If you’ve recently undergone some sort of medical procedure and are nervous about the number of digits when the bill arrives, relax. Medical bills aren’t necessarily black and white; some frugal patients have discovered a secret.

According to a recent New York Times article, most hospitals and doctor’s offices are willing to negotiate price if it means at least part of their bill actually gets paid. In a time when the economy isn’t exactly booming and some people can’t afford health care, more and more medical bills are left untouched. If you’re looking to steer clear of collection agencies and maintain your credit, you may be able to benefit from other people’s “dine & ditch” version of medical procedures.

So what’s the trick? Haggle.

Call your doctor, hospital, dentist etc. and ask them to give you a discount if you pay your entire bill immediately over the phone. Angie’s List recently performed a consumer survey about this topic and found that 74% of people received a discount on medical bills simply by asking for it.

If you’re the planning ahead type, check out the website HealthCareBlueBook.com before scheduling a medical procedure. They’ll give you an estimate of what some of the most common procedures should cost, that way you can shop around and see how much various providers are charging. Once you find the best deal, schedule the appointment, then call afterward to haggle your discount. Check out their section on How to Negotiate Healthcare Prices for even more tips on lowering your bill.

Even if you’ve never used the salesperson of the month parking spot, it’s easy to ask for a discount. The worst that can happen is: they say, “no”

Your request can be as simple as, “Hello. I have a labor and delivery bill from your hospital for $1,700.00 and I heard that if I pay it in full over the phone I can get a 25% discount. I’d like to go ahead and do that today.”

I’m wondering, could this also work at the vet? If you thought medical bills for humans were outrageous, try having a puppy and you’ll soon learn what astronomical looks like.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: NYT, CBSNews.com, Angie’s List, HealthCareBlueBook.com

Photo: Maxios (cc)

Ever since I can remember, “Don’t Drink and Drive” has been drilled into my head.

But, the range of acceptable blood alcohol content varies from 0.01% in Albania, Guyana and a few other countries, to 0.08% in Canada, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom, United States and many others.

There’s clearly a divide on what is acceptable. Some countries have lower limits for drivers who are new or have other special circumstances and more strict penalties for blood alcohol readings at other levels above the legal limit. In some cases: state and provincial laws are more strict than federal laws or county and city laws are more strict than state and provincial laws.

It’s obviously dangerous to be drunk while driving. But, it’s arguable when alcohol consumption becomes dangerous.

Some countries, such as Brazil and the Czech Republic, have a zero tolerance policy for blood alcohol content. In those countries, and a few others, you cannot have alcohol in your bloodstream when you drive.  Other countries, permit up to 0.08% blood alcohol content. So, it’s clear there is a big disagreement about how much alcohol is dangerous.

I couldn’t find a country with more internal disagreement than the United States. In most states, it is illegal to have a blood alcohol level higher than 0.08%. The rules are even more strict for drivers under the age of 21. In most states, you can’t have open containers in the passenger compartment of a vehicle — that is a container where the seal has been broken.

Conversely, there are a number of states where passengers are allowed to consume alcohol while the vehicle is moving. These states are Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri, Virginia, and West Virginia. Actually, Mississippi allows drivers to consume alcohol as long as they do not exceed the blood alcohol limit of 0.08%.

States that do not conform to federal open container laws are financially penalized. But, that doesn’t stop them, in fact, drive thru restaurants in some states serve alcoholic beverages too.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia (US Open Container Laws, Drunk Driving by Country), Open Container Laws, The Monitor, State Line

Disney World is the size of a small city, make that two small cities.

Many people believe that Walt Disney World Resort is in Orlando Florida, but that’s not exactly correct.  While it is near Orlando, The City of Bay Lake and the City of Reedy Creek (now the City of Lake Buena Vista) are incorporated into the lands of Walt Disney World Resort.

When the Disney World was announced, Walt Disney explained that a special district would need to be created for it to succeed. Due to the massive construction effort to build Disney World, Walt believed the park would need to have powers similar to a city in order to manage construction efficiently and secure control over its future.

On May 12, 1967, legislation forming the Reedy Creek Improvement District was formed. This legislation provides Disney World with immunity from county and state land-use laws, giving them eminent domain and ultimate control over what they build inside the park. Property taxes and elevator inspections are the only items that the district submits to the county and state.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia (Walt Disney World Resort)

Photo: Stuck in Customs (cc)

Whether you marinade steaks in beer or use Vanilla extract in your baking, you’re probably left with more alcohol in your food than you realize.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it can infuse wonderful flavors. And yes, Vanilla extract has alcohol in it. Actually, it’s mandated by law in the US.

In many cultures, alcohol and food go hand in hand. Fancy wine bars pair meals or selected cheese and chocolate with wine.

Before modern cough medicines, Doctors prescribed a tablespoon of brandy to calm children’s coughs. Even some existing cough medicines, such as NyQuil, contain alcohol (except the childrens remedy). Monks have been known to brew and drink beer since the middle ages.

The USDA’s Nutrition Data Lab used gas-liquid chromatography to determine how much alcohol remained in food after various cooking scenarios.

Even after 2.5 hours, 5% of the alcohol remains. I don’t think it’s anything to be too alarmed about. Grandma’s have been serving cookies laced with Vanilla extract to children for many years and most of us turned out just fine. That said, it’s still pretty surprising.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia, O Chef , Trappist Beer, NyQuil

Photo: 5volt (cc)

Tickers, blinkers, indicators and flashers. They have many names, but only one purpose: to let people know your car is about to change course.

In most vehicles, a lever on the steering column moves up or down to activate flashing lights on either side of the car.

I suspect a lot of people don’t even know their car has such lights, but they’ve been standard on cars since cars.

Maybe it’s a confusing concept, so I’ll try to explain it in a straight forward manner: if you’re about to turn your steering wheel, put these lights on first.

I find that some people use signal lights like the horn. They know they’re there, but they only use them when they need you to move.

