I’m not a regular mobile phone user… and even though I would love to get an iPhone, after watching this video, not using a cell doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. (This will blow your mind).

Is it microwaves? Or is it a hoax?

According to an email that has been floating around, Easter is coming particularly early this year, and won’t be this early again for another 220 years.

Do you realize how early Easter is this year? As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Found out a couple of things you might be interested in! Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

Here ’s the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here’s the facts:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).

2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

I took a look at the dates Easter has fallen on over the last few years:

• Sunday 23rd April 2000
• Sunday 15th April 2001
• Sunday 31st March 2002
• Sunday 20th April 2003
• Sunday 11th April 2004
• Sunday 27th March 2005
• Sunday 16th April 2006
• Sunday 8th April 2007

So, it’s not insanely early, just a week or so than the earliest Easters we are accustomed.

Remember, even though the holiday is early, there is still time to buy your chocolates, eat them and get more in time for Easter. Happy hunting.

(Via)

So here’s the question of the day:

“A plane is standing on a runway that can move (some sort of band conveyor). The plane moves in one direction, while the conveyor moves in the opposite direction. This conveyor has a control system that tracks the plane speed and tunes the speed of the conveyor to be exactly the same (but in the opposite direction). Can the plane take off?”

Personally, my first thought was that the plane would not take off because it wouldn’t have enough lift without moving up to speed relative to the ground. But after thinking about what it is that actually causes a plane to lift off, the wind going around the wings, I wasn’t so sure.

The wheels in planes aren’t generally what cause the plane to move forward, it’s the suction of wind through the propeller or engines. Presumably the plane would pull the same amount of wind whether or not it was riding the conveyor belt, therefore, I think it would take off.

While you’re taking a moment to think about this problem, let me tell you that tonight the Mythbuster’s are putting this question to rest once and for all. Will a plane on a conveyor belt take-off? (We’ll see tonight, but I think yes).

Remember the Mosquito anti-teen device that was supposed to deter kids from hanging around by emmiting a high pitched sound that only folks under 20 can hear? Well students have turned lemons to lemonaide with the technology. According to a news article from Metro.co.uk students have highjacked the high-frequency sound out of adult hearing range and are using it as a ringtone in a defiant challenge against authority.

From the article:

Schoolchildren have recorded the sound, which they named Teen Buzz, and spread it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth technology.

Now they can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on.

Clever. Here is a clip of the Mosquito Anti-teen device sound and a clip of just the ringtone—or so I’m told because I can’t hear anything.

(via Waxy)

Update: According to BoingBoing, using a 20hz sound as a cell phone ring is not possible. I suppose we are left to assume that the students have just pulled the wool over the teachers’ (and reporters’) collective eyes making them believe that there is something happening which they cannot hear.

Update: It’s now been pointed out that since new phones can play MP3’s and apparently people under 20 can hear the sound on the mp3’s it’s likely not a bogus story.

PC World published an article revealing the truth behind some common computer myths. Have you ever wondered:

• If magnets will damage your data?
• Does using a cell phone on a plane actually interferes with the navigation and communications systems of the aircraft?
• If you don’t ’stop’ a USB device before unplugging it from a PC, will you really screw things up?
• Do cookies track everything you do on the Internet?
• What terrible things happen if you turn off your PC without shutting down Windows?
• Does opting out of spam gets you even more spam?
• If you don’t periodically run your laptop batteries down to zero, will you lose battery life?

Find out the answer to these questions and more as PC World exposes the myths that waste your time and money.

This reminds me of the old Bert and Ernie sketch on Sesame Street. It’s a video showing fish jumping right into a boat—lots of them.

(via Snopes)

Coming to a Grand Canyon near you—January 2006. Yes it’s true.

Grand Canyon Skywalk

Scheduled to open January 1, 2006

Hualapai Indian Reservation

• Juts out about 70 feet into the canyon, 4000 ft above the Colorado River
• Built with more than a million pounds of steel beams and includes dampeners that minimize the structure’s vibration
• Designed to hold 72 million pounds, withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake 50 miles away, and withstand winds in excess of 100 mph
• Has a glass bottom and sides…four inches thick
• Will accommodate 120 people comfortably (How comfortable would YOU be?)

(via Snopes)

Update: Here is another image of the Grand Canyon walkway, apparently from M.R.J Architics.

