Rent Lied, My Career Died

At work, I needed to find out how many minutes are in a year, so I naturally went to Google, having forgotten about those famous lyrics from "Seasons of Love."

While the answer "525,600" is right for a typical calendar year, Google returned an answer for the actual number of minutes in a year as 525,948.766.  Turns out, that is the exact length of time is takes the Earth to revolve around the sun, and nearly six hours more than Jonathan Larson wrote.

This explains why we add a leap day every fourth year, and the extra imprecision entailed in "almost six hours" means leap years will occur only in some years divisible by four.

Here's another strange piece of trivia: If you copy a Web URL that begins with "http" and paste it into the Windows calculator, it spits out the value of pi:

I found that one out by mistake.  But I'll have to remember it next time I need to figure out how big a pizza is.

Comments

[Tommy]

"525,948.766, minutes. How do you measure a year in the life?"

Uhm, no, surely not that way.

[Tommy]

"525,948.766, minutes. How do you measure a year in the life?"

Uhm, no, surely not that way.

[Tim]

if stuff like that interests you than you'll love this book http://tinyurl.com/gevvu it explains the history of science concerning such discoveries and how they affected mankind. It's a really good read. Okay well at least it's interesting history.

[Patrick]

What exactly does John Ratzenberger have to do with all of this? I'm sure he still has a career of some sort. When he's not suing airport bars for installing animatronic versions of him in their establishments, he probably does cartoon voices like Ian (that's pronounced Eye-an) Ziering, "Steve Sanders" from TV's "Beverly Hills, 90210".

[Tommy]

What exactly does John Ratzenberger have to do with all of this?

Because Cliff was the useless fact guy.

[Malcontent]

Cliff Clavin is the all-time historical personification of useless trivia.

[Tommy]

Exactly, another piece of useless trivia.

[Malcontent]

When he's not suing airport bars for installing animatronic versions of him ...

Ooo, maybe he'll sue me for using his image on this site! Then I can reset the little C&D clock on the upper-left.

[Jamie]

Cliff Clavin is the all-time historical personification of useless trivia.

Actually, that would be useless, made-up, incorrect trivia. Such as:

"Women have fewer sweat glands than men, but they're larger and more active...
...consequently they sweat more."

Oh, c'mon. You knew the site was out there somewhere. (Speaking of useless trivia.)

[Queer Conservative]

Ooo, maybe he'll sue me for using his image on this site! Then I can reset the little C&D clock on the upper-left.

Have you actually gotten a blog related C&D order? I have - they're neat!

[Malcontent]

Have you actually gotten a blog related C&D order? I have - they're neat!

Surprisingly, no, especially given the amount of copyrighted material we make "Fair Use" of. So right now it's just a counter telling how long the blog has been in operation.

Robbie pointed me to a NYT article that said C-SPAN is working to get the Colbert video taken off sites like YouTube, so the new counter was my way of saying "it's probably just a matter of time."

[Tommy]

And you still won't tell the "story" of "Saturday Night Steamer?"

[Malcontent]

Huh?

[Tommy]

Sorry (I really have to learn that linking thing) see "Happy Gay Day" for May 8, 2006.

[Michelle]

Got a little time on your hands, eh, Mal? Must be because the days are getting longer.

[North Dallas Thirty]

I thought you put "blog-related C&D order" on there because you had gotten some other type of C&D order that WASN'T. :)

[Malcontent]

Well, there is that restraining order involving Tom Welling, but that probably doesn't count.

[Queer Conservative]

Well, there is that restraining order involving Tom Welling, but that probably doesn't count.

Big deal! I've got one of those, and two from Dean Cain's lawyers back in the 90s. Hey, I gotta Superman thing - so sue me. Watch out Brandon!

Aside: Pamela Anderson dated Dean Cain for a while, and it's rumored that she said he had "the biggest dick she'd ever seen" - and come on, she'd know big right?

[North Dallas Thirty]

In the words of the ancient sages.....oy gevalt!

[North Dallas Thirty]

I would respond to that, QC, but I take the Fifth on the grounds that doing so may incriminate me. :)

[Jake]

Unbelieveable!! WHY does that pi-into-Windows-calculator thing work? It doesn't make sense! There has got to be some computer genius out there who knows the answer. Please email me.

[Yet Another Mike]

"p" is the keyboard shortcut for pi in the Windows calculator. When you paste a Web address that begins with "http:" into the calculator, the letter "p" is the first character it can interpret as a keyboard shortcut, that it knows what to do with.

You get the same result by pasting the letter "p" alone. Paste "2+2=" into the calculator, without the quotes, and you get "4" - just as if you'd typed it by hand, keypress by keypress. Also, storks don't deliver babies, the lady in the box doesn't really get sawed in half, and Elvis is dead. Sorry to brutally crush your sense of wonder at the magic of everyday existence.

[Malcontent]

Mike: I pasted an address that began "https" and got a totally different answer. What is the significance of the number that pops up? Pi I can spot, but not that. What is it, Planck's Constant or something?

[Queer Conservative]

American Idol, politics, the X Men, cute boys, and physics. Where elese can you get ALL of that besides the Malcontent & Robbie?

[Patrick]

"s" is the shortcut for the "sin" key on a calculator. You entered p for pi and then s for sin. This is all in the help file in the program. There is a chart in there that displays all the shortcuts and keys.