Posted by Matthew on June 18, 2008 at
11:25 pm
Many of you have probably read (or at least seen the movie of) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Even if you haven’t, you might be familiar with a certain part of the story that is frequently referenced among fans — that when asked for the answer to the ultimate question of Life, The Universe, and Everything, the supercomputer called “Deep Thought” finally responded with “42″.
I was watching an episode of the History Channel miniseries The Universe this evening, and this particular episode was concerning gravity and its role in the universe at large. Most of the concepts covered in the show were nothing new to me, but I found one particular scenario very intriguing: what would happen if you bored a hole through the Earth straight to the other side, vacuum-sealed it (to remove friction), and dropped something through? How long would it take to reach the other side, considering that it should free-fall until it reaches the core, at which point gravity will start pulling it back and it will slow down?
As it turns out, the most interesting part of this scenario is that by picking any two points on the Earth — New York and LA, Boston and London, Cairo and Anchorage, whatever you want — and boring a hole straight from one to the other, the amount of time required by such a “gravity train” will always be exactly the same, due to the angle of the hole and thus the varying degree to which Earth’s gravity will be able to affect the object. How much time, you ask?
42 minutes.
No matter what two points on the planet you choose, no matter if they’re on opposite sides of the globe or are very near each other, the time to get from one to the other driven purely by gravity will always be 42 minutes. As soon as I heard that, I had to wonder if it was Douglas Adams’ inspiration for the answer to the Ultimate Question asked of Deep Thought. If not, it’s quite a coincidence — and still a really cool physics fact.
More on the 42 minute “gravity train” concept on Damn Interesting, Wikipedia (which references a mathematical proof from my own Purdue University), and a 1966 TIME Magazine article.
Posted by Matthew on June 6, 2008 at
8:42 am
So I’m driving into work this morning on I-65 south, entering Indianapolis, and there’s a spot where I-465 joins I-65 that is perfect for cops to hide. You know the situation…there’s a low cement divider wall off on the shoulder, and it’s positioned just after a slight crest in the road so you couldn’t possibly see the cops camped out in their favorite hiding until you’re practically on top of them.
This morning, there were three motorcycle cops positioned behind this wall, with their handheld radar units perched atop it. My speed-trap Spidey-sense was tingling, so fortunately I wasn’t speeding when I came over the rise, but several people in the other lane were. As I passed, I watched in my rearview mirror as a cop simply pointed at a driver, and then jerked his thumb over to the side of the road. Obediently, the vehicle pulled over, about 50 yards past the cops’ little bunker area. Between the three cops, they had five vehicles pulled over at once!
Is this laziness or efficiency? My first thought was to wonder that so many pulled over because of a hand signal. I have to believe that at 65 or 70 miles an hour, a number of people this morning “didn’t see” the hand signal…or perhaps really didn’t see it. Considering that none of the cops looked inclined to get on his bike anytime soon, I imagine any such drivers just got away scott-free. Is this a situation where you get punished for doing the right thing? What would you do?
Posted by Matthew on June 3, 2008 at
9:13 pm
If you were looking for concrete evidence that sky-high gas prices are affecting consumer buying habits en masse, look no further.
The Ford F-150, which has been the best selling vehicle in America for 17 straight years, has, in May 2008, fallen to 5th place behind the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Toyota Corolla, and the new best selling vehicle the Honda Civic.
All four of those well-built vehicles offer a lot for the money and get about 30 mpg or better on the highway, while most full-size trucks are about half that. With $4 gas, a lot more people appear to be asking themselves the question, “Do I really need that truck?” As I’ve personally pointed out for years, most people who drive them don’t actually need them.
Source: Autoblog
Posted by Matthew on May 23, 2008 at
8:03 am
From the Captain Obvious news desk, a new report by GMAC Insurance concludes that over 16% of American drivers don’t know the rules of the road and would flunk a written driving test were they forced to take one. Frankly, given how much stupid crap I see during my commute every day, I’m surprised it’s only 1 in 6 who fail. A couple of the biggest problem areas were what to do when approaching a yellow light (it’s not “speed up so you can run the red before the other way turns green”, morons) and the safe distance to maintain behind another vehicle (I’ll give you a hint: it’s a lot more than 3 feet).
Interestingly, drivers out east (New England and DC) had the worst scores, while drivers in the midwest, where I live, had the highest scores and the lowest failure rate. Also, “…the study found that drivers over the age of 35 were more likely to pass, and women were more likely to fail than men.”
Apparently, one of the “bright spots” of the results was that almost all test-takers knew “how to interpret a solid yellow line.” I’m guessing those drivers could also interpret a solid concrete barrier.
