I know, the sun doesn’t look green. But, keep in mind the sky looks blue and we know it’s not really blue. The sky appears blue for the same reason some people’s eyes look blue – an optical illusion known as the Tyndall effect.

When scientists measure the wavelength (color) of the sun, the peak output is in the transition area between blue and green (about 500 nanometers). So, technically, the sun is green-blue. But, why doesn’t it look green?

It doesn’t look green because it also emits light at other wavelengths, enough that our eyes blending these wavelengths together perceive the combination as white light. Because of the way our eyes work, we can only see a green star (such as the sun) if its photons are limited to the green range. Therefore, you’ll never actually see a green star (as green).

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photo: Roxanne (cc)

sources: earthsky.org, discover magazine, blogstronomy

YouTube was once the king of online video bandwidth. They still make a significant dent, especially in Europe where they account for more than 20% of peak downstream mobile traffic.

In North America, Netflix is the largest single consumer of bandwidth. At peak, they’re tasked with 33% of downstream internet traffic. Off peak, they’re responsible for about 28.8% of downstream bandwidth.

As Netflix continues to expand into South America and Europe, they will certainly impose a bigger footprint on networks in those regions. Interestingly, they may also have a calming effect on other local internet traffic. Analysis shows that bit-torrent traffic, sometimes used to pirate movies and tv shows, actually decreases when Netflix is introduced into a market.

Since some Internet Service Providers slow down the internet for users running bit-torrent clients, Netflix may be something they’re willing to pay for.

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sources: sandvine.com, wikipedia (Netflix), torrentfreak.com

Potassium-40 is a fairly unstable isotope, although the half life is nearly a billion years.

Because bananas have so much of this isotope, there is enough decay to generate one positron (approximately) every 75 minutes.

A positron is basically the opposite of an electron. It has the same mass as an electron, but a positive charge instead of a negative one. It is the electron’s antimatter doppelgänger.

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photo: keepon (cc)

sources: tertiarysource.net, wikipedia (positron, gamma ray)

The youtube.com video player only has a few buttons on it, making it hard to freeze a video on a specific frame. But, using the keyboard shortcuts, you can control the video frame-by-frame or quickly expand it to fullscreen mode.

My favorite is probably the fullscreen shortcut; it’s much easier to hit the F key than move the mouse and click the fullscreen button. Here is a list of some other shortcuts:

Playback Controls:

• K – Play/Pause (spacebar does the same)
• J – Jump back 3 seconds when playing / jump back one frame when paused (Left Arrow Key does the same)
• L – Jump forward 3 seconds when playing / jump forward one frame when paused (right arrow key does the same)
• 0 – Jump to beginning
• 1-9 – The number keys can be used to jump to a relative point on the timeline. For example, 5 jumps to the 50% mark on the timeline, half way through the video. 1 jumps to the 10% mark and 9 jumps to the 90% mark.

Volume Controls:

• M – Mute
• Up Arrow – Increase Volume 5%
• Down Arrow – Decrease Volume 5%

View Control:

• F – Fullscreen (ESC to exit fullscreen)

This is great if you’re trying to spot a secret in a video or just cue up a clip to show a friend. From my testing, these keys work in Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

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Before we could even go to space, the myth was the great wall is visible from the moon. Ever since we got to space, astronauts have been looking for it.

Mathematically, the wall would have to be at least 70 miles (110 km) wide to be seen from the moon with unaided eyes. Since the wall has a maximum width of 30 ft (9.1 m), this is easily dismissed as myth. The moon legend came from a 1754 letter by William Stukeley; his remarks on the massive size of the wall could have been literary hyperbole. But, some people took it literally.

In his defense, there have been a few claims that the great wall can be seen from low earth orbit — as little as 100 miles (160 km). A number of astronauts have claimed they have seen it. Even the European Space Agency claimed it was visible and published a picture. A week later they issued a press release indicating it was actually a river and not the Great Wall of China.

NASA claims it, “generally isn’t [visible], at least to the unaided eye.” Mathematically, it’s the same answer, unless you have 20/3 or better vision. But, according to the Journal of Optometry, “Not even the best of human eyes at a simple glance could see the Great Wall of China from Space.” That’s because the anatomy of the eye limits vision to an acuity no greater than 20/9. So, 20/3 is impossible.

