It’s Mythbusters day again, and this time Adam and Jamie are testing the strength of duct tape in some rather interesting ways. Like using it to lift up a car, for example. This is a pretty cool demo, but there’s one thing that irked me: on the show, there was quite a bit of speculation along the lines of “Can duct tape really hold up a car?” Yes, in fact, duct tape can hold up anything, if you use enough of it. As they suggested in the show, when you’re using strips of tape (or string etc.) to hold up an object, the total force required is split among all the different strips of tape, and if your strips are approximately evenly distributed (in some particular sense), the force is approximately evenly split. With 100 strips of duct tape lifting a 5000 pound car, that’s an average of about 50 pounds per strip, which is reasonably within the limit that Adam and Jamie found (albeit somewhat unscientifically) — even accounting for the fact that some strips are carrying more weight than others.

There is no better answer than that to be found here:

http://talklikeaphysicist.com/2009/talk-like-a-physicist-is-the-glass-half-full-or-half-empty/

Wait, what?

Just stumbled across this nifty little idea: that a particle moving at high speed can actually repel a stationary object in the other direction. I haven’t read the paper but if the summary is to be believed, this is very cool. Although it’s not actually faster-than-light propulsion, so not quite the hyperdrive of science fiction.

Gotta love this: http://michael-jansen.biz/blog/mike/2009-09-12/we-are-done

Way back when I was first looking for a program to display TV schedule listings, I tried TV-Browser and decided against it because the listings are arranged in a big grid so that you have to scroll sideways pretty far to see what’s on the various channels. But now, I decided to take a closer look at it and I’m thinking that the other features of the program may be enough to make up for that. Up until today, I’ve mostly been using Maxemum TV Guide, which, while being perfectly adequate, is rather bland. The user interface is pretty basic, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but it gives the impression that not a lot of work was put into the design. This is clearly not the case with TV-Browser. There’s a lot of information, a lot of options, and the grid organization is more intuitive than Maxemum TV Guide’s simple list. Plus, it looks like you can define channel groups to limit the amount of data shown at any one time, which kind of reduces my major complaint. So it looks like I’m switching to TV-Browser.

This is interesting: Utah has passed a law imposing stiff penalties for typing text messages while driving.

This is more interesting: apparently that is a big deal. Because according to the article, all other states (except Alaska, sort of), have practically no penalty at all. Typing while driving is generally treated as an accidental cause of a crash, in the same league falling asleep at the wheel or (I presume) losing control of the car, because supposedly people don’t know that it’s a risky activity.

Wait, WTF?

Okay, first of all, when did being stupid become an excuse? For potentially killing people? Real accidents, like falling asleep at the wheel, are out of people’s control (well, to some extent), but typing is absolutely not. You had to consciously make the choice to pull out your phone and take your attention away from the road to push those keys. I fail to comprehend how anyone could think this would be a good idea.

And besides: how is it that we need to take our regulatory cues from Utah? Seriously, get it together, states.

How’s this for a survey question:

Please indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with each of the following statements on a scale from (1) strongly disagree ro (9) strongly agree.

 

I have a pet.

1 - Strongly Disagree

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 - Strongly Agree

Do I strongly not have a pet, or only halfheartedly not have a pet? Does that mean I halfheartedly do have a pet?

I’m putting 5. Schrödinger’s cat.

Observe, if you will, the following incident that took place between me and one of my friends at a wedding reception this weekend:

He shows me a text message he’s sending,

Actually, I == teh drunk.

Wedding reception

Me: “I see you didn’t forget the double equals”

Him: “Yeah, all my text messages compile properly”

Me: “Although, I guess in this case using a single equals would be a quick shortcut to getting drunk…”

Him: [rofl] “How are you not an alcoholic with a mind like that?”