Wired News is calling all Star Trek fans to contribute their Star Trek photos. They will then select the photos and use them for their front page gallery on September 8 as part of the Star Trek 40th anniversary. You can contribute your photos by posting to their Star Trek Submissions group on Flickr.
Dang! Those Russians sure know how to have fun. Pictures from the annual Bubble Baba Challenge (link goes to a Russian page with links to all the pictures) where Russian men and their inflatable sex dolls challenge each other to be the first couple to swim across the cold Vuoksa river near st. Petersburg. Reader xXx tells me that the first prize is a night for two (man and sex doll) at a luxury hotel. Of course, he is kidding.In Japanese there is also one way to memorize 9 planets. That is “Sui Kin Chi Ka Moku Do Ten Kai Mei (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto)” It may sound like Okyoh, but every Japanese people learns this at school.
Sui Suisei(水星) Mercury
Kin Kinsei(金星) Venus
Chi Chikyu(地球) Earth
Ka Kasei(火星) Mars
Moku Mokusei(木星) Jupiter
Do Dosei(土星) Saturn
Ten Tennousei(天王星) Uranus
Kai Kaiousei(海王星) Neptune
Mei Meiousei(冥王星) Pluto
Little People is a tiny street art project involving little hand-painted people, left in London to fend for themselves. I love it! Can't wait for the next pictures.
Some dudes built a remote control plane out of empty beer cans. Not sure if that thing can really fly but I do wish someone would do one out of Tiger Beer cans.
On Monday, I blogged about The Story of Menstruation, a cartoon made by Disney and Kotex. Some of you then sent me the link to the History of Kotex. Thanks to you fellas, now I know that Kotex was created by army nurses who found that creped wadding which was used as bandages during World War I, was also suitable for feminine care.At the end of three years of learning Chinese, I hadn't yet read a single complete novel. I found it just too hard, impossibly slow, and unrewarding. Newspapers, too, were still too daunting. I couldn't read an article without looking up about every tenth character, and it was not uncommon for me to scan the front page of the People's Daily and not be able to completely decipher a single headline. Someone at that time suggested I read The Dream of the Red Chamber and gave me a nice three-volume edition. I just have to laugh. It still sits on my shelf like a fat, smug Buddha, only the first twenty or so pages filled with scribbled definitions and question marks, the rest crisp and virgin. After six years of studying Chinese, I'm still not at a level where I can actually read it without an English translation to consult.
1. NTUC Income received 300 claims for stolen vehicles in 2004, 387 claims in 2005, and 200 claims for 6 months of 2006. The number is increasing each year.
2. In general, the theft rate for Toyota RAV4, Toyota Harrier, Lexus and motorcycles are higher than other models.
3. We have settled about 95% of the claim, after the police has completed its investigation that it is a genuine theft case. We will settle the claim within 7 working days from the police investigation report.
A roulette wheel pops onto the screen of automatic teller machines when customers of Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank Ltd finish transferring funds. A lucky spin and the customer wins 1,000 yen ($8.50).
"Using ATMs is impersonal and lacks communication," said a spokesman for the bank which is based in Gifu prefecture, central Japan. "We wanted to add some fun."
The new service will start from September 13 at 134 of the bank's branches.
The roulette game is Ogaki Kyoritsu's second shot at jazzing up its ATM services. It launched an on-screen slot machine game last August, in which customers may win prizes of an ATM fee waiver or 1,000 yen after withdrawing money.
Here's a nice tutorial that teaches you how to create your own planet using your panorama photos with the help of Photoshop. Crop your photo to make left and right border fit. Rotate it 180° and then rescale into a square image. Use "Polar" Filter and then do some digital editing to hide the stitch borders. Simple aye? Once you have created your own planet, you can post it on Flickr and add it to the Create Your Own Planets photoset.
It seems like we have an action-dominated winners' list this year with 24, Monk and Law & Order walking away with a few of the biggies. I guess soppy drama series are deemed as "lesser" by the judges. It took the last season of Sex and City to finally clinch the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy for SJP and Cynthia Nixon.(Thanks pinkdior)
I don't understand why. The writing on these shows are just as excellent and personally, i feel it's harder to write and act in a comedy. You can't be overly slapstick - it's not a cheesy Hong Kong movie! - and you've got to nail the pathos of the situations that the characters are facing.
I guess these so called "soppy" shows speak more to me . Yeah 24 is absolutely gripping but it doesn't quite affect me like a thoughtfully written episode of Grey's Anatomy does, such as the recently aired eppy about a bomb trapped in the the body of a patient. Btw, Christina Ricci was brilliant in that too.
Dubbed the National Memory Test, the quiz attracted 29,500 people who were tested on tasks such as remembering a shopping list, recalling names, faces and occupations, long-term recall and spotting differences between two photographs.Click here for the results and here for the actual test. Go ahead. Try it out.
Those who took part in the test were asked to fill in a survey on a range of habits, such as alcohol consumption, television viewing and reading habits.
The results found no differences between men and women, with the same scores for both groups on all the tasks. But it found television viewing had the main impact on results.
"Turn off the box, or at least don't view too much of it," the survey results said, adding those who watched less than one hour a day performed better at all memory tasks".
Those who drank less than two alcoholic drinks a day performed better at all memory tasks.
People who did crosswords were better at remembering shopping lists and recalling names, while eating fish once a week improved the ability to remember shopping lists.
