Oops, I burned the chicken. Do you have any idea how hard it is to grill chicken when you're hammered?

What qualifies as an "oops"? Bumping into someone on the street while reading the paper? Dropping a pint glass full of good beer? Backing your car over your neighbor's garden gnome? I think we can all agree these are mistakes one can punctuate with "oops". Losing, dropping, or accidentally blowing up a nuclear weapon, however, should require some more colorful language (use your imagination...then take a hit of acid and try again).

One of my favorite atomic butter fingers is the one that almost plays out as a Zucker Bro’s gag: A bunch of US sailors at a Scottish base, rollicking it up, maybe wolf-whistling at some highland cutie, did a boo-boo and dropped (yes, I said dropped) a fully-armed Poseidon missile some twenty or so feet. It is pretty safe to say that the base laundry was very busy that night getting stains out of underwear.

In 1961 a B-52 decided to do a shake-and-shimmy over North Carolina, dropping two 24-megaton nuclear weapons. One of the little toys released its parachute and glided down to a less-than-gentle landing.

The other device though smacked down somewhere in waterlogged farmland. Not at sea, not in 20,000 feet of water, not "off the coast" of anywhere. Farmland, near North Carolina. Anyone live in North Carolina? Come on, a show of hands - gee, quite a few of you. Isn’t North Carolina a great place to live? You might, though, reconsider because even though this little boo-boo happened over twenty years ago the capable US military never recovered that little gizmo. It’s still out there. Tick, tick, tick, tick ....

I can hear some of you die-hard optimists mumbling something about "safety" and "redundant backups". Well, you just keep mumbling that comfortable little mantra to yourself while I casually bring up that other bomb, the one that parachuted down.

Well, while they found that little fissionable puppy, the guys that inspected it found something very interesting. You see, a device of that type has six safety devices...and five of them had failed.

The Thermonuclear "Oops" List. [Dark Roasted Blend]

If you need the list of the 1,473,528 that do, you obviously haven't spent enough time on the Internet.

There are some great places to further one's education with regards to technology, and in the age of the internet the blog isn't a bad place to start...assuming you can find one that is reliable and worthy of your time; here are a few tech blogs that qualify (you may have already come across some of them here).

1. Gizmodo
2. Nanocr.eu
3. Techcrunch
4. A VC
5. PMarca
6. Simpy Blog
7. Glenn Wolsey
8. Dan Blank
9. Doc Searls
10. Sci-Tech Today
11. Lifehacker
12. Newsome
13. Paul Stamatiou
14. ValleyWag
15. Kottke

69 tech blogs that don't suck. [micahville.com]

*Yawn*

Rather than being a precursor to sleep, yawning is designed to keep us awake, say US researchers. But why does seeing someone else yawn make you to do the same?

Yawning is an involuntary action that everyone does. We start before we are born and most creatures on the planet do it - even snakes and fish. New research suggests rather than being a precursor to sleep, the purpose of yawning is to cool the brain so it operates more efficiently and keeps you awake. The theory could explain a puzzling question about subconscious human behaviour - why many of us yawn when we see or hear another person doing it, or even read about it or even just think about it?

The brain cooling theory says that when we contagiously yawn we are participating in an ancient, hardwired ritual that evolved to help groups stay alert and detect danger.

Why is yawning contagious? [BBC]

Norman Bates framed by shower curtain?

To attack the shower curtain problem, I used software designed by Fluent Inc., a New Hampshire-based software company that contracted my consulting firm, Convergent Thinking LLC, to add advanced spray models to their software. The simulation took advantage of the fruits of this project. I was able to include the effects of the drops breaking up. Even more important, the new spray models captured the distortion of the droplets, which tends to increase their aerodynamic drag. This drag is the force between the air and the water that imparts motion to the air and slows the droplets.

To do the calculation, I drafted a model of a typical shower and divided the shower area into 50,000 minuscule cells. The tub, the showerhead, the curtain rod and the room outside of the shower were all included. I ran the modified Fluent software for two weeks on my home computer in the evening and on weekends (when my wife wasn't using the computer). The simulation revealed 30 seconds of actual shower time.

