Call letters decoded

Ever wondered what the letters in the TV or radio station call letters stood for (if anything?)

Wonder no more.

It's certainly not a complete list. For example, the picture is yours truly in 1989 while helping run the radio station in Alert Nunavut whose call letters are CHAR-FM. Char referring to the fish that lives up there - Arctic Char.

What is it? Edition 4

It's a microscopic image. I'll give you that.

But of what?

[update] Folks are having a hard time with this one, so I'll give a clue - you'll find this in your mouth.

[update 2] Jonathan got the answer (dental plaque). Here is where I got the image from along with more microscopic images from the human body.

Best Facebook status line read this week

".....advises anyone new to Calgary: It always feels intensely like spring on the last day of winter, and intensely like winter on the first day of spring."

How bacon is made

I am aware that I have readers who like their bacon.

If you've ever wondered how bacon is made, check out this video. The process shown in this particular video shows right through to the pre-cooked bacon stage, so I'm guessing the uncooked, refrigerated stuff just misses that last cooking process.

Toyota continues to push what its Prius can do

The 2010 Toyota Prius, while in EV Drive, will let you run on battery alone for about a mile, conditions permitting.

One of the coolest new features is the optional solar panels in the moon roof for generating power for circulating air and keeping the interior from getting too hot. There's also a battery powered remote-controlled A/C system that lets you set the temperature ahead of time.

So ummm Brad, care to explain the shirt?

Take a wild guess at what this man was arrested for. Go on, just guess.

Something to do with..... ummm..... I don't know.... his marriage?

Yeah. The couple were arguing over drugs and during the fight at their home, Bradley grabbed his wife's neck, strangled her and knocked her to the ground. He was wearing this t-shirt at the time of the arrest.

The receipt catcher

This is kind of cool. If you are in the habit of saving receipts for the things you buy, but have no formal place to put them, this article is for you.

I sent you a note but then I ate it

I'm wracking my brain (I think that's the first use of the word wrack on this blog) trying to think of a situation where I might want to use this, but the concept is intriguing.

At privnote, the idea is that you compose a note, send the link to the note via SMS or email, and once the recipient has clicked on the link, they will see the note in their browser and the note will automatically self-destruct; which means no one (not even that same person) will be able to read the note again. The link won't work anymore.

It's interesting, but if the point of the tool is to be able to deny that you sent the note in the first place, all the recipient has to do is take a screen shot of the note while the link is still up and save the image as a file.

So pardon me if I don't quite get it.......

When will I stop ranting about the DMCA? When it's toast.

If you needed a reason to care about why and how the dreaded DMCA law in the US (and its current and future spawn in other parts of the world), you only have to read this article.

Let me try to paint you a nice analogy. Assuming that it's an infringement to plagiarize a written work, imagine if every time you wrote something - anything - a poem, a letter to your loved one, an idea for a new product or business, imagine that an author could at any time come to your house and tear up whatever you were working on, with no need to prove that your work is an actual infringement on their work. This is in essence what the DMCA allows for online. Oh - you'd fight back, eh? With what army of lawyers exactly? Get my point?

Sometimes an itch needs scratchin'

Bear does an unintentional pole dance scratching his (her) back against a tree.

Shake that furray bootay!

Dear Santa....... have you heard of the Fisker Karma?

While the world waits for the Chevy Volt, other electric or hybrid cars are making waves. I've already mentioned the Tesla all-electric sports car. Soon we'll have the Fisker Karma. The Karma is powered by a gas engine / electric motors combination. What makes this hybrid unique is that the engine is mated with a generator to provide an electricity to the motors and recharge the batteries. As such the electric motors are the only driving force connected to the wheels. As a factory option the Karma can be fitted with a solar panelled roof not only to aid in the recharging of its Lithium-Ion batteries but also to aid the cabin climate control system.

Fisker estimates a refill of the fuel tank once a year provided a drive of no more than 80 kilometres (50 miles) per day. Fisker also claim that in 'sport-hybrid' mode, the car will do 2.35 l/100 km (100 mpg) of fuel consumed for a range of 480km (300 miles). Despite its eco-friendliness the Karma can go 200 km/h (125 mph) and is capable of reaching 60 mph (97 km/h) from a standstill in 5.8 seconds.

USD$80,000. Here's a video.

Get answers to stuff

Have you ever wanted to pose a question on the internet and let people who may know the answer take a whack at it?

Well, there are a lot of choices, as listed here. I'm partial to eHow and Answerbag (the latter of which I have participated in a few times).

From 24 million results to 87

I would venture to say that the majority of ordinary folks who search the internet have never been trained in the art of search strategies using various syntax in the search phrase.

A page that sums things up nicely is here, but pay atention to the bottom of the page, which demonstrates how the more specific you are, the fewer results you have to sift through.

Google schools NZ on why terminating accused infringers is bogus

An interesting article from boingboing about Google's position on take-down notices with some stats regrading their legitimacy.

He wants to sell us miles, the same way the phone company sells minutes

Back in October I introduced you to a guy named Shai Agassi, who wants to build the infrastructure needed to power electric cars.

Here's an interview with the man.

It's a bold, complicated plan, but a few countries have signed up and in Canada, Ontario's premier seems up for it. Watch this space......

The best kind of printer jam

Here's an awesome video called Printer Jam.

This would be the first video I've ever seen where printer noises are used as a form of music.

Can you get all three correct?

Alright trivia geeks:

1. How long does it take for the Earth to revolve around the Sun?
2. Did the earliest humans and dinosaurs live at the same time?
3. What is the approximate percent of the Earth's surface that is covered with water? Bonus question - what percentage is fresh?