The gaza pyramids on the other hand are about 22 times wider than the Great Wall of China; they are visible from low earth orbit.

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Photo: Keith Roper (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (Great Wall of China), Journal of Optometry, NASA

The modern Olympics are all about athletics, but from 1912 to 1948 they also included competitions in art and science.

The main categories were as follows:

• Architecture
• Literature
• Music
• Painting
• Sculpturing
• Statistics

Some of the events included “town planning”, “Epic works” (long poems), “Drawings and water colors”, “Medals”. Yes, medals were given out for creating the best medals.

Art and science awards are an interesting concept for the Olympics even though we’re used to thinking about the Olympics as an athletic competition.

For example, if we look at the Men’s 100-meter sprint, the gold medal has demanded faster times in almost every competition. Usain Bolt won gold in 2012 with a time of 9.63. For comparison, it took 12 seconds to win the gold medal in 1896. Today, there are high school runners who can beat that time by more than a second and a half. In fact, that time would be good enough for a bronze medal in 1980.

There’s no doubting the athletic demand, but today’s runners also use the latest technology, equipment and knowledge to train and perform. That makes the Olympics a state-of-the-art competition, minus the art competition.

I say that tongue in cheek since it’s not entirely true. Although the art and science competitions were phased out after the 1948 Olympics, the tradition has not been lost – every Summer Olympics since 1948 has held an art exhibit during the games. The London Olympics 2012 Art Show featured artists from around the world. A Mexican-American from Tennessee won the first prize in Gallery One while an artist from India won the open call in Gallery Two.

Olympics aside, there are plenty of other awards for extraordinary contributions to art and science. Many of these winners make meaningful contributions to society and like our best athletes they devote entire lives to it. I wish these awards were as celebrated as our athletic awards. They might not be as fun to watch, but the achievements are equally inspiring.

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Photo: Craig Deakin (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (Olympic Art Medals), NYT

Unless you’ve specifically bought the full size Mac keyboard, you’re missing dedicated page up and page down keys.

But, you’re not missing out on the functionality; here are the shortcuts:

• Page Up: fn key + up arrow key
• Page Down: fn key + down arrow key

If you do want the dedicated keys, you can buy Apple’s full size keyboard or most windows keyboards will work with Macs too.

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If you have blonde hair and you’re planning a trip to Nigeria, you may want to visit your colorist first. The online visa application doesn’t have “blonde” as an option for hair color.

No research turned up any answers, although I have sent an inquiry and will report back with any findings.

Either way, there is a PDF you can print off and write in your hair color. However, if you’ve ever filled out a visa application you know how long they can take and how easily they can be rejected. If you want to play it safe, your best bet is probably to stay within the lines — dye your hair and fill out the online form.

You won’t need special contacts though, blue is an option for eye color.

Thanks to Ashley S. for sharing this secret with me.

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In many countries, Coca-Cola and most other soft drinks, are sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). This is not real sugar from cane or beets, it is a processed sweetener made from corn that is almost identical to natural sugar.

There have been some debates and studies about whether or not HFCS is bad for us. Without getting into it, I will say that some people don’t have a problem eating HFCS and other people do.

The reasons for avoiding HFCS vary widely and one of them has led to Kosher Coke. Because high fructose corn syrup is made from corn (a grain) it cannot be consumed by (Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jews who refrain from eating grains during passover.

You can spot Kosher Coke by the yellow cap on the bottle (white in Chicago). It typically has a Kosher certification symbol and sometimes Hebrew characters. If you live near Cleveland  the local bottler never switched to HFCS, so check the ingredients — your Coke might be perma-Kosher.

Whether you’re Jewish or not, you may want Kosher Coke because it has real sugar. But, Kosher Coke is not available everywhere. You may be able to find Mexican coke, which is popular in many American grocery stores, and it’s made with real cane sugar instead of corn sugar. There is also Pepsi Throwback, made with real sugar.

You may be wondering why they don’t use real sugar all the time? The answer is quite simple: it’s cheaper to process corn into sugar than import real sugar. Therefore, Pepsi Throwback usually costs slightly more than regular Pepsi. If you can find Kosher Coke this time of year then you’re actually getting a good deal since it’s typically the same price as regular Coke.

