The Discovery Channel will air a documentary episode about climate change, reversing an earlier decision after a public outcry critizing the network. Discovery originally said it would not air the final episode of its series Frozen Planet, which is hosted by David Attenborough and examines the effect of global warming on life on Earth, but changed course when viewers and environmental groups objected. A Change.org petition urging Discovery to air the episode received some 75,000 signatures.
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Two houses and a car were damaged by a cannonball in the Bay Area after an experiment for the popular television show Mythbusters went wrong. The crew was firing a cannon at a bomb range in Dublin, California, when one of their shots missed its target, a group of trash cans full of water, and instead smashed through a concrete wall and into a residential neighborhood. Traveling at about 680 miles per hour, the cannonball ripped through the walls of a house, crossed a four-lane road, ricocheted... Read More
A Norwegian explorer attempting to break the speed record for skiing to the South Pole was airlifted from the ice on Sunday as his health deteriorated. Traveling alone and unsupported, Steffen Dahl was in position to challenge fellow Norwegian Christian Eide's speed record before falling ill on Thursday. After a course of antibiotics failed to improve his symptoms Dahl requested an evacuation. He was picked up by a plane that was en route to the pole, allowing Dahl a brief visit before heading... Read More
Ted Ligety, the reigning World Cup giant slalom champion, took his second giant slalom victory of the year in Beaver Creek, Colorado on Tuesday. Ligety avenged Sunday's second-place finish in giant slalom to Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher, overcoming a slight a .14 second disadvantage after the first of two runs to finish .69 ahead of Hirscher. It is Ligety's 10th career World Cup win, and he has now finished first, second, and first in the season's opening three races. Racing in Beaver Creek ... Read More
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level in 23 years, the Brazilian government said on Monday. According to the National Institute of Space Research, the Amazon lost 6,238 square kilometers between August 2010 and July 2011, a drop of 11% from the year before. Brazil's senate is set to make changes to the country's forest code today, however, that would reduce the protected portion of the Amazon. Conflicting data released earlier this year suggested that deforestati... Read More
