Archive for December, 2009
The Asparagus Psychic
Posted by John Nemec in Strange Stuff on December 31st, 2009
With the coming of a new year means the coming of new predictions, which I find fascinating. One of my favorite radio programs is Paranormal Tuesday on the Dave Glover Show with Dr. Lynch, and at the end of every year he makes his predictions. Believing in psychics or not,it’s always fun to listen and see how close they get.
Jemima Packington makes her forecasts by throwing asparagus in the air and analysing how it lands Photo: NEWSTEAM
So in my quest to find 2010 predictions I ran across a news article from the Telegraph stating that a fortune-teller uses asparagus to look into the future.
Mystic Jemima Packington, who claims to be the country’s first asparamancer, makes her forecasts by throwing the vegetable in the air and analyzing how it lands.
“Readings vary. Sometimes it will be absolutely instantaneous and other times it takes a little bit of interpretation,” she said.
“Some leap out at you and others take a little bit longer.”
Miss Packington, from Pershore, Worcestershire, said: “Vale of Evesham asparagus is not in season at the moment and I refuse to use anything else. I have made my predictions using asparagus sausages, which might account for some slight anomalies
Thus far her predictions have been correct. She correctly identified the names and order of housemates that would be evicted from Big Brother 2008 – the only fortune teller to do so out of four clairvoyants.
Most of her predictions, that I’ve seen, are about England, but it’ll still be fun to see if they happen. She predicted that Britten will experience an extended heatwave this summer and George Clooney and Helen Mirren will win Oscars in 2010.
Only time will tell if she is right, but I did a little asparamancy myself and the asparagus said that she’s a nut-job and will disappear into obscurity.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Russia May Save Earth
Posted by John Nemec in Strange Stuff on December 30th, 2009
According to the head of the Russian Space Agency, Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to knock the Apophis Asteroid off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth.
The 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in December 2004 and caused a brief period of concern because of its a small probability that it would hit Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on Earth or the Moon. However, a possibility remains that during the 2029 close encounter with Earth, Apophis will pass through a gravitational keyhole, a precise region in space no more than about 600 meters across, that would set up a future impact on April 13, 2036.
In October, NASA lowered the odds that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 from a 1-in-45,000 as earlier thought to a 1-in-250,000 chance after researchers recalculated the asteroid’s path. It said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact.
Anatoly Perminov, the director of the Russian Federal Space Agency, said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, telling Golos Rossii radio that it would invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project once it is finalized.
Perminov also said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. “I don’t remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032.”
“People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people,” Perminov said.
On that cheery note, lets hope that Russia finds the money it needs to save our butts.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Foursquare Review
Posted by John Nemec in Technology on December 8th, 2009
For about a week now I’ve been reviewing Foursquare using my iPhone. Foursquare is a location-based social network, similar to twitter (in-fact it connects to twitter if you want), that, among other things, allows you to ‘check in’ to different places you go and review them. At a bare minimum, it a fun little game to show your friends where you are at any given moment, but has the potential to become a great marketing tool for businesses around the world.
I’ll start with the basics of this app and expand from there.
Once you have an account, which is free, and let Foursquare know what city you’re in, every time you go anywhere you can ‘Check-in’ to notify your friend where you are. You gain points when you check-in somewhere in the hopes of not only having the most points but also becoming the Mayor of places and unlocking Badges.
If you find yourself visiting a place often you have the chance to become the Mayor, this means you are the person that visits that place the most. There is great marketing potential with this that I’ll explain later.
Every time you check-in to a place or find a new place that no other Foursquare user has visited before you earn points. The more points you acquire and the more places you go, the better the chance for you to earn Badges. There are badges for discovering new places, traveling to faraway places and even going to the same place multiple times.
Since your already visiting the world and checking-in, Foursquare gives you the ability to add your own review called a ‘To-Do’. For example, if you visit a great burger joint, once you check-in to that place you can recommend something to other visitors by adding it. There are also Nearby Tips that can give you recommendations to places near-by your location.
To every check-in you can ‘Shout’ something. I recently found myself to be Mayor of the Fenton Wal-Mart, just what I’ve always wanted. So to save my pride a little, and to cover up the fact that I’m at Wal-Mart I wrote a witty comment in the shout box.
Everything I do and everywhere I go on Foursquare I have automatically post to Twitter. This is nice for multiple reasons. First, I don’t have to post something twice, in case I wanted to tell the world where I was on Twitter. Second, it could draw more people into joining the Foursquare community. As with any Social Networking site, more users = more fun.
Marketing
This could be an excellent tool for local businesses to use in the marketing world. If you have someone that comes to your establishment often (and becomes Mayor), why not reward them by giving them something free or a discount. This may stir up a friendly competition to visit your establishment more often. Businesses can learn more about Foursquare for Businesses here.
A good St. Louis example of this is the Missouri Botanical Garden. They posted, “Make sure to check in, using Foursquare, during the months of November and December! Top 5 Foursquare users will get free tickets to the 2010 Orchid Show!”
So far I haven’t had too much trouble with the iPhone app, it occasionally crashes (once or twice a week) when I try and check-in to places, and I couldn’t add a location once. But other than that, I’ve had no major issues.
So if you’re are using Foursquare and want to be my friend, be my friend on Twitter and add me that way or just add John Nemec.
Popularity: 5% [?]
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