Genius!

To all couch potatoes everywhere, you will no longer feel obligated to finish those bag of chips. Whether you think that's a good or a bad things is directly related to your Body Mass Index.

Anyway, everyone has been in this situation: You've got a huge bag of chips and your full. Now, unless you have some kind of chip clip, you're in trouble. Leave that bag like that and it will go stale. If you really want to save those chips, you're gonna have to go MacGyver on its ass and get some duct tape. Well, that was before - this is now:



I was a lazy blogger this weekend so I just nicked this off another blog through StumbleUpon. Thanks to Funl for the content. There's a lot more fun stuff there, so check it out.

So talking about chips got me thinking about my weight again. I did some quick searches and found a couple of interesting sites:

• Body Mass Index Calculator - According to this BMI Calculator, I am, in fact, obese.
• Body Fat Estimator - According to this site, more than 50% of my body is composed of fat.

So, it's a sad thing that we can never trust anything we find on the Internet. You know how that Avenue Q song goes - "the Internet is for p..."

Since people at work read this...

Disclaimer: Notice that this entry is labeled "silly", meaning it is intended to be amusing and not factual. The Internet both infers and explicitly states that I am corpulent. And in defense, I responded with an ad hominem argument, which is always considered to be an invalid counter in syllogistic logic - thus the humor in the text. Nor do I think that learning to fold a bag of chips so it stays fresh is necessarily a work of genius. And last, I am not fat. I am big-boned. Both calculating tools does not take into account bone mass, so they are marginally reliable. Although I can lose a little weight. Okay, maybe more than a little. Alright, maybe I am fat, but you're ugly. No, I'm not being defensive. I'm being logical, like Vulcans.

Buoy In the City

I found the perfect rainy season attire for the ladies. I guess men who are secure in their masculinity can get it too. Better yet, if you're a ex-convict Scottish fisherman.

It's waterproof, so you don't have to worry about getting mud on it. Just rinse it off when you get to the office. And if it floods, you can just inflate your skirt and your ready to save stranded people. It's orange, so you'll probably blend in with the rescue team. Practical and a potential life saver, what else can you ask for?

Oh yeah, they also have something for summer. For women who can't swim but want to spend some time in the beach, they also have something for you. Check this out. There are lots more fun things in the site - Seihin (Gadget) World.

Burn Baby Burn!

This is an amazing story. John Kanzius, a 63 year old retired broadcast engineer, was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago. Cancer treatment being what it is (e.g. chemotherapy), he was inspired to find a better way to help cancer patients. He went to work on a machine that used radio waves to kill cancer cells. But that's not the story (amazing as it already is). His machine has an amazing side effect: It can burn salt water!

"You could take plain salt water out of the sea, put it in containers and produce a violent flame that could heat generators that make electricity, or provide other forms of energy," Kanzius said.
...
"If I were to be bold enough, I think one day you could power an automobile with this, eventually," Kanzius told WPBF. (click here for full story)

So how about that? Go and try to find a cure for cancer and invent free energy on the side. Sounds like a good day to me. And yet the major news networks haven't picked up on it. As of today, my CNN.com search on Kanzius doesn't bring up any results. If it's fake, they would be helping to find that out by bringing attention to it. They can cover it with a skeptic's angle. But it's pretty recent, I also don't get a result for Kanzius on wikipedia and snoops. Why wouldn't they cover it?

Thus far, Kanzius' work has not received extensive national publicity, but has been featured on several local television news programs, including WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla., WSEE-TV in Erie, Pa., and WKYC-TV in Cleveland. (click here for full story)

I imagine that at this point, the problem with the technology is the same as other systems trying to use water as a fuel:

"It takes more electricity to split the water into hydrogen and oxygen than you get back in energy by burning the hydrogen and oxygen to recreate water and get the heat. So there is no new 'source' of power, since you are just converting electricity into a lesser amount of energy. You could get more heat energy out of electricity by running it through a blow dryer and THAT is not considered a 'new' energy source." (click here for full story)

I know stories like these are not exactly rare, but this is important enough that attention should be brought to people who have at least a semblance of credibility. The possibilities are just too great to allow it to be ignored. If Britney Spears shaving her head is news worthy, isn't this?