Most vehicles also have a way to put all four blinkers on at the same time. The vehicle manual may refer to these as “four way flashers” or “hazard lights” but a lot of people know these as “park anywhere lights.” Their understanding of this feature is, when you want to double park, park in a fire lane or any other no parking zone, these flashing lights give you temporary immunity from parking regulations.

In all seriousness, signal lights first appeared on cars in 1907, but weren’t patented in 1938. Some cars from the 1920s to 1950s used solid (non-blinking) retractable lights on the sides of the car, called a trafficators.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Source: Wikipeda (Signal Lights)

Photo: Wikimedia (gnu free)

It’s rhetorical and cliche, but why doesn’t the food you order ever look like the food in the picture?

I’ll bite — it’s because your food took a few minutes to make and the food in the picture took a few hours to style. Yes, style.

I’ve rounded up some videos that show you some of the secrets of food advertising. The first video is about burgers and it’s pretty old, but still relevant.

The next video is about pizza and it’s part of a current Domino’s promotion to send in pictures of your pizza for everyone to see.

It’s a pretty well known fact that what you see is not what you’re going to get. But, Burger King recently canceled an advertisement where they misled viewers about the size of the burger. After watching these videos, it’s no surprise how they do it.

If you want to see a nice set of side-by-side photos of what they advertise and what you get, click here.

If you are reading this post on a device that does not support videos, I’ll tell you a bit about what they contain.

The burgers are cooked very little. To make them look grilled, they are brand them with thin skewers. Then they apply food dye for color. A layer of cardboard is placed on the bottom bun so the bun doesn’t get soft. The burger patty is split on the back side, so it can be widened from the front view — this makes the burger look larger. Vegetables are piled on top of the bun and pinned in place so they don’t move. A small shot of condiments are added on the front of the burger (the side the camera is on).

The second video is all about making perfect cheese strings when a slice of pizza is removed from a pizza pie. They go through all of the cheese to make sure every piece is perfect and use a heat gun to perfectly melt the cheese around the star slice, this makes it very stringy when the slice is lifted. The rest of the pizza is screwed down, except for one slice, so the pizza doesn’t move when the one slice is lifted.

There you have it, secrets from fast food advertising.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Photo: jasonlam (cc)

I’ve always heard that a car is one of the safest places to be during a lightning strike and that is true.

The tires usually get all the credit. As the story goes, tires are rubber and rubber is an insulator, so you don’t get electrocuted in the car because you’re isolated from the ground like a bird on a wire.

It’s a pretty believable story, but it’s not the truth.

If you think about it, the lightning travels thousands of feet through thin air to reach the car — it could easily continue to travel through thin air to get around a few inches of rubber tires. Compared to the power of lightning, tires don’t really provide any protection.

Trains are struck by lightning and the people inside are fine, even though trains have metal wheels, which are great conductors.

Airplanes are regularly struck by lightning in the air. In fact, the FAA estimates that each plane gets struck about once per year.

So why are people safe in these cases?

It’s all because of a principle discovered by Michael Faraday in 1836.

Faraday demonstrated that an electrical charge exists only on the exterior of a hollow conductor and not the interior. He built a wire cage, that is now know as a Faraday cage, to demonstrate that an electrical current flowing through the cage did not produce an electrical current inside the cage.  When you’re in a vehicle, with a conductive exterior shell, you’re inside a Faraday cage and the electrical charge is carried around you.

Faraday cages can also be used to shield against electromagnetic radiation. Coaxial cables are common in most households for carrying TV signals. These cables are design with what amounts to be a built in Faraday cage to protect the inner copper wire from electrical noise.

Microwave ovens are also a good example of a Faraday cage. This principle protects you from exposure to microwaves by turning the inside of the oven into a Faraday cage. The mesh you see on the inside of the door is part of that cage and explains why the glass isn’t perfectly transparent.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia (Ground, Faraday Cage), Weather Imagery (Cars, Airplanes), Faraday Cage

Photo: jonathan mcintosh (cc)

The laws and store policies around the products that require ID and the ones that don’t, are sometimes confusing.

I was in Target a while back and bought a can of compressed air to clean my dusty laptop. I was surprised when they asked for ID at the checkout.

Apparently some people like to get high from the propellant in canned air. It’s unfortunate, these are not recreational drugs, these are asphyxiates that displace the oxygen in the air, reducing the oxygen that reaches your brain and eventually causes death. The solution is to require ID for purchase, although even a 42 year old man died from “huffing” canned air.

Even when you’re using these products as intended, you should avoid inhaling the fumes and ensure adequate ventilation.

I was at Target a few weeks later, looking for ramekins to make Crème brûlée. I also needed a butane blowtorch to caramelize the top of the custard. It turns out that you can buy butane torches and fuel without ID. Thinking back to my teenage years, a blowtorch would have been much more fun than a can of air.

But, cooking wine has the most interesting story.

It ranges from 10%-13% alcohol and anybody can buy cooking wine at the grocery store. They even sell it in grocery stores in “dry” areas, where no alcoholic drinks are sold. In fact, Safeway requires ID to buy cough syrup, but not for cooking wine. Some cough syrup, such as NyQuil, contains alcohol. Other cough and cold medications contain a drug known as Dextromethorphan, which is a dissociative psychedelic drug.

My friend Molly told me about this cooking wine loophole and gave me a sample of the product. If you’ve ever tasted cooking wine on it’s own, you’ll understand why anyone is allowed to buy it. Nobody would ever consume it on its own, it’s simply awful.

Wine that is sold as “cooking wine” is usually grape or rice wine. It is then adulterated with salt, which makes it less suitable for cooking and even more undrinkable. If you’re making a recipe that calls for wine, use wine that you’d actually drink and use a wine that pairs well with the food you’re cooking.

Cooking wine has a lot of salt for coloring and as a preservative. Because cooking wine is consumed very slowly, the salt prevents acedic acid from forming and turning it into wine vinegar.

Oh, and if you’re going to make Crème brûlée, my friend Mike showed me that you should skip the butane and go with propane — it has a wider flame that heats more evenly, which gives much better results and in less time.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia (Cooking Wine, Difluoroethane, Dextromethorphan), MSDS, Cooking Wine Without ID (1, 2), Dry Counties, NyQuil

Photo: anitasarkeesian (cc)

Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando Florida is the largest resort in the world at 100 km squared (39 sq miles).

