James Duane, a professor at Regent University School of Law, gave an excellent talk in May about why you should never, under any circumstances, talk to the police… even if you are innocent. It sounds counter-intuitive at first, but it really does make sense.

In summary:

• Everything you tell the police can be used AGAINST you, but it can NEVER be used to help you (because it’s hear-say at that point).
• There is no way talking to the police can help you.
• You may admit guilt (even if innocent) with no benefit in return.
• Even if you are innocent, it is easy to get carried away and tell a small lie, which can destroy your credibility.
• Even if you are innocent, and only tell the truth, you will always give the police information that can help convict you.
• Even if you are innocent, only tell the truth, and say nothing incriminating, the police may not recall the conversation with 100% accuracy.
• Even if you are innocent, and only tell the truth, mistakes in your answers can incriminate you (either by misspeaking or drawing simple conclusions).
• Even truthful answers can be contradicted by mistaken or unreliable evidence, destroying you credibility.

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

I found the second part of the lecture especially interesting, where a veteran detective (George Bruch) backs up Duane’s arguments. Definitely recommend this one to friends.

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

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So, there was a lot of hoopla today over the discovery that Mars’ soil may be similar to that found on Earth and thus conducive to supporting life. The Phoenix Mars Lander previously found water in the soil, which was exciting enough. Now, it has shown that the soil has a pH between 8 and 9, and contains magnesium, sodium, and potassium. This has got a lot of people excited about the possibility of finding life (alive or exstinct) on Mars. They are also excited about the possibility of growing food for extended missions there.

You can read about it HERE on the New York Times website.

I’m wondering how long until NASA applies for farm subsides?

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I saw this video about 6 months back and I was really impressed. The most interesting part to me is after the rocket clears the base… very surreal. As a side note, the Discovery channel is beginning a special this Sunday about the US space program called “When We Left The Earth”. I expect this video to be a part of it.

A few facts about this video:

• The stuff falling from the rocket is ice. The Saturn engines burned liquid hydrogen and oxygen, which is VERY cold.
• The engines generate a strong vacuum, which is why the ice and smoke are initially sucked down into the opening in the launch pad base.
• The short section of dark exhaust coming out of the nozzles (right before the exhaust fire gets bright) is due to the cool liquid hydrogen that is used to cool the nozzles.

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

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So I tried this new energy drink Verve, and the label said it had 80mg of caffeine. I got curious and decided to investigate how much caffeine other drinks (mainly soda) have. I discovered some things I didn’t expect: Pepsi One has more caffeine than Mountain Dew, and Diet Coke has more caffeine than Dr. Pepper which has more caffeine than regular Coke. A much more complete list can be found HERE.

Being the nerd that I am, I then went to WebMD and looked up caffeine. Here’s somethings I found:

“Caffeine exaggerates the stress response,” says James D. Lane, PhD, professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and a long-time caffeine researcher. “At the cellular level, caffeine locks the receptor normally used by adenosine, a brain modulator that provides feedback to avoid overstimulation of nerve cells. If adenosine is locked up, nothing keeps the nervous system from getting too excited at a cellular level.”

So what’s the harm, ask caffeine fans, who point to studies showing the benefits of caffeine, such as boosting memory and improving concentration and perhaps lowering risks of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and liver cancer.

But others are alarmed by what they say is an increasingly overcaffeinated nation; they are concerned by studies finding too much caffeine can set you up for high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and decreased bone density — not to mention jangled nerves.

And some fun facts from another article:

Children’s consumption of soft drinks has doubled in the past 35 years, with sodas supplanting milk.

By triggering the release of adrenaline to help muscles work harder and longer, caffeine so clearly enhances athletic performance that until 2004 it was considered a controlled substance by the International Olympic Committee.

The young adult crowd who favor caffeine with their alcohol appear to be putting themselves at some risk, too. According to Mark Fillmore, a psychologist at the University of Kentucky, “Caffeine seems to restore the speed of your behavior but not the accuracy.” This gives a whole new meaning to “The Quick and the Dead!”

