Using Your Head

I'm sure that many of you kidz have had the opportunity to inhale helium and hear your voice go up several pitches like Alvin the chipmunk. Sulfur hexafluoride is heavier than air: what do you think will happen to your voice if you inhale it? If helium eventually leaves your lungs because it can easily be breathed out, how will you get the SH₆ out? Hint: you have to use your head.

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What's that soul sucking sound? Ah, it's Black Friday.

Black Friday is the shopping day of the year here in the US where companies go from "being in the red" meaning that they are losing money to "being in the black". Typically retailers discount heavily, especially on consumer electronics, in a hope that in the post-Thanksgiving haze of stuffed tummies and dulled brains, that we pour the contents of our wallets out onto their counters in exchange for goods.

As Mr. Spanky is always on the prowl for the interesting and amusing, he came across this "coupon" that celebrates Black Friday.

The talented illustrator here is poking fun at our rampant materialism and reminds us that this obsession can never be satisfied and in the end becomes your owner. The picture of the cow is in reference to the golden calf created and then worshipped by the Israelites while Moses was up on the mountain getting the ten commandments from God (Exo 32:1).

It made the Spankster snort with suppressed laughter, much to his embarrassment, while riding the train home.

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Never Gonna Give You Up

The word acrostic comes from the Greek words "akros" or top and "stichos" or verse. It is comprised of a series of letters, words, or letters at the beginning of every sentence or line of text that form a hidden message. Acrostics are commonly used as mnemonics so that we can remember things. Surely you know ROYGBIV for the colors of the rainbow or the sentence All Cows Eat Grass which denote the space notes on the left hand of the piano?

An enterprising college student decided to hide the lyrics to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" in his paper on computer networking. It took him five hours. His father was quoted as saying "If only he had spent as much effort on his chores..."

Does anyone know of any other funny acrostics? If so, post a comment in the blog.

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna around or desert you...


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Giga Pudding

Some things defy description. Mr. Spanky is at a total loss, mumbling "gigapuddinggigapuddinggigapuddinggigapuddinggigapudding" over and over again.

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Is it just me or did anyone else find the horde of gigapudding gobblers sticking their germ ridden spoons over and over into its bucket-sized jiggling mass, ignoring basic hygiene, incredibly disturbing? I need to go rinse my mouth with bleach.

The Elements Song

The elements in the periodic table sung in Japanese. It's saccharin sweet!

This is an Easter Egg in the popular The Elements electronic book/application on the iPad which has now been translated to Japanese.

And here Mr Spanky thought that the elements were salt, sugar, fat, and caffeine. Go figure!

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Creepy Snake Robot

According to Wikipedia, Biomimcry or biomimetics is the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems. The brainy students at MIT have created a robot that mimics the movement of a snake not only on the ground but also climbing a tree. It's vaguely unnerving to see a machine act like an animal as it falls outside of what we typically expect based on our experience of typical gears and wheels.

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Internet Breakfast in Your Car

It's amazing what they're putting into cars these days:

Here's a whole set of design questionable car doodads: link