It started off as mostly swamp land. In fact, there were many people who owned pieces of that land before Walt Disney secretly bought it all up. He didn’t want people to know he was buying the land because he feared prospectors would buy it up and hold out for exorbitant figures.

In order to secretly buy this land without attracting attention, a number of dummy corporations were formed. Some of the company names included M. T. Lott Real Estate Investments (“empty lot”), Ayefour Corporation (“I 4″ because the resort is near Interstate 4) and many of them were owned by “Mr. M. Mouse.” In hindsight, it seems pretty obvious. But, nobody caught on until someone leaked the information to the Orlando Sentinel in October of 1965. Many of these names can be found on a window on Main St in the Magic Kingdom.

Walt Disney World Resort includes a number of theme parks, but the oldest and most well known is The Magic Kingdom. It’s crown jewel is Cinderella’s Castle.

The castle is directly across the park from the front gate. In fact, if you look at the castle from inside the front entrance, you can tell the castle is built one story higher than the gate — Main St gradually slopes up to the castle. This gives the castle a grand presence and it also accommodates a big secret below the park.

If you look at the picture of the Magic Kingdom Railroad Station (below) which is just beyond the front gate, you can see that it is one level above ground level. The elevation of the train station and the castle exist because concrete utility corridors (“utilidors”) are built at ground level and the rest of the park is built on top of these tunnels.

The Seven Seas Lagoon, in front of the Magic Kingdom, is a man made lake. 1.5 million square meters (5 million square feet) of dirt was excavated to create the lake — that dirt was used to build up the ground around the utilidors to make the Magic Kingdom seem like it is at ground level. The main tunnel starts just on the other side of the railroad station and runs below Main St, leading directly to Cinderella’s Castle.

There are entrances into the utilidors all over the park (see the attached map). The main entry is behind “It’s a Small World” at the back of the park where there is a large loading area for people and supplies to enter the tunnel system. There are 2.5 km (1.5 miles) of tunnels below the park. They’re not just for moving around, there are many other features built in to the tunnels: break rooms, restrooms, locker rooms, “Kingdom Kutters” (hair cutting), “Mouseketeeria” (cafeteria), makeup room, first aid facility, money room and training rooms.

The tunnels make it efficient for cast members and utility crews to move around the park without disrupting park guests. It prevents guests from seeing characters in parts of the park where they don’t fit in, although visitors can pay for a tour that includes a look behind the scenes of some shows and a trip through the utilidors. This is an all day tour of Walt Disney World Resort called the Backstage Magic Tour and it costs $238 per person. If it’s just the tunnels you want to see, watch this video for free.

Guests under the age of 16 are not allowed in the Utilidors because Disney is worried about ruining the magic if a child sees two of the same character together or two characters from different stories talking together. The walls of the tunnels are labeled and color coded to make navigation easy.

Just like other places, Disney World has it’s own secret language, including terms such as “Protein Spill” (vomit) and “Alpha Crew” (first aid). These codes allow them to communicate on radios without spoiling the magic for guests within earshot.

There are many secrets that make the Magic Kingdom seem so magical — I’ll share more again soon.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Hidden Mickeys, Wikipedia, Explore the Magic

Photos: Daryl Mitchell (cc), John Corigliano (cc)

When you’re falling asleep, do you ever get that sensation of falling, sometimes followed by a jerk reaction?

It’s pretty normal for this to happen occasionally. Irregular sleep schedules are one known cause and the explanation behind it is pretty interesting.

During REM sleep, your muscles go into a state called atonia. Essentially, all of your muscles except those in your eyes and those used for breathing are temporary paralyzed. You brain blocks signals that are normally sent to these muscles. This is true for humans and common among most other warm blooded mammals.

This is the reason why your muscles don’t actually move when you’re dreaming about them moving. It’s a self preservation mechanism, preventing you from hurting yourself and other people while you’re asleep, which is obviously good for your safety but it also prevents you from waking yourself, ensuring a proper sleep.

If your REM sleep is interrupted, your muscles resume from atonia and your mind returns to consciousness at roughly the same time. But, it is possible for your consciousness to resume before muscle control. You’ll be awake, but paralyzed. This is called “sleep paralysis” and as many as 60% of people will experience it at least once in their lifetime. It can be scary, but it normally occurs for a very brief period of time, sometimes it is so short that you may not even realize it happened.

This sensation is often described with feelings of fear or dread and described like an out of body experience. Auditory and visual hallucinations have been reported and are part of the mythology of some cultures, attributing this feeling to supernatural forces, demons, UFO encounters and so on. There are also people who believe this state is a doorway to the inner mind and they try to remain in this state as long as possible.

Waking up into sleep paralysis a single time is not usually something to worry about, but if it happens more frequently then it could be a symptom of a more serious problem such as narcolepsy and you should see a doctor. Sleep paralysis occurs more commonly when people are on their backs, but doctors do not know why.

Sleep paralysis can also happen while you’re falling asleep. Your mind may realize that you are awake but your body is paralyzed. That disconnect can cause the feeling of falling, which is startling and often accompanied by a hypnic jerk.

Super thanks to Dr Ryan W, the Broken Secrets neurology expert, for his help with this post and for his great work in neurology.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Dr Ryan W, Sleepdex, brynmawr.edu, Wikipedia (Hypnagogia, Hypnic Jerk)

Photo: NewEndProductions (cc)

Tying shoes together by their laces and throwing them onto overhead lines is known as “shoefiti” (shoe + graffiti).

Shoefiti started in the United States and spread throughout the world, the photo above was taken in Berlin.

There is no single reason why people do this, there are many reasons.

When sneakers are festooned on power lines in rough neighborhoods, the conclusion for their presence is often crime related. Some believe they mark crack houses where you can get your fix or some free shoes via ladder. Others say they are shoes that belong to (or hang in memory of) a murder victim. Some say they are for marking gang turf, but Tucson Arizona police have denied that and flagged the turf marker idea as myth.

