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01 Apr 18:47

Bodybuilding Forums Are One of the Last Relics of Web 1.0

by Kate Davis Jones

[body_image width='1024' height='597' path='images/content-images/2015/03/25/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/03/25/' filename='lifting-saved-ops-life-the-wide-world-of-bodybuilding-forums-body-image-1427317157.jpg' id='39807']
Photo via Wikimedia Commons user United States Army

"A WEEK IS NOOOOTTTTT SUN-SUN!!!! IT'S SUN-SAT, S-E-V-E-N- DAYS!!!!"

Thus spoketh Bodybuilding.com forum user Justin-27, in a 2008 thread that was innocuously enough titled, "Full Body Workout Every Other Day?" The thread quickly devolved into a trainwreck of internet commenting, featuring more than five pages of users going back and forth, arguing about how to count days in a week and if one can effectively train four days every week. Last January, a Reddit user dug up the thread and posted screen shots from it to r/funny. From there, the thread quickly made the rounds, with writers from all corners of the web using this content as an opportunity to flex their humor muscles. It was also a nice reminder of when forums ruled the internet.

In 2011, the New York Timesbemoaned the inevitable death of web 1.0 forums like Bobdybuilding.com's, citing their inability to be properly monetized as their killer. In the same way that Napster was co-opted and eventually replaced by services such as iTunes and Spotify, forums have been supplanted by Facebook and Reddit. Unlike forums which allow people with similar interests to talk to each other anonymously, Facebook wants to be the hub of your personal and public social life. And it's not just the place you talk to friends and family, it's also a place where you scope out businesses and buy stuff. Facebook has got your life story on their servers, while back in the golden age of forums, your life story was spread out over several, less monetizable threads.

But the Bodybuilding.com forums are still kicking and it's largely thanks to the fact that it's supported by Bodybuilding.com, which is a fitness empire on the internet that boasts workout videos, diet plans, and a hell of a supplements store. Bodybuilding.com, is the 298th most visited site in the US, according to Alexa.com rankings. That's even higher than Gaia Online, which includes a forum full of anime-style virtual sprites, comedy site and forum Something Awful, and Battle.net, where the WoW forum lives. (Note: Alexa tracks overall site traffic, not just the forums.)

[body_image width='1058' height='343' path='images/content-images/2015/03/24/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/03/24/' filename='stay-hungry-the-wide-world-of-bodybuilding-forums-body-image-1427240235.png' id='39423']

All screen caps courtesy of the author

Users of Bodybuilding.com forums can chose to be anonymous or work to build reputations around their usernames and avatars. When another user gives you a boost because they like your content, the brahs call that "repping"—one of the many slang terms they use that has its roots in exercise lingo.

The forum has a strong sense of encouraging the reader to be the best they can be—but in very particular and strangely detailed ways. Here, you can learn how to determine your genetic potential for achieving great biceps. It requires you take off your shirt and strike a double-biceps-flexing pose in the mirror, then measure the distance between your elbow and the edge of your bicep. And people actually do it.

"This is a really old post, but it was just what I was looking for," responded user realtime247, ten years after the original post.

The response pushed the post to the top of the forum, sparking gleeful responses on the post's resurgence.

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Other users commented as well with simple acknowledgements that they'd read the post. Forums are inherently archival, and since most were established in their heyday of the early 2000s, it's not uncommon for decade-old posts to emerge from the depths.

"Forums still serve a purpose for specific info and reference guides, based on information posted over multiple years," says James Auerbach, founder of thebiggestboards.com and watchfreeks.com. TheBiggestBoards is an automated catalog of the web's forums from largest to smallest. Though it hasn't been actively updated since 2008, Auerbach's code still crawls forums and archives its number of users and posts. It's a relic of a time before the ubiquity of Google, when users needed directories to find people with their same niche interests, like bodybuilding or watch-collecting.