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Photo: BenFrantzDale (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (maize, ashkenazi jews, coca cola)

Dermatoplyphes or “fingerprints” are common among higher primates, but are present in only some other mammals.

Take whales for example. They’re mammals and they don’t have fingers (although the bones inside their flippers looks like fingers on an x-ray) but the pattern on the underside of their tail is still unique like a fingerprint.

Koala’s on the other hand do have fingers and they do have fingerprints. Koala fingerprints are so similar to human prints that even under an electron microscope they’re nearly indistinguishable from each other.

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Photo: michael fontenot (cc)

Sources: naturalscience.com, whalewatchmaui.com

One of the oldest tire manufacturers is Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, founded in 1898 in Akron, Ohio.

A couple years later, Firestone Tires and Rubber Company was also founded in Akron. It’s unclear why both companies formed in the same city, but there’s no question they were the kings of the tire world for over 75 years.

If you ask someone which company makes the most tires, they’re likely going to answer Goodyear or Firestone. Goodyear does have one Guinness World Record, although it’s for fuel economy. But, the company that produces the most tires is LEGO.

It seems reasonable once you think about it, but the number of tires they product is absolutely stagering. The first LEGO set with tires shipped in 1962 and that set was one of the top sellers in 1967 with 820,400 units sold. In fact, nearly half of all current LEGO sets include a tire of some kind. That adds up to about 318 million tires per year or 12 tires every second.

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Sources: lego.com, guinness world records, wikipedia (firestone, goodyear)

The first TIME magazine was published on March 3rd, 1923 and sold for fifteen cents.

Cover Credit: WILLIAM OBERHARDT

It’s the first and longest running weekly news magazine in the United States. There are also European, Asian and South Pacific editions.

TIME is well known for its annual “Person of the Year” edition. This special edition has been running since 1927 and can be controversial. This is most apparent in “Person of the Year” choices such as Adolf Hitler (1938) and Josef Stalin. Many people have earned the title multiple times, including Stalin in 1939 and 1942. Franklin D Roosevelt earned the title three times between 1932 and 1941. Nearly a dozen other presidents have been given the title too. Person of the year is not necessarily an honor or prize, it’s simply a recognition of influence.

Although it’s been called TIME for the better part of a century, the founders originally considered naming it Facts. Through an ad campaign, TIME was assigned the backronym, “Today Information Means Everything.” But, on the landing page for the official Kindle edition of TIME, it is referred to as “The International Magazine of Events.” I guess that explains why the name is always capitalized, TIME.

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Sources: everything2, time.com, wikipedia (time), new world encyclopedia

First of all, I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea; although the credit card numbers you generate are valid, they’re not active and aren’t for making (fraudulent) purchases.

So, what’s the point?

Just like you may use a junk email address to sign up for special offers, you may want a junk credit card number too. That’s because free things are rarely ever free and that’s especially true of free trials.

Companies frequently offer “free” trials in exchange for your billing info. They’re betting against you — hoping you’ll forget to cancel your subscription so they can get some money out of you for at least one month, maybe a couple months if it’s only a few bucks and you’re too busy to cancel at the moment you notice the charge. Then you’ll probably forget about it until you see it again next month.

There are lots of great websites out there that require subscriptions and I think you should pay for and support the ones you use and enjoy. But, before you know if it’s a newspaper you enjoy, you may want to test drive their free trial and a generated credit card number can help you cut the strings and keep you safe from fake sites looking to capture your personal info.

I know what you’re thinking, “How can I generate a credit card number, isn’t that something only the credit card company can do?”

Credit card numbers are generated based on a formula. A valid number is simply a number that conforms to a validation algorithm; they use check digits like we saw with UPC Barcodes.

An active number is a card number that conforms to this algorithm and is currently issued to a customer. While it’s technically possible that you could generate a number that is currently issued to a customer, it’s very unlikely since there are trillions of possible numbers. The odds are far greater that you’d win the lottery and of course those odds are very slim to begin with. Also, you don’t have the correct billing info for the customer, so a charge would never be approved anyway.

For free trials, you don’t need an active number since it never needs to be charged during the free trial period. You just need a number that is valid according to the algorithm so you can create a trial account at the new website you want to try.