When the simulation was complete, it showed that the spray drove a vortex. The center of this vortex¿much like the center of a cyclone¿is a low-pressure region. This low-pressure region is what pulls the shower curtain in. The vortex rotates around an axis that is perpendicular to the shower curtain. It is a bit like a sideways dust devil. But unlike a dust devil, this vortex doesn't die out because it is driven continuously by the shower.

Why does the shower curtain move towards the water? [Scientific American]

Need to grease a pig in a hurry?* Out of grease?

• WD-40 can remove ink from a pair of blue jeans instantly, just a little spray should do the trick.
• Do you have children who love glue, but get in on furniture? A little WD-40 will get it out in no time.
• Love to fish? WD-40 polishes fishing lures.
• Have bugs been making your windshield dirty? WD-40 will remove all dead bugs on your windshield.
• Love to cheat in games? Spray WD-40 on Twister mats for more fun.
• Have a nasty piece of gum on your favorite shoes? WD-40 will clean it right off.

15 Uses for WD-40. [Gomestic]

* We don't judge.

I'm sailing! I'm a sailor. I sail.

Tom Perkins had done it all. He'd made a fortune, conquered Silicon Valley, even been Danielle Steel's fifth husband for a time. His venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, was an early backer of Genentech, Netscape, and Google. But when he turned 70 a few years ago, Perkins decided to do something even grander and a bit crazier: He would build the biggest, riskiest, fastest, most technologically advanced, single-hulled sailing mega yacht in the world. The 289-foot Maltese Falcon, launched in spring 2006, is that engineering dream come to life.

If the 1,367-ton Falcon were anchored in New York Harbor, its masts would nearly reach the tablet in the arm of the Statue of Liberty. The exterior has teak decks, a varnished cap rail, and exquisitely finished surfaces — all attributes of a classic ship — yet the overall look is sleek, metallic, and ultramodern, almost foreboding. When Darth Vader builds his own intergalactic yacht, it will look like this.

Under sail, the square-rigged Falcon evokes the magnificent clipper ships that raced across the oceans in the late 19th century. But Perkins' creation is more New Old Thing than mere tribute to the past. The heart of the boat's technology is a novel rigging system called the DynaRig, designed by Dutch naval architect Gerald Dijkstra and based on a half-century-old German concept. The genius — and risk — of the DynaRig is its use of freestanding masts that rotate to adjust sail trim and tack the boat. There are practically no external ropes or wires, no traditional rigging of any sort to brace the spars or control the nearly 26,000 square feet of sail. The 15 sails deploy at the push of a button, rolling out from inside each hollow mast along recessed tracks on stationary horizontal yardarms.

Highlights

• 289 feet
• $130,000,000
• 1367 tons
• Advanced rigging system (DynaRig)
• 15 sails (26,000 sq. feet)
• Three 192 ft. masts
• 131,000 ft. of hidden cable and wire
• Vessel not sailed by computer
  

Extreme Sailing: The Biggest Boat in the World. [Wired]

Move along. There is no fun to be had here.

Close your eyes and try to relax. Take a few deep breathes and calm yourself. Now picture yourself as a rectangular block who likes to do cartwheels. Good. Now you're falling through a hole in the ground, but this is a good thing...

Bloxorz. [Albino Black Sheep]

Kind of makes Robert Redford and Cesar Millan look like a couple of pansies.

Animal behaviorist Kevin Richardson has such an intimate bond with big cats that he can spend the night curled up with them without the slightest fear of attack. Richardson, 32, who is based in a wildlife conservation area near Johannesburg in South Africa, works his unusual magic on other species too. Cheetahs, leopards and even unpredictable hyenas hold no threats for him.So instinctively in tune is he with these beasts, whose teeth are sharp enough to bite through thick steel, that mother hyenas even allow him to hold their newborn cubs without pouncing to the rescue.

But lions are his favorite. He lavishes them with unconditional love, he says, treating each individual differently, speaking to them, caressing them and, above all, treating them with respect.

The Lion Whisperer. [The Daily Telegraph]

The quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Shortcut: through his ego's stomach.

Upon reading this we had a few immediate thoughts.