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User Sy2502 maintains a journal within the Bodybuilding.com forum, detailing her experiences preparing to compete. Much of her training centers around the forum. She even met her bodybuilding coach on the site. "I chose her to train me after seeing the quality of her posts and overall demeanor on the forum, and her philosophy," she tells me via forum private message, "And I was not disappointed." Her coach trains her virtually—they don't live close enough together to interact in the flesh. Her journal is a mix of workouts and diets, questions, balancing her routine between her job and her husband, and the occasional joke that only other bodybuilders would really understand. And of course, progress photos.

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Sy2502 started journaling in November 2013, preparing for her first competition. "My main concern at the time was not knowing if I could stick to a rigid competition prep plan, so I thought a public journal would make me accountable to myself and others," she says. "When I am working out and maybe not putting all the effort I could, I think that tomorrow I need to write in my journal what I did, and I am not going to write that I did the bare minimum or just went through the motions." Her readers are friends she interacts with across the forum boards, aspiring competitors looking for an insider's view, and colleagues working through similar training plans. It's something a little more than just her coach's diet plan or her supportive husband.

No one on the forums casually chats about what got them started in bodybuilding. Users rarely mention a time before it. It's like a themed cruise: you're there to get away with kindred souls, not discuss life back on the shores. There's an entire board for people seeking motivation—but it's motivation that can only come from other bodybuilders, motivation to push through a plateau or climb out of an emotional slump. That's the nature of forums. If you've sought out a forum, you're already invested. You're not looking for anyone to convert you.

[body_image width='1056' height='416' path='images/content-images/2015/03/24/' crop='images/content-images-crops/2015/03/24/' filename='stay-hungry-the-wide-world-of-bodybuilding-forums-body-image-1427240343.png' id='39428']

User Turtora began weightlifting in 2010, after he was diagnosed with autism. "A lot of people on the autism spectrum generally develop what are called 'obsessive/special interests,'" he explains, "Where they tend to focus on learning everything they can about just one thing. Weightlifting became mine." He was 20, underweight, a college dropout, and living alone in a moldy-walled cottage. He wanted to get his life back on track. Lifting stuck.

He looked to the T-Nation forums for guidance, which he now describes as "a cesspool of misinformation, internet experts, and mostly shitty advice." He migrated to the Bodybuilding.com forums, which proved a more supportive environment. "In the four years I was a member of the T-Nation forums, I made about 300 forum posts," he tells me via email. "I've made over 1000 posts in the last six months on the bbcom forums."

Turtora spreads his knowledge on the forums through detailed training programs and the Prehabiliton Broscience series. The series "is an effort to help save people from the mistakes that I've made," he tells me. "I've torn cartilage, muscles, and developed tendonitis among other things... It all comes down to helping people. I've struggled a lot in my life, and I just want to do everything I can to prevent people from making the same mistakes that I've made." Tortura went back to school at 21. Now 25, his goal is to deadlift 725 lbs.

For every place like the Bodybuilding.com forums, there's another place like WatchFreeks, or the Classic Horror Film Board, or BoardGameGeek. "The nice thing about forums," Auerbach tells me, "Is that you can anonymously be an active member of a community that cares about a topic, you can come and go as you please with no pressure, and learn from others who have your same interests." He points out that the forum-style of communication has shaped the way we communicate online—it exists on the comments in Facebook pages (ever noticed how a new comment will "bump" a thread to the top of a Facebook page?), Yahoo Answers, and Yelp. "[Forums are] still relevant if you have the ability to ask a question and get an answer."

Facebook has a tight grip on the internet, but it hasn't devoured the longstanding forums yet. Their age keeps them alive, because they have a wealth of unique insights, like how to determine if you are genetically predisposed to looking kickass when flexing in the mirror. No one on Facebook wants to see your deadlift progress photos. But guess what. The people on Bodybuilding.com do.

29 Mar 20:15

lightspeedsound: kenkit:planesexualpilot:tsuvorite:smokedankmeme...



lightspeedsound:

kenkit:

planesexualpilot:

tsuvorite:

smokedankmemes:

An elderly woman plays GTA V

OH MY FUCKING GOD

(( IT’S EVEN BETTER BECAUSE SHE’S BRITISH ))

OH. MY. GOD.

