In 1998, French-born athlete Benoît Lecomte became the first person to swim 3700 miles across the Atlantic Ocean without a kickboard. Now, The Guardian reports, he’s planning to attempt a Pacific crossing in April 2017.
Lecomte—who announced his goal at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday, October 6—intends to swim 5500 miles from Tokyo to San Francisco. This isn’t Lecomte’s first try at swimming the Pacific—and if he fails, it likely won’t be his last. The athlete originally wanted to attempt the crossing in May 2013, but those plans were thwarted, as was last year’s second planned attempt. Lecomte reportedly had a hard time locating a seaworthy boat and crew, but he now owns a new vessel, the Discoverer, that has competed in an around-the-world yacht race.
During the journey, he plans to spend eight hours a day in the water and the remainder of his time recovering and dining on the boat, which will be manned by an eight-person crew. The vessel will accompany Lecomte for his entire five- to six-month journey, keeping him safe from sharks and other dangerous creatures.
Aside from setting a new world record, Lecomte hopes his transcontinental swim will draw attention to environmental issues, like ocean pollution. (His planned route cuts directly through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.)
“I’ve been doing open-water swims for a very long time and I have seen the changes in the ocean, the environment,” Lecomte said in a statement quoted by The Guardian. “More plastic, less fish, and every time I swim with my kids I always think about what type of world I am going to leave behind. It became very clear to me that the only way to go forward was to use my passion to get attention on an issue that affects all of us.”
Lecomte’s crew will gather scientific samples along the journey, which they will give to oceanographers once they reach dry land. As for the swimmer himself, he’ll be looking out for something else: sharks. He hopes to spot them during the crossing, as their presence is a good indicator of ocean health.
The key to any successful horror movie is the fear of the unknown. Whether it’s a monster, murderer, or any other threat, the mystery is what really sells the terror. The most tried and true way to make a memorable horror villain is to simply cover his or her face with a mask. From meticulous artistry to pure dumb luck, the history of horror movie masks is as fascinating as the films themselves. Here are the stories behind eight memorable horror movie masks.
1. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1925)
The expressionless mask star Lon Chaney dons for the first half of the 1925 version of Phantom of the Opera is creepy in its own right, but when it’s eventually removed by Mary Philbin’s character, a whole new brand of terror is unleashed. The unmasking scene was so traumatizing for viewers at the time that there were reports of people actually fainting during the film’s premiere.
2. EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)
In 1960’s Eyes Without a Face, Edith Scob’s character, Christiane, is forced into a skin-tight, expressionless mask after she is horribly disfigured in a car accident. To get the effect just right, Scob had to show up to set three hours early just to get the mask put on, then she would have to wear it until the shooting day was over. She also had to eat her meals through a straw and couldn’t speak because of the stiff facade, leaving her feeling isolated from the rest of the crew. But despite the misery of the makeup chair, Scob credits the restrictive mask with actually helping her performance.
“I was completely alone,” Scob recounted. “And that served me enormously well for playing the role.” The makeup process Scob had to endure naturally lent itself to the character of Christiane, who is a virtual pariah due to her disfigurement. Getting the mask on might sound like torture, but Scob’s performance helped Eyes Without a Face become a milestone in the horror genre.
3. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, like so many horror movies over the years, takes its inspiration from one of the country’s most bizarre killers: Ed Gein. But Gein was just a small piece of the movie’s foundation; Leatherface’s trademark mask of human flesh came entirely from the mind of director Tobe Hooper. This latex monstrosity was modeled to look like it was crafted from his past victims, but there’s more to Leatherface’s persona than a literal face mask.
During the movie, he wears three separate masks—known as the “Pretty Woman,” “Old Lady,” and “Killer” masks. The idea is that Leatherface had no personality of his own beneath these masks; instead, the late actor behind the chainsaw, Gunnar Hansen, said, “He changes faces depending on what he’s trying to do.” The heavy latex wasn’t kind to Hansen, who once knocked himself out cold when he walked into a door frame on set.
4. HALLOWEEN (1978)
Creating a slasher movie icon on a shoestring budget isn’t an enviable position to be in, but when director John Carpenter saw the emotionless gaze of a William Shatner mask (well, a Captain Kirk mask, technically) staring back at him, he knew he had his (unconventional) solution. It was the movie’s art director who stumbled upon the mask when he went to Bert Wheeler’s magic shop in Hollywood in search of something for Michael Myers to wear on the cheap—he also picked up a clown mask as the other option.
