Picture of giant wasp

I normally think insects are fascinating, but... I wouldn't want this on my hand... ew... get it away from me.

101 Earth Facts

Some of the facts are boring, some are obvious, and some are interesting.

3. What makes thunder?

If you thought, "Lightning!" then hats off to you. But I had a more illuminating answer in mind. The air around a lightning bolt is superheated to about five times the temperature of the Sun. This sudden heating causes the air to expand faster than the speed of sound, which compresses the air and forms a shock wave; we hear it as thunder.

Upside-down rainbow

Isn't that pretty?

Conan + Quantum Physics

Intellectually stimulating... (rated PG-13)

Cool Flash site

I'm not exactly sure what the website is for, but the interactive Flash graphics are pretty darn cool.

Snape is really really good

I posted months ago my theory about how much sense it makes for Snape to really be good. I just did a Google search for "Snape is good" which resulted in quite a bunch of pages dedicated to other readers who have come to this conclusion as well, which makes the whole theory rather obvious and unsurprising. I thought the site linked to above lists the evidence most conclusively.

Lookin' forward to the final book!

Kid drawings turned good

Artists took sloppy drawings by kids and made them look pretty darn good... awesome stuff, eh?

Robot plays sax

Pretty cool stuff! Kind of bland music, but technically, mechanically, pretty cool stuff!

Flatland: the movie

What the heck is this?!

http://www.flatlandthemovie.com/

This is sad...

Little flash game...

My fastest time was 0.175... I'm so good.

Toy Story 3 confirmed

They're going to ruin it, I say!

“The greatest thing about the merger of the two companies is that the creators of ‘Toy Story’ 1 and 2 can make 3 with the story that we wanted,” said Lasseter.

The comment was a stab at Disney, who before the Pixar merger were hard at work on a third Toy Story film without Pixar’s involvement. Disney’s plot idea involved a recall of Buzz Lightyear toys, which includes Andy’s doll, which results in the Toys going on an adventure to Taiwan to rescue Buzz, who has been malfunctioning. John Lasseter and company were very unhappy with the idea, and didn’t approve.

Stupid Disney! It's good that at least Pixar will get to work on the film, but I still doubt it will be any good... gotta hack out sequels, though, they're moneymakers, because the second-handers, the Peter Keatings, will like them no matter what as long as everyone else likes them too. Many people have the thought process "Wow, a lot of people like this thing, so it must be good and I should like it too!" Isn't that annoying? I guess it's good if you're selling something.

"The brain scan that can read people's intentions"

The article says:

A team of world-leading neuroscientists has developed a powerful technique that allows them to look deep inside a person's brain and read their intentions before they act.

Later on it says:

During the study, the researchers asked volunteers to decide whether to add or subtract two numbers they were later shown on a screen.

Before the numbers flashed up, they were given a brain scan using a technique called functional magnetic imaging resonance. The researchers then used a software that had been designed to spot subtle differences in brain activity to predict the person's intentions with 70% accuracy.

The article talks a lot about how this implies that it's time to start debating the ethical issues involved with reading other people's thoughts... ooh yeah... I'm against brain imaging profiling...

"Prodigy corrects bean counters"

A genius eight year old math prodigy found a mistake at a museum...

According to the article, this is the problem:

ORIGINAL PROBLEM

A jelly bean has a volume of about 1 cubic cm.This container is half a pyramid.

Its base measures 46 cm by 23 cm and its height is 72 cm.

Here's the formula to find the volume: 1/3 x base area x height.

Now divide your answer by 2 since this is half a pyramid.

Now multiply your answer by 0.9 to account for spaces between the jelly beans.

The answer should be 22,853.

First of all, do you have to be a that smart to see the error?

Second of all, is this even a math error? Looks a lot more like a wording error...

I think the reason nobody saw the error before was because nobody... um... cared.

The headline should be: "Someone actually reads museum plaque and cares about what it says"

Everybody Loves Pachelbel

I thought this was funny... good old Canon in D chord progressions can be found all over the place. Rated PG-13 for mild language...

The Narrator will introduce himself in Harry Potter 7

Just kidding. :)

Russian Puzzle

I'm not sure what's so Russian about it! The person that gave me this link said that the puzzle had stumped him. I solved it in a few minutes... so obviously it's really not that hard.