What I Learned This Week - 4/26/13

1.  I can turn just about anything into Geek-a-palooza. 
2. Depending on the scenario, I am an information addict – I need to go to rehab. Last Friday during the height of the manhunt for the Boston Massacre Terrorists, I sat in a parking lot with a live feed of Boston news stations on AM radio, an internet stream of all Boston area police via scanner on my tablet and watching a Reddit feed and texting an addict buddy (yes you Nick) on my phone of live updates from people in the Newtown neighborhood of the capture. Replace the electronics with booze or drugs and I’m a strung out junkie. 
3. Whenever I read about Russian volcanoes, I get the mental image of Mordor.
4. Whenever I read astronomy articles about “coronal mass ejections”, I still giggle like I’m 5 because it said, “mass ejections”. 
5. Everyone has a “nerd voice” – and they all seem to be just like Molly Wood’s. The previous item is much funnier when you read it aloud in your “nerd voice” - **insert nerd snort here***.
6. For only $38, you can apply for a one-way ticket to Mars via the Mars One Space program. I'm betting the return ticket price is where one gets screwed….because you can’t purchase one. Ever.
7. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been has been shooting continuous photos of the sun, once every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths since 2010.
8. If the sun were to suddenly vanish, the Earth would continue its orbital path for approximately another 8 minutes before the effects of gravity would change the orbit.  The implications of that melt my brain.
9. The new StarRSS reader that transforms RSS headlines into the Star Wars opening crawl complete with John Williams music is entertaining......for about 3 minutes. Then I'm ready for some light saber noises or space ships.
10. Some days little things make me happy -  like seeing a haggard gentleman in the coffee shop pulling frantically on the door which has a sign that clearly states, "PUSH". 
11. Some days, I'm the idiot pulling on the door.
12. Demitri Martin is right, if you add your age before any mundane statement or coffee, you sound very powerful. "I am 44 and would like a cup of coffee."
13. If you add your age after the statement, you should be placed on the short bus. Where's the bathroom - I am 44.
14. A geek developed a robot to determine just how many times a Lego brick could connected/disconnected before its parts wore enough that the connection would no longer hold. 
15. NASA believes in graffiti. The Mars Rover "inadvertently" drew a crude sketch of a man's genitalia with its tracks.
16. According to an online poll, I live in the #10 nerdiest city in the US. I am jealous of those in Seattle at #3.
17. The answer to #14 is 37,112 times. I know some people other than me were dying to know this.