With 20 inches height and 4.5 kg weight, Khagendra Thapamagar of Baglung, western Nepal, had his name registered in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s shortest man leaving behind his competitor, a Jordanian, with 25.5 inches height, The Himayan Times daily said...He also has a website put up by his supporters but it is currently down because it exceeded its bandwidth limit. This is what I can get from Google Cache:
Khagendra’s mother Dhan Maya said her son started moving around only when he was 8 and his physical growth stopped at the age of 11, the daily said.
Born in the country of Mt. Everest as most possibly the shortest and the lightest person in the world, Mr. Khagendra Thapa Magar was out of the mass media until Mr. Min Bahadur Rana Magar, an inhabitant of Sub metropolitan City Pokhara-8, got him exposed through the latter's tireless effort and perseverance. Whith the purpose of getting him exposed to the public, he had been exhibited for 20 days at wesern ……………. ltd. Business complex licated at Prithvi Chowk, Pokhara, from Falgun 25, 2062. With the special effort of Min Bahadur Rana Magar and the guardianship as well as care of Mr. Mana Bahadur Thapa Magar, Mr. Mohan Thapa Magar, B.B. Ale 'Sindhulia' and Dhana Kumari Rana Magar in order to protect and promote Mr. Khagendra Thapa Magar, an institution named Khagendra Thapa Magar Foundation has been registered in the World Record, Gul Mohammad, an inhabitant of India, is the shortest person in the world with his height 22.5" up to this date. However, this foundation, by breaking the world record set by Gul Mahammad, is set to establish two records in two genres: the shortest and the lightest person in the world.
Robot 1968 is all about vintage toy robots. You can browse through the list of vintage and tin toy robots for sale on the site. The owner of the site also provides interesting information on the vintage robots such as this one, a 1960 Japanese made, Smoking Spaceman toy robot that walks, moves arms back and forth and breathes smoke from the mouth! How cool is that?!
Remember The Electric Company, an educational American children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop in the 70s? The original cast included the likes of Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby! Over at The Electric Company website, you can download wallpapers, watch clips and listen to the songs of the show. They even have a blog too. Oh, don't forget to blast your speakers when you reach the site because you'll be welcomed by their famous "Hey you guyyys!" theme.
Dude has a massive collection of bad album covers. Here are volume one and volume two, both on Flickr. I like the 'Music To Keep Your Husband Happy' album cover. The album comes with special instruction booklets too. Hehe.One third of China's land mass was affected by acid rain last year, Sheng Huaren, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said in a report to top legislators on Saturday.
Sheng told NPC Standing Committee members that in some regions of the country all rainfall was acidic.
His report was based on lawmakers' inspection of environmental protection efforts in 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities from May to June.
With 26 million tons of sulphur dioxide discharged last year 27 per cent more than in 2000 China has become the world's biggest sulphur dioxide polluter.
Acid rain poses a major threat to soil and food safety, he said.
Sheng said sulphur dioxide emissions were double the acceptable environmental limit, and coal-burning power stations and coking plants were the main culprits.
According to the report, nearly 650 out of 680 coking plants in North China's Shanxi, the country's major coal mining province, discharged excessive sulphur dioxide.
Reader Spluch writes, in response to my previous post about the cool flash animation of a battle between the animator and animation (stick figure), "In this game called Fight Man, you control a stick figure in fighting other stick figures with several interesting moves – punch, kick and throw. Watch as your character performs various stunts such as climbing up shelves, hanging on to a lamp shade while kicking the enemies and much more. Oh, and catch an enemy peeing by surprise too! All these action takes place around computer monitors and accessories. In addition to being able to kick ass, the animation is so cool and fun to watch."
Try wearing one of these "I AM NOT A TERRORIST" (in Arabic) t-shirts at the airport, cross your fingers and hope the airport authorities do not stop you. It would be funny if they do, and then you try to explain to them what the word in Arabic really means. I reckon, they will then look for an Arabic translator to find out what's written on the t-shirt. Ha! Ha! Ok seriously, don't do it unless you want to miss your flight.It is impossible to count every star in the night sky. The method you will use will allow you to get very close to the actual number. This method is like those used in surveys. Imagine that you want to find out how many of the students in your school would support a longer school day. It would be very difficult to ask every student in a large school. Your friends' opinions probably wouldn't represent all of the students accurately. If you stood at the door of your cafeteria and asked every 20th student, you could probably get an accurate survey. At a very big school, you might choose every 30th student. Each student was chosen at random (by chance) to help your survey represent everyone.
To count the stars you will choose 10 parts of the sky at random (by chance) and count the stars. Then you will find the average number of stars counted in each observation. (For example, if you observed zero stars in one count and 100 stars in another count, the average is 50 stars per count.)
But, the average number of the stars per count isn't the same as the total number of stars in the sky! Imagine that the average number of stars per count is 50. What fraction of the sky did you observe each time? If you observed 1/10th of the sky each time, then there are about 500 stars (10 times 50). If you observed 1/100th of the sky in each observation, there are about 5,000 stars (100 times 50).
Viewers can watch how events unfolded starting at 8:30 a.m., minutes before the first reports of an airplane hitting the World Trade Center. The feed will run in real time, as the network showed it five years ago, until midnight.
Online viewers will be able to watch live reports of memorial services through one of the feeds. So that viewers won’t accidentally stumble upon graphic footage from 2001, the replay feed will be covered with a notice instructing users to click only if they want to watch.
