Random Interesting Thread

Rant on the state of blokes..

The Unridables, a documentary about the two stroke 500 gp bikes and the riders who tried to tame them. For me the best era of bike racing. 

Unintended consequences. Fitness tracking app Strava released a huge world map showing all the GPS datapoints its users have uploaded ever. Looks pretty, and it's completely anonymised, so where's the possible harm?

Well, if you look at a number of conflict zones, just about the only users there are Western military personnel so, in Helmand for example, it lights up all the US forward operating bases and shows their layout.
www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/28/fitness-tracking-app-gives-away-location-of-secret-us-army-bases

Here's some awesome photography stuff.. photographing the south western Alps from the south eastern pyrenees - Photos out to 400-500 Kms.

beyondhorizons.eu/2016/08/03/pic-de-finestrelles-pic-gaspard-ecrins-443-km/

That seemed so impossible I just did some back-of-an-envelope sums.  The curvature of the earth means the sea level halfway between the two mountains rises 2.7km so it's only because they're standing on a 2.8km mountain and looking at a 4.1km mountain that their view isn't blocked by the land and sea in between.  The mountain peak they can see is barely the top 1/3 of Barre des Écrins and the rest is below the horizon.