They did mention that many shoes are removed each week, since they are unsightly and can cause damage to the lines.

They also said that the volume of shoes increases during the summer break from school. A couple of stories have been told that may support this. One is that of tradition, shoes are thrown on power lines to celebrate the last day of school or graduation. Teenage boys have also been said to do this when they lose their virginity.

Perhaps the oldest story about the origin of shoefiti claims it was tradition for soldiers to hang their boots on the power lines at base when they completed basic training, went home on leave or left the service entirely.

In some movies, it’s the school bully who steals your shoes and throws them onto the lines. There are also stories of kids retiring their own shoes when they get a new pair.

Chances are good that the people who are doing it now have no idea why their predecessors did it.

Some people may think it’s a harmless tradition, but the shoes can disrupt utility services by adding weight to the lines which causes them to sag and potentially touch other lines or trees, which could also result in fire.

If you want to remove shoes from the lines, because you want your kicks back or you just want to clear the eyesore, you should call the utility company to do it — a few Darwin Award candidates have earned their nomination trying to DIY their shoes back.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: About.com, Snopes, Straight Dope, Wikipedia

Photo: edkohler

We know a lot about the world around us. We have a pretty good understanding of forces such as gravity and magnetic fields. We know a lot about barely visible subatomic particles and even invisible energy such as radio waves.

We can control and measure most of these amazing things and they really are amazing. Think back over a thousand years. Could you imagine what it was like when magnets were first discovered? The amazement, confusion and challenge to explain how they worked.

Due to recent developments, we are in a similar state of fascination.

When you read “quantum teleportation” in the title,  you probably had visions of something from Star Trek where people and objects are transported from one location to another. That is teleportation but it’s not quantum teleportation.

In quantum teleportation, no visible object is moved from one place to another. Rather, quantum information is moved from one place to another.

It starts with entanglement of two atoms or particles such as ions or photons. In simple terms, they are “tied” together. When separated, something amazing can be observed. Changing the state of one, the state of the other changes to match. This phenomena has been observed when the two have been separated by a distance of a few meters (10 feet), 16 km (10 miles) and even 144 km (89 miles).

No, it won’t let you visit your grandma in Montana and your other grandma in Malta on the same day, but the potential is still amazing.

You’ve probably seen a satellite interview on TV noticed there is a huge delay between the two people talking. That’s what happens when shipping information to space and back on each side of the screen. But, Quantum information moves extremely fast so there would be negligible delay if it could one day be used for communication (it can’t for now).

Although a bit awkward sometimes, we can live with delayed satellite interviews. But, as we try to explore deep space, communication delays could become a factor that prevents or severely delays exploration. One day, cell phones might use this technology to eliminate dropped calls and dead zones. In communications, the possibilities are endless.

We can’t even imagine how this might affect other areas of science and that’s because we don’t really understand how it works. But, scientists believe these entangled particles exist in nature and there are potentially billions of them. Of course, we don’t know which ones they are or where the other half of their entangled pair is. Maybe there is some truth behind the notion that one twin feels something when their identical twin experiences something traumatic. Maybe there’s even some science to prove it.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia (QT), Quantum (Entangled QT, First QT),  The Future of Things , Ars Technica

Photo: Thomas Shahan (cc)

This is one of those things that a lot of people know and a lot people get wrong.

Most coffee has 60-100 milligrams of caffeine per cup. Here’s a list of the most popular coffees and their caffeine content:

As you can see, Starbucks coffee is the strongest with 330 mg of caffeine in a 16oz serving. It is followed by Starbucks Caffè Americano, which has three shots of espresso in it and more than 100 mg less caffeine in the same size serving. Most of the other brands have about 110-160 mg in a 16oz serving..

So, how does that compare to tea? Let’s have a look:

As we can see, Tea generally has much less caffeine than coffee.

Of course, there are always exceptions. There are some coffees that have less caffeine than most teas, particularly decaf coffee. That might be an unfair comparison since decaf is a man-made product. Although, it might not be that way forever. Caffeine free coffee beans have been discovered, although they’re too bitter for most people’s taste buds.

There are also some black teas that have up to 140 mg of caffeine per 16 oz, which is more than the same size coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts (or Dunkin’ Coffee as they call it in Spain).

Dunkin Donuts - Barcelona, Spain

There are many other caffeinated beverages that are popular, how do those stack up?

Caffeine is found in many other foods, such as chocolate. It is also found in guarana beans, which are very similar to coffee beans according to Brett’s Energy Drinks. So, be careful of those guarana filled energy drinks, caffeine is a hell of a drug.

Thanks to Kristen for suggesting this one and Ian for adding front lines insight.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Mayo Clinic, Brett’s Energy Drinks, Energy Fiend,

I was at Walmart today and I realized, I absolutely love that place — I feel like a supermodel in there.

While there, I heard an announcement for “Code C” and I had to know what it was.

You see, airports, retail stores and hospitals all have secret codes to announce information to staff without causing alarm to the general public.

Walmart actually has a lot of these codes and for good reason. Perhaps the most well known code is “Code Adam.” It was invented by Walmart 1984 and it’s now used by many different companies, all over the world.

It’s named after Adam Walsh, son of America’s Most Wanted TV host John Walsh. Adam was kidnapped from a Sears store in 1981 and murdered. Walmart actually has a very strict policy about this code. All employees drop what they’re doing, some watch the doors and other sweep the store looking for the child. Employees do nothing else until the child is found.

Other Walmart Codes:

• Code Black – Severe weather (ex. tornado warning)
• Code Blue – Bomb threat
• Code Brown – Shooting
• Code Green – Hostage situation
• Code Orange – Chemical spill
• Code Red – Fire
• Code White – Accident
• Code C – Customer service or cashier needed
• Code 300 or Department 51 – Security

Walmart also has color coded pillars in their stores:

• Blue – Telephone
• Red – Fire extinguisher
• Orange – “Spill-O-Magic” station

Boat/Ship/Vessel Codes

• Code Oscar or Mr. MOB – Man overboard
• Bravo, Bravo, Bravo – Serious incident such as a fire
• Mr Skylight – Minor incident
• Code Blue – Medical emergency

Hospital Codes

• Code Blue, Code 90, Code 45 – Cardiac arrest
• Code Red, Dr Red, Dr Pyro, Dr Firestone – Fire
• Code Grey, Code Silver – Combative or violent person
• Code Orange – Mass casualty incident
• Code Black, Code Brown – Extreme weather warning

These are the most common codes, obviously some of these codes will be known by other code names in certain places. Some countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States have standards for these codes, but they differ from each other and many other countries do not have standards.

