tagged w/ Editors Picks Intergalactic
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'Space Collective' is where forward thinking terrestrials exchange ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe, living the lives of science fiction today.
Great site with lots of fascinating videos at the edge where science fiction joins reality. Want to know what the future has in store for us if visionaries like Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, etc. have their way?'Space Collective' is where forward thinking terrestrials exchange ideas and... more
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There's nothing more satisfying than seeing a gallery of smashed up iPhones when your network provider won't let you upgrade yet.
And yes, I am a bit bitter.
:DThere's nothing more satisfying than seeing a gallery of smashed up iPhones when... more
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Now this is a pretty cool gadget - the Samsung Touch Sight camera is specially designed to take pictures which are then immediately projected onto the back of the camera on a 'raised Braille display sheet', which means that the image will be etched in relief for the user to feel.
Sounds brilliant!Now this is a pretty cool gadget - the Samsung Touch Sight camera is specially... more
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It was bound to happen sooner or later, who'd have thought that Barack was such a mover?It was bound to happen sooner or later, who'd have thought that Barack was such a... more
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This week in politics: Obama has a new and strange problem.
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cover your eyes if you are a little squeamish - as the boy rip apart their newest toy.....see part 2 also cover your eyes if you are a little squeamish - as the boy rip apart their newest... more
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Catholic nuns and priests in Italy have established a 98-foot-long inflatable church and a beach-convent to minister to vacationing beachgoers. Activities at the two movable venues will include opportunities to confess sins and to pray the Rosary, but not Mass.
It's official - bouncy churches are more religi-ful.Catholic nuns and priests in Italy have established a 98-foot-long inflatable church... more
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Shot live at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on Icelandic Independence Day, Sigur Rós @ MoMA is a unique concert film highlighting new material from the band's latest album, "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust", as well as classic Sigur Rós songs. Directed by Alex Simmons.
Track Listing:
Glósoli
Sé Lest
Við spilum endalaust
Sæglópur
Icelandic National Anthem
Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
Hoppípolla
GobbledigookShot live at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on Icelandic Independence Day,... more
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Previous research suggested that prehistoric people in eastern and southern Africa had little contact, with only two known migrations between the regions about 30,000 and 1,500 years ago. After Bantu-language speakers migrated from eastern to southern Africa 1,500 years ago, agriculture took off in southern Africa. But the timing of the Bantu migration didn't quite match the 2,000-year-old anthropological evidence for the first sheep and cattle herds in southern Africa, so anthropologists were unsure whether the region's agricultural knowledge came from a bow-wave of ideas that spread in front of the migrating Bantu, or whether a separate migration brought the first herders.
"Africa has the most genetic diversity in the world, but it is one of the least-studied places," said Brenna Henn, a doctoral student in anthropology who was the study's lead author. "I've always felt like there were a lot of stories there that nobody's had the time or interest to look into."
The Stanford scientists picked the Y sex chromosome to examine for clues to migration because it changes very little from one generation to the next. Autosomes—the non-sex chromosomes—come in pairs, and the members of a pair can exchange bits of DNA during reproduction, making each autosome a mishmash of DNA from all of an individual's ancestors. But the Y chromosome is a singleton; males inherit one Y and one X chromosome, while women have two X chromosomes. In men, only a tiny region of the Y chromosome swaps DNA with the X chromosome. This means almost all of the Y chromosome moves intact from father to son, changing only infrequently when a new genetic mutation arises. That allows researchers to examine several generations of ancestry by looking at the Y chromosomes of living men.
"The family tree of the Y chromosome is very, very clear," Mountain said.
The team analyzed Y chromosomes from men in 13 populations in Tanzania in eastern Africa and in the Namibia-Botswana-Angola border region of southern Africa. They discovered a novel mutation shared by some men in both locations, which implied those men had a common ancestor. Further analysis showed the novel mutation arose in eastern Africa about 10,000 years ago and was carried by migration to southern Africa about 2,000 years ago. The mutation was not found in Bantu-speakers, suggesting that a different group—Nilotic-language speakers—first brought herds of animals to southern Africa before the Bantu migration.
