Videos
Podcasts
Blogs
Quizzes
GamesPosts Tagged: ‘snow’
Amazing what people can build #14 – The snow roller coaster
by Marshall Brain | February 24, 2011
What we see in the following video are two things. The first is a surprising snow roller coaster of a design I have never seen before. Then there is the aesthetic part at the beginning of the video – the snowman motif for the launch hill: This is not to say that people have not [...]
This zip line scares the crud out of me.
It’s run by New York Zipline Adventures at Hunger Mountain, about two hours outside of New York City. For $119 (and after some zip line pilot training), you’ll fly down a 3,200-foot-long zip line at 50 miles per hour. And you’re 600 feet above the valley below! It’s the highest, longest, fastest zip line on North America.
To me, this video is funny because it perfectly captures the “southern attitude” toward snow. In the south, any amount of snow is an emergency. Grocery stores get cleaned out as shown here. People start to panic: This graph shows the general tolerance of southerners to snow: Southerner’s enjoyment of snow over time Meanwhile, up [...]
Imagine that you are a city manager in one of the cities that have experienced huge amounts of snow this winter. The problem with snow in urban areas is that, in order to get the snow off the streets, you have to put it somewhere. In suburbs and rural areas you can simply plow or [...]
One winter I was in the airport in Minneapolis, Minnesota getting ready to fly home. I had arrived there on a flight from Rochester, Minnesota in the afternoon. As the sun set, however, there was a problem – it got so cold they closed the airport. It was something amazing like -40 degrees F. So [...]
Here’s a nice video explanation of three different types of snow shoes – aluminum tubular frame, plastic and aluminum angled frame: How to snow shoe in the Sierras – with a discussion of clothing as well: More on the clothing (avoid cotton) and use waterproof hiking boots: What to do when you fall down: One [...]
How do train companies clear the snow off the tracks?
by Marshall Brain | January 4, 2011
Trains tracks have the same kind of problems that roads do with snow. If too much snow gets on the track, the trains can’t go through. Because trains often go through some treacherous places, like high-altitude mountain passes, the amount of snow can sometimes be huge. But one advantage that trains have is the fact [...]
It snows. You find that you have a yard or a drive way or a parking lot full of snow. What are you going to do about it? Clearly you need to build something. Here are a few ideas: Snow Castle Jabba Agressive snow ball Snow man Snow man Very accurate snow sculpture of car, [...]
How deep can snow get, and how does a road crew deal with it?
by Marshall Brain | December 28, 2010
This is an amazing photo, showing snow along a road that appears to be about 15 feet deep: Snow along road The obvious question: How do they do it? The answer is the use of large rotary snowblowers like this: The view from Inside the cab. If there is nowhere to put the snow, you [...]
Weather forecasting is a fickle business. Certain things can be predicted with fairly high accuracy with a week of lead time – Hurricanes are an example. If a hurricane forms, it’s subsequent behavior is fairly predictable although the exact landfall coordinates can be hard to pinpoint. But the 5-day or 10-day forecast that you see [...]
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Traveling on the Orient Express
- Deep-fried Goodness at Carnival
- The Colors of the Running of the Bulls
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Blow Your Mind: In the Lair of the Rat King
- Mandala: Memory Palace, Inception and Simulated Worlds
- Virgin Galactic: $200,000 Ticket to Ride
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Was Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” Super Bowl commercial a little too political?
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
How-to Stuff
- How to Make the Most of a Gallery Crawl (When You’re on a Shoestring Budget)
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 40: Did movies ruin love?
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 39: Urban Legends
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 38: Defending Disney Princesses?
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
