XKCD have created a chart that compares the radiation a person would be exposed to in different situations.
It demonstrates how silly people can be when worrying about some things. I think they should
do another one indicating the amount of mercury found in vaccinations.
Using a cell phone (0 µSv)-a cell phone's transmitter does not
produce ionizing radiation* and does not cause cancer.
* Unless it's a bananaphone.
[via: XKCD]
The Search Engine Wolfram Alpha, apart from having very useful information, also has some fun, and rather nerdy, "facts", if you can call them that.
For more examples see the website Math Fail.
[via: Math Fail]
By adding custom options to Chrome or Firefox search engine lists, you are able to use the address bar of your browser to add events to your Google Calendar, or even quickly look up Google Map directions from your home.
This quick and easy hack turns your address bar into a simple command line.
How it Works
The gears that make this machine turn are the keyword search tools built into both Firefox and Chrome. These allow you to use short keywords to search tons of different web sites, all from the address bar of your browser. However, you don't have to use them simply for search engines—as long as you have the right URL, you can use the address bar to do just about anything.
It works like this: when you enter text on a web application, the result is often the web page sending that text along to a server as part of a URL. A Google search for lifehacker android results in a URL of http://www.google.com/search?q=lifehacker+android. By finding the right URLs—for Google Calendar events, Google Maps directions, Twitter statuses, and more—we can use keywords in the address bar to submit text to any of those web sites.
Our video demonstration (embedded above) shows how to set up the keyword bookmarks below in Firefox or Chrome. Again, these examples are just meant to get you started. Check out your favorite services, click around, and see if you can't shortcut your text entry by a few clicks.
For more information, please see the full article at lifehacker.
I am busy drinking Self-Heating coffee, and thought it would be appropriate to post about it on Nerdgasm.
It seems to use a reaction between calcium oxide and water to heat the tin up. I am not big into chemistry, but I remember learning in High School that a reaction will either require heat, or create heat, so using a chemical reaction to heat the coffee up does make a lot of sense to me. If you want more information of calcium oxide (quicklime) I will refer you to Wikipedia.
I tasted it before reading the ingredients at the back of the tin, and right away tasted that it was instant coffee with sugar. I do not add any milk or sugar to coffee when I drink it, and I am not a big fan of instant coffee, so this was a little disappointing, but I am still in love with the idea.
INGREDIENTS:
Water, sugar and instant coffee (1%).
There is a web address on the tin (http://www.fastdrinks2go.com/).
The website has music playing, which I don't like. Opening a website that had music is generally a sure way for me to close it again without reading anything.
