Ken's Tidbits

Map of corporate jets fleeing Miami after the Super Bowl

2007-02-07T23:36:00.001-05:00

Woman Lost for 25 Years

2007-02-07T23:18:00.000-05:00

A woman in Asia has returned home after supposedly getting lost for 25 years after getting on the wrong bus.

The Funniest Picture in the Tubes

2007-02-04T16:05:00.000-05:00

TheFunniest.info is an interesting site that attempts to determine the funniest photo on the internet by having users vote one picture better than another, then displaying another pair and asking the user to choose, and so on and so forth. It can be rather adictive. Also, some of the photos are off color and not suitable for children.

McDonald's Coffee Beats Starbucks'

2007-01-30T11:33:00.000-05:00

It seems that Consumer Reports ran a taste test and McDonald's beat Starbucks in terms of Coffee taste. McDonald's coffee was "decent and moderately strong. Although it lacked the subtle top notes needed to make it rise and shine, it had no flaws."

Starbucks' coffee "was strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open.”

Biggest Living Thing

2007-01-25T09:39:00.001-05:00

A 2,200 acre sized fungus that is about 2,400 years old.

Prehistoric Looking Shark

2007-01-25T09:38:00.000-05:00

Oldest woman in the world

2007-01-19T21:04:00.000-05:00

A Quebec woman, Winnifred Bertrand, believed to be the world's oldest person has reportedly died at the age of 115 and 124 days, according to Radio-Canada.

Labels

2007-01-18T13:44:00.000-05:00

Now that Blogger finally supports tags (which they call labels), I have been going back and tagging a lot of previous posts. I will also be tagging future posts so that people can find related articles just by clicking on a tag.

Follow-up Solar Energy

2007-01-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

As a follow-up to my post "Cool New Solar Energy Idea", Dane has led me to Stirling Energy Systems Inc., a company which seems to be already manufacturing such devices.

Really Big Diamond

2007-01-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

And you thought the Star of Africa was big.

WikiMatrix

2006-12-03T19:30:00.000-05:00

WikiMatrix is a site that allows you to setup side-by-side comparisons between any number of over 100 Wiki platforms. You can figure out which one is best for you based on feature sets, price, etc.

There also ForumMatrix for those in the market for a forum.

Plagiarist's Nightmare

2006-11-29T21:29:00.000-05:00

This article calls Google Books a plagiarist's nightmare. Interesting article, worth the read.

Line Rider

2006-11-29T20:48:00.000-05:00

Cool Flash-based game. You draw a line and the little man rides it on his sled. Here's an example:

A Brief History of the Apocalypse

2006-11-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

An index of hundreds of different predictions of when the apocalypse would (or will) occur.

It Came from the 1971 Sears Catalog

2006-11-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

Black Friday

2006-11-22T13:38:00.000-05:00

Black Friday is not the busiest shopping day of the year - it ranks sixth. Cyber Monday is the ninth busiest online shopping day of the year.

Source article

European Cities Do Away with Traffic Rules

2006-11-22T13:33:00.000-05:00

"European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way, as brethren -- by means of friendly gestures, nods of the head and eye contact, without the harassment of prohibitions, restrictions and warning signs."

"The new traffic model's advocates believe the only way out of this vicious circle is to give drivers more liberty and encourage them to take responsibility for themselves. They demand streets like those during the Middle Ages, when horse-drawn chariots, handcarts and people scurried about in a completely unregulated fashion. The new model's proponents envision today's drivers and pedestrians blending into a colorful and peaceful traffic stream."

I am not going to comment on this. Make of it what you will. I will say, though, that the article contains the interesting tidbit that Germany has 648 valid traffic symbols.

UserFriendly.org

2006-11-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

Impairing Productivity since 1997

HonestArgument.com

2006-11-22T12:35:00.000-05:00

HonestArgument.com allows users to create an argument, i.e., a topic for debate, and then debate them back and forth. The assertions or refutations are mapped out in a visual tree with nodes and sub-nodes. It is an interesting concept, but, in my opinion, needs a lot of help, particularly with the UI.

