Everything you wanted to know about the “F” word from The Smoking Gun (rated R for strong language ;)
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Monthly Archive for July, 2003
Do you know those ads on the back of camera magazines selling cameras really cheap? Or those sites that always have the cheapest prices in the price search engines? Here’s why you shouldn’t buy anything from them! :)
Abe’s of Maine (abesofmaine.com) is pretty (in)famous online shop (actually this store is pretty decent compared to buyrite (buyritedigital.com) LOL
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This just occured to me.. why isn’t there “E” in school grade system? (A, B, C, D, and F, but no E) Does anyone know? Is it because students might interpret “E” for “Excellent”? (these students really deserve “E”) How about “F” for “Fabulous”? ^^;
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Panspermia: Spreading Life Through the Universe
Panspermia is a theory that suggests “life” and diseases (what’s the difference?) are spread by comets. Pretty wacky idea, but many wacky ideas turned out to be true, so who knows? Afterall, according to Amazing facts about Earth #6 (see below), 1000 tons of materials enter Earth atmosphere every year (by the way, some scientists believe that our nostrils are pointed downward so we don’t inhale these cosmic dusts :) Also, wasn’t arrival Halley’s Comet always followed by some new epidemic? Hmm…
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OrlandoSentinel.com: A mob scene just made for being there
“The latest big thing from the Internet: Creating a crowd on a moment’s notice for no particular reason. It’s a hit in New York, and the practice is starting to get around.” (from /.)
According to the article, in one of the flash mob event “about 200 people suddenly assembled on the mezzanine level of the Grand Hyatt Hotel next to Grand Central Station, applauded loudly for 15 seconds, then left.” (pictures) And in more recent event, about 200 people “wandered into into an upscale NYC shoe store acting like confused tourists from Maryland” (pictures)
Pretty amusing. But really, are people THIS BORED??? The article mentions this interesting site / book smartmobs.com that analyzes this type of new social behaviours in the “Connected” age, but these people sound more like a dumb mob to me.
UPDATE: more coverage at salon.com
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101 amazing facts about the Earth
Some samples:
35. Is air mostly oxygen? Earth’s atmosphere is actually about 80 percent nitrogen. Most of the rest is oxygen, with tiny amounts of other stuff thrown in.
76. Is ice a mineral? Yes, ice is a mineral and is formally described as such in Dana’s System of Mineralogy.
86. How much gold has been discovered worldwide to date? More than 193,000 metric tons (425 million pounds). If you stuck it all together, it would make a cube-shaped, seven-story structure
(Thanks to tlee)
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Here’s adrenalin-pumped Lance Armstrong, on his way to win the 15th stage of Tour de France, that will be forever remembered as the best stage victory ever! He blew away the competitors after a crash and a near-tumble (more crash photos here and video clips here See “STAGE 15 ACTION”). It’s absolutely amazing.
Another big related news of the day was how the riders (even his biggest rival, Jan Ullich) showed their sportsmanship and respect for the leader by “slowing-down” for Lance to catch up to them — Lance did the same for Ullich 2 year ago when he went flying off to a ditch. What an exiting Tour, and what a great sports! :)
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Funny Self Defense Manual (in Korean, but pictures are funny)
(Thanks to Bennet)
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How would you move Mount Fuji? — Microsoft’s Cult of the Puzzle; How the World’s Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers — (by William Poundstone) is more than just a collection of puzzles and answers asked in techie-interviews. It also gives some deeper insights into how one should approach these problems, plus very interesting history of origin of these types of interviews and its link to popular (and controversial) IQ tests of the early 20th century.
Here’re some selected puzzles from the book:
- You have 2 jars, 50 red marbles and 50 blue marbles. After you place all of the marbles in the jars (in any combination), 1 jar will be selected and 1 marble will be withdrawn from that jar at random. How can you maximize the chance that red marble will be chosen?
- You have 3-quart bucket, 5-quart bucket, and infinite supply of water. How do you measure exactly 4-quarts? (There are 2 answers… well, 3 if the buckets themselve have no volume :)
- You have a deck of cards, that has letters on 1-side and numbers on the other side. You deal 4 cards and it shows: [A] [F] [2] [7] Identify which card(s) you need to turn over to verify the rule ‘If there is vowel on one side, there is an even number on the other side’
- You have 6 matchsticks. Arrange them to form 4 equilateral triangles.
(More questions here and here. There are MANY more…)
Answers:
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DirecTV dragnet snares innocent techies: The Register
In recent months the satellite TV giant has filed nearly 9,000 federal lawsuits against people who’ve purchased signal piracy devices. But some of those devices have legitimate uses, and innocent computer geeks are getting caught in the crackdown [from /.]
This is outrageous!
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Forbes.com: Korea’s Weird Wired World
Quite fascinating article… I’m not sure whether I should feel proud, envious, or sad. But it tells you what useful technologies such as the Internet can degenerate into without proper supervision. That being said, I should really get into Avatar business in Korea.. :P
[from Bennet blog]
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