"Anousheh Ansari has been officially named to the Soyuz TMA-9 primary crew," Space Adventures, working in partnership with Russia's space agency Roskosmos to launch space tourists, said in a statement.
"The first female spaceflight participant will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 14, 2006, en route to the International Space Station, along with the Expedition 14 crew members: NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin."
The famous Selera Rasa Adam Road No. 1 Nasi Lemak has kindly consented to donate $1 to Mercy Relief for every plate of nasi lemak it sells over the weekend. Get your nasi lemak from either(Thanks Shy)
A) Adam Road Food Centre Stall 2, or
B) Sedapura Food Centre #01-12 at the Malay Village in Geylang Serai
You can even pre-order by calling 9843 4509 or 9622 5464!
The money raised will help Mercy Relief cover its operating costs. Mercy Relief devoted its efforts in 2005 towards the Asian Tsunami and the major earthquake in Pakistan. Other disasters that Mercy Relief has responded to include the Mount Merapi eruption, the Jogjakarta earthquake and the West Java Tsunami.
The Mouth Gallery claims that it has the largest collection of mouth pictures on the internet. Well, that's a lot of mouth pictures alright. Go submit yours now.
This is definitely the mother of all swiss knives! It has an incredible number of tools - 85 to be exact - from a nail file, nail cleaner, a corkscrew, adjustable pliers with wire crimper and cutter to a golf shoe spike wrench. You do need a huge pocket to carry it along with you though.relle relle hope by next wk, it ll b the last for me to c him on tv!! cos its relle hurting my ears n my eyes to actualli haf to see n hear him sing on national tv!!kickthestone agrees that Joakim can't sing but symphathizes with him. From kickthestone:
manz.. donchu feel ashamed or embarrased aft all the media, the host, even the judges keep insulting u tat u cant sing for goodness sake, tat u still up there.. doing wat u do best?!!? which is to sing horribly?!?! (k maybe not sing..but shout or scream or mumble or wateva u call it monkey joakim)
can the tv producers DO SOMETHING BOUT TIS?!?! like jus kick him out of the show..tho he didnt get the lowest no. of votes, but HECK! JUS GET HIM OUT OF THERE PLEASE FOR LORD MOTHER CREATURE SAKE!!! urghhh!! in the name of SINGAPORE LOCAL MUSIC INDUSTRY..KICK HIM OUT ASAP!!!!
Actually I pretty much sympathize with Joakim. I mean hello try having almost the whole of Singapore scorning you for getting this far. Initially it's 'OMG he totally cannot sing, he's getting through with only his looks!', but after sometime you start to think 'this is afterall open to public voting, and so if he gets this far, he probably has thousands of people that love him enough!' Poor him, I think the critics and judges are a little too harsh. I'd have cried if I were in his predicament! Kudos for that anyway.
Look at Season 1 and you know Singapore is tone deaf and or goes for looks, at least for the majority of it. So what's new? Come next season, nobody even remembers or bothers about who you are anymore.Cailing is super pissed that Joakim is still in the competition and she cringes everytime he sings and wants him to stop wasting everyone's time and money. From Sweet Sedation:
I'm like pissed that Mr Gomez is still IN the goddamn competition.shasushimi thinks that the reason why Joakim is still in the competition is because Singaporeans are getting deaf these days. He feels everyone should vote for talent and not looks. From shasushimi:
If he becomes Singapore Idol, I will join Singapore Idol next time. If HE can make it so far with his bad singing, I can too. Yes, I can't sing. But that's not the point right?
You can either sing or you cannot sing. Singing is something which comes naturally. You can't keep promising those poor gullible girls that you will improve. You can't keep stirring up so much hatred and angst in Singapore.Whenever it's your turn to sing, I cringe. Whenever I hear the bad comments you get, I feel sorry for you and your fans. Pathetic! And why do I say so? Because, for the very simple fact that YOU ARE WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME AND MONEY. You sickass. You actually believe that your singing will improve? It's like saying George Bush will stop the war. It's like saying that I can become an astronaut or a fighter pilot. It will never happen.
joakim, i noe him personally...i have to comment him on having the balls to be on stage and perform. but his not the type of guy who can sing! his pitch is totally flat, he spoils almost every song he sing. 1st song, geek in pink, i dun even noe wtf is he singing la..2nd, tt "i'll be there for you" spoilt it too..3rd "calling" by gurmit singh, gurmit's not a professional singer, dun think he have professional training b4, but he bloody hell sang tt song better than joakim at least 10 times more..lastly, the song 'xiao wei' by wang pin yuan, i dunnoe wat to say la..juz wanna turn the volume to zero. i'm sorry if i offended u ppl out there by giving comments here on my blog but really...open ur ears and listen.And what does the most hated man in Singapore have to say? On his Singapore Idol blog, Joakim says he has had it with all the friends and family insults. From Joakim Gomez:
I've let people know and i sold it to national tv that i know vocally i'm still behind the rest but i love performing and i enjoy and in the vocal department i'm still trying my best to go out there and do it, even though it's shaky, and pitch - Shaky flat perfect kinda a thing, i've really just learnt to block myself off now from whatever they say.Dude, you are on national tv for goodness sake and if you can't take the insults and bullies, you should think twice about wanting to be a celebrity especially a singer in a singing competition who can't sing for nuts. You said you love performing but we don't want to see you perform. Dude, people hate you. It is a fact. Do yourself a favour. Next week when you come on stage, just stand still and don't sing at all. Better yet, quit. We have suffered enough.
