Antarctica action: 30 x 50 mile chunk of ice breaks off!

A chunk of ice 160 sq. miles in size (3 times the size of San Francisco) collapsed in Antarctica today. Global warming, or just a random thing?

CNet has some pictures:
http://www.news.com/2300-11395_3-6235636-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg

Help, I'm stuck in a PortaPotty!

Do you think this is a signal from somebody trapped inside?

Should I phone 911? "Runaway portapotty!"

(Click for a bigger view)

Battlebots Returns!

This was one of my favorite shows, before it went off the air.

Now it may be back!

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/11/064233

Amazing Airplane Landing

These pilots have amazing skills!

Check out this video:

http://www.break.com/index/german-plane-nearly-crashes-during-landing.html

Here's the story -- an Airbus A320 takes on 155 mph winds:

http://wbztv.com/national/Lufthansa.plane.landing.2.667835.html

131 people on board... all OK.

More ideas for old AOL CDs

These guys in China built a 328-foot dragon, made from 10,000 used CDs:

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1598&galleryName=All%20Collections#a=1

http://www.reuters.com/resources/pictures/galleries/Stories/633392069460156250/Previews/mdf1399645.JPG

Automatic Dog Exerciser

This is a slick invention:

→ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PcL6-mjRNk

The dog obviously loves it. The counter on the home built panel shows 10,000 throws. Not a bad workout!

Avoid Hotel Drinking Glasses! Yuck!

Oh yuck!

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22250/39039

A hidden camera shows what really goes on when the maids clean your hotel room (at some hotels). I'm never using the drinking glasses again!

TurboTax raises their eFile fees to $17.95!

I thought I was getting a really good deal when I bought TurboTax Deluxe at Costco for $22 (with coupon). And that is a great price.

Unfortunately, their eFile fees are up to $17.95. A total of almost $36 for federal + state. Last year, I think I paid $10 + $15, and there was even a rebate on the Federal eFile.

I'm glad they got rid of the rebates, of course! They were awful.

But this is the first year in a while when I didn't eFile, even though I expected a refund. Doing the math, at 2% bank interest (optimistic), the 2 weeks that eFile may speed up my refund wouldn't pay off unless my refund was over $23k. (Check my math here...)

And of course I'm helping people at the IRS keep their letter-opening jobs, which will help our economy. :-)

ATM hacking

Some bad guys are doing this in our area -- at Wells Fargo and Arco gas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQUvySJeLdI (5 min video)

They basically glue a credit card scanner on the front of an ATM machine, then steal your card info, and your PIN.

It's amazing that they can 1) build something that blends in with the ATM, and 2) do it in such a small amount of space, and 3) not get caught installing it.

Anyway, be sure to cover the keypad while entering your PIN. And look for anything suspicious!

Walmart Attacks! The video.

This is really cool. Some guy plotted the location of all the Walmarts in the US. He made a movie showing their spread, from 1962 to 2007. Check it out here:

http://blog.kiwitobes.com/?p=51

You can download a high-resolution AVI version here. (6 MB)

The data is in FreeBase (wacky name) -- sort of the Wikipedia of databases.

The guy who did this is Toby Segaran. Of course Toby's bio is also in Freebase.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Wacky Stuff blog.

I hope you find something strange, interesting, or entertaining here every day!