Here is an interesting story about a 14 year old boy in Germany that got hit by a pea sized meteorite. Interestingly enough, they cropped out his hands in the pictures . . .

Gerrit Blank, 14, was on his way to school when he saw “ball of light” heading straight towards him from the sky.

A red hot, pea-sized piece of rock then hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot wide crater in the ground.

The teenager survived the strike, the chances of which are just 1 in a million – but with a nasty three-inch long scar on his hand.

He said: “At first I just saw a large ball of light, and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand.

“Then a split second after that there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder.”

“The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards.

“When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself into the road,” he explained.

Scientists are now studying the pea-sized meteorite which crashed to Earth in Essen, Germany.

“I am really keen on science and my teachers discovered that the fragment is really magnetic,” said Gerrit.

Chemical tests on the rock have proved it had fallen from space.

Ansgar Kortem, director of Germany’s Walter Hohmann Observatory, said: “It’s a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and scientists.

“Most don’t actually make it to ground level because they evaporate in the atmosphere. Of those that do get through, about six out of every seven of them land in water,” he added.

I fly a lot, and of all the things that concern me, a meteor hitting the plane was the least of them. Now that has changed, thanks to Discovery Magazine. First I figured the chances were so minute that no one would care. Now looking at this article they are saying it might be a 1:20, are you freaking kidding me? How is the so holy TSA going to remedy this one? Maybe they will change shirt colors again, that will show them!

Back in 1996, after the initially very mysterious explosion and crash of Flight 800 from JFK to Rome, there were numerous eyewitness accounts of a “streak in the sky” just before the crash. This led to the “missile theory” of the crash, which was eventually attributed to the explosion of the center fuel tank by the NTSB. But, also at the time, it was suggested that a meteor of sufficient size could have struck the plane, bringing it down.

Obviously for any given flight the chances are very, very small that a meteor will bring down an airliner, but as Hailey and Helfand pointed out in a letter to the NYT in 1996, the correct question to ask is this: “What is the probability that, for all flights in history, one or more could have been downed by a meteor?” They concluded that there was a 1-in-10 chance that this could happen…let’s use their logic, brought up to date somewhat, for 2009, for Flight 447.

(continues)

(Via Discovery Magazine.)

I was in a geography bee once.  It’s a good thing I was in it too because I get asked about Timis County on a daily basis.  Plus being in a geography bee scares away all those pesky, horny teenage girls.

Yang, of Griffin Middle School in The Colony, Texas, won the annual competition during a tie-breaker round with this question: "Timis County shares its name with a tributary of the Danube and is located in the western part of which European country?"

The answer, Romania, comes with a U.S. $25,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and a trip to the Galápagos Islands with Jeopardy! host and Bee moderator Alex Trebek.

Along with the scholarship, the 13 year old has won a lifetime full of virginity.

via National Geographic Technorati Tags: geography , bee

When I was a child, nothing smelled better, and was more fun to play with, then WD-40. You used it to lubricate, and more importantly, to shoot an awesome flame. In an effort to be better for the environment (total BS), WD-40 changed the propellant to CO2. While it might have lost some of the glamour of my childhood, WD-40 is still one of those things I love. Wired has a write up on all the ingredients.

Mineral Oil
Seriously. WD-40 is mostly a mix of baby oil, Vaseline, and the goop inside homemade lava lamps.

Decane
WD-40 contains an abundance of alkanes—hydrocarbons that match the formula CxH2x+2, usually in a long, zigzagging chain. This one, C10H22, which is also a common ingredient of gasoline, helps WD-40 remain a liquid at cold temperatures. Decane doesn’t freeze until around -21 degrees Fahrenheit.

Nonane
Another alkane. One reason these molecules are so handy here: Their hydrogen atoms don’t hold a charge, so they can’t connect to the hydrogen or oxygen in water, which makes alkanes water-repellent. WD-40, after all, stands for “water displacement, 40th attempt.”