Broken Secrets

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia, Google Answers, Wal-mart Info, UPHAA, Vessel Emergency Codes, Hospital Codes

I think everybody has done it. You’re walking away after parking your car and you can’t remember if you locked it. You turn around to lock it and you’re too far away – or – maybe your car has remote start and you want to warm it before you leave work in the winter. You can see it in the parking lot, but you’re too far away.

There is something that may help.

If you push the car remote against your skin, and then press the button, your body will act like a giant antenna to extend the signal. I don’t know how safe this is, but it works.

I first heard about this a few years ago and I was in disbelief, until I tried it. Not only does it work, according to New Scientist, it can almost double the range of your key fob.

When I first heard about it, I was told to push it against my chin. It turns out you can push it again your arms or other body parts too. It relies on a principle called capacitive coupling, the same principle that the capacitors on electronic circuit boards rely on.

This doesn’t work for all types of radio frequency remotes, it works best with relatively low frequency signals with rapidly changing currents, which is what many car remotes use.

You may have heard that the iPhone 4 is having signal issues when the exterior antenna is touched in a certain way and you may be wondering why it has the opposite affect on the iPhone. The difference between the iPhone problem and capacitive coupling is that there is no insulator between the transmitter and your body with the iPhone, but with your car remote, the plastic case acts like an insulator. Again, this is precisely how capacitors on circuit boards work — two conductors are separated by an insulator.

It should be noted that some car remotes may use a different frequencies and types of signals, so you’ll have to test yours to see if it works for you.

Big thanks to Max Surguy for reminding me about this one, such a great tip!

BrokenSecrets.com

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: New Scientist

Photo: nailkennedy (cc)

I started this site back in November of 2009. The first post was You CAN Use Foil in the Microwave. In fact, if you want to see a list of all the secrets, checkout The Secret Archive.

For those who don’t know, my name is Chad Upton and I’m the creator of Broken Secrets. I’m a 31 year old guy, living in the Midwestern United States. I have a pretty normal day job and I write this site in the evenings, usually after dinner or when my wife Kristen goes to bed.

A lot of people ask me if I make money from Broken Secrets. The answer is a vague, but accurate, “not really.” Technically, the blog generates money in a couple different ways, but the site actually costs more to operate than it brings in. That’s fine, I didn’t start the site because I need to buy a Ferrari (I need to buy one for a completely unrelated reason).

Most posts take 2-3 hours to create. I don’t believe most people think about the time it takes to research, write, edit and find photos or videos to make a single entry come together. There are some exceptions, a few posts were created in less than 2 hours and a few took more than 3 hours (especially some of the videos).

Creating content and promoting the blog is a lot of work, but I’ve been lucky. The site quickly gained in popularity. It now gets more visitors each day than it got in the first month of operation.

All of the readers have different tastes and expectations. Some people love the really long, very detailed posts. Others prefer the short, sweet and glossy ones. Therefore, the topics and lengths of posts vary widely. What some readers find useful, others find elementary. What some find informative, others find useless. It all depends on your perspective, and everyone’s is different.

It’s tough to please everybody and that’s OK, the response has still been overwhelming. Up until now, I’ve written every post and delivered one every weekday for the past 9 months (166 posts). That makes for a long workday, every day.

Although the pay is negligible, the rewards are priceless.

Broken Secrets recently won a Webby Award for best personal blog/website. It has been featured by local and national media around the globe. It’s highly ranked in the Amazon Kindle store for blogs and between Facebook, Twitter, Kindle and email, there are thousands of people who subscribe and read daily. Frankly, it has exceeded all of my expectations and passed all of the milestones more quickly than I could have imagined.

The Webby Awards are by far the biggest compliment, they’re like the Oscars of the Internet. They’re the highest award a website can win; I’m honored to have won and had the support of so many of you. At the award ceremony, I got to meet Jimmy Fallon, Buzz Alrdin, Jason Bateman and many other great people.

All of this success means that it’s time to make the site bigger and better. The first step: more high quality content. As I concentrate on more quality content, the site will continue to get updated several times per week, but I may have some other contributors helping out. This will be great, we’ll have some fresh ideas.

I appreciate all your feedback, suggestions and support. You can always contact me by clicking here.

As always, thanks for reading.

Broken Secrets | Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Photo: zagatbuzz (cc)

Our dog Trooper had just been sprayed by a skunk and he was not happy about it. Frankly, nobody on our block was happy that warm spring night. I could hear the neighbors disgust as they went from room to room and shut their windows.

My mom bathed the dog in the backyard and I went to buy tomato juice. We bathed him in Tomato juice for a while and it was mildly effective.

But, there are some better alternatives.

The home remedy is a foaming mixture:

• 1 Quart Hydrogen Peroxide (3%)
• 1/4 Cup  Baking Soda
• 2 Tbsp Dish-washing Soap (not dishwasher detergent)

The baking soda and hydrogen peroxide will create oxygen bubbles that react with the thiols in skunk oil to neutralize the smell. Be sure to use the mixture right away, while it is foaming, before the bubbles dissolve. This was proven to be more effective than tomato juice by Myth Busters in episode 16. This potion can be used on clothing, people and animals.

If you you’re a planner or have a time to go to a local pharmacy, you can pickup a product called Tecnu — I found many internet users who claim it is more effective than the homemade brew while Myth Busters found the home brew concoction to be more effective than commercial products.

Regardless of which method you choose, you should use a proper eye cleaning solution for your pet’s eyes and put cotton balls in their ears to prevent these solutions from getting in their ears.

