Chad's News

Replace Those Wireless Microphones

Chad Cloman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:55:42 +0000

June 12^th is the US government’s official cutoff date for wireless microphones that transmit in the 700MHz band. Turns out that these microphones, employed by quite a few churches, schools, and sporting venues, have been “squatting” in the upper regions of the UHF television spectrum (specifically channels 52 through 69). As part of the whole DTV transition, those channels are no longer being used for broadcast television, and rights to that part of the spectrum have been sold to various telecom companies. Starting June 12^th it will be illegal to use the old microphones, forcing many organizations to purchase new equipment.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Will We Ever See “a la carte” Cable Television?

The Curious Case of the Reappearing Scurvy

Chad Cloman — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:06:48 +0000

Scurvy is a potentially fatal illness caused by a lack of vitamin C. Historically it was a problem for sailors, who went out to sea for long periods on a restricted diet. The cure (eating citrus fruit, fresh meat, etc.) has been known since at least the 15th century, but in a tragic comedy of errors this fact was repeatedly forgotten, misapplied, or misunderstood. It wasn’t until 1932 that vitamin C was identified and definitively shown to be the “cure” for scurvy. The linked article explains the long history, with special emphasis on Robert Falcon Scott’s disastrous Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole.

Link: http://idlewords.com/…
(via Neatorama)

Converting 2-D Movies to 3-D

Chad Cloman — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 06:26:37 +0000

With 3-D movies becoming all the rage, Slate takes a look at the difficulties inherent in converting an older 2-D movie into 3-D. Unfortunately the viewing experience is not as good as native 3-D, especially if they do a sloppy job. Also, since it costs more to film in 3-D than to convert from 2-D, we may see upcoming films doing the conversion anyway.

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

New US Penny Design

Chad Cloman — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:03:02 +0000

Starting this year US pennies have a new design on the back, with a shield instead of the Lincoln Memorial. The previous time it changed was back in 1959. And based on what happened with the old wheat pennies, it wouldn’t hurt to save a few hundred dollars worth of the memorial pennies as a long-term investment.

Link: http://www.usmint.gov/…
(via The Consumerist)

The US Penny

National Wildlife Federation 2009 Photo Contest

Chad Cloman — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 04:32:34 +0000

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)

Biological Computing — Designing a Transportation Network

Chad Cloman — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:46:35 +0000

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/…

Biological Computing

Save $400 With the “Making Work Pay” Tax Credit

Chad Cloman — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:11:11 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised to learn of a new tax credit of up to $400 ($800 for married filing jointly). It’s called “Making Work Pay,” and pretty much everyone is eligible. The thing about this credit is that it’s easy to miss—you have to claim it on the main tax form and fill out Schedule M. And keep in mind that this is a tax credit, not a deduction. You calculate the amount you owe and then subtract $400.

Link: http://taxes.about.com/…

Liquid Diamond

Chad Cloman — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:15:30 +0000

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/…

30,000+ Extensions for Google Chrome

Chad Cloman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:08:23 +0000

Google Chrome version 4 has native support for Greasemonkey scripts. This means there are instantly 30,000+ extensions for the browser.

Link: http://blog.chromium.org/…
(via Lifehacker)

Smoking Bans of Yore

Chad Cloman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:57:59 +0000

Modern-day smoking bans are becoming more and more restrictive, but they don’t even come close to some of these draconian bans from the past—which include excommunication and summary execution as punishments.

Link: http://www.mentalfloss.com/…

Scrubbing Personal Info From Game Consoles

Chad Cloman — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:09:11 +0000

So you have a game console that you don’t need anymore. Thinking about selling it on eBay, donating it to charity, or perhaps giving it to a friend? The linked article explains how to remove personal information that may be stored on the console’s hard drive.

Link: http://arstechnica.com/…

Watch a Drop of Oil Navigate a Maze

Chad Cloman — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:18:30 +0000

Scientists can now make a drop of oil traverse a complex maze by itself. Be sure to watch the video.

Link: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/…
(via Neatorama)

Finger Length Is A Predictor of Math Skills