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Silly string is one of those amazing substances. It is fun – kids love it. It is interesting to watch. It has even been used in war zones to detect booby trap bombs, as explained here.
However, silly string is also highly flammable. And that means that it should not be used around birthday candles, sparklers, cigarettes or any other source of ignition. Two dramatic demonstrations of the problem are shown below…
Yesterday the famous plastic surgeon who did all the work on Heidi Montag died. He was in a car that went over a cliff. Apparently he lost control because he was typing in a tweet on his phone. He was tweeting about his dog…
The following video is interesting in it’s own right – it shows how easy it is to steal bicycles in New York City. The video demonstrates the use of bolt cutters, a hack saw, an angle grinder and a hammer/chisel in bicycle theft…
Here is a very sad but sadly frequent occurrence:
American Airlines Launches Investigation into Dead Puppies
The puppies were loaded into the luggage area of a passenger jet, where seven of them died from exposure….
When most people think about “dangers in an elevator”, what they worry about is a falling elevator. In this scenario, the cables snap and the elevator drops 50 floors, killing everyone inside with the impact.
But if you have read How Elevators Work you know that that is pretty unlikely. There are multiple cables, automatic brakes and frequent inspections to prevent that kind of death plunge from happening.
It turns out that getting stuck in an elevator is a more serious concern, as gruesomely illustrated here…
Imagine that you are about to have a child. You have to choose a name for the new kid. There is a lot of research to indicate that the name you choose will have a huge effect on the child’s life, as described in this article…
3D TVs come with a big list of warnings, as you can see in this list from Samsung:
Photosensitive Seizure Warning and Other Health Risks
Epileptics in particular are cautioned about the glasses. The warnings aren’t so unusual today – everything from Aspirin to toasters have warnings too.
But the last one warning in Samsung’s list is starting to get more attention:
Viewing in 3D mode may cause disorientation for some viewers. DO NOT place your television near open stairwells, cables, balconies or other objects that may cause you to injure yourself.
This problem with 3D glasses is called binocular dysphoria. The following video explains the problem and also explains where the concern is coming from…
For more than a decade we have been told that kids need to have computers to improve education, that computer literacy is essential, that every child should have their own laptop (see for example, One Laptop Per Child) and so on. But it may not be true at all. Instead, it looks like computers create a gigantic source of distraction that actually gets in the way of education…
When we hear about “blanks” in a gun, the word that comes to mind is “harmless”. Yes a blank makes a loud bang, but no bullet comes out so blanks are harmless.
But people have actually been killed by blanks, as described in this video about the death of John Erik Hexum
Given today’s terrorism climate, there really isn’t any room left for joking about murder or bombs. And if you do try to make a joke, it can seriously backfire, as can be seen in this recent example…
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