A picture is worth a thousand notes

David, rural Illinois — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:47:39 GMT

Yep, Wal-Mart clinics will definitely have an effect here in America's rural heartland. Easing up on emergency rooms and better rural access could be big advantages.

I lived in a large city for several years, so I know how most urbanites and suburbanites feel about Wal-Mart. But what must be understood is that in many rural areas, for many items, there simply is no where else to get them.

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Dave — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:08:50 GMT

I'm not sure which I want to see more - the new Indy movie or this Get Smart one. I can't wait!

Thanks for the link to that crayon physics game. Seems like they want to get that on the Wii asap - that'd make me buy it right now. So much fun!

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Monterey Jackson, Clearwater, FL — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:43:09 GMT

Scratch the surface at somethingawful and you may find the impetus behind the rickrolling/scientology thing - it's war!

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Chuck, Boston — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:01:41 GMT

What exactly is the mindblowing environmental statement being made? That all the water on the surface of the earth rolled up into a sphere looks small compared to the whole earth?

A picture is worth a thousand notes

missy, provo. UT — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:37:45 GMT

Just to clarify the Disk under the keyboard story, in the UK the home office is "the government department responsible for leading the national effort to protect the public from terrorism, crime and anti-social behaviour." http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/about-us/

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Dave K, Salt Lake City, Utah — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:50:32 GMT

Remember, our war on terrorism is a just and good fight, and God is on our side.

When I was in the military I believed we were above that. We are the good guys. Either that treatment was official policy -or- commanders allowed that treatment to happen. Either way, heads should have rolled, but the highest ranking person charged with any crime was only a Lt. Colonel (and aquitted of all charges).

I'm proud of my service, but I don't usually tell people that I'm retired military these days.

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Will Femia — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 17:19:47 GMT

Chuck, yeah. How often do we hear that three quarters of the Earth's surface is water? To me that sounds like a vastness that's pretty resilient. But it's a deceptive statistic because three quarters of the Earth's volume is definitely not water (on this chart). I realize the air example is more complicated given how volume and density are related but still, not a vast as I would have guessed.

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:15:26 GMT

per magnetic field comment from terrahertz:

NO ONE has spotted the appalling science error in the article title.

NO THEY ARE NOT LIGHTING UP DUE TO 'MAGNETIC FIELDS'!

They are lighting up due to the AC electrostatic field between the lines and the ground. Those lines are typically 330,000 Volts AC. The wires are maybe 30 meters up. That's a field gradient of 11,000 V per meter.
----------
mercury vapor in the bulbs conducts and glows around 400 volts (which is normally produced by the fluorescent ballast in a light fixture), the electrostatic field of 11,000 volts mentioned above is higher than that.
-
another note, however, is that the electrostatic and electromagnetic fields around those power wires are the reason those tall high-voltage towers are situated far away from people, with a wide open unused ground space below them.

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Steve, Dunedin — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 20:27:51 GMT

Not as easy to draw, but you can do most things in crayon physics using phun ( http://www.acc.umu.se/~emilk/ )

A picture is worth a thousand notes

John, Chicago, IL — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:20:02 GMT

Re: Crayon Physics
They have two things like this coming to the PS3. The first one is an actual game called LittleBigPlanet that uses preformed items that you can drop into the "game" world and create your own levels to share online with others. The other item has been shown to work with the PSEye. You point the camera down toward a blank piece of paper, draw or photograph whatever you want and the object is rendered into the game. The video they have of it working showed them playing a tank game. I don't have the tank readily available but you can find it at the Official Playstation site in the forums.

A picture is worth a thousand notes

Isabel, LA CA — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:55:51 GMT

Thank you for the note on Kareem's new blog. He also just released his new audio book "On the shoulders of Giants", which you can check here: kareemabduljabbar.com. I believe this audio book will be his new skyhook... He is really unstoppable!

A picture is worth a thousand notes

arul vigg, adelaid, sydney — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:19:02 GMT

nice work, enjoyed it thoroughly keep it up mate!!
by arul vigg.