That Media Hut: Apr 16, 2012

Monday, April 16, 2012

Canadian Wins Boston Marathon Men's Wheelchair Race

Canadian racer Josh Cassidy left fans in awe Monday, after winning the Boston Marathon's men's wheelchair race in world-record time.

The 27-year-old Oakville native finished first with a time of one hour, 18 minutes and 25 seconds - beating the world record by a cool two seconds. Cassidy led the pack from the fifth kilometre onward, finishing well ahead of last year's runner-up Kurt Fearnley, who finished with a time of one hour, 21 minutes and 39 seconds.

Once Cassidy hit the top of what is known as "Heartbreak Hill," he said he switched the timer on his wheelchair to calculate time rather than distance and went for the record. The dominating finish by Cassidy was different from last year, when the top three racers all ended up finishing within a second of each other.

[Boston Globe]

Study Finds Carrying A Gun Makes A Man Appear Tough

A UCLA study published in the most recent issue of the online journal PLoS ONE has determined that men armed with guns appear taller and more muscular than men without weapons.

Researchers at UCLA's Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture asked participants to guess the size and muscularity of four different men based on photos of their hands. The models used in the study had no discernible differences outside the objects they were handling.

Time and again, participants judged the hands brandishing a gun as belonging to a man up to 17 percent taller and stronger than the others.

"There's nothing about the knowledge that gun powder makes lead bullets fly through the air at damage-causing speeds that should make you think that a gun-bearer is bigger or stronger, yet you do," concludes the study's lead author, associate anthropology professor Daniel Fessler.

The results, according to co-author Colin Holbrook, suggest that we rely on an unconscious mental mechanism that assesses size and strength to determine the likely outcome of a conflict. "We've isolated a capacity to assess threats in a simple way," said Holbrook. "Though this capacity is very efficient, it can misguide us."

The study was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and its findings could impact law enforcement, corrections, and military policies.

[UCLA Newsroom via Newslite, photo via Shutterstock]

El Salvador Has Murder-Free Day

El Salvador had its first murder-free day in three years on Saturday.

The tiny Central American country, along the route of migrants and drugs destined for the U.S., usually has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 18 murders a day – a number that's jumped from 12 per day just three years ago.

For a country with about 5.7 million people – think the Greater Toronto Area – that means El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world, around 66 per 100,000 people. But thanks to a truce signed by the two biggest drug gangs in El Salvador, Mara 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, there's been a precipitous decline in bloodshed over the past month.

Now, none of these gang leaders were invited to the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena. But if El Salvador's experience is any indication, any politician hopeful of finding peace in the region ought to engage the drug gangs and cartels with more than just bullets.

[Guardian via: MSN]

Hologram Tupac Steals Performance At Coachella

It was the Coachella closer to end all Coachella closers.

Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Warren G, and Kurupt, all sharing the same stage at some point during the one-and-half-hour grand finale of Weekend One.

But the set's true showstopper was none other than presumed-dead rap legend Tupac Shakur, who was resurrected for the concert by way of hologram.

[LA Times/Video via: YouTube]

The World's First Lickable Elevator, Wallpaper That Tastes Like Cake

Obviously inspired by Willy Wonka, McVitie's, a baked goods company in the UK, decided to make the edible magic real by turning an entire elevator... lickable. Yes, lickable. There are 1,325 lickable cookies lining the wall which you can lick up and down as you go up and down.

This is gross, right? I shouldn't want to ride this elevator lined with Jaffa Cakes, which is apparently a sponge cake with orange jelly and chocolate, should I? But look at the people licking! They make it look so damn tasty. The 1,325 Jaffa Cake wallpaper took about a month to install and is housed in an elevator in London. It's all an advertisement, of course, but damn if I've ever seen a tastier one.

Oh, and McVitie's wants you to know that once a cookie is licked, it's removed from the walls.

[Jaffa Cakes via Design Taxi]

Afghanistan Hero Set to Climb Mount Everest With Prosthetic Ice Axe

Three years after a rocket-propelled grenade blew off Private Jaco van Gass’s left arm while he was serving in Afghanistan, the 25-year-old South African is busy testing an invention of his own design — a prosthetic ice axe — as he prepares to climb Mount Everest in May, alongside five fellow injured servicemen.

“I came up with the idea to attach an ice axe to one of my prosthetics, so I kind of challenged the guys at Headley Court (a military rehab center in the U.K.) to see how we could get this done. … The ice axe is there for back-up. Once we do stuff like the Lhotse ice face and the Hillary Step, it might come into aid. It’s there for the places where I could slip and I’m not attached to a fixed rope.”

[Both Sides Of The Gun]

Video: Baby Performs Chin Ups On Desk To Watch Computer

So now you know the secret to get your kids to exercise. Baby Jonas is only ten months old, but he’s already building up his upper body strength. Mom caught him on camera performing pull ups, trying to get a better view of the computer screen.

[YouTube]

Video: Awkward ‘No Not You’ Greeting Prank

Andrew Hales went to the halls of Utah Valley University and brutally pranked fellow students. With the cameras secretly rolling, he approached students with a high-five or open arms only to walk around them to greet his true friend conveniently standing behind them.