Suppose you had a life-size map of Neopia, made of paper. The thickness of the paper is 0.1 millimetres.

Now, suppose you fold it in half. Then you fold it in half again, and again, and again. In all, you fold it in half 40 times.

How thick would the folded paper be? Please give your answer in metres, round to the nearest metre, and exclude any punctuation or extra information.

Yeah, easy peasy! Ok, well, maybe when I’m not half asleep I can make the calculations… besides, I don’t trust myself after my failiure in last week’s conundrum… I was off by 100 m/s…

In other Neopets related news… I’m applying for adopting Numax. He’s a female at the moment, but the current owner said she didn’t mind if I turned her into a male after the adoption, so I went ahead and did the application with Numax as a male. The faerie xweetok works so well as a male, I just had to have one, and Numax is such a perfect name! Here’s my application. Opinions? I have till the 20th to keep spicing it up! Maybe, just maybe…. I can finish a drawing before then… that would really give me some edge.

Home-made Nigiri

Originally uploaded by My Starseed.

I took a picture of this plate a while ago meaning to upload it and share with you guys, and specially to make Xae’s mouth water since I know how much he loves Nigiri. But I forgot about it and kept putting it off.

Here i’ve finally uploaded it, in all it’s yummy glory, although it’s been digested for a while! They were incredibly delicious though!

I found an interesting article today about a very modern and interesting way of transferring information from one point to the other (known today as Internet).

the system is constructed of a back end - a carriage, Ben-Hur movie style, which is made of a yoke made of light Balsa, and outfitted with two huge wheels - 2 DVD wheels, 4.7 Giga each. The front end, to which the carriage is harnessed consist of a Giant snail (Achatina fulica), known also as Giant African Snail (Africans are known as the world fastest runners ). These giant snail are of the GastroPod family (G-pod. We will reserve this name for transfer of music, and the name: G-mail for transfer of emails by snails SMTP –snail mobile transfer protocol )

Packets transport: Data is transported in 2 packets in parallel, 4.7 Giga each packet.

It’s amazing what a bit of creativity, a lot of geek and free time can make you invent. I recommend reading the whole original blog entry for more funny info on this system and a make-it-yourself carriage guide (Snail not included).

We’re all used to seeing incredible sci-fi animals and environments on tv, but they are usually ambiented in Earth-like worlds with Earth–like conditions, producing animals and fauna that… well… looks like Earthlings. NASA and SETI decided to try creating two worlds based off science… not science fiction.

Blue Moon
Oxygen levels on Blue Moon are four times higher than on Earth; carbon dioxide levels are 30 times higher. As a result, animals with supercharged muscular strength rule the skies, and plant growth is rampant. Frequent electrical storms ignite fires in the dense, interconnected pagoda tree forests, and massive winged creatures glide through the thick atmosphere on oceanlike currents.

Balloon Plant: A cluster of sacs at the base of the plant’s large bladder convert atmospheric moisture to hydrogen gas, which keeps the balloon plant aloft. The outer membrane is photosynthetic, and large groups of the plants grow in the sunny clearings left by forest fires.

While looking at the pictures and descriptions really makes me want to see them in use in some movie, they also made me think of Nausicaa. Also, the Mudpod looks like the ancestor of Jar Jar Binks. More about the two worlds and pictures of the animals they created for them in the Wired news.

Over at worth1000.com they do daily photoshopping contests with different themes. Users then produce tons of incredibly fun images, composites of various pre-existing images. Two that caught my attention these past days is the Mangafying contest, with funny and bizzare results.

The one held today was quite yummy actually, with food in parts you wouldn’t expect. I specially like this keyboard made of marshmallows, chocolate, and Graham crackers.