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• http://bagofbeans.tsangal.org/

Knife Maintenance and Sharpening

This is an extremely detailed guide to sharpening your kitchen knives for optimal performance.

Knife sharpening is not difficult. It is not shrouded in mystery. With a little knowledge, a little geometry, a couple of tricks and some inexpensive tools, knife sharpening can be fairly easy and extremely rewarding. At the very least it’s a great skill for the toolbox. You’ll come away from this clinic with a better understanding of edges, steel and how to maintain your knives yourself. Or, if you decide to send them out, you’ll know how to make sure you’re getting what you want – and what you pay for.

• Link (via reddit)

Notpron - The Hardest Riddle available on the Internet

This is another web-based riddle, similar in concept to Python Challenge. But, this one doesn't require any programming. You will, however, need to be proficient at figuring out subtle clues, lateral thinking and searching for information on the web.

There are a total of 138 levels. Good luck!

• Link

Mind Hacks: music, wine, and will

Interesting article about a study from the University of Leicester.

You go to the supermarket and stop by some shelves offering French and German wine. You buy a bottle of French wine. After going through the checkout you are asked what made you choose that bottle of wine. You say something like "It was the right price", or "I liked the label". Did you notice the French music playing as you took it off the shelf? You probably did. Did it affect your choice of wine? No, you say, it didn't.

That's funny because on the days we play French music nearly 80% of people buying wine from those shelves choose French wine, and on the days we play German music the opposite happens

• Link (via reddit)

Babbage's Difference Engine built out of LEGO

Andrew Carol is building a LEGO Difference Engine that Charles Babbage designed in the 19th century but was never able to complete.

Before the day of computers and pocket calculators all mathematics was done by hand. Great effort was expended to compose trigonometric and logarithmic tables for navigation, scientific investigation, and engineering purposes.

In the mid-19th century, people began to design machines to automate this error prone process. Many machines of various designs were eventually built. The most famous of these machines is the Babbage Difference Engine.

Because of engineering issues as well as political and personal conflict the Babbage Difference engines construction had to wait until 1991 when the Science Museum in London decided to build the Babbage Difference Engine No.2 for an exhibit on the history of computers.

Babbage's design could evaluate 7th order polynomials to 31 digits of accuracy. I set out to build a working Difference Engine using LEGO parts which could compute 2nd or 3rd order polynomials to 3 or 4 digits.

• Link (via Digg)

Blue Light Makes People Alert at Night

An early study suggests exposure to blue light at night can help perk you up. Not much in the way of detail in the article on what the level of exposure was, or what the possible long-term effects might be.

"Light exposure to this system, particularly blue light, directly reduces sleepiness,” said Steven Lockley of the Brigham and Women's Hospital. “Subjects exposed to blue light were able to sustain a high level of alertness during the night when people usually feel most sleepy, and these results suggest that light may be a powerful countermeasure for the negative effects of fatigue for people who work at night."

• Link (via Digg)