Friday, July 9, 2010

AT AT Day Afternoon

This guy did and awsome job on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CVYOCMpJRY

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Loads of cool stuff

A new blog I found that found that has a lot of interesting things on it.

http://epicwinftw.com/

Burger King uses 'musical shower' as latest trick to entice Japanese clientele

By Vlad Savov posted Jul 8th 2010 7:39AM

A new Burger King eatery opening up in Japan isn't usually something we concern ourselves too much with, but this one comes with an interesting new twist. Those umbrella-aping translucent cones hanging over the tables are known as "musical showers," and their function is to deliver music in an isolated fashion to you and your significant -- but not too significant, it's still BK, after all -- other. All you'll need to do is plug your portable media player into the provided receptacle and the tunes you know and love will literally shower down upon you. To be honest, if the audio chanelling is sufficiently precise not to disturb nearby punters, we're

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Watch While an Asteroid Eats a Star

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — In a rare event on July 8, 2010, skywatchers will be able to see an asteroid briefly block out the light from a star as it passes in front. It may be the only asteroid 'occultation' this century observable with the naked eye.

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — When it comes to executing items on tomorrow's to-do list, it's best to think it over, then "sleep on it," say psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis.

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 07, @11:50AM

from the all-tied-up dept.

A French company is offering people the chance to get away from it all and be bound and gagged for a day. The company will abduct you without warning, and hold you prisoner for up to 10 hours. The kidnapping packages were among many unique vacations unveiled at the Tourism Futures conference in Brisbane.

Honda shows off conceptual, solar-powered station to refill your conceptual, hydrogen-powered car (video)

By Tim Stevens posted Jul 7th 2010 10:42AM

Honda shows off conceptual, solar-powered station to refill your conceptual, hydrogen-powered car

Hydrogen-powered cars, like Honda's FCX Clarity, face a lot of hurdles, not the least of which being a fuel source requiring more energy to produce than it in turn gives out as energy. Honda is showing one way to mitigate that with its conceptual home-based recharging station. It relies on a six-kilowatt solar array to power an electrolyzer, splitting water molecules into hydrogen atoms. Eight hours of sunlight generates a half-kilogram of hydrogen, enough for the FCX to cover about 30 miles -- your average commute. However, there are some obvious concerns, not the least of which being that massive solar array (shown on the right in the picture above), which is twice the size of car it's powering. Then there's the cost, and while Honda isn't saying how much this might set you back if it ever did come to production, we're guessing it'd make the JFE Engineering's $60k quick charger look like something of a bargain.

Autoblog Green

IceCube Telescope Takes Shape Below Antarctic Ice

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 24, @01:14PM
from the hard-mile-to-walk dept.

space

PabloSandoval48 writes"The world's largest telescope, currently under construction more than a mile beneath the Antarctic ice, is on schedule to be completed next year, according to a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, the lead institution for a scientific project called IceCube."

Want to Slow Aging? New Research Suggests It Takes More Than Antioxidants

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — Don't put down the red wine and vitamins just yet, but if you're taking antioxidants because you hope to live longer, consider this: a new study published in the June 2010 issue of the journal Genetics casts doubt on the theory that oxidative stress to our tissues shortens lifespan.

By Thomas Ricker posted Jul 7th 2010 5:40AM

Nothing like rumors of corporate layoffs to throw 89,000 Microsoft employees into unproductive turmoil. This time the rumors are being mongered by the Wall Street Journal and TechFlash, both of whom have been told to expect "far smaller" cuts than the 5,000 heads lost during the global financial downturn. And while it's easy to come to the conclusion that this round of layoffs is the result of the Kin debacle, keep in mind that Microsoft is entering a new fiscal year -- the perfect time to trim down andrefocus on new strategies. Still, if this does affect the Kin team, then let's just hope that the skilled engineers toiling inside the project's pink trenches are spared when the reductions begin as soon as today, according to TechFlash. While J Allard may be gone, one executive alone doesn't create a culture and governance model that builds multi-million dollar silos of duplication and then turns a blind eye tointer-team stonewalling. We say aim high when it comes time to swing that axe Microsoft.