The important thing to note about Myers’s appearance is that it never looks like Kirk is going around, stalking Jamie Lee Curtis. In fact, the mask kind of looks like … no one. It’s just an expressionless facade that Carpenter painted white and widened the eye holes on for a more unique appearance.
5. FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)
Jason Voorhees’s signature hockey mask is the most recognizable horror prop of the entire Friday the 13th franchise, and one of the most enduring images of the horror genre. However, it didn’t even enter the series until the third installment. There have been plenty of stories told about the origins of the hockey mask, but the most consistent one paints 3D supervisor Martin Sadoff as the impetus behind the goalie visage.
During a makeup test for the movie’s 3D cameras, the crew wondered what Jason should actually look like in the new installment. Not wanting to spend hours applying makeup to actor Richard Brooker, Sadoff, a devout hockey fan, offhandedly suggested a goalie mask (either a Buffalo Sabers or Detroit Red Wings mask), which he just so happened to have on him at the time. Sometimes, crafting a legendary movie villain is just as easy as some hockey equipment in a duffel bag.
6. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
There must be something about hockey that naturally lends itself to homicidal lunatics, because the famous face muzzle from Silence of the Lambs also has its roots in the sport. When the film needed a fierce looking mask for a captive Hannibal Lecter, the production was given the name of Ed Cubberly, the man behind many of the goalie masks you see in the NHL.
When asked to come up with a piece for “a schizophrenic who goes around biting people,” his solution was simple: Use the lower half of an old-time hockey goalie mask with bars inserted over the mouth hole to give Dr. Lecter that unnerving, muzzled snarl. It was even his idea to leave the fiberglass in its original brown/green color to really cement that prison feel. With simplicity comes terror, and Cubberly gifted the world one of the great images of horror with nothing but a little improvisation.
7. SCREAM (1996)
In the horror genre, it seems like luck plays as big a role in a movie’s success as anything else. This is doubly true for the creation of the ghost-faced villain in Wes Craven’s Scream. The script itself didn’t give much in the way of details for the movie’s slasher other than saying he was a “ghost mask killer.” One day, while scouting an abandoned house to film in, producer Marianne Maddalena happened upon a perfectly shaped ghost mask and knew she hit on something.
Craven loved it; unfortunately, the likeness was owned by a costume company called Fun World. But when a script calls for a “ghost mask” and you find a perfect one by complete luck, you have to find a way to get it done. It took some hard bargaining by both Fun World and Dimension Films (including the creation of a rival mask by the studio), but in the end both sides came to an agreement: Craven got his ideal mask, Fun World became the manufacturer of a horror icon, and Scream went on to gross more than $170 million.
8. YOU’RE NEXT (2011)
In 2011’s You’re Next, a group of masked assailants terrorizes a family celebrating their reunion. It might seem like a pretty straightforward horror romp until you get a real good look at those masks, each modeled after a different animal: a fox, a lamb, and a tiger. They’re terrifying in their own right, but they’re also believable. This was something director Adam Wingard stressed, as he wanted to make sure the killers never look like they were “fashion majors in the daytime.”
The result was a real-world, gritty group of killers, donning masks that were horrifying in their practicality. The masks also gave further insight into each killer’s personality, with Wingard saying, “they do all have unique personalities and they are dressed suitably to bring that out and accentuate that.”
It’s expensive to be a woman. Several studies have shown that choosing the shampoo bottle marketed to women (with its pastel colors and floral motif) will cost you more than reaching for the gray bottle of “men’s” shampoo, even when both items are essentially the same product. It’s referred to as the “pink tax,” and Boxed, a bulk shipping retailer, just announced a discount to combat it, Entrepreneurmagazine reports. If the women’s product you’re buying costs more than the men’s equivalent, Boxed will cut the price on the ladies’ version.
A 2015 study from the New York Department of Consumer Affairs found that in 42 percent of the 800 products they surveyed, women were paying more for the exact same purchases as men. If you can’t picture that, Buzzfeed rounded up a collection of examples of “pink tax” products in 2014, finding that body washes, razors, shampoos, deodorants, and perfumes all charge different prices for the same products depending on whether they’re marketed to men or women. And in some states, tampons and other feminine hygiene products are legally considered “luxury” items subject to sales tax, though there has been a recent movement to roll back those duties. While some of the higher prices may be due to different ingredients or import tariffs, the fact is, female consumers are racking up higher bills.
