Star struck: Meteor blazes across the sky in police vide: "A spectacular and almost blindingly bright meteor sparked a flurry of emergency calls to the police after it lit up the skies over western Canada.
Onlookers across the province of Alberta watched in awe, describing a kaleidoscope of colours as the rock rapidly descended.
'At first I thought it was fireworks,' farmer Marcel Gobeil said.
'I've never seen anything like it; it was green and blue and then turned to bright red. It was pretty big.'"
Two-faced kitten born in Perth
Two-faced kitten born in Perth: "A two-headed kitten born yesterday has left vets baffled.
The kitten's mother was taken to the Swan Veterinary Clinic in Perth after suffering complications while in labour.
Community Newspapers photographer Matthew Poon happened to be at the vet's for an unrelated visit and snapped the amazing images of the kitten."
See Through the World Around You by Nick Veasey
See Through the World Around You by Nick Veasey: "Award-winning photographer Nick Veasey uses a variety of specialised imaging equipment to create images that see within. Often collaborating with scientists and boffins, he has built a strong body of work that enables the viewer to appreciate what goes on underneath the surface."
A 20-year-old model photographed as if she were 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years old
A 20-year-old model photographed as if she were 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years old : "A series of pictures with the same model in different ages, everything done with amazing make-up and lighting."
U.N. ARTWORK UNVEILED
U.N. ARTWORK UNVEILED: "It took Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo over a year and 100 tons of paint and pigments from all over the world to create this stunning work, which is valued at roughly 18 million euros (23 million US dollars). The installation is located on the ceiling of the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room, and has caused an immediate stir over how it was funded. Most of the money appears to have come from the Spanish government and private donors, but it appears that some of that money was supposed to go to international aid. Said one guy, “It’s a small price to pay for a dope-ass ceiling.”"
Change The Look Of Gmail With Colorful Themes
It’s Official - Change The Look Of Gmail With Colorful Themes: "This Wednesday, Google rolled out a much awaited feature to Gmail. Bright, colorful, fantastic themes! I wouldn’t have caught it but for the little feed Google gives on the signing page."
Immersion
Photographer Robbie Cooper shows just how focused young video-game players can be.
read more | digg story
5 things you didn't know about the NFL
5 things you didn't know about the NFL: "Its season is shorter and has fewer scheduled games than any other major American pro sport; nonetheless, the NFL has a firm hold on the title of 'national obsession' in the U.S. In fact, it’s a Sunday and Monday night (and sometimes Thursday night) ritual from September through early February for its tens of millions of fans."
Couple sues McDonald's over nude photos on Web! Husband left phone with wife's naked pictures at restaurant
Couple sues McDonald's over nude photos on Web! Husband left phone with wife's naked pictures at restaurant : "A Bella Vista couple found out the hard way that when a wife sends nude pictures of herself to her husband's cell phone, these pictures can end up on the Internet."
Science a Step Closer to Creating Elixir of Youth
Science a Step Closer to Creating Elixir of Youth: "Boosting the body's level of a natural enzyme could prevent cells from dying, and lead to longer, healthier lives.
The protein telomerase acts to maintain the structural integrity of chromosomes that divide and eventually die as we age. A team of scientists at the Spanish Cancer Center genetically engineered mice to produce 10 times the normal level of telomerase, and found that the modified mice lived 50 percent longer and were healthier than normal ones."
The protein telomerase acts to maintain the structural integrity of chromosomes that divide and eventually die as we age. A team of scientists at the Spanish Cancer Center genetically engineered mice to produce 10 times the normal level of telomerase, and found that the modified mice lived 50 percent longer and were healthier than normal ones."
24 Ghost Towns and Abandoned Cities
24 Ghost Towns and Abandoned Cities: "What in the world could cause an entire city to be abandoned? Some become unlivable due to environmental disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis to nuclear meltdowns (as with Pripyat, shown below). Others become the center of military activity and remain contested and uninhabited as a result - or are simply left as memorials to the terrible events that took place in them. Still others are simply deserted when they outlive their usefulness as trade outposts or mining towns."
e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right
e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right: "It's taken more than a century, but Einstein's celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.
A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France's Centre for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world's mightiest supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms."
