- The most popular myths in science:
http://www.livescience.com/bestimg/index.php?url=myths_gumballs_03.jpg&cat=myths

- Seven reasons why the 21st century is making you miserable: (Number #8 should be the democrats re-gaining control of congress.)
http://www.cracked.com/index.php?name=News&sid=2370

- Which is more painful...an ant bite, a honey-bee sting, or a hornet bite? Does someone actually keep track of these things? They sure do, and it's called the Schmidt Sting Pain index. It's a list of the various types of insect bite/stings and how painful each one is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmidt_Sting_Pain_Index

- I hate injections. Let me state this one more time...I HATE NEEDLES!!! I simply cannot stand the thought of sharp metal pushing into my skin. Well, injections may soon be a thing of the past. It's about freakin time!!!
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3584538&page=1

- A map showing the majority religion in each county of the United States. Fascinating to see which religions are strongest in each part of the country. I could stare at this map for hours:
http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/pics/geo200/religion/church_bodies.gif

- Newt Gingrich writes a scathing article regarding my hometown and its pathetic school system. I don't care for Newt's personality nor how he handles his personal affairs, but I agree with his politics about 99% of the time. Too bad the city of Detroit will never listen to ideas like his:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070808/OPINION01/708080311/1008

- A 16 page piece from the New Yorker magazine about Rudy Giuliani. The article tilts left (it's the New Yorker after all), but it has some really good biographical information about America's mayor. In a future update, I will explain why I am supporting Rudy for president and why he has the best chance, of any republican candidate, to defeat Hillary:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_boyer

- Do you download software, music or videos from the internet? Eight years ago, Napster was all the rage. A few years after that, programs like Limewire, Bearshare, and eMule used P2P (peer to peer) technology for sharing files across the net. Now the latest craze for stealing stuff on the net is bittorrent. Here is a beginner's guide to understanding bittorrent and how to use it successfully:
http://lifehacker.com/software/ultranewb/a-beginners-guide-to-bittorrent-285489.php

- History's ten most over-looked mysteries. One of these on the list I wrote about a few years ago on this site (the Voynich Manuscript.) I would add the Roanoke colony to this list (which I also wrote about on this site.)
http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/top10_history_mysteries-1.html

- The rare river dolphin of China is no longer rare...it is now extinct. The first animal to go extinct in 50 years. I am certainly no animal-rights activist, but it is a shame to see a whole species disappear. Oh well, it will be back. Fifty years from now we will clone the sucker!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6935343.stm

- A computer scientist proves that a Rubik's cube can be solved with only 26 moves. I can easily match two sides of the cube, and occasionally I was able to get three sides. I was never able to solve it:
http://blog.sciencenews.org/mathtrek/2007/08/cracking_the_cube.html

- Winnie Cooper is a math genius! Kevin's struggles with mathematics and the relationship he formed with his hard-nosed math teacher are my favorite episodes of the Wonder Years. More about the real Winnie Cooper and why math is so important:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2007-08-13-danica-mckellar_N.htm

- Can you survive in outer space without a space-suit? The answer might surprise you:
http://www.slate.com/id/2171522/nav/navoa/

- Computers can now automatically beat humans at checkers, and for all practical purposes can also beat humans at chess. Can a computer beat a professional at a game of Texas-hold'em poker? Follow this link to find out:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/business/26poker.html?hp

- Lunar eclipse August 28th. I will be watching, will you?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070723/sc_space/planaheadtotallunareclipseaug28

- Bowling is making a bit of a comeback in the states. It was very popular in the 70s and 80s but took a huge dive in the 90s. I am a horrible bowler, but I know a great deal about the sport. Bowling has always been big in family:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0724gr-bowling0724-ON.html

- Do you know the difference between tan, khaki and beige? How about the difference between dark blue, navy blue, and midnight blue? Almost every color you can think of has an official name. Here is a website with names of some of the most popular colors. Next time someone tells you that they want to paint their nursery "coral" you will know which color they are talking about:
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/07/24/32-common-color-names-for-easy-reference/

- Ten rules for writing numbers and numerals. Here are two rules I personally try to follow, which you wont find on the following website:
I almost always put a slash "/" through any zero I write on a piece of paper, and I always say "zero" instead of "o" when telling someone a phone number. To a computer scientist there is a huge difference between a "zero" and an "o."
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/10-rules-for-writing-numbers-and-numerals/