“Based on our research, on average, per ounce or per unit, women are paying 108 percent more for razors; 10 percent more for body wash; 8 percent more for deodorant and 5 percent more for shaving gel,” Boxed’s Nitasha Mehta said in a statement.
The Boxed discount applies if the personal care item in question has a price difference of more than 9 percent between the men’s and women’s versions. Those products will be marked with the hashtag #rethinkpink.
Edward Hopper was born in Nyack, New York, in a two-story Greek Revival home with sweeping views of the Hudson River. Today, the house is a museum dedicated to his life and work—but for one night, the artist’s bedroom will be transformed into a guest lodging for two art enthusiasts, Artnet News reports.
The Edward Hopper House Art Center is auctioning off an overnight stay in the room as part of its new exhibition, “Edward Hopper’s Bedroom Reimagined,” which opened earlier this month. The museum hired an interior designer and architect to restore Hopper’s bedroom to its original appearance, based on early drawings and paintings of the space. The show will run through May 2017, but until October 15, 2016, fans of the modernist painter can bid online for one night’s stay (for two) between February 1 and May 31, 2017. (The auction will culminate with a live, invite-only event on October 16.) Proceeds will fund local arts education initiatives and student studio space at the Hopper House.
The views of the Hudson from his childhood home inspired the budding artist, who devoted much of his time to sketching the boats, shipyards, and docks that dotted its banks. The house’s top floor was rented out during the 1970s, but nobody has stayed in the lodging overnight since then.
In addition to getting the once-in-a-lifetime chance to sleep in Hopper’s original bed (well, the frame, anyway), the auction’s winners will be provided with breakfast and dinner for two at a local restaurant. But like most extraordinary experiences, this one doesn’t come cheap: As of Friday, October 7, the highest bid was $650. For more information, visit the Hopper House’s website, or view some pictures of the room below.
All photos courtesy of Facebook//Edward Hopper House Art Center.
Chess for the Wounded Postal Chess Recorder. 1946. Collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Image courtesy of the World Chess Hall of Fame
Chess may seem like a placid pursuit, but it has plenty to do with combat. Of course, the game itself is a virtual portrayal of war complete with castles, knights, and royalty. But during World War II, it also took on new significance for wounded and captured soldiers, who were often faced with long hours of monotony and intellectual starvation.
The Geneva Conventions are best known today for their definitions of war crimes, but in 1929, the third convention helped lay out how to treat prisoners of war. The rules governed not just the physical conditions of POWs but their intellectual and moral needs, requiring freedom of religion, proper medical treatment, and respect based on military rank. The convention also contained a provision on recreation, which stated that “so far as possible belligerents shall encourage intellectual diversions and sports organized by prisoners of war.”
War relief organizations took that provision seriously—and for many prisoners of war during World War II, the regulation translated into a rousing game of chess. The intellectual pursuit didn’t take much room, could be played over the course of time, and was relatively quiet, making it the perfect pursuit for prisons and hospitals filled with people whose range of motion was limited. Throughout the war, chess was championed by organizations like the International Red Cross, which sent chess sets to prisoners in care packages. Soon, chess tournaments could be found in POW camps around the world.
But POWs weren’t the only war casualties who loved chess. In 1945, in response to the influx of wounded veterans at the war’s end, the United States Chess Federation partnered with the magazine Chess Review to bring chess to injured vets, too. The resulting organization, Chess for the Wounded, didn’t just get chess sets into hospitals—it brought some of the biggest names in chess directly to players. Chess greats (many of them women who had not been drafted into service) headed to players’ hospital bedsides to challenge them. Among them were Gisela Gresser, the first American woman chess master and one of the greatest players of all time, and several other U.S. women’s champions who volunteered.
The portable chess board you see above was given to a player by Herbert H. Holland, a U.S. Department of Agriculture worker, attorney, and avid chess player. Holland knew what it was like to be bored and incapacitated in a hospital bed: During World War I, he entered a diabetic coma and spent a total of nearly four years in hospitals recuperating. During those hours, Holland, a self-taught chess player, amused himself by playing chess with his fellow patients—a pastime that eased his boredom and made the long hours more bearable.
