It’s a quantification sensation

By mixing science with household goods, Sacramento resident Rob Cockerham has turned a few homespun experiments into pure online comedy on Cockeyed.com.

The site’s most popular section, “How much is inside?” captures the earnestness of Consumer Reports and the fatuousness of MTV’s “Jackass” to quantify and qualify the contents of everyday objects.

“It started out with wondering how much was inside a can of shaving cream,” says Cockerham, a former Internet technician for MCI. One-upmanship was rampant among his co-workers, who would show off their mad computer skills by using better graphics and fancy Flash media to create distinct websites. Cockerham’s contribution to this tech-inspired machismo was emptying a can of shaving cream onto his kitchen table and placing the pictures online. The site has since grown from that juvenile commencement -- though not by much.

Visitors to the site will learn that a half-barrel of Michelob beer contains about 141 cups for 62 cents each. On the keg test’s webpage, he offers this advice to those wanting to replicate the study: “In our experiment, two guests passed out and two guests threw up. Whenever you are serving this much beer, it is a good idea to have either snack foods on hand or paramedics on duty.”

The site is brimming with other cocktail conversation jump-starters -- and not just for the pocket-protector set: “Did you know that it takes 50 fast-food ketchup packets to refill one 14-ounce plastic bottle?” or “One Sharpie marker can label more than 900 CDs.”

Additional areas of Cockeyed.com are dedicated to pranks and commentary, all produced from a pseudo-scientific angle. Cockerham’s piece that began as a humorous essay on the myriad ways spammers spell Viagra (or is that V!agra?) to help their messages slip through filters, turned into -- with the help of a few permutations and combinations -- a bona fide calculation.

He assures us that the total number of ways to spell the drug, 1.3 sextillion, is a real number. We’ll take his word for it.