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Month: June 2006

Dots What I’m Talking About

Published by Will Chatham on 6/30/2006

Having always been a big fan of cool scientific and mathematical things that make you go, “Whoa”, I have been enjoying Getting a feel for big numbers.

Start by taking a look at what 10,000 dots looks like.

Next, take a gander at what it looks like when you have one dot for every second of the day.

Feeling overwhelmed? Wait until you see what one million dots looks like. That puts in perspective exactly how big one million really is.

So what about a billion? Billions and Billions puts this impressive number in perspective:

“To visit every web page on the internet would require a page a second for thirty two years with no time to eat or sleep(1).”

“A billion dollar bills laid end to end would circle the globe at the equator four times.”

“A trillion dollar bills laid end to end would stretch from the Earth to the Sun.”

Wow.

Fun With Google

Published by Will Chatham on 6/27/2006

Google never ceases to amaze me. I am now a GCal addict, having organized my life for the next 55 years, WITH text messages being sent to my phone to remind me of upcoming events. I have been smitten with Google Adsense, I am a big fan of GMail, and I cannot get enough of Google Earth.

So maybe Google really is trying to take over the universe, but doggone it, I am OK with that as long as they keep the steady supply of geek toys flowing. And if they offer me a job some day.

While revelling in my little Google stupor, I discovered a cool, free PDF called 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google, which to my amazement, introduced me to 55 entirely new reasons why Google rules. If you care anything about the next hour of your life, you will read this PDF.

The book is offered by 55fun.com and can be purchased in print from their site.

And for those of you who still can’t find something on Google, come tell me about it.

Two New Sites Launch

Published by Will Chatham on 6/20/2006

I have finally put the finishing touches on Dumpworthy.com. If you want to help me write magazine reviews, contact me now and I will set you up a login. I can offer no money right now for your help, but if it works out, we may start getting offers for free magazines.

Additionally, I have been working on another site in my free time for a while, and I am pleased to announce The Best of YouTube, a site where I will be selecting and reviewing some of the better videos available from YouTube. After trying to dig my way through tons of uninteresting video clips, I decided it might be useful to have a site where the cruft is filtered out for you, and you get only the good stuff.

If you’d like to help me write for either of these sites, give me a holler. It’s easy and it makes you look cool.

The Death Star

Published by Will Chatham on 6/17/2006

“It would take 10^21 United States-worth of generators–as in a billion trillion Americas–to generate the same amount of energy that the Death Star superlaser released in one second.”

That’s insane. Some guy decided to figure out how much energy it would take to blow up a planet in a similar fashion to how the Death Star blew up Alderan in Star Wars Episode IV. As it turns out, it would be much easier to liquify an entire planet than to disinegrate it. Read the whole article

Gnarls Barkley

Published by Will Chatham on 6/11/2006

I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have MTV, or I don’t have my ear to the streets of current top-40 music, but for some reason I have never heard of Gnarls Barkley. But now that I have witnessed the following video, I have gained a deep respect for him/her/it/them. Check it out:

Powers of 10

Published by Will Chatham on 6/11/2006

I remember seeing this movie first in a middle school science class. I saw it again in my Math for Liberal Arts course when attending Warren Wilson College. I’m glad to see it has surfaced on the internet, and is free to view.

The film is a 10 minute journey that boggles the mind. I’d love for someone to make an updated version that reflects discoveries made since the original was made. Still, this is totally worth your next 10 minutes of life.