SSDs vs. Hard Drives In Value Comparison

Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 06, @09:23PM
from the mostly-clear-with-scattered-data dept.

storage

hardware

EconolineCrush writes"SSDs hardly offer compelling value on the cost-per-gigabyte basis. But what if one considers performance per dollar? This article takes a closer look at the value proposition offered by today's most common SSDs, mixing raw performance data with each drive's cost, both per gigabyte and as a component of a complete system. A dozen SSD configurations are compared, and results from a collection of mechanical hard drives provide additional context. The data are laid out in detailed scatter plots clearly illustrating the most favorable intersections of price and performance, and you might be surprised to see just how well the SSDs fare versus traditional hard drives. A few of the SSDs offer much better value than their solid-state competitors, too."

Rudeness at Work Causes Mistakes

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — If someone is rude to you at work or if you witness rudeness you are more likely to make mistakes, says Rhona Flin, Professor of Applied Psychology at the University of Aberdeen, in an editorial published in this week's British Medical Journal.

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Brain's Energy Restored During Sleep, Suggests Animal Study

ScienceDaily (July 7, 2010) — In the initial stages of sleep, energy levels increase dramatically in brain regions found to be active during waking hours, according to new research in the June 30 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. These results suggest that a surge of cellular energy may replenish brain processes needed to function normally while awake.

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — An incidental discovery in a wood products lab at Oregon State University has produced a new pressure-sensitive adhesive that may revolutionize the tape industry -- an environmentally benign product that works very well and costs much less than existing adhesives based on petrochemicals.

Netflix adds Relativity Media to its Instant queue, takes on HBO and Showtime

By Tim Stevens posted Jul 6th 2010 8:37AM

Netflix adds Relativity Media to its Instant queue, takes on HBO and Showtime

Ever wonder why premium movie channels (your HBOs and the like) get top-shelf Hollywood movies not long after their DVD release but yet you're still stuck streaming Mystery Science Theater 3000's greatest hits on Netflix? That situation could be changing thanks to a deal with Relativity Media, who you may not have heard of before but has had a hand in the production and distribution of big Hollywood flicks like 300 and A Serious Man. The deal with Netflix will bring some of the company's movies to Watch Instantly within months of their DVD release, avoiding the usual multi-year exclusivity window that pay networks usually require. Right now this deal only covers 14 movies over the next year (of which only The Fighter, Skyline, Movie 43, and Season of the Witch are mentioned), but it establishes Netflix as a player in this market, pitting itself against HBO and Showtime for first distribution of premium content to the small (but ever growing) screen. If things go well, your Instant queue could be getting a bit more plump over the next year or so.

3D Displays May Be Hazardous To Young Children

Posted by kdawson on Saturday June 26, @08:31PM
from the don't-look-at-me-that-way dept.

SchlimpyChicken writes"Turns out 3D television can be inherently dangerous to developing children, and perhaps to adults as well. There's a malaise in children that can prevent full stereopsis (depth perception) from developing, called strabismus or lazy-eye. It is an abnormal alignment of the eyes in which the eyes do not focus on the same object — kind of like when you watch a 3D movie. As a result, depth perception is compromised. Acting on a hunch, the guys over at Audioholics contacted Mark Pesce, who worked with Sega on its VR Headset over 15 years ago — you know, the headset that never made it to market. As it turns out, back then Sega uncovered serious health risks involved with children consuming 3D and quickly buried the reports, and the project. Unfortunately, the same dangers exist in today's 3D, and the electronics, movie, and gaming industries seem to be ignoring the issue. If fully realized, 3D just might affect the vision of millions of children and, according to the latest research, many adults, across the country."

Friendships, Family Relationships Get Better With Age Thanks to Forgiveness, Stereotypes

ScienceDaily (June 27, 2010) — Part of what makes those relationships so golden during the golden years is that people of all ages are more likely to forgive and respect one's elders, according to research from Purdue University.

ScienceDaily (June 26, 2010) — A trial of a novel radioactive compound readily and safely distinguished the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients from healthy volunteers on brain scans and opens the doors to making such imaging available beyond facilities that can manufacture their own radioactive compounds. The results, reported by a Johns Hopkins team in the June Journal of Nuclear Medicine, could lead to better ways to distinguish Alzheimer's from other types of dementia, track disease progression and develop new therapeutics to fight the memory-ravaging disease.

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