Culture: Cultures You Shouldn't Miss Out

Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,100 ft
Image from guim.co.uk

There are definitely a lot going on these days, some extremely exciting, some you might not even notice, hence the title of this post.

First off, Austrian Red Bull jumper Felix Baumgartner jumped from the stratosphere at a world record height of 39,045 metres (128,100 ft) or just over 39 kilometres (24 mi) and landed on Earth's soil again safely. He took this risk-taking culture to a height never before!! It was absolutely breath-taking even watching the video clips, madness!!!

This jump really made his own jump from Taipei 101 look super easy!

Some people are asking why there is still gravity at stratosphere, well of course there is!!! Although less than a person is at sea level, Felix still experienced gravity at that height. Think about it, how can there be tides if the moon's gravity isn't affecting the movement of the ocean? There is still gravity even in outer space!! Not hard to see if you still remember this formula from secondary school,

Image from Wikipedia

Image from FOX

Second, America's favourite family The Simpsons is back on TV in the US for another season, but it was not always liked by everyone.

TheFW has an article titled 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About ‘The Simpsons’, Fox television wanted to kill The Simpsons family in the early days, luckily, that never happened and now we can still watch this yellowish family today.

Image from Scott Olson, Getty Image

Former First Lady Barbara Bush didn't like the family that much back in 1990 and told People Magazine that The Simpsons "was the dumbest thing I had ever seen". What happened after that?

Image from FOX

The FW reports,

Soon after the interview hit the stands, the White House received a personalized letter from Marge Simpson addressed to the First Lady. Marge admitted her family wasn't perfect but she told Mrs. Bush that she still tried to instill humility in her children and “believed in my heart that we have a great deal in common. Each of us [is] living our lives to serve an exceptional man.” The letter so moved Mrs. Bush that she wrote a response apologizing for her remarks and complementing Marge for “setting a good example for the rest of the country.”

This 24-season Simpson's culture isn't any cartoon can compare!

Then as I was reading off some news from Google News, I ran into a really interesting website which talks about the things that people often missed out when they watched movies, and that website if ZergNet,

Image from ZergNet

It has many intriguing topics such as

1. 10 Superheroes Who Really Don't Need Their Own Movie, 
2. Top 10 Most Paused Movie Moments, 
3. The 10 Biggest Movie Mistakes, 
4. The 19 Best Movies That You Didn't See in 2011, 
5. The 10 Most Gruesome Deaths In Film, etc.

Everything you really can't miss reading! If you want to get some topics for chats, this attractive website is the place to spend time on. Highly recommended!

Finally, in football gaming culture, there is Football Manager 2013 which will be on the 2nd November!! I have been waiting this since FM 2011 because I didn't play 2012, this upcoming version is definitely something I won't miss. Football lovers who want to taste the feeling of management, buying and selling football players, this is a game you can't live without!

That's all for today!

Vocabulary:
first off / first of all -- before anything else
stratosphere -- (n) [S] the layer of gases surrounding the Earth at a height of between 15 and 50 kilometres, which is not affected by the weather and in which the temperature increases with height
breathtaking -- (adj) extremely exciting, beautiful or surprising
madness -- (n) [U] the state of being mentally ill, or unable to behave in a reasonable way, also means awesome
instill -- (vb) (-ll-) UK (US instill) to put a feeling, idea or principle gradually into someone's mind, so that it has a strong influence on the way they think or behave
humility -- (n) [U] the quality of not being proud because you are conscious of your bad qualities



Resources:

Red Bull Stratos 120000 ft/36km jump Felix Baumgartner HD @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAeB4K8yDT0

Felix Baumgartner Unlikely To Cash In On Red Bull Space Jump
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/10/15/felix-baumgartner-unlikely-to-cash-in-on-red-bull-space-jump/

Felix Baumgartner BASE jump from world's tallest building, Taipei 101 Tower, Taipei, Taiwan @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWojBhx4ooc

The Simpson @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Simpsons

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About ‘The Simpsons’ @ thefw
http://thefw.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-the-simpsons/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_29176

10 Superheroes Who Really Don't Need Their Own Movie @ ZergNet
http://www.zergnet.com/news/29894/10-superheroes-who-really-dont-need-their-own-movie

Football Manager 2013 Release Date Announced @ IGN
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/28/football-manager-2013-release-date-announced

The tractor beam pull of the new Football Manager 2013
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/bootroom/id/32?cc=4716

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/american-english/first-of-all?q=first+off
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/the-stratosphere?q=stratosphere+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/breathtaking?q=breathtaking
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/madness_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/instil?q=instill+#instil__3
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/humility?q=humility+