Swiss Army Invades Liechtenstein.

170 troops wandered accross the border during night time exercises, by mistake, causing much embarassment.

Perhaps the US government will accuse the Swiss of harboring Weapons of Mass Destruction in the form of Swiss Army Knives?

A holiday tradition, for me and my dad:

The 102nd King William’s College Quiz is out.

Following Jason’s My Year in Cities, 2006 (kottke.org).

Here’s lists of cities visited this year:

(The reason I’m doing this is I’m collecting lists for some new Wists features, which I’ll be able to show shortly).

New York, NY
Philadelpia, PA
Austin, TX
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
London, England
Geneva, Switzerland
Paris, France
Barcelona, Spain

and bonnie Selkirk!

Study finds that wearing a cycling helmet increases your chance of being hit by a car.

Wearing a long flowing wig provides the greatest protection.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Somerset | Wearing helmets ‘more dangerous’

What is both rare and everywhere?

- Uranium is rare, but everywhere.

One ton of an ordinary rock, such as granite, contains 16g of Thorium and Uranium.

A kilogram of Uranium is equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, which is approx. the same as the energy potential of 20,000 tons of gasoline.

One ton of common-or-garden rock contains the equivalent fuel of 320 tons of gasoline. It could take a lot less than that to extract it.

Until recently, what did environmentalists and Car/Oil companies have in common?

- A reason to hate nuclear power.

It used to be very easy to make a case against nuclear energy, and if you are either a treehugger or a oil exec. you would be historically allied.

Dolphins have had a rough time lately, they used to be considered intelligent and kind - then researchers pointed out that they gang rape females to death when mating.

Now it turns out they they may not even be intelligent. In fact they may be not be much smarter than a goldfish.

Their big brains are mostly fat with very few neurons.

Research shows dolphins dimwitted but happy

Want to work out compound interest rates in your head?

Use the Rule of 72

ln 2 is 69.3% - which is approximately equal to 70 which is close to 72 - which has many factors making it easy to do mental division.

So to work out compound interests rates’ doubling times divide 72 by the Interest rate.

At 6% $100 becomes $200 in 72/6 = 12 years

I just saw an ad for a whole roast chicken - for under $2. $2 to raise, kill, prepare and cook an animal. So I did some research to see just how insanely cheap mechanized farming produce has become.

In the middle ages, an unplucked, unroasted chicken cost 5/8 of the daily wage of a master mason. This was a very highly paid and esteemed position for the day, but lets be conservative and assume that the equivalent would be someone on a current US salary of $60K per annum.

This would mean that a chicken cost around $150.

Gives some kind of perpective on what pumping oil into the ground and hormones into mammals can do.

The site below has some really interesting data on medieval food.

Spices and Their Costs in Medieval Europe

Daniel Kottke.

Not Leo.

If He’s So Smart…Steve Jobs, Apple, and the Limits of Innovation

The Food Timeline: food history reference & research service

“Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip…and why? Welcome to the Food Timeline.”