My Horrible Kmart Experience

Kmart sucks. We all know it. So why did I find myself in one recently? I read online somewhere that they carry Diet Cherry Coke. Not that Coke Cherry Zero crap that tastes so much like chemicals it's mistaken for water in China. I'm talking about: Real. Diet. Cherry. Coke.

Think about it. You haven't seen it in ages. I did manage to find some in Florida, but it was a 12-pack of cans and I had no way to take it with me.

Anyway, Kmart. Literally before I had been in the store for 5 seconds, I was asked to donate to two charities, one of which was the March of Dimes. The MoD woman seemed genuinely angry that I refused to donate.

Eventually I found the soda section, but alas: no DCC. Since I went out of my way to go to Kmart, I decided to get a snack. While on my way to the registers, the MoD lady came by again and said, "Now are you ready to donate?" No. I'm not. I already told you no. Why would I miraculously change my mind 2 minutes later?

Then finally on the way out the door, there was another lady taking donations for March of Dimes.

So, I officially hate March of Dimes. Bring back polio! If anyone complains, I know of a Kmart that will change your mind.

The Swedish Navy

The Swedish Navy is awesome. I don't know what it is they do exactly, but check this ship out:

No, that's not a killboat from the future, but it might as well be. That's HMS Helsingborg, a Visby-class corvette. Clearly it's designed to be hard to see on a radar (what with all the angularness), but the hull is made of PVC with carbon fiber and and vinyl laminate. So, there's pretty much no magnetic or infrared signatures, either.

Before you know it, the Swedes will have invaded and filled your home with affordable furniture!

Burning Shadows v. Burning Shadow's

Damn kids.

Mike from Division informed me of a Facebook page for a band called "Burning Shadow's". Their profile picture was our old logo (that we still use when the time is right, mind you).

So, I wrote to them:
"Adding an apostrophe to our name doesn't give you the right to steal our logo. Please discontinue use of our name and logo."

I also provided links to the Amongst the Dying Waves CD, which uses that logo, as well as our website and our iTunes page.

The next day, they responded, "O_O i really didnt know there was a band named burning shadows"

To which I wrote, "You had no problem finding our logo, but you couldn't figure out where it came from? And I see you haven't bothered to delete the images with [our] logo in it yet...."

Them: "i said im sorry gosh dnt gotta be mean"
Me: "Actually, you didn't say you're sorry."

Later, someone jokingly suggested, "Fierce Allegiance would be a good band name!"

You'd think they would have done an ounce of research after stealing our name. They went ahead and changed their named to Fierce Allegiance. So, someone posted a link to the real Fierce Allegiance's logo, writing, "Here's a good logo for you guys!" (They responded with "thank you dude ur great")

Minutes later, "DAMMIT THERE IS ALREADY A BAND NAME FIERCE ALLEGIANCE =("

I won't bother to tell you what they changed it to now, but rest assured, the name already belongs to a group that has music on iTunes. And as far as I can tell, these kids haven't even played a single note.

Epilogue: After the dust had settled, they asked me, "hmmmmmm r u guys like a real official band like on youtube nd stuff O_O"

Sigh.

Niagara Falls

In response to "The Canadian side of Niagara Falls is prettier," I once heard someone say "That's because you're looking at America!"

Guess what? It turns out it's mostly because you're looking at Canada.


View Larger Map

As you can see, the cliff that creates Horseshoe Falls is about 60% in Canada. Plus the majority of the water falls into Canada. So, obviously this victory goes to Canada.

But don't feel bad. Northeast of Horseshoe Falls is the American Falls, so-named because it's located entirely within America. Also, it sucks so bad that they have to light it up with colors at night to get people to look at it. And even then, you're only looking at it because Horseshoe Falls is so awesome you needed a break from it.

What the Hell is Radiation Measured In?

If you're anything like me, you've been reading about the incident a the Fukushima power plant, then eventually read up a little on Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. I've noticed that whenever they talk about radiation it's always measured in some other way.

From this article:

The National Institute of Radiological Sciences said that 3.9 million becquerels per square centimeter of radiation had been detected in the water that the three workers stepped in — 10,000 times the level normally seen in coolant water at the plant.

The injured workers’ dosimeters suggested exposure to 170 millisieverts of radiation.

They measure it one way in one paragraph, then in the next freaking paragraph they measure it differently!

Well, here are all the ways radiation is measured:

Curie (Ci) / Becquerels (Bq)

Curies/Becquerels are measures of actual radioactive radiation. Curies (obviously named for Marie Curie) are the conventional unit, whereas Becquerels (named for another radiation pioneer, Henri Becquerel) are the SI unit. You know, SI, like kilometers instead of miles.

They are defined as:
1 Ci = 3.7×10¹⁰ decays per second = 37 GBq

Obviously, one Becquerel is one radiatoactive decay per second. So, every time an atom emits one tiny chunk of radiation, it is 1 Bq.

Technically, the "becquerels per square centimeter" the article used isn't really a measure of radiation, but it does provide a measurable reference for radiation.

rad / Gray (Gy)
Rads/Grays are measures of absorbed ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is radiation that can detach electrons from atoms or molecules. One Gray (the SI unit) is defined as:

1 Gy = 1 Joule of energy absorbed / 1 kilogram of absorbing medium -- usually human tissue
1 rad = .01 Gy

It was named for Louis Gray, who was a British physicist.

Anyway, if you're exposed to some for of radiation (X-rays, for example) that can knock your electrons loose, the amount of energy you absorb is measured in Grays.

rem / Sievert (Sv)
Okay, now it gets fun. Sieverts (named for Rolf Sievert, a Swedish physicist who apparently exposed all sorts of things to radiation) are an attempt to take the absorbed dose (in Gy) and relate it to the biological effects of the radiation.

1 Sv = (1 Gy)W
1 rem = (1 rad)W

W here is a weighting factor that depends on the type of radiation and the type of tissue being measured. Gamma rays and X-rays are going to have different effects on the same tissue.

As a point of comparison that the article didn't feel the need to provide, 170 mSv (the radiation dose the workers were exposed to) is about half of one entire year's worth of natural radiation (300 mSv). One dental X-ray is up to .15 mSv. One mammogram is .7 mSv. I, for one, wouldn't volunteer for 243 simultaneous mammograms.

Ultra Bonus Extra Radiation Measurement:
Roentgen (R)
This one... hmmm... I'm not even going to try to figure this one out. Why don't you read about it for yourself?

A Letter to Clingfilm

Dear Clingfilm,

I hate you. No, I loathe you. You are a jerk. First of all, your damn serrated edge gets me every time. Why can't you be more like your cousin, the aluminum foil? He at least keeps his serrated edge tucked in until you need it. But no, you're so lazy and poorly designed I nick my thumb every time I want a trashbag.

When I do use you, it's begrudgingly. If it weren't for your friend the microwave, I would never use you.

And why do you feel the need to stick to yourself after I tear off a piece? You're not making things any easier for either of us.

If it were my way, I wouldn't even have you in the same drawer with useful things like foil and tashbags. You'd be somewhere inaccessible so that I can forget I even own you.

You sicken me. Go to hell.

Sincerely,
Timmortal