Archive for the ‘Idle Curiosities’ Category

Does the iphone alarm still make noise when the phone is set to silent?

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Indeed it does. I just tested it. Even though the phone is silent when a call comes in, your morning alarm will sound off just fine. (Disclaimer at least for me, don’t miss a NYC marathon to oversleeping on my advice!)

iPhone GSM Buzz Question

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Why does my iPhone make GSM buzz in my speakers when it receives an email even though it is connected via WiFi?

My working theory is that when the phone is in standby (i.e., not being actively used) it turns off its WiFi connection (maybe to save power?) and gets any updated things via GSM.

What does the Phrase Picking up nickels in front of a steamroller Mean?

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

It just means doing something that has a small upside, and a very high downside e.g., getting run over by a steamroller.

I don’t know where the phrase comes from though, bonus points if you find out and post in the comments.

What is the Name for those Wavy Arm Dolls They have at Sales

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

What is the official term for these guys?

The kind people at Reddit suggest either Wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubeman or Air Dancers

What is an Al-Ghirayri or Al-Girta

Wednesday, July 11th, 2007

This strange article “Giant badgers terrorise Iraqi port city” says that these giant man-eating badgers are known as Al-Ghirayri and locally as Al-Girta. I did a search for that name and turned up nothing. Shame, I really wanted to see a picture of man-eating badger.

Al-Ghirayri or Al-Girta maybe
(just a regular badger I guess)

Here’s some progress towards an answer. The folks in the comments on the Digg article of this suggest that this is a video of one of the beasts. And here is a the Wikipedia entry on your standard Honey badger (maybe the same thing?).