Bag of Randomness

  • I was not on board with hockey for the longest time because games ended in a tie, and even though I’m still not a big hockey fan, I like that the NHL decided to change that rule and have shootouts.  You get that same feeling like you did after the 2000 presidential election, after all the hype and buildup, you’re left thinking . . . ok, now what?  That’s how I felt after watching the U.S. play England in that World Cup game on Saturday afternoon.
  • And my gosh am I ignorant . . . we had guests over so the volume was down while the start of the game was about to begin and after seeing that white and red flag cross on the field instead of the Union Jack, all I could think of was  . . . I thought we were playing England?  I’m sure I’m not the only yank that thought the same thing.
  • The buzzing noise coming from the crowd was annoying, but I hear that’s going to be addressed in further telecasts.
  • And in case you ever wondered why some folks call it soccer, find out here.
  • Ive’ been catching up on some Texas Country Reporter episodes, man it’s been great rediscovering that show and just setting the DVR to catch every episode..  This show covered the great city of Clyde about an arm-wrestling champion and the dancing that goes on at the Grand Ole Oplin, something a lot of Hardin-Simmons students use to frequent often.
  • Car Talk on NPR talked about a great practical joke pulled on a person who was obsessed with tracking his one mile-per-gallon.  Basically, the guys at work use to put extra gas in the guy’s gas tank and he would come in bragging about his miles, which came close to 60 miles-per-gallon.  Before he got too big of a head and started to contact the news, they started to take gas out of his tank.
  • Ride On BabyGeeding
  • I saw an interesting National Geographic special in which a killer whale killed a great white shark.
  • I think Amy Matthews of the DIY Network has got some work done, if true, that’s a darn shame.
  • My wife only thinks I haven’t changed a diaper yet.  I just change them when she’s not around or sleeping.
  • I’m at the part in my book in which the author describes the details of inauguration day for Obama, and it addressed some items I always wondered about such as how prepared is the government if an attack happened during the transition.  It turns out there were 17 different contingency plans if one should have happened, and if a bomb went off during Obama’s speech, it was decided it would be best for him to finish the speech as a sign of democracy’s speech.  Up to this point, the book gives lots of details on the banking and financial aspects of the upcoming administration.  If you are interested, Jim Cramer talks a little about it in an interview with the author.
  • After Vice President Biden and the Speaker of the House Pelosi, can you name who is next in the presidential line of succession?  Personally I find the answer troublesome, because it’s President pro tempore of the Senate, who just happens to be the 92-year-old senator from West Virginia and former KKK member, Robert Byrd.
  • Real names of 23 fictional characters
  • Fellow Christian fans of U2 may enjoy this DVD review.
  • Fully functional LEGO gun
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Thermoelectric wellies that charge your mobile phone using heat from your feet

The Orange Power Wellies, created in collaboration with renewable energy experts GotWind, use a unique ‘power generating sole’ that converts heat from your feet into an electrical current. This ‘welectricity’ can then be used to re-charge your mobile phone. Orange, Official Communications Partner for the Glastonbury Festival, will be showcasing the Orange Power Wellies prototype onsite.

Twelve hours of stomping through the Glastonbury Festival in your Orange Power Wellies will give you enough power to charge a mobile phone for one hour. To increase the length of time you can charge your phone for, simply hot step it to the dance tent because the hotter your feet get, the more energy you produce.

GotWind.org

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Data Shows Where Locals, Tourists Snap Pictures

Eric Fischer, a 37-year-old computer programmer from Oakland, Calif., created a map using geotagging data on the photo-sharing websites Flickr and Picasa to plot the points in New York (and 71 other cities) captured by shutterbugs. He then devised an ingenious system for separating tourists from locals. A user with many shots of the same city taken over a wide range of dates is deemed to be a local, and marked on the map with blue dots. Tourists get a red dot.

Full Article

Eric Fisher’s Flickr Page

Here are the Texas cities if you are interested:

Austin Dallas Houston San Antonio

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