44364443
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skade88 writes:
Wow! Color me green on this one! I am normally very critical of Apple's business practices, but this one is just perfect all around! Apple now owns and runs enough renewable energy power plants that 75% of their world wide power needs come from renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and hydro.
From the Apple Blog Post: 'Our investments are paying off. We’ve already achieved 100 percent renewable energy at all of our data centers, at our facilities in Austin, Elk Grove, Cork, and Munich, and at our Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. And for all of Apple’s corporate facilities worldwide, we’re at 75 percent, and we expect that number to grow as the amount of renewable energy available to us increases. We won’t stop working until we achieve 100 percent throughout Apple.'
Any other big power hungry data centers want to step up and join Apple on this one? Im looking at you Google and Rackspace!
44363919
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skade88 writes:
Reuters is reporting that scientists now say the universe is 100 million years older than previously thought after they took a closer look at leftover radiation from the Big Bang. This puts the age of the Universe at 13.8 billion years. The new findings are the direct results from analyzing data provided by the European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft. The spacecraft is providing the most detailed look to date at the remnant microwave radiation that permeates the universe.
"It's as if we've gone from a standard television to a high-definition television. New and important details have become crystal clear," Paul Hertz, NASA's director of astrophysics, told reporters on a conference call.
44326903
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skade88 writes:
From the JPL's Voyager's team blog: "The Voyager team is aware of reports today that NASA's Voyager 1 has left the solar system," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It is the consensus of the Voyager science team that Voyager 1 has not yet left the solar system or reached interstellar space. In December 2012, the Voyager science team reported that Voyager 1 is within a new region called 'the magnetic highway' where energetic particles changed dramatically. A change in the direction of the magnetic field is the last critical indicator of reaching interstellar space and that change of direction has not yet been observed."
To learn more about the current status of the Voyager mission, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-381
The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
44325409
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skade88 writes:
So Jeff Bezos has been spending his time lately fishing up old parts of the Apollo 11 rockets. Neat stuff! I will let y'all read his words, I do not think I could be so elegant.
From his blog "What an incredible adventure. We are right now onboard the Seabed Worker headed back to Cape Canaveral after finishing three weeks at sea, working almost 3 miles below the surface. We found so much. We’ve seen an underwater wonderland – an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program. We photographed many beautiful objects in situ and have now recovered many prime pieces. Each piece we bring on deck conjures for me the thousands of engineers who worked together back then to do what for all time had been thought surely impossible."
44325133
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skade88 writes:
The Voyager-1 spacecraft was launched from Earth on 5 September 1977 and it has been traveling away from the Sun ever since then. Over the years we have seen articles claiming that the Voyager probe has left the heliosphere, but on 25 August, 2012 NASA did detect a huge radiation drop from behind (From the Sun) and a huge increase of Cosmic Rays bombarding the space craft. So this may be the real deal! The events on 25 August, 2012 are consistent with what scientists expect when Voyager finds the heliopause. Some scientists are a little gun shy and would like a longer period of data before they officially say the exit is final.
"It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," Prof Webber said in a release from the American Geophysical Union, publishers of GRL.
"We're in a new region. And everything we're measuring is different and exciting."
We are living in exciting times, this is the first man made object to ever leave the solar system.So stay glued to the skies to see what exciting things science will bring us next!
44324775
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skade88 writes:
USA Today is running a story saying the UK public is cool with creating babies from 3 different people after Britain's Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority began a public discussion of the topic at the government's request last year. The technology will be used to cure children of disorders before the child is even born. Even better, Britain's fertility regulator did not find evidence to suggest the techniques were unsafe.
From the article: "There are two procedures to avoid passing on faulty mitochondria. The first involves using an egg from one woman with mitochondrial defects and the sperm of the father. Scientists then put that embryo into an emptied egg from a second woman with healthy mitochondria. The DNA from the second woman amounts to less than 1 percent of the embryo's genes.
In the second technique, scientists transfer nuclear DNA out of a day-old embryo with defective mitochondria. The DNA is implanted into another single-cell embryo with normal mitochondria. The nuclear DNA from the donor embryo is discarded, leaving the healthy mitochondria."