Why the universe may be teeming with aliens
Why the universe may be teeming with aliens: "Rocky planet outside of our solar system. Must not be too hot or too cold, but just the right temperature to support life.It sounds like a simple enough wish list, but finding a planet that fulfils all of these criteria has kept astronomers busy for decades. Until recently, it meant finding a planet in the 'Goldilocks zone' - orbiting its star at just the right distance to keep surface water liquid rather than being boiled off or frozen solid."
Fanboys
“Fanboys” is a film that takes place 1998 where three friends, who can’t wait for the release of “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, attempt to break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch to steal an advance print of the film since one of them is dying from cancer and wants to see it before he dies. The film is directed by Kyle Newman with a release date of February 6th, 2009.
Create HDR photos: Online, Free, Right Now!
Create HDR photos: Online, Free, Right Now!: "HDR images show greater range of tonal detail, than your camera could capture. This site emulates HDR effect so you can play with it with no Photoshop or other software. You can enhance some pictures really well and produce stunning results."
Astronaut on space-walk loses $100,000 tool bag
Astronaut on space-walk loses $100,000 tool bag: "'Umm, we have a lost tool,' came the heralding cry of Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper who, while cleaning and lubing a joint on a wing of one of the station's solar panels, let a tool bag drift away just beyond her reach. The mission was able to be salvaged, however, as fellow spacewalk astronaut Stephen Bowen shared his tools with Stefanyshyn-Piper to complete their work in 7 hours."
The 7 Most Terrifying Disney Movie Deaths
The 7 Most Terrifying Disney Movie Deaths: "Kids, like adults, love it when bad things happen to bad people. So Disney movies always make sure the villain gets what they've got coming to them in the end.And, sometimes, Disney gives them what they had coming, and then way, way more. Here are seven Disney villains who got dispatched in (sometimes literally) gut-wrenching ways sure to keep the kiddies up for many nights."
Margay - The Tiger Cat
Margay - The Tiger Cat : "The Margay is a solitary wildcat with some very unique characteristics. Its look alone make it stand-out although it is very solitary people rarely have the chance to see it. The Margay is one of the few animals in the world that can climb trees with their heads facing down, thanks to their very special joints, able to turn up to 180 degrees.
The Margay is on the endangered animals list, but no one really knows how large their population really is between Mexico and Argentina.Margays don’t take well to humans invading their habitats and sacientists say they are so well adapted to life in trees that they can go their entire lives without touching the ground."
Spider Missing After Trip To Space Station
Spider Missing After Trip To Space Station: "'A spider that had been sent to the International Space Station for a school science program was lost. The arachnid was sent in order to know if spiders can survive and makes webs in space, but now only one spider can be seen in the container. NASA isn't sure where the spider could have gone. I for one, welcome our new arachnid overlords.'"
Nissan Brings Japanese Minicars to the U.S.
Nissan Brings Japanese Minicars to the U.S.: "The first box opened at the Los Angeles Auto Show Wednesday contained another box — Nissan's funky little Cube city car.
The Cube looks looks like a big marshmallow and brings Japan's love of small cars to America, where the 30-plus-mpg wonder rolls into showrooms next fall. As the name implies, the Cube is nothing more than a box on wheels that Nissan design chief Shiro Nakamura called 'clever, witty and fun, with a unique blend of fashion and function.'"
5 tech predictions from 1968 that were dead-on (and 5 that were completely nuts)
5 tech predictions from 1968 that were dead-on (and 5 that were completely nuts): "40 years ago, science fiction writer James R. Berry predicted what the future would look like on November 18th, 2008 — today. His piece for a 1968 issue of Mechanix Illustrated, '40 Years in the Future,' made some impressive guesses, from flat-screen televisions to video conferencing. He also made a few understandable missteps: pollution-free air in cities, house paint that's always pristine, and — pardon me, ladies — the idea that women would still do little more than use a computer to plan recipes."