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I found this post discussing the importance of names, and some interesting naming customs from other countries (”Have-a-Look Dube” has a certain ring to it :-)). What I found most interesting (and disturbing) are efforts by certain governments to limit the choice of baby names to a predefined set. From the post:

…in Zimbabwe names are often chosen to convey specific meaning. Thus, one will find names such as Trymore, Lovemore, Learnmore, Justice, Honour, Trust, Knowledge, Oblivious, Wind, Wedding, Funeral, Rain, and even Hatred. Have-a-Look Dube is apparently a famous footballer in Zimbabwe. In one family, the last of 13 children was named “Never Trust A Woman” — apparently to express doubts about paternity.

A recent bill proposed in the Venezuala National Assembly would have effectively limited parents of newborns to a list of 100 names chosen by the government (the proposal failed to advance). The purpose? According to sponsors, the list was intended to “preserve the equilibrium and integral development of the child” by preventing parents from bestowing names that open the child to ridicule, are difficult to pronounce in Spanish, or generate doubts as to the child’s gender… Some Venezuelan names — e.g., Kennedy, John Wayne, Pavel, Ilich — reflect historical and cultural ties . In the voter registry, one can find as many as 60 Hitlers; eight Hochiminhs, among them Hochiminh Jesús Delgado Sierra; and six Eisenhowers, including Dwight Eisenhower Rojas Barboza.

Read the full post HERE.

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This huge diamond pit mine is located in Mirny, Russia, East Siberia. It is over 1/2 a kilometer deep, and it’s down-drafts have sucked in a few helicopters over the years. Click HERE to view more pictures.

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Slate asked NASA researchers if it is possible to survive in space without a spacesuit. The surprising answer: “Yes, for a very short time.”

The principle functions of a spacesuit are to create a pressurized, oxygenated atmosphere for astronauts, and to protect them from ultraviolet rays and extreme temperatures. Without it, a spacewalker would asphyxiate from the lack of breathable air and suffer from ebullism, in which a reduction in pressure causes the boiling point of bodily fluids to decrease below the body’s normal temperature. Since it takes a bit of time for these things to kill you, it’s possible to make it through a very quick stint in outer space.

At most, an astronaut without a suit would last about 15 seconds before losing conciousness from lack of oxygen.

You can read the full article here. There is also an interesting post about this on NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center website:

How would the unprotected human body react to the vacuum of outer space? Would it inflate to bursting? or would it not? or would just the interior gases hyperinflate?…

answer:

You do not explode and your blood does not boil because of the containing effect of your skin and circulatory system. You do not instantly freeze because, although the space environment is typically very cold, heat does not transfer away from a body quickly. Loss of consciousness occurs only after the body has depleted the supply of oxygen in the blood. If your skin is exposed to direct sunlight without any protection from its intense ultraviolet radiation, you can get a very bad sunburn.

The full Goddard post has some interesting stories about past testing accidents involving loss of pressure.

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Here’s a link to RFC 3092 that explains the history of “foo”, “bar”, “baz”, etc.

For those outside the tech community:

RFC = Request For Comment

“foo”, “bar”, etc are used to quickly name things in a piece of software (usually when the name is not important, like when writing a quick piece of test code).

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“A dilatant material is one in which viscosity increases with the rate of shear.” (wikipedia)

In other words, a dilatant material will become “thicker” or “harder” when it is hit. This is counter-intuitive… imagine a liquid that becomes solid when it is hit, then quickly returns to a liquid.

A simple example of a dilatant material is called “oobleck“. Oobleck is a mixture of cornstarch and water. Click here to learn how to make oobleck at home.

There is currently research going on that uses dilatant materials for flexible body armor. When a bullet strikes the fluid, it immediately becomes hard, protecting the person wearing it. The armor is full of polyethylene glycol with nano-particles of silica suspended in it. For you super-nerds: polyethylene glycol is a relative if ethylene glycol (anit-freeze), and is used to thicken shampoo and cosmetics.

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