44324443
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skade88 writes:
If you are one of the lucky 125,000 people who live in Olathe, Kansas, the rest of us congratulate you on your new amazing $70.00/month, 1 GB Google fiber service. Google also announced they will be letting us know about further cities that will be wired up with Google Fiber service soon. This shows that Google Fiber is not just a sandbox they are going to keep in Kansas City, Google Fiber is a real business they will keep expanding. In other exciting news, the FCC wants to see at least one community in each state with 1 Gigabit home service by 2015.
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skade88 writes:
Wired has a good article that covers the origins of the white dwarf super nova Johannes Kepler observed in 1604.
'Up until now, it was unclear what lead to the star's explosion. New Chandra data suggests that, at least in the case of Kepler’s remnant, the white dwarf grabbed material from its companion star. The disk-shaped structure seen near the center suggests that the supernova explosion hit a ring of gas and dust that would have formed, like water circling a drain, as the white dwarf sucked material away from its neighbor. In addition, magnesium is not an element formed in great abundances during Type 1a supernovas, suggesting it came from the companion star. Whether or not Kepler’s supernova is a typical case remains to be seen. '
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skade88 writes:
Engadget sat down with Valve's Joe Ludwig to get a first hand account of Valve's involvement in development of VR enabled games. The article goes into great detail on Valve's development of TF2, their team dedicated to VR game development and their partnership with The Oculus Rift Team.
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skade88 writes:
Neoseeker and the Verge are reporting that the Oculus Rift launch will no longer have Doom 3 BFG support. But in some good news to off set the bad, Valve will be releasing an Oculus ready version of TF2 when the Dev kits ship.
For those backers who are upset about not having Doom 3 BFG edition support on launch of the Oculus Rift, they are offering the following options:
$20 Steam Wallet credit, perfect for buying your next game on Steam (including DOOM 3 BFG Edition without Rift developer kit support if you still want it).
$25 Oculus Store credit, which can be applied to future purchases at the Oculus Store including Oculus Latency Testers, new Oculus t-shirts, and more Rift development kits.
A full refund for your pledge. If you’re unhappy with the options above, we completely understand. Email us at support@oculusvr.com, and we’ll be happy to discuss your specific order or refund your pledge in full.
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skade88 writes:
Ars is reporting that Blizzard will announce a new game on March 22, 2013 at PAX East. They say the new game is not a sequel or expansion. Blizzard is also saying the new game is not the long rumored MMO named Titan. Considering that every game Blizzard released since 1998 has had the name Starcraft, Warcraft or Diablo in it, this is big news. Ars speculates in the article that the new game could be Blizzard's version of a DOTA game. They showed off Blizzard All-Stars at BlizCon 2010 as a SC2 custom map. It could be ready for launch as its own stand alone game. I guess we will have to wait and see!
43585249
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skade88 writes:
As I get older, I find the little details of my life slip away from my memory after years and decades pass. I find myself wishing I had a way to record at least sound and video of my entire life. It would be nice to be able to go back and see what I was like when I was younger without the fog of memory clouding my view of the past. It would be cool to share with my boy friend and future kids how I was when I was younger by just showing them video from my life. Do y'all know of any good way to do this? I would settle for recording what I see from a first person point of view. There is also concerns that range beyond the technical. If I were to record my entire life, that would mean also recording other people, when they are interacting with me on a daily basis. What sort of privacy laws pertain to this? Even without laws, would others act differently around me because they were being recorded with my life record? How would it make you feel if your friend or family member did this?
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skade88 writes:
Debian has released Debian 7.0 Wheezy RC1. Head on over and check it out! Anyone that gets Steam On Linux running on it gets a gold star!
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skade88 writes:
Pepsi will release on Feb 28th a new Breakfast Mnt Dew. The new drink called Kick Start is Mnt Dew mixed with fruit juice. It will come in two flavors, Citrus and Fruit Punch. "Our consumers told us they are looking for an alternative to traditional morning beverages – one that tastes great, includes real fruit juice and has just the right amount of kick to help them start their days," said Greg Lyons, Mountain Dew's vice president of marketing.
Maybe this is the drink the Pope needs to keep going. New marketing campaign maybe? :D
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skade88 writes:
Linux.com has an article that will bring you up to speed on the good and bad when it comes to the Steam on Linux Beta. Valve has brought gaming a long way, once they work the kinks out of the Steam On Linux Beta, it will be ready for the masses.