19 High-Scoring Old-School Arcade Games
With titles like ''Fallout 3,'' ''Mirror's Edge,'' and ''Gears of War 2'' redefining the cutting edge, we still smile when we remember the simple pleasures of the coin-op games that made us go ape back in the day. Here's a collection of 19 arcade classics to take you on a trip down memory lane.
read more | digg story
1800s Vampire Killing Kit Nabs $14,850 At Auction
1800s Vampire Killing Kit Nabs $14,850 Auction: "A complete and authentic vampire killing kit — made around 1800 and complete with stakes, mirrors, a gun with silver bullets, crosses, a Bible, holy water, candles and even garlic, all housed in a American walnut case with a carved cross on top — attained $14,850 in the Jimmy Pippen estate sale by Stevens October 3–4 in the new Natchez Convention Center."
Scientists rediscover pocket-sized primate
Scientists rediscover pocket-sized primate: "t looks like a tangerine-sized cross between a furry Furby and a gremlin, and hadn't been seen alive since the 1920s. But the pygmy tarsier has made an unlikely comeback.
Scientists believed these tiny primates, weighing less than two ounces, were extinct until researchers recently found some in the mountaintop forests of Indonesia."
100 Awesome Ivy League Video Lectures
100 Awesome Ivy League Video Lectures: "Even if you can’t attend an Ivy League college, you can still take advantage of the intellectual and professional resources that many have to offer through the colleges’ websites. Here, we’ve put together a list of 100 great video lectures you can watch to learn from some of the leading experts in fields as diverse as astronomy and economics."
NASA Restores Historic Lunar Orbiter Image
NASA released a newly restored 42-year-old image of Earth on Thursday. The Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft took the iconic photograph of Earth rising above the lunar surface in 1966. Using refurbished machinery and modern digital technology, NASA produced the image at a much higher resolution than was possible when it was originally taken.
read more | digg story
10 of the World's Weirdest, Craziest and Most Useful Robots
10 of the World's Weirdest, Craziest and Most Useful Robots : "We live in the future. With robots and machines doing all sorts of things that used to require the human touch, we’re living out the dreams of our sci-fi-dreamer parents and grandparents. Robotics are so pervasive in our everyday lives that we often don’t even notice when an awesome new piece of technology is unveiled. These robots are some of the weirdest, most clever and helpful to come along recently."
Peek e-mail device adds text messaging and more
Peek e-mail device adds text messaging and more: "Good news for Peek owners, as the previously e-mail-only service has been upgraded to handle text messaging with the greatest of ease. You’ll simply need to enter your Peek-less friends’ ten digit cell phone numbers (you have those all memorized, right?) into the TO: field of an e-mail message and they’ll receive whatever you type in the body as a text message. Messages sent back to you will show up in your inbox."
IPod Speakers Made From Paper Cups and Sticks
IPod Speakers Made From Paper Cups and Sticks
Next time you're down at the diner you might try out the CupSpeakers from Dmitry Zagga. His minimalist speaker design consists four paper cups, a couple of toothpicks and an iPod.
It is, as he puts it, an iPod Ghetto Accessory. There's something very right about these cheap horn speakers -- the clean white lines perfectly match the 2003 2G iPod. But we very much doubt the sound would be louder than that from the earbuds alone. On the other hand, they're likely to be a lot better than some passive speaker systems you can buy.
New honeycomb tire is 'bulletproof'
New honeycomb tire is 'bulletproof': "The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Wausau, Wis., company have come up with a 37-inch, bullet and bomb-proof Humvee tire based on a polymeric web so cool looking there's no need for hub caps.
Resilient Technologies and Wisconsin-Madison's Polymer Engineering Center are creating a 'non-pneumatic tire' (no air required) that will support the weight of add-on armor, survive an IED attack, and still make a 50 mph getaway. It's basically a round honeycomb wrapped with a thick, black tread."
First Look at Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter?
First Look at Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter? - : "Here is your first glimpse at what appears to be Johnny Depp as he'll look in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Depp is playing the Mad Hatter and he'll appear alongside co-stars Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Sheen, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Crispin Glover, Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman."
Why Apple Won't Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone
Why Apple Won't Allow Adobe Flash on iPhone: "Allowing Flash — which is a development platform of its own — would just be too dangerous for Apple, a company that enjoys exerting total dominance over its hardware and the software that runs on it. Flash has evolved from being a mere animation player into a multimedia platform capable of running applications of its own. That means Flash would open a new door for application developers to get their software onto the iPhone: Just code them in Flash and put them on a web page. In so doing, Flash would divert business from the App Store, as well as enable publishers to distribute music, videos and movies that could compete with the iTunes Store."
