20120712

Cassini spacecraft spies massive vortex on Titan

 
 

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via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 7/12/12

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took a photo during a flyby of a massive vortex on Saturn's moon Titan. The photograph was taken on June 27 this year and released this week. The massive milky cloud shown in the image is a South polar vortex on the surface of Titan. The vortex is a mass of swirling gas around the pole of the atmosphere on the moon.

NASA says that the high-altitude haze in the vortex at the South Pole signals that the seasons are changing on Saturn's largest moon. The first sign of haze starting to concentrate over the moon's south pole were noted in March. The image you see above is a true color image taken in visible light.

NASA says that the vortex is similar to open cellular convection often seen over the oceans here on earth. However, on earth these layers are just above the surface of the ocean and on Titan, the vortex is a very high-altitude, about 200 miles above the surface of moon's South Pole. The scientists believe that the vortex could be a response of Titan's stratosphere to seasonal cooling, but that is unconfirmed.


Cassini spacecraft spies massive vortex on Titan is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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20120710

07/09/12 PHD comic: 'Literal'

 
 

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via PHD Comics on 7/9/12

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham
www.phdcomics.com
Click on the title below to read the comic
title: "Literal" - originally published 7/9/2012

For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

 
 

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20120706

IPv6 FTW

Welcome to the new world Elias :P
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20120704

European Parliament rejects ACTA in 478 to 39 vote

Viva Europa :)

 
 

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via SlashGear by Ben Kersey on 7/4/12

ACTA, the controversial anti-counterfeiting trade agreement, has been rejected by the European Parliament by a staggering majority. The law was smacked down by a 478 to 39 vote, and has now been completely killed in Europe. Internet activists rallied against ACTA when it was seen to be a legislative act that was far too broad, with criminal sanctions also found in the trade agreement.

While ACTA has been killed in Europe, it could still come to the United States. Still, it would need congressional approval, something which is unlikely to pass given the furore surrounding the act in Europe. Meanwhile, Karel de Gucht, the European Commission responsible for ACTA, says that he keep submitting it before the European Parliament until it passes, but TorrentFreak believes that's something the body won't stand for.

ACTA first came into existence in October 2011 following on from SOPA, another controversial anti-piracy bill. While ACTA was presented as a trade agreement designed to combat counterfeit goods, it blurred the lines between piracy and counterfeiting, as well as working in criminal charges for those who fell foul of the law. Anti-ACTA advocates believed that criminal charges for copyright infringement were unnecessary when civil sanctions are already in place, and that the bill would restrict governments from creating their own copyright law if swayed by trade agreements.


European Parliament rejects ACTA in 478 to 39 vote is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
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God Particle shows itself: CERN spots Higgs boson

 
 

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via SlashGear by Chris Davies on 7/4/12

Scientists at CERN have announced that they have discovered evidence of a Higgs-like particle with an evidence signal of 5 sigma, the agreed threshold for positive identification of the so-called "God Particle." Announced at a live streaming press conference from the Large Hadron Collider, the confirmation means there is a 99.99997-percent chance that the Higgs boson has been identified in the 125GeV mass range. The news has huge implications for the so-called Standard Model of physics.

That model attempts to describe the ways the universe works at a subatomic level, including the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear interactions. Suggestions that the Higgs boson – a "massive scalar elementary particle" – was a necessary part of that model were made back in the 1960s, but the huge amounts of energy required to actually identify the boson have kept it elusive.

"The Higgs boson plays a unique role in the Standard Model, by explaining why the other elementary particles, except the photon and gluon, are massive. In particular, the Higgs boson would explain why the photon has no mass, while the W and Z bosons are very heavy. Elementary particle masses, and the differences between electromagnetism (mediated by the photon) and the weak force (mediated by the W and Z bosons), are critical to many aspects of the structure of microscopic (and hence macroscopic) matter. In electroweak theory, the Higgs boson generates the masses of the leptons (electron, muon, and tau) and quarks" Wikipedia

Those huge energies have been what the CERN teams have been flinging around in the large hadron collider, with two teams, ATLAS and CMS, looking for evidence that indicates the Higgs boson is present in the aftermath of high-power collisions in the underground facility.

CERN says it has observed some of the key indicators that have indeed confirmed that to such a high degree of possibility, including state decaying to di-photon level with a significance of five sigma, and leaving them confident the Higgs is there.

