Amazing Starry Sky Photos by Lincoln Harrison

The swirling spectacles were snapped using long exposure lenses on a Nikon D7000 and a Nikon D3100 camera by Australian photographer Lincoln Harrison who spends hours shooting the night sky armed with an array of lenses.

Real-Life MacGyver Builds Working Motorcycle Out of Car That Broke Down in the Desert

Real-Life MacGyver Builds Working Motorcycle Out of Car That Broke Down in the Desert:

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This is one of the most unbelievable stories I have come across in a while, and had my doubts about its authenticity at first, but after reading about it on some reputed websites, my worries were put to rest.
The story was recently made public by Reddit user ‘Naruhodo‘, who linked to a bunch of photos of a Mad-Max-style motorcycle apparently built out of the parts of a broken-down Citroen 2CV, by a man stranded in the Sahara Desert. Pretty unbelievable stuff, only it turned out to be absolutely 100% true. It all happened back in 1993, when Frenchman Emile Leray was on a solo trip in Northern Africa, driving his specially prepared Citroen 2CV. His car broke down in the middle of the desert, tens of kilometers from the nearest settlement. To survive, the French MacGyver created a motorcycle out of parts of his broken down car.

So here’s how it all happened: Emile had left the city of Tan Tan, in Morocco, and was driving his Citroen 2CV across the Sahara. Upon reaching a military outpost, he is informed by the Royal Gendermerie that he cannot continue further, due to new developments in the conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara, in the area beyond Tilemsem. Left with the option to go back to Tan Tan and asked to take a passenger back with him, the Frenchman refuses invoking an insurance problem that doesn’t allow him to take any passengers. He turns his car around driving at high speed, to make sure he isn’t followed by the military, and decides to by-bass their post by circling around and returning on the original trail later. After venturing off road, on rocky and bumpy terrain, it doesn’t take too long for his car to break down, after brutally hitting a rock. Emile is now stranded in the middle of nowhere.

The Citroen’s swing arm and wheel axle were broken, and Leray knew he wasn’t going to be driving it anywhere, anytime soon. He had food and water to last him about ten days, but the nearest human settlement was tens of kilometers away, too far for him to reach on foot. The French adventurer decided his only chance of survival was to construct a working vehicle from the parts of his broken-down Citroen 2CV. If only he had an arc reactor, he could have built himself an Iron Man suit and things would have been much simpler. But alas, reality is much crueler than superhero movies…

After carefully considering all the mechanical barriers he would have to surmount, Emile starts work on his DIY motorcycle, the next morning. He starts dismantling his Citroen, by removing the body, which he then uses as shelter against the sandstorms. Working under the scorching sun in a shirt with short sleeves, he makes his own sleeves out of a pair of socks, and keeps tinkering on his Mad Max-style creation. He fits the wheel arm upside down on a smaller chassis, adding the engine and gearbox in the middle. The French adventurer does all this knowing he needs to reserve some space for the battery, gas tank and his luggage, and without neglecting the arrangement of the steering system. But it’s the 2CV transmission that’s truly surprising – a drum drives the rear wheel by friction, and the laws of physics force Emile to drive it only in reverse.

It seems almost impossible for someone to build a motorcycle in the middle of the desert, with just a few basic tools, and no drills, blowtorches or welding equipment. But Emile Leray created his two-wheeler only by screwing the parts together. To make the needed holes, he bent the pieces of metal to a 90 degree angle and weakened the thinner areas using a hacksaw or a round file, puncturing them with the hammer and punch.

 Emile in classic desert wear. If you look closely at his right hand, you can see the string he uses to operate the camera

The adventurer began work on his unique project thinking he would complete it in three days time, but he only succeeded after twelve days of hard work. With only 1/2 liter of water left, he managed to ride his motorcycle (called Desert Camel) out of the desert. On his way to civilization, Leray was actually pulled over by the Gendermerie, for driving an illegal vehicle. Now that’s what I call a real-life story fit for a movie.
Check out Emile Leray’s website (in French)
Real-Life MacGyver Builds Working Motorcycle Out of Car That Broke Down in the Desert was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

