Category Archives: Physics

there’s good dog, there’s bad dog, and there’s bone dumb but indestructable dog

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RussettMeet Russett. Russett is, as you'll have guessed from the above headline, a Jack Russell. God is exerting all his divine forces and calling on the Armies of Heaven, working hard keeping all the wee Jack Russells alive, for lo, he knows they're yappy, spoilt little buggers and he don't want none of that 'round Heaven. Word.

Russett was out for a walk recently with his owner, who is also not the brightest porch light on his particular block. One or both of them should have an intelligence-assistance animal, like the blind have guide dogs. Perhaps we could get them a matched set of monkeys. Actually, they're both so dumb we could get them a matched pair of Sea Monkeys and it would still be a boost in the ol' brain pan.

Anyhoo…

Russett and Russett's Daddy were out for a walk. And where else would you take your off-leash-and-doesn't-come-when-called terrier but along the edge of a 450-foot cliff.

You see this coming, right?

Mr Coombes, a yacht chandler from St Helens on the island, said: "All of a sudden he spotted a rabbit and shot off towards the edge of the cliff but lost his footing.

Distraught [he] peered over the precipice to see his beloved six-year-old pet tumbling down the cliff face and immediately called the coastguard.

One rather substantial Coast Guard intervention later, Russett is safe and sound, if rather dinged up in spots.

Mr Coombes said: "He's made a remarkable recovery. He's walking around the garden and already started barking at the postman again. He wants to go out for a proper walk but I think i'll give it a bit of time after the fright he gave me. I will definitely be keeping him on a lead in the future.

The Ice Storm: Quebec, 1998

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From tigressemimi: 

I made this video with Windows movie maker. This video is a presentation of photos pulled by the album of the ice storm of quebec in 1998. This storm was terrible. We must be evacuated because it was too much cold and too dangerous. We did not have electricity anymore and all the shops were closed. The food became rare. I remember that we had to put our food to the garbage because the fridge and the freezer did not work any more. It was the hell. it fell 100 mm of ice there. To show you the extent of damages, here is some figures:

700 municipalities affected

up to 7,000 cords of wood distributed each day (firewood)

more than 60,000 meals a day served in shelters

more than 16,000 wooden poles damaged

approximately 3,312,600 litres of milk discarded

more than 3,000 pylons downed or irreparably damaged

telephone service cut off to more than 158,500 customers

approximately 1.7 million hectares of forest damaged

so you understand now what i say… but one thing was very nice… SCHOOL WAS CLOSED lol please leave your comment i'll be very happy ^^

101 bottles of diet coke, 523 mentos, 2 mad scientists

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If Monty Python were physics majors…they might come up with this. Forget the Dancing Waters; we present The Dancing Sodas!

Update: we DID present them. Now they’ve cruised through YouTube and insisted that everyone take the video down. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted (and if I weren’t annoyed with them I’d put a link to their site. But I am)

Double UPDATE: Okay, their friend has posted their side of the story, and I’m not so pissed off as I used to be. The video is available here, and the mad scientists (one of them’s even madder than I thought; he’s a LAWYER!) get a bit of revenue every time someone watches it there. My computer here won’t play that vid, but if yours will, it’s worth watching, to say the least. I note that revver will allow you to embed the video in your Myspace or whatever, but since that doesn’t work with WordPress we won’t be doing it here.

Via Sploid:

Two men in Maine have proven that the recipe for miraculous fun has only two ingredients: Diet Coke and Mentos.

In a three-minute video (Watch it in Quicktime here or on Youtube here), Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz show how this simple food combination can create astonishing geysers of carbonated, sugary goodness. They set off 100 Diet Coke bottles in an elaborately choreographed display worthy of the Bellagio fountains. They also venture into some detail about the physics and chemistry behind it, dispelling the popular notion that gum arabic may be the key to the mystery…

If you enjoy this kind of insanity, check out the rest of the blog here. You can also click on the Science or Weird categories in the sidebar over there. Squid too, Squid is good.

Ali G @ NASA

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Space…that's the thing between his ears.

Astronauts apparently have the patience of Job, particularly when they're explaining things to British tv hosts.

Indonesian Earthquake Relief

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Here is the page for Save the Children Fund's Indonesian Earthquake relief effort. The death toll stands at 3500, but is low because of the understandable desire of the local people to perform the burials quickly. This will climb, particularly as rescue efforts are ongoing.

Donate to the Indonesian Earthquake Children's Emergency Fund 

Your donations will help us meet basic needs including providing water, food, medicines, hygiene kits and temporary shelter, with a special focus on ensuring that children are protected and safe. We will begin assembling family kits with household supplies and other basic necessities to assist displaced families