The search is not over, however; "it's very early" the team say, and more data is still needed to confirm the combined channel significance, which is currently coming in at 4.9 sigma but, according to predictions, should be around 5.9 sigma for the Higgs. While the ZZ + gamma-gamma combination hits the 5.0 sigma threshold, overall CERN is saying it has "observed a new boson with a mass of 125.3 +/1 0.6 GeV at 4.9 sigma significance."


God Particle shows itself: CERN spots Higgs boson is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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20120703

Higgs hunt may stop short of naming “God particle”

http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/xwca_zw7UxY/
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VIDEO: Great, great grandfather of birds?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18611841#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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20120702

Scientists to unveil evidence of Higgs boson

 
 

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via SlashGear by Ben Kersey on 7/2/12

Remember the Large Hadron Collider and the search for the God particle? Scientists working on the project will announce on Wednesday that they have enough evidence to show that the Higgs boson does indeed exist. That doesn't mean they've found it, however: the data the scientists have obtained will demonstrate the footprint of the particle, but they still haven't discovered it for themselves.

John Ellis, a theoretical physicist and professor at King's College London, says the team has "discovered something which is consistent with beings a Higgs," and concedes that from the outside it looks like scientists may indeed have found the God particle, but the team is making sure the distinction is clear.

Rob Roser, part of the team looking for the Higgs boson at Fermilab in Chicago, says what will be announced on Wednesday is comparable to finding the fossilized imprint of a dinosaur. In other words, the evidence points towards the object existing, but the team hasn't seen it for themselves just yet.

CERN will provide data in Australia this week, and again at meetings in Geneva. The two teams handling the project, ATLAS and CMS, will reveal more public data at physics meetings in October and December.

[via AP]


Scientists to unveil evidence of Higgs boson is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Newly discovered Mayan text says 2012 is the end of the calendar not the world

 
 

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via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/29/12

It would be hard to miss the fact that a lot of doomsday believers thought 2012 was going to be the end of the world because of ancient Mayan texts. A newly discovered Mayan text puts a bit of clarity and might ease the concerns of people who believe in that sort of thing. The new text shows that 2012 was the "end date" for the Maya calendar.

That is different from the end of the world according to the researchers. The new text indicates that 2012 would have been celebrated by the ancient Mayan people, but has no doomsday prophecies regarding the date. The Mayan calendar is divided into something called bak'tuns each having 144,000 days beginning from the Maya creation date. The winter solstice of 2012 would be the last day of the 13th bak'tun.

Scientists and researchers say this would've been seen as a full cycle of creation. The new text was discovered among the Maya ruins of La Corona in Guatemala. Archaeologists discovered one block on a stairway featuring carved hieroglyphs to celebrate the visit of an ancient and powerful Mayan ruler. The archaeologists believe that this ancient king, known as Jaguar Paw, used a larger cycle of time to promote continuity of his people that happened to end in 2012.

[via MSNBC]


Newly discovered Mayan text says 2012 is the end of the calendar not the world is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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20120629

Nestle 'failing' on child labour

nesWhatever

 
 

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via BBC News - Home on 6/29/12

Nestle, the world's biggest food company, is accused of failing on child labour checks and abuses.

 
 

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Star eruption likely caused distant planet’s atmosphere to evaporate

 
 

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via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/29/12

Scientists have been studying an exoplanet dubbed HD 189733b as it passes in front of its parent star dubbed HD 189733A. The reason scientists and researchers are scrutinizing this planet and star pair with the Hubble space telescope is because the planet appears to have an atmosphere that is quickly evaporating. The planet and star were first discovered in 2010 and was observed again in 2011 following a large solar flare from the star.

The planet is Jupiter-sized and scientists say that the intense plume of gas coming from the planet as it passes in front of the parent star was triggered by a massive eruption on the surface of the star. Scientists say that there were noted changes in the atmosphere of the planet after was bombarded with intense x-ray radiation from a solar flare emanating from the host star.

Observations made in 2011 showed that the planet's atmosphere was evaporating and releasing strong bursts of gas at a rate of at least 984 tons per second. Scientists are studying the planet and its parent star to learn more about space weather outside our solar system. Planet HD 189733b is a gas giant that orbits extremely close to the parent star. The planet orbits at 1/30 of the distance between the Earth and the sun and is approximately the size of Jupiter. The parent star is slightly smaller and cooler than our Sun, yet the surface temperature on the alien world is believed to be about 1830°F due to its close orbit.

