Ballistics Calculator for iPod Touch

Wow. Now this seems like something I could have (and would have) thought of, but ironically, I didn't. A full fledged military grade ballistics calculator is available for the iPod touch, and why didn't I think of it? Apparently some soldiers just loved their iPods so much they had to bring them with them on their assignments. So why not make it useful? (More useful than watching Die Hard and canned beans I mean.)

The program: BulletFlight

The company: Knight's Armament

This app is currently used in service by snipers in the army, pretty cool huh? You can even get a special case for it, you know, to make it fit for service.

Aviary - free online art creation tools

The new website Aviary.com has a variety of browser based programs that allow you to edit and create images, add effects, create filters, and collaborate with other artists. Following their bird-theme, the available programs so far are called Raven (a vector editor), Phoenix (image editor), Toucan (color palettes), and Peacock (visual laboratory).

In the future they are looking forward to release programs for audio editing, music generator, font creation, 3D modeling, terrain generator, a word processor, and much more. They all follow the websites bird theme, with names like Hummingbird, Owl, Starling, Roc, Eagle, and Pigeon.

The website has a light, clean, and airy feel to it and navigates simply. They have sections where you can view the different programs, see tutorials on how to create certain effects, and a section where you can view people's creations. (They even has a section called "undiscovered" to help you find art that you like/are interested in that hasn't made it "big" yet, so everyone can have a chance to have their art viewed.) They even have a blog where you can follow up on all the new happenings.

You can sign up for a free account with them, and it doesn't take more than a second.

The site is made by the same guys who made Worth1000.com, a fun site where you can show off all your trippy Photoshop images in various themed contests.

CD Sales Drop Off Dramitically

Last year, 17 million people in the US just stopped buying physical CDs, and switched over completely to purely digital formats. Most of these people were either teenagers or those over 50. All the missing CD buyers are now giving their money to buying and downloading music online.

"80% of Americans think science knowledge is 'very important' to the future"

And guess what?

Ironically, out of three questions, only 21% of the interviewed adult population got them all right. The questions were as follows:

1) How long does it take for the earth to revolve around the sun? (1 year = 365 days = one rotation of the earth around the sun.)

2) Did the

earliest humans and dinosaurs live in the same time period? (No. The first humans didn't show up until the Paleolithic era, around 2.5-2.6 million years ago. Dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Mesozoic era that ended 65 million years ago. Humans didn't appear until comparatively late in the Cenozoic era, which began at the end of the Mesozoic and which we are still in now. )

3) About how much of the earth's surface is covered with water? (71%, answers around that number were acceptable.)

For the first question, only around half of the interviewed population got it right, 59% for the second question, and 47% for the third (15% of of those for the third question got it exactly right.)

I have a qualm with this 'test'. This test was called the scientific "literacy" test, when it's actually not a literacy test. Quote the National Science Education Terms Standards: "Scientific literacy means that a person can ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. It means that a person has the ability to describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena. Scientific literacy entails being able to read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions." As we can see, this test was not a scientific literacy test that involved a person's ability to utilize the scientific method, but a test of more "trivia" and knowledge of facts.

Does the author of this article understand scientific literacy? Guess not.

A Battery on par with an Ultracapacitor

Test lithium ion battery electrodes developed at MIT can be fully discharged within 10 seconds, with a one liter battery capable of discharging 25,000 watts worth. One of these batteries could carry 10 times as much power as an ultracapacitor of the same size. These could be good for race cars or lasers; things that can store a lot of energy and need to release it quickly with high performance. Sadly, the developing company is not planning on developing the batteries for lasers.

Learn German, Give Free Rice to the Poor

The website freerice.com is making it its mission to donate rice to the hungry of the world, but they need your help. Now you may have heard about this a few years ago, but something has changed.

Before I tell you what that is, I'll tell you how the website works. You go to the site and answer a question on a chosen subject, and for each question you get correct, 10 grains of rice are donated to the poor. (The sponsors on the website pay for it, which allows the site to purchase the rice.)

It's simple and a fun way to increase your knowledge base (painlessly) while you do a good thing.

The thing that's changed is before you only used to be able to answer questions on English vocabulary, like "thriftless means..." and then you had to choose from four possible answers what it meant. Now however you can not only do English vocabulary, but ones for German, French, Italian, and Spanish. You also can play this rice game with questions for Chemistry, Math, Geography, and Art. It's simple and a lot of fun.

Hopefully they'll put in some more language options for the rice game, like Norwegian or Zulu or Vietnamese or Swedish or something. =)

Norwegian Broadcasting Corp. Sets up Bittorent Tracker

NRK (a Norwegian public broadcasting company) has set up a bittorent tracker so that you can download their shows, DRM free, online. They even come with subtitle files for non-Norwegian speakers. They're also using OpenTracker software, the same one as the Swedish site Pirate Bay has been using, only the only content NRK will be distributing is their own.

The first show they will be distributing will be about people living in the remote areas of Norway. I'll be downloading it when I get home today.