Holland never forgot how chess changed his life. During World War II, he collected a total of 1150 chess sets for prisoners of war. He eventually became the head of Chess for the Wounded. Though many players in the program used traditional chess sets, some used postal sets like the one you see above. The cards on the left were used to help players record the moves of several players at once as they mailed their games back and forth to other wounded opponents. Today, it’s in the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis—a testament to the game’s little-known connection to the modern horrors of war.
The eye of powerful Hurricane Matthew is just a few dozen miles off the eastern coast of Florida this afternoon, Friday, October 7. The storm’s strong winds and flooding have caused damage up and down the Florida coast over the past 24 hours, and the storm is far from over. The absolute worst-case scenario didn’t play out, thankfully, but there’s still the chance for potentially deadly impacts from this storm as it continues to affect Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
As of 2 p.m. EDT, the National Hurricane Center found that Hurricane Matthew was still a major hurricane—though downgraded from category 4 to category 3—with sustained winds of 115 mph in the storm’s eyewall. The hurricane is steadily moving north-northwest, a forward motion that’s brought it parallel to the Florida coast but kept the eyewall just a dozen or so miles east of land. As the storm continues moving generally northward and encounters a southeastern coast that curves northeast, forecasters expect the strongest part of the storm to draw closer to shore. The coasts of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are particularly vulnerable over the next 36 hours.
The National Hurricane Center’s forecast for Hurricane Matthew at 2:00 PM EDT on October 7, 2016. Image credit: Dennis Mersereau
Powerful winds are likely along the southeast coast as the center approaches the area on Friday night and through the day on Saturday. Hurricane force winds (74 mph or greater) are possible from Jacksonville, Florida, up to Wilmington, North Carolina. Tropical storm force winds are possible across inland counties and as far north as the border between North Carolina and Virginia. Even small flying debris could seriously injure you, so please stay inside during the peak of the storm if you live in this area.
This region of the country is extremely vulnerable to a storm surge, the sea water pushed inland by strong winds. Current forecasts call for a potential storm surge of 6 to 9 feet as far north as Edisto Beach, South Carolina, an area that includes St. Augustine and Jacksonville in Florida, Brunswick and Savannah in Georgia, and Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. Storm surge flooding has already caused damage throughout eastern Florida, with several harrowing videos surfacing on social media showing floodwaters approaching occupied buildings.
The Weather Prediction Center’s rainfall forecast for the week between October 7 and October 14, 2016. Image credit: NOAA/WPC
Not only will the wind and sea cause damage, but flooding from heavy rain is particularly concerning with this storm. Matthew could produce more than a foot of rain along coastal areas of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, with half a foot of rain or more possible along the eastern halves of these three states. This much heavy rain in such a short period of time will likely lead to widespread flash flooding, especially since parts of eastern North Carolina are already swamped from recent rains. The excess water will quickly overwhelm local waterways, and roads in flood-prone areas will submerge with relative ease. Make sure you know alternate ways to get where you need to go this weekend if you can’t just stay home altogether.
Meteorologists used some of the strongest language possible in the statements they issued ahead of Hurricane Matthew. We knew that the eye of the storm would come very close to shore in Florida, and all evidence suggested that the eye would come close enough that its powerful eyewall would drag along the shoreline. The eye stayed just far enough to the east that most of the coast missed the worst winds, but the difference was just one or two dozen miles in most spots.
Forecasters will undoubtedly receive strong criticism for sounding “alarmist” in the lead-up to this hurricane, but the enhanced warnings were absolutely warranted. Had the hurricane wobbled just a dozen miles to the west, the situation in Florida would be much bleaker than it is now. Think of it this way: When the forest is on fire, you don’t stop to yell at the firefighters because your neighborhood didn’t burn down like they said it would. If there has ever been a storm to go all-out on warning people of the potential hazards using the strongest terms possible, it was Hurricane Matthew.
Consider this your permission to skip the gym today: Exercising too much without giving your body a break might make you sick, according to new research published in the journal Frontiers of Physiology. Researchers at Catholic University of Brasilia observed people who do CrossFit on a regular basis to see how the high-intensity exercise affected their muscles and immune system. After two consecutive days of the rigorous workout, people showed reduced levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines—proteins that white blood cells produce to help lower inflammation. In effect, the back-to-back workouts with no rest were hampering their immune function.
