MetaFilter posts tagged with adventure

Small World After All?

Xurando — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:50:34 -0800

The circumnavigators are out there. In February, Mike Beaumont completed the fastest circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle. Tomorrow, Rosie Swale, age 62, finishes her 4 1/2 year run around the world. As posted previously, Zac Sunderland is now attempting to break the record for the youngest sailing circumnavigation of the planet, now held by Jesse Martin.

Kings (and Queens) Of Their Own Domains

Bora Horza Gobuchul — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:53:20 -0800

Josiah Harlan, first American in Afghanistan, Commander-In-Chief of the Afghan Army, Quaker, and Prince of Ghor; the inspiration for Rudyard Kipling's short story "The Man Who Would Be King" (and thus the John Houston film). The title was gained for himself "and his descendants in perpetuity" and never rescinded, making actor Scott Reiniger (Dawn of the Dead), Harlan's great, great, great grandson, technically a prince of Afghanistan. (previously)
Ursula Graham-Bower, an English archeology student who ventured to India in 1939 "to putter about with a few cameras and do a bit of medical work, maybe write a book" and ended up in the jungle on the Burmese border as "Queen of the Nagas", leading headhunting tribes against the advancing Japanese Army. (Real Audio BBC Radio history segment, extended MP4 video interview from 1985, shortly before her death, online archive).
The "White Rajas" of the Kingdom of Sarawak, a dynasty of the Brooke family, who ruled a region of Brunei for over a century; the progenitor of the family, James Brooke, was likely an inspiration for Joseph Conrad's "Lord Jim". The rule of these "Kings and Queens" was not without controversy, often being characterised by paternalism and attitudes of racial and cultural superiority. However, it is also true that they were fascinated by, and in some cases deeply admired, the culture and history of their subjects, and attempted to shield them from the corruptive influence of colonialism. Josiah Harlan, in particular, appeared prescient in foreseeing the effects of the British invasion of Afghanistan, a move in the Great Game which removed him from power and forced his return to America, and had disastrous results. "To subdue and crush the masses of a nation by military force," he wrote, "is to attempt the imprisonment of a whole people: all such projects must be temporary and transient, and terminate in a catastrophe.".

Parer & McIntosh

homunculus — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:25:14 -0800

Ray Parer & J C McIntosh; The Flying Wreck. In 1919 six teams entered an Air Race from England to Australia, but only two teams finished. The winning team finished in 28 days, while the second team didn't even get started until the race was already over, but they didn't let that stop them. Ray Parer and John McIntosh in their de Havilland DH9 airplane deviated considerably from their intended course, suffered many mechanical problems, had 7 crash landings, and took 237 days to finish. But they sure did have an adventure. In 1934 Parer and a new co-pilot entered the MacRobertson Air Race and had a similar experience.

Yes, I'll take the full insurance coverages please.

allkindsoftime — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:56:53 -0800

Rental Car Rally. (From the guys who brought Street Wars to NYC). That is all.

Paddling with Polar Bears

cabingirl — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:24:09 -0800

In 1930, Eric Sevareid and Walter Port embarked on a wild adventure when they launched a canoe at Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River and paddled over 2200 miles north to Hudson Bay. Sevareid later documented their story in the book Canoeing with the Cree. The book has since served as inspiration for young adventurers. Two such men, Colton Witte and Sean Bloomfield, departed on their own trek on April 28, 2008. The pair made it to Hudson Bay on June 17, 2008, in only 49 days. They aren’t the only ones to follow in Sevareid’s and Port’s footsteps – Scott Miller and Todd Foster made the same journey in 2005.

Angola, it's not like they said

jcruelty — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:29:04 -0800

Fascinating account (w/ pix) of a motorcycle journey through Angola. Stumbled onto this from the Black Flag forums and have not been able to stop reading it.

An Untitled Story

juv3nal — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:53:27 -0800

An Untitled Story. (apologies, pc download only). An action-platformer by Matt Thorson in the tradition of Seiklus, Knytt (previously 1 2), & Metroid It is full of awesome. Protip: there's some pretty difficult jumping stuff in there, but the most difficult stuff is generally optional so if you get stuck in one area it may be that you need a power up from somewhere else. Bonus link: karoshi2 (also pc download only). Clever puzzler. (I hate the phrase "think outside the box" but it's very literally appropriate to the solution of at least one of the puzzles.)

Duck-dragons, dancing raccoons, and robots

wanderingmind — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:38:55 -0800

Inspired by this earlier post, I thought it was time to formally introduce people to Rocky's Boots. Created in 1982 by Warren Robinett, Rocky's Boots was intended to teach digital logic to elementary-school kids. It was a sort of spiritual sequel (in that you also play a rectangle who can pick up and drop stuff) to his better-known game, Atari Adventure. Robinett is not only entirely responsible for that game (including the duck-dragons), but was the inventor of the Easter Egg, used there to make sure people knew whose work it was; it was Atari's policy at the time to never name its programmers or let them share in the profits from the sale of the games they'd spent so much hard work on. After leaving Atari, Robinett got funding from the NSF to found The Learning Company, which, in addition to producing Rocky's Boots, also came out with a much more difficult sequel two years later called Robot Odyssey, which has the player burning microchips and rigging up automated robots to solve puzzles. Robot Odyssey itself has been given an enhanced port to Java, although it hasn't been updated in a while.

Pardonnez-moi, je suis fou

Melismata — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:01:49 -0800

Mark Boyle should either take language lessons, read some Peter Jenkins, or wear a better jacket...and yet he blames it on the French!! He is not the first long-distance foot traveller to botch his journey. Sorrel Wilby was ill-prepared for her walk across Tibet and just barely made it (among other things, her pack donkey ran away on the second day of the trip). They should have consulted also with Will Steger, who dogsledded (involves a lot of walking) across the North Pole, Antarctica and Greenland. He had to spend money though.

Lots and lots of money.

flatluigi — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:59:26 -0800

David Horvitz will do things for money. Though I really doubt anyone will send money for the larger things, the things he offers are pretty interesting.