HoodedHawk

Have you ever wondered exactly what the “light, sweet crude” was referring to when you hear a commodity price quote? Well, it refers to partially refined crude oil. Crude oil (out of the ground) is made up of various components, which can be separated by boiling point (related to the density of a component) – “fractionated”. Lighter fractions are more desireable (such as gasoline and diesel), while heavier fractions contain more sulfur (“sour”). For use, this sulfur needs to be removed, i.e., the oil needs to be made “sweet”). The goal is to go from a “heavy, sour” crude oil to a “light, sweet” crude – i.e. partially fractionated with a higher percent of light components, like diesel, with most of the sulfur gone.

I heard this on a Scientific American podcast I was listening to on the way in to work this morning. Hysterical! And *soooo* true; I’ve often wondered about the budgets of these CSI teams, and have often commented about scenario 2. Enjoy!

CSI agent 1: “I’ve got some trace evidence for you to analyse. Run Sample A through the Mass Spec.”

CSI agent 2: “We don’t have a Mass Spec”.

CSI agent 1: “OK, run Sample B through the gas chromatograph”.

CSI agent 2: “Um, we don’t have one of those, either”.

CSI agen 1: “Well, let’s do a DNA analysis of Sample C”.

CSI agent 2: “OK, we can do that. I’ll send off the sample; we should have the results back in about a month”.

CSI agent 1: “Well, can we run these fingerprints through a database to look for a match?”

CSI agent 2: “Sure, but we only have access to the state db; our system doesn’t really connect well with other states’ or the national registry…”

*sigh*

CSI agent 1: (2pm) “I’m entering the house now…” *click*, *click*, *click*. “Damn, my flashlight has dead batteries”.

CSI agent 2: “Um, why don’t you just, um, flick on this here light switch?”

Google Search: the answer to life the universe and everything

Cool. And I just found out that Google has a calculator:

Enter “5+2*2” (no quotes) in a search. Or, even more useful:

Enter “half a cup in teaspoons” (no quotes).

Just received my Vonage (voip) telephone adaptor last night. This allows me to make phone calls (using my normal telephone) over my broadband Internet connection. Took less that 5 minutes to install. Sound (to me) is the same as a normal land-line. At $29.00 flat-fee per month for unlimited local and long-distance calls, it’s a steal.

I really like the feature that lets you have voicemails forwarded to an email account (as .wav files). Once my old home phone number is ported to Vonage, I’ll be cancelling my Verizon line – saving me $30.00/month. Vonage provides a temporary “virtual” number so I can use the service until my old number is ported (which can take 20 days).

Lots of other features. And if you do international calling, it’s really cheap. I can call the UK, for instance, for $0.03/min!

see: Vonage