42. NEIL deGRASSE TYSON: The most astounding fact

42. NEIL deGRASSE TYSON: The most astounding fact:


Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958-) is an astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, TV host and one of the current rockstars of the science world. He’s gained mainstream and pop-culture fame thanks to his books, TV show and frequent appearances on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. After I discovered the work of Carl Sagan, I was desperate to find a modern equivalent who could keep giving me a science fix and Tyson was the name I kept coming across. Like Sagan, Tyson has the ability to communicate the wonders of science to a mainstream audience with charisma and a sense of humour. It’s fitting then that Tyson will be hosting the upcoming sequel to Sagan’s iconic series Cosmos, which I can’t wait to see. Tyson also has a great podcast, StarTalk Radio, which I listen to frequently while I’m drawing.
- I kept putting off trying to adapt this quote because it was too intimidating. I knew that it would require me to draw stars and planets which I’m not very comfortable with, but I loved the quote so much that I just had to try it. I spent a lot longer than usual working on the cosmic scenes and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. I guess I was also inspired by the film The Tree of Life which connects the story of a family with the history of the Universe. I still haven’t decided if I like that film or not.

- Thanks to Tanya for submitting this quote. Tyson said it in an interview with Time magazine and it’s been adapted into this sweet video montage.

- My hypothetical (living) science rockstars band: Neil Tyson (lead vocals), Richard Dawkins (guitar), Stephen Hawking (synthesiser), Michio Kaku (drums), Brian Cox (keyboard – which he actually played in real pop band). Am I missing anyone?
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CARL SAGAN: Make the most of this life. EDGAR MITCHELL: A global consciousness.
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Kerala is country’s most crime-prone state, NCRB statistics show

• by DEEPTIMAAN TIWARY
 
•  JUNE 24, 2012
• READ LATER

NEW DELHI: These are one set of statistics Kerala will not be proud to own up to: God's own country, and not the badlands of north India, is the most crime-prone state, ahead of Uttar Pradesh and even Delhi.

The latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures comparing incidents of crime with the population of a state, notes Kerala is most affected by crime and Kochi is the most dangerous city. Figures compiled till 2010 show that Kerala has a crime rate of 424.1, more than double the national average of 187.6.

Kochi's crime rate is even scarier at 1,879.8 compared to most cities, where the figure averages 341.9. NCRB's figures show that Kochi also saw an exponential rise of 193% in crime in 2010 compared to 2009. For a state that reaps praise for scoring high on literacy and health indicators, the crime stats are unwelcome news.

Crime rate - number of crimes committed per 1 lakh population — gives a more realistic and comparative picture of law and order than a total of offences registered in a state or city. A state with a larger population can report a higher number of offences as compared to a small state. But it is the crime rate that is an index of law and order.

Among states with significant population and area, Kerala has left most others far behind with Madhya Pradesh a distant second at 297.2 offences per lakh population, and Delhi ranks third with a rate of 279.8. UP, much reviled on the crime front, has a crime rate of only 87.5.

Kerala also ranks highest on incidents of rioting and arson with a rate of 26 compared to the national average of 6.4, although Bihar at 8,809 incidents accounts for almost 13% of all riots in the country.

To put these figures in perspective, NCRB has also compiled separate statistics for violent crimes that include murder, attempt to murder, rape, kidnapping and dowry death. On this count too, Kerala's figures are high, inspiring little confidence in the state's government machinery.

Of the 2,41,986 incidents of violent crime in the country, Kerala accounted for 11,756, more than much larger states like Rajasthan (10, 577) and comparable to its bigger neighbours such as Tamil Nadu (12,333) and Andhra Pradesh (12,491). UP accounts for highest number of violent crimes, recording 27,225 incidents.

Even women are not very safe in the coconut country. The state's rate of crime against women hovers at 27, higher than Delhi at 24.6, which is often called most unsafe place for females. Bihar, incidentally, is one the safest for women recording a crime rate against women of only 8.7 — second only to Goa with a rate of 8.

