Dear People of the World,
| March 22, 2011
Author: luapo
Man Won Lottery, Now Has To Visit Mom
| March 22, 2011
What does it take for Johan Fourie to visit his mom? Winning the lottery, apparently:
When Johan Fourie’s mom asked him on Sunday when he was going to come visit her, his answer was as funny as it was seemingly unrealistic.
“When I win the lottery,” Fourie said.
Moments later, Fourie checked his Florida Lotto ticket and saw that he had actually won the $4 million jackpot.
“I had no idea I would be calling her back later that day to tell her I was on my way!” he said Wednesday.
Man Foils Armed Robbery Using Facebook
| March 21, 2011
Some dude hid in his attic and used Facebook to contact friends during a home invasion / armed robbery to call for help. As dumb as that sounds….it worked.
“I don’t think [Facebook] is really meant as a lifesaving tool, but it’s the only way I could think of contacting someone immediately to call for help,” he said. So, as the intruders rifled through the home, Bhakta updated his Facebook status: “HELP, ROBBERS, NO PHONE.” In all caps, naturally.
Surgeons Save Time Using The Kinect
| March 21, 2011
Paging Dr. Xbox, paging Dr. Xbox, please report to surgery with your Kinect.
Surgeons at a Toronto hospital are using Microsoft’s Xbox 360 motion sensor Kinect to save time calling up images during operations. The Winnipeg Free Press reports that surgeons at Sunnybrook Hospital are using open-source Kinect drivers for PC to allow them to manipulate images of medical scans – something which normally involves a meticulous cleanup operation to ensure sterility around the patient, taking around 20 minutes each time.
via
An Electric Car That Makes its own Electricity – 1969
| March 21, 2011
Speaking of GM and electric cars, here’s an ad from 1969 that shows a series hybrid powered by a stirling engine. The underlying concept isn’t actually so different from the upcoming Chevy Volt, and while at the time the technology probably wasn’t there to make this a commercial success, we can wonder what happened to this concept in the years between then and now.
Nuclear power plant accidents: listed and ranked since 1952
| March 21, 2011
But how serious are they? The International Atomic Energy Authority ranks them using a special International Nuclear Events Scale (INES) – ranging from ‘anomaly’ to ‘major accident’, numbered from 1 to 7.
The events at Fukushima are level 5, so far and there has only been one 7 in history: Chernobyl in 1986. You can see the full ranking system below and on the attached spreadsheet
