The 2014 Balls of Stone Award

The 2014 Balls of Stone Award absolutely has to go to Dr Robert Alan Eustace, the Google Senior Vice-President of Knowledge, who broke Felix Baumgartner's parachute high jump and freefall records from the edge of space. This attempt was done quietly, without fanfare, and stunned everyone, including Baumgartner I am sure. Eustace is a 58-year-old computer scientist, not a professional athlete, and his feat in my opinion astonishing. Here are the salient facts: On October 24, 2014, Eustace made a jump from the stratosphere. The launch-point for his jump was from an abandoned runway in Roswell, New Mexico, where he began his balloon-powered ascent early that morning. He reached a reported maximum altitude of 135,908 feet—25.740 miles (41.425 km)—but the final number submitted to the World Air Sports Federation was 135,889.108 ft—25.736573 miles (41.419000 km). The balloon used for the feat was manufactured by the Balloon Facility of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India.His descent to Earth lasted 15 minutes and stretched nearly 26 miles (42 km) with peak speeds exceeding 821.45 miles (1,322.00 km) per hour; setting new world records for the highest free fall jump, and total free fall distance.

Government Stupidity: Case Study #1

(CNN) -- The Aral Sea was once the world's fourth-largest lake. Now much of it is a vast toxic desert straddling the borders of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet states in central Asia.In recently released images, NASA's Earth Observatory shows the extent of the lake's recession over the past 14 years. The damage reached its peak this year, when the eastern lobe of the South Aral Sea -- which actually was the center of the original lake -- dried up completely. Until the 1960s, the Aral Sea was fed by two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, which brought snowmelt from mountains to the southeast, and local rainfall. But in the 1960s the Soviet Union diverted water from the two rivers into canals to supply agriculture in the region. With the loss of water, the lake began to recede and its salinity levels began to rise. Fertilizers and chemical runoff contaminated the lake bed. As the lakebed became exposed, winds blew the contaminated soil onto the surrounding croplands, meaning even more water was needed to make the land suitable for agriculture, according to an Earth Observatory release. The falling water levels changed the local climate, too. Without the lake water to moderate temperatures, winters became colder and summers hotter, the Earth Observatory said.