Erstellt am: 6. 9. 2010 - 12:07 Uhr

Today's Webtip: Figthing the war on Gravity

frequently means losing the battle.

As a comicbook fan and collector, I spent a good portion of my childhood thinking about the importance of learning how to fall. Captain America was my primary book of choice, and since he was just a normal guy with some chemically induced super strength, he spent a lot of time training, and discussing the finer points of acrobatic prowess.

So my friends and I would go out to the playground and throw ourselves at the ground. We were convinced that before we could fly, we would have to learn to fall. It turns out that a lot of the amazing moves seventies super heroes were pulling off were a lot closer to fact than to fiction. And anyone who has looked in to the basics behind freerunning and parcour will quickly realize that the big air and incredible leaps need to be built on a sound physical, mental and theoretical foundation. And that means knowing how to fall.

The reason I mention that is that this video ...

... reminded me of some of the classic Cap training scenes. Yes, we aren't just living in the future, we are living in a comic book world. But unlike most comic books (and popular stunt videos) gravity and timing aren't always on your side.

I have to admit, I've spent more than enough time imagining what can go wrong in these situations, and it's probably one of the reasons I never could have been a very good at any of those sports involving potential mutilation. I always spent more time imagining the consequences would be rather than visualizing a perfect attempt.

The results were about what you would expect. I did develop a wonderful relationship with the attendants of the local emergency room though...

The end of that video was a brilliant choice on the part of the filmmakers, but it also caused some interesting related video links to show up in the sidebar. I have to admit to being a fan of bloopers, and I still laugh every time an adult takes one for the piñata, but I've never actually looked for things like this:

It pretty much sums up the images in my head when I think about taking part in the war on gravity.