The Golden Gate Bridge Has Begun to “Sing”
The city of San Francisco recently made some changes to its famous Golden Gate Bridge, adding new railings along the bridge’s bike path. But the change had a surprising effect – it makes the bridge “sing”.
Soon after the new railings were added to the bridge, people began to comment on the sounds the bridge was making, which some describe as a loud humming or whining noise.
Though some people found the sound relaxing, describing it as “peaceful” or even “beautiful”, most did not.
(Source: Rich Niewiroski Jr. [CC BY], via Wikimedia Commons.)
Most people were upset about the new humming sounds, which carry over long distances. As one person wrote online, “We can hear this in our house more than three miles away from the bridge. It’s crazy making.”
The city says that the noise is caused by the wind blowing through the railings. They say that there is no way to stop the sound without changing the railings again.
Gamer Grandma is a 90-Year-Old Video Game Master
Hamako Mori is a famous Japanese video game player. Her YouTube channel has over 300,000 followers. She’s also 90 years old.
Ms. Mori began playing video games almost 40 years ago. Since then, she has played over 200 different video games of all kinds, from driving, to shooting, to fantasy. Ms. Mori says she likes games because, “You can do whatever you want to.”
(Source: Hamako Mori, screenshot via YouTube.)
She plays for three hours every day, and sometimes longer. At times, she gets so involved in a game that she stays up until two in the morning. Her grandson takes videos of her playing for YouTube. The videos have gotten millions of views.
In order to stay fast, she does finger exercises every day. But she admits that the games can be challenging. “It’s getting hard. It really is,” she says.
Ms. Mori was recently recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s “oldest gaming YouTuber”.
Shoemaker Creates “Social Distancing Shoes”
During the coronavirus lockdown, Grigori Lup, a shoemaker in Romania, found himself with a lot of free time on his hands. After thinking about it for a while, Mr. Lup came up with an unusual idea – making “social distancing shoes”.
The main section of the shoes fit the foot normally, but the “toe” of the shoe is extremely long. “If two people who were wearing my shoes were placed in front of each other, there would be a separation of about a meter and a half [about 5 feet] between them,” he says.
(Source: Screenshot, AXA Magnolia/Incaltaminte din piele.)
Mr. Lup’s shoes are about “size 75”. For comparison, the average men’s shoe size in the US is about 44 (10.5 in the US system).
Mr. Lup originally planned to make 3 pair of the shoes and post pictures of them on his website. His main goal was to remind people how important social distancing is.
But soon, Mr. Lup realized he had a hit. He has had orders from around the world, and now features several different styles of social distancing shoes on his website. The shoes sell for about $115.