Archive for August 5th, 2009
At first, it looked like a bug. The “World of Warcraft” patch 3.2 rolled out yesterday, bringing with it extended maintenance times and the unexpected ability for players to create characters from opposing factions on the same player versus player (PvP) server. Until then, if you had a Horde character on a PvP server, you couldn’t start an Alliance character there as well.
It turns out that the change was deliberate — Blizzard has confirmed that it’s related to an upcoming feature that will allow players switch factions putting their characters through some kind of as-yet-unspecified racial transformation. (Don’t know what all that means? Hop on over to our World of Warcraft beginner’s guide for the scoop.)
I had the distinct pleasure of introducing my much younger brothers to “The Wizard of Oz” this past weekend (on VHS, no less!). They weren’t as scared as I remember being of the flying monkeys. It made my mom and me reminisce about how much we loved the books, most of which we still have proudly displayed on the shelves in all their illustrated, hardcover glory.
For those of you not lucky enough to have my book-lover of a mother, there are many Oz books, each one strange and fascinating and sometimes outright disturbing. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the first of the Oz books, was pretty much an instant classic. L. Frank Baum wrote in his introduction in 1900: “…the story of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.”
How do they make cheetos and other cheese puffs?
by Marshall Brain | August 5, 2009
You Asked:
How do they make cheetos and other cheese puffs? — David, Pittsburg, Pa
Marshall Brain Answered:
If you look at the ingredient label for just about any kind of cheese puff, the first ingredient is corn meal and the second ingredient is oil. All of the other ingredients are in the coating.
The basic idea is [...]
No Dirty Gold: Precious Metal with a Glittering Past
by Sarah Dowdey | August 5, 2009
How ironic is it that gold and diamonds — substances valued for their purity or clarity — can turn out to be so messy? By now, most folks have heard of “blood diamonds” (if not from newspaper headlines then from the 2006 movie), as well as the Kimberly Process that protects consumers from unwittingly supporting conflict diamonds.
“No Dirty Gold,” a campaign based in Washington, D.C., is trying to achieve an ethical standard similar to the Kimberly Process. While gold isn’t so closely associated with violence and conflict as diamonds are, there’s not much that’s pretty about mining the precious metal.
According to the Economist, most gold is procured through open-pit mining (gone are the days when ‘49ers panned riverbeds for sizable nuggets). One ounce of gold requires at least 60 tons of rock be removed; plus, there’s the addition of cyanide and mercury used to separate the metal.
You Asked:
What makes lemons sour? — Erin, Gilbert, Ariz.
Marshall Brain Answered:
There are two parts to this: 1) How does the tongue sense sourness and 2) What chemical do lemons contain to trigger those sensors?
It turns out that the sour sensors on your tongue are basically pH detectors:
Biologists Discover How We Detect Sour Taste
“There have been [...]
Cymatics is defined as: “Directly visualizing vibrations using sound to excite media often in the form of particles, pastes and liquids.”
One way to do it is to make some oobleck with corn starch and water and excite the obleck with a speaker. Like this:
Surely someone will be using those weird shapes [...]
You will be able to fly the Martin Jetpack in 2010
by Marshall Brain | August 5, 2009
This is the Martin Jetpack:
In early 2010, normal people will be able to fly it in the same way you might make a bungee jump (buy a ticket, take a ride):
Strap-on mini helicopters the latest way to travel
The flights are expected to cost about the same as a bungy jump or [...]
Our fan turned friend, Kodachrome, who sends us all of the delightful Photoshopped pics of Chuck and me, also sends us songs we’ve inspired him to record, photos of stupid nature he takes on his hikes and links to interesting news stories. He’s become a buddy to us, even though we have no idea what he looks like and have never held a verbal conversation with him.
How the U.S. health care system doesn’t work
by Marshall Brain | August 5, 2009
Several weeks ago, this article was fascinating because it presented such a clear picture of a major problem in the U.S. health care system:
What a Texas town can teach us about health care – “McAllen has another distinction, too: it is one of the most expensive health-care markets in the country. Only Miami—which has much [...]
United States President Barack Obama is looking for someone to fill the post of cyber czar. Think you have what it takes? The job will require someone who can assess the state of digital security in the United States, identify vulnerable points and formulate policies and practices that will create a more robust computer security strategy for the country. It’ s a tall order.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Public Service Announcement – Soft drinks nearly double your chances of pancreatic cancer
- Amazing – Going inside the Giant Crystal Cave
- Test yourself – What is your risk intelligence?
FanStuff
- What’s art — and what’s groundbreaking — in video games?
- Ursula K. Le Guin vs. Google Books: Round Two
- “Lost,” “Fringe” and That Whole Alternate Universe Thing
How-to Stuff
- How to Take a Road Trip, Abraham Lincoln-Style
- How to Explain Love in the Least Romantic Way Possible
- How to Quiet a Barking Dog
ScienceStuff
- Space Music Vol. 8: Sun Ra and Afrofuturism
- Stuff from the Science Lab Roundup: Space Eats and Grow Houses
- Why does time fly as you get older?
Stuff You Should Know
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
High Speed Stuff
- The Toyota Recall: Where can you get the latest information?
- What is Toyota doing to fix its gas pedal problem?
- High Speed Stuff Wrap-up: Automotive Pet Peeves and Polar Vehicles
Keep Asking
- How does an airbrush work?
- Is the Internet free? If you want to make a website, will it cost you to put it online?
- If you look at a piece of glass from an angle, why does it have a bluish or green tint?
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Last Week in History Podcasts: Battle Horses and Black Moses
- The Wonderful Adventures of the Nurse We Forgot
- Black History Month on HowStuffWorks
