wiseGEEK http://www.wisegeek.com Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:30:48 +0000 What does 200 Calories Look Like? http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm Some foods have significantly more Calories than others but what does the difference actually look like. We've taken a large set of photos of 200 Calories of different foods. The results are quite surprising!

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[Image]]]> Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000 Introducing Table Hockey on Real Ice http://www.wisegeek.com/introducing-table-hockey-on-real-ice.htm We love air hockey, but we wanted to see if the basic idea would work on real ice as opposed to relying on the air bearing principle. The results were remarkably good...


[Image]]]> Mon, 02 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000 Introducing Personal Tax Earmarking http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-personal-tax-earmarking.htm Each year untold millions of taxpayers begrudgingly file their taxes at the last possible moment. Amidst the complaints of overly complex regulations and excessive taxation, what could the IRS really do to make taxpaying less torturous?

We think we have come up with something that could help change taxpayers' attitudes. While it won't change the dollar amount that taxpayers owe, it may make the process significantly more engaging.

Suppose that each government agency selected a certain portion of its budget to be paid at the choosing of the taxpayers. This means any individual could login to a website to navigate through budgets and line items for a wide variety of government agencies. Want to help buy a plane? Head to the Department of Defense. Want to have your tax payments allocated for alternative energy research? Try the Department of Energy...

]]> Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000 Digg Navigation Firefox Extension http://www.wisegeek.com/how-can-i-make-digg-faster.html If you use happen to use both Digg and FireFox - we have a great extension for you that can speed up your use of digg.com. (If you dont use Digg or FireFox, you might want to give them a try). The extension adds an extra row to the popup menu that will appear whenever your right-click. The flyouts will allow you to navigate virtually anywhere on Digg with a single click.

After installing the extension, when you right-click on a username, or on a user's page, you will be given context-sensitive options relating to that particular user. Give it a try!

]]> Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000 How to Determine the Average Color in a Photograph http://www.wisegeek.com/how-can-i-find-the-average-color-in-a-photograph.html Many popular image-editing tools allow you to determine the average color of a single pixel, or a small section of an image, but we couldn't find any that could calculate the average color of an entire photograph. We created the Average Color Tool to determine the average color of any photo on Flickr, or any image that you upload.

Possible Uses

  • The average color of a photograph can be used to make a consumer argument about the color of fruit.
  • Use your own travel photos to decorate a room; a well-chosen combination could dramatically emphasize the beauty of your photos.
  • Monitor how the greens in your garden change from season to season.
  • Convince your landlord that the carpet by the entry isn't as dirty as she claims it is.

Samples

source
image		 average
color
]]> Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000 Do Merchants Display the Best Looking Fruit on Top? http://www.wisegeek.com/do-merchants-display-the-best-looking-fruit-on-top.html It's probably the oldest trick in the fruit-merchant's book--to display the most appetizing fruit in the most prominent location. To test the theory and to ensure that it wasn't some sort of buyer's bias, we purchased a large box of strawberries.

We sorted the strawberries into two piles; one pile was comprised of strawberries that were visible from the outside of the package, and the other pile was of berries that were hidden at the bottom of the box.

Next we took a single photograph of both piles, so that the lighting and camera settings would be identical. Other than cropping, we did not make any other edits to the photographs below. The results are quite surprising:

Strawberries visible
from outside of package

 Strawberries not visible
from outside of package
average color of picture above average color of picture above
]]> Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000 How to Avoid Library Fines www.wisegeek.com/how-can-i-avoid-library-fines.html We certainly do not condone this technique, but here is a method of returning overdue books without incurring library fines.

]]> Mon, 30 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000 not_URL_www.wisegeek.com_wisegeek.rss_#_7 Why do Gas Prices Always End in 9/10 of a Cent? www.wisegeek.com/why-do-gas-prices-always-end-in-910-of-a-cent.html Did you know that the gasoline industry in the U.S. makes an additional $1.7 billion USD in annual revenue by tacking on that extra 9/10ths of a cent to each gallon?

How much extra could they squeeze out of us by upping this to 99/100ths?

gas prices
]]> Tue, 08 May 2007 00:00:00 +0000 not_URL_www.wisegeek.com_wisegeek.rss_#_8 Which Movie Reviews Should You Believe? http://www.wisegeek.com/which-movie-reviews-should-i-believe.html These days, anyone can be a published film critic, but who should you listen to when you can find both negative and positive movie reviews for anything out there? Now, the answer is simple! Our easy tool compares your personal movie reviews with the movie reviews of some of the most prolific critics. The result is that you’ll know who your movie critic match is, and where to go for the movie reviews that will help you find the movies you’ll love.

Which Movie Reviews Should I Believe?

]]> Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000 not_URL_www.wisegeek.com_wisegeek.rss_#_9 Online EXIF Viewer http://www.wisegeek.com/how-can-i-view-the-exif-data-of-a-photograph.html Most .jpg images taken with a digital camera have EXIF metadata associated with them. This data includes shutter-speed, aperture setting, make of camera, model of camera and more.

You can access this information with image editing software, or you can use our new online EXIF viewer. Simply upload a picture, or point to a Flickr or other web image; you will quickly be able to view all the metadata right in your web browser.

Online EXIF Viewer

]]> Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 +0000 not_URL_www.wisegeek.com_wisegeek.rss_#_10 How to Make the Most out of an All You Can Eat Buffet http://www.wisegeek.com/how-can-i-make-the-most-of-an-all-you-can-eat-buffet.html nine tips on how you can make the most out of an all you can eat buffet!

]]> Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:00 +0000 not_URL_www.wisegeek.com_wisegeek.rss_#_11 Total Olympic Medal Tally if Former Soviet Union did not Dissolve http://www.wisegeek.com/how-many-medals-did-the-countries-of-the-former-ussr-win-in-the-2008-olympics.html gold medals. The results could have been drastically different; if it did not dissolve into 15 separate countries, the former Soviet Union would have dominated the overall medal count.

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