Here's what freaked me out - 21% of adults can answer them all correctly. Courtesy J-Walk blog.
(I have placed the answers in comments)

Verizon..... you've got money... we've got nerve

From the I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it for myself file: If you don't make at least 12.5 minutes of long distance calls, Verizon is assessing some home phone customers a $5 per month "shortfall charge." Verizon says that the charge helps pay for maintenance of the network.

Mmm hmm. Because it's not like they don't already charge you for the use of the network.

Pretty soon your phone bill will look similar to your other utility bills in its granularity. There'll be:

• The line access fee
• The line maintenance fee
• The copper replacement rider
• The fibre to the door upgrade fee
• The high speed internet's clogging our werkins fee
• The long distance access fee
• The long distance usage fee
• The 911 access fee
• The pole climber's retirement fund contribution
• The dial tone fee
• ...

Chatty jury

The internet is having unexpected consequences in the most unexpected places now. Not so much the existence of the internet, but the portable, stealthy, modern means of accessing it.

Such as when you're on a jury. Cases are regularly being compromised and in some instances - thrown out due to inappropriate tweeting, blogging and Facebooking of court activities.

An Ernest offering.

I bet it has more to do with California than Colorado

Check this out.

In the state of Colorado, the water that falls on your property in the form of rain - isn't yours to keep. That's right, collecting rainwater from your roof is against the law. It belongs to "farmers, ranchers, developers and water agencies that have bought the rights to those waterways."

Just think homemade poutine... but with garlic

Gravy cheese oven fries with roasted garlic.

Just let that soak in for a minute.

Are you drooling yet?

OK then, here's the recipe.....

Awkward.....

Sometimes you get a little dyslexic with your typing in Microsoft Word and sometimes Word's built in spell checker makes a suggestion that is hardly appropriate.

Like when you totally mess up categories and it suggests cat orgies.

Click!

You're walking along, minding your own business, when you stumble across a red cord dangling from the sky.

What do you do? What happens next?

This year's crop of cars...... a bit boring

I went to the Calgary (new car) Auto Show this past weekend. I came away a bit disappointed.

First of all, if I have to pay an entry fee, there better be some vehicles there that I couldn't find at your average dealership. I want to see concept cars! Regrettably, there was one. I don't count cars that will actually be on showroom floors within 6 months, as some car companies were labelling pre-production samples as 'concepts'. Uh..... no.

Second, I was totally uninspired by this year's crop of vehicles in general. Coming from a Honda / Acura fan boy, I found their styling to be uninspiring. Darlene even commented this weekend that the newest Accord model looked like a Ford. Ha! Take that Honda. Their new Insight hybrid looks like it will be easily eclipsed by the new 2010 Toyota Prius. The new Acuras have far too much chrome, especially on their front grilles.

There was one car I saw that actually turned my head - the new Audi A4 Avant wagon. Lots of power, loads of torque from a 2.0 litre turbocharged gasoline engine and all wheel drive to boot. It's a bit pricey ($50,000), but almost every auto journalist said it was worth the price. Sitting inside it, I almost forgot how much I like my 2004 TSX.

I hope the car scene is more exciting when I'm in the market for my next car.....

I figured expecting the other person to pay would've been one

A poll was done with 3,000 people asking what they thought were faux pas on a first date. The results:

1. Clicking fingers at the waiter
2. Adding salt to the meal before tasting it
3. Getting drunk
4. Licking the plate clean
5. Burping
6. Picking teeth with fingers
7. Licking the knife
8. Slurping soup
9. Talking about sex or bodily functions
10. Not leaving a tip

I think I might have been guilty of numbers 2 and 5 - keep in mind I would have excused myself after 5.

Lawsuit limerick

There was a young lad from Kentucky
Whose purchase turned out to be unlucky
He bought an iPod
It burned his young bod
And the award would suit him just ducky

Yeah..... I just made that up. OK, so if they win the lawsuit, the family gets $225,000 for an isolated incident involving a second degree burn from an exploded battery. The lawsuit also describes the Apple store employees as having "acted with actual malice and committed intentional, reckless, wanton, wilful and gross acts."

Thanks to Ernest for the catch.

Well... they were portable-ish

Hey kids!

Just think, this is what cell phones used to be like.....

Yeah.

Using your phone to hunt for food

One of the earliest iPhone apps I downloaded (for free) is Urbanspoon.

Sometimes you want to go out to eat but have no idea where you'd like to go. I've lost count of the number of times when I'll be straining to come up with a good idea for a dinner destination, but later in the week I'll drive by a place and say "Aww crap! We could have gone there for supper the other day...".

The Urban Spoon app for the iPhone can be used to find nearby restaurants. It makes use of the iPhone's accelerometer by allowing you to shake the phone to turn the dials like a slot machine. The 3 dials represent an area, a type of cuisine, and a price range. At first, each dial is unlocked, but you can lock down any dials to restrict what it searches for. So if you are interested in a particular price range but don't care about the area or type of food, you just scroll the price range dial to the value you want, lock that dial and shake the phone to get a random offering based on any area and any type of food. And yes, the app knows where you are, so you will get restaurants in your city.

You can even just browse restaurants closest to you, if the random slot machine offerings aren't to your liking.

Check out this iPhone ad showcasing the app in action.

Cues for Horation on CSI Miami

Funny flow chart for Horatio from CSI Miami.

Want!

Some guys took the electric motors out of their kid-sized 'Powerwheels' sized vehicles and souped them up just a little. Then they had some fun in the snow.

I am so jealous right now.......