You won’t be able to use these numbers for purchases because you’re missing critical information such as the: expiration date, CVV number, billing name, address and phone number. If a site is asking for this info for your generated card, you can make it up. The site won’t know it’s invalid unless they attempt to charge the card, and then a generated number is of no use to you anyway.

If you google around, you can find lists of “test credit card numbers” but chances are really good that these numbers have been used on most popular sites and they’re not going to work for you. To generate your own number, my favorite site is: http://www.getcreditcardnumbers.com/

Happy interneting.

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Photo: Lee Nineteen68 (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (cvv), getcreditcardnumbers.com

It will only take you a minute to read this post.

Although a minute is a precise amount of time, we often use it to mean a short amount of time. The same goes for “moment”; the difference being that most people don’t know that a moment is a precise measure of time.

Technically, a moment is 90 seconds.

The first reference comes from 1398, found in the Oxford English Dictionary. Cornish writer John of Trevisa wrote that there are 40 moments in an hour (hence 90 seconds each). Oxford has since replaced it with, “a very brief period of time.”

So go on, continue using it as a casual measure of time — now you know the real meaning.

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Photo: Peter Pearson (cc)

Sources: oxford dictionary, wikipedia (moment)

I’ve been writing Broken Secrets for a little over 3 years and UFOs are something I wanted to cover at some point. It’s a difficult subject; there’s so much information, mostly poor or difficult to confirm information and little that seems reliable and interesting. But there are also some little gems that are compelling and enlightening.

A UFO is simply an Unidentified Flying Object. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s alien — just that you’re not going to find someone who knows what it is or be willing identify it if they are one of the few who may know.

In May of 2011, the public got an unplanned unveiling of the US Military’s “Stealth Hawk” Helicopter when it was damaged during the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. Technically, it’s still a UFO since we don’t know exactly what it is — educated guesses are that it is a heavily modified Sikorsky MH-60M Black Hawk.

Back in 2007, another top secret stealth aircraft was discovered: the RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone. About a year later, Iran claimed to capture one — multiple news sources claim U.S. government sources have confirmed Iran’s possession of the drone. If it weren’t for the discovery a year earlier, it would have been considered a UFO too.

Stealth helicopters and drones are not what people typically think of when they hear “UFO”. The stereotypical UFO from the 1950s looks like a flying saucer. In recently declassified documents, it turns out there were in fact full sized flying saucers in development.

It’s widely known in aviation circles that the small flying saucer Avrocar  was in development and being tested by the US military. But, the much larger designs seemed more like science fiction than reality.

Two Avrocars were delivered to the US military for testing. That was after extensive testing and development work was done on a larger scale flying saucer, the PV-704. The Avrocar was built when constant challenges facing the PV-704 test model warranted a smaller proof-of-concept be constructed.

The Avrocar worked. It took off vertically and moved forward but it was eventually scrapped because it was under-powered and difficult to control. It’s possible that today’s engines, building materials and computer systems might be able to make a better Avrocar.

In the recent declassified documents we see the drawings for the large “Project 1794″ saucer and the sketches are quite beautiful. Since the proof-of-concept didn’t work well, the plans for the larger saucer designs were also scrapped.

60 years later, these declassified documents show that science fiction of the 1950s was pretty accurate about secret military projects of their time. When we look at today’s sci-fi, is that what they’re building behind closed doors now?

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Sources: national archives, abc news, defense reviews, wired, wikipedia (avrocar)

Photos: Wikimedia commons (public domain), national archives

Most of us only encounter helium at parties, but its role is far greater than floating balloons and squeaking voices.

Like oil, helium is formed deep in the earth over millions of years. It is created by radioactive decay of underground terrestrial rock. Helium is often trapped with Natural Gas and separating the two during natural gas extraction is typically how we get it.

About half of the world’s helium is located at the National Helium Reserve in Texas. This government reserve was originally setup in 1925, when the extraordinary value of helium was first recognized. The government believed airships were the future of defense and helium was the safest lighter-than-air gas to use since it’s not flammable. They were right in a way, helium was an important gas for future defense and science, but blimps were not a big part of that.

Helium is used to cool infrared detectors and was critical in the development of the atomic bomb and other scientific discoveries. Hospitals need helium to cool MRI scanners. It is also used in space rockets, defense systems, deep-sea diving, airships, optical lenses, power plants, wind tunnels, and other important areas of science.