I mean yes this is funny and cute but also this another example why you should never underestimate the rage and aggression of old white ladies

28 Mar 06:11

People like you find it easy.Naked to see.Walking on air.



People like you find it easy.
Naked to see.
Walking on air.

28 Mar 03:46

Ad-Rock confirms ‘hours and hours’ of unreleased Beastie Boys tracks

by Joel Freimark
Beastie-Boys-unreleased-track

Just days after being awarded a summary judgment against copyright trolls TufAmerica, Ad-Rock has confirmed that there are “hours and hours” of unreleased Beastie Boys music, along with a book on the group and some other projects. While he made a point to confirm that the group ended with the passing of Adam Yauch in 2012, he did not write off the possibility of the unreleased tracks seeing the light of day.

Speaking to GQ, Ad-Rock (AKA Adam Horovitz) said about the ending of the group, “Adam Yauch Started the band. It’s not like a thing where we could continue without him” and also mentioned that going on in any sort of duo was never even considered. However, he said that there is a ton of unreleased studio work that the tree recorded, including “really bad jamming” and “there’s a lot of stuff of us talking in the middle of it, which is priceless. We were just really stoned, talking about, like, where we should get food, or Cirque du Soleil or some shit.”

In terms of how or when the material might be released, it may be a rather complicated task due to the wording of the will of the late Adam Yauch and how it specifically constrains commercial profit from the groups’ music. Yet it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Horovitz and Mike Diamond (AKA Mike D) would put it out for free, or find another creative way to get the music to the masses.

Along with the unreleased tracks, Horovitz is working with Diamond on writing a memoir about the history of the group. While the first idea was to have it written by close friends of the band, after seeing the first draft the duo decided to take on the project themselves. Explaining it perfectly, Horovitz said, “no offense to Morrissey’s friends, but you’d rather read what Morrissey is saying than what Morrissey’s friends are saying.”

While some may find a renewed sadness in the fact that The Beastie Boys are completely done, most understood that without any single one of the three main members, it would be an insult to what they once were. Yet the prospect of unreleased studio work and a book is more than enough to make you fall in love with the group all over again.

[GQ]

28 Mar 03:32

This injured tortoise can now rock a 3D-printed shell

by Stefan Sirucek
original-1

Cleopatra is a royally-named tortoise with a royal problem: she has a condition know as “peaking” or, rather appropriately considering her name, “pyramiding”, a disorder that prevents her shell from growing smoothly. This is an issue because tortoises mount each others backs for a variety of reasons from mating to simple play and Cleopatra’s uneven pyramids have resulted in excessive wear and tear to her shell, which in tortoises can lead to disease.

To remedy the situation Nico Novelli, the owner of Canyon Critters Reptile Rescue in Golden, Colorado, turned to Roger Henry, a student at Colorado Technical University and Cleopatra the Tortoise is now the proud owner of a shiny, red 3D-printed shell that protects her from harm.

3D printing is one of the most hyped and eagerly watched technologies emerging today with 3D printers churning out everything from high fashion to cars.

It’s not the first time that 3D printing technology has been used to help an animal with special needs either. Remember Turbo, the chihuahua who went from having no front legs to a  spiffy set of wheels?

The good news is Cleopatra’s shell is expected to heal over time. Until then, looking good Cleo.

[HuffPost Green | Photos: Gary Stefanski, RJ Sangosti, Getty Images]

28 Mar 03:16

I Have Created A Bloodborne Drinking Game

by Patrick Klepek

It's the weekend. Many of you will be playing Bloodborne. Some of you will be drinking. Why not combine the two?

Read more...








27 Mar 21:16

A German Restaurant May Be Taking Over Cat & Fiddle's Spot

by Juliet Bennett Rylah
A German Restaurant May Be Taking Over Cat & Fiddle's Spot It looks like the Bay Area's Biergarten will take over the Cat & Fiddle spot. [ more › ]






27 Mar 18:45

dansemacabre-: Photos by Tunebm





dansemacabre-:

Photos by Tunebm

27 Mar 18:42

Run The Jewels ft. Zack De La Rocha – “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)”

by Dave
27 Mar 18:36

First Pic Of Ryan Reynolds As Deadpool Is Damn Sexy

by Meredith Woerner

Here is the first, official picture of Ryan Reynolds as everyone's favorite anti-hero Deadpool. Looks good. Looks really good. Please, comic lords, let this PG-13 adaptation be filthy.

