BrianAndPamela.com

Link to Otaku, Cedric’s weblog: Advice if your checks ever get stolen: don’t tell your bank

Wow… so you need to read the linked story.  The executive summary is essentially that this guy got his checks stolen.  When he called his bank (Wells Fargo) they told him his only option was to cancel his entire account and open a new one, AFTER a bit of a run-around.  Essentially, he’s more protected from fraudulent activity if he DOESN’T report the stolen checks.

from http://spaceweather.com

Look, up in the sky!  It's a … why it's a comet!  And it's now the brightest comet in 30 years.  Tonight (Jan 10) is a great night to check it out, it should even be visible to the naked eye.  From the SpaceWeather.com email newsletter:

Comet McNaught has continued to brighten as it approaches the sun and it is now the brightest comet in 30 years. For observers in the northern Hemisphere, tonight is probably the best time to see it: Go outside this evening and face the sunset. A clear view of the western horizon is essential, because the comet hangs very low. As the twilight fades to black, it should become visible to the naked eye. Observers say it's a fantastic sight through binoculars.

In the days ahead, Comet McNaught will pass the sun and emerge in good position for southern hemisphere viewing later this month. Meanwhile, solar heating will continue to puff up the comet, causing it to brighten even more. It could become one of the brightest comets in centuries, visible even in daylit skies.

Picture courtesy www.spaceweather.com.

http://amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html

I hate traffic.  In fact, I've renounced it.  My commute to work now is a 30-40 minute drive down quiet country roads.  If I find myself behind two cars, it's a heavy day.  I still have to deal with it now and again, but those times are fewer and farther between.   And yet I found the linked article really very interesting.  The premise is that most heavy traffic is essentially composed of traveling, standing or shock waves, and that by applying principles of physics and mathematics, those waves can be smoothed or eliminated. (more…)

It's time again for the random impartation of knowledge.  This installment has me answering a question that's truly pointless: "What's the little groove above your upper lip called?" 

Answer:  The Philtrum

Now… many blogs would leave it there.  Oh no, my friends, Ask Brian would never do that.  So here are some interesting Philtrum Facts:

• The philtrum is created during embryonic development by the meeting of the nasomedial and maxillary processes
• When these processes fail to fuse, the result is a cleft lip
• Smooth philtrum (along with small eyes and thin upper lip) is one of the diagnostic indicators for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• The word comes comes from one of the Greek words for "Love" and the ancient Greeks believed it was an erogenous zone
• According to folklore, the philtrum is the spot where the angel "shushes" the baby to stop it from talking about heaven

Wikipedia Link

Got a question?  Click the Ask a question button at the top of the website to submit! 

PayPerPost.com has been busy of late. They bought much of performancing.com, they're still running RockStartup.com (which I blogged about here), and on top of all of that, they still are keeping sponsors hooked up with bloggers (like me).

How might one keep up with all the news that comes out of PPP? With their blog, of course. Unlike some corporate "blogs" (Google"), PPPs blog is actually a true blog, with announcements AND the ability for readers to comment. As I peruse the blog, I can read about how PPP is trying to appease the newly acquired Performancing users, winners of PPP contests, some videos about PPP, where PPP is headed in the new year and even personal thoughts and resolutions from the CEO of PPP.

To be blunt, some of the posts go beyond the openness which characterizes Web 2.0 companies.  I'm not sure we really needed to see pictures of PPP founder Ted Murphy as a child singing on the hearth (and FWIW, thank God no one has any video of MY hearth antics as a child).  Other posts, about the performancing acquisition for example, are really great.  Overall, it's sort of a mixed bag.  Personally, I wish Ted had his own blog and left the PPP stuff separate.

PPP is really serious about getting the word out about their blogs. So serious that they're sponsoring me to write this post. So why not check it out?

PPP blogs

Note: this post has been sponsored by PayPerPost.  Like all sponsored content on BrianAndPamlea.com, the opinions expressed are true and accurate as of the time they are posted.

Sproose home page

What do you get when you combine Digg.com, Del.icio.us, and Google? Sproose.com, as it turns out.

Sproose.com (currently in beta) combines the searches one expects from Yahoo! or Google with tagging and social voting. The theory is that the more who people "vote" for a site, the more likely the site is to be the result you were looking for. As Sproose gets up and running, it could be exactly that.

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 Link to Trucker Gets $17,000 Ticket - Local News

So here's a trucker, right?  And he gets bad directions from the people he's hauling for.  He misses a turn and then misses a sign prohibiting trucks over 3000 pounds.  He winds up in a residential area where a cop pulls him over and tickets him for $150 plus $150 for each quarter ton he's over the 3000 pound limit. 

"Carry the 1 … divide by… Alright that's $17,751 and fifty cents.  Cash or charge?" 

 Link to Triple "A" Battery Hack

Found on Digg: Ever needed a "normal" battery cell but you can only find a 9volt?  Have no fear… pull that 9volt apart to reveal six 1.5 volt cells that are a little smaller than AAA cells (they are, in fact AAAA size…).  With a little aluminum foil padding, you can make them work in a pinch. 

There's nothing special about batteries, you know, only the sizes.  In fact, if you have an adapter (or make one) you can substitute among the "common" sizes, they are all just 1.5 volts.  Now the life of a smaller battery will be reduced in a system with a larger power draw (Interesting link on the mAh ratings for each standard cell size) but it should work in a pinch.

So there you go.

Link to Snowstorm on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

If only… Anyway, the above link is a flickr photo of Denver's International airport buried under 2 and a half feet of snow earlier this week.  The visual's pretty impressive, but I bet the tens of thousands of travelers who had to deal with the initial or cascading snarls don't really care how cool it looks.

Meanwhile it's going to be 45 and raining here in Fred's-burg.  Bah… 

CollisionDetection.net has an interesting article up right now commenting on a Chuck Klosterman piece in Esquire, about how YouTube is empowering a resurgence in guitar as an art form.

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