Research Into Super Hero's

Watchmen is a book based on the idea of masked avengers with superpowers going around fighting crime and the trials that go along with it. This made me wonder is this purely fiction or are there people that actually try to copy their fictional hero's in real life. As I investigated I was astonished by the number of examples so I narrowed it down to 2 particularly interesting examples. The first is a man that doesn't actually have a super power but instead just an ordinary angle grinder. Angle-Grinder Man does not fight bank robbers or villains but instead he fights meter-maids. When ever a car gets clamped from being illegally parked he soon appears wearing blue tights and a gold cape with of course his trusty angle grinder to bust off the clamp. Just like a true super hero he asks for no money in return as well he conceals his identity to prevent a hefty fine. The second hero is a man that does not where a cape nor does he fight bad guys instead he has a true power. Like many fictional hero's he acquired his power from a dramatic event his turned out to be a series of epileptic seizures that severely altered his brain. This transformed him into a human calculator. Daniel Tammet does incredibly long calculations in very short periods of time. He accomplishes this by not memorizing the number but instead feeling the number and actually seeing flashes of lights that reveal the answer. It seems like a little bit of a hoax but you can't argue with his world record, which is reciting pi up to 22,514 digits in 5 hours. This is similar to the smartest man on the earth from watchmen in that they both have the ability to learn. Daniel Tammet was also put to the test by having to learn Icelandic know as one the hardest language in only a week. To test if he succeeded he went live with interviewers in front of millions and was able to carry on a conversation. This shows that to some degree super powers and masked avengers exists but in different ways than they appear in the comics. (youtube: Daniel Tammet to see full story)

Bike Reveiw: Nomad vs Remedy

The Santa Cruz Nomad and Trek Remedy 8 are two very comparable bikes in the sense that they are intended for the same purpose, which is a free ride bike that can still take on any climb you want to throw at it. I recently test road both of these bikes and was very impressed with both of them however there was a clear winner. Firstly an overview. The Remedy is equipped with the Fox Talus which is arguably the best all mountain shock on the market, its superior technology allows you to drop the front fork 1 inch which changes the geometry of the bike.This change of geometry is incredibly easy to do and allows the bike to climb like a cross country specific bike. The Rock Shock front fork on the Nomad also has its advantages and is still a quality item but still not on the same level as the Fox Talus. It does not allow you to drop the fork which makes it uncomfortable when tacking on steep technical climbs. However I found it to take on burly rock gardens better than the talus because of their ability for absorbing large impacts; making a more stable feel. In the aspect of the front fork the edge went to the Trek Remedy's Talus fork. As for the rear shock they are an absolute tie because they are identical Fox float R23. They both tie in their weight as well; tipping the scales around 30 pounds. When these 2 bikes are compared purely on specifications alone it seems that the Remedy is the superior bike for the $3,500 price range, but this changed as soon as I test road them. Initially on the climb the Nomad felt sluggish but this was my fault for not using the lock out feature on the rear shock which prohibits "pedal bob" and I realized its importance for climbing for any significant duration. As soon as I flicked this seemingly magic switch the bike became incredibly efficient and I effortlessly coasted to the top of the hill. The Remedy also climbed admirably but when you stand up to pedal and really dig in, it tends loose it firm feel almost as if the bike can only be pushed so hard. It was on the descend the nomad flourished and as I dropped in and railed the first berm the Nomad had taken the competition. It was it's snappy, responsive handling and the tacky maxis tire clung to everything it came in contact with. It furthered itself from the competition when it took to the air, it took off lips with no awkward back tire kick ups and seemed very stable on landings using it's burly shocks to its advantage. The Remedy had little to offer in the air mostly due to the frame height and it's frame design seemed to always be in the way on the take off's of jumps making it awkward and unbalanced. This being said it was a pleasure on the high speed trail carrying tons of speed and tracking very well but did not hold its own in tight sections of trails and seemed unresponsive. Over all it was a very close comparison but the Nomad takes it because of the huge variety of terrain it is able to over come and the confidence it gives you while tackling any obstacle.

Perception is everything

Many events in our lives are thought to be carried due to necessity but in reality there are very few that are; instead it is the context that surround these daily events that make them seem mandatory. An example that shows this concept is how girls in today's society wear make-up because they want to look like all the supermodels and to fit in with all there peers who are also follow this trend. Through repetition girls have turned this into such a norm that spreading potentially harmful chemicals on their body's seems acceptable because of the context and knowledge based around this subject. Beau Otto uses optical illusion's as a metaphor for this idea. He does this by taking 2 exact coloured dots and puts them on a white sheet and a black sheet, the end result is that they appear to be different colours. A situation that shows this is how 2 seemingly identical children could be born on different sides of the world but grow up to be totally different. They could differ in jobs, religion and over all character. The reason for this is not because they where born to become a doctor or a janitor instead it was the influences around them that made them pursue their careers in different ways. Parents are also responsible for creating the context that forms the child's thought and ultimately their outlook on life. This goes for religion as well for example, a child isn't born Muslim instead they are born then taught to be a Muslim. It is this ideology that shows that it isn't the colour on the dot or the baby being born that decides how it is perceived, instead it's the context that surrounds it that ultimately creates the perception for an individual.