Star Talk Weblog

Credit this guy for a hilarious article

Link: The Credit Card Prank.

In my lifetime, I have made nearly 15,000 credit card transactions. I purchase almost everything on plastic. What bugs me about credit card transactions is the signing. Who checks the signature? Nobody checks the signature.

Credit card signatures are a useless mechanism designed to make you feel safe, like airport security checks. So my question was, how crazy would I have to make my signature before someone would actually notice?

Comment -- The answer is that no matter how crazy his signature got, no one ever questioned it. I really like the example (above left) where he went to Dunkin Donuts and signed his receipt "Kris P. Kreme".

Read the whole thing if you'd like some laughs.

Is this really as big a problem as the media make it appear?

Link: Lansing State Journal: Loss, theft claims at Metro near $1M.

From 2002 to 2006, the most recent data available, Metro Airport travelers have reported that nearly $1 million in currency or valuables have been damaged or stolen from their luggage, according to records released to the Detroit Free Press by the TSA.

Of the 1,560 reports of missing items that included everything from clothing to cash, passengers said most items were stolen after they gave their luggage to airline or TSA workers.

"Honestly, a sense of helplessness came over me," said Jeff Perreca, 25, a Royal Oak resident whose digital camera disappeared from his checked bag when he traveled from Detroit to Charlotte, N.C., the day after Thanksgiving last year.

"I packed it all the way at the bottom of my bag and buried it in my clothes, thinking it would be safe."

Comment -- First of all, in five years there were $1 million worth of items stolen or damaged. That's only $200,000 a year. Second, 36 million passengers went through Detroit Metro in 2006. Over five years, that's over 150 million passengers. A million dollars in losses is less than a penny a passenger over five years. Pretty trivial, in the larger scheme of things.

Of course, it's not trivial if you were the poor sap who thought his digital camera would be save in his bag. Let's call his loss a "stupidity tax."

FYI, I will continue blogging over Christmas break, but I won't be able to email it to my loyal readers. I encourage you to go directly to the web and read it there! Happy holidays and see you at Saturday's party.

CATA should put this on the sides of all their vehicles

Link: IM4GEs - Free Image Hosting for Forums, Blogs & Social Networking.

Light bright, nearly at night

At left is my experiment in taking an image of our outdoor Christmas lights. My camera has lots of options, so I tried them all. This was the best of 25 shots.

Of course, I forgot to write down the settings for this photo, so I don't know how I did it. Hey, I'm an artist...did you expect an engineer?

I've got to try this before taking down the Christmas lights

Link: How To: Take Great Holiday Lights Photos.

Spent hours untangling lights and creating the perfect holiday scene but not sure how to document your masterpiece? The video above offers several tips for how to take the best pics of your holiday lights this season. Some of the tips are a bit obvious, but others, like the white balance tips, seem particularly helpful for the holiday picture-taking novice.

Comment -- It's an excellent video filled with practical advice by a professional photographer. I like it because it's designed for point-and-shoot digital cameras that most of us have.

Air Fleet, dead tree edition

Link: mental_floss Blog � 10 Alternative Electronic Gifts (for those who can’t find a Wii).

The Electric Plane Launcher is an accessory every paper-airplane-maker should have, and you can build your own with this kit. You’ll be able to launch paper airplanes at up to 50 kph! It comes with a slew of parts, batteries not included.

Comment -- When I was a little kid, we were too poor to afford toys. We had to play with dirt!

Sorry, that's a wild exaggeration. Actually, we had to eat the dirt, not play with it.

Seriously, I used to amuse myself by taking a pad of notebook paper and making fleets of paper airplanes. I'd construct dozens of them and line them up on the basement floor like it was an airbase. Or, I'd perch them on a table and pretend it was an aircraft carrier.

Then, I'd address my squadrons: "Men, here's the mission today: sink the Japanese battleships!"

Anyway, I could have used this electric paper plane launcher.

Oil prices have crashed before: no reason it couldn't happen again

Link: The Informed Reader - WSJ.com : Is Oil Headed for a Crash?.

John Cassidy has a message for consumers who are contemplating giving up their SUVs to save on gasoline: not so fast.

Oil prices, which have hovered near record levels this fall, are to set plunge 50% or more in the next two or three years, says Mr. Cassidy in CondeNast’s Portfolio magazine. The downturn could be even steeper after that — $30 a barrel oil is a distinct possibility in the not-so-distant future, he says.

Mr. Cassidy bases his prediction on one essential idea: that the steep rise in crude prices over the past four years has been prolonged enough to fundamentally alter the behavior of both oil producers and consumers.

Comment -- I can vividly remember the run up in gasoline prices in the early '80s, followed by a steep crash. Most people look at trends and then just stretch them out into the future. Gasoline prices have been going up -- that means they will go up indefinitely into the future, right? Not likely.

This article points out that high prices are financing the production of hard-to-get oil like the Canadian oil sands. When that comes to market, it will help drive prices down.

Of course, lots of folks -- ethanol promoters, solar and wind power entrepreneurs -- just love high oil prices. They may be in for a rude awakening.

So, the lesson is don't be in a big hurry to buy a Smart car.

 

Worst gadget of the year?

Link: 10 Worst Gadgets of 2007 - Palm Foleo - Apple TV - LG Chocolate - Microsoft Zune - Popular Mechanics.

Meet Nabaztag, perhaps the world’s first toy that purports to be a Wi-Fi-enabled rabbit that beeps, moves its ears, reads your e-mails, says snarky stuff and responds to voice commands. Of course, when we say “rabbit,” we mean a white plastic cone with plastic oblong ears that tend to fall off a lot. So if your idea of what a hare should look like comes from watching animals in the park, or even watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons, you will be sorely disappointed. Also, it often ignores your requests and kind of doesn’t work.

Comment -- Other than the faults noted above, this seems to be a great gadget! Heh heh.

Who would buy a gadget called Nabaztag?

Why shovel snow when I can take pictures of it?

Birdies won't be drinking out of this fountain today!

This is one cold buck.

Where is Santa?

I hired a snow plow service to clean our driveway and sidewalks. I suspect they will take care of their commercial customers first and then plow our drive tonight.

Our 2007 Christmas tree

Though you might enjoy this photo of our tree. Jennifer did an especially good job placing the ribbon this year.