Filed under: Keepin it Real Nerdy
A new element being added to the periodic table is like that new kid who sat next to you in class that no one liked. You know, the one that always smelled like fritos, and always did horrible cartman impressions? Yea, it’s like that, but instead of his name being something like kevin, mike, or joe–it would be ”number four”
via BBC
“To create element 112, Professor Hofmann’s team used a 120m-long particle accelerator to fire a beam of charged zinc atoms (or zinc ions) at lead atoms. Nuclei of the two elements merged, or fused, to form the nucleus of the new element.
These very large and heavy nuclei are also very unstable. They begin to fall apart or “decay” very soon after being formed – within a few milliseconds, in this case.
This releases energy, which scientists can measure to find out the size of the decaying nucleus.
But such experiments produce very few successful fusions, and scientists need increasingly powerful accelerators to run experiments for longer and find the elusive, unstable elements.”"
As smart as scientists are, they suck real hard at making up awesome names.
In case you don’t get the title, you know how in movie trailers they’re always like, “She was the heir to a throne she didn’t want. He was from the outskirts of town. Now. Their two worlds. Will collide. Coming this summer…blah blah blah”
It’s kind of like that, but with two planets causing an impact so massive that it kills all life in one fell swoop. But don’t worry, you’ll be dead long before it happens..if that makes you feel any better.
“Astronomers calculate there is a tiny chance that Mars or Venus could collide with Earth – though it would not happen for at least a billion years.
The finding comes from simulations to show how orbits of planets might evolve billions of years into the future.
But the calculated chances of such events occurring are tiny.” BBC News
Filed under: In the News
There have been a little less than 30,000 known reports of Swine Flu. Whatever you do, don’t eat anything out of anyone’s anything.
via Washington Post
“The move to Phase 6, the highest level in WHO’s graduated scale of pandemic alerts, has been expected for weeks and in the opinion of many experts is overdue. By WHO’s definition, it means that the virus is showing “community-level transmission,” which means it is being passed from person to person without an easily traceable chain of infection, in two or more regions of the world.
WHO had been reluctant move the pandemic alert to its highest level because of fears that doing so would confuse the public and possibly trigger panic. Contributing to the reluctance has been evidence that the new H1N1 strain is far less virulent than most experts expected the next pandemic flu to be. It generally causes an infection that people can recover from at home without specific medical intervention.”
Fuck.
Filed under: In the News
We have the internet to thank for many things:
- Social Networking
- Wikipedia
- Downloadble Content
- Porn
If those aren’t enough, the internet has again extended its kindess and is now responsible for the 10% increase in sales throughout our market. Being face to face with someone is a horrible experience. You have to worry about body language, breath, content, and you probably have to do a fake smile or two. Thanks to the internet, we can cut out the middle man and just buy the shit we want, when we want to.
via Computer World
“As the automobile industry sheds jobs, it comes as good news that over the last decade or so the Internet has created 1.2 million jobs, many paying higher salaries than average, a new study finds.
Internet business contributes 2.1%, or $300 billion, to the total GDP (gross domestic product) of the U.S. And IT and related online business may be faring better in this recession than they did in the dotcom bubble of 2000-2002, still growing revenue but at slower pace.
Consumers are now making 10% of their retail purchases online, with the exception of groceries, on the Internet, and Internet-based advertising has increased four-fold since 2002 to more than $20 billion”
Now I won’t feel so bad for not wanting to go shopping with my mom.
What staying inside does to people
Filed under: Uncategorized
Some Real. Some Fake. One thing is for certain…we’re all screwed.
If you’ve used your telescope for anything else besides catching a glimpse of your hot neighbor’s boobs, or spying on criminals from your treehouse, then you probably watch The Notebook on a daily basis. Anyway, apparently it is now possible to view planets in other galaxies.
Coming your way from New Scientist
“We could find planets in other galaxies using today’s technology, according to a new simulation. The study gives credence to a tentative detection of a planet in Andromeda, our nearest large galactic neighbour.
The idea is to use gravitational microlensing, in which a distant source star is briefly magnified by the gravity of an object passing in front of it. This technique has already found several planets in our galaxy, out to distances of thousands of light years.
Extending the method from thousands to millions of light years won’t be easy, says Philippe Jetzer of the University of Zürich in Switzerland, but it should be possible.”
This will be useful when trying to find a new planet to populate. Hopefully lasers, spaceships, and hot aliens will be included. If not, I’ll make sure to bring a lot of tissues and lotion.
Not Attractive, Unless You Put that Mouth to Good Use
Foreclosures dropped 6%. What does that mean? It means that our housing market blows real hard (that’s what she said) It really bums me out that our economy is so deep in the hole, that our children’s children will be affected by the mistakes that we’ve made.
via CNN
“Lenders filed fewer foreclosure notices in May, but the total number of filings was still the third-highest monthly total on record.
One of every 398 households in the United States received some kind of filing, including notices of default, scheduled auctions or bank repossession, during May. That was a decline of 6% from April but an increase of 18% compared with May 2008.
And the ultimate type of foreclosure filing – bank repossessions – increased during the month, according to RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio.”
Hopefully things will start to improve as we recover from this financial disaster. In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy the finer things in life, like campfires, building lasting relationships, and a lot of streaming porn.
Filed under: Uncategorized
looks the same, but totally not the same
This seems to be the problem with Apple–they make too many new products before their older ones get established. I’m too hesitant to buy the latest Apple gear, fearful that it’ll be obselete/replaced in 3 months.
This new iPhone is chalk full of special features like a compass (wtf?), video camera, voice notes and control, and copy and pasting. Nice.
via tuaw
“What is interesting, though, is that Apple instead chose to name it ‘iPhone 3G S’, stating that the ‘S’ stands for faster speed. But even a quick perusal of the specs on Apple’s website will tell you that speed is far from the only improvement over the original 3G. Of course, there are the obvious features that Apple pointed out: video recording & editing, an auto-focus camera, voice control and dialing, and a digital compass, just to name a few.”
hit the link for more info http://www.apple.com/iphone/
Filed under: Uncategorized
Really Not That Cool
Remember all those scenes in movies where the nerdy, down trodden, lanky kid is mowing the lawn when all of a sudden a convertible full of jocks and a hot chick (that he has a crush on) rolls up and does a drive by armed with laughter, thus killing his self esteem and his boner? (Run on sentence) Well thanks to the folks at Husqvarna, those days may be coming to an end…actually no. This mower looks like if R2-D2 did it with a vacuum, and then their offspring did it with a tonka toy truck.
via engadget
“Concept cars are a dime a dozen around these parts — but concept lawnmowers? A little more rare, and the latest from Husqvarna looks to be about as closely related to that rusty John Deere in your shed as Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes McLaren F1 car is to your boss’s E-Class. It has paddles on the wheel for adjusting three independent mowing blades, a “sophisticated” LCD display that displays speed and obstacle proximity, and a rechargeable lithium-phosphate battery with enough staying power to trim your yard for two hours straight”
Are all those features necessary? Probably not, but we’re a species that likes to lavish in luxury, and by luxury I mean cutting grass for two hours without worrying about your lawn mower’s battery life.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I don’t know about you, but I always judge a book by it’s cover, especially if it has an Oprah book club sticker on it. The same rule applies for magazines. If it’s not some hot chick, a gun, or some hot chick with a gun, then I won’t bother looking at it. Here are the top 40 most “absurd” covers ever put out by TIME magazine.
via Reason Online
Hit the link for more
