通りすがり

Only a few seconds in the icy depths would be enough to kill most mere mortals.

But yesterday, protected by nothing more than a pair of Speedo trunks and his extraordinary central heating, Lewis Pugh took the plunge and became the first man to swim at the North Pole.

The 36-year-old Londoner spent almost 19 minutes at minus 1.8C as he front crawled for a full kilometre - more than half a mile in the coldest water a human has ever swum.

Briton astounds the world by becoming the first person to swim to North Pole | News | This is London

ルイス・ゴードン・ビューが、北極海での水泳に成功したというお話。
１ｋｍ、１９分間の水泳に成功。

良い子は真似してはいけませんね。

Or a tree that’s grown around a bicycle.

Nothing To Do With Arbroath: A bicycle that has grown into a tree

木に取り込まれてしまった自転車のお話。

こうなるまでにどれだけの年月がかかったのでしょう。

Researchers in Brazil are claiming to have established as a scientific fact that the Amazon is the longest river in the world.

The Amazon is recognised as the world’s largest river by volume, but has generally been regarded as second in length to the River Nile.

The claim follows an expedition to Peru that is said to have established a new starting point further south.

It puts the Amazon at 6,800km (4,250 miles) compared to the Nile’s 6,695km.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Amazon river ‘longer than Nile’

実はアマゾン川の全長は6,800kmで、ナイル川(6,695km)よりも長いのだ！と主張するブラジルの研究者のお話。

今まで言われていた源流よりもさらに南に出発点を見つけたとか。
これはナイル川の反撃が見ものですね。

Sometimes both heaven and Earth erupt. In Iceland in 1991, the volcano Hekla erupted at the same time that auroras were visible overhead. Hekla, one of the most famous volcanoes in the world, has erupted at least 20 times over the past millennium, sometimes causing great destruction. The last eruption occurred only six years ago but caused only minor damage. The green auroral band occurred fortuitously about 100 kilometers above the erupting lava. Is Earth the Solar System’s only planet with both auroras and volcanos?
APOD: 2006 January 29 - Volcano and Aurora in Iceland

アイスランドのヘクラ火山の噴火と同時にオーロラが観測された時の写真。撮影は1991年。

ヘクラ火山の噴火時に偶然オーロラが発生したときの貴重な写真。
綺麗ですね。

A British explorer and endurance swimmer is to attempt to swim in the freezing waters of the North Pole.

Lewis Gordon Pugh, 37, will be the first person to swim at the geographic North Pole.

Water temperatures will be around minus 1.8 degrees Celsius - the coldest waters a human has ever swum in, a spokesperson said.

Pugh’s ability to raise his body temperature in anticipation of a swim has intrigued sports scientists and earned him the nickname The Polar Bear.

He is making the 1km swim, in an area that should be frozen over, to demonstrate the devastating impacts of climate change.
Ananova - Brit to swim at North Pole

北極圏で泳ごうとしているイギリス人探検家ルイス・ゴードン・ピューのお話。
彼は言う「気候変動が現実のものであることを示すには、この場所で泳いでみせる事が一番だと思う。」

地球温暖化への警鐘を鳴らすための示威行為とはいえ…危険すぎます。