Bag of Beans

Improv Everywhere (the group that invaded Best Buy earlier this year, previously posted here) strikes again. This time they got over 200 people to shop in slow motion inside Home Depot, and captured some hilarious videos.

After everyone had assembled I revealed the mission details. We would sychronize our watches and then walk over to Home Depot and shop. At exactly 4:15 we would all begin moving in slow motion. We’d do that for five minutes, and then shop normally for five minutes as if nothing had happened. At exactly 4:25 we would all freeze in place for five minutes. When that was over we would go back to normal and eventually leave the store.

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These things make my skin crawl.

When it comes to parasites, it’s all about perspective. You may call a lifetime of growing and feeding off another organism lazy, but we call it opportunistic. In fact, these life-sucking go-getters have managed to carve out some of the most ingenious survival strategies in the world. By some estimates, parasites outnumber free-living species nearly four to one. So show some respect. After all, mooching isnt’ as easy as it looks.

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These totally cracked me up. Now you can feel like you are playing a FPS all the time!

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This is a monumental announcement for astronomers and physicists. NASA has observed dark matter for the first time! This has huge implications for our understanding of the universe.

Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies. The discovery, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, gives direct evidence for the existence of dark matter.

“This is the most energetic cosmic event, besides the Big Bang, which we know about,” said team member Maxim Markevitch of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass.

These observations provide the strongest evidence yet that most of the matter in the universe is dark. Despite considerable evidence for dark matter, some scientists have proposed alternative theories for gravity where it is stronger on intergalactic scales than predicted by Newton and Einstein, removing the need for dark matter. However, such theories cannot explain the observed effects of this collision.

• NASA’s press release
• Cosmic Variance has a very readable article here that explains the results in a little more depth
  

Does this sound like a good idea?

A mix of bacteria-killing viruses can be safely sprayed on cold cuts, hot dogs and sausages to combat common microbes that kill hundreds of people a year, federal health officials said Friday in granting the first-ever approval of viruses as a food additive.

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Inventgeek has a fascinating project that uses a webcam and a small radiation source from common household fire alarms to visualize radioactive decay. This could have applications as a source of entropy for a true random number generator.

I started this project with more of an idea of creating a system that would visualize Cherenkov radiation via webcam utilizing a Gamma radiation source and heavy water in some heavy lead shielding to produce the tell tale bursts of blue light. Perhaps hook it up to the LCD window kit system we did and display it on the windowed screen. When I decided to ramp up the project and also was experimenting with other types and sources of radiation for the project I stumbled across a myriad of new ideas for possible systems with some far reaching and profound results. While this write-up is just discussing in detail the implementation of this apparatus for ones personal amusement via screensaver, there are other far reaching possibilities for this system I will discuss later in the article.

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Check out this image of the tip of a tungsten needle. You can see the individual atoms!!!

A field ion microscope (FIM) image of a very sharp tungsten needle. The small round features are individual atoms. The lighter colored elongated features are traces captured as atoms moved during the imaging process (approximately 1 second).

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500+ reviews at Amazon.com and growing…

Not good for roof leaks, August 4, 2006
I had a problem where my roof was leaking. I poured some Tuscan Whole Milk over it to seal it up and it just flowed right into the hole and didn’t do anything. I now have milk constantly dripping down from the ceiling and it has stained the drywall as well. The milk trapped in the ceiling is now rancid and smells horrible. It has also induced a pest infestation problem. The pest control company won’t deal with it because of the odor is unbearable in the house. My wife and children are now leaving me as well. This product has ruined my life. Do not buy this product, I suggest some roof caulking or tar instead.

Bizarre yet true, August 4, 2006
I drank the entire 128 fl oz in one gulp, and for the next 43 minutes and twelve seconds I could divide by zero. The taste is okay, but what makes it worth the shipping is the ability it confers: the ability to defy the laws of mathmatics with impunity.

Container problem, August 4, 2006
I ordered a gross of these containers last week and they have just arrived today. They were each filled to the top with the strangest white substance, but there appears to be some sort of tamper-proof seal on each container’s top to prevent the liquid’s leakage. Of course, I know not exactly if these tops are, in literal fact, “tamper-proof” - instead of touching the accursed things, I have taken to hiding behind my windows and fitfully peering at them through the blinds - but I would imagine that no one would dare imprison such filth without a modicum of security in their foul investment, and as this is such good reasoning on a topic so difficult as to probably inspire other, lesser guesses, we may comfortably take my thoroughly well-reasoned imaginings as long-established fact, and I would furthermore postulate that my well-reasoned imaginings are so thoroughly factual as to now appear in all manner of books to be read by the intelligent and the yearning-to-be.

That said, the gross of containers still sits on my lawn, still filled, not yet moving - or doing anything else. God only knows what that “else” may be, or when it shall come. The flatmate above my basement mutters strange talk of “cheese” and “rotting” in relation to these containers. I am saddened; quickly, endless terror seizes upon me and threatens to swallow me whole. Clearly, the liquid creates madness, and as he is ceased upon by this liquid madness, I must remain here, in my basement apartment, surrounded on all sides by my totems, by my protective symbols, and by what must be now hundreds of little Post-Its reminding me not to look out the window at the angel-white madness-jugs.

But curses. Here I am looking at them.

As for you, dear reader, I ask that you not only never order these containers, but that you also send me $5, for I have no job and no one wishes to publish my tome.

It is a spy novel about magic and how I am magical myself, and it is very good.

• Link (via reddit)

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This article teaches you how to build your own initrd image.

The Linux® initial RAM disk (initrd) is a temporary root file system that is mounted during system boot to support the two-state boot process. The initrd contains various executables and drivers that permit the real root file system to be mounted, after which the initrd RAM disk is unmounted and its memory freed. In many embedded Linux systems, the initrd is the final root file system. This article explores the initial RAM disk for Linux 2.6, including its creation and use in the Linux kernel.

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