Broken Secrets | Chad Upton

Sources: eHow, Skunk Removal Recipe, Myth Busters

There are even high-tech bumpers out there. If you see bumpers with three or four dimples aligned across the back bumper, those are likely sensors for the backup warning system.

If you see small rectangular patches, that’s what this secret is about. They’re actually pretty low-tech, but still cool.

Even if your car doesn’t have them, maybe you’ve noticed them on other cars while you’re sitting at a red light (they may be found on front and/or rear bumpers).

They look like trap doors that cartoon characters fall through long after the audience spots them and screams at their television to warn the carbon impaired being of the obvious hazard and their impending doom. In reality, they cover anchor points where you can insert a towing eye (aka “tow hook”).

Check your car out during the summer and if you need them in the winter, you’ll know if they’re there. The towing eye is usually stored with the spare tire and/or jack and it screws in behind these covers.

Like all of the secrets on this site, there will be somebody reading who already knows this one — that’s cool, you can brag (or complain) about it in the comments, or retweet it and say you knew this, “like 10 years ago.”

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

All that food is one reason keyboards and mice are have more bacteria than most toilet seats. Also, office toilet seats are usually sanitized daily, when was the last time your keyboard or mouse were?

This tip is helpful because your hands never touch your food. This prevents your keyboard from getting dirtier and it keeps your hands from passing bacteria to your mouth.

1. Pour bite-size snacks into a cup or glass.

2. Angle cup into your mouth so bite-size snacks fall into your mouth.

3. Chew, swallow and repeat from step 2.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Home Food Safety Org, ABC News

Now I want share a bartender’s secret for making lime wedges — check out the video. If you can’t view the video, read the description below.

Cut lime wedges

1. Cut a lime in half along its longest side.
2. Cut a slit on the inside of each half. It should be perpendicular to the direction you cut the lime in half and deep enough to release the lime juice without piercing through the skin from the inside.
3. Place the half lime flat side down and cut 3 or 4 wedges perpendicular to the slit you made.
4. Place the wedge on the rim of a glass so the rim fits into the slit in the wedge.
5. Voila.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

I used to have a long walk to school. I mention this because walking to school has the same affect on rainfall as washing your car — it only rains at the worst possible time and it stops immediately after you stop caring.

When you’re stuck in the rain, you might think about whether it would be better to run or walk. When you run, you collide with more rain but you also reduce the amount of time you are exposed to the rain. When you walk, you collide with less rain but for a longer duration. So which is better?

It turns out that running is the better option, assuming you run fast enough to reduce the time you are exposed to rain. Myth Busters tested this in episode 38 if you want to check it out.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Myth Busters, Wise Geek

Now when you want to share a video, you find the video on youtube and send a link — that keeps everybody’s inbox from filling up.

Change the Starting Position

Sometimes, you’ll want to make sure your friends see exactly what you’re talking about. To start the video at a specific spot, you can append “#t=MMmSSs” to the end of the url (link). You’ll replace the uppercase Ms with the number of minutes and the uppercase Ss with the number of seconds in the video where you want playback to begin.

For example, if I want to jump to the 2 minute, 39 second point in a video, then I would add “#t2m39s” to the end of the URL (example:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_HkH8huuzA#t=2m39s)

This trick also works for embedding a video. Although, when embedding use “&start” instead of “#t” and it’s in seconds only. (example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_HkH8huuzA&start=159). Try playing the following video, it will start near the end.

High Definition

Many YouTube videos are now available in HD. To ensure you link to the HD version, append “&fmt=22″ to the end of the url. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_HkH8huuzA&fmt=22)

Download Video

Maybe you want to transfer a video to your iPod or laptop for offline playback. If you load a video in youtube, you can swap out “youtube” for “keephd” in the URL. If there is a forward slash “/” after “watch” then you may want to remove that as well. This new url will take you to keephd.com and it will give you links to download the youtube video.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Make Use Of, Ampercent

In this case, it’s fairly easy to do it like a pro. You just need to know the right technique.

For a quick tutorial, watch this video from Chef Jacob (if you can’t watch the video, read below).

When you’re slicing, dicing and chopping vegetables, you’ll place one hand on the knife and use your other hand to hold the food and guide the knife. The knuckles on your guide hand will maintain constant contact with the side of the knife. You will curl your fingers under your knuckles to protect them from the cutting edge of the knife. Your thumb will oppose your knuckles and stabilize the food. You can see the correct hand position in the photo below:

For those of us who have never been to culinary school or worked in a restaurant, this is a tip that we can really benefit from.

Thanks to Chef Jacob of FreeCulinarySchool.com.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Source and Photo: @ChefJacob

There is an old tale that you should let a dog lick your wounds to speed healing. The wounds may actually heal faster; that’s because the licking will stimulate circulation and clear away dead tissue, but it’s not because their saliva is cleaner than ours.

Some say that dog’s saliva is more acidic than humans so they break down bacteria better. Others look at the fact that dogs rarely get cavities or gum disease as proof.

The fact is, dogs have a similar amount of oral bacteria to humans. But, the types of oral bacteria varies between dogs and humans.

That’s why dogs rarely get cavities or gum disease, the types of bacteria that cause these problems are only found in about 5% of dogs. In fact, viruses and bacteria that affect humans usually don’t bother dogs and vice versa. For that reason, you may actually have a higher risk of becoming sick from kissing a human than kissing a dog. But, that doesn’t mean their mouths are cleaner.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: A Moment of Science, ABC, Life’s Little Mysteries

When it comes to people, they don’t necessarily prefer men to women, but it’s generally easier for mosquitoes to find men than women.

Mosquitoes detect mammals by picking up two chemicals: CO2 and 1-Octen-3-ol. CO2 is obviously in our breath when we exhale. 1-Octen-3-ol is a type of alcohol and it’s naturally in our breath and our sweat. Mosquitoes can detect these chemicals up to 36 meters (118 feet) away.

The more air you exhale and the more sweat you generate, the easier it is for mosquitoes to find you. Typically, men are: larger than women, have higher body temperatures, sweat more and exhale more CO2.

