Thursday, February 12, 2009

stuff

-Since I've moved out of the country I've noticed that America has way too many traffic regulations. I never see accidents in Korea, but about everyday in America you see a fender bender. Here's a thorough explanation of why this might be.

But driving in China is, apparently, a horse of a different color. Well, at least the Chinese written drivers license exam is. Here is an actual question from the exam: "If someone's intestines are protruding from an open abdominal wound, should you: A. Put them back in place; B. Do nothing; or C. Cover them with some kind of container and fasten it around the body?"

What? I would probably do D. Throw up all over myself, cry, then faint. The answer is C. I'm sure you're a good person, but there is no way I'm going to touch your intestines. And if my entrails are ever strewn about in your presence, feel no pressure to cover them with some kind of container and fasten it around my body. I'll just wait for the doctor.

-What's the nerdiest think you've ever done? Well, take solace, friend. Analyzing the Physics of the Death Star is much, much, nerdier.



It made blowing up an Earth sized planet like Alderaan look easy, but actually took about 2.2 x 10^32 joules of energy to do so. This might be a lot of energy depending on whether you know what a joule is. And I most certainly don't. I prefer all my energy measurements in "days it could power Las Vegas." Scientists have also discovered that it takes 1.21 gigawatts to time travel.

-Roberto Alomar might have AIDS. What I like about this story is you get quotes like this, "She said follow-up exams determined that Alomar had full-blown AIDS." What's "full-blown AIDS?" Is there a spectrum for how much AIDS you can have? You're a little AIDSy. You have some AIDS. You have lots of AIDS. You have full-blown AIDS.

-Keith Law, at ESPN, has ranked all the farm systems in baseball. Here's the AL Central: Indians - 7 Royals - 9 White Sox - 14 Twins - 22 Tigers - 25. I guess it's better to be high on this list than low, but I'm pretty indifferent. I haven't read what he said about the Twins because you have to be an "ESPN Insider" to read the whole thing, and I would rather have full-blown AIDS than pay money to be an EPSN Insider.

5 comments:

haasertime said...

So the gf is suing Alomar for what exactly? The stories I read didn't say if she contracted aids or hiv from him.


I read somewhere that in order to build the death star, entire planets natural resources would have been devastated. I don't understand how they could have done it in secret, what with mines all over to solar system.

Did you know the second death star was about 5 times larger than the first? I still don't understand when they started building it. It took over 20 years to complete the dinky first DS. But the huge second one popped up in episode 6 out of nowhere.

bizmarkie507 said...

well wasn't it like 10-15 years between the first death star blowing up and the beginning of return of the jedi?

And it always takes longer for the first of something to be built than the second. plus it looked like it was about 3/4 of the way finished. I have no problem with the timeline here.

But I do think its silly that it takes an entire planet's resource to build one of those things. They figured out how to travel through hyperspace yet they haven't figured out alternative resources? That's so not how a type 3 civilization works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHbnM_42mQE

soup said...

Well, they definitely found an alternative source for energy.

But, it would still take a ton of physical material to make it. This galaxy - a long time ago and far, far away - maybe found alternatives to iron, copper, and the like, but they had to take some kind of physical material from a planet(S). So, what Haas read could be accurate.

Travis Mattson said...

In re: to the degrees of AIDS thing, I always thought it was more of a series like: You have the HIV but don't know it yet (asymptomatic), you have the HIV and know it (symptomatic -- immune system starts shitting the bed), HIV -> AIDS, AIDS, and then you die... Unless of course, you're Magic Johnson (see South Park episode), in which case money cures it.

bizmarkie507 said...

but type three civilizations have the science and technologies to create atoms and molecules and elements, so mining would not be necessary. but either way its just a fictional story.