[via Space.com]


Star eruption likely caused distant planet's atmosphere to evaporate is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Physicists create highest man-made temperature ever

 
 

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via SlashGear by Shane McGlaun on 6/28/12

Physicists from the Brookhaven National Laboratory have gone down in the Guinness World Records book as having created the highest man-made temperature ever recorded. The scientists were smashing gold ions together using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The smashing together of the ions created a fluid called quark-gluon plasma.

The smashing together of those gold ions simulated conditions similar to those during the creation of the universe and generated a temperature of 7.2 trillion degrees Fahrenheit. That is 250,000 times hotter than the temperature at the core of the sun. The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is a gigantic 2.4 mile long ring where ions are accelerated to speeds close to that of light.

The experiment being conducted was called PHENIX. The experiment saw gold ions being accelerated around the ring from both directions and crashed together in one of six experimental chambers around the accelerator. The researchers observed the very brief formation of quark-gluon plasma, which is described as and nearly frictionless fluid with a temperature of 4,000,000,000,000°C.

[via LA Times]


Physicists create highest man-made temperature ever is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Saturn Titan moon ocean hypothesis strengthens

 
 

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via SlashGear by Mark Raby on 6/28/12

Scientists now believe more than ever that Saturn's largest moon has an underground ocean. The discovery that presents this latest solid evidence is that Titan has been found to warp during its gravitational tides. This is leading science experts to believe that a large body of water slosed around under its outer shell.

It's long been a hypothesis that Titan, and other moons far in the deep reaches of the solar system, are capable of holding water underneath their surfaces, but the lack of technology makes it impossible to test these theories. There is however a spacecraft called Cassini, which has been in the Saturn area since 2004. It is the primary source in providing new information about the planet and its moons.

"Liquid water elsewhere in the solar system is one of the main goals of planetary exploration for NASA," said study lead author Luciano Iess, a planetary geodesist at Università La Sapienza in Rome. "This discovery points to the fact that many satellites in the outer solar system hide large amounts of liquid water," said planetary geodesis and lead author of the latest study Luciano Iess.

[via MSNBC]


Saturn Titan moon ocean hypothesis strengthens is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Saturn Titan moon ocean hypothesis strengthens

 
 

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via SlashGear by Mark Raby on 6/28/12

Scientists now believe more than ever that Saturn's largest moon has an underground ocean. The discovery that presents this latest solid evidence is that Titan has been found to warp during its gravitational tides. This is leading science experts to believe that a large body of water slosed around under its outer shell.

It's long been a hypothesis that Titan, and other moons far in the deep reaches of the solar system, are capable of holding water underneath their surfaces, but the lack of technology makes it impossible to test these theories. There is however a spacecraft called Cassini, which has been in the Saturn area since 2004. It is the primary source in providing new information about the planet and its moons.

"Liquid water elsewhere in the solar system is one of the main goals of planetary exploration for NASA," said study lead author Luciano Iess, a planetary geodesist at Università La Sapienza in Rome. "This discovery points to the fact that many satellites in the outer solar system hide large amounts of liquid water," said planetary geodesis and lead author of the latest study Luciano Iess.

[via MSNBC]


Saturn Titan moon ocean hypothesis strengthens is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Saturn Titan moon ocean hypothesis strengthens

 
 

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via SlashGear by Mark Raby on 6/28/12

Scientists now believe more than ever that Saturn's largest moon has an underground ocean. The discovery that presents this latest solid evidence is that Titan has been found to warp during its gravitational tides. This is leading science experts to believe that a large body of water slosed around under its outer shell.

It's long been a hypothesis that Titan, and other moons far in the deep reaches of the solar system, are capable of holding water underneath their surfaces, but the lack of technology makes it impossible to test these theories. There is however a spacecraft called Cassini, which has been in the Saturn area since 2004. It is the primary source in providing new information about the planet and its moons.

"Liquid water elsewhere in the solar system is one of the main goals of planetary exploration for NASA," said study lead author Luciano Iess, a planetary geodesist at Università La Sapienza in Rome. "This discovery points to the fact that many satellites in the outer solar system hide large amounts of liquid water," said planetary geodesis and lead author of the latest study Luciano Iess.

