If we’re ever going to get to a world of self-driving cars we’re going to need ways to make sure that world is safe - and one way to keep pedestrians safe near autonomous vehicles may be googly eyes. Seriously.
Today in 1914, the birthday of Gino Bartali. The Italian cycling star won the Tour de France in 1938, and won a second time a decade later. But what was even more impressive was what he did in between those two wins.
There's a new exhibit at the Indiana State Museum about Marshall "Major" Taylor, a Black cycling star who became famous before Jack Johnson, Joe Louis or Jackie Robinson. Here's some of his story.
Today in 1979, a story that sounds like it came straight out of a movie: two families in Communist East Germany escaped to the West by making and flying a hot air balloon. Plus: Today in 2018, Denise Mueller-Korenek broke the world record for “fastest bicycle speed in slipstream": 183.9 mph.
Today in 1963, the US Postal Service officially started using ZIP codes as a way to quickly sort huge amounts of mail and get it to where it needed to go. How did they get Americans to adopt ZIP codes? A mascot named Mr. Zip and a jingle sung by Broadway legend Ethel Merman. Plus: for Canada Day, the story of a runner in Ontario who ran a moose-shaped route through downtown Toronto.
Today in 1769, Captain James Cook and his crew observed the transit of Venus from Tahiti, a big deal for astronomers then; only his French colleague Guillaume Le Gentil had spent years preparing to do the exact same thing, and had much worse luck on his expedition. Plus: for World Bicycle Day, a visit to a giant bicycle sculpture in South Dakota.
It was on this day in 1894 that Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, aka Annie Londonderry, set off on a bike trip that, over the next fifteen months, would make her the first woman to ride a bike around the world. Plus: meet a contraption that can hit a home run about twice as far as the ones in the big leagues.
Imagine a unicycle, but there's no seat, the wheel is much bigger and you ride inside it. That's a monowheel, and while it may not be a casual rider's cup of tea, extreme sports people are way into them. Plus: how would you like to recreate a piece of art in your house that's made of fortune cookies?
Randal S. Olson developed a computer algorithm to find the shortest, most efficient way to drive through all 48 contiguous United States - 13,699 miles and around 224 hours of driving. Plus: the Race Across America is a more than 3,000 mile road race from Los Angeles to New York on bicycles.
Dean Nicholson left his job and started a bike trip across the world. While riding through Bosnia, he heard a “desperate meow." So, instead of riding solo, he decided the cat would come along.