Larger women are also at a higher risk of mosquito bites than smaller women. In fact, a study found that pregnant women are twice as likely to attract mosquitoes than non-pregnant women.

The most effective way to repel mosquitoes is with a product that contains DEET. There are some natural alternatives to DEET: lemon eucalyptus and lemon grass are popular and reasonably effective, although there are other alternatives too. Unfortunately, none of them are as effective as DEET on the skin. DEET provides 100% protection for up to two hours, the natural alternatives need to be reapplied every 30-60 minutes.

Nepetalacton, the active ingredient in Catnip, is nearly 10 times more effective than DEET at repelling mosquitoes. However, it is not effective when applied to skin.

When a mosquito bites you, or when your skin is punctured in general, there is a complex reaction in your body that tries to stop the bleeding. Mosquitoes inject their saliva which contains a number of compounds, one of which is designed to prevent this reaction from happening. That prevents the blood from clotting and allows them to easily extract it. These compounds are the reason mosquito bites are itchy.

Researchers are studying the anti-clotting compounds in mosquito saliva since they could be effective in treating life threatening blood clots and heart-related diseases that affect humans.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Annals of Internal Medicine, Wikipedia (Mosquito, DEET, 1-Octen-3-ol), NYT

These airlines use an in flight system that mimics cell phone towers found on the ground. The system relays the call/text/email to a satellite and back to the ground from there. Similar systems have been on cruise ships for years. On cruise ships, they use these systems because there aren’t any ground based cell phone towers in the middle of the ocean.

When you drive in a car, your cell phone call may jump from tower to tower as you travel out of range from one tower and into range of another. These jumps used to cause an echo with early cell phone networks, but it is pretty seamless today. Well, at least in your car it is. Airplanes move much more quickly and the network cannot pass your call from tower to tower at that speed. That’s why airplane systems typically bounce your call off a satellite, which it can easily maintain a connection to.

An unintended benefit of having the cellular connection on the plane is that the cell phone doesn’t require a lot of power to connect the call, so your battery will last longer and there will be less electromagnetic radiation in the plane. If you phone was attempting to connect to ground based towers it would have to amplify the signal much more and that consumes more battery power.

So, the technology exists. Why don’t most airlines allow it?

Firstly, there is the myth that cell phones cause interference with navigational equipment. Most people aren’t going to try to test it either, no phone call is important enough to take that risk. But, if you fly a lot then chances are good that you’ve realize mid-flight that you forgot to turn your phone off. It doesn’t appear that there have been any equipment problems. You seem to be flying in the right direction and you haven’t heard any complaints from the cockpit.

I asked an airline insider about this and they checked with some pilots and filled me in on the details. They said that old analog cell phones may have caused problems, but there is no evidence that digital phones cause any problems. Like I said before, Air France has been doing it for two years now without incident and there have been a number of studies that failed to find any incompatibilities between aircraft systems and cell phones. In fact, the problems are more likely with the ground based systems as they scramble to route your call to the nearest tower as you pass a new tower every few seconds in an airplane.

Here’s where it gets really interesting, many planes already have equipment to route in-flight cell phone calls without going to ground based towers (similar to what Air France uses to properly route cell phones through satellites). This equipment is often part of the system that planes use to offer in-flight wifi. Many US carriers currently offer that service and much of that equipment has cellular capability, it’s just not enabled right now.

If it was truly a problem with airplane systems, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) would surely support the ban of cell phones. Instead, the FAA blames the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) for the in-flight cell phone ban.

The FCC regulates all electronics that are sold in the United States and they readily admit they’re cautious about changing the rules on this issue. Their main goal is to prevent electronics from interfering and causing problems with each other, especially with emergency and government systems. They say that limited information is available on the safety of using cell phones on airplanes.  They also note that consumers don’t want cell phones on planes.

They’re probably right about cell phone calls on the plane, although I’m not sure if that is their decision to make. I could see a war between airlines who adopt the technology and those who promote their flights as cell phone free.

The interesting thing about the technology is that the airlines can control which services the passengers can use. They can disable calls, but allow text messages and emails/data to be transferred. Disabling calls would maintain a flight environment similar to what we have now and that would ensure that screaming babies retain their exclusive right to prevent you from sleeping on red-eye flights.

As more airlines install the equipment for in-flight wifi, they’ll be itching to generate revenue from in-flight cell phone usage too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the airlines lobbying the FCC for the right to offer these services. When they do, sign me up for the deluxe service package: 1 piece of luggage, cellular usage, 1 meal, 1 life vest during an emergency  and 1 bathroom break — not necessarily in that order.

Thanks to Gina for suggesting this secret!

Related: Why Airlines Dim the Lights Before Night Landings

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Live Science, ABC, OnAir

Photo: lrargerich

Traders use sophisticated software to analyze trends, make predictions and purchases. There is one legendary trader, who made billions of dollars analyzing market trends.

His name was Munehisa Homma and the only thing he traded was rice. His billions in earnings are in today’s dollars and he may have known more about market analysis in the 1700s than our smartest people do now.

He began trading rice in Osaka, where the rice market was very sophisticated, it even traded rice futures. Coupons were sold that promised the delivery of rice at a specific price in the future. Homma was believed to have created a personal network of 100 men located about 6km apart from each other to move market information between Osaka and Sakata.

He wrote the first book on market psychology in 1755, The fountain of Gold – The Three Monkey Record of Money. I have no idea what the title means, hopefully somebody is working on a movie adaptation and we can see it in 3D. Maybe it could be a prequel to 12 Monkeys?

Seriously though, Homma was a genius. He invented the candlestick chart, which is still used by traders today.

This handy chart combines four pieces of data into each plot point on a date axis. For example, you can look at a single day of trading of a specific stock and see the open and close price of the stock on that day (the candle body), along with a low and high range of prices at which it traded throughout the day (the candle wick). The candle body is solid when the open price is represented by the top line and the close price is the bottom line. It is hollow when it’s the opposite, indicating whether the price increased or decreased that day.