[via MSNBC]


Saturn Titan moon ocean hypothesis strengthens is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Pentagon starts Phoenix trial to harvest defunct satellites

 
 

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via Engadget by Steve Dent on 6/28/12

pentagon-starts-phoenix-dead-satellite-trial

The Phoenix Frankenprogram to harvest the corpses of expired satellites and cobble together new ones seemed like one of DARPA's more daft ideas, but this one has actually kicked off its first phase of development. The plan is to first launch a service craft -- replete with robotic arms and enough processing horsepower to work independently if needed -- followed by the tiny base-unit skeleton satlets. The service mothership would dip into an orbital area called the "graveyard", grabbing pre-chosen cadavers and picking off usable parts, especially valuable antenna arrays, with its robo-limbs. Those parts would be jury-rigged to the bare-bones units, creating usable Pentagon satellites and saving the $10,000 per pound launch cost. So far, a $2.5 million contract to develop the needed technology has been put in place, and bids for the no-frills satlets went out last week. Plenty of dirty work is still needed, so check the video after the break to see if the overly-elaborate plan can un-moot $300 billion of orbiting cold metal.

Continue reading Pentagon starts Phoenix trial to harvest defunct satellites, MacGyver new ones from orbit

Pentagon starts Phoenix trial to harvest defunct satellites, MacGyver new ones from orbit originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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20120627

Alan Turing's breakthrough machine gets a loving Lego tribute (video)

 
 

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via Engadget by Terrence O'Brien on 6/22/12

Alan Turing's breakthrough machine gets a loving Lego tribute

In the world of technology, having one of your inventions rendered in Lego form is the equivalent of a musician being parodied by Weird Al -- it's a sign you've truly made it and tribute to your influence. So, we're more than a little surprised to see that it's taken this long for the Turing Machine to be lovingly built from plastic bricks. The heart of this simple logic device is a Lego Mindstorms NXT set, but the soul is in Alan Turing's genius -- a man who was before his time and unjustly persecuted for failing to properly fit into society's molds. Dutch researchers Jeroen van den Bosand and Davy Landman built the device as a tribute to Turing, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this Saturday. If you're in Amsterdam you can see the machine yourself at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica's Turings Erfenis exhibit. Or, you can watch the short explanatory video after the break.

Continue reading Alan Turing's breakthrough machine gets a loving Lego tribute (video)

Alan Turing's breakthrough machine gets a loving Lego tribute (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Robotic quadrotors' training now complete, proven with razzle-dazzle Cannes ...

 
 

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via Engadget by Steve Dent on 6/27/12

robotic-quadrotors-cannes-light-sound-show

We've watched our potential quad-mech overlords from KMel Robotics evolve from agile solo acrobats to worker bees to deft synchronized performers. It seemed only a matter of time before they would hunt down Sarah Connor en masse -- or take the show-biz world by storm. Fortunately for us, the tricky flyers chose to embrace their flamboyant side at a tour-de-force 16-quad lightshow in Cannes, where they opened the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase. The soaring automatons pulled all their past tricks out of the bag, flying precisely with mirrors to bounce lights from below, all timed to dramatic music --which they also had a hand in controlling. The sparkly treat awaits right after the break.

Continue reading Robotic quadrotors' training now complete, proven with razzle-dazzle Cannes show (video)

Robotic quadrotors' training now complete, proven with razzle-dazzle Cannes show (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bad Posture tells you to sit up straight, replaces your mom with an Arduino

 
 

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via Engadget by Terrence O'Brien on 6/26/12

Bad Posture tells you to sit up straight, replaces your mom with an Arduino

At certain point in every geek's life, their mother gives up and stops yelling at them to sit up straight. If the lack of constant reminders to maintain good posture has you slouching and hunching, there are countless technological substitutes. Even a few nice DIY ones. But we've got to give Ellen Sundh props for the simplicity of her solution. While similar projects rely on accelerometers, which can be difficult for the budding hobbyist to work with, to monitor the angle of your body, Bad Posture sticks with a simple bend sensor to keep tabs on your spinal cord. The flexible plastic is arranged vertically in a fabric belt that also houses an Arduino, a Wave Shield from Adafruit and a push button for calibration. Sit at your optimal angle, press the button and you're ready to go. Bend too much and the Wave Shield plays a warning -- "bad posture!" Check out the video after the break to see it in action.

Continue reading Bad Posture tells you to sit up straight, replaces your mom with an Arduino

Bad Posture tells you to sit up straight, replaces your mom with an Arduino originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 14:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mars One project wants to put a reality show on Mars. No, seriously.