Read more...








27 Mar 18:33

Colleges depend on Greek life. That’s why it’s so hard to control.

by Libby Nelson
Bridget

i find all this stuff so fascinating because if you wanted to be a social leper at emerson, the most surefire way to do it was to go greek.

Fraternities have lately seemed determined to live up to their worst stereotypes: sexist, racist, and out of control.

At Dartmouth, the fraternity that partially inspired Animal House was accused of branding the skin of new members. Members of Kappa Delta Rho at Penn State are under police investigation for allegedly maintaining a private Facebook group featuring photos of naked, passed-out women. A member of Pi Kappa Alpha at the University of South Carolina was found dead. At North Carolina State, members of Pi Kappa Phi filled a notebook with jokes about rape and lynching, then left it at an off-campus restaurant. Students were sent to the hospital with alcohol poisoning after fraternity parties at Rutgers and the University of Wisconsin.

And that's just in the past 10 days.

Many college leaders seem sincerely appalled by the excesses of their students and determined to do something about it. But in many ways, college presidents' hands are tied. And this is what makes Greek life, even when it gets bad, so difficult to tame: colleges are just as dependent on fraternities as fraternities are on them.

Campus Greek life might be a monster — but it's a monster colleges created

By 1895, Sigma Chi had a fraternity house at Colorado College. (Transcendental Graphics/Getty Images)

The conventional wisdom is that colleges are afraid to take a hard line with fraternities because they depend on their wealthy alumni for donations.

That's probably true: former fraternity members are disproportionately represented among the wealthy and powerful. But the interdependence between fraternities and colleges is deeper than that, and goes back at least a century.

When fraternities were first established — and some are nearly as old as American higher education — they were secret societies in an adversarial relationship with colleges, who didn't approve of their existence.

By the turn of the 20th century, though, it was clear that fraternities weren't going away. And as they became more entrenched, building houses directly on or adjacent to campuses, they were also doing colleges a favor. Colleges no longer had to house students or supervise them; the fraternity was doing it for them.

"The wiser among college officials are encouraging the development of fraternity life in every way possible," Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities, a guide to the already flourishing societies, instructed in 1920.

As Caitlin Flanagan wrote in her investigation of fraternity culture and lawsuits for the Atlantic in 2014, this dynamic hasn't changed:

Today, one in eight American students at four-year colleges lives in a Greek house, and a conservative estimate of the collective value of these houses across the country is $3 billion. Greek housing constitutes a troubling fact for college administrators (the majority of fraternity-related deaths occur in and around fraternity houses, over which the schools have limited and widely varying levels of operational oversight) and also a great boon to them (saving them untold millions of dollars in the construction and maintenance of campus-owned and -controlled dormitories).

And things have to get bad — really bad, like singing-about-racism bad — for fraternities to get kicked out of their on-campus houses or to lose affiliation with their universities.

The basic bargain is "don’t kill anybody, and we’ll renew your contract," says Alan DeSantis, a professor of communication at the University of Kentucky who in 2007 wrote a book, Inside Greek U, about fraternity and sorority life. "If the universities were really committed to kind of this mission … of enlightenment and changing lives and diversity and questioning, you think there would be something, somewhere, that says, 'You have to do more.'"

Instead, colleges pursue regulations that make them less liable legally for deaths and accidents — such as forbidding fraternities from hosting parties with alcohol on campus — but might not be any better for their students, who end up going off-campus instead.

"People point to athletics as being broken, as well, but one thing we do is we take care of and nurture our student athletes," says DeSantis, who was in a fraternity in college, has served as a fraternity adviser, and says Greek life can be a positive experience for students. "We would never put these guys in a house and say, 'All right, you're 18 years old, you have all the freedom in the world, go crazy and we won’t kick you out of your house or out of the university as long as you don’t kill anybody.'"

