Tis a Tidbit

I was just briefly watching a show on the Universe and came across this unique little tidbit that puts things in perspective. If our sun was the size of the dot on an "i" <- that big, then our galaxy would be the size of the continental United States. And that's just our galaxy, you have to remember that the Universe is filled with millions upon millions of galaxies each with tons of stars. If a grain of sand represented our sun then there would be more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand on the entire Earth. It is quite unbelievable.

And just as a bonus tidbit, if you didn't know what that dot on the "i" is called, it's a tittle.

Poll Answers - Not Crocodilian?

So I realize that the poll has been down for awhile and the reason is because I didn't want to have the answers to two poll questions up on the frontpage. Then when the Cambodian question finally went into archives I just didn't quite feel like answering the question.

I have once again stumped the readers of this blog so the score is now:

[rq} - 3
Readers - 1

The one person who had enough courage to vote guessed that Crocodylus johnsoni was not an actual species of Crocodile. However, this is just the scientific name for the Freshwater Crocodile that is native to Northern Australia. The other two correct choices were Crocodylus acutus which is the American Crocodile, the ones you would find in Florida. Crocodylus palustris is also known as the Mugger Crocodile and lives throughout India.

So by the process of elimination you should now have figured out that Crocodylus racturius is nothing but a figment of our imagination. But just to add some more information into this post I'll briefly explain some of the physical differences between a Crocodile and an Alligator. The main differences can be seen within the snout. Alligators typically have a broader/flater snout than that of Crocodiles. Crocodiles also have the large fourth tooth that juts upwards. These can be used for simple identification of the two.

Something Upcoming - The Super Titanic

Something Upcoming! - Or maybe not. So I was just stumbling across the internet and came across an interesting article on this plan for a city on a boat/barge/cruise ship. Basically the thing would be nearly a mile long and be built of a series of connected barges. Its name: Freedom Ship.

When I looked through the article I saw a segment that said it could be up and running by 2005. I was astonished at how old the article was and that there hasn't been any developments towards its progress. While I can't be entirely shocked to hear that this massive project isn't underway, I feel a bit disappointed at how all these great mammoth engineering plans never get substantially off the ground. It seems that the company has been having difficulties with getting enough sponsors and funding for the ship.

So what is the Freedom Ship you ask? Well the plans place it at over 4,000 feet long and 300+ feet tall. It will contain just about everything a large well developed city needs. A hospital, college, schools, airport, driving range, shopping mall, marina, and possibly a large open park like area. It will even have sidewalks and bike paths to get around this gigantic city. It will serve mainly to cater towards the super rich, but anyone who can afford the $121,000 basic 300cu.ft. room can purchase a suite. And better yet, no taxes (other than the ones you would have to pay in your local country, like federal tax). It will be environmentally friendly, have its own security force, and of course high speed internet.

The plan was to have it go around the world every two years, so it would be pretty slow. But the price tag for this piece of real estate ranks at around $11billion and seems to keep growing. So keep your eyes peeled to see if this project ever blossoms and you can buy your own floating home.

Check out the inspiring article.

Comics

So it's Sunday so I'll post up a few comics that I had just laying around on my computer. They are of Cyanide and Happiness, The Far Side, and Dilbert respectively.

Numistmatistic Values - Frozen Money

Wow, it's been ten days since my last post, I've been way too busy. So I was looking at the recent posts to try and figure out what I haven't done in awhile and I remembered that I forgot to mention the Antarctican dollar bill. It does exist, I actually own one, and they also are available in $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 increments.

Now I know what you are thinking, that because Antarctica isn't a country and doesn't really have a population aside from the scientists who spend some time down there, how can they have their own currency? The answer is that the Antarctica Overseas Exchange Office came up with the idea so that they could sell them to collectors, like me, and raise money for Antarctican research. The ones I know of are the 1999/2001 editions, the one I own, which could be cashed for face value, in American dollars by a certain date. Basically A1 (One Antarctican Dollar) is equal to $1. They are full colored bills featuring the many interesting aspects of Antarctican life such as penguins and the McMurdo Station.

I guess that there were other editions that were printed such as the earlier 1996 bills and the later 2007, 2008, and 2009 series, though I don't really have any info on them. I would also like to take this time to point out that while catoonist Gary Larson, and others, depicted ploar bears and penguins living together, it does not in fact exist (Larson would later apologize for the mistake). Polar bears live in the Arctic, think Canada, and penguins live in the Antarctic, think Antarctica. Just a little extra so that you're not confuse about the world. So hopefully I will be able to add some more interesting stuff within the next week instead of having you wait forever to get this exciting awesome trivial [rq} content.

A Periodical - H.sub-two.O

Sorry for not posting, but I'm sure I'll get around to it more often as I procrastinate from doing all my work (like I'm doing now). But I thought I would add this interesting trivia bit up so I wouldn't forget it.

I was once pondering years ago what water tasted like. If you ask someone what water tastes like they really can't give that definitive of an answer because there really isn't anything to compare it to (like how chicken and turkey can somewhat be compared). What we as humans are really tasting is all the impurities and junk that plagues the water. Such as odd minerals, dust particles, gunk, etc.

[And just as a side note for those that don't know, if you've ever heard that rain is safe to eat, like catching raindrops and snowflakes on your tongue, it isn't necessarily good. All types of precipitation form on a condensation nuclei which is any aerosol that's in the sky. Remember that aerosols are just particles in the air. So every rain drop forms around things like dust and sand. But think about all the nasty pollutants that get into the air and how that drop of rain may be not as good as you thought]

But anyway back to how we can't taste water. It stinks but as it turns out there are life forms that can taste what water really is. Namely dogs and pigs, but some others as well. So while we only taste the impurities in the water they're designed in a way to be able tell what water really tastes like. It's quite odd, now what would they compare it too?