News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
Most people know that you talk funny after inhaling helium from a balloon. The MythBusters go one step further and show what happens when you inhale sulfur hexafluoride.
Link: http://uk.youtube.com/…
(via digg)
Astute Chad’s News readers already know that colors correspond to various wavelengths of light, as shown when white light is run through a prism or when it forms a rainbow. But the reality is that colors only exist in our minds—the brain takes the output from the eye and interprets it as color. This becomes obvious when we take a closer look at the color magenta (also known as pink). Magenta/pink does not have a related wavelength and does not appear in a rainbow or prism. Yet we still “see” it. The linked article explains why.
Link: http://www.null-hypothesis.co.uk/…
(via digg)
Update: Ars Technica has an article that clarifies some of the internet hysteria over this topic.
The linked article has a three-part video tour of the inside of a Lego factory. The vast majority of the manufacturing is automated.
Link: http://gizmodo.com/…
(via Slashdot)
Want to make people look twice? Then just use this USB drive in a public place—although it’s probably not something you’d want to show off in an airport.
Link: http://gizmodo.com/…
(via digg)
It’s a situation I’ve read about in at least two science fiction books. You’re kidnapped by aliens and transported away from Earth. You heroically manage to win your freedom but then tragically realize you have no idea where Earth is. (Given a map of the Milky Way Galaxy, I defy you to point out the general location of Earth. Can’t do it, can you?) And it gets worse—for all you know they may have taken you to a totally different galaxy. Well fear not, intrepid Chad’s News reader. Should this happen, all you’ll have to do is whip out your “Location Earth Dog Tag” and you’ll be back home before you know it. There’s even a guarantee: “Should you ever be abducted by aliens while wearing Location Earth Dog Tags and not returned safely to Earth you will be entitled to a full refund of the purchase price.”
Link: http://www.earthbounddog.com/
(via Daily Illuminator)
Update: After doing some investigating, it turns out the dog tag is missing some crucial information. There is supposed to be binary information along the pulsar lines, indicating the periods of the pulsars. Looking at the picture of the dog tag, I don’t see that data. Additionally, even if the binary numbers existed, they specify the period as a multiple of the hyperfine transition period of hydrogen (the spin-flip frequency). That fact isn’t included on the dog tag either. Sigh…
This weapon is capable of identifying and destroying multiple ground targets. The first link is a video explaining how the weapon works, including real film footage. The second link has an embedded video showing a reconstruction of an Iraq war event where the BLU-108 played a major part. It’s just amazing how far weapons technology has come.
Link #1: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via digg)
Link #2: http://blog.wired.com/…
Here are some nice posters for the geek in your life. My favorite is the world map with each country’s top-level domains.
Link: http://royal.pingdom.com/…
(via The Presurfer)
Researchers from SRI International have created a robot that can climb walls made of common building materials. From the article: “The as-yet-unnamed robot uses electro-adhesion to cling to the wall, generating electrostatic charges between the wall substrate and itself to keep from falling.” The linked article has a video of the robot in action.
Link: http://www.popularmechanics.com/…
(via Engadget)
In an update to this Chad’s News post, here is the video of the astronaut throwing the boomerang while inside the international space station.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via digg)
This Flash video is hilarious. The song is for real. It’s “Cows With Guns” by Dana Lyons. It can be purchased from iTunes or via the artist’s website.
The recent Transformers movie rated about a 5.5 (out of 10) on the Chad’s News movie review list, but this USB hub modeled after the All Spark Cube is just way too cool to pass up. Unfortunately it won’t be available until late August.
Link: http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/…
(via Engadget)
System administrators, as well as anyone who understands how email works, will appreciate the linked story where a network admin had to figure out why emails would bounce if the recipient was more than 500 miles away. And in this case, statisticians turned out to be quite useful. (Note that he has taken some literary license with the story, as described in the FAQ, but the basic facts are correct.)
Link: http://www.ibiblio.org/…
(via User Friendly)
