Vikings!

The reconstructed Viking ship from 1024 has just reached Dublin. Took them months, and it sounds like they never would have made it without modern tech help. Really makes you appreciate what people went through back then just to travel in one little corner of the world.

real life superheroes

Cool thread on the SA forums discussing real-life superheroes/villains:

Eric Prince, founder of Blackwater
Vietnam soldier who was about as unkillable as Ahhnold
the guy who invented the bear suit
etc

Could be useful registry of people for a final 'into the future' lecture at the end of second semester.

crazy cool!

Wired story about remapping the brain to process new sensory inputs. A guy wears a belt that vibrates to the north, as if he can sense the earth's magnetic field. A woman learns to see with her tongue! Might be good for an early week about the evolution of human abilities. Or the last week about the future and how human abilities are expanding. Either way, way cool :)

How the Inca Leapt Canyons

NYT article about Incan bridging technology - good backup for 1491 and early second semester readings. Cool comparison pictures on an Incan bridge and the GW Bridge in NYC.