That study looked at CrossFitters specifically, but they’re not the only ones who need a little R&R. Taking some time off from the gym is essential, no matter what kind of workout you tend to do—whether it’s weight-lifting or running or something low-impact like a barre class. “Rest days are important regardless of intensity level because you’re placing the body and mind under some form of stress,” says Marlon Briscoe, a certified personal trainer and owner of BodyByBriscoe Studios in New York City. “Imagine going to school or work 365 days a year with no break—how would you feel?”
Keep reading for his tips about how to make the most of your days off.
1. TAKE OFF AT LEAST ONE DAY A WEEK.
If you’ve been exercising regularly for a while and are fairly advanced, you can probably get away with working out three or four consecutive days without any time off, says Briscoe; but even so, make sure to take off at least one full day each week. If you’re a newbie, you might want to ease into a routine and give yourself another day or two off (spread them out throughout the week).
“When you have a day or two off between workouts, your body will be able to come back at full force,” says Briscoe. Plus, he says, your mind will be rested, “so you’ll also be more encouraged to continue your program.”
2. ON WORKOUT DAYS, MIX IT UP.
If you do work out a few days in a row, make sure to target different muscles—for instance, do arms one day and legs the next, or alternate running days with cross-training. “Muscles break down during exercise and repair when you’re at rest,” says Briscoe. So if you keep working the same muscles over and over, they don’t get the chance to build themselves back up. “You’ll compromise your results if you work out the same body parts on consecutive days,” he says.
Another reason to change up the routine: You’ll lower your chances of injury. If your muscles are tight or sore and you try to work through the pain, you have a great chance of harming yourself, says Briscoe.
3. ON YOUR OFF DAYS, BE LAZY.
Don’t be tempted to go for an easy bike ride, jog, or yoga class on your day off—because you won’t really be giving your body the break it needs. “A rest day should be just that: rest,” says Briscoe.
If you want to do something a little active, he advises sticking to easy stretching (holding each stretch for at least 30 seconds) or foam rolling. Those will help keep your muscles loose without putting too much added strain on them.
4. PAY ATTENTION TO THE P.M.
Getting enough Zs is another key component to your recovery post-workout, says Briscoe. He also recommends eating something with casein protein before you head to bed to help your muscles further recover while you sleep. Science has shown this is a good strategy; in fact, downing a beverage with casein protein half an hour before bedtime improved exercisers’ protein synthesis rates (which helps repair muscles) by 22 percent in a 2012 study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. So feel free to enjoy a protein shake as a midnight snack.
If you’ve ever caught a whiff of natural gas, you know the stench is similar to that of bad eggs or rotting cabbage. But the unsavory smell also saves lives: Gas leaks put our homes at risk for fires and explosions, and can even cause asphyxiation and death. Since pure natural gas (a.k.a. methane) has no smell, utility companies add smelly, sulfur-containing odorants called mercaptans, or thiols, to warn us if anything is amiss with our pipelines.
In fact, scientists say that our ability to discern even miniscule levels of volatile sulfur compounds is key to human survival in general, as it helps us detect rotten food, atmospheres with low oxygen levels, and even the urine of potential predators. That’s why chemists and neurobiologists from the University of Albany set out to find which of the nose’s olfactory receptors are responsible for their stench, along with factors that affect our sensitivity to it. Their results were recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Olfactory receptors are present in specialized sensory cells called olfactory sensory neurons, which line our noses. They’re responsible for detecting molecules in our surroundings and sending messages to our brain so that we can recognize and label a smell. Led by chemistry professor Eric Block, the scientists located the receptor—known as OR2T11—that’s most responsive to thiols.
The researchers also found that the presence of copper ions in our nose’s mucus greatly amplifies our sensitivity to them. “Using molecular dynamics simulations, the team found two binding sites which contained copper,” Chemistry World explained. “The importance of both sites in detecting thiols was confirmed by site-directed mutagenesis: genetically engineered receptors lacking the amino acids responsible for copper binding lost all functionality.”
“Obviously it is essential for everyone to be able to detect gas leaks by recognizing the smell of the sulfur odorant,” Block said in a release. “Unfortunately, some people have a diminished sense of smell, or the absence of smell all together. Understanding how we smell sulfur could help doctors treat those who are not responsive it.”
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