The Libraries, Studies, and Writing Rooms of 15 Famous Men

The Libraries, Studies, and Writing Rooms of 15 Famous Men:

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Just about two years ago, we wrote a post called 14 Famous Man Rooms, which offered a look at the rooms where over a dozen famous men wrote classic books, pondered big ideas, and tinkered with their inventions. Readers offered some really great additions in the comments, and we’ve come across more interesting, manly rooms in the interim, so we decided to put together a follow-up to that post. While the rooms in the former post ran the gamut from Frederick Douglass’ office to Frank Lloyd Wright’s drafting studio, this post focuses on libraries, writing rooms, and studies.
I don’t know about you, but visiting historical homes is one of my favorite things to do while on vacation. There’s something about being in the place where people lived and loved, the rooms where they paced anxiously, shed tears, and celebrated achievements, that really makes me feel connected to the past and to a man’s personal history in a way that fascinates and inspires me. If you can’t crisscross the globe this summer, come along with us for a tour through 15 rooms where famous men, both past and present, hatched and penned their influential words and ideas.

Rudyard Kipling’s Study

When Rudyard Kipling came upon the secluded, 17th century Bateman’s House in Sussex, he was immediately smitten. He wrote:

“We had seen an advertisement of her, and we reached her down an enlarged rabbit-hole of a lane. At very first sight the Committee of Ways and Means [Mrs Kipling and himself] said ‘That’s her! The only She! Make an honest woman of her–quick!’ We entered and felt her Spirit–her Feng Shui–to be good. We went through every room and found no shadow of ancient regrets, stifled miseries, nor any menace though the ‘new’ end of her was three hundred years old…”

The Feng Shui of Bateman’s was good to Kipling indeed. It was here in his study that he penned that manliest of manly poems–”If.”

William F. Buckley’s Study

If you were looking for William F. Buckley during his life, the first place to check was his study, which he converted from a garage. It was here, surrounded by mementos, books, and paintings (some of which he did himself), that he would toil on his columns and novels, and it was here that he was found dead when he passed away in 2008.

William Randolph Hearst’s Library & Study

The Library. Hearst was such a prolific collector of art, books, and antiques, that his castle was really built around how to display the collection that had formerly been sitting in warehouses, rather than the other way around. All of his books still couldn’t be fit into the castle’s two libraries however, leading him to stick them in odd places, such as in bookcases that lined the walls of his movie theater room.

Built in San Simeon, California by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Casa Grande, or Hearst Castle as it is now known, boasted 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a movie theater, tennis courts, an airfield, and the world’s largest private zoo. Hearst himself lived in the castle’s third floor Gothic Suite. The floor’s library (seen above) housed more than 4,000 books, along with 150 vases from ancient Greece.

The Gothic Study. It held Hearst’s most prized books and manuscripts.

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3,000 more books could be found in Hearst’s Gothic Study. The room served as a private library and office from which Hearst controlled his media empire and as an executive boardroom for discussing matters with his cohorts as well.
Be sure to also check out pics of the Hearst Castle’s billiards room, theater room, and indoor and outdoor pools — really unbelievable. This place is near the top of my to-visit list (Sagamore Hill — see below — currently holds the number one spot).

Roald Dahl’s Writing Hut

When Roald Dahl moved to Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire in 1965, he built a small writing hut (you can take a 3-D tour here) for himself. Dahl’s family has kept the hut much like it was when the author died, but even during his life it was a pretty dark, bare bones, ramshackle sort of place. No one could enter the hut but Dahl himself, and no one was allowed to clean it either; it reeked of tobacco and the floor was covered with pencil shavings and cigarette ash.

Within the hut, Dahl would sit in a big chair (because desks hurt the back he injured in WWII) and write on a large pad of paper (he didn’t type).

The solitude of his hut inspired Dahl’s creativity; he wrote all of his children’s stories from within its little walls. Here’s how Dahl described the power of the place:

“You become a different person, you are no longer an ordinary fellow who walks around and looks after his children and eats meals and does silly things, you go into a completely different world. I personally draw all the curtains in the room, so that I don’t see out the window and put on a little light which shines on my board. Everything else in your life disappears and you look at your bit of paper and get completely lost in what you’re doing. You do become another person for a moment. Time disappears completely. You may start at nine in the morning and the next time you look at your watch, when you’re getting hungry, it can be lunchtime. And you’ve absolutely no idea that three or fours hours have gone by.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Study

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived in his Windlesham home on the outskirts of Crowborough in East Sussex for 23 years. When he died there in 1930, his request was to be buried in a garden next to a writing hut he had built on the property. But during his life, he actually preferred to write in the study on the first floor of his home. There he penned several of his famous Sherlock Holmes works, including The Poison Belt, in which he describes the view looking out from his study and across the Crowborough Common to distant Rotherfield.
Oh, and speaking of Mr. Holmes, he had a nice den too…

Sherlock Holmes’ Study

Sherlock Holmes is of course a fictional character, but that hasn’t stopped folks from recreating his office from the descriptions given by his creator.
There is one at the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street:

And one at The Sherlock Holmes pub in Westminster:

Both look pretty cozy.

