Stuff I Didn’t Know: Why Pirates Wore Eye Patches
I never heard this bit of information, but it makes perfect sense. “Ever wonder why a pirate wears patches? It’s not because he was wounded in a sword fight,” says Dr. Sheedy. Seamen must constantly move between the pitch black of below decks and the bright sunshine above. Smart pirates “wore a patch over one [...]
19 Clicks Separate Any Two Web Pages
If true, that’s really amazing. There are billions of pages on the web. I realize that you probably wouldn’t want to click to some of them, but the idea is fascinating just the same. Its a small Web after all. As the six-degrees of separation notion says that any two people are only six introductions [...]
The Technology to Fake the Moon Landings Didn’t Exist in 1969. Why Does that Matter?
Believe it or not, about 6% of the population believes the NASA moon landings were faked. This is a great video that completely destroys that idea. Why does that even matter? Watch to the end to see.
Noodlebot Can Make Noodles Better than You
Folks in China eat a lot of noodle soup. Making noodles for the soup requires a set of skills that is becoming more rare as time goes by. One Chinese chef decided to to something about it, and invented Noodlebot. The machine is relatively expensive, but it’s cheaper than hiring a noodle chef for one [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: Hot Chocolate Tastes Better in an Orange Cup
Interesting. European scientists say they have found further evidence that how you serve food and drink matters hugely in the perception of taste. Researchers at the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Oxford recruited 57 volunteers and asked them to taste hot chocolate served in plastic cups with four different colours — white, [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: They Make Cheese from Donkey Milk
At a farm in Zasavica, Serbia, they make the most expensive (about $645/lb.) cheese in the world from the milk of donkeys. This became a story because tennis star Novak Djokovic has a chain of restaurants, and he bought the farm’s entire year of production to serve there. Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic has made something of [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: The NFL is a Tax-Exempt Non-Profit
I had no idea. Why are they allowed to keep this status? Once in a while, I run across something that I did not know and it leaves me flabbergasted. For example, I did not know that the National Football League, the colossus of professional sports, is classified as a non-profit — a tax-free non-profit, [...]
New Bizarre Japanese Body Mod Trend: Bagel Head
It only lasts 16 to 24 hours, but why would you do it in the first place? (Daily Mail) A new television series has shed light on the bizarre Japanese trend for ‘bagel heads’. The extraordinary look, which is created by injecting saline into the forehead, then pressing in the centre of the swollen area [...]
From the Really Strange World Records Department: Longest Living with Bullet in Head
Here’s a record you don’t hear about every day: The man who holds the Guinness World Record for living the longest with a bullet in his head has died in Central California at age 103. The Modesto Bee reports ( http://bit.ly/JHXmXv) that William Lawlis Pace died in his sleep at a Turlock nursing home Monday [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: You Have a 94% Chance of Surviving a Plane Crash
Based on data from U.S. plane crashes between 1983 and 2000, the odds are pretty good that you’ll survive a plane crash. But, your chances go up if you follow some simple advice: Most people believe that if they’re in a plane crash their time is up. In fact the truth is surprisingly different. In [...]
Tesla Motors’ Problem: If You Completely Discharge the Battery, the Car’s a Brick
As electric cars go, I like the Tesla cars the most of any I’ve seen. I can’t afford one, but if I had the extra cash for such an extravagance as an electric car, the Tesla is the one I’d go after. It looks like the car has a pretty serious design flaw: if you [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: It’s NOT a Crime in Virginia to Drive Without Proof of Insurance.
I have labored under the misconception for all of my adult life that you must be able to show proof of insurance if a policeman stops you and requests it. Apparently, many police officers have also learned this apocryphal law: Virginia motorists are being ticketed and convicted of a violation that is not a crime [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: Most Designer Sunglasses are Made by the Same Company
One Italian company manufactures 70% of the designer sunglasses sold in the world. Are they worth the money? Read on, and decide for yourself. Designer shades are big business, even in this economy. I keep hearing about the new age of frugality, but I’m not seeing much of it at the mall. Sunglass Hut’s same-store [...]
Stuff I Don’t Know What to Think Of: Bacon Cologne?
I love bacon as much as the next guy, but I’m not really sure I want to smell like it when I’m at the office, or out on the town. If you want that kind of thing, though, it’s available in citrus or spicy maple varieties. Get some at Fargginay – $36 for 1 oz. [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: The Chinese Value Red Tibetan Mastiffs VERY Highly
Exhibit A: Hong Dong (no, I’m not kidding), a Red Tibetan Mastiff, recently sold to a Chinese coal baron for over $900,000. And, that’s not the end of the expense: the average male grows to about 180 lbs. and they’ve been known to grow as big as 286 lbs. Plus, their diet is kinda fancy: [...]
Update on Fukushima No. 2 Reactor
UPDATE: Here’s a 3/18 PM (Japan Time) update on the situation. There’s also a video by the proprietor of that site about the future of nuclear power – the video is of an episode of the The Climate Show, the content of which is a large helping of eco-bullsh*t; Barry Brook’s piece runs from 29 [...]
How Many People In Japan Will Die From Radiation Poisoning? None.
At least that’s the opinion of the World’s Only Rational Man, who’s an expert in the field of Health Physics Japan gets ~90% of its electrical power from nuke plants, and now they’re in, essentially, the “worst-case scenario”. There’s been a hydrogen explosion as well. (Note: the same article says “About 24 percent of electricity in Japan [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: John Stossel is a Stutterer (say that three times fast)
I like John Stossel’s reporting – he’s great at demonstrating the ridiculous excesses, and lack of common sense, of government at all levels. I didn’t know that he stutters: Because “The King’s Speech,” a movie about King George’s effort to overcome stuttering, won the Oscar for best picture, reporters have been interviewing me about my [...]
Stuff I Didn’t Know: Fleas Can Jump More than 30X Their Own Length
Yeah, that’s right. Though they’re only a few millimeters long, fleas can jump more than 10 centimeters. That’s like the average human being able to long jump about 170 feet. Using new tools like high-speed video, researchers with the University of Cambridge in England have shown that fleas take off from their tibia and tarsi [...]
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