A woman in Florida was struck by a police car while running across a street with her bike in tow. Don’t worry, she survived. It seems she had a hard time seeing the car since her glasses were broken, and the police had a hard time seeing her since she had no lights. Skip to about :48 for the brutal part. Also, why on earth would the police release this video? “It helps illustrate what happened that evening in this unfortunate accident,” Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kristi Lester said in an e-mail.

Six months without eating, drinking, going to the bathroom or even cracking a newspaper. Bears have it rough in the winter, and relatively little research has been done on how these guys avoid starvation and muscle atrophy during their months off. Now a study conducted by the University of Fairbanks looks to shed some light on the topic. Five bears were stuck in artificial dens and monitored while hibernating over the winter. Among their findings, bears only breath twice per minute and their metabolism and oxygen consumption drops 75%. I suspect their resting heart rates are fairly impressive. What does this study mean for us? Well, perhaps instead of snowbirds getting a second home in Florida during the winter, they could just sleep away those five months using state-of-the-art bear hibernation technology.

President Obama was joined by business leaders in the outdoors industry in speaking about his initiative to get more people out into nature. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t wear a fish tie. It’s a fairly interesting clip with most of the people in the audience snapping pictures like they’re at the Today Show. What’s the takeaway from this talk? I’m not sure…nature…nature…Teddy Roosevelt…hunting. He does make some interesting points about children and nature, echoing some of the things Richard Louv preaches in his book, Last Child in the Woods. Other good news — we’re paying for environmental initiatives with taxes on oil and gas revenue. Not interested in what Obama has to say about the outdoors? Then take a look at this map of the drunkest nations on earth. It’s awesome.

A fantastic Arrested Development reference, via The Piton…and that’s something, right? It seems as though someone’s fired up The Piton the last few days.

The Colorado Mountain Club is planning on hosting a conference on lessons learned from backcountry trips gone horribly awry. I imagine there will be a lot of sitting in darkened rooms listening to speakers while watching slideshows, so be sure to pack a flask. If you want to go and tell everyone about the time your friend followed his GPS into the middle of the desert and then you left your tent poles in the truck of your car, I’m sure they can accommodate you. You can register at the Colorado Mountain Club.

Briton Anthony Smith is well on his way to the Bahamas with a crew of three on a raft he built from plastic pipes. It’s planned as a 73-day crossing that he embarked in January. Smith says that he decided to take the journey to inspire other folks his own age to fulfill their wanderlust.

Another 84-year-old who seems to have received that message was Henry Morello of Arizona. He recently survived 5 days stuck in the desert by drinking windshield wiper fluid and staying warm at night with car mats. Fortunately he was rescued by a hiker.

With only half their fishing season’s bag limit in the tank, the Nisshin Maru whale processing boat is leaving Antarctic waters and returning to Japan. Wow. I never thought I would say this, but it seems that Sea Sheppard and the whole ‘Whale Wars‘ thing actually had a positive impact. The Sea Sheppard has been wary of proclaiming all out victory, but hopefully this signals a turning point in the Japanese slaughter of whales. If that’s the case, Sea Sheppard will get the chance to take on the Iceland whalers who are still out dragging endangered mammals out of the ocean.

Brain Farm, the film production company that brought us these cool YouTube vids is driving force behind one of the most mind-blowing snowboard films of all time. The Art of Flight comes out in September of 2011. Remember that video I showed you where the guy grinds the lift cable while ski-flying - it happens here without the chute.

There’s $20k waiting to be claimed by mountaineers who can convince the judges they’re worthy of following in the footsteps of two of America’s leading alpine climbers (and who can also pull together the necessary paperwork by March 31^st). The Copp-Dash Inspire Award only asks that you somehow document your expedition to share once you’ve returned to civilization. Check out The Cleanest Line’s story on the award or apply through the American Alpine Club.