Jack London’s Study

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When the stone mansion (“Wolf House”) Jack London was building on his Sonoma Valley ranch burned down in 1913, he built a tranquil, windowed annex onto the large “cottage” he and his wife Charmian had been living in for years. The study–in which he penned his final stories and novels–was adjacent to his “sleeping porch.” Now that’s a room you don’t hear much about these days, and one I would love to have, especially with this kind of view!

Photo source

George Washington’s Study

The best feature of the room? A rocking chair that fanned you as you rocked.

George Washington’s study was built during the Revolutionary War as part of the expansion of his home. When the tired General returned to Mount Vernon in 1783, he was naturally called upon to entertain countless family, friends, politicians, and well-wishers. His study became the place where he could hide out and find solitude; no one was allowed in without an invitation. Here he could read one of his 884 books, oversee his estate, pen letters, and write in his diary. But he also used the room as a chamber for bathing and dressing. He would rise between 4-5 in the morning and make his way into the study via a private staircase that connected it to the master bedroom. In these two quiet hours before breakfast, he’d get ready for the day, review reports, and write letters. In the evening before bed, he’d be back in the study to discuss issues with his secretary or do some more reading before bed at 9 o’clock.

Neil Gaiman’s Writing Gazebo

Here’s what contemporary author Neil Gaiman said about his enviable, Mark Twain-esque writing gazebo in the book Shedworking:

“I had the gazebo built about 15 years ago, and go through phases of using it, and then I’ll abandon it for 5 years, then rediscover it with delight. I love walking to the bottom of the garden, and settling down to write.
Nothing ever happens down there. I can look out of the window and some wildlife will occasionally look back, but mostly it’s just trees, and they are only so interesting for so long, so I get back to writing, very happily.
There are heaters down there, because it gets cold here in winter, and blankets on the chairs, ditto, and I have to try and remember not to leave bottles of ink on the table as they freeze. It’s just out of reach of the house Wifi, too, which is a good thing.”

Winston Churchill’s Study

What is often overlooked about Winston Churchill is that his primary income — his only income when he was out of office — came from his writing. And he did the bulk of that writing, 50 books and hundreds of articles, from his study at Chartwell Manor, his main residence for forty years. With 20 foot ceilings crisscrossed with 11th century rafters, books spilling out from the bookcases and piled against every wall, paintings of Napoleon, Lord Nelson, and his wife, and a magnificent view of Chartwell’s picturesque gardens and lakes (which Churchill built himself), the study was the heart of the home, Churchill’s sanctuary, and the place he spent much of his time–often in the wee hours of the morning.

After Churchill’s favorite part of the day — a sumptuous 8:00 dinner, along with stimulating conversation and plenty of cigars, brandy, and port — Churchill would change out of his tuxedo and into a bathrobe and slippers before walking through the Tudor doorway of his study (which he called “the factory”) at about 10:30 or 11 pm. There he would pore over the galley proofs laid stacked on top of his upright table, sit and write on his mahogany desk, and dictate to his two secretaries who lived in residence on the property. After dictating 3-4,000 words, Churchill would dismiss his secretaries at about 2 or 3 in the morning and hit the sack.

Churchill delighted in working at an upright desk that had once belonged to Benjamin Disraeli.

Even when Churchill turned in for the night at 2 am, his secretaries’ work was not yet finished. They had to type up his dictations so they could be sent to London and turned into galley proofs that Churchill could look over and mark up the very next day.