Orisnal

2006-11-22T12:28:00.000-05:00

Orsinal is a large collection of Flash games created by Ferry Halim. I've only tried one, Milk the Cow, which is . . . . . interesting.

Enjoy :-)

Subtly Simpsons

2006-11-18T22:55:00.000-05:00

Residential Electricity Prices: A Consumer's Guide

2006-11-18T22:22:00.000-05:00

A publication of the DOE. There are some pretty cool charts.

Cool New Solar Energy Idea

2006-11-18T20:54:00.000-05:00

As a general rule, I like solar energy and wish it were actually energy efficient (i.e., I wish it didn't take more energy to create the things than they will produce in their lifetime before they break down).

Anyway! A company called Infinia is building a new type of solar energy . . . . capturing device (as opposed to panel). It's a solar electric dish that focuses solar radiation on a motor suspended in front of it (where the receiver would be on a normal satellite dish). The motor is a "free-piston" Stirling engine that uses changes in air pressure to drive a motor, generating electricity.

The company claims that the system is (a) cheaper than traditional photovoltaic (PV) solar energy systems - which, in theory, means that it takes less resources (energy as well as materials) to produce, which means that it may be (1) economical and, (2) therefore, energy efficient (the theory being that being non-economical is a symptom of being non energy efficient - if you don't get it, ask me or Alex), (b) manufactured without producing any harmful pollutants (which means it doesn't do one part of the environment a favor at the expense of another), (c) is recyclable ('nuff said), (d) 24% efficient, which is about twice the going rate, (e) aesthetically pleasing (you can decide for yourself), (f) capable of producing 9 megawatt-hours per year, and (g) available in 2008. For more details, see the website.

To point (f), this figure is probably assuming optimal conditions, do, for the sake of the following, let's say that a typical residential install would probably produce 66% of optimal, i.e., 6 megawatts. Why 66%? Well, I was going to figure out the average amount of energy produced each month (using the earth rotation, etc.), how many clear, partly cloudy, and cloudy days there are per year on average for my neck of the woods, etc., but I got tired of it because there are a lot of variables, so I just went for 66% because it seems not-too-optimistic and not-too-pessimistic.

Anyway! The average price of residential electricity in the US is $.08/kW-h (as of 2003 according to the DOE). Thus, if the system produced 6 MW-h per year, it would be producing $480/year worth of electricity (I'm glossing over the issues of whether a single residence would be able to consume all of the energy being produced at any time and whether or not it would be able to feed back into the utility grid using a net metering system). Now, lets say that the system lasts for 20 years. Why 10? Well, ...... no, don't worry, I'm not going to do that again. GE says that its residential solar panel system will last for "many" years, though the batteries will probably need to be replaced every 5-10 years. Thus, I guess that the system could last for, say, 30 years. Again, taking the idea that 66% is neither overly-optimistic, nor overly-pessimistic, I settle on 20.

So! Let's say that the system works as outlined above - oh, and let's throw in that it maintains its efficiency throughout its life cycle and, for the sake of argument, let's just hold the price of electricity static. Let's also say that the interest rates (savings rates, not mortgage rates) in this country average 4% over the foreseeable future. (Let's not even get into how I came up with that). I don't have any information on how much the system will cost, but, it seems that the system would pay for itself in whatever year corresponds to its cost below:

Year 1	499.2
Year 2	999.168
Year 3	1499.167
Year 4	1999.167
Year 5	2499.167
Year 6	2999.167
Year 7	3499.167
Year 8	3999.167
Year 9	4499.167
Year 10	4999.167

(Note: this assumes that interest compounds only annually, not monthly as it usually does. Thus, the monetary numbers are a little low).

Now that I have rambled to my heart's content, I'll stop :-)

Fantasy Congress

2006-11-13T17:39:00.000-05:00

You know, just like Fantasy Football.

