Links of the Week (Week #24, 2006)
Published Friday, June 16th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
After three weeks of being late (I mean writing my links of the week not what your thinking)… here is an early one…
- The truth about global warming – it’s the Sun that’s to blame – There is no doubt that global warming exists. Our contribution to it through the burning of fossil fuels is not so certain. Often it is difficult to distinguish cause and effect in these complex interactions. One thing I know for sure… burning of fossil fuels is not heating up the sun.
- News in Science – Night flights are worse for global warming – 15/06/2006 – Or maybe it is airplane contrails. Yeah right!
- For Some, Online Persona Undermines a R – sum- New York Times – I always wonder if and when I apply for a new job is the prospective employer going to read my blog? Is he going to find out that I’m a closet… atheist. Or discover that I’m a die hard… fence sitter. It could be damaging.
- Funny: How to Break Windows Notepad – A WinCustomize Article by Zoomba – This is strange. Turns out if you open a specially crafted text file in Notepad your text will be replaced with a random Chinese phase. Turns out this problem is related to Notepad’s algorithm for determining if a piece of text is UNICODE or plain ASCII. If the text is too short the probability of a false hit increases.
- insignificant thoughts – Blog Archive – Cancelling AOL – A few days ago I canceled my Blockbuster Online account (no problem with the service, I just wanted to try gameznflix). After canceling I received a special offer via e-mail. This was fine and appreciated. I may take then up on the offer later. But what happens when the retention pressure gets to be too much?
- kutv.com – Video Library – A poor turtle deformed by a 6-pack ring. Liberals of the world unite! Let’s encase our hands in concrete until all forms of liquid beverages are banned…. or maybe we can get Bono to run a concert to end turtle suffering.
- MachineDesign.com: Using gravity to get off the ground – Buoyancy is not a form of gravity (as this articles claims) but rather the force caused by mass displacement. In order to life a 150 lb human you need to displace an equal weight of air (neglecting the weight of the gas you used to displace the air and the weight of the equipment). Assuming 1 g/Liter that is 68 thousand liters of air to lift one person. According to my research a blimp is approximately 61 times this volume and can hold only 50 people so this estimate is decent. The plan with this plane is to lift the same number of passengers as a 747 (over 400). This would require a volume of 4 blimps… sounds like a lot to me. I hope this guy did his research.
- Michael Jackson – Smooth Criminal – Ever wonder how MJ defies gravity?
- ochen k. – Last week I mentioned the Mosquito teen repellent tone. Well, here you can test your own tone threshold. I could clearly hear 15,000 Hz. I could hear 16,000 Hz if I turned my head and manipulated my Jaw. My son (2-years old) had his attention diverted to my computer at 17,000 Hz (I couldn’t hear anything). And I don’t know if I was imagining it but I swear I could feel the tone at 18 kHz in my inner ear but not hear it.
- Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women – While others are waiting for the nano-tech revolution (still a few years off) the e-paper revolution has arrived.
- Trillion – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – Bill Gates is worth 30 billion (30 GigaDollers). Tell this to a Briton and he may think your nuts. Apparently, up until a few years back, our definitions of a billion varied by and order of magnitude. The definition of a trillion differed by two orders of magnitude. The French, however, will still think you are nuts.
- Two Butterfly Species Evolved Into Third, Study Finds – Typically, when interspecies mating (or exo-coitation as I like to call it) leads to offspring the product is sterile. Well, new research indicates that is not always the case. This guy better be careful. We don’t want a population of Billywacks roaming around.
- White Tigers – Now I’m not a PETA member (unless you mean People Eating Tasty Animals) but the inbreeding of white lions is clearly not ethical.
- YouTube – Meteorite Collision – As a child I truly believed that the world would end on New years 2000. Why? I don’t know. I guess I had a fear of round numbers and triple zero is as round as it could get. Now years later I have shaken off those fears only to come to the realization that someday, with near unitary probability, a massive meteor will collide with the earth. It will happen. The question is will it be in my life time, my sons lifetime, or his sons? Someday the earth will be destroyed and do you know where your descendants will be… mine will be in space (hopefully).