So much for recording and listening to myself over and over again, so much for people saying that i actually have a tone but i always don't do well on performance nights.
ANYWAY , BIG NEWS I WAS IN THE BOTTOM 2 SO STOP COMPLAINING. lol, i'm just taking everything as a bonus now, i'm out there to enjoy myself.
I'm alright, i'm okay, i think i've endured weeks of spits, middle fingers, threats, boos, and laughter to actually give a damn about all this. i think i've finally grown up and i owe it all to the Singapore idol Team. and everyone in the media industry. I finally learnt what it is like to be in hell and actually live to tell the tale.
The decision establishes three main categories of objects in our solar system.But not all astronomers agree with the approved resolution. Some are unhappy with the wording for it, with one astronomer calling it "a farce". They are even calling the astronomy community to overturn the decision. Ah, astronomy is so exciting.
* Planets: The eight worlds from Mercury to Neptune.
* Dwarf Planets: Pluto and any other round object that "has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit, and is not a satellite."
* Small Solar System Bodies: All other objects orbiting the Sun.
Pluto and its moon Charon, which would both have been planets under the initial definition proposed Aug. 16, now get demoted because they are part of a sea of other objects that occupy the same region of space. Earth and the other eight large planets have, on the other hand, cleared broad swaths of space of any other large objects.
"Pluto is a dwarf planet by the ... definition and is recognized as the prototype of a new category of trans-Neptunian objects," states the approved resolution.
I'm dying to know how the Singapore Idol judges honestly feel about this competition, about the 6 remaining contestants being the '6 best singers' in the competition. They must be kicking themselves in their faces and asking themselves 'How did Joakim appear in the top 28?' Come on guys you gotta admit Joakim's singing is full of crap (If he could make it to the top 6 by singing like that I could make it to the top 12 at least), so the judges actually have themselves to blame for putting Joakim into the top 28 in the first place.If I have my own way, I will get rid of all the remaining contestants and crown Hady Mirza the Singapore Idol right away. And oh, I will give Idol judge Jacintha the sack too. I have no idea what she's saying most of the time. She's like high on drugs or something.
I think the date was planned because of September 11th, 9-11, when they bombed the World Trade Centers with two airplanes. I think they planned it at that time and have worked all this time to bring it about. I think their exact date was planned. Think about it. 9-11, the day after. It's going to be a big joke on the Arab world, but I'm going to tell them about it before it takes place.I think Mr Yisrayl must have been drinking too much of this. And I thought Nostradamus was nuts.
Now, if you still don't understand, we're going to have it in The Prophetic Word, Yahweh willing. It will be lined out there for you too. There are no doubts in my mind that this thing is right. I know it's right. I know these wars are not in a future day, they're in our day. Our job is to warn the world of what is going to take place.
Sunlight begins to creep onto the screen, revealing a STRANGE SYMBOL. Like a complex glyph. Slowly, we WIDEN to reveal...Go download it here (PDF file).
It's one of MANY. Etched onto a metallic surface. The symbols can only have come from an ALIEN CIVILIZATION.
We hear a VOICE: powerful, noble. Though we don't know it yet, it's the voice of OPTIMUS PRIME:
OPTIMUS
Our planet was destroyed by the ravage of war... a war waged between the legions who worship chaos, and those of us who follow freedom...
Finally, astronomers could be homing in on a definition of the word planet. After a day of public bickering in Prague, followed by negotiations behind closed doors, the latest draft resolution was greeted with a broadly friendly reception.Previously:
If accepted on Thursday, it would be bad news for Pluto, which would no longer be a full-fledged planet.
The crucial change in "draft c" is that a planet must be the dominant body in its orbital zone, clearing out any little neighbours. Pluto does not qualify because its orbit crosses that of the vastly larger Neptune.
Hundreds chanted hymns in the northern city of Lucknow and the eastern city of Kolkata and went into hysterics when the milk held against the idols disappeared.Even Indian Gods are thirsty. Must be the weather.
"It is amazing, Lord Ganesha drank milk from my hands. Now he will answer all my prayers," said Surama Dasgupta, a middle-aged woman in Kolkata.
The frenzy began late on Sunday in some northern cities and soon spread across the country, including the capital New Delhi, even as rationalists and non-believers called it mass hysteria.
A similar mania gripped the country in 1995 when thousands of Hindus fed milk in spoons to marble idols of Lord Ganesha.
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón is a brilliant comic book style potrayal of the events of 9/11. The book is based on The 9/11 Commission Report. Slate is excerpting a chapter a day through Sept. 7. Go read it online.
Dude takes pictures of his underwear collection (he models them too). I think he really needs to get some nicer ones, preferably boxers!
Eric Leuliette is one hell of a bookworm. He has kept an impressive list of books that he read since 1974 - a total of 2121 books so far! Over at his website WhatHaveIRead.net, you can view interesting stats such as all the titles of the books he read, the authors, the number of pages he read per year, etc. Dang! I realised something after looking at his site - I have not been reading enough.
``The bank's preference is that civil society groups should be able to peacefully express their views outside of the conference facility in a way that doesn't cause disruption,'' World Bank Singapore representative Peter Stephens said in an interview. ``We have our preference and Singapore has its laws, so we're trying to find an area that's acceptable to all.''