Despite its great importance to our health and safety, we are squandering helium to the point where experts believe we will run out in as little as 15 years.

The rapid consumption of helium is a result of a 1996 law aimed at recovering the cost of building the helium  reserve in the first place. The goal of the law was to sell off all helium reserves by 2015 and they’re using clear out pricing rather than demand driven market pricing. This leaves no incentive to capture and recycle the helium that is used in some applications; once helium is released it can not be captured again.

Robert Richardson, Nobel laureate and professor of physics at Cornell University, believes that party balloons would cost around $100 if they properly reflected the value of the precious gas they contain.

The law is being revisited and hopefully a helium crisis will be avoided.

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Photo: Heartlover1717 (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (helium), washington post, how stuff works, independent.co.uk, bureau of land management

When you finish a game of cards, you must shuffle the deck (imperfectly) seven times before the card order is properly randomized again. Then, it’s also statistically impossible that order of cards has ever occurred before!

Because a deck of cards has 52 unique cards, the number of different orders of those cards is astronomical and I mean that rather literally. The combinations of cards is greater than the number of observable stars in the galaxy.

There are only 7×10²² stars in the galaxy, and the combinations of playing cards is too cumbersome to put into words, so here’s the number:   80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000.

The BBC put it in perspective in the following video; you’d need over sextillion people, each with trillions of decks of cards, shuffling them all 1000 times per second for 4.5 billion years before you started to see repeat combinations.

Knowing that seven imperfect shuffles are needed for a properly randomized deck, casinos should do this too. But, they rarely do.

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Photo: Ivette D.L.G. (cc)

Sources: NYT, wikipedia (shuffling), nowiknow

Vanilla is often associated with plain, boring and ordinary; however, vanilla is anything but vanilla.

Now, it’s hardly the kind of thing you’d find shady characters dealing on a dark street corner. In fact, it’s not the kind of thing you’d likely find anywhere — I mean, good luck finding Grade A Tahitian Vanilla Beans in most cities. If you do find them, you’re looking at $5 or more for a single bean.

Beans of such high quality are typically sought by epicureans, but there’s more to vanilla than its taste.

According to the British Medical Journal, “vanilla is highly addictive.” The active ingredient is linked to epinephrine and norepinephrine, also known as adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones are related to your natural fight or flight response, triggering an increase in heart rate and oxygen supplied to your brain. It’s the same type of reaction people seek to trigger with skydiving and other extreme sports.

So, if you really like vanilla, you’re kind of an adrenaline junkie and there’s nothing plain or boring about that.

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photo: Mike Chaput (cc)

sources: British Medical Journal, wikipedia (epinephrine, norepinephrine)

Winter hat, stocking cap, beanie or toque; whatever you call it, it keeps your head warm. But, it doesn’t necessarily keep you warm.

An old US Army survival manual suggested wearing a hat since “40 to 45 percent of body heat” is lost through your head. This recommendation is thought to have come from a military experiment over 60 years ago when participants were dressed from neck to toe in Arctic clothing, but no headwear. Over time, this has snowballed into “most” heat is lost through our heads.

Where you lose heat comes down to what is exposed or poorly insulated. If you’ve worn shorts on a day that was way too cold to wear shorts, you know how quickly you can get cold when half your body is exposed. I know I could last longer on a cold day without a hat than wearing shorts.

Some areas of your body are more sensitive to temperature changes, including your head, face and chest. Protecting these areas will make a big difference in comfort even though it may not have as big an impact on actual heat loss compared to properly insulating all other areas of your body.

New studies in body performance show that less than 20 – 30% of heat loss is from the head, depending on environmental temperature. In extreme cold, this 20 – 30% could make a significant difference, so don’t skip the hat.

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Sources: healthline.com, guardian.co.uk, bmj

Art forgers have become experts at creating the types of paints and canvases used during popular and valuable art periods, to the point that art experts may not be able to distinguish a fake from the real thing.

But, Dr Elena Basner, a long time art curator, worked with scientists to create a much better way to detect forged oil paintings.

Prior to the first nuclear bomb detonation in July of 1945, isotopes such as strontium-90 and cesium-137 simply did not exist in nature. They were created by the massive neutron bombardments that occur during a thermonuclear explosion.