1. These are all true.
   
2. We make a kiddie pool look deep.
3. Our girlfriends need to read this.
4. Wait! If they read this they'll be able to manipulate us without having to show any skin.
5. Why the **** can't you unsend an e-mail?!
   

10 compliments that wow a man. [Yahoo! Health]

Those squirt gun fights you had as a kid would have been a little more interesting. That is for certain.

If fire were water. [Bored Stop]

Did your dad ever push you on the swings at the park? That's just like this...only less cool.

First Place - Mammals - Professional, National Wildlife Awards
Humpback Whale and Dolphin
Kauai, Hawaii, USA
Lori Mazzuca
Canon EOS 10D; 70-200mm lens with 1.4x extender; digital capture.

I was observing a strange interaction between a pair of bottlenose dolphins and a humpback whale, when it became apparent that the two species were collaborating in some way. The dolphin was lying on a humpback whale’s head while it was slowly swimming along. Looking through my camera lens the stunt appeared to be orchestrated by mutual “agreement.” The whale very slowly—and vertically—lifted the dolphin into the air. I expected the dolphin to wriggle atop the humpback’s head to get off, but it just laid still and arched, trying to stay on top of the whale’s snout. In this frame the dolphin was beginning its slippery return to the sea. Once back in the ocean, the dolphin swiftly swam away with the other dolphin, leaping joyfully as if they had just scored a coup!

Humpback whale and dolphin. [The Smithsonian]

Love and kisses. - Zaphod

You may or may not need to be something of a science buff or outright geek to appreciate this Java applet. Here you get the opportunity to play Flying Spaghetti Monster and create a mini solar system. You can have a single star (sun) or two and have as many planets as you like orbiting around them. Warning, don't become particularly attached to any single world as quite often you'll find that some are bound to smash together and obliterate all the denizens worshiping you.

Plant simulation. [Dan Ball]

Yes, I'd like to put a floor to ceiling window in my shower. No I don't need to order any blinds. I live on the first floor, why?

I just heard a piece on NPR about Experian selling your credit history to collection agencies. They constantly monitor your credit activity and if you start to pay off your credit and are getting back on your feet, they notify the collection hounds and let them have at you. This sounded pretty damn wrong to me so I got on Google and found out some more about this.

As a former mortgage broker, Adryenn Ashley thought she knew what to expect when she refinanced her house in March. Yet Ashley was unprepared for one twist she encountered: a barrage of phone calls and e-mails from rival lenders vying to sell her a better mortgage.

Some of the callers apparently knew just how much money she was borrowing. Others made such misleading come-ons such as "We need to update your information" or "We need to complete your application," Ashley recalls.

"I have privacy concerns over that," she said from her home in Petaluma. "My information should be confidential."

These days, mortgage shoppers like Ashley are supreme telemarketing targets, thanks to "trigger leads" that the credit reporting bureaus sell to lenders the instant a consumer's credit file is pulled by a loan officer. So when Ashley's lender checked her credit to prepare her loan, dozens of other mortgage companies were tipped off. These alerts can be had for a few bucks per name if bought in bulk.

So you give the lender you are working with the authority to pull your credit report. And then Experian sells it to anyone who is willing to buy that info. Does that sound like an invasion of privacy?

Yes.

Heard of credit triggers? You should. [Daily Kos]

This goes against everything we've ever learned, but the trick is NOT to focus on her.

We're dedicated to bringing you the best of the internet without the porn. We're not prudes, we're just trying to prove a point. We appreciate the form of the human body as much as the next person who is honest with themselves, so trust us when we say that we're not compromising our principles in this instance. This is more than just a silhouette of a woman who is in excellent shape and has been blessed by God, it is fascinating example of the tricks our mind can pull on us...

We were initially skeptical that this was a hoax, till we figured out the "trick" to make it work consistently well. We recommend reading the text (use the link below to view the image) and using your peripheral vision to view the image. Then close your eyes for a few seconds and the image will change. We can't promise this will work 100% of the time, but it worked best for us using this technique.

Spinning sillhouette optical illusion. [moillusions.com]

Teach both theories...Let the kids decide.

Teach both theories... [Free Forum]