Chad's News

The linked article has 28 photos of the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. One of the more interesting pictures shows a skyscraper with its windows blown out.

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

This is interesting. Apparently cows have a tendency to align themselves with magnetic North, either facing it or facing 180° away from it. The study shows the power of Google Earth.

Link #1: http://www.newscientist.com/…

Link #2: http://www.latimes.com/…

Update: Researchers have determined that the cows are definitely aligning with the magnetic field (versus pointing North or South).

Ever wondered how a dog uses its tongue to drink? The reality is certainly different from what I expected—the dog curls his tongue down instead of up.

Link: http://dsc.discovery.com/…

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.

For those who don’t get the linked comic, more information is here and here.

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

With all the stuff going on in Georgia, one may wonder how a US state and an Asian/European country ended up with the same name. The linked article explains all…

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

The linked article has a first-person account of what it’s like to compete on Jeopardy (by Joshua Fruhlinger). Surprisingly enough, his biggest problem was that the buzzers didn’t always work.

Link: http://joshreads.com/…
(via Mental Floss)

The linked article contains the short history of New Coke. Interestingly enough, the whole debacle ended up raising Coke’s market share.

Link: http://www.damninteresting.com/…

This guy took advantage of the fact that when you set up an online brokerage account, the brokerage company will “test” your bank account by making a small deposit. So he wrote a script that opened thousands of accounts linked to a few bank accounts. He was able to collect about $50,000 before getting caught. Although illegal, this was absolutely ingenious. I’m a bit jealous I didn’t think of it first.

Link: http://blog.wired.com/…
(via digg)

Instead of using standard shipping companies, you can ship via Amtrak and save. The downside is that they don’t deliver directly to your location—packages are picked up at the train station.

Link: http://consumerist.com/…

My friend Josh received an ingenious type of spam that uses banner art to spell out the message (and thus circumvent spam filters):

xe    dl  no
ip    jc
 vc  kr
 hc  rv   vv   xjmq    fmltv  wsfm   jbst
 ci  wg   vi      qe  qw  td  ugx       dg
  ixbl    oj   zwxwy  ru  yh  ut     cwxtg
  kqfo    eq  yf  yx  ue  do  gl    om  rb
   wb     vl  jj  il  dz  es  gy    hj  kg
   ke     xl   vdjzj   cerlk  hp     ozkwz
                          mr
                      tlilb

If you look closely, you’ll see that the message is actually made up of text characters:

xe    dl  no
ip    jc
 vc  kr
 hc  rv   vv   xjmq    fmltv  wsfm   jbst
 ci  wg   vi      qe  qw  td  ugx       dg
  ixbl    oj   zwxwy  ru  yh  ut     cwxtg
  kqfo    eq  yf  yx  ue  do  gl    om  rb
   wb     vl  jj  il  dz  es  gy    hj  kg
   ke     xl   vdjzj   cerlk  hp     ozkwz
                          mr
                      tlilb

In light of the upcoming switch this weekend, it’s worth noting that a recent study definitively shows that daylight saving time does not save energy—at least not in Indiana.

Link: http://slashdot.org/…