Since those isotopes didn’t exist in nature prior to 1945, paintings created prior to 1945 could not contain them originally.

550 nuclear bombs were detonated from 1945 to 1963, when most nations agreed not to test nuclear weapons any longer. The isotopes created during this period bind with the types of crops that are used to produce oil based paints. Therefore, oil paintings created after 1945 will contain trace amounts of these new isotopes.

If someone is trying to pass a work that is dated prior to 1945, but it contains these isotopes, it is almost certainly a fake.

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Sources: TheArtNewspaper.com, Wikipedia (Nuclear Weapon)

One of the most annoying Mac OS traits is the inconsistent behavior of the maximize (aka “zoom”) button.

Some native apps, such as iCal, Mail, iPhoto, behave as you might expect and completely fill the screen when the maximize button is clicked. But, many other applications do not fill the screen, instead they the button maximizes the height of the window, but not the width.

But, there is another trick that maximizes some other applications, such as Chrome. Holding down shift while clicking the green maximize button, will maximize the window to fill the screen.

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I love books and magazines and I mean real books and real magazines, printed on paper.

Sure, I love their digital counterparts too. They have snazzy interactive layouts, rich multimedia and they’re always in your pocket. But, sometimes less is more.

There is something powerful and irreplaceable about ink and paper. The experience is linear and there are few distractions along the way. Most importantly, there are no instant notifications, no batteries and you have to actually see one of your real friends to “share” it with them. On paper, you’re alone with your thoughts. Ten percent of that is because the medium consumes you, the remaining ninety percent is because there are no stupid comments at the bottom of each page.

That’s not to say all comments are stupid, there are plenty of useful and thought provoking comments on the internet. But when there are no comments at all, there can’t be any stupid ones either. Comments should be consumed for dessert; people should think for themselves before eating honey from the hive.

That’s where pages beat pixels.

It is why I have books and magazine subscriptions. But, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. First of all, there are at least three subscription cards in each magazine. They should do a print run for subscribers that is exempt from the inserts. That would be a significant incentive for readers to actually subscribe! In the meantime, I’ll keep shaking them over the recycling bin.

Publishers also suggest renewing your annual subscription on what seems like a bimonthly basis. So, it’s helpful to know when your subscription really expires.

Thankfully, they put the expiration date right on the address label.

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Trick or treating can be traced back to European “guising” traditions where children would travel from home to home, reciting songs, jokes or poems. They didn’t say “trick or treat” back then, it was “please help the guisers” — a reference to the groups who performed plays to ward off evil spirits during Samhain, the Celtic celebration we now know as Halloween.

The children were often given fruit, nuts, sweets or even money. Trick or treating started to take hold in North America during the middle of the 19th century, although it was put on hold for sugar rationing during World War II.

The Celts believed spirits of the dead would walk the earth on Halloween. Costumes were worn to help blend in with and hide from the real spirits who were thought to be walking among them.

The traditional colors of halloween, Black and orange, have meaning too. Black is the typical color of death in many cultures and orange symbolizes strength in Celtic legend, which was important for weathering a harsh winter. They burned large bonfires, believing this would bring the heat of the sun back after winter. Animal bones were often thrown into the fires and some believe these “bone fires” spawned the term bonfire.

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Photo: José Luis Murillo (cc)

Sources: History.com, IrishCentral.com, Answers.com,

The claw game (aka “crane games” or “fairground grabbers”) are pretty straight forward in appearance: put in your money, position the crane over a prize, drop the claw and hope your aim was good enough to bring home the prize.

But, winning a prize requires a lot more than skill. These machines are like slot machines, except children are allowed to play. Just like a slot machine, the operator can dial in how often the machine should pay out.

The crane game machine reduces the claw strength when the player is supposed to lose and increases its grip strength when the player is allowed to win. In that sense, they’re worse than slots because the player still requires some skill when the odds are in their favor.

The odds of the machine giving the claw enough strength to win a prize is regulated by some states and therefore varies. In California, the claw must have enough strength to win during an average of 1 in 12 games. In Nevada, it’s 1 in 15 games. In other words, during 1 in 15 games the claw will be strong enough to pickup a prize, but you still have to aim it well.

