There was an awesome letter sent in to Click and Clack. It began with:

I am writing to offer profound thanks to you for resolving an important philosophical question that has been heatedly debated for the last twenty years. The rumination began on a construction site one summer in the early 1970’s, as my friend Jamie and I were working our way through college. The question we raised and have agonized over, lo these many years, is one that I’ve never read about in any philosophical treatise, and yet I have found it has applied to countless situations and conversations overheard in bars, repair shops, sporting events, political debates, etc. etc. etc.

Posit the question: Do two people who don’t know what they are talking about know more or less than one person who doesn’t know what he’s talking about? (Pardon the un-PC masculine pronoun, but I have found this to be, most predominately, a male phenomenon.)

And it gets better…

When you’re planning your world takeover plans, be sure to check your plans against this do not do list.

This is definitely not how I’ve viewed the universe, but it’s also a fascinating read.

An interesting video on psychology and competence…

This guy seems to think that actually charging someone something helps improve profits. Why is this relevant? Facebook is looking at charging for it’s services (gasp – shock!).

This was a pretty cool way to do some above-ground gardening, especially on a patio or porch. The creator calls it the EarthTainer.

From http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/

From http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/

Good stuff…

These folks obviously have lots of free time, but are absolutely awesome in their use of it. Found via Gilles Tran’s blog.

Aunt Barb sent this my way and it’s just cool.

A company that makes heat to electricity converters put together this fancy-schmancy demo where they use a candle to power an LED that’s brighter than the original candle (EcoGeek).

Ever wonder how efficient a candle is at producing light? The answer can be found here. In this image Nextreme Thermal Solutions is using a new thermoelectric material that can convert some of the heat from a candle into electricity. That electricity is then run through an LED. The LED and the candle combined put off more light than two candles would.

The demo itself was pretty slick, but the heat to electricity technology should have an impact and let industrial applications get a little power back from their waste heat. As always, it depends on the price.