The standing vertical jump is an important measure of an athlete’s explosive power and a critical test in the NFL Combine. So who jumps the highest? And what’s the limit? WIRED‘s Robbie Gonzalez jumps in to examine the physics and physicality of maximum leaping ability.
The hour record for cycling is very simple. It’s just one rider going as far as possible for one hour. WIRED’s Robbie Gonzalez explores the physical power needed to push for 60 minutes and the equipment and track choices that can make or break the record.
Pro streetballer Nemanja “Tricky” Blazic from Belgrade, Serbia, did the Mannequin Challenge with extra flair by spinning a basketball on a pen while writing, on the corner of a book while reading, on a wooden spoon while cooking, and more.
Professional bowler Michael Long picks up a spare with a striking trick shot where he releases one rapidly spinning ball that creeps down the lane around two specially placed pins before throwing another ball at regular speed to knock down eight of the 10 pins.
Downhill skateboard champ Zak Maytum flies down a long slope in the Italian Alps. “We tracked down some squiggles on the map and the road turned out epic. Here’s Zak’s first run, filmed by Justin Rouleau.”
Again, as scary as this looks, at 1:07, 2:34, 3:44, 4:06, 4:26, and 4:40, you can see that he is in complete and total control.
Downhill skateboard champ Zak Maytum flies down one of the fastest runs in his home state of Colorado “with speeds approaching 70 mph, and rough-ass pavement. Be ready to have your fuckin’ face melted.”
As scary as this looks, at 1:30, 2:10, and 2:23, you can see that he is in complete and total control.
Tripp and Tyler show us a few things pro athletes can get away with that normal people can’t.
ESPN Magazine’s “The Body” Issue featuring Olympic heptathelete Chantae McMillan.
“Breaking Gravity” is a short video directed by Marc Donahue for PermaGrinFilms that features a number of breakdancers, gymnasts, and other athletes from the True Movement crew captured in bullet time video. The short was shot using an array of 20 GoPros and a Red Epic camera at the San Diego United Training Center.
IMHO, I think every household should have a giant foam-cube pit.
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World Without End
Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected. Readers everywhere hoped for a sequel.
World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas— about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race—the Black Death.
Three years in the writing, and nearly eighteen years since its predecessor, World Without End breathes new life into this epic historical novel.
