Short Bits

I’m busily trying to match my word count for NaNo, so this week’s post is made up of several topics which just weren’t long (or weird enough) to fill an entire article.

Have you seen those banner ads that seem to know exactly where you are?  They promise everything from great deals to hot singles, and all within the same city that you’re currently browsing in.  How do they manage that?  Are they keeping tabs on you?

Well, in a way, they could be.  One of the most popular methods is through tracking cookies like Doubleclick which record your zip code when you plug it into a form online.  This could be for something as innocuous as checking the weather, but once its recorded that tracking cookie reports your location to any site that subscribes to their service. (Two great programs to get rid of spyware like Doubleclick are Malwarebytes and Spyhunter).

It’s also possible that the ads are using geolocation software to find out where you are.  This software identifies your IP Address and then goes through various databases to figure out what location that IP address has been assigned to. 

Google has its own way of making sure that its ad service (called adwords) displays ads in the correct region which it explains here.  Essentially, though, Google uses a combination of IP Address identification, search personalization (you know when you log into your Google account and tell it where you’re living?  Yeah, it keeps track of that for the ads you see), and search terms (searching for a pizza place in Brooklyn?  Guess what ads get shown).

Roaches have survived for as long as they have because they’re insanely good at getting into spaces we don’t want them to be in.  No matter how big they are, most adult roaches have the ability to slip through slits as thin as one-sixteenth of an inch. 

This means that they can enter through tiny gaps in your doors or vents, or can crawl up through your drains.  Even worse, they’re known to burrow into things you might carry with you, like a cardboard box or your briefcase. 

Roaches show up in the cleanest households, so don’t think that their appearance is a critique of your housekeeping skills.

The term soft drink actually applies to any drink that doesn’t contain alcohol (which are called “hard drinks,” think hard cider), but because of the variety of terms for carbonated beverages  (pop, soda, fizzy drinks, coke) marketing firms have co-opted the term as a generic they can use in their advertisements that will apply to the greatest number of people.

In places like Arizona, the monsoons are primarily caused by annual temperature variations.  In May and June the extreme hot and dry weather causes a low pressure system.  This sends the jet stream farther northward and sucks in the moisture laden winds from the Sea of Cortez and the Gulf of Mexico. 

Because of this, the monsoon is stronger in the south around Tucson than it is farther north towards Phoenix or Flagstaff, starts sooner, and lasts longer.*

Look up to the corner of your eye, do you see what looks like a bit of translucent string that floats away as you try to focus on it.  These are called eye-floaters, and they’re more than just things caught in your eyes.  Also called muscae volitantes there are several possibilities on just what they are.  The best case scenario is that they’re remnants of the hyaloid artery, which is the artery that fed your eye while you were a fetus.  Eventually it withered away, but parts of it may still remain floating in the fluid (vitreous humor) behind the lens of your eye. 

Other, not so great possibilities include stray blood cells caused by a hemorrhage of the blood vessels inside your eyes or even a parasite such as mansonella perstans- a parasite that likes to make its home inside your eye (I’ll give you some time to cringe over that).   Luckily these parasites are rare in developed countries and are fairly easy to treat.

There you have it, five random pieces of research to get you through the day.  Best of luck with your summer weather, wherever you may be.

*Suck it Phoenix!