- How to predict the weather without a forecast:
http://www.wikihow.com/Predict-the-Weather-Without-a-Forecast

- Can you name the 43 presidents in ten minutes? I named 40 of the 43. I forgot the 8th president, the 14th president and the 21st president:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/presidents.php

- The 30 wealthiest Americans of all-time, adjusted for inflation. Most of these guys were around during the reign of the 21st president:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html#

- I gave up on the The Onion a few years ago. It's just too left-wing for me, but a contributor at NRO (National Review Online) posted a link to the following article on The Onion. It is hilarious!!!
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/john_edwards_vows_to_end_all_bad

- According to the following scientist, humanity has to get off this rock and onto Mars in 46 years or we are all doomed! I have always felt that we need to leave the earth eventually if humans want to keep on thriving, but we have more than 46 years. We have plenty of time. No rush. Perhaps what you will gain most of all from this article is a discussion of the Copernican Principle, which I had never heard of until I read this piece:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/science/17tier.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

- Computers can no longer lose at checkers: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070719/ap_on_hi_te/solving_checkers

- Which Desperate Housewife are you? My girlfriend forced me to take this quiz! (I am joking. I was happy to try it.) Apparently I am Bree. I have only seen the show a few times, so I have no idea if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I have a gut feeling it's not something to brag about:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/quiz/index.html

- The seven most annoying things about the immediate future:
http://valleywag.com/tech/modern-and-awkward/the-seven-most-annoying-things-about-the-future-270430.php

- That Jack Bauer guy sure has friends in high places. Apparently Justice Antonin Scalia is a big fan of the show 24, and recently used moments from the show to justify pieces of his judicial philosophy: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070616.BAUER16/TPStory/TPNational/Television/

- How many bytes are in a megabyte? How many meters are in a kilometer? You probably know those answers by heart, but do you know how many bits are in a terabit? Muahaha! The following chart shows all of the prefixes for units. Get use to the prefixes tera, peta, and exo. They will become relevant in the next ten years:
http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/prefixes.html

- Speaking of petabytes, IBM created a new super-computer that can do over 1 petaflop (1 quadrillon or 1,000,000,000,000,000) operations in a second. It's articles like this that motivate me to finish my computer science degree:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/ibm-unveils-one-petaflop-blue-gene-p-supercomputer/#comments

- Why do certain colors represent certain items or ideas? For example, why is the Master's jacket always green? Why are republican states red and democratic voting states blue? The next two links explains these color-related questions, and many more:
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/05/01/11-great-color-legends/
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/07/03/13-more-great-color-legends/

- A few days ago, my brother pointed out that the Nathan's hot-dog eating contest is coming up. No one is a bigger fan of Kobayashi (the ultimate competitive eating champion) then I am, but I am pulling for Joey Chesnut. The name alone makes Joey a legend! He sounds like he should be sticking-up airports with Henry Hill or having a calzone with Sil and Tony. Besides, the Cooney Island hot-dog contest is on Independence Day, and Joey Chestnut is a true-blue American! You gotta root for him!

I think we should have a little wagering pool amongst us friends. Let's each pick who will win and how many hot-dogs the winner actually eats. I am picking Joey Chesnut, and I think he will eat 54 dogs.

Here is a wikipedia article about Joey Chesnut. He aint some old, fat slob like many competitive eaters. He is just a regular, 23 year-old college student from California:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Chestnut

- Ten super-hero powers that can (nearly) be duplicated with modern technology:
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2007/05/04/10_techs_that_g.html

- Another typing test. I can barely break 50 words per minute with this one. That makes me think it is a good test:
http://www.jonmiles.co.uk/fingerjig.php

- Wireless, wireless, wireless. Everything is going wireless these days. Your internet, your console gaming machines, your home phones, etc. What if scientists could figure out how to transfer electricity wirelessly? Now that would rock! Well, that technology is on the way. The ramifications are staggering:
Wireless electricity

- The Sopranos TV show has ended. I will truly miss it. IMO, The Sopranos was a hit and miss TV series. Sometimes it was the best TV has ever offered, and other times it was boring, chaotic, and completely off the mark. Only a few people read this site, and of those who watch the Sopranos I know you kids have already seen the finale, so what I write in this update will not spoil it for anyone.

