Remember Melissa's idea for Heavy Equipment Driving Camp?
At least two real-world applications of the idea have recently come to my attention:
A German place called Männerspielplatz and Dozer Day.
I note that the idea for Männerspielplatz came to its creator in 2004 whereas Melissa's idea dates back to late 2003. COINCIDENCE??
From the FAQ:
"Can I put a hat or a pair of shoes on the Register?
At this stage the primary focus is dress and accompanying accessories."
"Can I include an audio recording of an interview providing information on the history of the dress?
Yes. Audio recordings will be able to be uploaded online. "
I'll be psyched to browse this in late 2009, when it'll be available to the public. Also: other countries? And what about hats and shoes? Anyway, I think it's a marvelous idea.
The Australian dress I know best is the yellow one that Sybylla/Judy Davis picks out to wear in My Brilliant Career.
Car/Egg Drops
I'd like to see car crash ratings made into a competitive sport, like egg drops -- well, maybe a little more competitive than that.
I was pleased to read that more small cars are getting better safety ratings. Safety used to be my excuse for driving a big old Volvo -- I figured if everyone else was driving mondo SUVs I should have a little bit of defensive steel around me. But then I thought about egg drop competitions, and decided that you don't actually need mass to create strength.
However, Reuters quotes the senior vice president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (who did the recent safety tests) as saying, "There's no escaping the laws of physics ... People in larger, heavier cars fare better in crashes with other vehicles and in single-vehicle crashes than people in smaller ones."
-- is that really an inescapable result of the laws of physics, though? Isn't the opposite what egg drops illustrate? I feel pretty ignorant about the whole thing (you know, physics), but it seems like the whole point of engineering is so we don't have to make everything out of granite and steel.
Anyway, point is, I'd love to watch a bunch of cars get hurled around, and root for my favorite team. Maybe they could put raw eggs inside the heads of the crash test dummies or something.
And in honor of today's Portland weather, everyone's favorite car crash video:
