20120625

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review: meet the company's new top-of-th...

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via Engadget by Dana Wollman on 6/25/12

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review: meet the company's new top-of-the-line tablet

When ASUS first teased the Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 back at CES, many customers looked on, simmering with rage. You see, only several weeks earlier the company started selling the Transformer Prime, a top-tier tablet priced at a not-so-cheap $500. It was a state-of-the-art product...until ASUS unveiled the TF700, a tablet that was similar, only better. It, too, has a Tegra 3 chip and 8-megapixel camera, but it adds a higher-res, 1920 x 1200 display and promises improved signal reception, a pain point for the Prime.

Little did those disgruntled Prime owners know it would actually be a long time before the TF700 ever became available. Now, we're finally hearing it will go on sale in the US in mid-July, at which point the Prime is expected to drop in price before it gets discontinued. But is the TF700 all that much of an improvement over the original? And how does it stack up against comparably priced tablets, such as the new iPad, Acer Iconia Tab A700 and Toshiba Excite 10? Check out our early review to find out.

Continue reading ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review: meet the company's new top-of-the-line tablet

ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700 review: meet the company's new top-of-the-line tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120622

Voyager may exit our solar system much earlier sooner than expected

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/22/12

NASA launched the Voyager 1 probe back in 1977 and sent it on its journey through our solar system to study planets as it passed on its way outside of our solar system. Back in December of 2011 NASA mentioned that Voyager 1 was entering into a new region of space, the stagnation region, which is sort of like a bubble around our solar system. This region is one of the last indicators that the probe is still within our solar system.

Voyager 1 may soon become the first manmade object to leave the solar system, and the probe could leave our solar system much sooner than previously thought. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are currently still in what's known as the Heliosheath where the sun's solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar gas. Both of the probes are still transmitting the data about the location through the Deep Space Network. The fact that a pair probes constructed in the 70s are still functional is impressive.

The scientists are watching three data sets to determine when the probe leaves our solar system. One of those data sets is the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager is encountering. The second data set is the intensity of energetic particles created inside the heliosphere. Scientists say that when the intensity subsides significantly, they will know Voyager has left our solar system. While Voyager is still within our solar system's heliosphere, magnetic field lines are running east to west and scientists believe when the probe passes into interstellar space, magnetic field lines are expected to be in a more north-south direction.

"From January 2009 to January 2012, there had been a gradual increase of about 25 percent in the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager was encountering," said Mr. Stone. "More recently, we have seen very rapid escalation in that part of the energy spectrum. Beginning on May 7, the cosmic ray hits have increased five percent in a week and nine percent in a month."

[via TheBunsenBurner]


Voyager may exit our solar system much earlier sooner than expected is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Easter Island statues get new theories from NatGeo

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Chris Burns on 6/22/12

This month you'll be getting a greater taste of what it means to be a scientific researcher on Easter Island courtesy of National Geographic, but before the big study is dropped, a few key bits have been revealed. The first of these comes from archaeologists Carl Lipo of Cal State Long Beach and Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii. These two fellows not only have new research leading us to believe that the island hadn't been inhabited until 400 years after common theory up until this point tells us it was, and they've found a new way that the famous rock head statues could have made their way to the shores of the island as well.

The first bit of this research that's been pushed thus far as the life and death of the original human inhabitants (and the stone head creators) shows them to have been relatively irresponsible with the ecosystem. In the 2005 book "Collapse" by UCLA anthropologist Jared Diamond, he shows Polynesians settling on the island at around AD 800, they choosing this remote, cool, and dry island to settle on with little thought of the consequences for farming and agriculture.

In his theory, these the inhabitants did indeed create the statues we see today, but the reason their society broke down was their cutting down of all the trees on the island without realizing that they wouldn't grow back quickly enough to maintain the environment. Once a tree is cut down on this island, it takes one whole heck of a lot more time to grow back than it does in a place that isn't ravaged by high winds and volcanic ash. Once the trees were cut down, the topsoil blew away and was destroyed, the people were forced to eat birds (all of the birds, as it were), then eventually each other. Once the Dutch arrived in 1722 on Easter Sunday, they found the inhabitants to have descended into barbarism.

New research from Libo and Hunt, published in their very recent book "The Statues That Walked," agrees with the idea that some sort of ecological disaster took place, but they've got a bit more to say about rats than Diamond's claims. This theory says that Polynesian settlers didn't arrive on the island until AD 1200 and that the rats that came with them on the boats they arrived on the island with took a large part in destroying the ecosystem. Rat teeth marks have been found on large amounts of buried nuts from Easter Island palms (now extinct), this leading these researchers to believe that the rats not only took a big bite out of the bird population, but the tree population as well – burying the nuts from the trees in this way stopped the seeds from being reseeded naturally, thus ending the tree line with great success.

As far as the stones went, it's been a common theory (with little evidence) that these massive heads were pulled down from the island's volcano (where their stone was indeed sourced) on massive sledges made of the wood from the trees that are now extinct. As part of the research done for this new project and study of the island, a team lead by Hunt and Lipo proved that with a "rock and roll" method of moving the stones with man-made ropes and a team of 18 people, the stones could very well have been maneuvered down from the volcano one at a time.

The footage of this moving of the stones as well as a whole bunch more research on the island will appear on National Geographic's "Nova" later this year – stay tuned!

[via LA Times]


Easter Island statues get new theories from NatGeo is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.



 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Asteroid 2012 LZ1 highlights holes in Earth’s asteroid detection program

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/22/12

Something happened this month that you probably weren't even aware of. Astronomers working at the Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wells, Australia spied an asteroid in the skies on June 10. That asteroid was originally estimated to be 500 m or 0.31 miles wide. The shocking part of the discovery is that on the cosmic scale the asteroid was going to pass fairly close to Earth.

The asteroid only came 3.4 million miles away from the planet, which in reality is a very long way away. The truly disturbing part for some scientists was no one even knew the asteroid was there until four days before it passed the earth. Had the asteroid actually been on a collision course with our planet, four days wouldn't give time to respond.

To add insult to injury, once the asteroid was closer to earth it was discovered that it was almost twice as large as previously believed at 0.62 miles wide. Scientists say the reason the size observations were so off was because the surface of the asteroid was very dark and didn't reflect light. The reason the asteroid went unobserved until it was so close to our planet had to do with the fact that it was detected in the southern hemisphere skies were we have a few asteroid watching programs.

[via Discovery]


Asteroid 2012 LZ1 highlights holes in Earth's asteroid detection program is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120621

Drobo debuts a duo of Thunderbolt drives: the 5D for desktops and the Mini f...

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via Engadget by Michael Gorman on 6/21/12

Drobo debuts a duo of Thunderbolt drives the 5D for desktops and the Mini for road warriors

Drobo's been delivering quality desktop storage for businesses and prosumers for awhile now, but previously, the company hadn't dipped its toe into Thunderbolt waters. But that's about to change with its two new units. The 5D is a BYOD desktop offering with two Thunderbolt ports and one USB 3.0 socket for connecting up to five hot-swappable, 3.5-inch drives to your Mac or PC. It also has an mSATA SSD for data-caching quickness and a variable-speed fan to keep things cool and quiet. We don't know exactly when the 5D will go on sale -- Drobo's not telling until July -- but it'll cost under $850 when it does, and that price includes a Thunderbolt cable.



Meanwhile, the Mini is the first Drobo meant to be taken on the road. It packs up to four 2.5-inch drives in its front bays, plus, like the 5D, there's an mSATA SSD nestled in its underside that serves as a caching tier to speed up your main storage -- all in a 7.3 x 1.8 x 7.1-inch package weighing three pounds when fully loaded. All the drives are hot-swappable, a process made simple and easy with a trick, spring-loaded mechanism (patent pending) that lets users swap drives as they would SD cards. As for connecting the thing to your computer, dual Thunderbolt ports (for daisy chaining) and one USB 3.0 port reside round back along with the power plug and two vents for the Mini's variable-speed fans. Ringing the front face of the Mini are five LED strips that serve as drive indicators and capacity meter to let you know when a drive has failed or you're running out of space. Intrigued? Well, we got a sneak peek at the Mini and a little history lesson about its origins at Drobo HQ, so join us past the break for more.

Continue reading Drobo debuts a duo of Thunderbolt drives: the 5D for desktops and the Mini for road warriors

Drobo debuts a duo of Thunderbolt drives: the 5D for desktops and the Mini for road warriors originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jun 2012 03:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120620

Standard Model of particle physics rules on the line

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Chris Burns on 6/19/12

This week it appears that the universe will be hanging together with a bit different set of rules than we've been lead to understand for the past 40 years may be disproven in a variety of ways thanks to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. This location has scientists in Menlo Park, California researching collisions between electrons and the antimatter that love them. What they've done here is to suggest that a subatomic particle (a B-bar meson) decays more often than it should according to the Standard Model.

The actual finding has these B-bar mesons, made of both antimatter and matter, breaking apart into three other particles too often. These other three particles are a D meson, an antineutrino, and a tau lepton, making this process one which gets the name "B to D-star-tau-nu." The B-bar mesons are made specifically of a bottom quark and an antiquark, and because they've been observed decaying in this way so often at the lab where they're being researched, the Standard Model does not currently compute, so to speak.

BaBar spokesperson Michael Roney of the University of Victoria in Canada sent out a statement which explained the situation in part:

"The excess over the Standard Model prediction is exciting, but before we can claim an actual discovery, other experiments have to replicate it and rule out the possibility this isn't just an unlikely statistical fluctuation." – Roney

This announcement was spoken on as well by BaBar physics coordinator Abner Soffer of Tel Aviv University, who noted that everyone was, for lack of a better word we're sure, rather excited about the prospects:

"If the excess decays shown are confirmed, it will be exciting to figure out what is causing it. We hope our results will stimulate theoretical discussion about just what the data are telling us about new physics." – Soffer

The current tests on the BeBar experiment have been in the works and being observed between 1999 and 2008 – a massive amount of time by most science experiments standards: but this is no average experiment. To move forward from this point, the project will have to be expanded to other experiments. CSMonitor suggests that the Belle project at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba, Japan, which also produces B mesons, could be used.

We'll be following along with this story until it breaks our basic understanding of space, and we hope it'll happen soon! It's always exciting to find that everything we know is wrong, wouldn't you say?

[concept art via Greg Stewart, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory]


Standard Model of particle physics rules on the line is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120619

Vanishing neutrons could be travelling to a parallel universe

WOW! :D

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via Engadget by Terrence O'Brien on 6/18/12

Vanishing neutrons could be travelling to parallel universes

Time to break out your theoretical physics cap for a moment. A new idea about the cause of neutron loss (a phenomena in which neutrons seem to momentarily disappear), is pushing the boundaries of easy to conceptualize science. Zurab Berezhiani and Fabrizio Nesti of Italy's University of l'Aquila have suggested that the particles could briefly be visiting parallel universes before returning. Experiments have shown that the rate of loss is dependent on the direction and strength of an applied magnetic field -- an anomaly that doesn't jibe with current physics. If a parallel universe existed consisting of so-called "mirror particles," however, the neutrons could temporarily swap places with its invisible twin before returning to its rightful place in this world. More experimentation is needed, but if the predictions of Berezhiani and Nesti are correct, it could indicate that we're surrounded by mirror particles in a parallel universe -- a potential culprit for the mystery of dark matter.

Vanishing neutrons could be travelling to a parallel universe originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 00:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TG Daily  |  sourceThe European Physical Journal  | Email this | Comments

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120618

Linux architect Linus Torvalds to Nvidia: “F*** You”

http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/hW3cVYbOBGs/

Sent to you via Google Reader

Posted by at No comments:

20120617

Facebook technology chief leaves

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18468243#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Sent to you via Google Reader

Posted by at No comments:

20120615

Particles point way for Voyager

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18458478#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

Sent to you via Google Reader

Posted by at No comments:

20120614

Scientists discover liquid methane lake on the tropical side of Titan

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/14/12

Scientists have long wondered what process drives the replenishing of the lakes of liquid methane on the surface of Saturn's largest moon Titan. Scientists have a keen interest in Titan because it's often likened to a primordial Earth. Using a mosaic of images recorded by the Huygens probe's imager/spectral radiometer overlaid with images taken by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005, scientists have discovered a lake of liquid methane in a strange place on Titan.

The discovery of this large, shallow methane lake in the moon's tropical region has offered scientists insights at the process driving the creation of liquid methane lakes. The scientists say if they can confirm more observations about the lake, it could point to significant subsurface methane deposits feeding the lake in the tropical the climate. Another possibility according to the scientists is that the moon recycles methane with the liquid in previously discovered polar methane lakes migrating underground back to the tropical zone of the moon where it bubbles to the surface again to form lakes.

Scientists say that this represents a significant discovery that may shed light on the methane cycle on Titan. Scientists say that surface deposits of liquid methane on Titan aren't sufficient to fully support the moon's methane cycle. Therefore, some unknown process has to be supplying methane over the 4.5 billion year history of Titan sunlight would've broken down the methane into its components, carbon and hydrogen. Previous studies of the moon's climate indicated that any liquid on its tropical surface would quickly evaporate, so this new discovery could invalidate what scientists previously believed about Titan.

[via CSMonitor]


Scientists discover liquid methane lake on the tropical side of Saturn's moon Titan is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize with pioneering stem cell ...

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via Engadget by Donald Melanson on 6/13/12

Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize with pioneering stem cell scientist

It's not often we see Linux creator Linus Torvalds in a tux (as opposed to with a Tux), but he had a good reason to ditch the casual look this week. He was just named as the co-recipient of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize (often referred to as the "tech Nobel"), an award that he shares with pioneering stem cell scientist Dr. Shinya Yamanaka -- the two will also each get an equal cut of €1.2 million prize fund. Torvalds was of course recognized for the creation of Linux itself, with Dr. Ainomaija Haarla of Technology Academy Finland (the prize's organizers) noting that Torvalds' work "has kept the web open for the pursuit of knowledge and for the benefit of humanity -- not simply for financial interests." What's more, Torvalds also sat down for a fairly in-depth interview with the BBC for the occasion, in which he talks about Linux at length and offers a few thoughts on Google, Microsoft and Raspberry Pi -- you can find it at the link below.

[Image credit: Millennium Technology Prize]

Linus Torvalds shares Millennium Technology Prize with pioneering stem cell scientist originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMillennium Technology Prize  | Email this | Comments

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Man’s 10-year Civilization II game sheds insight to the future

http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/OVxbps91QZ0/
\m/
Sent to you via Google Reader

Posted by at No comments:

20120613

Space 'not as knotty as thought'

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via BBC News - Home on 6/13/12

Researchers fail to find knots or "textures" in the Big Bang's leftover glow, ruling out a number of theories that attempt to explain how the Universe started.

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120612

VIA Technologies' $49 Android barebones PC available for pre-order, ships in...

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via Engadget by Alexis Santos on 6/12/12

VIA Technologies' $49 APC Android barebones now available for preorder, ships in July

VIA Technologies' small -- but not bite-sized -- Neo-ITX-based barebones Android PC is now up for pre-order. Folks willing to plunk down $49 now will be among the first to play with the APC's version of Gingerbread that's been modified for use with a mouse and keyboard. When can you expect the return on investment? Well, it's slated to ship in early July, meaning you'll get your hands on its 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of storage before the end of summer.

