Do you remember writing letters to Santa Claus, athletes or the president when you were in elementary school? Well, today we learned that some of those letters do make it to their intended destination Leanne, a second-grade student at Baker Elementary School in San Jose, Calif., composed an adorable letter (pictured below) to slopestyle snowboarder Jamie Anderson. She even used the spaces between each word to draw small stars. See also: Shaun White’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day In the note, Leanne expresses her shared interest in biking, and offers the Olympian some luck via a penny attached to the letter. The token seemed to do the trick, as Anderson took home a gold medal, becoming the first-ever women’s slopestyle Olympic champion Read more… More about Watercooler , Pics , and Conversations
DARPA Is Developing ‘Transformers’-Style Flying Drones
It’s official: The U.S. military is getting into the business of building Transformer -style robots. Of course, they won’t exactly be like the ones you’ve seen in Michael Bay ‘s films, but in terms of purpose and functionality, the early versions won’t be far off DARPA , or the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, revealed on Tuesday concept images of its plan to outfit the U.S. military with modular flying drones , which can “transform” to meet various mission needs See also: Apple’s Jony Ive Designs Special Edition Red Mac Pro Called ARES (Aerial Reconfigurable Embedded System), the drone will serve as an unmanned flying vehicle capable of setting troops down in hazardous environments, and as a resupply vehicle for military deployments. ARES will also be able to facilitate the evacuation of injured soldiers, a key feature for missions unassisted by combat-ready helicopters Read more… More about Military , Robots , Robotics , Darpa , and Tech
Is There an Olympian From Your Hometown in Sochi Right Now?
Before you sink into your couch this weekend to live through the Winter Olympics vicariously , get a little more familiar with the athletes who will represent the United States in Sochi, Russia See also: 15 Winter Olympians to Follow on Instagram In the map below, explore the birthplaces of the 230 men and women on Team USA at the Winter Games. Simply click the numbered tabs to explore the geographic distribution of athletes by sport the blue dots represent male athletes and red dots represent female athletes. You can also find fun facts on the left sidebar. Did you know that athletes from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association comprise nearly half of the athletes on Team USA? The team includes two foreign-born athletes, one in Canada and one in England. Click around and explore above. Read more…
How Sochi Stacks Up to Past Olympics Host Cities
As the Sochi Winter Olympics begins, people are making comparisons between the Russian venue and the host cities that have come before it. This year’s games in Sochi disprove any notion that the Winter Olympics lacks the pomp of the Summer Olympics. Medal counts aside, each successive host city works to make its games bigger, its torch relays longer and its total cost greater than the games before. Well, maybe not the latter so much, but Sochi’s estimated $51 billion price tag sure makes it seem that way. See also: 12 Sochi Photos That Russia Probably Doesn’t Want You to See When compared, the facts and figures of the Winter Olympics certainly show signs of trending more and larger . Back in 1998, 72 events comprised the Nagano Games. That number has increased to 98 in just 16 years. Another drastic increase is in the hours of coverage CBS covered 123.8 hours of the Nagano Games, while NBC plans to cover 539 hours of Sochi competition.
Rosanne Cash Talks Songwriting, Twitter and How Streaming Hurts Musicians
Rosanne Cash has been writing songs for 35 years and creating hit records for almost as many, but few have achieved the popular and critical success of her most recent release, “The River and the Thread.” The album debuted in mid-January at No. 11 on the Billboard album chart and quickly rose to No. 1 on Amazon’s music best sellers’ list. The Los Angeles Times recently predicted that the album would earn its place among “the most powerful works of 2014.” See also: 13 Must-Follow Musicians on Instagram ” The River and the Thread ” traces a reunion of sorts that Cash experienced with her family’s roots in the Deep South, weaving together bits of history of the region and glimpses of the world her father, Johnny Cash, grew up in. Read more… More about Music , Marketing , Social Media , and Entertainment