Colleges put Greek life at the center of their social experience

Partying, partying, yeah. (Shutterstock)

It's not just the housing. A major part of how colleges market themselves is as a social experience — and on many campuses, fraternities and sororities are key to providing that experience.

Once you start looking for it, it's easy to see how tightly Greek life is integrated into the university. Many colleges have a division within the student affairs office dedicated to overseeing fraternities and sororities, resources that often aren't available for students in other groups. Student government has seats set aside for members of Greek organizations, but not for members of other clubs, even if members of fraternities and sororities can win elections in other ways.

"The college campuses designed their festivities and cultural events around Greek life and make Greek life the center of them," says Matthew Hughey, a professor at the University of Connecticut who has studied the role of race and racism in Greek life. "And it’s why the student affairs offices pay them an inordinate amount of attention."

At least, that's the case for historically white sororities and fraternities — a group founded to be "the elite of the elite," Hughey says, and groups that have remained overwhelmingly white. On the other hand, black, Hispanic, and Asian Greek organizations are typically treated like other clubs — not given full-time oversight, assistance, or campus housing.

"They don’t put Greek life — all of Greek life — on the same level as other student organizations and equalize it," Hughey says. Instead, administrators know how important the Greek social scene can be, not just for their relationships with alumni but for the college's reputation: "They keep relying on Greek life to play that central role and white Greek life to play that central role in campus culture."

Hughey and DeSantis are among the few university professors who have studied Greek life in depth. And while they don't agree on all aspects — Hughey sees historically white fraternities and sororities as existing to perpetuate wealth and power, while DeSantis argues in favor of the social experience they can provide — they agree that colleges should do more to control what happens on campus, and to ensure that student groups affiliated with the university uphold the college's mission.

The problem is that even slightly deemphasizing Greek life, by treating the groups like any other campus club, is a controversial prospect. DeSantis is a faculty adviser for Sigma Alpha Epsilon at the University of Kentucky. And he argues that colleges need to start holding fraternities to a higher standard.

Has a college president ever called up one of the few academics to study campus Greek culture and ask for what they should do? They have not, he says. And he's not sure he blames them. Changing the fraught but interdependent relationship between universities and fraternities is a tall order: "If I were a university president, I’m not sure I would want to tackle this issue."

27 Mar 18:31

Exactly one year ago: my visit to Greyfriars Cemetery,...

















Exactly one year ago: my visit to Greyfriars Cemetery, Edinburgh, Scotland

More.

All photos ©Zoetica Ebb

27 Mar 17:33

Angry Young Owl Surprises Some Nice Suburban Housewives

by Mark Shrayber

This is what the world has come to: The evil marshmallow sacks known formally as owls are no longer content to attack humans in the wild. Instead, these tiny balls of clawed terror are showing up on doorsteps to demand sacrifice, fuck up your home and remind you that you may be at the top of the food chain but an owl can still claw your shit to pieces.

Read more...








27 Mar 17:32

Man Forced to Sell His New House Because Comcast Lied to Him

by Jay Hathaway

A software engineer living in Washington state may have no choice but to sell the home he bought last December because, despite repeatedly checking with Comcast before he even considered buying the property, the company just can't (or won't) give him internet service.

Read more...


27 Mar 17:30

Photo









27 Mar 14:44

Huge DNA Study Assesses Genomes Of Iceland's Population

by Janet Fang
Bridget

that's sola's dad

Health and Medicine
Photo credit: deCODE blood samples / deCODE

By sequencing the complete genomes of 2,636 Icelanders, researchers from Amgen’s deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik hope to show how the technology can offer a whole new understanding of the roots of disease and human evolution. Using these data, large international teams have discovered a thousand genes that people can totally live without, revealed when the last common ancestor of all Y chromosomes lived, and identified variants in genes linked to liver disease and Alzheimer’s.

