Today’s Lucky Ten Thousand

XKCD rolled out a comic not long ago about something that is very near to me. I know that there are some things that I know and other people don’t. Actually, most people don’t. I hear about it almost every day, practically every week. I know a lot, my T’s head is very wide (I’ll get to that momentarily) but I really try not to make fun of people or condescend the fact that I know stuff. I can also admit that there are things I don’t know or don’t get: Like finance or Computation Theory. But when there comes a time when I know something and other people don’t, I do my best to explain it. Because it’s fun. It’s fun to explain, it’s fun to see understanding and it’s especially fun because it enables more fun when there are more knowledgeable people.

So what are we doing today…

  1. Heat Death – is one possible scenario for the end of the universe and, in fact, one of the more likely ones and one most touted (claimed to be, spread around, shouted from the roof tops) in science in general. The theory basically states that the universe is expanding and, as there are not other apparent affectors, will continue to expand until all the energy present in the universe will be smooth and spread so thin that everything will achieve a consistent temperature close to absolute zero and thus all thermodynamic activity will cease and not more changes can occur. As the saying goes, the universe will, most likely end, not with a bang but with a whisper.
  2. T-Shaped People – is a reference to and a description given by The VALVe Handbook for New Employees. Except this being an awesome book onto itself and a window-shopping/gimme-salivating high-tech worker and/or game-designer wannabe, it describes the optimal employee that VALVe seeks (pg 46-47): […] people who are both generalists (highly skilled at a broad set of valuable things—the top of the T) and also experts (among the best in their field within a narrow discipline—the vertical leg of the T). And I’m thinking that everyone should aspire to be a T-Shaped Person in one form or another. I consider myself to be one.
  3. Chimborazo – is a game invented (I guess) by the poet Rives and described in a TED Talk he gave in April of this year. It is an adaptation of an older children’s game based on the Encyclopedia Britannica. But with Britannica going out of print, it moves to the Internet and Wikipedia. The idea is that you go to a random page, you scroll down until you find something you don’t know, preferably something that your dad doesn’t know. He started with the page for Earth and the first thing he found was Mount Chimborazo, which is the furthest point from the center of the Earth. Then you say Chimborazo (“It’s like Eureka and Bingo had a baby. I didn’t know that! That’s pretty cool! Chimborazo.”) and go to a new link and repeat until you get bored. Chimborazo.
  4. The Cola and Mentos Thing (Just to explain what Cueball was talking about in the comic) – If you put a Mentos candy in a soda bottle (Yes, any soda. Not just Cola, not just Diet Coke), you get a rapid fizz reaction that eventually erupts in a giant fountain of carbonated liquid, lasting for a few seconds. The accepted explanation, as presented by MythBusters, is that the Mentos (and this is a special property of that candy) is micro-dimpled. That is, very close up it’s like a golf ball or the surface of the moon, full of tiny craters. And it’s these mini impressions that allow the dissolved CO2 in the water to form into a bubble and escape as gas. As you have lots of those dimples on every Mentos, you get lots of CO2 bubbles and the rapid fire Nucleation effect that makes a soda bottle into a fountain and allows you to do things like this.

Posted in Memes and Stuff by with comments disabled.

Pingbacks & Trackbacks