101. people in red states vote more than we thought
January 2, 2005 4:33 PM   Subscribe

47. A "jiffy" is 10 milliseconds in computer science terms. and 99 other things 2004 taught us
posted by tsarfan (5 comments total)
 
Well, props to the Brussel sprouts, and cruciferae in general. But 'jiffy' is not a very well-defined term. In microcomputer parlance I remember it meaning 1/60 of a second.
posted by Wolfdog at 5:11 PM on January 2, 2005


"1,000,000 billion times a second. Technically that's a quadrillion."

Technically, the sum of one and one is two. Technically the author of this compilation is a horse's ass.
posted by breath at 7:05 PM on January 2, 2005


"1,000,000 billion times a second. Technically that's a quadrillion."

For some reason the author wants to be American. Why he works for the BBC and doesn't know that a British Quadrillion is 10^24, I don't know. Perhaps he'll try harder next time.
posted by shepd at 7:59 PM on January 2, 2005


IMDb listing for "Alan Smithee"
posted by Eideteker at 9:10 PM on January 2, 2005


Some of this stuff is truly stupid.

"Things we didn't know this time last year" and it includes things like W getting the highest number of votes ever. Do you suppose the reason we didn't know that last year is because we're not actually psychic?

Anyone who didn't know the Alan Smithee thing is simply not paying attention.

Plus, the Gigabyte = a truckload of paper is really pointless. What kind of paper? And how is the information represented on the page? Something written in 8pt on newsprint is going to take up a lot less space than something written in 16pt on resume stock. I'm sure the actual academic paper was a little more specific, but how is this more useful than saying 'Really, it's a lot!'

I did find the one about ale vs. lager consumption interesting, if only because I took a beer appreciation class where they explained the difference between the two over my Christmas break. I'd tell you what it is but it was a beer appreciation class with sampling, and I don't remember all that clearly.

It's sort of a fun list, but a lot of it is just bloody odd.
posted by jacquilynne at 9:15 PM on January 2, 2005


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