What did we learn this week? Week 8

So some of may have noticed there was no What did we learn this week last week.  For Week 7.  Why you may ask? Well, for one I was short on time and exhausted from real life.  Two, after the complete and utter disaster of my Einstein post (thanks to the 4 of you that read it and are interested in science) I started to wonder if I should even bother.  Then I got some positive feedback and some view from my election blog, so I figured I would keep on going.  Plus what the hell us I’m I going to do in my free time?  So without further ado, here is What did we learn this week……week 8 (I couldn’t name it 7 since that would’ve been last weeks!)

Rich people really don’t pay attention when they drive……

So Sunday we went with my parents to look for baby furniture.  We also had to go to dinner the same night at a pretty good German place afterwards so we looked at furniture stores in that area.  Now the area we were in has a decent amount of well to do and actually rich people in it.  I hate driving around there because I maintain that the more money people have the less they care about their car (they’ll just get another) and the less they pay attention while driving.  Thus was the statement I made when someone swerved into my lane with no blinker.  As I pulled past I could see him texting away with 2 kids in the back seat.  What and ass.  So to further prove my point, after we got to the restaurant and we’re having a couple of drinks for my cousins birthday, the waiter came over and asked if we had a Mercury Milan.  I responded yes and asked why, then he told me it had just been hit….in the parking lot.

So we went out and sure enough a woman in her late 40’s to early 50’s had backed into our door not paying attention.  What was she driving? A BMW.  To further my point, she has enough money to not go through insurance, and just pay to fix our car, $1649 to be exact.  Don’t get me wrong, She is actually a very nice lady, and I feel bad for her, but she was from a more affluent part of the area and wasn’t paying attention.  Point, set, match me.

In other news….Is twitter more addictive then alcohol and cigarettes?

Well, I’m not sure, but Professor Josh has a very in depth chart on his blog that shows it just might be, why not head over and check it out at http://professorjosh.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/is-twitter-more-addictive-than-alcohol-and-cigarettes-infographic/

“no…really, follow me!”

What did the iceberg say to Titanic? Glub….Glub…Glub….

At 2:20 am on April 15^th 2012 it will be the 100^th anniversary of the sinking of the titanic.  To this day explorers and scientists along with Titanic enthusiasts are debating and still trying to figure out how it sunk (other than the iceberg) and why it went down so fast.  The Titanic sits more than 2 miles down and to this day there are more and more pictures and video (higher quality than anything before) coming back from the murky depths and giving us a better picture of what happened.  For some great pics and the full story check out bisarbeats blog at http://bisarbeat.blogspot.com/2012/03/unseen-titanic.html#.T2xeMOa9qTE.wordpress

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Running low on energy? Want a little snack? Then put down that banana and pick up a cookie!  Wait?! What?!

Well, yeah, kinda.  A study by the university of  Sydney did a study to see which foods would satisfy your hunger and provide you with energy at the same time, and yes it seems that cookies and bananas are about the same.  Check out http://blog.massivehealth.com/infographics/bananas_vs_cookies for the whole story.

“Bring it Cookies!”

Good news everybody, Adobe has a brand new Photoshop coming out….

Now the bad news, its still like $700!  Yup for the first time in over a decade Photoshop is getting a completely new look, to me it was a bit similar to lightroom.  It’s also getting 65 new features.  Sadly the pricing is the same.  I tried it out and liked it myself, to try it out for free for yourself, check out Adobe Labs’ website at http://labs.adobe.com/  oh and by the way it’s a really large download so grab a sandwich or something while you wait for it.

NFL Blitz comes to real life….

You would think a team named the Saints would keep their noses clean, but nope.  Apparently as incentive to the players, the coach and management instituted a bounty system.  Yup, they would get paid for hitting certain players.  Let’s just be clear though, not just hitting.  The defensive players were paid $1500 for a knock out and $1000 for a “cart-off”.  The numbers would then be doubled or even tripled for play-off games.  Some of the players that were targeted were Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton, Brett Favre and Kurt Warner.  Some of the biggest names in the sport and some of the biggest crowd draws.  Also, to make it even worse, the Captain of the Saints defense Jonathon Vilma offered $10000 to any one that knocked Brett Favre out of the 2010 NFC Championship Game.  For more on the story check out http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7718136/sean-payton-new-orleans-saints-banned-one-year-bounties

“Wheres Bourbon Street?”

It’s a bird! An Angry bird! In Space!?

Yup Angry Birds space is now live!  For all you casual gamers or people that just want a diversion the latest in the Angry Birds series is live.  This time in space!  Do I really need to say anything more?  Go get it!

“If you think we were angry before!”

For all you TMNT fans out there…..

