Every year, there are millions and millions of random facts and statistics gathered by researchers, scientists, and analysts. These numbers are often times too large to interpret and the shear magnitude of the numbers can be overwhelming. Here are 20 figures scaled down to 60 seconds in order to grasp how wild some of these numbers are.
Sherlock Holmes and Other Literary Action Heroes
By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
I saw Sherlock Holmes this weekend and what the New York Times calls “intermittently diverting” I would reclassify as “wildly entertaining,” but then, I realized that perhaps I just have a fondness for literary-characters-turned-action-heroes. No, it’s not for the Holmes purist; we all know that Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes wasn’t so much for physical violence, but I can’t help but agree with Guy Ritchie that if he were, that calculating mind might not be a bad asset in a brawl.
The whole idea makes me go back to The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (and I should note since I’m mentioning it fondly that I refer to the graphic novel rather than the film) where literary heroes jump off the page into proto-super-heroes. And in Sherlock Holmes we get that same kind of steampunky atmosphere in a greasy picture of Victorian London that makes it pretty visually spectacular for those of you who like that sort of thing.
Whatever geeky button this film pushes for me, I think there may be more to come. After all, Natalie Portman is going to turn Elizabeth Bennet into a zombie-slaying action heroine in the film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Some think it’s literary blasphemy, to which I say: we’re not burning books here! You can still read/enjoy/love the original – but with another Holmes beating guys up and getting caught in explosions, it’s like two for the price of one.
So what’s next in the world of literary action heroes? Lockwood as an undercover ghost hunter in Wuthering Heights? Great Expectations‘ Estella trained not just to break men’s hearts but to break their skulls? Gone with the Wind as a space opera with Scarlet as a planet-hopping black widow? The possibilities are endless!
How to Become a Computer Expert
How Traffic Lights Work
For those who’ve always wondered how those old mechanical traffic lights work (there is still quite a few of these around btw!), check the following video out:
Yeah, we know, this one is pretty old and probably dates back from the 90s, but it explains how these things work in such a simple and interesting way that we just had to share it.
[Via Reddit]
The Fine Art of Not Knowing [Science!]
Richard Feynman, Carl Sagan, S. James Gates, Jr., and Freeman Dyson discusses science, human knowledge and the unknown.
New Year’s Eve brings lunar rarity
In a wonderful quirk of coincidence December 31st, 2009 is not just New Year’s Eve. It’s not just the end of a decade. It’s also a night of a blue moon… in partial eclipse.
A blue moon occurs when there are 13 full moons during a calendar year rather than 12. This is the result of the fact that the lunar cycle is slightly shorter than our calendar months, meaning there is an “extra” full moon every 2.7 years.
Exactly which full moon during a year should be classed as the blue moon is open to debate. It’s generally referred to as the second full moon of a calendar month, though this is though to be a misinterpretation of a definition used by farmers which classed the blue moon as the fourth full moon of a season. (Under this system, the first full moon of a season is the one closest to the relevant solstice or equinox.)
That means that whether next week brings a blue moon depends on your definition. The farmers’ method would have the next blue moon in November next year. And thanks to time zones, the more common calendar method means that anyone from the Indian and eastern time zone (UTC +5 and -5 respectively) will consider the forthcoming full moon to be the first of January, thus making the “blue moon” a few weeks later.
Still, that’s all human construct. What certainly isn’t is the partial lunar eclipse. That’s when the Earth is placed in between the sun and the moon, such that the sun’s rays are blocked and the moon appears to be in a shadow. It usually happens twice a year, and for it to happen with a blue moon is particularly rare: depending on your location and definition, it happened just four times in 20th century.
The peak of the shadow this time round will be at 19:22:39 UTC (that’s also known as Greenwich Mean Time or UK time) and will be visible in most of Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia. So as a very generalized guide:
- North and South America: Blue moon, but no visible eclipse.
- Europe, Africa and Middle East: Blue moon, visible eclipse
- Asia and Australasia: Full moon (not blue), visible eclipse
And as if the decade’s end/blue moon/partial eclipse wasn’t freaky enough, get this: it occurs on the final day of the International Year of Astronomy.
Fusion is Energy’s Future
Physicist Steven Cowley is certain that nuclear fusion is the only truly sustainable solution to the fuel crisis. In the following video presentation, he explains why fusion will work — and details the projects that he and many others have devoted their lives to, working against the clock to create a new source of energy.
Kid Goes Bonkers Over New Xbox 360
As Christmas day has just passed, let us present you with our obligatory “kid going crazy over a new console” video of the year.
And just in case you want more, you can always check last year’s videos, which in my opinion, were slightly more entertaining than this one!
[Via Gizmodo]
Steve Jobs: How to live before you die
Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death itself — at the university’s 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.