Singapore forbids the public assembly of more than four people without police permits and is unused to the mass rallies associated with global trade and finance summits. At the 2005 World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong, police used tear gas to quell crowds and arrested more than 1,000 people, while 600 were injured during IMF meetings in Prague in 2000 after cobblestones were pulled from the streets and flung at police.
``We have made maximum effort to facilitate the involvement of civil society organizations, within the framework of our laws,'' the Singapore government's committee organizing the meetings said in an e-mailed response to questions.
``We are unable to waive the current rules which prohibit outdoor demonstrations and processions, so as not to compromise the high level of security that will be in place during the conference,'' it said.
It was my first time at the National Day Rally. Indeed, it was an eye-opener to see so many high-powered individuals congregate at a single location. Normally at events, there's only one Guest-of-Honour. At the rally, in every direction you look, you see a minister, an MP or a senior civil servant.
It was a speech that somewhat cemeted the fact that we're firmly into PM Lee's prime ministership. That he wants to steady the ship. Instead of introducing several policies, PM's speech was more of a pep-talk this time, to explain some of the actions the government has taken and to chart the general direction of Singapore's future. Nothing concrete, yet entertaining and motivating as usual. Spoke to several of our nations political leaders. SM Goh commented that I look young for my age, certainly not an uncommon comment on me. I felt that Chris de Souza is an affable, young MP who's genuinely concerned about the inclusiveness about our society.
Sanjay, 24, has lived with the condition since birth, concealing his shame from all. But now, the young man is contemplating matrimony and wants one of the organs removed.Hmmm, maybe it is getting a bit too crowded down there aye?
Says a doctor in the hospital, "It is an extremely rare condition. More so because two fully functional penes is unheard of in even medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary."
IE 5.0:
You only use your computer for IM, email and Myspace. You stubbornly refuse to upgrade that ancient Win 98 box that you are using because you don’t need some fancy computer and in your opinion the one you have works just fine. You also probably don’t use antivirus or antispyware either. You just let your son/nephew/friend clean it out every month or so.
IE 6.0:
You probably don’t know what a “browser” is and you think Internet is IE. You have no clue about technology, and you are generally afraid of computers. You also use your machine only for IM, chat, email and myspace. Your friends keep telling you about that “Fried Fox” thingy but you don’t really understand this stuff and never really had time to look into it.
On Saturday, I blogged about the amazing flash animation of a battle between animator and animation. Here's something just as cool. The Icon War: a battle between icons on a Windows desktop. I like it that Diablo wins.
30 Seconds is a program by The Condom Project that engages young people worldwide to create 30-second video clips of condoms used in a non-sexual way. Each video features a story that can be told without dialogue, relying only on visual images to convey the meaning. This program is currently operating in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Thailand and USA. You can view the videos here.
Argh! Why is it women to have menstration?! The pain is killing us! DarN!!! Why must it be a monthly thingy!?(Thanks xXx)
Feel so weak. Whole body in pain. Cant sleep well. Hurts LOADS! GRRR! I hate to be woman! Rather 2 years of sufferings in NS than suffering from this pain from decades years!!
Guys are insensitive to our pain. It's not like tummy ache that kind ok! It's worst!
I feel like crying! *Sob Sob*
Is there a way out? Perhaps. There is one other reasonable option available to astronomers, and that is to realize that the word "planet" need not have a scientific definition. Consider it this way: if the word planet is suddenly redefined to mean either 8 or 53, how will it affect astronomy? Not one tiny bit whatsoever. Astronomers like me will continue to go to telescopes and study these objects to learn where they came from and what they are made out of whether they are called "planets", "Kuiper belt objects", or "batholiths." For astronomers, this argument is purely semantic. Who is affected, then? I would argue that it is the public, it is our culture, that would be affected, and, in fact, this is why this is the one astronomical argument, out of the many many many that are out there, that anyone actually seems to care about. In light of this realization, perhaps it makes sense to have a cultural definition of the word planet, rather than a scientific definition.Previously:
This is what happens when your animation goes wild on you. This flash animation of a battle between the animator and animation (stick figure) took three months to complete. It is definitely one of the best I've seen. Who will win? Go take a look.On Friday, another definition, put forward by a group led by Julio Fernandez of the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, received some support. It includes the clause that a planet also has to be "by far the largest body in its local population".Previously:
So Pluto would be out, because the 2300-kilometre-wide body is similar in size to many other objects in the same region, the chilly Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune. There would be only eight planets in the solar system, unless someone finds another really big one out there somewhere.
Some scientists had qualms about the sheer number of planets in the original scheme. Many of the icy objects in the Kuiper Belt are probably round, so we would soon end up with dozens of planets. Eventually there could be 200, according to Caltech astronomer Mike Brown, who has discovered several of these objects.
Tottenham Hotspur
If Martin Jol can repeat even a fraction of the improvement he brought to Spurs in his first season as boss, then they could snatch a top four spot.
Right-winger Aaron Lennon and centre-back Michael Dawson are fast-improving England regulars of the future, while new £10.9million striker Dimitar Berbatov should be a much better targetman than Mido.
Michael Carrick's exit to Manchester United could be just a minor aggravation as Ivory Coast anchorman Didier Zokora and the all-round talent of teenager Tom Huddlestone have joined what is already a formidable batch of central midfielders.
Jermain Defoe is itching to displace 16-goal top scorer Robbie Keane in attack, showing the keen rivalry for places throughout the side.
