RejectReality

Now, this just screams of fun.

Liquid-Nitrogen Ice Cream

My next obvious questions would have to be along the lines of where could cheap LN2 be found and who’s game to give it a go?

[via Hack a Day]

If you ever asked yourself exactly what it would take to tip over a cow, now you know — complete with formulae to back it up!

A cow of 1.45 metres in height pushed at an angle of 23.4 degrees relative to the ground would require 2,910 Newtons of force, equivalent to 4.43 people.

The part that tickled my funny bone was:

“The static physics of the issue say two people might be able to tip a cow, but the cow would have to be tipped quickly. The cow’s centre of mass would have to be pushed over its hoof before the cow could react.”

Based on this, it would seem that tipping a cow is no longer just a matter of leverage; it has become a battle of wits against a rather confused opponent

[via Boing Boing]

I hate telemarketers.

I’m pretty sure I can’t get much clearer than this – as much as I try, it always seem to boil down to the same thing. Just for fun, I’ll try again anyway.

I hate telemarketers.

<shrug>

I received a phone call on my mobile at around 9:30pm advising that I was “fortunate” enough to be “selected” to participate in a “survey” for Australia’s major telco – Telstra.

As I have never provided that particular number to Telstra, I asked the telemarketer how they obtained my number, given this and the fact that it is a silent number.

His first response was an outright lie. His second attempt wasn’t much better. I’ll admit that it slightly shocked and annoyed me — “one of your friends or family have provided your name, address and phone numbers to us so that we can discuss your long distance calling plans and having a land line enabled at home”.

There are a couple of amusing things with this:

• My friends or family would not have released the details he specified
• The only way that I will be changing my long distance provider is to swap it out for a VoIP setup and an ATA so I can bypass as many of the major telco services as I can (with significant savings)
• I already have a functional land line as it’s a Telstra business decision to require a working (read: being actively billed) voice service to have DSL provisioned
• None of the land line services are in my name, so I can’t technically authorise anything like what he wanted to talk me in to
• I’m in the process of actively reducing the amount of my money that is (directly or indirectly) currently going to Telstra

These were really cruddy tactics. Especially considering he gave me a hard time when requested that I be immediately removed from all databases and call lists for marketing purposes.

All I can say is bring on the Do-Not-Call list – I’ll be the first to sign up.

</rant>

V and I dropped in to have lunch with a friend of ours on the weekend. These are normally quite entertaining events, where good food is eaten, a movie or two is watched, lots of bollocks is spoken and each other’s DVD collection is raided.

This time was no different, with one minor exception – it ended up with possibly the greatest find known to man.

I’m tragic enough to admit on public record that I am thoroughly enjoying watching one of my favourite series from long ago – MacGyver.

I mean, what’s not to like? Fairly decent plot (even if a little contrived — there’s always some explosives, duct tape or a ballpoint pen whenever they are required), a little science and physics and a lead character that can save the world with nothing more than a Swiss Army knife, a couple of magnets and a rubber chicken.

Truly classic stuff.

This post is brought you by Adrian’s obvious and significant boredom (which was not entirely fruitless – it led to the fantastic logo in the last post)