[Thanks, Nikolas]

VIA Technologies' $49 Android barebones PC available for pre-order, ships in July originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jun 2012 03:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceVIA Technologies  | Email this | Comments

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Delayed fatherhood 'extends life'

awesome \m/

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via BBC News - Home on 6/11/12

Children with older fathers and grandfathers are "genetically programmed" to live longer, scientists have discovered.

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Stephen Fry wins on Elgin Marbles

I always admired Stephen Fry. :D

Is the following quote true btw? "the Greek government had never challenged their [the Elgin marbles'] ownership in an international court." If it is, why hasn't it done so?

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via BBC News - Home on 6/11/12

A call backed by actor Stephen Fry for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece scores a big win in a London debate.

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120608

Overtime

Posted by at No comments:

Robotic fish is accepted by real fish

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Mark Raby on 6/7/12

The latest study involving advancements in robotic technology has an end result that by all accounts is pretty amazing – a robot designed to look like a zebrafish was fully accepted into a school of other zebrafish. That is, male zebrafish swarmed around the robotic female fish in the same way they would a real fish.

"We would like to use these robots for guiding fish away from danger. What we try to understand is how we can design visual features of the robot so that they can elicit attraction for the fish … We want to make sure first that we do have an attraction and that the fish are conditioned for the attraction" said Maurizio Porfiri, an engineer at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University where the study was conducted.

Because of their very predictable movements and easily replicated design, robotic fish have become a favorite experiment among researchers. There are even some bodies of water that already have robot fish swimming around for purposes like pollution tracking. This latest experiment furthers the proof that robots can perform the same functions as their living counterparts – if this can expand to other creatures that would be incredible.

[via MSNBC]


Robotic fish is accepted by real fish is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Large Hadron Collider affected by full moon, ocean commiserates

\m/

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via Engadget by Alexis Santos on 6/8/12

Large Hadron Collider affected by full moon, ocean commiserates

Large Hadron Collider not running properly? If you've read the docs and restarted it, check for a full moon. After noticing fewer particle collisions while on her shift, Pauline Gagnon reached out to a control room operator who casually explained that they adjust beam alignment during full moons. Yes, the tide-producing orbit of Earth's satellite tugs the LHC's inner workings ever so slightly askew. Though minute, the changes add up over the collider's 27km circumference and are picked up by monitoring equipment sensitive enough to measure elementary particles. However, Luna isn't the only thing that affects the accelerator -- the water level in Lake Geneva and passing high-speed rail trains also do the trick. Will your hand react differently to the LHC's beam under a Harvest Moon? Probably not. In any case, hit the source for the scientific details.

Large Hadron Collider affected by full moon, ocean commiserates originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 03:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Ars Technica  |  sourceQuantum Diaries  | Email this | Comments

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120607

New Blade Runner movie confirmed to be a sequel

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Ben Kersey on 5/18/12

While we're all getting pumped up for Prometheus, RIdley Scott is going to revisit another movie he directed in the not too distant future. It was announced back in August that Scott would helm an upcoming Blade Runner movie, and today it's been revealed that the movie will be a sequel to the original starring Harrison Ford. Not only that, but the original writer of Blade Runner is onboard the project to help develop a story.

The official press release for the upcoming project states that it will indeed be a sequel, and that Hampton Fancher is in talks to join the project. Fancher wrote the script for the original Blade Runner, and will work with Ridley Scott to develop a screenplay for the sequel. The PR does state that he's not writing the project, merely helping brainstorm for the movie, so the film could still be in need of a writer.

What's the story for the new fick? No word yet, although Scott is reportedly toying with the idea of having a female lead: "I started my first meetings on the Blade Runner sequel last week. We have a very good take on it. And we'll definitely be featuring a female protagonist." As for Scott's latest film, Prometheus, various viral videos continue to sprawl across the internet, with the film due for release on June 1st in the UK and June 8th in the United States.

[via SlashFilm]


New Blade Runner movie confirmed to be a sequel is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

Alien god?