Tridecane and Undecane
Freeze-resistant? Check. Water- repellent? Check. Contains an alkane that is the major product of the red-banded stinkbug’s scent gland? Check! Many alkanes are naturally produced by living creatures. Undecane, part of the pheromone trail left by cockroaches and ants, is present.

Tetradecane
Another alkane! Zzzzzz.

Dimethyl Naphthalene
Here’s the thing: This stuff (C12H12) comes in 10 forms, called isomers. One of them is a harmless hormone given off by potatoes. Another is used in high-performance engineering plastics. Our analysis can’t determine which ones are present here, but if you’re using it as a solvent, as is likely the case with WD-40, they all work just fine.

Cyclohexane
That cyclo prefix means that unlike standard alkanes, which come in chains, this one’s a ring. The shape gives cycloalkanes a higher melting point. And huffing them will knock you out cold. (Or so we’re told.)

Carbon Dioxide
The WD-40 company claims that by using this gas as a propellant, it avoids using smaller gaseous alkanes (possibly butane and propane), which can be hazardous to the environment. As if CO2 isn’t.

If your really into what everything is take a at the Wired link below. They actually have a link for every ingredient, but I didn’t want to steal ALL of their hard work.

(Via Wired)

Much has been made out of the start up of Wolfram|Alpha. I have not paid much attention, even though it has been carried by Gizmodo, Slashdot, CNET, and everyone else. They even had a live video of the launch, in which it crashed I might add.

So today I ran a couple of searches. My number one result:

Which just proves that i have no clue WTF I am doing. So the only other thing I could think to search for is ‘the answer to life’. And that my friends is how I got the results in the very first picture. Now that I know they put in that tidbit of information I am pretty sure this search engine will take off and rule the world!

Where I live, there are Mosquitoes, and not just a few, tons of big Mosquitoes. I blame New Orleans, move back to your own backyard! That is why I am excited about this little flower.

I have actually read about it several times, and now it has moved a little closer to production. US News has a little more information coming out on it:

The ProVector uses sugar, chemicals and a biopesticide called Bacillus thuringiensis to attract and kill the bugs. The insects feed on the deadly nectar through a metal screen on the artificial flower.

Kollars is now looking to market the devices where mosquito-borne illnesses thrive. He said the ultimate design is expected to cost between $7 and $10.

“One man can’t defeat mosquitoes,” he said. “They have killed more people than all wars combined. But I can start being part of the team that defeats them.”

Amen kind sir! I will gladly drop a grand to make my yard look like some kind of acid trip, where do I sign up?

(Via US News.)

Some other decent info here.

Marco Tempest’s Augmented Reality card trick makes David Copperfield look positively ludditic

I’m guessing this is what a magic trick is like in the Matrix.  Except there’s no Keanu Reeves, no slow motion bullets, and no little pills to choose from.  So, not like the Matrix at all.

Illusionist and augmented reality artiste Marco Tempest has put together a video preview of his newest act, called (aptly enough) “Augmented Reality Magic 1.0,” and has been kind enough to share it with us. In the video, Tempest uses AR to demonstrate what’s going on in his fertile imagination as he performs a card trick — cards levitate, Jokers dance, and the birthday cake? Well, you’ll just have to see for yourself. The most impressive part is that the whole thing goes down in real time, and utilizes C++ with OpenFrameworks, OpenCV, ARToolkitPlus, MacCam, “and other Open Source goodies.” Nothing’s done in post-production. Are you prepared to have your mind blown?

In an effort to make dogs a more socially acceptable food, Koreans are making them glow.  Mmm… nothing hits the spot like Kentucky Fried Glowing Puppy.

South Korean scientists say they have engineered several beagles that glow red using cloning techniques that may one day help scientists study human diseases.

The first born, named “Ruppy” a combination of the words “ruby” and “puppy” and her siblings look like typical beagles under normal light conditions.

But they glow red under ultraviolet light, and the dogs’ nails and abdomens look red even to the naked eye.

via National Geographic