Why Is Death Valley Littered With Fried Eggs?

by Reena Ganga on

Plants, wildlife and waterways – these are the things that you can routinely expect to see when you head out to one of the country’s many national parks. But trek out to Death Valley National Park and you’ll spot something else entirely: fried eggs. Lots and lots of fried eggs.

Death Valley is one of the hottest places on the planet and holds the record for the highest air temperature ever recorded. The scorching temps mean visitors to the park regularly crack eggs on the ground in an attempt to fry them.Over the past few weeks, a heat wave has kept temperatures hovering above 120 F, leading increasing numbers of park visitors to attempt the egg science experiment.

This was made worse after a BBC correspondent and National Park employee shared a video of their attempt to fry an egg by cracking it into a frying pan. Unfortunately other park visitors repeating the experiment have been cracking the eggs directly onto the ground, keeping clean up crews on their toes.

A spokesperson for the National Park urged visitors not to litter, adding that, “an employee’s posting of frying an egg in a pan in Death Valley was intended to demonstrate how hot it can get here, with the recommendation that if you do this, use a pan or tin foil and properly dispose of the contents.”

Photo Of The Day: Manhattan Skyline

by Meg Nesterov on

Tomorrow evening in New York City, you can witness a twice-a-year phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge, when the sunset perfectly aligns with the city’s grid and makes the streets glow. Manhattan already has one of the most photogenic skylines in the world, as demonstrated by this postcard-perfect shot by Flickr user James Adamson. His shot of the Empire State Building (still lit in holiday colors) in early January, when the winter evening light shows a different kind of beauty than the summer sunset, a little colder but just as magical.

Share your city shots in the Gadling Flickr pool for a future Photo of the Day. If you’d like to check out this year’s Manhattanhenge, see here for tips.

Underwater Concert A Summertime Favorite

by Chris Owen on

This time of year, festivals and events scattered around the United States are often the highlight of summer, drawing visitors from near and far. As part of a road trip, a weekend outing or just a break from summer monotony, outdoor summer concerts take advantage of the nice weather, bringing our favorite artists or bands to enjoy. Those sincere in their desire to escape the heat go to Big Pine Keys in Florida where their version is held underwater.

The Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival in Big Pine Keys, Florida, is in its 29th year, inviting water-lovers for an underwater concert. This year the theme is a Salute to the Rolling Stone Crabs.Held at Looe Key Reef, an area of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and produced by Florida Keys radio station WWUS 104.1 FM, the Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival draws hundreds of divers and snorkelers each year. To enjoy the sound of music in the ocean, music is broadcast through Lubell Laboratory speakers suspended beneath boats.

Man Completes First-Ever Cross-Country Wheelchair Trek

by Michael Yessis on

Gabriel Cordell rolled into his hometown of West Hempstead, New York, Monday night, becoming the first person to travel across the United States in a manual wheelchair. The 42-year-old’s journey began 99 days earlier in Santa Monica, California.

The Malverne-West Hempstead-Lynbrook Patch was there at the finish of his 3,100-mile quest. Cordell said: “I want to bring inspiration to people around the world … that people can do whatever they aspire to do.”

Cordell was accompanied by seven people for most of his journey, including Lisa France, the director and producer of Roll With Me, an upcoming documentary about the trek. Cordell acknowledged a debt to France.From Patch:

“I didn’t have one penny, just my will and my wheelchair,” Cordell said. “She believed in me and dropped everything in her life to make his happen. I am indebted into her greatly and she is forever my second sister.”

Cordell added:

“This has been a really tough journey on my family,” Cordell said. “But I can finally say that, mom and dad … your son made history baby!”

If this inspires you, check out this video of the world’s first underwater wheelchair.

How Do Dogs Find Explosives At Airports?

by Libby Zay on

Behind every bomb-sniffing dog at the airport is hours and hours of repetition and reward. For many, their training starts with a canine kindergarten and continues until they graduate from an elite academy run by MSA Security. Around 160 teams work with these dogs, usually in tandem with the same handler for eight or nine years, until the dog is retired. Smithsonian magazine looks into what goes into training these dogs and how, exactly, dogs detect bombs. Here’s an excerpt:

Merry and Zane Roberts, MSA’s lead canine trainer, work their way along the line of luggage pieces, checking for the chemical vapors-or “volatiles”-that come off their undersides and metal frames. Strictly speaking, the dog doesn’t smell the bomb. It deconstructs an odor into its components, picking out just the culprit chemicals it has been trained to detect. Roberts likes to use the spaghetti sauce analogy. “When you walk into a kitchen where someone is cooking spaghetti sauce, your nose says aha, spaghetti sauce. A dog’s nose doesn’t say that. Instinctively, it says tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, onion, oregano.” It’s the handler who says tomato sauce, or, as it happens, bomb.

Thanks, Smithsonian magazine. I will never smell spaghetti sauce the same way again.

[via Gizmodo]