News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
The linked article lists the major effects that the stimulus bill will have on everyday Americans. There’s some pretty good stuff. Of note:
Link: http://consumerist.com/…
When I call tech/customer support, it’s usually for an issue not covered by the automated phone system or the company’s website. So I need to speak with a human being. One strategy to skip past the automated system is to repeatedly press zero, but that doesn’t always work. Which is where the gethuman database comes in—it has specific instructions on how to reach a human being at a variety of companies.
Link: http://www.gethuman.com/
Turns out that wiping data from an SSD is much easier than from a traditional magnetic hard drive.
Link: http://www.computerworld.com/…
(via digg)
The linked video is a bit long, but definitely worth watching. Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson discusses the mechanics of being sucked into a black hole (spaghettification), as well as the possibility of the asteroid 99942 Apophis hitting Earth (and killing a lot of things in the process). Tyson also appeared on The Daily Show, where he covered some of the same topics.
Link: http://fora.tv/…
This theory contends that the interior of the universe is simply a replication of the information on its outer surface. And since the three-dimensional (okay, four-dimensional but let’s keep this simple) interior can hold much more data than the two-dimensional surface, the internal information has a granularity, sort of like what happens when you expand a bitmap image. It sounds pretty bizarre, but there are mathematical and experimental results that may back it up. The “blurring” threshold is believed to be about 10-16 meters, which is measurable by existing equipment.
Link: http://www.newscientist.com/…
(via NAACAL)
Update: The New Scientist has gone to a paywall. Ars Technica has an article that explains this concept.
Here’s a direct quote from Mayor Frank Melton of Jackson, MS: “I certainly respect the Constitution, but we have some issues that are much bigger than the Constitution.” He’s referring to an executive order banning saggy pants. No, really.
Link: http://www.clarionledger.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Here’s an interesting bit of research. Two students revisited every Super Mario video game and, based on how far and fast Mario fell, calculated the acceleration due to gravity. The lowest is still more than four times the actual value, with the highest up by a factor of eleven.
Link: http://hypertextbook.com/…
(via mental_floss)
“It seemed like a good idea at the time: Remove all the feral cats from a famous Australian island to save the native seabirds.”
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/…
(via digg)
The switch to digital-only broadcast television has been moved from February 17th to June 12th, 2009.
Link: http://lifehacker.com/…
January was a good month for class action lawsuit settlements. Some of them have very broad participation requirements.
The linked site has videos of all the Superbowl commercials. My favorite is the Doritos snow globe.