The following is an excerpt from a crane machine’s operating manual, indicating how two different knobs can be turned to adjust the claw strength in different ways. The full manual is available by clicking here (PDF).

If you really want to win, your best bet is to sit back and watch other people play. Count the wins and losses and put up your money when it’s due to grip again.

Alternatively, much older (less sophisticated) claw machines rely on spring tension and may be easier to beat if they’re calibrated with a decent grip. Also, be sure you aim the claw at the heaviest part of the prize, if the grip is tight this will make it easier for the claw to hang on.

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Photo: Garry Knight (cc)

Sources: philaahzophy, crane game user manual, wiki how

The phrase, “point blank range” is frequently used in tv shows and news reports to indicate a shot was fired within an short range (usually a few yards or meters).

While that usage is accurate, the phrase is rarely used to describe shots from further away that are still point blank range.

You see, Point Blank Range simply means: a distance at which the shooter does not need to compensate for gravity by adjusting the elevation of their weapon.

Due to the velocity of the projectiles, some weapons and ammunition have a point blank range of over 100 yards (91m). Due to recoil, some cannons can shoot over 1000 yards without elevation compensation; therefore they have a point blank range of over 1000 yards (914m).

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Photo: calflier001 (cc)

Source: point blank range

Now that college is back in session, it’s time to learn something really useful. Party cups aren’t just for playing beer pong and flippy cups; some people use them exclusively for serving drinks. They’re great for cash bars and beer pong for the same reason: the ridges can be used to measure servings.

Starting at the top, the lines are as follows:

• First Line: 16 oz / Pint (beer)
• Second Line: 14 ounces (mixed drink fill line)
• Third Line: 5 ounces (wine / ice fill line for soda / beer pong fill line)
• Fourth Line: 1 ounce (liquor)

Most of these measurements are pretty common serving sizes for various types of alcohol. For example, 1 oz of 100 proof liquor has about the same alcohol as 5 oz of wine and each are considered “1 drink”. For beer, 10 – 12 ounces is considered 1 drink, but a pint is a typical serving size no less.

There’s another ridge just below the rim of the cup which I didn’t mark in the graphic above. It wouldn’t be practical to fill the cup that high, but if are any lab rats are reading and need a crude measuring device in a jam, that ridge marks 18 oz.

The original party cup is made by Solo. Due to hollywood movies, the iconic design is recognized around the world, even though they’re not available in many other countries, and they’re quite expensive in some foreign countries.

Culturally, Solo cup enthusiasts are fanatical about the red cups since that is the original color. The blue ones are acceptable if you want to differentiate beer pong teams. The clear ones look nice, but some people don’t like how you can see what they’re drinking.

If you think the 5 oz line is too high to be an ice fill line, look at the discrete markings on McDonald’s cups – they also have an ice fill line .

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Sources: common drink sizes (PDF)

A gold medal has been awarded to the top Olympic athlete in an event since the 1904 St. Louis Summer Olympics. Although this tradition has stuck, many things have changed since the St. Louis games.

I hadn’t planned on writing much about the St. Louis Olympics, but some of the research proved too bizarre to hold back. For starters, the games were supposed to be in Chicago; but, the World Fair organizers in St. Louis promised to hold their own sporting event that would eclipse the Olympic games, unless they were awarded the games. So, the games were awarded to St. Louis.

During the marathon, Frederick Lorz dropped out of the race after nine miles and rode a car back to the start/finish to collect his clothes. But, the car broke down so he had to run the rest of the way. Officials thought he was the first to finish and he went along with it, but was later caught and banned for a year. The following year, he did win the Boston Marathon fair and square.

The actual winner of the marathon, Thomas Hicks, had a bit of help from his trainers who gave him a mix of brandy and strychnine sulfate — a poison which isn’t lethal in small doses and “stimulates” the nervous system. A postman from Cuba, Felix Carbajal, also ran in the marathon. He he snacked on rotten apples in an orchard, took a nap and then finished in fourth place.

The first two Africans to compete in the Olympics did so by chance. They also ran the marathon, although they were actually in town as part of the Boer War exhibit in the World Fair. They finished ninth and twelfth, although many were disappointed in the ninth place finish by Len Tau. Many believed he could have done better if dogs had not chased him a mile off course.