Source: CNN Money
Posted by Matthew on May 16, 2008 at
9:48 am
This certainly qualifies as one of the most bizarre (and creepy) stories I’ve seen in a long time. Houston, Texas, is being attacked by millions of tiny ants known as “crazy raspberry ants” that are attracted to electronics. They were accidentally brought over on a cargo ship, and have since gone forth and multiplied, screwing up sewage pumps, computers, gas meters, fire alarms, and other electronic equipment in the process. Worse, since they’re resistant to most ant killers and each colony has several queens, they’re practically impossible to kill. They even use the bodies of those that do die to build bridges over pesticide-treated areas. Yeah — like I said, creepy.
Full story on WRAL news
Posted by Matthew on May 14, 2008 at
4:39 pm
I’ve seen a lot of crazy (and crazy expensive) stuff being built in Dubai over the last few years…everything from manmade islands totaling thousands of miles of beachfront to the world’s tallest building (by far) to the world’s largest mall. The latest thing I’ve learned about is no less crazy: an indoor ski complex!
Given that the area’s oil reserves will supposedly run out within the next two decades, the prince of Dubai has made it his mission to turn the desert city into a lush oasis of tourism and entertainment. So far, they seem to be exceeding everyone’s expectations, helped in no small part by the “spare no expense” mentality that is clearly pervading the developers. I have to admire the grand scale of the vision. However, I have to wonder if this is why we’re paying nearly $4 for a gallon of gas!
More images:
Posted by Matthew on May 6, 2008 at
2:42 pm
Just sixteen Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradales (a special version of the standard 360) were imported to Australia and New Zealand, and now there’s at least one fewer gracing those roads. A (very nice — or perhaps very naive) father allowed his son to borrow his extremely rare Challenge Stradale, who promptly got a little too excited with the right pedal and wrapped the beautiful and expensive sports car around a pole.
As sad as that is, it’s not the best part of the story. No, it actually gets funny. Naturally, anyone who wrecks a Ferrari is going to attract some attention. News crews were apparently there within minutes, and mercilessly filmed the son as he called home to tell his father what had happened. Unfortunately, there’s no video record of what the father did to his son later.
I think I would have just never gone home.
Posted by Matthew on April 26, 2008 at
10:38 am
Yesterday candidate Barack Obama visited the building where I work in downtown Indianapolis, at The Indianapolis Star. He was there to meet with our editorial board. I didn’t get to see him unfortunately, since he came in through a back entrance and was quickly whisked away to the board room, and an internal memo asked us all not to crowd the hallways so he could quickly get in an out. But it was cool that he was there, and there was a live video stream of the meeting. I left work while he was still inside, and got to see his entourage and security force. They were everywhere…and yes, some of those secret service agents look absolutely scary. When the elevator doors opened on the ground floor, I looked up and saw a giant in a dark gray suit and an earpiece staring down at me through dark slitted eyes. I almost didn’t get out of the elevator.
Obama was visiting because for the first time in my memory, Indiana matters in this election. The primary is so close that both Democratic candidates need our electoral votes to seal a victory. Polls show Obama up slightly here, although Clinton is practically within the margin of error. Every poll ever conducted on the subject, though, shows that Obama provides much more competition for John McCain than Clinton would, so from a purely numbers standpoint I have to wonder why Democrats wouldn’t just choose the candidate that has the best chance against the other party. I guess we’ll find out soon enough — there’s not many primaries left.
Posted by Matthew on April 10, 2008 at
9:26 am
There’s a fun little easter egg in the latest version of the popular FireFox browser (currently in Beta 5 for version 3, final release due out very soon): if you type “about:robots” in the address bar, you get the above screen with some fun info about our mechanical friends. All the “facts” are references to various books, movies, and TV shows — The Day The Earth Stood Still, Asimov’s I, Robot, Blade Runner, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and my personal favorite at the end (”And they have a plan”) is an homage to the cylons in Battlestar Galactica.
Posted by Matthew on April 9, 2008 at
8:42 am
How many times have you seen something that had the potential to be a really great picture, but there were just too many people in the way? More times than I can remember, personally. As it turns out, there’s a way to get that shot.
I came across this really cool Photoshop tip the other day while listening to the TWiP (This Week in Photography) podcast. One of the podcast regulars, Fred Johnson, put a little screencast up on his site about how to remove people (or any other non-stationary object) from a photograph. Well, technically, a series of photographs. Basically, take several shots of a scene with the camera in the same location (obviously a tripod would be best, but Photoshop can align the images if necessary), load them into a single layer, and then use Photoshop’s Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode > Median. This analyzes the image set and removes the delta pixels, leaving you with a people-less picture. Very cool technique, and something I’m sure a lot of people will find useful.
Screencast: Removing crowds with Photoshop
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