 
 

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via SlashGear by Mark Raby on 6/26/12

If you think there are too many reality shows on this planet, just wait. If a pioneering Dutch company has its way, you'll be watching people live on an entirely different planet in a little over a decade from now. The project is called Mars One, and it aims to send people to the Red Planet in the year 2023, for the enjoyment of us Earthlings. This is a legitimate project, but of course we're skeptical about whether or not it will actually happen.

Here's how it will work. The show will send four trained astronauts to Mars, and every two years they will be joined by new inhabitants. Everyone will be bound by a stipulation that they can never return to Earth, so the population will grow ever so slowly. Apparently at some point a bunch of cameras will be set up on the planet, streams of which will be edited for a reality show like no other. It's been described as being like the CBS show Big Brother.

An ambassador to the project, physicist Gerard 't Hooft, said, "This project seems to be the only way to fulfill humanity's dream to explore outer space. It is going to be an exciting experiment. Let's get started." The monumental funding task will be handled by years of media spectacles. The first scheduled launch to Mars for initial equipment delivery is 2016. Hopefully we can look back on this post four years from now and say that things are actually on schedule.

[via Space.com]


Mars One project wants to put a reality show on Mars. No, seriously. is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
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DC Comics arrive on Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble lets you watch, zoom the Wat...

 
 

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via Engadget by Brian Heater on 6/26/12

Image

When we initially did our Nook Tablet / Kindle Fire battle royal, the choice between the devices for comics fans largely came down to the preference between the Marvel and DC universes. The lines, however, are blurring. Thanks to today's announcement, Justice League fans should find as much to love in the Nook Tablet and Color as Avengers devotees. DC has brought more than 100 graphic novels to the aforementioned devices and Android tablets running the Nook app. Barnes & Noble also used the opportunity to announce the new Zoom View feature, which lets readers focus on individual panels -- functionality that sounds fairly similar to what Comixology offers in its own popular app. For more information about Crisis on Infinite Nooks, check out the press release after the break.

Continue reading DC Comics arrive on Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble lets you watch, zoom the Watchmen

DC Comics arrive on Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble lets you watch, zoom the Watchmen originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 02:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LIPC weapon combines lasers and lightning, proves soldiers are a bunch of nerds

A step closer to the las-rifle :P

 
 

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via Engadget by Terrence O'Brien on 6/26/12

LIPC weapon combines lasers and lightning, proves soldiers are a bunch of nerds

The problem with laser weapons is this -- they need a lot, a lot of power. Seriously. Some of those big, plane-mounted prototypes choke down enough juice to power a whole city. Not so with the Laser-Induced Plasma Channel weapon being developed by researchers at Picatinny Arsenal. While still using plenty of electricity, this more moderately specced laser is just powerful enough to strip electrons off the air molecules around it generating a thin filament of plasma. Its not the high-intensity laser pulse that does the damage, though. Instead, the channel of plasma is used as a conduit for a high-voltage blast of electricity. That laser-assisted bolt of lightning could disable vehicles, people and even IEDs. There are plenty of obstacles, including making the weapon rugged enough for battlefield use and reliable enough to keep the plasma channel from leading the blast of electricity back into the laser and damaging it. Now, if only we could find the video that still above was taken from.

LIPC weapon combines lasers and lightning, proves soldiers are a bunch of nerds originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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20120626

Google Build lets you play with Lego in Chrome

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via SlashGear by Ben Kersey on 6/26/12

Ready to waste the morning away? Google has partnered with Lego Australia to allow users to build objects using the popular plastic blocks right from within their browser. You can choose from a multitude of different building blocks, and build anything that you can think up. Not only that, but your creation isn't randomly floating around the internet, instead assigned a virtual plot of land in Australia using Google Maps.

Once you fire up Build you'll be able to see a zoomed out map of Australia. As you search the continent and zoom in to different spots, you'll see different creations from netizens that you can interact with or simply observe. If you want to go about building your own creation, you can choose your own plot of land or have the map randomly select somewhere in Australia.

After you're finished, your final build is submitted to Google for approval, just to make sure anything naughty doesn't slip through. Build has launched in Australia first, with New Zealand next on the list. After that, Google will open it up to even more countries so that you can build on more familiar territories.

[via The Next Web]


Google Build lets you play with Lego in Chrome is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
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