But, despite the presence of England No1 Paul Robinson, defender Ledley King needs to overcome his injuries if Spurs are to at least match last season's fifth place - their first top-six finish since 1990.
- Mr. Orci said, "every society has that noble king. That King Arthur."The full line up is as follows. Autobots: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ratchet and Ironhide. Decepticons: Megatron, Starscream, Brawl, Bonecrusher, Barracade, Scorponok, Frenzy and Blackout. My only complain so far is that the Decepticons outnumber the Autobots in the movie. Would be nice to see more Autobots.
- Bumblebee is the "same underdog, same G1 character we know and love." and that despite being a Chevrolet Camaro "The clothes don't make the man." Be aware that Hasbro had approached BMW to make a Bumblebee Alternator/Binal-Tech toy but they declined as they did not want to be associated with war toys. I am betting that policy extended to the movie.
- Jazz's attitude is "can't do something with style it's not worth doing at all."
- Rachet continues to be the medic of the group but will not match is Gen One alt mode (good call, his alt mode was ugly even then).
- Ironhide remains the gutsy muscle of the group (hopefully new alt mode too) and make "any Transformer bust an O-ring just with his stare."
- Megs will be explored beyond just the usual evil, destroy this and that mentality.
- Starscream will continue to try "to best Megatron."
No. This ain't the work of aliens. Firefox fans created this giant Firefox crop circle that measures 220 feet in diameter. It took them two weeks of planning and they completed it within 24 hours. The folks behind the project have a nice documentation on how they did it and a photo gallery.
Star Trek: New Voyages has got to be the leading Star Trek fan production on the Internet. It first hit the the fan realm in 2004 and has become a continuing part of Star Trek history and future. The web series tells the story of the continuing voyages of Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701 as seen in the 1966-69 television series, Star Trek.
Q: The Earth’s moon is spherical. Is the Moon now eligible to be called a “planet”?(Thanks phi824)
A: No. The Moon is a satellite of the Earth. The reason the Moon is called a “satellite” instead of a “planet” is because the common centre of gravity between the Earth and Moon (called the “barycentre”) resides below the surface of the Earth.
Q: Jupiter and Saturn, for example, have large spherical satellites in orbit around them. Are these large spherical satellites now to be called planets?
A: No. All of the large satellites of Jupiter (for example, Europa) and Saturn (for example, Titan) orbit around a common centre of gravity (called the “barycentre”) that is deep inside of their massive planet. Regardless of the large size and shapes of these orbiting bodies, the location of the barycentre inside the massive planet is what defines large orbiting bodies such as Europa, Titan, etc. to be “satellites” rather than planets.
Q: Why is Pluto-Charon a “double planet” and not a “planet with a satellite”?
A: Both Pluto and Charon each are large enough (massive enough) to be spherical. Both bodies independently satisfy the definition of “planet”. The reason they are called a “double planet” is that their common centre of gravity is a point that is located in free space outside the surface of Pluto. Because both conditions are met: each body is “planet-like” and each body orbits around a point in free space that is not inside one of them, the system qualifies to be called a “double planet.”
Vegetarians will love this picture collection of vegan lunches packed to go in actual bento boxes, tupperware type, lunch jars, Laptop Lunches, etc. They are all so beautiful that I don't mind converting to Veganism. On second thought, maybe not.
Here's an interesting guide on how to make your own survival kit out of an Altoids tin. I'm quite surprised at the amount of items you can stuff into such a small tin. And oh yes, don't leave home without it.
Dell has identified a potential issue associated with certain batteries sold with Dell Latitude™, Inspiron™, XPS™ and Dell Precision Mobile Workstation™ notebook computers. In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and other regulatory agencies, Dell is voluntarily recalling certain Dell-branded batteries with cells manufactured by Sony and offering free replacements for these batteries. Under rare conditions, it is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could pose a risk of fire.Affected Dell users in Singapore can call 1-800-394-7439.
Potentially affected batteries were sold with the following models of Dell notebook computers or separately as secondary batteries:
* Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810
* Inspiron: 500M, 510M, 600M, 700M, 710M, 6000, 6400, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 9400, E1505, E1705
* Precision: M20, M60, M70, M90
* XPS: XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170, XPS M1710
In addition, these batteries may have also been provided in response to service calls. The batteries were shipped to customers between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006. The words "DELL" and "Made in Japan" or "Made in China" or "Battery cell made in Japan, Assembled in China" are printed on the back of the batteries.
The proposal, which sources tell SPACE.com is gaining broad support, tries to plug a big gap in astronomy textbooks, which have never had a definition for the word "planet." It addresses discoveries of Pluto-sized worlds that have in recent years pitched astronomers into heated debates over terminology.
* The asteroid Ceres, which is round, would be recast as a dwarf planet in the new scheme.
* Pluto would remain a planet and its moon Charon would be reclassified as a planet. Both would be called "plutons," however, to distinguish them from the eight "classical" planets.
* A far-out Pluto-sized object known as 2003 UB313 would also be called a pluton.
There is NO restriction on the carriage of liquids, gels and aerosols in hand-carry luggage for all flights departing from Changi Airport. However, passengers should take note of the following restrictions:(Thanks S. Min)
1. Passengers travelling on US carriers (namely United Airlines and Northwest Airlines) must not carry liquids, gels and aerosols in their hand-carry luggage.