The final episode was a HUGE disappointment to me. I know that one of the big selling points of the Sopranos was that many of the storylines were open-ended and the show was never meant to give closure, but come on! I really needed some kind of resolution to Tony's story and some of the other major plot elements. David Chase owed us. Instead, he rubbed our faces in it. I always knew that Chase had contempt for his audience and the final episode clearly proves it. My best interpretation of the finale is that Tony got iced, and that's why it ended so abruptly. The whole show was based around him. I am guessing that Tony got shot in the head and that's why the show suddenly went dark. Here is an article supporting the same theory:
Sopranos Ending

- The last Civil War veteran died in 1959 (the war ended in 1865.) World War I started in 1914, ended in 1918, and America entered WWI in 1917. If the youngest American WWI veterans were 16 or 17 years of age in 1917, then simple math tells you that America's youngest WWI veterans are now at least 106 or 107 years old. For this reason, there are very few veterans left from WWI. In the next few years, there will be no one left who fought in WWI. Here is a list of all known veterans (from the Allied side) of WWI. According to my counting, there are only ten Americans veterans still living:
http://www.answers.com/topic/surviving-veterans-of-world-war-i

- Which Star Wars character matches best with your personality? Take this test to find out. My match was Yoda (I was hoping it would be Obi-wan.)
http://www.liquidgeneration.com/Media/Default.aspx?MediaId=1415

- Five scandals which rocked the art world:
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/04/24/5-scandals-that-rocked-art/

- Please tell me that none of you use any of the following passwords on the net. I have about a dozen different passwords that I use for my various email addresses, websites and messageboards I visit. Here is a list of the ten most commonly used passwords:
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/14095

- Last week astronomers found a planet with similarities to our own shiny-blue orb. It's only 50 light-years away, which is a hop, skip and a jump compared to the known size of the universe. Is there really anyone out there who thinks that life doesn't exist beyond the earth? The odds of us being completely alone is insanely low! As my brother and I keep saying, I hope we find them first before they find us. If they have the technology to find us, then they have the technology to ruin us.
Earth-like planet

- A wonderful article about Frank Miller, the famed comic-book writer:
LA Times Article on Frank Miller

- Someday you wont have to use a clunky controller to play your Xbox or Playstation games. Imagine the possibilities of a game system which could read your thoughts. I can see this technology being applied to alot more than video games:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8OQTFQO1.htm

- New methods of resuscitation are changing the way scientists and doctors bring people back from the brink of death:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18368186/site/newsweek/

- A 2600 foot tall skyscraper in Kuwait? Will be finished by 2008? My goodness! I wish America still raced to have the tallest buildings:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20070501/bs_bw/may2007gb20070501516453

- Yeah, yeah, yeah...I swore off the Oscars last year with a blistering attack on their politics and morality, but darnit, I love make Oscar predictions, so here we go:

Best Picture: Toughest category to pick this year. I am going with Babel, because it has a political message, and Hollyweird loves a movie with a message.

Best Director: Scorsese finally squeaks one out, but he should have won for Goodfellas.

Best Actor: Forrest Whittaker. However, I wish Peter O'Toole would win. IMO, O'Toole is the greatest actor to never win an Oscar. How he didn't win for Lawrence of Arabia is beyond me (he was awarded a life-time achievement Oscar, which he almost turned down.)

Best Actress: Helen Mirren. Easiest pick of the night.

Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy.

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson. 2nd easiest pick of the night.

Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine.

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed.

- 50 things we know now that we didnt know last year:
http://www.tbo.com/life/MGBUFCRF5WE.html

- Do you have what it takes to be president? Take the following quiz to find out:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php?q=40

-Almost lost a finger during shop-class in high school? Don't worry about it. Soon, you will be able to grow a new finger if you lose one:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/19/ap/tech/mainD8NCNHQO0.shtml

- The origins of meanings, phrases, sayings and idioms:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/index.html

- I would never, ever move to New York city. Heck, I have no plans on ever leaving the Phoenix area, but I found the following article fascinating. It is a guide for how to move from one city to another. Some very good tips on city-dwelling, even if you arent planning on moving:
Moving to New York City

- A list of the most difficult novels to film. I agree completely with the selections. A truly wonderful list:
http://www.screenhead.com/reviews/the-unfilmables-a-list-of-the-hardest-novels-to-film/'

