So what does science say about the 5 second rule?
Well, to do the topic full justice, please pop on by to my favourite science blogger, Jen Martin from Espresso Science, where she’ll give you the full blown scientific low down in a fun and disgestable format.
This week she explored exactly what science has to say on the popular notion that less than 5 seconds, means thumbs up to the consumption of a dropped item of food. Without giving away too much, I was initially surprised by the finding that although duration was an obvious consideration, both the landing surface type and food type were more important. Dropping a moist piece of watermelon onto a tiled surface is more likely to pick up bacteria when compared with say a dry biscuit on carpet…(carpet? surely not?)
But I have shared enough. Read Jen’s study into the 5 second rule quandary, so that next time you drop food onto the ground, you’ll know exactly what to do.
So tell me, do you or don’t you eat food that’s been dropped?
Hopefully the exit is different from the entrance, in that a lift would be really handy when accessing the cloud…
But hang on, let’s imagine if that were possible… The fastest elevator currently is Taipai 101 in Taiwan. It travels at a speed of 59 km/hr (37 mph). If we assume our average white fluffy cloud to be at a height of 4km (2.4 miles), then this elevator would take us 4 min and 6 sec to reach our destination. Pretty impressive when you consider that the first ever elevator installed by the Otis elevator company in 1857 in New York travelled at a modest 20cm per second (40ft per min). That would definitely require a packed lunch for our Otis elevator trip, with a duration 5 hrs and 33 minutes.
But you know what? I think I’d take the old tech option and enjoy the journey.
Which elevator would you take and why?
We possibly take weather forecasting for granted these days, but within the study of meteorology is a whole set of terminology that perhaps you weren’t aware of…well, at least until now. Here is a summary of some of the more quirky words that can used to describe the weather.
- Ball lightning  A relatively rarely seen form of lightning, generally consisting of an orange or reddish ball of the order of a few cm to 30cm in diameter and of moderate luminosity, which may move up to 1 m/s horizontally with a lifetime of a second or two.
- Barber pole  A thunderstorm updraft with a visual appearance including cloud striations that are curved in a manner similar to the stripes of a barber pole. The structure typically is most pronounced on the leading edge of the updraft, while drier air from the rear flank downdraft often erodes the clouds on the trailing side of the updraft.
- Bitterly cold  In winter, bitterly cold or very cold, refers to more than seven degrees Celsius below normal. (So, descriptions are relative to your location, which might explain why Canadians laugh at us Australians when confronted with a ‘bitterly’ cold forecast whilst vacationing in Melbourne. You can easily spot them, they are walking around in shorts, whilst the locals are rugged up in scarves and black coats).
- Broken clouds  Clouds which cover between 5/8ths and 7/8ths of the sky.
- Heat index  An index that combines air temperature and humidity to give an apparent temperature (how hot it feels).
- Hot spot  Typically large areas of pavement, these “hot spots” are heated much quicker by the sun than surrounding grasses and forests. As a result, air rises upwards from the relatively hot surface of the pavement, reaches its condensation level, condenses, and forms a cloud above the “hot spot”.
- Iridescence  Brilliant patches of green or pink sometimes seen near the edges of high or medium level clouds.
- Katabatic  Wind blowing down an incline, such as down a hillside; downslope wind.
- Mushroom  A thunderstorm with a well-defined anvil rollover, and thus having a visual appearance resembling a mushroom.
- Yellow wind  A strong, cold, dry west wind of eastern Asia that blows across the plains during winter and carries a yellow dust from the desert.
- Sunny Sunny or a few clouds means that less than half the sky has clouds.
I had to stop myself and limit it to eleven, but if you want to read the entire list, then click on over here.
The most beautiful weather I’ve ever experienced was whilst sun baking on the amazing Whitsunday island – The perfect sunny day (zero cloud)… probably the environment had a little bit to do with it.
What is the most amazing weather you’ve experienced?
Back to a favourite stomping ground – aliens and space – and this cartoon happens to be the perfect lead into the topic of black holes. Cool, huh!
Many of you know my affinity with all things astronomical in nature and black holes are up there in my favourite top space wonders of the universe. So tell me, have you ever wondered about the humble black hole and what would happen if you ever had the misfortune of getting sucked into one? Well, you wouldn’t be the first to have wondered. In fact, there are many scientists who dedicate their time to understanding more about the black hole and some of them conduct thought experiments to theorise what would actually happen to someone entering the hole of no return. Many thought experiments have been undertaken and there are three versions that I’m particularly fond of.
If you’re a wee bit curious, click on here to download your very own black hole (yes, I’m not joking this time), along with the thought experiment details. All you need is a computer, printer, scissors and sticky tape and you could be the proud owner of your very own black hole in less than 5 minutes! (Hang on, why are you still reading? You should be in print mode by now).
Hey, and if you enjoy that, come and visit my fun space website. I call it Cosmic Caboodle and if full of, you guessed it – aliens and space stuff.
In the mean time, let me know what you thought of the black hole download above.
Google’s definition for innovate is
…make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products
Well, you could argue the cartoon meets the definition, but perhaps not quite the intent. However, it is probably this very loose definition that has allowed this word to become the latest buzz word in the workplace. How many company vision statements, business strategy plans and team meetings splash this word about with gay abandon these days, in the hope of reaping the benefits that successful innovation can bring to a business?
So tell me this, if innovation is our workplace salvation, then why do so many companies fail when it comes to the actual undertaking of innovation? In Diana Kander’s TED Talk Our approach to innovation is dead wrong she proposes an unconventional business approach to this challenge and in her innovation experiments with MBA students vs kindergarten kids, guess who wins?
Let me know what you think
PS. And then for a bit of fun, play the workplace bingo game with this freebie I made a couple of years back. Who would have thought office buzz words could be so much fun!
I think for me, ‘thinking outside the box’ has become the new ‘why did the chicken cross the road’. So many opportunities for a fun and quirky interpretation.
But back to our humble chicken… Yet again I’ve troweled the internet to find the best of the best chicken jokes (by the way, Google provided me with a choice of 3.68 million options). So, rather than providing you with bog standard, Top 10 best ever why did the chicken cross the road jokes, I’ve found a highly intellectual take on the subject in question. Drum roll please…
Harvard University physics department has dedicated a page to answering the question through the mouths of famous physicists. From Einstein, to Sagan, to Pascal – they’re all in there. Enjoy!
So what’s your favourite chicken joke?
I declare today, the day of fish!
In honour of fish everywhere, here are a few tributes
- One Fish, two fish… (Warning: contains toilet humour)
- Fish evolution, Take 1
- Fish evolution, Take 2
- Take 3, and 4 and 5
And a few of my favourites.. The wishing well – perspective on life through the eyes of a wishing well fish
And to top the celebrations is our one of most loved freebies, Go Fish