This new genetic evidence correlates well with pottery, rock art and animal remains that suggest pastoralists—herders who migrated to new pasture with their flocks—first tended sheep and cattle in southern Africa around 2,000 years ago. The genetic finding also helps explain linguistic similarities between peoples in the two regions.
"I like the fact that the linguistic, genetic and archaeological evidence all line up," Henn said. "When you see lines of evidence converge on a single model, it means that's probably something that actually happened." Previous research suggested that prehistoric people in eastern and southern Africa had... more
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A crossbreed between MySpace and YouTube, Doggyspace allows dog owners from all over the world to come together, create profiles, and share photos and videos of their pups.A crossbreed between MySpace and YouTube, Doggyspace allows dog owners from all over... more
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So, the toxin in Mars' soil might have refuted theories of life on Mars... http://current.com/items/89172309_toxin_in_soil_may_rule_out_possibility_of_life_on_mars
... but worry not ET fans! There's another popular theory that suggests the rest of space may teem with microbes: Galactic panspermia. It was once quite controversial, but as scientists continue to improve their understanding of earth and space, they're starting to give more credit the idea.
"Studies have shown that microbes can survive the shock levels of being launched into space," said Charles Cockell, a microbiologist at the Open University. "And as more and more organisms are discovered under extreme conditions, it's become more plausible that things could survive in space for the time it takes to go from one planet to another."So, the toxin in Mars' soil might have refuted theories of life on Mars...... more
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"If skills sold, Truth be told/I'd probably be/Lyrically/Talib Kweli" - Jay-Z
This one came out of nowhere and definitely caught our attention quick! It's a four minute trailer for a documentary on Talib Kweli. In those four minutes there are a number of cameos from artists speaking on Kweli and his influence. Some of the faces we see in the trailer are ?uestlove, Kanye West, Mos Def, Dave Chappelle, De La Soul, Common, Jean Grae, Pharrell, Dame Dash and many more. The project is ongoing and was started in 1999. I have been told the editing is near complete. We'll be sure to let you know as soon as we get more details on this. Shout out Video Rahim, the films director and editor."If skills sold, Truth be told/I'd probably be/Lyrically/Talib Kweli" -... more
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Car Design News' 2008 design contest winner Iranian student Seyyed Javad Ghaffarian developed what he calls the 'Magic Tricycle'.
Ghaffarian, who is a Tehran University Masters student, has won the student category prize for his unique car design.
The car drives on all three wheels for normal highway use, but can rotate around a longitudinal axis running from the front to the rear right wheel with the left wheel elevated into the air so the vehicle can be used as a motorcycle in more congested areas.
Ghaffarian added that the seats of the car rotate to keep passengers in an upright position and the airborne wheel opens up blades which work like a helicopter tail propeller to aid stability while the transformation takes place. Car Design News' 2008 design contest winner Iranian student Seyyed Javad... more
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Goonies 2 movie, the sequel to the '80s flick will find the stars of the first film reuniting 20 years later, along with their kids to solve a new mystery.
Goonies 2 has been speculated for so long but now is finally in early stages of production. To back this, Puma is releasing a limited edition Goonies themed trainers called The Goonies Disc Blaze. Goonies 2 movie, the sequel to the '80s flick will find the stars of the first... more
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Now it's Paris Hilton's chance to tell off John McCain for putting her in an Obama attack ad. Late Sunday Paris's mother Kathy slammed McCain for the waste of money, time and attention given to the ad in a blog for Huffington Post (excerpted below). But Paris has gone a step further and taken her response to the camera in a scripted piece, saying she'll "see you at the debate, bitches."
I've been asked again and again for my response to the now infamous McCain celebrity ad. I actually have three responses. It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.
Now it's Paris Hilton's chance to tell off John McCain for putting her in an... more
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Paleontologists digging in a brickyard in southern Poland have discovered the remains of a dinosaur they say is a previously unknown ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.
The predator dinosaur, given the working name "the Dragon", lived around 200 million years ago, team member Doctor Tomasz Sulej of the Polish Science Academy, told Reuters.