Plane Caught By Satellite

2006-11-13T16:44:00.000-05:00

Look at this map. If you don't see anything, make sure the marker is centered, go to satellite view, and zoom in the the second to closest setting. Enjoy :-)

Speculation that Viking Landers Found Martian Life After All

2006-11-13T16:42:00.000-05:00

Automating the Nightly News

2006-11-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

News at Seven is a computer system still being developed that automatically compiles a nightly news cast from various sources, which is then presented by an animated news anchor.

Mariners Report Appearance of New Island

2006-11-13T16:07:00.000-05:00

Mariners in the South Pacific have reported the emergence from the sea of a new volcanic island near Tonga. According to the ship's blog, the mariners saw "streaks of light, porous pumice stone floating in the water -- then 'sailed into a vast, many-miles-wide belt of densely packed pumice.'"

Chicken Fried Steak Ice Cream

2006-11-12T14:36:00.000-05:00

Sony PS1 = High Quality Audio Deck

2006-11-11T19:47:00.000-05:00

It seems that audiophiles have realized that old Sony Play Station 1s make great audio equipment - especially those marked with the model number SCPH-1001 because it has separate audio and video output jacks.

100 New Aquatic Species Found

2006-11-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

The discoveries were made during an expedition to French Frigate Shoals, northwest of Hawaii.

Research Beyond Google

2006-11-08T20:41:00.000-05:00

Here is a handy list of resources (mostly free) that are good alternatives to Google when doing serious research.

Apologies

2006-11-08T20:36:00.000-05:00

I apologize to everyone who is checking my blog and not seeing anything new each day. I've been crazy busy with work and other things lately. Hopefully I will be able to keep up from now on.

Cheers!

scrybe beta

2006-11-02T19:42:00.000-05:00

Read this article about scrybe beta. I personally think it looks pretty cool.

All Hail Firefox!

2006-10-27T13:59:00.000-04:00

An excellent list of quality insults

2006-10-13T16:15:00.000-04:00

DVD Rewinder

2006-10-03T16:49:00.000-04:00

What sets it apart from the rest, you ask. Why the built in MP3 rewinder, of course!

wikiHow

2006-09-14T16:34:00.000-04:00

wikiHow is basically a big wiki-style how-to manual. Check it out, there are some interesting articles in it.

The Brewing Encyclopedia

2006-09-14T16:18:00.000-04:00

Brewwiki is basically a wikipedia for people who brew their own beer.

Keywords

2006-09-07T11:58:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the visitor who arrived here after searching for:

"a backhoe weighing 8 tons is on top of a flatbed trailer and heading east on interstate 70 near hays"

Old School Word Processor

2006-09-06T20:46:00.000-04:00

Dark Room is an old school word processor (complete with the green text on black background) for those who don't want a word processor for the features but for the typewriter abilities.

I haven't tried it yet. Dane, you'll probably like it ;-)

Really Big Bees Nests

2006-09-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

Definitely check out the article - the picture is worth it.

Cow Accents

2006-09-03T16:45:00.001-04:00

Apparently, cows moo with accents depending on whence they hail.

Square Watermelons

2006-09-03T16:45:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's true.

Where the Internet Lives

2006-08-28T18:53:00.000-04:00

Here is a video from c|net about Equinix, the company that operates the data centers where much of the Internet is hosted. If you're kinda geeky, you'll enjoy it.

Engineering Word Problem

2006-08-24T18:01:00.000-04:00

I received this via email and had to post it:

Engineering Word Problem

A Backhoe weighing 8 tons is on top of a flat-bed trailer and heading east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas. The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, reinforced with 1 1/2 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a crisscross pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.

Solve: When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be going to slice the bridge in half? (Assume no effect for headwind and no braking by the driver...)

Extra Credit: Solve for the time and distance required for the entire rig to come to a complete stop after hitting the overpass at the speed calculated above.

Dliveo

2006-08-21T14:00:00.000-04:00

Dliveo is a free web-based file delivery tool. Think of it as FedEx for files. Check it out, it's pretty cool, although it does have some limitations, e.g., you have to register a different account for each computer on which you want to use it, rather than being able to tie them all to an individual email address.