The games officially lasted four months, but most of the events took place over a six day period. Since the World Fair was in the same city at the same time, the Olympics were almost a sideshow to the fair. This, combined with the fact that the games were so poorly organized, nearly made St. Louis the last Olympics. 108 years later, the tables have turned. The World Fair is not widely talked about, but it still exists: Expo 2012 wraps up on August 12th in Yeosu, South Korea.

South Korea is not shy of the Olympics though, they hosted the games in 1988. They picked up 13 gold medals four years ago in Beijing and will likely bring some back from London too. So, lets find out what it’s worth.

Each of the 2012 London gold medals weigh in at approximately 400 grams. While it looks like solid gold, atomic element 79 only makes up 1.34% of the medal. The rest of the gold medal is 92.5% silver and 6.16% copper. This is pretty typical.

The International Olympic Committee requires that gold medals contain at least 6 grams of gold and a minimum of 92.5% silver. The silver medal must also contain a minimum of 92.5% silver.

Two years ago, Vancouver’s Olympic gold was 575 grams. Although much heavier than London’s, this year’s medals are actually the most costly ever awarded due to the high price of gold.

In fact, gold prices have significantly increased the cost and value of recent olympic medals. In 2004, an Athen’s gold medal was worth about $155 in raw materials. Beijing’s 2008 gold contents were worth about $393. Vancouver’s came in around $508 and London’s gold medals could be melted down to about $728 worth of gold and silver (approx $334 in gold + $394 silver).

But, don’t expect to find one at your local pawn shop. Because of their rarity, symbolic and sentimental significance they are worth far more than their weight in gold (and silver). Olympic medals are rarely ever sold, but it does happen. In 2004, a Polish athlete auctioned her gold medal for charity, which fetched $82,599 for children with leukemia.

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Sources: London 2012, Yahoo! Sports, The Telegraph, wikipedia (1904 Olympics)

Images: Wikimedia Commons (gnu license)

In 1915, Merchants Parcel Delivery (now UPS) decided they needed a consistent color scheme across all of their vehicles — four cars and five motorcycles. Co-founder James Casey consulted a local adman, who suggested yellow. Charlie Soderstrom, another partner, argued that yellow would be too difficult to keep clean.

Another company had already considered this. Railroad cars manufactured by Pullman Company were brown because they hid dirt better than other colors which meant they required less washing. That settled the argument, Casey conceded and brown has been UPS’s color ever since.

Half a century later, competing package delivery service DHL forms and chooses yellow.

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Photos: Jeremy Vandel (cc), wolfgang (cc)

Sources: cnn, wikipedia (ups, pullman company)

If you’ve ever had a really embarrassing driver’s license photo, you have to live with it. But, Americans have the luxury of shooting and printing their own passport photo.

Drugstores charge about $10 for passport photos while professionals charge as much as $50. There is some skill involved since there are strict rules around the shadows, head size, facial expression, dimensions, etc. But, if you get all that right then you can have a great photo that costs as little as 19 cents to print.

I recently took my daughter’s passport photo (following the strict guidelines). Then I used an online tool provided by the State Department to get the dimensions right. From there I had two options, print it myself or put it in a standard 4×6 or 5×7 layout and have it printed cheaply at the local photo finishing joint. I did it at Walgreens and asked the guy to use his special cutting tool to trim the photo to the perfect size — he was happy to do so.

Thanks to Janine for this tip.

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Source: Department of State

We normally associate jaundice with newborn babies, but many of us have minor cases throughout our lives.

Jaundice is distinguished by a yellow coloring of the skin which is caused by an elevated level of bilirubin in the blood. You have bilirubin in your system at all times — it’s a by product of the normal breakdown of red blood cells. In fact, it’s also the reason your urine is yellow.

When your skin receives trauma from a hit or other pressure, the capillaries break under your skin, allowing blood to escape into the extracellular space. That blood causes the initial dark color. As the hemoglobin breaks down from biliverdin to bilirubin and then to hemosiderin, these chemicals are responsible for the green, yellow and golden-brown colors respectively.

Bilirubin is not typically a concern for healthy people, but it can be in newborns who may have trouble excreting and breaking down bilirubin before their intestinal bacterias are present and functional.

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Photo: timlewisnm (cc)

Sources: wikipedia (jaundice, bruise, hemoglobin, bilirubin)