27 Mar 14:35

The Shocking Documentary About Scientology You Have to See Is Coming to HBO

by kevin@mic.com (Kevin O'Keeffe)

By the end of Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, a new documentary debuting on HBO Sunday, it seems Scientology is nearly dead. One by one, church members leave for varying, egregious reasons: men and women are imprisoned, a woman's daughter is being kept in hazardous conditions, a mother is separated from her daughter. The church is weakened, and it is scared. Yet it lives.

But more importantly, while it seems Scientology is fading, by the end of Going Clear, you'll want it dead.

Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney decided to make the extraordinary Going Clear after reading writer Lawrence Wright's book of the same name. The film is pretty closely based on the book, yet hearing the stories from the former members themselves makes them all the more raw and visceral. Through accounts of abuse, manipulation and shame, Gibney has made the terror of Scientology personal. This isn't a punchline to a joke about Tom Cruise or John Travolta. Read More
27 Mar 14:31

'Magic Lantern', 2013 by Stefan Gesell in ‪#‎beautifulbizarre‬...



'Magic Lantern', 2013 by Stefan Gesell in ‪#‎beautifulbizarre‬ Issue 008 

Model: Amiri K | Styling & MUA: Rassamee Gesell

Get your copy of #beautifulbizarre today via our stockists https://beautifulbizarre.net/shop/stockists/ or shop online https://beautifulbizarre.net/shop/stockists/

27 Mar 06:56

Photo Gallery: Lustmord At Hollywood Forever

by TheScenestar
Bridget

holy shit lustmord is steve jobs

++Photo Gallery: Lustmord with Tropic of Cancer at Hollywood Forever++ Live on March 21, 2015 Photos by CHRIS MØLINA (THE AUBURN SKY) for The Scenestar
27 Mar 06:51

Photo



26 Mar 20:20

My gym is now advertising this cool new cardio class

Bridget

paleo crossfit can suck it



My gym is now advertising this cool new cardio class

26 Mar 15:41

Photo



26 Mar 15:37

"We already know that Peter Gould is gonna die in Better Call...





"We already know that Peter Gould is gonna die in Better Call Saul because he was not in Breaking Bad.” The funniest thing I’ve read on Reddit in ages. Bravo paulricard.

26 Mar 15:36

Photo



26 Mar 15:34

The disturbing history of pilots who deliberately crash their own planes

by Brad Plumer
Bridget

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope

It's a terrifying scenario. A pilot is flying an airliner carrying hundreds of unsuspecting passengers. He decides to intentionally crash the plane, killing everyone on board.

Pilot suicides are thankfully very rare — and are getting rarer — but they do happen occasionally, sometimes with horrific results. The Aviation Safety Network identifies at least eight instances worldwide since 1976 where pilots appeared to have deliberately crashed airliners, sometimes taking dozens or hundreds of people with them.

Now French prosecutors think something similar may have happened with Germanwings Flight 4U99525, which crashed into the French Alps on Tuesday, killing 150 people.

Investigators now believe the plane's co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, locked the pilot out of the cabin after the latter had left for some unknown reason. The pilot knocked and tried to get back in, but the doors were fortified — a security precaution taken after the 9/11 attacks. The voice recorder indicated that Lubitz had been breathing up until the moment of the crash, suggesting he meant to destroy the plane. We still don't know why.

"I haven’t used the word suicide," said prosecutor Brice Robin at a press conference. But, he added, it was "a legitimate question to ask."

Pilot suicides are rare — but unnerving when they happen

A screengrab taken from an AFP TV video on March 24, 2015, shows debris of the Germanwings Airbus A320 at the crash site in the French Alps above the southeastern town of Seyne. (Dennis Bois/AFP/Getty Images)

Flying, as many people know, is one of the safest forms of travel. Yet the possibility of a pilot suicide is incredibly unnerving, since there's seemingly nothing any of the passengers can do.

In the United States, most pilot suicides are committed by people flying solo. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has identified eight cases of pilot suicide between 2003 and 2012. In only one instance was there a passenger on board.

Four of the eight pilots had been drinking at the time, while two had been taking antidepressants. The report noted that "factors involved in aircraft-assisted suicides may be depression, social relationships, and financial difficulties, just to name a few problems." The good news? The frequency of these suicides has declined sharply in recent decades, the NTSB said.