- Love to debate people on the internet? I use to spend WAY TOO MUCH time arguing with people over messageboards. I grew out of it, but the following website is devoted to people who want to start a topic, and then discuss/debate/argue about it:
http://www.convinceme.net/index.php

- I hate the Daily Show and the Colbert Report (by the way, his real name is pronounced "Steve Col-Bert", not "Stephen Colbare". He changed it when he got to Hollywood.) I have always hoped that someone would create a conservative version of both these shows to fight the lies and hypocrisies each show spews out to the public. Well, Fox News is working on such a comedy show. Here is an article all about it. However, don't get your hopes up. Just today I read that Fox News only signed on for two episodes of the show. Apparently the humor in the first few episodes was very hit-and-miss.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117954244.html?cs=1

- Have you heard of the battle between HD-DVD and Blue-ray? They are the two new DVD technologies fighting it out for supremacy of your TV and computer. Both sides have major contributors. HD-DVD has Time/Warner and Microsoft. Blue-ray has Sony and the adult entertainment industry. I have followed this struggle fairly closely, and from everything I have read, the battle is almost over. Looks like HD-DVD will win. Here is an article explaining why:
http://news.digitaltrends.com/talkback158.html

- Since I am a huge Batman fan, it's only natural that I would also be a fan of The Shadow. Alec Baldwin did a movie adaptation of the pulp crime-fighter 12 years ago, but the movie was dreadful and tanked at the box office. Well, now the director of the wildly popular Spider-Man movies is taking a crack at Lamont Cranston. Personally, I don't care for Sam Raimi's directing style, and I think the Spider-Man movies are mediocre at best, but at least someone is willing to take another shot at the man who can cloud men's minds:
The Shadow returns

- Since we are on the subject of movies...do you think that every morning, when Harrison Ford wakes up, he thanks the almighty that he met George Lucas? Probably not, but he should. Yesterday uncle George told the press that they are finally doing a 4th Indiana Jones movie. It starts filming in 2007, and will be released in 2008. 2008 is shaping up to be a very interesting movie-year. A new Batman movie, an Iron Man movie, and now an Indiana Jones movie.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,240177,00.html

- NASA plans a permanent moon-base by 2024. It's about time!
Back to the Moon

- Ten gadgets that changed the world:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredphotos6/

- I didn't know that Hunter S. Thompson grew up in Louisville. That must explain why his descriptions of the Kentucky Derby are so darn funny and bizarre. Here is his most famous article about the 1970 Derby:
http://www.derbypost.com/hunter.html

- The 15 best places to waste time on the internet:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128122/article.html

- The top 15 strangest coincidences (I am sick of the Lincoln/Kennedy coincidences, but the rest of the site is worth reading.)
http://2spare.com/item_51964.aspx

- Place the 50 states onto an empty map of the U.S as quickly as you can. I scored an 88% accuracy and finished the test in less than 3 minutes.
http://subliminalmessages.com/vip39.htm

- As many of you know, I am going back to ASU this spring to finish my degree in computer science. I am taking another crack at calculus. I haven't taken a calculus class in 10 years, but I am looking forward to the challenge. I found the following ASU calculus readiness test on the internet. After looking over the test, I am encouraged. I can answer most of these questions, but not necessarily in the proper fashion. I think I will print this test, and do each question correctly before my class starts.
http://math.asu.edu/fym/calcreadinesstest.html

- A few weeks ago I received a very funny, and very surprising phone message from the madman and socialist-stooge Alec Baldwin! When I answered the phone, it sure seemed like Mr. Baldwin was actually talking to me. He knew my name, knew where I was from, even knew what I do for a living and that I like to play video games! After some investigation, I found that the official NBC website for the TV show 30 Rock (which I highly recommend you watch. It's a well-written show) allows you to send personalized voice messages recorded by Alec Baldwin to anyone with a phone number. I suspect whomever played this prank on me also played it on many of the people who read this site:
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/12/25/Floridian/Heard_from_Alec_Baldw.shtml

- Do you know the difference between "its" and "it's"? Do you also know the difference between "there", "their" and "they're"? Take this test to find out. I scored 10 out of 10, and it's because of my website that I scored so well. Four years ago I would have missed a few of these:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/its_there_quiz.htm

- More optical illusions! Can't get enough of this stuff:
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/