2. Passengers travelling on any airline to the US and Canada (either directly or via a stop-over in another country) must not carry liquids, gels and aerosols in their hand-carry luggage.
3. Passengers travelling to the UK and India to connect to another flight should note that there are restrictions on the size of hand-carry luggage (for the UK only) and the carriage of liquids, gels and aerosols (for UK and India) in hand-carry luggage when departing from airports in the UK and India.
Hence, passengers travelling on the above mentioned flights must check-in all liquids, gels and aerosols in their checked-in luggage.
I think only hardcore Hello Kitty fans can appreciate something like the Kitty Trance (don't forget to blast your speakers). Kitty Trance is actually a dance CD released by Sanrio. You can listen to some of its tracks here. Please god, don't let them play these in our clubs.
Google really knows how to treat their workers well. To beat the hot weather in California, they got their chef to work with an ice cream manufacturer to make their own Google Ice Cream! It has a scoop of ice cream between two old-fashioned oatmeal cookies dipped in chocolate. And best of all, it is trans-fat-free!
The tapes appear to have been sent to the US National Archives, before being returned to Nasa, which stored them at its Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
"I just think this is what happens when you have a large government bureaucracy that functions for decade after decade," said Keith Cowing, editor of the website Nasa Watch.
"It's not malicious or intentional, but I think it's unfortunate that Nasa doesn't have maybe just one more person whose job it is to look back at its history."
A Nasa spokesman said: "We're trying to track them down through the paperwork created at the time - but it's 35 years ago, so it's a challenge."
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon has accused Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of showing "complete disrespect to our people" over a visit planned today to a controversial war shrine.Australia too, had called the visit disrespectful to the dead from other nations. From The Australian:
Mr Ban, who is in Australia for bilateral meetings, said he was frustrated and angry at Mr Koizumi's decision to visit the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours Japan's war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals, despite protests from Japan's neighbours.
"It is going to be a complete disrespect for our people and our country," Mr Ban told The Australian in an exclusive interview in Sydney yesterday.
"It's against the wishes and appeals and urgings of the peoples of South Korea and China, and many others."
"From Australia's point of view we understand the prime minister of Japan wanting to show respect to Japanese soldiers killed in the second world war, whatever the rights and wrongs of the second world war and we (Australia) have very strong views about that history," he (Australia Foreign Minister Downer) said during a photo-opportunity with the South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon.The Japanese Prime Minister has said that his visit to the shrine was to express his condolences to all the war dead but critics see his visit as a failure for Japan to face up to its WWII atrocities. The shrine itself is a symbol of Japanese ignorance. From Reuters:
"Our concern has been the presence of the remains of Class A war criminals also in the Yasakuni shrine and I said to the Japanese prime minister - that's what makes people around the region and around the world feel uncomfortable, not the paying of respect to soldiers who died in the second world war but the fact that included in the shrine are the remains of several Class A war criminals."
"He (Koizumi) told me, he understood that point of view but that in Japan it wasn't possible to separate souls in a way we might understand in our own culture.
"Of course what makes us uncomfortable about this issue, is the presence of the Class A war criminals."
The shrine, which played a central role in the wartime state religion that helped mobilize the nation to fight in the name of a divine emperor, considers 14 wartime leaders convicted by an Allied tribunal as Class A war criminals to be "martyrs".Japan should face up to WWII facts and learn from its past mistakes. Stopping the shrine visits in the future will be a good step in that direction. From The Japan Times:
A museum on the shrine's grounds depicts the Pacific war as one Japan was forced to fight in self-defense and has been criticized for ignoring atrocities committed by Japanese.
In Japan, the anniversary of the war's end should serve not only as a memorial to the sufferings of the Japanese during the war years but also as a reminder of the sufferings inflicted on other peoples as a result of its wartime behavior. To accomplish this, Japanese leaders must demonstrate greater efforts to learn from historical facts.
It would not be unreasonable to deduce from Mr. Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni a callousness toward the feelings of peoples who suffered at the hands of Japanese militarism. This attitude could just stem from his ignorance of the ideological role that Yasukuni played in mobilizing Japan for modern warfare. As for the remarks on a preemptive capability, they could be attributed to the lack of knowledge of what a real war was, is and would be like. The anniversary should be a day for pondering how best to turn Japan into a true peace-loving nation.
17. Limit time on Digg, Delicious, news sites and blogs. I don’t think I need to say too much about this. There are so many sites on the Internet worth looking at, including this site ;) . Digg, Delicious, news and blogs are great from an interest perspective, but they can really take you away from the work you should be working on. Try to limit going to these sites during the working day. If you really have to, try doing it during your lunch time. No, you don’t need to have your finger on the pulse every single minute of the day…
Sanrio's new Hello Kitty Platinum Plus Visa credit card. I'm speechless.(Thanks Rob)
80 MPH. Flux dispersal coils emit blue light as the car begins to phase-shift from standard space-time.
81 MPH. Spent plasma begins to vent from rear dispersal coils. Phase shift continues although vehicle still exists in standard space-time.
82 MPH. Phase induction array mounted on top of time machine aligns the phase shift with photonic energy. Dispersal coils are irradiated and bright blue.
83 MPH. Spatial interference energy begins to form as a result of focused photonic energy and the pending phase shift through space-time. Photons begin to encircle vehicle.
84 MPH. Spent plasma begins to vent from front dispersal coils (around tire area). Plasma emitting this low near the tires will allow the vehicle to pass through a temporal rift without damaging the tires...
