A widely publicized report that cosmic microwave background, the glow left over from the explosive start of the universe believed to have occurred 13.7 billion years ago, contains echoes of previous cycles of cosmic birth and death, has been disputed by new analyses.Three teams state that circular patterns do exist but are entirely consistent with the leading model for the birth of the universe, known as inflation, and do not require an alternative, pre–Big Bang theory. According to inflation, the universe began as a subatomic entity that ballooned in size during the first tiny fraction of a second of its existence.
In the 'government employees become so entrenched in their bureaucracy they lose common sense' department, a group of people who rescued a deer from an icy river were given tickets by a "natural resources" police officer, whatever that is - for not stopping to put on life preservers before doing getting in the boat.“And he didn’t say anything,” Jim Hart said. “We went in and out of the water numerous times. He didn’t stop us at all.”
Although people may not feel particularly overheated after this week’s Midwestern snowstorm, data from NASA show that the 12-month period from November 2009 to November 2010 was the warmest on record since 1880.
The largest known volcanic eruption in human history, 74,000 years ago, was at Mount Toba in northern Sumatra. Researchers believed this cloud of millions of metric tons of volcanic ash and sulfur set off a volcanic winter which included a thousand years of cold climate and perhaps a human genetic 'bottleneck' which may have reduced our species to just a few thousand mating pairs.Other hypotheses have believed it may have been other volcanoes and they were even responsible for the demise of neanderthals.
Science bloggers may regard Republicans as anti-science but it is hard not to see them as pro-technology. While the FCC, with the support of the Obama administration, has repeatedly attempted to make Internet regulation the domain of government, Republican Senators are standing in the way of the one thing still working in the US economy.In a letter they write
Hypocrisy or irony? Attorneys for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have argued his address should not be disclosed because of privacy concern, an odd sentiment from a fellow who argues that 'there is no proof' anyone has been or could be killed because he disclosed their names in sensitive military documents regarding Iraq and Afghanistan.It's often the case that when the situation is personal, feelings change. District Judge Howard Riddle of the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court was having none of it, though, and Assange's mansion whereabouts were disclosed to the court. Here is the pic from the Daily Mail:
Unlike the American Revolution, the French version is best forgotten, especially to those on the short end of it - and it wasn't just the current monarchy that got punished by the philosophy of the day. In 1793, revolutionaries also desecrated the tombs of previous monarchs, including assassinated King Henry IV - it had been a hard time to be a Protestant king in France in 1610, it seems, so Henry was murdered, and then 180 years later the French stuck it to him again. After executing Louis XVI, the current monarch, they went after the old ones.
Yesterday, William Trubridge did something we might think is insane and many thought impossible - a dive of 100 meters on a single breath and without assistance at Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas.That's right, he held his breath and went straight down - no fins, no weights, no airbag back up and a depth of three times what is considered safe.Madness. You can't even see the surface at that depth so you are running out of air but you have to know how to get there fast and without creating embolisms in the blood due to rapid decompression.
It may be poignant that the "Hamburglar", one of the many characters McDonald's created in the early 1970s to rip off the "H.R. Pufnstuf" children's television show (fear not, McDonald's was sued and lost) is used in Reuters / Fox News headlines about hackers who hack filched data from the McDonald's servers in classic “Robble robble” fashion.
I confess, I haven't played World of Warcraft, though I did enjoy Warcraft and Warcraft II. Persistent online games can be tough to find time for when you have a career but Blizzard has the best business model ever - they charge you for the game and they charge you to play it and for that they have my respect. Yayyy capitalism.Others don't seem to mind having to buy a game you can't play without a monthly fee , since Blizzard is claiming its World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion sold-through more than 3.3 million copies in its first 24 hours of release.
