`Are you a kid? Does your microwave oven belong to your parents? If so, then don’t even THINK about trying any of these experiments. I’m serious. If I wreck my microwave oven, I can buy another. Also, I’m a professional electrical engineer. I know enough physics and RF effects to take correct safety precautions when I’m experimenting. But you don’t know the precautions, so you should be smart: read and enjoy my writing, but don’t duplicate my tests unless you grow up to become an electronics tech, engineer, etc., and buy your OWN microwave oven.’
`The first Professor of Physics at the University of Queensland, Professor Thomas Parnell, began an experiment in 1927 to illustrate that everyday materials can exhibit quite surprising properties. The experiment demonstrates the fluidity and high viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar once used for waterproofing boats. At room temperature pitch feels solid – even brittle – and can easily be shattered with a blow from a hammer (see the video clip below). It’s quite amazing then, to see that pitch at room temperature is actually fluid!
In 1927 Professor Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. Three years were allowed for the pitch to settle, and in 1930 the sealed stem was cut. From that date on the pitch has slowly dripped out of the funnel – so slowly that now, 72 years later, the eighth drop is only just about to fall.’
`Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
All’s well that ends.
To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.
Everything that goes up must come down.
Corollary: Not always’
`Former Spice Girl singer Victoria Beckham, the wife of England soccer captain David, has confessed she has never read a book.
Despite struggling for a hit record for some time, Victoria Beckham said she never had a spare moment to leaf through anything more challenging than fashion magazines. [..]
The confession is all the more startling given that it would appear to include her own autobiography, Learning to Fly, and that of her husband, My Side.
“I haven’t read a book in my life. I haven’t got enough time. I prefer to listen to music, although I do love fashion magazines,” she was quoted as saying.’
`On Thursday, August 4th, we put the magnetic acoustic device (I’m not sure it has a name yet, so this one will have to do for now) to the test on one of our ranges… Using a variety of sounds from human voice to music to sound effects (screams, shouts, gunfire, sirens, and the like), we succeeded in listening to the sounds from the transmitter located one statue mile in the distance!
[..] The developer tells us that there are other configurations they believe will allow it to take even more energy. They estimated we were using 15,000 watts, but with a different type of magnet they believe we they can easily exceed 100,000 watts without overheating.’
`When Melvyn Reed went into hospital for a heart bypass operation, his loved ones were anxious to be with him as he recovered.
But things got unexpectedly crowded around the bedside of the 58-year-old car salesman. And while his heart was on the mend, three others were soon broken.
For first, one of his wives turned up to comfort him. Then another. Then another. All within minutes of each other. [..]
Recalling the fateful day the three women all turned up at the hospital, Reed told police: “Unfortunately, the timing of the visits went out of sync and they all arrived at once.”
His first wife — his only legitimate one — is said to be standing by him.’
`The Paris city hall has pledged “never to welcome” the actor to the city of love – all because of his membership of the Church of Scientology.
Cruise and film director J.J. Abrams have also been banned from filming upcoming action flick Mission: Impossible 3 in the Vatican.
In a debate late yesterday, Paris’ Socialist-controlled municipal assembly approved a resolution “never to welcome Cruise, spokesman for Scientology and self-declared militant for this organisation”.’
Lots more of this from tomcruiseisnuts.com.
`A Zimbabwean woman was electrocuted and her lover burnt on his hands while having sex in an electricity substation in Bulawayo, the New Ziana news agency reported Friday.
The woman, “believed to be a prostitute, was electrocuted while being intimate with her boyfriend”, the news agency said, quoting a witness. [..]
A security guard was electrocuted three years ago while having sex with a prostitute inside an electricity substation at a shopping centre in Chitungwiza, 25 kilometres southeast of Harare.’
`”If these patents are granted, Monsanto can legally prevent breeders and farmers from breeding pigs whose characteristics are described in the patent claims, or force them to pay royalties,” says Then. “It’s a first step toward the same kind of corporate control of an animal line that Monsanto is aggressively pursuing with various grain and vegetable lines.” [..]
In one application (WO 2005/015989 to be precise) Monsanto is describing very general methods of crossbreeding and selection, using artificial insemination and other breeding methods which are already in use. The main “invention” is nothing more than a particular combination of these elements designed to speed up the breeding cycle for selected traits, in order to make the animals more commercially profitable.’
I find this video terrifying.