Apparently the remains of some giant creature have washed up in India following the tsunami last December, or is it a hoax? The verdict is still out on this one, but the story and video are compelling nonetheless. Maybe it’s a blue whale, maybe it’s a dinosaur or maybe it’s just an elaborate computer generated image. You be the judge.

(via Snopes)

Update: According to my roommate, this is a clever viral marketing advertisement for a video game.

This is old news considering it opened in 2003, but I still found the story behind Germany’s Water bridge fascinating.

Engineers first dreamt of joining the two waterways as far back as 1919. Construction to bridge the Elbe river near Magdeburg actually started in the 1930s, but progress was halted during the Second World War in 1942. After the Cold War split Germany the project was shelved indefinitely, but things were put back on track following reunification in 1990.

Wikipedia entry.

A summary of all the myths busted and confirmed by the MythBusters.

Petro points will have to wait. I received the following email from a friend, and while Snopes says “not buying gas” won’t help the problem because a one to three day boycott of gasoline is too short a period to make a difference, maybe there is enough of a spin on this method that it might work.

Instead of forwarding this to 10 people, I’m posting it on the blog so that the 500 or so people that come here daily (assuming some of you are gas purchasing Canadians) will get the message.

It is rumoured that we are going to hit close to a $1.42 a litre by the winter. Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Someone offered this good idea. This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the “don’t-buy-gas” on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT, this is a plan that can really work. Please read it and join.

We all know that we’re being controlled by the oil companies. Does everyone remember how they drove up the prices and got the gas prices to where they wanted them, claiming there was a shortage of oil. Well, there isn’t any shortage now, and the oil is more abundant than it was 35 years ago when the price of a gallon of gas was 29 cents!!!

Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of litre of gas is CHEAP at $0.78 - $0.85, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace… not sellers.

With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves. How? Since we all rely on our cars we can’t just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war.

Here’s the idea:

PAY ATTENTION HERE

For the rest of this year, DON’T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), PETRO-CANADA & SHELL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of PETRO-CANADA and SHELL buyers. It’s really simple to do! Now, don’t wimp out on me at this point…keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I am sending this note to at least thirty people. If each of you send it to at least ten more (30 x 10 = 300), and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)…and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers! If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted!

Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That’s all. How long would all that take? If each of us sends this email out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 30 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! I’ll bet you I didn’t think you and I had that much potential, did you! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.

PLEASE HOLD OUT UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $0.64 OR LESS RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. THIS CAN REALLY WORK!!!!!!

But it won’t reach 30 million Canadians, there aren’t even that many Canadians with Internet access, nor that many that actually buy gas. I guess the point is to just tell as many people as possible.

Update: Well I’ve decided it won’t work. Read about it in the comments.

A few months ago I read a story about the discovery of a disoriented man whom the medical experts believed might be a concert pianist—very much like in the movie “Shine”. The stranger refused to utter a single word after being found in a soaking wet suit on a beach in Britain.

Well it turns out the “Piano Man” was putting the world on. He fooled the doctors and it turns out he can barely play a note.

The NPR has a short interview with David Mikkelson, the co-founder of Snopes.com. (Snopes is my favorite site for information about Urban Myths and other rumours).

According to TheDamnBlog you can hack an elevator by pressing the door close button and the floor of your choice at the same time, then the elevator will whisk you to your floor without stopping at any other floors.

From the site:

“The designers of some elevators include a hidden feature that is very handy if you’re in a hurry or it’s a busy time in the building (like check-out time in a hotel). While some elevators require a key, others can be put into “Express” mode by pressing the “Door Close” and “Floor” buttons at the same time. This sweeps the car to the floor of your choice and avoids stops at any other floor.
This seems to work on Most elevators that I have tried! Most elevators have the option for this to work, but on some of them the option is turned off by whoever runs them. This is a rather fun hack, so the next time you are on an elevator, give it a try, you have nothing to lose, And this concludes Hacking Elevators 101!

Elevators that have been tested and worked on:
Otis Elevators (All But The Ones Made In 1992),
Dover (Model Numbers: EL546 And ELOD862),
And Most Desert Elevators(All, But Model Numbers ELD5433 And ELF3655) “

Next elevator I ride in, I’m totally trying this.

(via Kottke)

Ahhhh, it’s some kind of miracle! (Satellite image from somewhere in Peru). Well it’s probably just as miraculous as deciphering messages in music you play backwards anyway.

Google Siteseeing is full of other interesting satellite images.