Norman Mailer’s Apartment

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Norman Mailer’s apartment did not really have a dedicated library; rather, the whole apartment was a library of sorts, with bookshelves sitting against many of the walls and volumes stacked into various nooks and crannies. Seen here as it looked a few years after his death, and having been, according to his son “slightly feminized,” the Mailer-designed apartment has a nautical theme, complete with galley-like rooms and gangplank-esque walkways that lead to neat loft areas. Mailer designed the unique apartment partly to conquer his vertigo, and in his younger years, he hung a hammock between the rafters, a trapeze from the ceilings, and rope ladders from the different levels.

While this nook was Mailer’s study, he actually did not do any writing at home. To get away from distractions, he would write in a small, undecorated room down the block from his apartment.

Theodore Roosevelt’s Library & Gun Room

After Theodore Roosevelt’s Dakota cattle business failed, he came back East and built a home in Oyster Bay, NY. He called his estate Sagamore Hill, and he lived there until he died (with a stint in the White House, of course). It was where Roosevelt would go to relax, romp in the woods, and revitalize his man spirit. In addition to having a really manly trophy room, the home also included a nice library where TR would spend much of his time. Situated on the first floor of the home, it was decorated with animal skins from Roosevelt’s hunts, along with portraits of TR’s heroes.

While he was president, Roosevelt would sometimes turn Sagamore Hill into the “Summer White House,” meeting with politicians and dignitaries in the library while Secret Service agents were stationed at the doors.

The library had also served as Roosevelt’s study before he married his second wife Edith, but because it had become a social center in the house and a place for entertaining guests, he and Edith decided to turn a room on the third floor into his “sanctum,” a hide out where he could write undisturbed (although his children could still often persuade him to take a break). Originally known as “the den,” Theodore Jr. imparted its lasting nickname, the “Gun Room,” so called because it displayed TR’s and his son’s hunting arms, which, sadly, you cannot see in the only photo I have been able to find of the room:

Jay Walker’s Library

If William Randolph Hearst had lived in the 21rst century and been a lot geekier, this is what his library might have looked like. Created by the founder of Priceline.com, Jay Walker, to be a tribute to the human imagination, the 3,600 square foot library consists of three eye-popping levels, which were inspired by M.C. Escher’s famous sketches of floating stairs. The platforms are connected by glass-paneled bridges that allow you to see the first floor of the library as you stand on top of it. The railings are also made of glass, etched and illuminated with images depicting the discovery of great inventions and ideas. The library houses thousands of eclectic and rare books and artifacts, including one of seven surviving Sputniks, books bound in rubies and diamonds, fossilized dinosaur eggs, and the napkin upon which FDR scribbled his plan for winning WWII.

The fascinating details and images of Walker’s library are too numerous to recount here, so I recommend  checking out the articles here and here to learn more about it, and to get a better look, you can take a virtual tour in this video.

Darren Bush’s Shack

Okay, so Darren Bush isn’t famous in the traditional sense, but he’s famous around here as one of our contributing writers. I wanted to include the shack he built for himself, to give you some inspiration on what can be attainable even for the average Joe. Darren’s shack was inspired by the writing hut of author and conservationist Sigurd Olson, and he uses it for writing and getting away from it all. Here’s Darren describing how he built it with a friend:

“It took me about a year, start to finish, but it sat idle for six months while I scrounged parts (the windows, wood stove, chimney and some of the other stuff was recycled).  Once we had the stuff, it was up and sheathed in two days.  The roof took another few weeks working on it after work, as well as the siding.
The inside was done over a few months, just an hour or so when I could get away.  The furniture and stuff was scrounged, except for the table which was our old kitchen table refinished.  The chair was picked off the curb and reupholstered, the rocker was a snowshoe kit I built, and of course the stove tools were custom made [Darren is into blacksmithing].”

I’ve been trying to convince Darren to write some posts on just how he built his shack — I’m sure some encouraging comments from readers could help sway him!
Here are some pics of the inside of the shack:

What was your favorite room of the bunch? Be sure to check out 14 Famous Man Rooms for more studies, libraries, and writing rooms, along with manly rooms of other kinds!

Related posts:

1. 14 Famous Man Rooms
2. Manvotional: Of Studies by Francis Bacon
3. Introducing The AoM Library of Random Man Knowledge
4. Tools, Gear, and Resources to Help You Study Smarter
5. The Pocket Notebooks of 20 Famous Men