Energy Ex Nihilo?

2006-08-19T11:14:00.000-04:00

An Irish company, Steorn, is claiming that it has stumbled upon a method of creating energy from nothing. According to this article, the company was working on another project several years ago when it discovered a method of creating energy using magnetic fields. It claims that it has thoroughly tested the technology in house and has had outside laboratories test it as well. It is now challenging 12 physicists to test the technology in order to make it commercially credible. Many are skeptical of the claim because, according to the laws of physics, energy can neither be created nor destroyed - it can only change form.

The Definitions of a Planet

2006-08-17T12:55:00.000-04:00

The International Astronomical Union has proposed a new definition of the word "Planet". Under the new definition, which is basically "round and orbity", as this article puts it, there would be as many as 53 bodies in our solar system that would be classified as planets.

10 Myths About Bartenders

2006-08-17T12:54:00.000-04:00

The Republic of Cascadia

2006-08-16T14:39:00.000-04:00

What do you get when you take Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, succeed from their respective unions, and form a new country? Yep, you guessed it, the Republic of Cascadia. I highly recommend looking over the website as well as the Wikipedia article.

Browsers

2006-08-16T13:20:00.000-04:00

In the past, visitors to this blog were about evenly split between Firefox and IE. Firefox was edging out IE by a few percentage points. There were also a few users arriving using Safari and other browsers. Lately, though, the Safari crowd has increased and the Firefox crowd has decreased. A knee-jerk guess is the Firefox users are switching to Safari.

Comments?

Fisherman Adrift for 11 Months

2006-08-16T10:43:00.000-04:00

They were found 5,000 miles from where they started and reportedly survived on rain water, fish, and sea birds.

Gibraltar and Online Gambling

2006-08-15T22:34:00.000-04:00

Apparently, Gibraltar is something of a captial for online gambling.

Pictures that Lie

2006-08-15T16:41:00.000-04:00

An interesting series of doctored photos collected by c|net.

Missing Moon Landing Videos

2006-08-12T11:22:00.001-04:00

Apparently, there is a chance that the original recordings of the First Moon Landing have been lost. These recordings were of a much high quality than what the public saw on TV that night, as explained in this article. This may make you think of the situation with the Saturn V plans which were "lost". It turns out that that particular story is untrue.

Google Spreadsheets

2006-08-12T11:22:00.000-04:00

Need I say more?

New Visitors

2006-08-12T11:20:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first visitors from South Africa and Uruguay!

Mini Cows as Pets

2006-08-10T18:33:00.000-04:00

My sister would love this just a little too much. People have begun keeping miniature breeds of cows as pets. This article is specifically about the Australian Lowline variety. Apparently, there are many more miniature breeds. Go figure.

Weird holes in the ground in Russia

2006-08-09T18:34:00.000-04:00

I wonder if anyone will actually click on this one . . . .

A very nice office prank.

2006-08-09T18:33:00.000-04:00

Reminds me of the one we pulled on Curt.

Really Cool Photo of an Airplane Against aFull Moon

2006-08-09T18:25:00.000-04:00

Sturgeon are dangerous creatures as well

2006-08-09T18:23:00.001-04:00

A 4-foot long sturgeon jumped out of the water and knocked a passing Jetskier of his craft and left him unconscious.

6-foot Octopus in the Ohio River

2006-08-09T18:23:00.000-04:00

Shadow Puppets

2006-08-09T15:16:00.000-04:00

Website with figures showing how to make certain shadow puppets. Enjoy ;-)

The Palm Islands

2006-08-09T15:00:00.000-04:00

The Palm Islands are a group of three artificial islands being constructed in Dubai. They will be the largest artificial islands in the world and are being constructed as part of an effort to diversify Dubai's economy (in this case, by promoting tourism) before it's oil reserves run out (an event estimated to be due sometime in the second decade of this century). Each island is shaped like a Palm tree (each one is slightly different). Each island will hold multiple 5-star hotels, thousands of resort homes, theme parks, marinas, apartment buildings, and monorails.