It is actually more possible than the (vast?) majority of religious folklore :P This way everything makes sense :P
http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~marshall/aliengod.htm

Posted by at No comments:

20120606

Proba-2 satellite records video of Venus solar transit

nice

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/6/12

One of the most exciting things for sky watchers to view over the last year was the last solar transit of the planet Venus for over 100 years. The transit occurred yesterday in the United States, and if you forgot to watch, don't worry. A tiny European space satellite took a video that's much better than what you would've been able to see from Earth.

The ESA microsatellite Proba-2 resides in low-Earth orbit and was tracking Venus as it moved across the Sun over about seven hours. The reason Venus appears to move and wobble as it transits the Sun is the slight up-and-down motion of the satellite. The vast distance between the sun and the satellite also contributed to what we see as wobble in the recording.

One scientist says one moment to pay attention to is when Venus first appears to touch the outermost part of the solar disk resulting in a tiny dip in solar brightness. This dip in brightness is attributed to the thick atmosphere of Venus. Check out the video and see for yourself, it's really cool.

[via Wired]


Proba-2 satellite records video of Venus solar transit is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.



 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

IPv6 lands today, do you copy?

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/ipv6-launch-day/

Sent to you via Google Reader

Posted by at No comments:

20120605

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope discovers possibly evaporating planet

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 5/21/12

Astronomers using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope have discovered a planet that orbits so close to its parent star its surface may be evaporating. The planet's evaporating surface is believed to be leaving behind a trail similar to that of a comet's tail. The planet is 1500 light-years from Earth and is believed to be a super Mercury-size planet.

The scientists theorize that the planet will be completely vaporized within 200 million years at the current rate. The photograph you see here is an artist's rendering of what the planet might look like up close. The parent star is called KIC 12557548, and an unusual light pattern from star is what has tipped scientists to the existence of the planet.

The scientists believe that the planet is orbiting a star that is smaller and cooler than our Sun. The planet makes an orbit in less than 16 hours at a distance of only twice the diameter of the star. The planet surface temperature is estimated to be 3300°F. The planet is likely to be covered completely in oceans of lava according to scientists.

[via Clarksville Online]


NASA's Kepler Space Telescope discovers possibly evaporating planet is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

The Programmer's Toolbox

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via Embedded on 5/21/12

In the February, 1992 issue of Embedded Systems Programming, a new column, Programmer's Toolbox, was introduced. The name was not chosen at random: The intent of the column is to provide useful tools and techniques that readers can apply to their own problems in embedded systems development. The idea is to have a library of reusable modules. written in several languages, that others can use to avoid re-invention of the wheel and improve their productivity and software quality. In this paper, I'll describe the thoughts behind the column. the software tools that have already been presented, the ones yet to come, and the ultimate goal of the effort. A successful effort will require support from the user community. Part of the message of this paper is a plea for help and feedback.

View the full article HERE.

 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:

20120601

Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies to collide in 4 billion years

OMG run for your lives! :P

 
 

Sent to you by diluted via Google Reader:

 
 

via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/1/12

Astronomers with NASA have announced that they have predicted "with certainty" that the Milky Way galaxy where we live and the Andromeda galaxy will collide. The astronomers predict that the collision will happen 4 billion years from now. Interestingly, the collision will certainly change our galaxy according to the astronomers, but the earth and our solar system aren't in danger.

The Hubble Space Telescope was used to capture data allowing the prediction to be made. The Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away, but is coming closer to the Milky Way due to the mutual pull of gravity between the two galaxies and dark matter between them. After the initial collision in 4 billion years, the scientists predict it will take another 2 billion years for the galaxies completely merge.

The galaxies will eventually merge into a single elliptical galaxy similar to others seen in the local universe. Even more interesting is that the Andromeda galaxy and the Milky Way are expected to eventually collide with a third galaxy called the Triangulum galaxy that could also merge with the original pair. Check out the video to see what the scientists believe the collision could be like.

[via Telegraph]


Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies to collide in 4 billion years is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 - 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.



 
 

Things you can do from here:

 
 
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)