A blue hole is an underwater sinkhole formed in the ice age by weather conditions beating against what was then a shallower ocean. At 335 meters, the deepest blue hole recorded is in Mexico and the second deepest is Dean’s Hole in the Bahamas at 202 feet (source). Sink hole jumping is popular among a particularly daring group of underwater free-divers who get their kicks from jumping head first into these deep, dark caves without any kind of breathing support or equipment. It already sounds scary, but wait … there’s more: “[in blue holes] water circulation is poor, and they are commonly anoxic below a certain depth; this environment is unfavorable for most sea life, but nonetheless can support large numbers of bacteria.” (source) A variety of fossils have been found in Dean’s Hole including the remnants of crocodiles, tortoise and even a human tibia.
A number of free-divers have jumped into these gaps in the earth and have reached incredible depths considering it is all done with one breath:
William Trubridge – 86 meters
Herbert Nitsch – 120 meters
Walter Steyn – 100 meters
Recently, the above video was made documenting a jump by Guillaume Nery from France. There is a disclaimer on the Youtube page to clarify that the video was created with artistic intent and has been edited. Even so, it’s pretty fantastic – and absolutely terrifying.
Marvel Comics, like many businesses in creative industries, relies heavily on trademarks and licensing to generate revenue. As evident from the popularity of Marvel-licensed films – X-Men, Iron Man, Hulk, Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Blade, etc. – it’s clearly working for them.
The company – also known as Marvel Publishing, which is part of Marvel Entertainment, which since December 2009 is part of Disney – has registered some interesting trademarks in its time.
Super Hero and Super Heroes are both Marvel trademarks, as is the less commonly used Super Villains. From 1975 to 1996, Marvel also owned a publishing trademark for the word Zombie. Perhaps understanding that this trademark wasn’t enforceable, in 1996 they registered Marvel Zombies, which states in the registration document, “No claim is made to the exclusive right to use zombies“.
According to the ever-dubious Wikipedia, Marvel Comics also own trademarks on two sounds that their characters make: the “thwip!” of Spider-Man’s web shooters, and the “snikt!” of Wolverine’s claws. Our searches of the US Trademark database have yet to uncover proof of these claims, however, and no citation is provided on the Wikipedia page.
I am living a life of extremes right now. I’ve spent the last six weeks in a very large, luxurious home on the edge of the desert in Arizona. There are three large bedrooms all with en suite bathrooms and walk-in closets, an enormous ‘great room’, media room, etc. I’m not complaining – it’s been great – but it isn’t how I’m used to living and was certainly not possible in London, UK.
On Saturday, we’re heading to Mexico for six weeks to live in a small bungalow near the ocean with no air conditioning and fairly basic amenities. After our time in the land of air conditioning, SUVs and golf courses I have been a little apprehensive about how we’re going to adapt. Then I spent some time getting inspired by how much some creative people are able to make of tiny spaces. Here are some of my favourites:
Paul Elkins Tiny Mobile Shelter
“The shelter is lightweight, water tight and able to collect rainwater, and includes an area for displaying and selling handmade wares.” (Text and image from Apartment Therapy)
Gary Chang – 24 Rooms in One
“This room — the “maximum kitchen,” he calls it — and the “video game room” he was sitting in minutes before are just 2 of at least 24 different layouts that Mr. Chang, an architect, can impose on his 344-square-foot apartment, which he renovated last year. What appears to be an open-plan studio actually contains many rooms, because of sliding wall units, fold-down tables and chairs, and the habitual kinesis of a resident in a small space. As Mr. Chang put it, “I glide around.” (Text from the New York Times)
Tiny Apartments in a Hong Kong Housing Estate
Michael Wolf has documented many of these small 100 x 100 spaces. Some of residents make better use of their space than others. (Photo by Michale Wolf)
Living in a Yurt
“We talk all the time about living with less; Dave lives in 706 square feet with off grid power, a composting toilet, a shower and a full kitchen and didn’t give anything up at all to live in comfort and style. When you live in 706 square feet you don’t need much to run it; he collects water from his roof, power from the sun and wind, heat from sustainably cut wood. He spends about six hundred bucks a year for his propane barbeque, gas for his chainsaw and log splitter and that is about it.” (Text by Treehugger, Yurt image by Bill Janis)
Update!
