Random fact of the day: rockets

The Saturn V rocket was 363 feet tall, only one foot shorter than St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Also, check out the size comparison. The little teeny-tiny rocket in the corner was used by Alan Shepard on the first American Mercury launch.

(Oh, and the big thing in the middle was the USSR's proposed moon-launch vehicle)

Worst Passwords

http://www.whatsmypass.com/?p=415

Interesting compilation of the 500 worst passwords. I suppose not in the world, but at least in the US. A few things I noticed:

• My name appeared first among names, perhaps not surprisingly, since it's one of the most common names in America. If I had much much more time, I'd try to compare the names appearing on the list with the most common names in the population.
• Assuming that "Shadow" (#16) isn't the radio superhero, Batman (#31) beats Superman (#47), who both beat Phoenix (assuming not the city, #116); a surprisingly strong Iceman (#119); Xavier (#189); Master (#13) beat Doctor (#213);
• Among vehicles, Porsche disappoints with #101, but maybe because it's hard to spell?, Mustang wins (#10); I will argue that "dragon" doesn't count as a vehicle, although it has an impressive #7 ranking; Harley is #23. Corvette is also a lowly #72.
• Marlboro (#282) beats Winston (#367) for smoke of choice. Shockingly, I didn't see any references to pot or other drugs.
• Maggie (#64) is the first (and maybe only) Simpson to appear, which is also a surprise.
• Monkey appears at #17, making two words in the top 17 (along with my name) that I easily could have used, but for some reason have not. Ignoring Dragon (#7) and Mustang (which I deem to be the car), monkey is the first animal as well.
• For sports, Baseball (#12) beats Football (#15), as well as Soccer (#40), Hockey (#41), Golfer (#58, "golf" is apparently too short); Nascar (perhaps too hard for the fans to spell? at #106).
• Starwars (#129) easily bests Startrek (#342)
• In terms of sports teams, I'm afraid Yankees (#62) and Yankee (#237) both made the list; the first probably sports team otherwise is Tigers at #120. Cowboys appears at #131. Redsox doesn't appear until #306, meaning Sox fans are either smarter than Yankees fans (unlikely) or less imaginative (more likely). In any case Boston (#235) appears before Newyork (#463). The first city to make the list appears to be Dallas (#50). I think we can all agree about them.
• NSFW Section: What's with all the self-hating passwords? Fuckme (#20), Asshole (#48), slut (#370); etc. Similarly, the vaguely passive-aggressive Fuckyou (#49), biteme (#65), fucker (#72), blowme (#156) show a pretty interesting level of rage against people's own computers. On the other hand "iwantu" (#25) might show a little too much love towards one's keyboard. Also, the sheer number of just plain pornographic images: panties (#52), blowjob (#85), horny (#123) and horney (#248); sexsex & hardcore (#'s 164 and 165); cumshot (#334), bigcock (#348), Squirt (#415), shaved (#452), hentai (#462), and sticky (#467). In the body parts sub-category, Pussy (#5!) reigns supreme over Dick(#91).

Field guide to screw heads

These guys are a tad obsessive about screws. Really obsessive. Literally more than you need to know about screws.

http://www.instructables.com/id/When_a_Phillips_is_not_a_Phillips/?ALLSTEPS

Chimpanzee on a segway

Chimps are funny. The Japanese are funny. Segways are funny. All three? Not sure.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pFv8CAniYQ

**Updated** The link works now.

Phonetics... Sibilants and fricatives

Does anybody understand phonetics? I'm trying to sort out all the sounds in all the languages on earth, and I'm beginning to suspect I'm out of my depth.

Skin Lotion Relativism

Has anyone ever noticed that if you put skin lotion of one part of your body, all the other parts start feeling dry? 

Do you think anyone's done any research into this? My preliminary searches don't tell me--it's hard to search for!

Monkey terror

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/20/watch-monkey-wreaks-havoc_n_120120.html