Over at Magistrala.cz there's a bunch of video clips showing Kanzius demonstrating his machine. There are also links to his patents. Click here to see them.



This story reminded me of my countryman Mr. Daniel Dingel. Dingel claims to have built a car that runs on water way back in 1969. Which would have been great, but his refusal to subject his invention to rigorous tests leads people to believe it's a hoax. Read this article for the story.

Sources:
Turning Salt Water Into Fuel by Justin Gardner
Can Water Fuel the World by Joe Kovacs
Fla. Man Turns Water Into Fire from ABC WPBF.TV 25

Deity Gets a Shiny Surface

*sigh* two weeks without any new entries, longest lull yet. Lots of things going on the past couple of weeks. Just had a chance to catch my breath. So, this will be a quick post.
Remember that multi-touch technology I blogged about two months back? Well, guess what? Microsoft has apparently been in the background playing with the technology themselves. Microsoft Windows move aside! Here comes the next big thing - Microsoft Surface.


And here I was thinking the next big thing would be Microsoft Doors.

And who would be the perfect user for a multi-touch interface? Avalokiteśvara of course! Avala-who? Just watch the utterly amazing video.


Danza de los mil brazos - ZappInternet

Just Another Cog In the Wheel

Is it fair to appraise the beauty of a painting through words that describe it?

Days of frustration and perseverance expressed in numbers. Achievements summed up in lines of text. Measured by those who did not witness them, guided only by anecdotes from those that did. This is the method by which worth is judged. How can one feel justly quantified by such standards? How much attention can one's measure be given when it is only one among many?

Stop Calling Me A Pig!

I think I have a new hero. This story was printed back in 2000, but I just Stumbled Upon it a couple of days ago. It was just too funny to pass up. Check this out:

Here's a link to the same story on BBC. Reading this gave me a picture in my head of a bunch of drunk male guinea pigs in a bar shouting "Sooty! Sooty! Sooty!" while watching this news story on TV . All the while swinging their small mugs around, laughing, and spilling beer all over the place.

See these pictures? They're just sooooo cute aren't they? Here's some guinea pig fun facts! Happy, happy, joy, joy! (link)

Guinea pigs are not actually pigs, nor did they come from Guinea. They may have acquired the name because of their piglike squeals and the fact that they came to Europe as pets, by way of Guiana in South Africa or Guyana in South America. Another theory is that they cost one guinea in the marketplace. As with real pigs, the females are "sows" and the males are "boars." A group is a "herd."

They're so cute you can just eat up them up! And you know what? People do. (link)

"And what do they taste like? “Meat is meat I suppose - but it’s just a really lovely tender, yummy, tasty meat. It depends on the marinade you put in or how you cook it. It’s a very agreeable meat to eat,” says Elisabeth."

Here another article about these cute, and apparently delicious , creatures as food. Guinea pigs are so good they were even served in the Last Supper! Sunday School never gives us the fun facts.

A Song and a Banner

I've been wanting to update my blog banner for sometime now. Finally did it. My image editing skills are somewhat lacking, so I tried to mask that fact by using a blur effect. Yes, I know the sun is in front of me but it looks like sunlight is coming from behind me. Well, guess what? The picture was not taken on Earth. It was taken on a planet with two suns. So quit it.

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Since I started this blog, one of the consistent hits I get from Google is people searching for an English translation of the song Kastilyong Buhangin by Pilita Corales. Not sure though if the Pilita Corales version is a revival or the original. I do know that the song has been recorded by several OPM artists, both old and new.

I tried looking for an English translation of the song myself just to see if there is something available somewhere in the web. I didn't find any. So, in an effort to help those people, I did a translation of the song myself (the horror!). I just warn these people that I don't do this for a living. Here's the links:

- Original Tagalog version of Kastilyong Buhangin
- My English translation of the song

Critics are welcome on both items, just be gentle. I just hope my high school English teacher doesn't see it.