Million vs Trillion

From World Magazine - August 15, 2009 issue.

Dollar signs

It may have sounded significant when President Obama last week proposed ways to reduce government spending by $100 million. But with the federal budget deficit nearing $2 trillion, $100 million is less than meets the ear.

Jack Uldrich at jumpthecurve.net gives an example of the difference between 1 million, 1 billion, and 1 trillion in his futurist lectures. He asks readers and listeners to think about seconds going backwards . . .

• 1 million seconds ago = 12 days ago
• 1 billion seconds ago = 30 years ago
• 1 trillion seconds ago = 30,000 b.c.

NOT from theonion.com

(from yahoo news)

Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby

Oct 23, 2008

TOKYO: A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

Players in "Maple Story" raise and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.

Survival Tip on July 10th

To get you prepared for the X-Files movie coming out shortly...

Amy bought me this Survival Tips desk calendar that I've referenced before (see my blog from March 9th). This one is from July 10th.

How to foil an alien abduction.

1. Control your thoughts. Do not think of anything violent or upsetting - the extraterrestrial biological entity (EBE) may have the ability to read your mind.

2. Resist verbally. Firmly tell the EBE to leave you alone.

3. Resist mentally. Picture yourself enveloped in a protective shield of white light, or in a safe place. Telepathic EBEs may get the message.

4. As a last resort, go for the EBE's eyes - you will not know what its other more sensitive areas are.

Yum!

Amy got me this 365 Days Of How To Survive The Worst Case Scenarios day calendar for my desk. Some of the day's entries are merely bizarre stories, some of them are rather humorous, but Monday, March 3 took the cake. Following is the entry for the day...

"On this day in 1876, a shower of meat chunks, one to four square inches in size, rained down on Bath County in Kentucky. No one was injured by the falling meat, which had the appearance of beef (but tasted more like venison or lamb, according to sources). Numerous studies were done on the meat to ascertain what it was. Though early opinion was that it was no more than some sort of vegetable matter, it was determined that the samples studied were cartilage, lung tissue, and muscle. The final conclusion was that the meat had fallen from buzzards or vultures who vomited their meals while flying overhead."

I thought this through. Can't say I'd invite the friends over and BBQ something that fell out of the sky to try and taste it to figure out what it was. But I'd better be careful about commenting further on this - as nasty as this story sounds, it's probably a delicacy now that I don't know about, and some of you probably love it.