Supertramp’s Bicycle Caravan
Via Twitter GoldenGus has pointed me to a really cool, alternative use of small space. “Jacob aka ‘Supertramp’ is embarking on a voyage around London exploring the concept of micro-sized living; inspired by a more minimal, fluid and socially aware approach to future living, the project seeks to promote and inspire leaner, more livable life forms … His new mobile house doubles up as an agency and a social facility point, offering a unique, intimate and conversational platform where people will both inspire and be inspired.” For more on this project visit Nell Osbourne on Posterous (which is also where the image is from).
New York based artist Andrew Yang hand-makes these strange little dolls – named Kouklitas after the Greek word for doll koukla – out of muslin and hand paints their faces. There are different ranges of dolls, including a more commercial ‘Editorial’ line based on the collections of major fashion houses like Givenchy and Lanvin. Cooler and creepier are the ‘Collection’, which features a range of whimsical characters that look like they’ve been transported out of the stories of the Brother’s Grimm. Each doll has a name and, best of all, a narrative explaining who she is and how she came to be. The Gothic origin stories are often based in post-civil war New Orleans.
Of the Clora and Clarice doll (pictured above):
Cora and Clarice, Clarice and Cora. This set of unique twins was born in ante-bellum New Orleans to Irish immigrant parents Cieran and Cara McCarthy, who were reportedly barely making ends meet as music teachers. Before they were out of the crib the wonder twins were proficient in the violin and piano. Eventually they toured Europe; after their famous Dresden performance in a family induced interpretation of an opera ballet version of Swan Lake, their fame and wealth were cemented. Both girls maintained dozens of lovers, but they were always shared. Shortly after the twins settled in London at the peak of their careers, a certain Harold Hartfordshire blatantly favored Clarice, the more timid of the girls. After Mr. Hartfordshire was found brutally murdered in his York estate, Clarice shocked the world with her confession implicating her sister, therefore herself, in the horrible crime. They were tried and hung, and are noted to be “the first publicly executed set of conjoined twins.”
If you don’t fancy any of the collection dolls, Yang also creates custom dolls. But do they come with their own personal histories?
The annual salary for a UK MP is currently £65,738. This income is often topped-up with payments from other jobs; one-off consultancy projects, board member salaries, or media appearances. Using the Register of Members Interests raw data provided by the invaluable They Work For You, we can see how much extra they earn.
The graph above plots many of the individual payments we extracted data for, normalised by £/hour – how much the MP earned for each hour worked. The highest hourly wage goes to William Hague, at £7,331 per hour (£14,662 for a two hour talk).
You can see a clear plateau at £150/hour in the graph (click for a larger version), with slightly smaller £200/hour and £100/hour plateaus either side. The average rate was a little over £250/hour.
Although many of the tasks appear to be costed at a low hourly rate, it should be noted that we gave many MPs the benefit of the doubt: for those that recorded ’1 day’ (rather than the standard number of hours), we assumed this was 24 hours, not a 7.5 hour working day.
Ten MPs managed to record a rate of £infinity/hour, by receiving payments for 0 hours worked: these include three payments of over £3,500 to John Gummer and three payments of £3,500 to Edward Leigh.
23 MPs managed to earn over £1000/hour, and 46 managed over £500/hour.
Of the top 10 highest paying items (in terms of £/hour) – each of which was between approximately £1500 and £7000 per hour – only Vince Cable, who appears twice on the list, donated his fee (in both cases) to charity. All other MPs – including William Hague, John Greenway, Michael Gove and John Gummer, appear to have retained their payments.
Subscribe