Check out this article for more information.

Kobayashi at it again!

2006-08-06T11:47:00.000-04:00

Kobayashi is at it again, this time in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, at the Johnsonville World Brat Eating Championship. The previous record of 34.5 brats held by reigning champion, Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, was smashed by Kobayashi who ate 58 brats in ten minutes. Joey Chestnut came in second with 45.

Source article

World's Longest Yard Sale

2006-08-04T15:42:00.000-04:00

The World's Longest Yard Sale happens again this weekend. It's found on US-127 and is 450 miles long, by the way and stretches across three states.

Source article

Coke and Pepsi Now Illegal in India

2006-08-04T15:25:00.000-04:00

A state in India has ordered that Coke and Pepsi not be served until their ingredients lists are made known. This is due to concerns that 11 products of both companies contain harful ingredients.

Source article

New Visitor

2006-08-04T14:16:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first visitor from South Africa!

New Visitors

2006-08-04T11:20:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first visitors from Peru, Finland, Japan, Singapore, the Phillipines, and Australia!

Alligator in Fishing Pond

2006-08-04T11:16:00.000-04:00

No big deal normally. Until the fishing pond is in Montana.

Bank Robbery

2006-08-04T11:14:00.000-04:00

Q: What do you do when you see a bank robbery in progress?
A: Steal the getaway car. Duh.

Another Lobster Story

2006-08-04T11:02:00.000-04:00

Remember that hairy lobster I blogged a while back? And that fact about blue lobsters? Well, now there are yellow lobsters popping up. Apparently, there are also blue lobsters. The odds of finding a yellow lobster: 1 in 30,000,000. The odds of finding a blue lobster: 1 in 1,000,000.

Source article

Password Myths

2006-08-04T11:00:00.000-04:00

Here are ten myths about passwords. Some of them are rather techie, some of them are very simple. Interesting reading.

Tree Carvings

2006-08-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

Apparently, carvings in tree bark made by Basque shepherds in Idaho in the 19th century are valuable to historians. Who knew?

Source article

Castro

2006-08-04T10:54:00.000-04:00

Fabian Escalante, who was for a time responsible for keeping Fidel Castro alive, has calculated that there have been 683 attempts on the Communist dictator's life.

Source article

Earth's Gravity

2006-08-04T10:52:00.000-04:00

Scientisits have determined that the 9.1-magnitude December 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake changed the Earth's gravity by altering the geometry of the region for thousands of square miles.

Source article

Marlins are surprisingly dangerous animals

2006-08-04T10:49:00.000-04:00

While participating in a fishing tournament near Bermuda, a man was speared through the chest by the three foot long, razor sharp bill of a 14-foot marlin. He lived, amazingly.

Source article

New Visitors

2006-08-03T16:48:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the first visitors from Austria, Mexico, and Norway!

2006-07-31T21:41:00.000-04:00

As you can see, I am experimenting (out of curiosity) with placing ads on this blog. Please let me know what you think. I can always move, resize, recolor, fully remove, etc. the ads, so I would like to know what you think.

Ken

Strip Poker

2006-07-31T21:21:00.000-04:00

Bet you didn't know there is a real strip poker tournament scheduled for next month in Ireland. Explanation: April Fool's Joke that took on a life of its own.

Source Article

Abandonware

2006-07-31T21:20:00.000-04:00

Interesting class of software products.

Vehicle Laws #2

2006-07-31T21:18:00.000-04:00

In this edition, Kiwis are registering their cars as "non-commercial hearses" in order to pay less in registration fees. Justification? They use them to transport dead chickens from the grocery store. No, I'm not kidding.

