Internet Mixtape

What Not to Ask Batman this Time of Year

(via Digg)

Hull problems?

(via Reddit user Beren87...great name!)

Digg: Ur Doing it Wrong

Calculating the Event Horizon of A Blue Whale

I have lots of favorite mathematical formulas, but few offer as much fun and entertainment as the Schwarzchild Radius. Developed in 1916 by German physicist Karl Schwarzchild, the formula built on Einstein's discoveries around general relativity in 1915, and quantified the exact radius down to which an object would need to be compressed for it to become a black hole. In other words, the Schwarzchild Radius formula enables us to calculate the event horizon of anything with mass, ranging from a grape to the sun to the laptop on which I'm typing this.

As with Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula, the Schwarzchild Radius formula is deceptively simple:

R_s = 2Gm / c²

To identify the radius (R_s) for any object simply plug in the following values:
G is the gravitational constant (6.67 x 10^-11m3 / kg x s²)
m is the mass of the object in question (for unit sanity, use kg)
c is the speed of light (9 x 10¹⁶ m² / s²)

Working out the units is a bit tricky, but if you're careful you'll end up with a measurement in meters, which will give you the exact distance between the singularity and the event horizon for any object. Showing just how simple it can be, a video that recently became popular on Reddit walks you through a practical example, calculating the event horizon radius for the Earth.

So you obviously know what comes next, right?

For the sake of humanity, I have calculated and now offer below the Schwarzchild Radii* for the following objects. I, for one, would really, really, really like to see the world's largest cookie experience an event horizon:

Me
0.000000000000000000113 microns

A Ford Fiesta 
0.00000000000000000000000162 meters

The world's largest cookie 
0.0000000000000000000000269 meters

A blue whale
0.000000000000000000000264 meters

All the copies of World of Warcraft sold to-date (roughly 19 million, at 1lb each)
0.0000000000000000000128 meters

The Large Hadron Collider (specifically, its Compact Muon Solenoid, or giant detector / magnet) 
0.0000000000000000000185 meters

All the houses in Capeside, MA (fictitious town in Dawson's Creek)
0.000000000000000011 meters

The Death Star (click for an epically nerdy, in-depth examination of the Death Star's est. dimensions)
13.9 microns (0.0139 mm)

My math is really rough and likely incorrect, so try the formula for yourself! Endless fun awaits! If the math gives you a headache, I'm also taking requests.

* Did you know that this was the plural of radius? I sure didn't.

Turn Your iPod into a Taser

I really, really love what the guys over at Household Hacker are doing, and this just might be my favorite project:

To be able to use your new musical taser, you're going to have to download and add to your iPod three custom mp3's created by the Household Hacker guys. You can find those here.

At the end of the day, though, there's no substitute for a good old-fashioned crane kick.

Insightful Post FAIL #42

Tonight I had planned on writing a post about what brands and the communications industry can learn from open source. Or if that didn't end up going well, I was going to write my manifesto about how the API has the transformational power to vastly improve our country's infrastructure. And if that got too boring, I was maybe going to offer a brief survey of weird American utopian movements.

But as you can see, tonight you'll find nothing about any of those interesting topics. No...instead, I bring you "Troops." This is much, much "better."

(via ToplessRobot)