Not my practice blog, by Scott Knaster

Radio 10,000 times thinner than a human hair

Wacky fun physicists at the University of California at Berkeley have created a radio that's less than 100 billionths of a meter wide -- a single carbon nanotube. You can watch a video of the radio being tuned to play Good Vibrations, or read a research paper about the radio (PDF).

Tesla coils play Mario Brothers music

Awesome.

Longest possible football play achieved

This past Sunday, Antonio Cromartie of the San Diego Chargers returned a missed field goal for a touchdown in a National Football League game. Cromartie was playing on the end line, the very end of the field. The field goal fell just short. Cromartie leapt to catch the ball just barely in bounds, then managed to run the length of the field for a touchdown. Because the end zone is 10 yards, and it's another 100 yards to the other goal line, Cromartie was credited with a 109-yard return -- they round down because it wasn't a full 110 yards. This is the longest play in the history of the NFL, and it seems to me it's the longest possible play: 110 yards is impossible because a player would have to start his run out of bounds, which would end the play right there.

Enormous Don Martin book

MAD Magazine has started a fancy-schmancy series of reprint books called MAD's Greatest Artists Series. The first artist to get the treatment is Don Martin, formerly billed as "MAD's Maddest Artist". The 1200 page collection includes everything Don ever did for the magazine, plus stories about him by some of his fellow MAD men. However, the reprints don't include Don's awesome paperback books (Don Martin Steps Out, Don Martin Bounces Back, et al.), and the set is $150 (or $94.50 at Amazon) -- not cheap. But so worth it.