Extreme Sports in Low Gravity Environments – Asteroids, Moon, Mars, and Orbiting Colonies
Posted by in Extreme Sports on July 11, 2011
It goes without saying that humans love to watch the X-games on TV – those extreme sport athletes on skateboards, bungees, motorcycles, parachutes, stunt planes, and what not. Often we see these dare devils as Red Bull addicted thrill seekers with a death wish, who knows maybe some are. Yes, they are adrenaline junkies if there ever was such a thing. Of course, all these extreme sports are done here on Earth, but in the future, extreme sports will follow humankind as he boldly goes to other worlds as well.
Science fiction writer Ben Bova once described sporting events that might be played on an asteroid, and even Carl Sagan made some comments about extreme sports being played on asteroids. Consider if you will a human attached to a giant bungee cord running across a spinning asteroid and jumping as far and as hard as he could to escape it’s small Gravity Dwell (escape velocity), and then floating in space behind the asteroid until the bungee cord stretched out and pulled him back?
But extreme sports on asteroids are not the only types of extreme sports which will be conquered in the future. On Mars there are very deep canyons, and I can imagine people running and jumping off the side of those canyons with some sort of device to slow down their fall. One of the canyons on Mars is so deep it goes for nearly 20 miles. We don’t have any canyons on Earth that are that deep, not even close. So you can imagine what an extremist sporting event that would be – the ultimate B.A.S.E. jump indeed.
The moon also has holes on it, and giant tubes created by lava hundreds of millions of years ago. Surely humans will wish to do a little rock climbing, bungee jumping, and other extreme endeavors there. Further, there will be orbiting space hotels and colonies as well, and in zero gravity there are all kinds of fun things humans can do in the way of sports. And as you know humans will always find a way to entertain themselves, so you can bet they will try. Read the rest of this entry »
Sports Rage and the Destructive Out of Control Fans
Posted by in Sports News on July 11, 2011
The start of a new baseball season is usually a reason for fans to rejoice and get excited about their team making its annual run for the coveted World Series Championship title. But for Giants fans, the start of this baseball season was marred by needless violence. After the Dodger’s home opener last week, a 42-year-old father of two who was there to cheer on the Giants was savagely beaten by two Dodger fans inside the parking lot. The two men pummeled Bryan Stow so violently, that he’s now in a coma and suffering from brain damage. His recovery is expected to be a long one. What kind of rage could induce these men to such barbaric acts of viciousness over a baseball game?
Violence in sports or by supporters of sports teams dates back to Roman times. In those days chariot racing teams were popular and it was common for riots to erupt after races. The most notable one was the Nika riots that took place in 532 A.D. The rioting centered in Constantinople and nearly burned half the city down and caused thousands of deaths. At that time there were four major factional teams of chariot racing. Each wore a different color uniform when competing. They were known as the Blues, the Reds, the Greens, and the Whites. Supporters of these teams also wore the corresponding colors. The weeklong rioting that occurred in 532 A.D. was in response to some members of the Blues and Greens having been arrested for murder in connection with a riot that had broken out after a recent chariot race. It had resulted in a number of deaths. Instead of being hanged for murder, the accused were imprisoned instead, sparking anger from the mob. Politics had a lot to do with stirring up the already enraged masses of people waiting to pounce and get revenge.
There are numerous examples to cite throughout history where sports and violence intermingled. English soccer fans known as football hooligans had such a violent reputation that they were actually banned from European competition for six years after the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985. Thirty-nine people died and six hundred were injured as a result of the rioting that occurred before the start of the 1985 European Cup Final between Liverpool of England and Juventas of Italy. A wall had collapsed from the pressure of Juventas supporters trying to escape from the English hooligans. Read the rest of this entry »