Flash animations illustrating Chaos, Nuclear, Classical Mechanics and other Physics content. This one on the left is a demonstration of circular polarisation generated from a linearly polarised electromagnetic wave by a quarter-wave plate. And I have no idea what I just wrote.
Over at Cybertron Alliance, you can read the classic Transformers 'Find Your Fate' story books (HTML version). I used to love reading these kind of books (also known as Choose Your Own Adventure or Pick A Path) when I was a boy. 'Find Your Fate books' are really exciting to read. You start off by reading a few pages and then the book asks you what you want to do next. You choose an option and then the books tells you to turn to a certain page and you continue reading from there to see what happens next.
Unlike the big movies from Hollywood this summer, there are no pirates, animated cars or mutants making a last stand in the North Korean movie billed as a "close companion of life".
North Korea's student girl works with her younger sister in pursuit of scientific endeavors. Through their work they overcome hardships, better understand their parents and are instilled with pride in the nation and its military-first policy.
Even before it was released, official media said it would be listed as a masterpiece.
Minister of Culture Kang Nung-su praised the film as "the fruit borne under the wise leadership of Kim Jong-il, a great master in art," KCNA reported.
"This is a good study which confirms that indeed the Greenland ice sheet is losing a large amount of mass and that the mass loss is increasing with time," says Eric Rignot, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US, who led a separate study that reached a similar conclusion earlier in 2006. His team used satellites to measure the velocity of glacier movement and calculate net ice loss.If all of the Greenland Ice Sheet continues to melt, it will increase the average sea level about 6.5 metres and wipe out small low-lying islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Yet another technique, which uses a laser to measure the altitude of the surface, determined that the ice sheet was losing about 80 cubic kilometres of ice annually between 1997 and 2003. The newer measurements suggest the ice loss is three times that.
Designboom has a short history of upside-down optical illusions. Rightside-up and upside-down faces like the ones illustrated on this matchbox, are among the most popular optical illustrations in history.
For a year I worked my ass off for him. Writing reports and creating presentations, taking phone calles and leaving messages. After the first year, he said “great job”, but “my hands are tied”. I didn’t get the raise. About a month later, he got a new title and a new office. I moved with him so he coud “keep me close”.So what are you waiting for? Go bitch about your boss now!
The next two years were more of the same. Except after year three, I and all my co-workers were called into a meeting. The president announced that the presentation that my boss had “created” had caused quite the buzz. He was made Vice-President and was given a company car. 10 minutes after the meeting my boss took me for coffee and said “thanks for the help, but I’ve taken you as far as you can go. Here’s a cheque for one month’s pay, your stuff will be delivered to your home”
For those who love music, iPod and *ahem*, the OhMiBod is definitely the ultimate toy to have. Plug it into your iPod and it automatically vibrates to the rhythm and intensity of the music. Now you can really be transported to a place where music, mind and body truly "come" together.
Goggles has got to be the best Google Maps web application ever. It is a simple flight simulator that uses images loaded from the Google mapping service. With Goggles, you can fly a plane above cities and drop bombs. I just finished flying above Sydney and bombed the Sydney Opera House! My next stop will be Hong Kong and then maybe I'll wreck havoc on Mars and the moon.
Ok, I'm getting excited again. My favourite ice cream Ben & Jerrys now have their three popular flavours in a bottle. Yup. Ben & Jerrys milkshakes!!! I can't wait to try their Chocolate Fudge Brownie milkshake. If it tastes half as good as the ice cream version, I'll be a happy man.
While phones with WAP capabilities have built-in browsers, these have to go through the same firewalls that plague China’s conventional internet. The Opera Mini, however, “uses a remote server to pre-process Web pages before sending them to your phone.”
...the end effect is the same as what can be achieved using proxy servers or web-based services such as Anonymouse and Virtual-Browser. Unlike the Anonymouse service, which is disabled by the Great Firewall’s keyword filtering, the Opera Mini was able to load one particular banned website without any time-out errors.
Funny video by the folks at Galacticast shows us what happens when famous figures in sci-fi/fantasy go to a video dating agency to find a partner. And you thought superheroes have no problems getting a date.
Dude made a bamboo mountain bike in 2004 and he has been riding it eversince. He used bamboo rods connected with carbon composite joints to make the frame. The rest are normal bicycle parts.
Would you believe it? I've been banned by the Singapore National Library. They refused to stock my book in all their branches, citing 'It's too explicit and graphic" after reading a few chapters.Too explicit and graphic? Ha! Here's another posting which describes best her book. From Dark City:
The outrage!
At least I haven't been banned here by our own Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka. They took 5 copies to keep as 'National Heritage.' I'm not sure I can quite call Dark City a national heritage, but at least I can count on my own countrymen/librarians to support me.
When I was browsing through magazines, my ex-boss came up to me and whispered, "I have read 10 chapters of your book. Ssssh. The wife is around. It's fantastic writing and I've told everyone at the office to get it. I really liked the twists. In Coup of the Century, you wrote about (someone we both know), didn't you?" (His wife won't let him buy Dark City for fear of contaminating their two teenage girls at home. So he's reduced to reading it from the racks at MPH 1 Utama.)What are you waiting for? Go get Dark City now! I believe it is available in Singapore bookstores too.
A flying ghost at Changi Hospital, a playful tree spirit at Bedok Reservoir and the ghost of a girl who died at the famous Yellow Tower at...
