Chad's News

Forget about collecting all those paper copies; instead, consider purchasing the full run of National Geographic magazine from 1888. Yes, that’s 120 years. The set comes on an external hard drive with the full text and high-resolution digitized pictures (including advertisements) of every issue. It also includes the maps.

Link: http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/…
(via Engadget)

Here’s a nice power outlet that includes two USB charging plugs in addition to the standard three-prong electrical outlets. It costs $9.95, fits in any existing wall outlet, and doesn’t drain any “vampire” power. The downside is that it’s only available for pre-order (but should be shipping fairly soon).

Link: http://store.fastmac.com/…
(via Engadget)

Given the unbelievably large number of Coca-Cola cans sold every day, one artist has a simple proposal to save significant amounts of energy and materials: don’t paint the cans.

Link: http://gizmodo.com/…
(via digg)

NORAD’s Christmas Eve Santa tracking has embraced Web 2.0. The linked article explains its history, starting in 1955 with a typo that accidentally directed callers to a top-secret phone, to the present day where the Santa tracker is on gmail, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and others. The big event, however, is the real-time NORAD radar/satellite tracking on Christmas Eve. Military fighter jets meet up with Santa when he enters North American airspace and escort him as he goes about his duties. It turns out that Rudolph’s nose is bright enough to give off a heat signature detectable by NORAD’s satellites.

Link: http://news.cnet.com/…
(via Neatorama)

According to the linked article, it’s estimated that 1.5 billion Coca-Colas are served daily. When you figure in the other brands owned by the company, the number of daily servings rises to 50 billion. I find that to be mind-boggling.

Link: http://www.busmanagement.com/…
(via digg)

Are you tired of people asking questions online that can easily be answered by a simple Google search? If so, then the linked website is for you. Perform the search like you normally would on Google, and you’ll get a link. Copy that link and give it to the person instead of an answer. The results are funny.

Thanks to Tom for this topic.

Link: http://lmgtfy.com/

Here’s an interesting article about fulgurites (glass structures created by lightning strikes). And if you like those, you may also like the Lichtenberg figures in the second article.

Link #1: http://webecoist.com/…
(via digg)

Link #2: http://www.capturedlightning.com/…
(via The Presurfer)

Here’s an interesting concept: a GPS-aware box that will only unlock when it’s at a specific location. It includes a button that, when pressed, tells you the distance to that location. Even though it would only take three readings to get a rough estimate of the location, I still think it’s a neat idea.

Link: http://arduiniana.org/…
(via engadget)

I remember when having 8MB of RAM on a graphics card was a big deal. But Matrox has just announced the M1988 PCIe x16, which supports eight monitors and has 2GB of memory. Not for the faint of heart, but imagine what you could do with such a system.

Link: http://hothardware.com/…
(via engadget)

Campbell’s has embarked upon an advertising campaign that claims each can of its chicken noodle soup has 32 feet of noodles. A Seattle TV reporter put it to the test, on a football field no less! The linked video shows the result.

Link: http://www.king5.com/…
(via The Consumerist)

The linked videos are parts 1 and 2 of a pseudo-documentary where rail workers perform a “complete thermite weld” to connect train tracks. I was a bit surprised by the lack of safety equipment—the workers were manipulating molten metal in short-sleeve shirts. And the guy was pretty nonplussed when the handle of his sledgehammer caught on fire.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/…
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via Neatorama)

Over at UserFriendly, artist J.D. “Illiad” Fraser lists five movie concepts that will terrorize your inner geek. My favorite is “Windows Me: The Rebirth.”

Link: http://ars.userfriendly.org/…