Analogies and Metaphors

These are analogies and metaphors found in college essays.
(10 points if you tell me which ones are analogies and which ones are metaphors!)

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

He spoke with wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.

She grew on him like E. coli and he was room temperature Canadian beef.

She had a deep throaty genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before he throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad, as, like, whatever.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge free ATM.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7 pm instead of 7:30.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

The hailstones leaped up off the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star crossed lovers raced across a grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The Ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

Moon Landing

I have no idea about this blog written by an American living in Thailand. I just accidentally found it while listening to a podcast about the moon landing. The podcast said that one of the big 5 things that people use to say the moon landing was a hoax is this "C rock". So I googled C Rock and found this website. I think it is really funny how people can take random things, put them all together and make some conspiracy. I don't believe it or disbelieve it really. I just thought it was a fun read. Click here to read about how a lot of astronauts and Jim Carrey are Masons. One of my favorite lines from the article is: "In “The Grinch” Jim Carrey plays a green character who steals Christmas." He previously writes that Jim Carrey is JC like Jesus Christ. So he's obviously a Mason right?

But the podcast about the Moon Landing was very interesting, as are most of these podcasts. I would recommend them. They are called "Stuff You Should Know" and they come from howstuffworks.com which is part of the Discovery Channel.

Poll

Whose toilet went counter clockwise?!

While commuting home from the grocery last night I found myself looking to the clouds and pondering the subject of toilets. I remembered my father's wise words about the clockwise-counterclock-wise age old ponderence... "If toilets flush clockwise in the northern hemisphere, do they flush counter clock wise in the southern hemisphere?" Having never been to the southern hemisphere I have not been able to experience this privy phenomnon for myself, leaving me commode curious.

So I did some researching and I have NOT found the answers. All information is contradictory. I'm not sure what to believe.

First we need to know about the Coriolis force-
Coriolis effect: (as related to the rotation of Earth) Moving objects on the surface of the Earth experience a Coriolis force, and appear to veer to the right in the northern homisphere, and to the left in the southern.

So that explains hurricanes spinning different directions in the northern and southern hemisphere. "If a low-pressure area forms in the atmosphere, air will tend to flow in towards it, but will be deflected perpendicular to its velocity by the Coriolis acceleration. A system of equilibrium can then establish itself creating circular movement, or a cyclonic flow." (from Wikipedia) "In the Northern Hemisphere the direction of movement around a low-pressure area is counterclockwise. In the Southern Hemisphere, the direction of movement is clockwise because the rotational dynamics is a mirror image there. " (also Wikipedia)

That's not the question here though, that just shows that the Coriolis effect exists, but now how do we apply it to the bathroom? Well most of the things I have read say that the scale of cyclones is so large that the Coriolis effect does matter, but in the bathroom the scale is too small. All articles I have read say that the reason there is a rotation is not the Coriolis effect, but rather water shooting into the toilet at an angle, or the inperfections in the surfaces.

"In a very carefully controlled experiment to remove all other forces from the system, rotation could conceivably play a role on scales as small as a bathtub. ... As shown by Ascher Shapiro in a 1961 educational video called Vorticity, Part I, this effect can indeed reveal the influence of the Coriolis force on drain direction, but only under carefully controlled laboratory conditions. In a large, circular, symmetrical container (ideally over 1m in diameter and conical), still water (whose motion is so little that over the course of a day, displacements are small compared to the size of the container) escaping through a very small hole, will drain in a cyclonic fashion: counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern hemisphere — the same direction as the Earth rotates with respect to the corresponding poles." (from Wikipedia)

So it IS possible to get the effect to take place on a small scale, but all other variables have to be perfect.

"Toilets and sinks drain in the directions they do because of the way water is directed into them or pulled from them. If water enters in a swirling motion (as it does when a toilet is flushed, for example), the water will exit in that same swirling pattern; as well, most basins have irregular surfaces and are not perfectly level, factors that influence the direction in which water spirals down their drains. the configuration of taps and drains is responsible for the direction of spin given to water draining from sinks and bathtubs to a degree that overwhelms the slight influence of the Coriolis effect." (from Snopes)

So after reading all of that I thought I had found the answer... toilets are not affected by the Coriolis effect and spin the way they do because of other reasons... But I'm not convinced. So please weigh in so we can figure this out! It is important for all man kind to know the answers behind the toilet!

Tip Over

Another litte puzzle game to keep your mind fresh.


Try it out!

Funny-Shaped Fruits

Some really unique shaped fruit. They grow them this way by placing a certain very strong plastic mold around the fruit when it is very small. It forces the fruit to grow into that shape. I love the cucumber slices. It makes me feel bad for star fruit though, which grows awesome on it's own, it doesn't need our plastic molds to be awesome. So don't forget about starfruit, looking cool naturally since the beginning of time.

Manliest Names Ever

1. Staff Sgt Max Fightmaster

2. Lieutenant General Sir Manley Power, whose son is named after him.

3. Rad Heroman, Lance Corporal, US Marine Corps

4. Magnus Ver Magnusson: "His name would have been enough to own the world, but he's not just a tough name: he's been the world's strongest man. This icelander was a powerlifter and strongman who won the title four times between 1991 and 1996."

5. Rockland Steel: cab driver

6. Lt. Commander. Flex Plexico

7. Elliott Bonebrake: might not sound so tough at first, but he is a chiropractor.

8. Batman Bin Suparman

9. Optimus Prime: "Michael Bay would be proud. In 2001, a firefighter for the Ohio National Guard, legally changed his name to "Optimus Prime" on his 30th birthday, because the show character was like a "father figure" for him when he was growing up. The name appears on his driver's license, military ID, and even his uniform. Take that, Megatron."

10. Rip Torn

Traffic Jam

Little puzzle game to keep your mind fresh.

Try it out!

Illusion - Dragon

"This little dragon is made out of paper - you simply cut it out and stick it together, and stand it on a table or window ledge. But when you move around, the dragon's head seems to follow you around the room."

Print out the little dragon (instructions included on print out), cut him out, put him together and see for yourself.

Wine & Chocolate

Small experiment submonkaaayed by Emily B.

Please answer the two questions: (by commenting, emailing me, etc.)

1. Which wine do you prefer: white or red?

2. Which chocolate do you prefer: light or dark? (if you were to buy a Hershey's solid bar of chocolate)