Google Voice Search for the iPhone
Google Voice Search, an early Christmas present for iPhone owners: "Google’s much anticipated voice search application has finally arrived at Apple’s AppStore. And after playing with the software for a few hours we have to say that we are deeply impressed. There is something unique and mind-changing about being able to pick up the handset, say 'movie show times' and receive not only general search results, but information about movie show times at theaters in the area of your current geographical location."
Monday, November 17, 2008
Scenes of devastation as wildfires threaten to plunge LA into darkness
Scenes of devastation as wildfires threaten to plunge LA into darkness: "Wildfires threatening Los Angeles could plunge the entire city and its 3.8million inhabitants into darkness.
A massive blaze in the heavily populated San Fernando Valley broke out on Thursday night, destroying dozens of properties and threatening vital power supply lines."
Incase Power Slider for iPhone 3G
Incase Power Slider for iPhone 3G doubles the juice, lets you sync : "Been cursing your iPhone 3G's disappointing battery life? Don't have the heart to saddle the thing with that big ol' Juice Pack? The Power Slider by Incase promises to double your phone's power for up to 5 hours talk time on the 3G network (10 hours on 2G), increase your audio playback time to 26 hours, and increase your video playback time to 7 hours. If that wasn't enough, the iPhone can be left in the case while you sync it -- saving wear and tear on the case and on your phone. While the Slider isn't as svelte as your raw, naked iPhone, at the very least it manages to keep roughly the same shape (even if it does fatten it up quite a bit). No pricing yet, should be available starting November 28."
No Golden Arches, No Clowns - McDonalds Japan Goes No-Brand
No Golden Arches, No Clowns - McDonalds Japan Goes No-Brand: "Generic packaging, minimalist decor, a two-item menu - and not a clown in sight! That goes for the website as well. McDonalds Japan's dip into no-brand marketing comes as quite a shock to those who see the global burger master as the poster child for brand name
advertising."
Foreign Accent Syndrome Gives Sufferers an International Sound
ABC News: Foreign Accent Syndrome Gives Sufferers an International Sound: "People With the Condition Speak With Accents From Foreign Countries They Have Never Visited"
'The Star Wars Holiday Special'
'The Star Wars Holiday Special': "'TSWHS' was broadcast only once, but that was enough to secure its place as both 'Star Wars' ' and television's guiltiest of pleasures. George Lucas (who declined to be interviewed for this story) has disavowed it. David Hofstede ranked it No. 1 in his book 'What Were They Thinking: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History.' A seemingly mortified Harrison Ford, appearing last February on 'Late Night With Conan O'Brien,' tried to evade his host's questions about 'TSWHS' by stating he had no recollection of it. Then, to freshen up the aging action star's memory, O'Brien played the clip in which Ford's Han Solo tells Chewbacca's clan, 'You're like family to me.'"
50 Beautiful Examples Of Tilt-Shift Photography
50 Beautiful Examples Of Tilt-Shift Photography: "Tilt-shift photography is a creative and unique type of photography in which the camera is manipulated so that a life-sized location or subject looks like a miniature-scale model. Below we present 50 beautiful examples of tilt-shift photography."
The Secrets Behind Your Favorite Toys
The Secrets Behind Your Favorite Toys: "You know the toys. You’ve seen the commercials. But you definitely haven’t heard these stories. In honor of today’s Monopoly quiz, let’s revisit Tim Moodie’s look at the secrets behind your favorite classic toys
."
Beat Up, Engine-less Car Nets $226,521 on EBay
Beat Up, Engine-less Car Nets $226,521 on EBay: "At first look, most people wouldn't see much value in the rusty, dented hunk of metal (left) that was recently offered on eBay. The owner noted the original interior, but the 45-year-old car had no motor and no transmission, and was initially listed for $500."
SEC Charges Mark Cuban With Insider Trading
SEC Charges Mark Cuban With Insider Trading - WSJ.com: "The Securities and Exchange Commission filed insider trading charges against Mark Cuban, the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks, for allegedly dumping shares in Mamma.com upon learning it was raising money in a private offering (full text of complaint)."
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