It was five meters (yards) long and moved on two legs. Its longest teeth were 7 centimeters (2 inches) long.
"This is a completely new type of dinosaur that was so far unknown," Sulej said on Friday. "Nobody even expected that members of this group lived in that time, so this gives us new knowledge about the whole evolution of the T-Rex group."
The remains were excavated from a brickyard in Lisowice village about 200 km (125 miles) from Warsaw.
The paleontologists will continue examining the bones and fully document the discovery before they decide what name to give to the new dinosaur. They will exhibit the findings in Lisowice on August 7, Sulej said.
At the same site the group also found a dicynodon -- a reptile which was a direct predecessor of mammals.
"We are almost certain that "Dragon" hunted animals like this herbivorous dicynodon, which looked like hippopotamus but was much bigger," Sulej said."
Paleontologists digging in a brickyard in southern Poland have discovered the remains... more
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A study conduced by researchers at Microsoft Corp. used instant messaging data to confirm the theory that it takes just under seven steps to link every one in the world. The researchers reached their conclusion based on the addresses of 30 billion instant messages sent among 180 million people worldwide during a single month in 2006. They found that, on average, any two people are linked by fewer than seven acquaintances.
The “six degrees of separation” theory has long intrigued people, even inspiring a popular 1993 movie. However, in recent years the theory had seemed to be discredited.
"To me, it was pretty shocking. What we're seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity," Eric Horvitz, one of the Microsoft researchers assigned to the project, said he found the results shocking, told the Washington Post.
"People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore."
The study, conducted by Mr. Horvitz and his colleague Jude Leskovec, used a database that covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network, nearly half of the world's instant-messaging traffic, in June 2006. The study worked on the premise that two people were considered to be acquaintances if they had exchanged an instant message.
After analyzing the minimum chain lengths required to connect all the users in the database, they found the average length was 6.6, with 78% of the pairs connected in seven or fewer links.
The idea of six degrees of separation originated with Stanley Mailgram, an academic social psychologist in the U.S., after his research asking people to pass a letter only to others they knew by name. The goal was to have the letter reach a named person they did not know living in another city. Mailgram found that the average number of times the letter was passed on was six, and thus coined his “six degrees of separation” theory.
However, in July 2006, Judith Kleinfeld, a psychology professor at Alaska Fairbanks University, reviewed Milgram's original research notes and found that 95% of the letters that were sent out had failed to reach their intended target. At that time, Kleinfeld suggested the theory might be the academic equivalent of an urban legend.
Horvitz and Leskovec reported that, to their knowledge, their study was the first to confirm Milgram's theory on a global scale.A study conduced by researchers at Microsoft Corp. used instant messaging data to... more
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An explorable galaxy of Flickr tags in a space-like setting. Stunning visual effects, and unique view features make this one of the better Flickr mashups.
The application uses Papervision3D to explore photos via virtual planetary systems.You enter a tag, and the related galaxy appears on screen. Each planet contains the pictures of a certain tag, and when you click on them, the images are placed on a 3D rotating globe.
Created by Steven Wood as a diploma thesis project with PV3D 1.5. Steven is a freelance graphic designer and Flash developer from Germany.An explorable galaxy of Flickr tags in a space-like setting. Stunning visual effects,... more
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I have no idea why I decided to search for this song tonight on the interwebs....nothing on tv??....Anyways, I thought it important to add this to the ever-expanding volumes of awesomeness that is current.com
this song is so sad.
I have no idea why I decided to search for this song tonight on the... more
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A little video to memorialize our trip to California Extreme!
Last weekend, I brought my trusty digital camera to the California Extreme classic arcade and pinball convention in San Jose, CA.
Set to the music of the New Pornographers, this shaky-hand footage is from Saturday, July 19, 2008, at Parkside Hall. Marvel at the throngs of arcade enthusiasts! Balk at Revenge from Mars and Cactus Canyon! Be astounded by Top Skater and Lucky Hand! And witness much, much more!
For an incomplete list of exhibited games, visit caextreme.org/gamesA little video to memorialize our trip to California Extreme!
Last weekend, I... more
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