2 as out of character. us.rd.yahoo.com |
DENTON: Holiday sights and delights at Martinak park's "Enchanted Campground" (The Daily Times) DENTON — Hopefuls can leave a gift request at "Santa's Magic Workshop," take a hayride through an enchanted forest and make a donation to a favorite charity between 4 and 7 p.m. Dec. 8 and 9 at the Martinak State Park. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Scientific American Magazine: Crisis in the Drylands The vast region of deserts, grasslands and sparse wood­lands that stretches across the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia is by far the most crisis-ridden part of the planet. With the exception of a few highly affluent states in the Persian Gulf, these dryland countries face severe and intensifying challenges, including frequent and deadly droughts, encroaching deserts, burgeoning populations and extreme poverty. The region scores at the very bottom of the United Nations’s Index of Human Development, which ranks countries according to their incomes, life expectancy and educational attainments. rss.sciam.com |
News Bytes of the Week--Was the Red Baron Just Lucky? [News] Was the Red Baron just lucky?Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron, was the most feared German flying ace of World War I. He racked up 80 official air combat victories--the biggest winning streak on either side--before being shot down on April 21, 1918, over northern France. We're inclined to interpret the Baron's record as proof that he was the best of the best. But a study published in the Journal of Mathematical Sociology claims that much of Richthofen's success could be chalked up to plain old luck. German records list 2,894 WWI fighter pilots, who together scored 6,759 victories (planes shot down) and only 810 defeats. Although the win ratio seems suspiciously high, electrical engineers Mikhail Simkin and Vwani Roychowdhury of the University of California, Los Angeles, contend they can still use the numbers to analyze the pilots' defeat rate--their total chances of being shot down after each flight. That rate started off high--25 percent for the first flight--but fell sharply; by the 10th flight it had leveled off below 5 percent, consistent with the weaker pilots getting picked off and the remaining aces having similar skills in the air. At that rate, the researchers conclude that the odds of one in 2,894 pilots racking up an 80-win streak are about 30 percent--not so remarkable after all. [More] rss.sciam.com |