Chad's News

When falling great distances, the primary survival mechanism is luck. But don’t forget to clench your butt.

Link: http://www.origin.popularmechanics.com/…
(via Digg)

The linked article has the winners of the National Wildlife Federation’s 2009 photo contest. The eagle about to catch the starling is a pretty amazing picture.

Link: http://www.nwf.org/…
(via Neatorama)

From the article: “A paper in the current issue of Science discusses the ability of a single-celled creature to create a robust network while foraging for food—one that mimicked the Tokyo rail system in complexity.”

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Somehow I’ve never considered that diamonds could have a melting point, much less that there may be oceans of liquid diamond on Uranus and Neptune. Turns out that solid diamond floats on liquid diamond, much like ice floats on water. Melting a diamond, however, is more complicated than just raising the temperature. The linked article explains all.

Link: http://news.discovery.com/…

Despite the many attempts to cash million-dollar bills and the availability of fakes, the largest banknote ever printed by the US government was a mere $100,000. The linked article has this and other interesting facts about obscure and large-denomination bills.

Link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/…

The time-lapse video in the linked article shows starfish and monster worms feeding on the body of a dead seal that sank to the ocean floor. Very neat!

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
(via naacal)

Ever wondered how auto manufacturers ensure that car door remotes can’t be used to unlock multiple vehicles? The method they use makes it possible but highly unlikely. Also turns out that you shouldn’t repeatedly press the unlock button unless you’re near the car. The linked article explains all.

Link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/…
(via Neatorama)

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)