(8meg Quicktime)
`Yet the debate rages on. What exactly is the Geyser of Love? Is it real? Is it pee? Is it a different kind of fluid released from the urethral glands? Or is it, perhaps (as I suspect), an amazing female sexual mix of fluids, explosive juices and spraying squirting wetness? If women ejaculate, what does that mean about women and men? About penises and vulvas? About G-Spots and urethras?’
`A finance industry professional has been refused bail on charges of bestiality and animal cruelty after 17 dead rabbits and a guinea pig were found in and around a Sydney office building.
Brendan Francis McMahon, 36, of North Sydney, made a brief court appearance today charged with one count of bestiality with a rabbit.
He also faces 18 counts of aggravated animal cruelty involving rabbits and a guinea pig, and two charges of possessing cannabis.’
Iraqi war blog. Interesting.
`A Thai-owned communications satellite was launched early Thursday off French Guiana, officials said. Billed as the world’s largest, the satellite will provide Internet access and multimedia services for the Asia-Pacific region, Australia and New Zealand. [..]
The satellite, called Thaicom 4, will be operated by Shin Satellite, a company owned by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and is the fourth satellite launched by the company. It weighs more than 7 tons and cost $400 million, and was built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California
The satellite has bandwidth capacity of 45 gigabytes per second and will route data through 18 gateways.’
`JackHammer is the most enormous, mind-blowing subwoofer ever created. You will literally not believe it until you see it. Standing in at 23” tall, 320 pounds, and with 12,000 watt peak music power handling, you will be hard-pressed to find something that will get in the ring with this heavyweight.’
`Technicians from Truly Nolen Pest Control of America are being trained by local law enforcement to spot anything unusual as they visit customer’s homes.
“Our vehicles really get into the bowels of the neighborhood and we’re back there where all the homes are, in the cul-de-sacs,” Truly Nolen spokesman Barry Murray said. “And part of being a good neighbor is looking out for one another.”
The pest control workers will call police if they see something unusual during their stops, according to the report.’
`This product is the perfect solution for anyone seeking an ultra realistic look as well as experience. Our improved whizzinator design consists of a 5 inch fake penis with detail, look and feel that are so realistic you won’t believe your eyes. The prosthetic penis is also anatomically correct in scale so as not to appear erect, which could cause it to be too bulky for use. But the realism doesn’t end there! When designing this product we thought that look and feel are important of course, however it was essential that it also function like a real penis. What came about is a product that is revolutionary in both form and function.’
`To experiment with highspeed objects requires a very special technique. A perfect synchronization between the moving object and the actual taking of the photograph is needed. We talk about highspeed photography when we can’t see the fast movement with our eyes. It’s very difficult to see a fired bullet and even more difficult to take a photograph of it exactly at the moment it comes out of an object.’
`Whether you’re a first-time user or a veteran, this Firefox Tweak Guide brings together all the major tips, tricks and tweaks for Firefox. From the basic to the advanced, the following 11 pages of information are sure to enhance your Firefox experience. Most of all you can rest assured that the guide is not written by a raving Firefox fanboy – it’s a true objective TweakGuides tweak guide, and not a gushing ad for a free web browser.’
Short animation, worth a look.
`Investigators say a bad toupe tipped them off to more than $100,000 worth of heroin hidden underneath — superglued to the man’s head.
Customs and border protection officers say the man, arriving on a flight from Columbia, glued 40 packets of heroin to his head.
“Because he used superglue, they took him to a medical facility to have it removed,” said Officer Jennifer Conners. “Even at that, it pulled out the hair wherever they removed a package, so he ended up looking like a spotted cat.”‘
`Men have been mad about the erotically seductive scent of the vagina since time immemorial. Now you can have it anywhere, anytime – with the authentically natural vaginal fragrance VULVA Original, the sensual accelerator.’
All sorts of stuff about venomous animals, mainly snakes.
There’s a good section on neurotoxicity and biochemistry, if you like that sorta thing. Also, a forum with links to pictures of various snakes.
`Freenet is free software which lets you publish and obtain information on the Internet without fear of censorship. To achieve this freedom, the network is entirely decentralized and publishers and consumers of information are anonymous. Without anonymity there can never be true freedom of speech, and without decentralization the network will be vulnerable to attack.
Communications by Freenet nodes are encrypted and are “routed-through” other nodes to make it extremely difficult to determine who is requesting the information and what its content is. ‘
