I have Tivo, but I may still watch commercials

One of the major changes you hear about in advertising nowadays is that Tivo is breaking the standard tv advertising model. Tivo users blow past the ads so companies are trying to find other ways to reach consumers. Product placement, little on-screen overlays that run while you're watching your show, even ads in Tivo's pause menu.

But what I realized tonight while watching a string of SNL episodes is that as speed past the commercials, things will catch my eye and I'll go back and watch the entire commercial. Mini cows getting herded by midgets? Guy rubbing some grandma's foot? Conan running full suit on the beach? Subway car explosions? While I'm running past the commercials, these things catch my eye and I either go "wtf?" "that looks funny" or "that looks awesome" and go back.

So in MY case, I think the consumer has just gotten smarter at zoning out the crappy ads that viewers 10 years ago had no choice but to watch. Don't pour out cereal and tell me how nutritious it is, or claim I'm in good hands when bad things happen in my life. BORING. I am now recognizing I treat commercials as entertainment.

With Tivo I only watch shows I want to watch. With Tivo I also only watch commercials I want to watch - but I do in fact watch them. Advertising can be so well done that it makes me want to watch it! Someone's doing it right.

Alison on the other hand - she gets made when I make her go back ;-)

NOVA - Magnetic Storm

Magma in core produces magnetism (unknown why). There are ppl superheating/pressurizing metals attempting to observe.

Basically, the Earth is a liquid magnet - and liquids are just that .... liquidy. So the poles move around, and sometimes you'll have bursts of positive charge appearing in the negative side, etc. When enough bursts occur, the poles start to change strength and even flip. We can see evidence of this by looking through 3 things: cooling lava, cooling clay, and sailor's comparisons of true north. Sailors compare where the compass north is to an astronomical reading and have recorded it - and through history you can see changes. Cooling is seen because after the element is headed - the substance polarizes to the earth's magnetic pull. By knowing when pots are thrown, we can see the magnitude and direction of earth's magnetism. Similarly we can see lava in stages of it being cooled to note changes. There was even a period of time (long ago) where the polarity swapped in a matter of 6 days - you would SEE the compass needle change... if one existed...

So how does this effect us? Well the polarity generates a magnetic field that protects us from the sun's radiation - it reflects it to the north/south (Aurora Borealis) and back into space. The radiation could cause significant amounts of cancer, the loss of atmosphere, etc - in fact, this is what seemed to happen to Mars. It has no poles, but lava is polarized EXCEPT where two asteroids hit it and remelted the rock. Since that rock is not polarized, then there was no field when those asteroids hit.

So when? The magnitude of the poles have dropped dramatically - fastest it's been since civilization, and the rate is increasing. However, if there IS a swap, it's not expected for thousands of years.

Read: online details

Einstein's relativity

Was watching an old documentary about Einstein while riding BART today... (there aren't too many videos I can choose from online that I can convert to put onto my portable video player)

So here's what I learned:

Einstein accepted the fact that speed of light was a constant, so how could two observers see the same speed? well if speed = d/t, and d and speed are const, than time must be a variable.

Also, this means that time is not absolute - ie: if an observer sees two lightning strikes around him, vs a moving observer at the same point - they will not agree on the time of those lightning strikes (since one was moving).

Also, since E = mc^2, then mass has energy and energy has mass. The sun sends out 4.5 pounds of light at us per day.