Survival guide app

by Jason Heflin on
No one likes to think of the bad things that could happen on a trip. But what would you do if you survived a plane crash, were caught in a terrorist attack, or encountered a tsunami while on vacation? Well wonder no more iphone users. The SAS Survival Guide has been around in book form for over twenty years but now there’s an app.

John “Lofty” Wiseman spent years as a soldier and instructor for the SAS, an elite British fighting unit. In the app, Lofty guides the reader through a myriad of nightmare scenarios. Stranded atop an icy mountain? Covered. Need to know what local plants are edible? Check. Stuck in a forest fire with no obvious escape? No worries. The guide provides detailed information on all these would-be disasters. The app will cost $6.99 at itunes and is compatible with the ipad and ipod touch as well.

Although the guide is a great read, and the bulit-in survival quiz is fun for parties and around the campfire, the practicality of using it on-demand in some of these situations is questionable. For instance, if your plane were to crash land in the ocean your cell phone would be wet and useless. Then what? You are stranded on a mountaintop in the Himalaya and your phone runs out of battery. Tough luck. To get the most out of the guide read it before the disaster strikes.

The app holds interest by utilizing several interactive features including the survival quiz, an instructional video, and even a morse code feature that will turn your iphone into a beeping/flashing communicator. These make it fun for the user to learn a bit more about surviving if and when disaster strikes. That can’t be a bad thing when the shit hits the fan.

1,000 year-old turd goes on display

by Sean McLachlan on

The Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery has a truly crappy new exhibition.

A 1,000 year-old piece of feces has people lining up to visit the English museum. It was originally found in 1991 and dates to Anglo-Saxon times. When it was recently put on display, curators were surprised at its popularity and now plan to make it part of its permanent display.

The turd has mineralized and has no smell. Mineralized crap, scientifically known as coprolites, are actually not that rare. Dinosaur coprolites are found quite frequently, like the one pictured here from Canada. For a time in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, coprolites were even mined for their high phosphate content. Human coprolites are less common and are important for what they can reveal about ancient diet and parasites.

The Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery is currently celebrating its 150th anniversary. It traces local history from the age of the dinosaurs up to the present day. Artifacts include a beautifully preserved Celtic mirror, a Roman city wall, and a medieval backgammon game that is the world’s oldest complete set.


Photo courtesy United States Geological Survey.

Cable cars to cross the Thames

by Sean McLachlan on

London has been preparing for the 2012 Olympics by going on a huge building boom. Sports facilities have been sprouting up like mushrooms, and the organizers have just announced the latest planned addition–cable car rides over the Thames.

The cable cars will run from the Greenwich peninsula to the Royal Docks, connecting the O2 Arena (formerly the Millennium Dome) and the ExCel Exhibition Centre, both of which will host numerous Olympic events. Trips will take five minutes and the system can accommodate 2,500 people per hour in each direction. This will ease the burden on London’s transport system, which is already overburdened on regular days and which is scrambling to find ways to deal with the invasion of sports fans in 2012.

The route is too far from central London for passengers to clearly see famous sights such as Tower Bridge and Big Ben, but they’ll get fine views of the green hills of Greenwich Park and the impressive O2 arena, plus the high-rise business center of Canary Wharf. After the crowds and noise of the big city, soaring 50 meters over the Thames sounds pretty relaxing.

If you’re headed to Europe and you want to go for a ride right now, try the cable cars in Madrid.

Archaeologists explore stone circle ten times larger than Stonehenge

by Sean McLachlan on

Move over Stonehenge, there’s a bigger stone circle in town.

Archaeologists are busy excavating Marden Henge, a giant stone circle and earthwork ten times larger than its more famous cousin. It’s not nearly as well-known, however, because all of its stones have been lost or buried. Traces of a giant earthwork and ditch that encircled the monument do survive, and archaeologists hope they’ll reveal secrets of England’s prehistoric past.

While everyone knows about Stonehenge, many people don’t realize there are nearly a thousand stone circles in the British Isles, from massive ones like Avebury (shown here) to smaller ones like the Rollright Stones. Marden Henge is in Wiltshire, close to Stonehenge and Avebury, and could provide clues to how and why they were constructed. The giant circle encloses about 15 hectares (37 acres) and has a mound at its center. Archaeologists plan to investigate both the central mound and the earthwork and ditch. The Neolithic farmers who built these monuments often put sacrifices in the surrounding ditches.

While there are no current plans for a visitor’s center at Marden Henge, there are plenty of other stone circles open to the public. Some of the more famous cater to visitors with interpretive signs and parking lots, while others simply stand in open fields, an enduring part of Europe’s ancient landscape. An excellent website to help you plan a visit is The Megalithic Portal, which includes information on stone circles and other megaliths such as barrows (tombs) and menhirs (individual standing stones) in the UK and all around the world.

Benjamin Franklin’s historic London home

by Sean McLachlan on

Of all the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the most interesting. A true genius, he was a printer, writer, scientist, philosopher, ladies man, politician, businessman, inventor, and much more.

Despite his crucial role in the development of the early United States, none of his American homes still exist. The house where he lived in London, however, is open to the public.

The Benjamin Franklin House makes for an interesting insight into American history, and tells about life in 18th century London as well. Franklin lived here from 1757 to 1775 and worked as a representative for various colonial interests. In the early years he tried to act as an intermediary, a calm voice of reason opposed to hotheads on both sides of the Atlantic. But as dissent grew louder in the colonies, and the British government became ever more intransigent, Franklin threw his lot in with the rebels. In fact, he had to leave London in haste to avoid being arrested by the British government.

The home is tucked away on Craven Street, a quiet little lane of well-preserved Georgian-era homes not far from Trafalgar Square. Here he lived with his landlady Margaret Stevenson and her family, including a relative who ran an anatomy school. This doctor buried discarded human remains in the garden and they now make a fascinating if rather gruesome addition to an exhibition that otherwise features artifacts from Franklin’s life and times.

The tour is run by an attractive and talented actress playing Mrs. Stevenson, who takes you from room to room as audiovisual displays tell of Franklin’s stay at the house. There is little in the way of period furnishings, but the combination of the actress and recordings bring you into the era much better than old furniture ever could. It seems his London period was one of the intellectual highlights of Franklin’s life. A constant stream of visitors came to the home to discuss science, philosophy, and politics. Europe was in the midst of the Enlightenment and Franklin became a central figure in London’s intellectual scene. So if you’re interested in learning more about one of America’s truly great figures, give the Benjamin Franklin House a try.

Image courtesy the Benjamin Franklin House.