Recently in Oddities Category

Things are still relatively quiet over at Amazon Mechanical Turk. I’m still just tremendously amused by Amazon’s effort to harness artificial, artificial intelligence. From their explanation of just what a Mechanical Turk is:

In 1769, Hungarian nobleman Wolfgang von Kempelen astonished Europe by building a mechanical chess-playing automaton that defeated nearly every opponent it faced. A life-sized wooden mannequin, adorned with a fur-trimmed robe and a turban, Kempelen’s “Turk” was seated behind a cabinet and toured Europe confounding such brilliant challengers as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte. To persuade skeptical audiences, Kempelen would slide open the cabinet’s doors to reveal the intricate set of gears, cogs and springs that powered his invention. He convinced them that he had built a machine that made decisions using artificial intelligence. What they did not know was the secret behind the Mechanical Turk: a chess master cleverly concealed inside.

Interested in being spooked? Then turn up your speakers and listen to these radio waves which were recorded by NASA as they were emitted from Saturn. According to NASA:

Saturn is a source of intense radio emissions, which have been monitored by the Cassini spacecraft. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet. These auroras are similar to Earth's northern and southern lights.

In all fairness, it's important to note that the folks at NASA went out of their way to ensure that we could enjoy this true-to-life sci-fi soundtrack. Their statement continues:

Time on this recording has been compressed, so that 73 seconds corresponds to 27 minutes. Since the frequencies of these emissions are well above the audio frequency range, we have shifted them downward by a factor of 44.

BBC News is reporting that a team that started with fifty-six cavers has broken the world record for human underground exploration by descending 6,822 feet beneath the earth's surface. Reminds me of reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne in my younger days. Remarkable!

Here is an oddity for you: When it comes to coffeemakers (be they auto-drip or otherwise), a cup does not equal a cup. To the rest of the thinking world, one cup equals eight fluid ounces. To the confused persons producing coffeemakers, however, one cup equals five fluid ounces (perhaps to leave plenty of room for cream?). Thus, a ten-cup coffeemaker actually produces six and one quarter cups of coffee; twelve-cup equals seven and a half. I haven't yet made it to the bottom of all of this, but I suspect that we have our European forebears to thank for this little quirk. Or perhaps the dairy industry.