Swans on Tea

In the 80s music videos link from the other day I noticed the unsurprising absence of BLOTTO, a favorite Albany (NY)-based band from my high school/ college days (along with Fear of Strangers, aka The Units). So I went and looked for them on YouTube.
I must protest what I found.
This has to [...]

It’s not as funny as the I Love Lucy episode with the chocolates, but it’s still pretty neat.
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A brief digression on lost time: John Hodgman on TED.com
Hodgman explains his hypothesis behind his contention that Enrico Fermi was an alien, and explains why he ended up eating alone. Plus all sorts of other stuff.

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80’s Music Videos
From the good old days when MTV played music videos, men were women and women were men.
Only one per artist, though, so if you want Ant Music, or even Goody Two Shoes, you’re out of luck; you get Kings of the Wild Frontier.

Hint: it’s not magic.
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You probably want to use your mouse rather than your finger.

OMG this is TFF.
Blender Defender
Have a cat that won’t stay off your counters? I do. I finally got fed up with it enough to do something about it: scare the crap out of him with a motion-detecting blender (while recording the results for my own amusement, of course).
How-I-did-it instructions are included in the [...]

Combustion for the lactose-intolerant: a non-dairy creamer demonstration of a dust explosion. Fine particles have a lot of surface area, and in the right mixture, can combust. In a small delta-t.
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OK, it wasn’t really misspent. Much. But I’ve done this, and lost some hair on my fingers doing so. The can gets pretty warm, too.
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Important tidbit: Butane is heavier than air.

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Make your own carbon dioxide. At 44 g/mole, it is heavier than the other major constituents of air, so it stays in the pitcher and can be “poured” out.

(I emphatically deny the rumors that we waterboarded a rat. Did … not … happen.)
Where was I? Oh, ever wondered what a chain reaction was like? Ping pong balls and mousetraps.
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if you don’t go 360º on a swing
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OK, disclaimer time: please note that it’s got rigid bars instead of a chain or rope attachment, the feet are probably secured, and that the person doing it is most likely insane.
Apparently this activity [...]