A collection of digital wonders and some other stuff.
True or False? The Urban Myth’s board game thoroughly researches all of its “facts”.
I remember reading about the rumor that Mr. Ed was actually a zebra on Snopes.com and finding myself at a loss for words, when it was so obviously not true. But it’s SNOPES! They are the best source for urban legend debunking, how can it not be true? Now I know. So the moral of the story is, don’t believe everything you hear or read just because it comes from a reliable source – even Snopes.com.
Via Plastic.com:
A German pharmaceutical company have announced that they’ve produced a cure for Crohn’s Disease. It’s a simple concoction made from natural ingredients to be taken twice a month. Here’s the downside: the active ingredient is worm eggs. That’s right, worm eggs.
“Regular doses of worms really do rid people of inflammatory bowel disease. The first trials of the treatment have been a success, and a drinkable concoction containing thousands of pig whipworm eggs could soon be launched in Europe.”
I’m in Medicine Hat for the Easter weekend. I took along Stephen Hawkings book, “The Universe in a Nutshell”, which Anna-Maria gave me for my birthday, to read in the car. This morning I was explaining The Twins Paradox to Tracie, my brother’s wife — they are also here visiting. The Twins Paradox goes something like this:
In the theory of relativity each observer has his own measure of time… One of a pair of twins (a) leaves on a space journey during which he travels close to the speed of light, while his brother (b) remains on Earth.
Because of (a)’s motion, time runs more slowly in the spacecraft as seen by the earthbound twin. So on his return the space traveler (a2) will find that his brother (b2) has aged more than himself.
Although it seems against common sense, a number of experiments have implied that in this scenario the traveling twin would indeed be younger.
Tracie responded, “So if you fall in love with someone 30 years younger than you, you can use this to come back and be the same age.” I told her I was impressed that she so quickly picked up on the most obviously practical application that this concept enables us to do.
Eye jewellery? Words can’t describe how insane I believe these people to be.
Via MeFi:
“What you are hearing is Nickelback’s “Someday” in your left speaker and “How you remind me in the right”. All of those left shocked please raise their hands.”
I’ve never understood what the big fascination with Nickelback is anyway. I mean I’m happy for them being somewhat of locals making it to the big time, but for some mysterious reason I just don’t dig their music. I don’t think it’s just that their music is formulaic either, it’s probably just the old argument that the music from your highschool days is going to end up being your favorite no matter when you grew up.
It also makes me wonder, is a band still a one-hit wonder if all of their next hits are just subtle reworkings of their first hit?
My brother is into photography. He has been the photo-editor at the Gauntlet Newspaper (The University of Calgary’s Student Run Paper) for the past few years and always has a few good tips. Anyway he told me that you can really improve your pictures with a steady cam tripod but they usually run between $600 and $1500. Well today I found a site that shows you how to build your own Steady-Cam for about $14 (I’m guessing that’s USD).
The Memespread project is a little experiment in the way information travels across the blogosphere.
I’ll bet somebody like Jerry Bruckheimer sees a movie in this article by Dana Priest.
During the Sadr militia’s Sunday attempt to seize the U.S. government headquarters in Najaf, the building was defended not by U.S. troops but by a small group of Blackwater Security Consulting “employees”. The Blackwater commandos, most of whom are former Special Forces troops, are on contract to provide security for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Najaf. It turns out that the four men brutally slain Wednesday in Fallujah were also Blackwater employees.
In Sunday’s fighting, Shiite militia forces barraged the Blackwater commandos, four MPs and a Marine gunner with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 fire for hours before U.S. Special Forces troops arrived. A sniper on a nearby roof apparently wounded three men. U.S. troops faced heavy fighting in several Iraqi cities that day.
The Blackwater commandos, most of whom are former Special Forces troops, are on contract to provide security for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Najaf.
With their ammunition nearly gone, a wounded and badly bleeding Marine on the rooftop, and no reinforcement by the U.S. military in the immediate offing, the company sent in helicopters to drop ammunition and pick up the Marine.
The identity of the Marine and two other wounded men could not be established, but their blood was still fresh hours later, when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, and spokesman Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt arrived to survey the battle zone.
Without commenting at a news conference yesterday on the role of the Blackwater guards, Kimmitt described what he saw after the fighting ended. “I know on a rooftop yesterday in An Najaf, with a small group of American soldiers and coalition soldiers… who had just been through about 3 1/2 hours of combat, I looked in their eyes, there was no crisis.
Spectacularly interesting article about the standoff. Hey, if it was a movie, I’d definitely see it.
SYDNEY, Australia – A retired Australian crocodile hunter saved a young girl from the jaws of a 10-foot crocodile when he jumped on top of the man-eating reptile and gouged its eyes, local media said Tuesday.
This article was of particular interest to me, given that I used to work in The City of Medicine Hat’s GIS department.
When the 40,000 subscribers to Reason, the monthly libertarian magazine, receive a copy of the June issue, they will see on the cover a satellite photo of a neighborhood – their own neighborhood. And their house will be graphically circled.
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