Archive for December, 2010
Turning today’s football coverage into 90′s style 16-bit video games
by Marshall Brain | December 21, 2010
Here is the play as it appeared on television this weekend. It really is a great play: And here is the same play rendered as a 16-bit video game: You might ask. Why? This article offers an explanation: For several years, a small group of dedicated football enthusiasts have taken to their Tecmo Bowl (NES) [...]
Let’s imagine that you own a nuclear power plant. You are in a pretty good position these days because, compared to a coal-fired power plant, your operation is very green. You are producing lots of reliable electricity without releasing any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. You don’t release any other pollutants, like sulfur or mercury, [...]
…and David and I are up to watch it in the backyard. It is 2:15AM eastern and everything was going well until this huge bank of clouds moved in. Whyyyyy? Update – It’s 2:42AM eastern. The clouds broke enough for us to see it. It is an eclipsed moon with a very faint orange-ish color. [...]
Most Popular DIY Projects of 2010 – “Whether it’s to save money or just because you love that do-it-yourself feeling of accomplishment, we all love to make stuff. Here are our most popular DIY projects of 2010….” 15 Futuristic Weapons That Will Certainly Make A Mess – “Since the dawn of mankind we’ve been coming [...]
Paintless dent removal is a cheaper, less invasive way to get dents and dings removed from your vehicle. In this episode, Scott and Ben take a look at how this type of car repair works, from the tools involved to pros and cons.
Women Rule the Roost in China’s Mosuo Tribe
by Cristen Conger | December 20, 2010
A new photo essay in the Guardian documents life in the Mosuo tribe, which it describes as “one of the last matriarchal societies in the world.” Located in southwestern China, the Mosuo tribe is known as the “Kingdom of Women” where traditional gender roles are flip-flopped, for the most part.
Japanese Straggler Makes Neat List of Most Bizarre People on Earth
by Josh Clark | December 20, 2010
One of my all-time favorite Stuff You Should Know episodes was “What are Japanese stragglers?” — the one about the numerous Imperial Japanese soldiers who continued to fight long after the war was over on islands in the Pacific invaded by the Japanese. I liked the episode, among other reasons, because it managed to combine the Bushido code of the Samurai and Gilligan’s Island
Tonight is a once-every-few-centuries event – Winter solstice lunar eclipse
by Marshall Brain | December 20, 2010
Tonight’s lunar eclipse is going to be unique, and this NASA article paints a nice picture of what we should see: Solstice Lunar Eclipse Why red? A quick trip to the Moon provides the answer: Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside down, completely hiding [...]
Invention – an app that lets you write a ticket like a cop would
by Marshall Brain | December 20, 2010
You can now give anyone on the highway a “ticket”, just like a police officer would. And anyone can give you a ticket too. This is either one of the greatest ideas in the world because it will create much safer roadways, or one of the worst because it will be the end of privacy [...]
This is a remarkable video, showing how it easy it is for someone to scan your credit card numbers out of your wallet because of the RFID chips embedded in your credit cards: This problem has been around and known for some time… Why did RFID come to be something that is so lacking in [...]
Recent Postings by Category
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PopStuff
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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
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Stuff You Missed in History Class
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