In the past 12 months, 25 US Marines have died in motorcycle accidents, all but one of them involving high-speed bikes that can attain speeds in excess of 100mph. Compare this to 20 deaths in Iraq, the US Marines are concerned. It would also appear other branches of the US military are seeing similar problems.

The rise in motorcycle deaths isn’t confined to Marines. The Navy says it’s had 33 deaths on motorcycles over the past 12 months — a 65 percent jump from the previous time period. And authorities say motorcycle deaths have been a problem in the civilian world, too.

Military officials say they’re not sure why the deaths are on the rise. They initially believed the accidents might involve mostly young Marines and sailors around 18 or 19 years old. But Navy statistics show that five of the victims were 25, the most prevalent of any age involved in the crashes. And two 40-year-old sailors were killed in motorcycle crashes.

Marine motorcycle deaths top their Iraq combat fatalities, CNN

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Man climbs onto the roof of the moving minivan he had been driving. He stands on the van’s roof until it crashes and throws him into the woods, police say.
The guy gets up, takes off all his clothes and then runs along the highway — until police are able to subdue him. It takes three Taser charges and some pepper spray. Did we mention the footlong gash on his torso, through which you could look at his internal organs?

Okay, I excised one word to make it unclear from which state the man hailed, forcing this post into compliance with internet stealing protocol and obscuring the location of a place that produces such crazy, ballsy motherfuckers.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in 22 years” [Crime Scene KC]

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Seems the young girl was on the bus when calamity struck and she leapt to action…

Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head.

Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured.

Awesome work, right? No one was hurt, stopped the bus — ALL GOOD?

But, no. Seems Mme. Rouse was ’skipping school.’ She didn’t feel well and caught a ride home on the bus. Even though the school appears to be sticking by its rules (and I get why,) parental discretion reigns supreme and her Grandmother seems to have it all in perspective.

“She is in trouble with school because she made the wrong decision,” said Rouse’s grandmother, Sally Correll. “But I can’t help but believe that she was where God wanted her to be.”

Great work!

Discipline Despite Calif. Bus Rescue [Breitbart.com]

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Cameron Bieberle, 18, of Winter Park was thrown to the ground after the Cadillac sport utility vehicle he was holding onto hit a speed bump late Saturday night, investigators said.

“He was riding alongside a Cadillac Escalade, sitting in the cart and hanging onto the side,” said Kim Miller, spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol. “The Escalade hit a speed bump and he was ejected.

Man killed while car-surfing [Breitbart.com]

Naturally I turned to YouTube to help me understand what this might look like. The idiots in the video below are likely not the idiot in the article and perhaps they are still alive.

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I am captivated and horrified by aircraft in the first place, so this video of Lufthansa Flight LH44 from Munich landing in Hamburg—full, I’m told, of technology folk going to the big CeBIT gadget convention—is the sort of thing that will be running on a loop in my mind as I take a flight this weekend to Austin.

After they abort—and there’s a wing touching the ground at one point, I believe—they came around to Hamburg’s other runway which is perpendicular to the first and touched down safely.

John Biggs of Crunchgear is at CeBIT and told me that he met one guy who had been on that flight sitting in a booth on the busy show floor, sort of quietly watching the crowds go by, too sullen to interact.

YouTube commenters are the dregs of internet feedback, but there are some quotes from some folks in the video’s comments that seem at least possibly true:

He should never had tried to land in those conditions!!
Very dangerous guy .I am an airbus( a330) pilot myself :the go around should have been done much earlier: luckily the main gear did not touch the runway otherwise Speedbrakes would have extend automatically and go around would have been deadly. Very bad approach very late wind correction:xxxtremely dangerous!!

For all those with comments like “good save”, and “excellent job by the pilot”, save it. They were lucky to have extracted themselves from a precarious situation which they alone are responsible for getting into. Also, a 30 knot crosswind and no rudder? WTF?

Klar, dass er die Situation trotzdem noch gerettet hat zeigt, dass die Piloten der Lufthansa über hervorragende Fähigkeiten verfügen – keine Frage. Ich finde nur, dass man den Landeversuch schon viel früher hätte abbrechen müssen. Gott sei Dank ging alles gut.

(I don’t actually speak German so I just cut-and-pasted that one in because I thought it looked pretty.)

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Sam Hindy, 27, was killed on Nov. 16 after he and a friend mistakenly biked onto the upper level of the bridge, which is reserved for cars and trucks. When Hindy turned around, he hit a concrete barrier and fell to the lower level, where he was hit by an oncoming car.

Brewer wants safer streets after son’s death [BrooklynPaper.com]

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Beer Pong Champion Tire Cover [Via LiquorSnob]

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For your viewing pleasure, a video of prop-driven airplane acrobatics that doesn’t end in a fireball but yet somehow remains entertaining.

Requisite “Highway to the Danger Zone” soundtrack, should you choose to accept it. I’ve never seen anybody do a prop stop like they do at the end. That’s got to be hell on the prop shaft. (Or whatever you call it.)

(Thanks, Michael!)

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The circumference of an eight foot diameter wheel is roughly twenty-five feet and cadence, or the rate at which a person pedals, is most comfortable at a rate of 13 beats every 15 seconds. Gearing that allows an operator to rotate the wheels four times each pedal cycle, or at a 1:4 ratio while at the comfortable cadence rate will produce a speed upwards of 50mph.

Traveling at 50 mph, completely exposed and sandwiched between two 8-foot diameter wheels? At least your misfortune will make for a sweet Youtube video.

Hyperbike [Via SCI FI]

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