nef’s blog

Since I have sucked SOOO bad when it comes to posting on my blog I thought I should at least provide you something to read while I figure out if I am going to keep doing this blog thing or not. While browsing around for goofy stuff as I always do I found a link to the Google Maps Guide to Ghostbusters. Yep, an interactive Google map that highlights most of the landmarks from the Ghostbusters I and II movies. Why? Beats the hell out of me. Probably “Why not?”.

Typically I find my best stuff not by looking at the widely publicized links such as this one, but digging deeper into a site. The more and more I read David’s site I realized that he was my type of trash. Just looking at his main page he executed on an idea that I recently had, but was too damned lazy to follow through on: Zephyrhills Natural Spring Water. Zephyr Hills is what it SHOULD be… instead they decided to run the words together and now market their product so it looks like a drug, or more to my thinking like a disease.

Further down the page I found it. Wit combined with a cheap optical illusion: The Pacifist Chess Set.

This is good stuff. Besides, I really like the site design. Very cool looking. I’m adding Ironic Sans to my bookmarks, and suggest you do the same.

Since the response has been so good this time, and I don’t want to be dragging this out for a month I’m doing a couple of postings a day and will be answering as many questions as I can fit into about a 15-30 minute period. Here’s the next batch… the questions from the 7th, 8th, and 9th comment…

Why did my feet stop growing?

by kmsqrd
Short answer:Because your forearms quit growing. Yep. That’s right. From the crease in your inner elbow joint to your wrist is the exact length of your foot. *I see all of you crossing your legs over your lap to check*. Go ahead. It’s true.
Stupid/BS answer: Because you’re not a guy… you know what they say about guys with big feet…

1. Why are tennis balls fuzzy?
2. When do fish sleep?
3. How much would could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?
4. Finally, can I be any more unoriginal?

by theMike

1. Tennis ball fuzz, or properly referred to as nap or felt is made from a woolen textile product. The original lawn tennis balls back in the 1870s did not have felt, but were plain rubber. These plain rubber balls wore out quickly and had control issues. To help with these issues early balls were covered with flannel material. As technology advanced so did the cover. Modern textiles are man-made and much more resistant to soiling/staining, pilling/matting, etc. The felt has a direct impact on ball aerodynamics. The thickness of the nap, or how fluffed up it is can be directly correlated to the drag coefficient observed in the ball. This drag coefficient important because when combined with massive amounts of spin placed on the ball by different hitting methods (top-spin, back-spin) a negative pressure zone is created around the ball and it’s flight path is altered. During a standard stroke with very little spin the felt stabilizes the ball’s flight, much as the dimples on a golf ball help ensure a long, straight flight.
2. When they get tired.
3. Someone beat me to the annoying answer in their comments on the original post. My answer: It is irrelevant because a wood chuck can’t chuck wood.
4. Yes

When will my kids finally listen to me…THE FIRST TIME I ask them to do something???
by wendi

The stone cold truth: Based upon the experience with my kids, and recalling my own interaction with my parents, I think that they will need to be approximately 22 years old. Alternately it is possible, although highly unlikely unless we were to experience a nuclear winter followed by a destruction of our sun, that we see -500° Fahrenheit, which is the commonly accepted temperature that hell will freeze over at. Please see the handy chart below for further clarification:

THE OFFICIAL CANADIAN TEMPERATURE CONVERSION CHART

50° Fahrenheit (10° C)
Californians shiver uncontrollably.
Canadians plant gardens.

35° Fahrenheit (1.6° C)
Italian Cars won’t start
Canadians drive with the windows down

32° Fahrenheit (0 ° C)
American water freezes
Canadian water just gets thicker.

0° Fahrenheit (-17.9° C)
New York City landlords finally turn on the heat.
Canadians have their last BBQ of the season.

-60° Fahrenheit (-51° C)
Mt. St. Helens freezes.
Canadian Girl Guides sell cookies door-to-door.

-100° Fahrenheit (-73° C)
Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
Canadians pull down their earflaps.

-173° Fahrenheit (-114° C)
Ethyl alcohol freezes.
Canadians get frustrated when they can’t thaw the keg.

-460° Fahrenheit (-273° C)
Absolute zero; all atomic motion stops.
Canadians start saying “cold, eh?”

-500° Fahrenheit (-295° C)
Hell freezes over.
The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup

… hair.

Are you tired of your shirt being held a half of an inch off of your back? Are your friends grossed out when they slap you on the shoulder and they feel two impacts… your shirt and then your back… with a mild springy feeling in between.

Now that I have you all shivering with disgust (ahh.. hebegebes!)… I will give you the solution:

Back Hair Removal Solved - Razorba Back Hair Shaver

Oh… and I HAVE to provide a visual aid. As demonstrated on G4TechTV:

Here’s a.. game… time diversion.. fun thing to do.. etc..

Check it out… do you need to search for something on the web? Use the following link and see which of three very popular search engines give you the most relevant results.
The Search Engine Experiment

Yeah, my favorite engine was the best in my example and according to the majority of people taking part in the experiment. Which was the best for YOU?

Colored Bubbles?!?! Madness, I say! So did a lot of other people. Fortunately for us Tim Kehoe didn’t listen. He spent well over 10 years and ruined a lot of things via experiments gone awry in his kitchen until he got the financial backing needed to hire a chemist to help him achieve his dream. Ram Sabnis, who holds a Ph.D. in dye chemistry solved the problem of creating a dye that would stay evenly dispersed in the walls of the bubble, but disappear when the bubble pops or comes in contact with water.

Popular Science has a great story on how Zubbles cam into being.

The Zubbles! home page has photos, information and even a video of kids playing with Zubbles.

Very cool stuff.

Photo by John B. Carnett for Popular Science

I’m serious.

1) Be sure you blow before your first breath
2) Hope nobody ‘upstream’ had beans last night

I think I would rather suffocate then be caught sucking air out of a sewage vent tube.

Actually, I don’t believe what I’m seeing:

Be sure you get one of these so you can listen to your Dio and 50 cent, but feel good about it. I think they need to make one in 24 caret gold leaf for that sweet bling factor.