Wired’s Geekipedia

Via Wired – “Wikipedia doesn’t distinguish “need to know” from “didja know?” — and it’s lousy for browsing. That’s why we created Wired Geekipedia. Godwin’s law, Guitar Hero, Gates Foundation — you may know their definitions, but we tell you what they really mean.”

Faith Smackdown: In the Collins (former head of the Human Genome Project) vs. Dawkins (well, Dawkins) argument about the existence of the Divine element, you can click on their heads to vote for each round. Very cool.

If you are at the Wired site anyway, you might be interested in this – Direct Brain-to-Game Interface worries scientists.

Hindu hardliners attack trains, buses & logic

Yesterday, I got this shocking news from my folks in India, that a jade “lingam” has been discovered in a land that belongs to us. So we are building a new house back home and turns out that when the workmen were digging to lay the foundation they discovered a very rare jade “lingam” that’s priceless. It has since been stored in a very super secret place with laser beams criss-crossing around it, if you touch it, it will turn you into a mouse.

Given the highly suspicious auspicious nature of this truly god sent object, the Hindu extremists have publicly threatened us to cease the house construction. When asked why they said, “because we hate valentine’s day“. When asked “huh?” they said and “yes, the project will destroy what Ram and his army of monkeys did“. When the pot smoking pundits were asked to clarify their stance they said “the house cannot be built there because Ram and his monkeys hid the “lingam” there on Valentine’s day as a practical joke on Shiva”.

To verify the claim of the Hindu hardliners the government approached the Archaeological Survey of India. After days of research they have submitted a report to the government saying the “lingam” is fake and was hidden there as a publicity stunt for the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie. Worried about adverse reaction the government has withdrawn the report. The Indian Culture Minister Ambika Soni has offered to quit her job, stating “dude, what is wrong with these people”? BBC has constant updates on this issue, so please go there for further info.

Jeff Ross roast this!

The one food item that I’ve always been sooper fascinated with is , the egg. Not only can you boil, whisk, poach, scramble, bake, beat and throw them at people you hate, these little bastard pack so much science in them. Learning about this close cousin of humpty-dumpty is a great way to start understanding the science behind the food you eat. To start with did you know there is a nice little formula for making the perfectly boiled egg, if you care to know go here or I’ve pasted the gist below (alter ego: you call that a gist).

where ρ is density, c the specific heat capacity, and K thermal conductivity of ‘egg’. According to this formula, a medium egg (M~57 g) straight from the fridge (T_egg=4°C) takes four and a half minutes to cook, but the same egg would take three and a half minutes if it had been stored at room temperature (T_egg=21°C). If all the eggs are stored in the fridge, then a small (size 6, 47 g) egg will require four minutes to cook, and a large egg (size 2, 67 g) will take five minutes.