Even rarer — but more gruesome — are times when pilots appear to commit suicide while carrying dozens or hundreds of passengers on board. The September 11 attacks were the most infamous example, but there have been other instances that didn't appear to involve overt terrorism. Here's a partial list:

In November 2013, Mozambique Airlines Flight TM470 crashed in Namibia, killing 33 people on board. Investigators initially couldn't figure out why the plane had crashed, since the weather was so nice.

But as the International Business Times reported, the plane's black box recorder offered some disturbing clues. The co-pilot had left the cockpit for the bathroom only to find that the door was locked when he returned. The pilot then altered the autopilot to bring it to below ground level and manually switched it to maximum speed. Someone was pounding on the cockpit door as the plane went down. The pilot never once called for help.

In 1999, EgyptAir Flight 990 crashed near Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing 217 people. Before the crash, the plane's pilot had apparently excused himself to go to the bathroom. The black box recorder then picked up unintelligible commotion and banging on the door. The co-pilot, Gamil El Batouty, could be heard muttering over and over, "I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God. I rely on God." The captain eventually forced his back way in and could be heard saying, "What is this? Did you shut the engine[s]?" As the plane crashed, the captain was heard trying to right the plane, saying, "Pull with me. Pull with me."

In the EgyptAir case, the NTSB concluded that the crash occurred because of the co-pilot's "manipulation of the airplane controls." But they did not explicitly call it suicide, and Egyptian officials have disputed that it was deliberate.

In December 1997, Silk Air Flight 185 crashed in Indonesia, killing 104 people on board. Indonesian authorities weren't sure exactly what had happened, though US investigators suggested the captain may have switched off the flight recorders and caused the plane to dive — possibly after his co-pilot had left the cockpit. At the time of the crash, investigators noted, the pilot had been experiencing significant financial difficulties and had work-related problems.

Why the cockpit doors are fortified

In a number of these pilot suicides on airliners, there's a recurring pattern — the pilot or co-pilot leaves the cockpit and gets locked out by the other person, who intentionally crashes the plane.

Paradoxically, recent security measures may have made this even easier to do. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, international regulations required all airliners to reinforce their cockpit doors with steel and cypher locks. The idea was to prevent terrorists out in the cabin from gaining control of the plane.

The New York Times points to an an Airbus video showing how this would have worked on the Germanwings flight: The cockpit door is normally locked and accessible only by code. But anyone inside the cockpit can also disable this access pad for five minutes, preventing people outside from gaining entry. At that point, the only way to contact the person in the cockpit is via intercom. So if one of the pilots is intentionally locked out, he can't gain entry.

Pilots rarely leave the cockpit unless there's a pressing need, like going to the bathroom (and even then, most pilots don't take bathroom breaks on short flights). When that happens, a spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency told the Times, there's currently no requirement for European domestic flights that one of the cabin crew come into the cockpit and stay with the remaining pilot.

In the US and on international flights, by contrast, regulations do require two people to be in the cockpit at all times. If one pilot leaves, a flight attendant steps into the flight deck. In the wake of the Germanwings crash, some European airlines like EasyJet and Norwegian Airlines have announced that they'll now adopt similar policies.

This post has been updated to note that a number of European airlines are now adopting policies requiring two people to be in the flight deck at all times.

Further reading

26 Mar 14:57

UPDATE: Reykjavik Police Instagram Continues To Be Awesome

by Dovas

The Reykjavik police department, which went viral for its wonderful Instagram full of beautiful and interesting photos documenting their interactions with the locals, is still as popular and awesome as ever. From handsome and beautiful officers to actual serious police work, their Instagram gives a great account of what life is like as a cop in Reykjavik.

Of course, their relationship with the local may be more complicated than this account makes it out to seem, but they still seem like an upstanding bunch. Check out their Instagram for more!

More info: Instagram | Facebook | Twitterlogreglan.is (h/t: InsideLight)

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26 Mar 14:24

Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities



Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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