I’ve Been Thunderstruck

In the next few days, you’ll start to see a steady stream of new posts. They will deal with common scientific questions…information that you just have to have at your fingertips!

Ever wonder what a square foot, or a yard equals in "sensible units?" As in things that really matter? Well, head over to sensibleunits.com and you can find out things like:

• 1 Square Foot Equals
• 2.1 CDs
• 1.3 Large Pizzas
• 1.2 Tennis Racquet Heads
• 1 Yard Equals
• 7.6 CDs Side By Side
• 18 AA Batteries End to End
• 4.2 Average Soccer Ball Diameters
• 1 Centimeter Equals
• 1.0 Stacked CD Cases
• 29 Human Female Fingernail Thicknesses
• 1.3 Dry Basmati Rice Grains End to End

The possibilities are endless…give it a shot!

I stumbled across Goosh today, which is a command line interface to Google. I’ve gotta admit I never even though of the utility of a command line interface for Google. But it’s cool, and you should check it out.

Goosh goosh.org 0.4.4-beta #1 Tue, 03 Jun 08 22:59:00 UTC Google/Ajax
Welcome to goosh.org - the unofficial google shell.
This google-interface behaves similar to a unix-shell.
You type commands and the results are shown on this page.
goosh is written by Stefan Grothkopp <grothkopp@gmail.com>
it is NOT an official google product!
Your language has been set to: en (use lang to change it)
Enter help or h for a list of commands.

guest@goosh.org:/web>

How could I forget to blog about the best directory of outdoor recreation links ever?! Since 1995, Outdoor Resources has been helping Internet users, like you, find the greatest links to outdoor recreation web sites possible. You’ll find categories like hiking/camping, fishing, hunting, geocaching, skiing, sailing and more! If it’s an outdoor activity, it’s very likely to have a category. If you don’t see one for your activity…suggest one! So, take a break, head over to Outdoor Resources, and plan your next outdoor adventure!

[Full disclosure : The creator of "I've Been Thunderstruck" is also the creator of Outdoor Resources. Shameless advertising? Yes! But it's my blog!]

Let me start by saying this : there are too many pollution belching cars on the road, and too many factories spewing all kinds of nasty things into our atmosphere. That I will agree to, and that I believe we need to fix. However, what I do not subscribe to, from a scientific point of view, is that all those things are causing global warming. The science just isn’t there. Take this test, and see how you do:

Global Warming Test

You’ll be surprised by some of the scientific facts in the case against global warming as a result of pollution caused greenhouse effect. At the very least, even if you don’t buy it all, it makes for some interesting reading.

I’ve used Soundsnap a number of times in my projects, and I absolutely love it. With categories like Animals, Comic and Film FX, Nature and Science Fiction, chances are there is a sound effect or music loop that fits your exact project. The best thing about this site is that all files are free, are in the public domain, and you do not have to give credit to the authors (though it’s certainly a nice thing to do). Attribution is optional, and you can even use them for commercial work (aside from selling a CD with them on it). If you use sound in your projects, you should absolutely check this out.

thun·der·struck  (thŭn’dər-strŭk’)
adj.   Affected with sudden astonishment or amazement.

This blog is about the things that astound and amaze me. Expect to see posts about the Internet, geocaching, GPS, storage, climate, software, travel, photography, outdoor recreation…whatever catches my eye that I think is worth writing about. Hopefully it’ll be fun for all.