It looks like Michael bay is planning on resurrecting the movie series about mutant turtles, that happen to be ninjas.  My good friends over at Anomic Office Drone are under the opinion that they will ruin it, but come on guys, its about a group of mutant turtles that are ninjas, how bad can it really get?  Anyway head over to them and read all about it here  http://anomicofficedrone.com/2012/03/21/michael-bay-plans-to-ruin-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/

“Ruin TMNT? Really? Look at the pic and tell me that again!”

We’ve been slimed!

In food news more and more supermarkets are hopping on the “No Pink Slime” Bandwagon.  Which I am a fan of.   Granted the FDA says its safe and as far as I know in the time its been added to food no one has died from it, it’s just fucking gross.  I mean come on, you’re adding Ammonium Hydroxide to the stuff to kill germs? For a list of who does and doesn’t sell it check out Allergic’s blog at http://atomiclotusbox.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/more-supermarkets-refuse-to-sell-pink-slime-in-their-meat/

“So, they said no more pink slime, I guess this might be another option for filler!”

Did you check out the new Linux based operating system created by a group of hackers?

Yeah, I would trust them not to put any backdoors into it.  The Anonymous OS was released this week based on the Linux distro Ubuntu.  The main problem is that the hacking group of the same name isn’t the group that put it together, in fact they say its riddled with holes and security issues! So who did put it out? Apparently no ones.  For more details check out Danny Carbons blog at http://dannycarbon.com/2012/03/19/anonymous-operating-system-prompts-security-warnings/

“Seriously, this time it wasn’t us!”

So that’s it, the week in review, I’m sure I missed some things, but that’s it for me.  Enjoy your weekend and as always thanks for reading!

John

Happy Birthday Einstein….no not the dog from back to the future, the real Einstein

Einstein, born in 1879, was born in Germany and was the son of an Electrical Engineer.  Most of his childhood was spent in Germany and Italy, but he eventually would move to Switzerland.  His move to Switzerland was prompted by his desire to study mathematics and physics at the Federal Polytechnic Academy located in Zurich.

Many of you know that he worked as a Patent Clerk, which was true, but many of you might not know that this was also in Switzerland, Bern to be exact.  He would also become a Swiss citizen and receive a PHD from the University of Zurich, all of this was before he was 30, 26 I believe. That very same year, 1905, turned out to be a great year for old Albert.

In 1905, Einstein would publish five papers that would affect and some say change the physics world.

“On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light,” was the first paper published that year.  Basically this paper said that light was made up of photons, and that light, and these photons had particle like properties, yet worked as a wave also.  He also observed that some solids, when struck by light, would emit electrically charged particles.  While he didn’t get much recognition when published, he would eventually win the Noble Peace Prize in physics in 1921 for this paper.

The second and third paper would go together and help prove the existence of atoms.  While common knowledge know, Scientists back in the early 20th century were still disputing their existence, Einsteins papers settled it.  The second paper changed the way atoms and molecules were counted.  It also changed the way that the size of them were calculated.  The theory in the third paper would eventually become known as Brownian Motion.  In short Brownian motion is a mathematical way to explain the erratic and constant movement of particles in fluids.  These two papers would eventually be used to put to rest the arguments that atoms didn’t exist

The fourth paper is one of his most well known, its the special theory of relativity paper that most of us have heard of.  This paper along with the fifth are probably the two most well known to the general public.  The fourth paper, special theory of relativity, states that in special relativity, time and space are not absolute, but relative to the motion of the observer.  Which means that two people traveling at high speeds might not always experience the same events and in fact  wouldn’t even observe the same measurements in their space.  In this theory Einstein argued that the only constant to the two people would be the speed of light.  The speed of light is also the limiting factor in any mass, stating that nothing can travel faster.  The fifth paper expands on this and offers the most well known mathematics equation in history, E=MC².

Sadly it took years for Einstein to be recognized for most of his work.  He was always welcome in physics circuits and continued to write papers for years.  Einstein would marry, father a child, divorce, then marry again, to his cousin….  He would also become known as one of the greatest minds of all time.  His theories would help crack the atom, both for good (atomic power) and bad (atomic weapons)  He became the poster child for science, a virtual rock star, to this day he still appears on shirts, posters and even in video games.  Microsoft used his likeness in old versions of office (you had to chose it over that stupid paper clip.)  There’s way more about Einstein then I listed here worth looking into.  You could always wikipedia or google him, you can also check 0ut the official site http://einstein.biz/.  I also recommend this book Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Life-Universe-Walter-Isaacson/dp/0743264746/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1331742336&sr=8-4 It’s a great read and gives a lot of insight into his personal life.

“Time to party like its 1899!”

Well I hope you learned something and thanks for reading!

John