For a single date, this gives the reader a lot of information. But, it becomes a fountain of gold when you put multiple days together — that’s when patterns can be spotted. The great master could read the chart and predict how the market would behave in the future. Understanding these patterns is how he made his billions.

Charles Dow recognized the value of candlestick charts around 1900 and included them in his studies. You may have heard of him, he’s the guy who co-founded Dow Jones & Company, The Dow Jones Industrial Average and The Wall Street Journal.

He was obviously a brilliant man, but it was the research of Steve Nison in the early 1990s that popularized candlestick charts in North America. If you want to know more about these charts, you should look at his work.

Homma is still recognized as the greatest trader of all time. It is believed that he made more than $100 billion (today’s dollars). He once said, when all are bearish, there is cause for prices to rise.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Trader’s Log, Candlestick Forum, Wikipedia (Candlestick, Charles Dow, Homma Muneshisa)

Images:  Wikipedia (Candlestick Chart, Candlestick Definition)

The loyalty cards are usually provided by the retailer at no charge. However, they’re not free.

Although you don’t pay any money for these cards, you do handover your entire purchase history at that store. Your information is often used immediately at your time of purchase to determine which coupons should be printed out for your next visit.

Marketers frequently target consumers who buy their competitors products. For example, if you frequently buy Uncle Ben’s Rice, you may get a coupon from Rice-A-Roni. The manufacturer is trying to entice you to buy their brand the next time you shop.

Purchase history may also be used to determine the dollar value of the coupons you receive. For example, if you normally buy Dannon yogurt, then Yoplait may offer you $0.50 off your next Yoplait purchase. If you’re already a Yoplait customer, you may only get a $0.10 coupon or none at all.

Obviously, you don’t need a loyalty card for the store to recognize that you’re buying Uncle Ben’s today, but it is important if they want to know if you have bought that brand before or if you typically buy another brand.

When you sign up for a loyalty card, you often fill out a short survey of personal information, including your home address. They say they want your address so they can mail other offers to you, which they may. More importantly, your address allows them to understand a lot about you, including the average income of your neighborhood and even how much you paid for your house. In some cases, these programs are run by outside companies. Your address will help them combine your shopping information from multiple stores, assuming you always use the same name and address.

By comparing your personal information with information about other people’s shopping habits, average income and other demographic information, they can predict which products you’ll most likely try if they provide a coupon a for it.

Many stores will give you their loyalty card and let you use it right away, then they send you home with a survey to fill out and mail in to register for the card. I can tell you from experience that you can use your loyalty card for years without ever mailing the survey in. Although they’re collecting your shopping history, they don’t know much else about you.

There are also studies that show stores with loyalty cards don’t always have the best price, even when you use your frequent shopper card. In fact, one study even showed that sale prices went up after the introduction of a loyalty shopping card. It’s a good idea to keep track of the prices of a few items you commonly purchase to see if the regular price is better at other nearby stores.

I usually shop at a co-op, which does not use a loyalty card but has better prices than any other store around. They even have better prices than Target on items that they both carry, although that is one of the few places I cannot use my credit card to get cash back — they only accept cash or debit, one way they try to keep their costs down.

It’s not just grocery stores that provide you with sponsored coupons. I stopped at target yesterday to pick up some envelopes, on my way to the cash I spotted a new iced coffee drink. From other posts, you know I am addicted to coffee, so I couldn’t resist. At the register I was given a $7 off coupon for Crest Whitening strips. I doubt the envelopes triggered that.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Seattle Press, No Cards, an Industry Insider

The folding panels of many cardboard packages contain colored boxes and cross-hair markings. I always wondered what they were for.

The cross-hairs are called “registration marks” and they may be used for different purposes during the printing and package making process.

In the initial stages of the printing process, they are used to ensure the printing plates are properly aligned in multiple color processes. Technicians use these marks to perform the initial setup and make adjustments during the print run. Advanced printing presses also have sensors to check for alignment and make automatic adjustments.

The registration marks may also be used to align materials in other machines that do cutting, folding and gluing.

The color boxes are used by printing technicians to verify the proper quantity of ink is being laid on the printed material. This allows them to match color samples to ensure consistency from start to finish of the printing run and even across printing facilities that print the same materials around the world.

Thanks to Todd M for suggesting this secret.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Computer Hope, Wikipedia (Registration), Sensors

Vehicles that weigh more than 26,000 pounds or have 3 or more axles have to pay fuel taxes. Motor homes and other private (non-commercial) vehicles are generally exempt. For example, if you see a race-car team drive by, you’ll often see “not for hire” on the side of the cab. That suggests the vehicle is exempt from the fuel tax charges and keeps other trucking companies from soliciting their services.

Truck weigh stations were originally developed for states to collect the fuel taxes they were owed by the commercial trucks using their roadways. It is similar to the licensing concept that I talked about in a previous post, Why U-Hauls Have Arizona License Plates.

In North America, weight stations aren’t directly used for that purpose anymore. There is now an International Fuel Tax Agreement which allows truckers to file a quarterly tax report. Weigh stations are still used to enforce the tracking and submission of the logs and the payment of the fuel tax.

The scales are still used to enforce weight restrictions. The federal weight restriction is 80,000 pounds. Trucks need a trip permit to transport a load exceeding that weight.

Some weigh stations are pretty high-tech, supporting “weigh-in-motion” technology. This technology can allow truckers to bypass weigh stations entirely. This involves the truck driving over a scale that is built into the right lane of the road, usually about a mile before the weigh station. Depending on the weight of the vehicle, its history and the history of the trucking company, the weigh station operator or an automated system will decide if the truck needs to pull into the weigh station.

Truckers who use these systems have a transponder in their truck, similar to those used for electronic toll collection. If they can skip the weigh station, they will usually get a green light on the transponder. If they need to pull in, they will get a red light.

Weigh stations are also used for safety inspections of vehicles. Truckers often refer to weigh stations as “chicken coops.” Check out my post on trucker signals for more trucker slang.

Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton

Subscribe on: Facebook | Twitter | Kindle

Sources: Wikipedia (weigh station, IFTA, weigh in motion)

Photo: OregonDOT (cc)