Vehicle Laws #1

2006-07-31T21:15:00.000-04:00

In this edition, Belgians are buying used parking tickets, which, as far as I can tell from the article, would be more recognizable to the American mind as parking vouchers, in order to get out of fines imposed for illegal parking. Kicker: the site which facilitates this scam, Continental Computer Company, maintains that they are doing nothing wrong. After all, all they are doing is catering to that segment of the population that collects used parking tickets - just like all those people who collect stamps. :-)

Bog Snorkeling

2006-07-31T21:14:00.000-04:00

Come on, you know you want to try it. :-)

Yellow Card, Red Card

2006-07-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

Bars in New Zealand have borrowed the Yellow Card, Red Card system from soccer and bent it to their own purposes. Patrons who have had a bit too much are shown a Yellow Card which precludes them being served more alcohol without first sobering up a bit. A Red Card is shown to a patron who must leave the premises. Kicker: the Red Cards can be redeemed on a future visit for a free drink.

Source article

Morgellons Disease

2006-07-30T22:05:00.001-04:00

Article about a somewhat freaky disease involving X-Files like symptoms.

Nebraska's Sand Hills

2006-07-30T22:05:00.000-04:00

Short article on how they formed.

Darn Smurfs

2006-07-30T22:03:00.000-04:00

Smurfs steal trampoline.

Elastic Loaves

2006-07-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

While I generally appreciate attempts to preserve cultural heritage, reason does have its limits sometimes: Iran has decided that some 2,000 foreign words are no longer to be used. Among them, "pizza", which will now be referred to as "elastic loaf".

Source article

Wal-mart Retreats

2006-07-28T12:01:00.000-04:00

About 2 months after selling its stores in South Korea, Wal-mart has pulled out of Germany, losing $1 billion in the process.

New Type of Volcano Discovered

2006-07-28T10:43:00.000-04:00

Read all about it.

The Speed of Sight

2006-07-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

There is an interesting article regarding how quickly visual information is transferred from the eyes to the brain. It includes a hypothesis that there is a two-tiered system of nerves - the brisk and sluggish nerve pathways that both transfer information, but at different speeds. The sluggish nerves transfer standard information, while the brisk nerves transfer information regarding danger much more quickly. The explanation for the sluggish pathway is that the brisk pathways consumes much more energy, while the sluggish consumes less and doesn't need to be any faster. The study appears to lack an explanation of how the retina would "know" what information to pass down each pathway. This would appear to require that the retina be "smart" and push some cognitive ability out to it, much the way some such "decision making" is said to reside in the spinal cord.

Source article

Fence Sign

2006-07-28T10:28:00.000-04:00

For 31 years, a woman in Britain has had a sign hanging on her fence reading "Our dogs are fed on Jehovah's Witnesses." The police, citing a recent complaint, have asked her to remove it.

Source article

Cool New Spacesuits

2006-07-28T10:11:00.000-04:00

ILC Dover LP, the company that manufactures spacesuits for NASA, is working on a spacesuit that would be able to heal punctures 2mm wide and smaller, alert the astronaut of holes larger than that, kill off bacteria automatically by slowly releasing silver ions, generate its own power by means of solar cells sewn directly onto the out layer of the suit, and block radiation using a polyethylene layer containing hydrogen. The company is still experimenting with exactly which of a number of options for materials they are going to use, but, in principle, they've already got all the things mentioned above working.

Source article

Merry-Go_Round of Terror

2006-07-26T18:26:00.000-04:00

They thought it would be a good idea to spin the merry-go-round using a motorcycle engine. Even though you can probably guess what happens next, you will still get a kick out of the video.

(Guess who sent me this :-))

Sidewalks

2006-07-26T18:18:00.000-04:00

Washington DC is installing rubber sidewalks.

Source article

Hotel Rooms

2006-07-26T18:17:00.000-04:00

There are more hotel rooms in Orlando than in India.

Source

(Thanks to Alex for this one)

Waterproof Paper

2006-07-26T15:42:00.000-04:00

In what sounds like another version of "This is How the 3M Post-It Note Got Invented", here is a video report on how one scientist discovered how to make waterproof paper. (By the way, 3M is a really cool company, in case you were wondering :-))