Why We Are All Afraid Of Deep Water
Posted by The Gimcracker in Science, Theory & Philosophy on 24. Mar, 2011 | 19 Comments
One of my biggest fears is deep water. I have always wondered why I’m so afraid of it. One time I was jet skiing in the Cayman Islands and I was cruising around within 50 yards of the shore. One of the boat captains had previously explained to me that about 200 yards off shore the depth of the water sharply dropped off from around 40 feet to a mile. A MILE DEEP. That is 5,280 feet, way deeper than 40! I decided to venture out and see what it was like to cross the “threshold” of depth. I revved my trusty Yamaha and went straight out toward the horizon. Suddenly, all around me, the water turned from light blue to black; I had journeyed over the great shelf. I was immediately filled with an ominous fear I had never experienced before (aside from when Taco Bell took the Volcano Taco off their menu). When I scampered back to safety and calmed down, I posed this question to myself: “Why is it that absolutely nothing changed when I crossed the barrier – my jet ski still worked perfectly, I had the same ability to swim, and the waves remained the same – but I was absolutely horror-stricken?” I researched the answer to this question for 3 solid years and have finally figured out the answer. In keeping with the TGM tradition, this is all totally scientific and full of completely accurate science.
Reader Challenge: Can You Find The Weather?
Posted by The Gimcracker in Science, Technology on 03. Jun, 2009 | No Comments
By now we all use Gmail for our personal E-mail and most of us are utilizing a cool theme. You might be using Summer Ocean or Beach if you have a tropical vacation coming up. Maybe you use Phantasea or Mountains if you want to pretend like you are in nature while you’re reading your email. Or if you’re a nerd you could be using Planets or Terminal (Terminal’s tight!). There are tons of cool pre-built themes for Gmail. The only exception is Zoozimps. I just can’t possibly see any reason for using that theme.
I personally prefer the theme called Tree because it changes with the weather. All you have to do is type in your city when you select the theme and it takes care of the rest. It’s awesome, and also very accurate. No joke – one time I was checking my email and saw that it was snowing on the screen behind my emails and then I turned my head and looked out the window and sure enough it was snowing. Had it not been for my Gmail theme I might have never known! Based on this principal I have thought of a really fun challenge that you can do. It’s pretty hard because I haven’t even been able to complete it yet. So it’s hard and it’s fun. At least it’s fun, though.
Mythbusters Pancakes A Car
Posted by The Gimcracker in Amazing, Science on 13. Apr, 2009 | 1 Comment
Do you sort of watch Mythbusters if you happen to flip to it when there’s not really anything else on and then you keep watching because you enjoy how much the chick looks like the annoying Progressive commercial lady and how sorta cool the stuff they do is sometimes a little bit? If so, you’ll probably have the same initial reaction to this video as I did: “meh, i’ll watch it.” Trust me, after you watch it, your reaction will change a bit: “holy eff i’m bloggin this!” Too bad you don’t have a blog though. And if you Twitter it I will disable your Twitter account because I know how to do that.
Another Space Video
Posted by The Gimcracker in Amazing, Science on 19. Aug, 2008 | 1 Comment
I can’t help it, I am intrigued by things that may seem pointless or boring to you. For instance I love telling people that there are more possible chess game outcomes than atoms in the universe. I usually get one of two responses to that: “Your life saddens me.” “That’s impossible. Your life saddens me.” [...]
Fire
Posted by The Gimcracker in Amazing, Science on 03. Jul, 2008 | 5 Comments
I have been inspired by the 4th of July to post about fire-related phenomena, seeing as how millions of (probably drunk) people are about to shoot dangerous bombs into the sky. Remember the movie Backdraft? Can you believe that came out 17 years ago?!? I was pretty into that movie back in the 90s and [...]
Cephalopod Reference Burst Theory™ Rears Its Bulbous Head
Posted by The Gimcracker in Reference Burst Theory, Science on 01. May, 2008 | 2 Comments
There has been an explosion of references to squid & octopuses (cephalopods) since my first post about them. I have been putting these references in the comments of the post so as not to clutter up The Gimcrack Miscellany, but with the two new references today this phenomenon needs to have its own post. First, [...]
The Guatemala sinkhole.
Posted by The Gimcracker in News, Science on 29. Apr, 2008 | 3 Comments
330 feet deep. Swallowed 12 homes suddenly. The pit emitted foul odors, loud noises and tremors, shaking the surrounding ground. A rush of water could be heard from its depths… I have a fear of voids, so that’s all I wanna know.
I’m Afraid Of Cephalopods
Posted by The Gimcracker in Science on 25. Apr, 2008 | 9 Comments
Ever since I can remember I’ve had a real fear of the following things (from least to greatest): 1. Voids 2. Cephalopods While you’re glaring at me for using a big word that I obviously found on Wikipedia, let me touch on #1. Voids frighten me. Remember ‘The Nothing’ from The Neverending Story? That was [...]
Our Sun Is Tiny
Posted by The Gimcracker in Science on 09. Jan, 2008 | 2 Comments
I found another cool video that is similar to the one in this post about the distances in our universe, however this video compares the sizes of celestial bodies such as Earth, Jupiter, the Sun and more. Previously, I thought the differences between the sizes of the stars was like the differences between the sizes [...]
Birds Are Faster Than Deer
Posted by The Gimcracker in Amazing, Science on 04. Jan, 2008 | 4 Comments
Remember my post about cats pwning humans? Well sometimes animals fight other animals too. It’s just something you’re going to have to deal with. In this case, a bird fights a deer. And by “fights” I mean “captures in its talons”. The deer never had a chance. Watch right at the end when the eagle [...]
