Physics - The best of 2006

It was the year that water flowed on Mars and the first cloak of invisibility was unveiled. Physicists also made important advances in the manipulation of materials at the quantum level in 2006, furthering our knowledge of the fundamental properties of matter and bringing futuristic technologies like quantum computers closer to reality.

Read the top 12 advances in 2006 discussed at Physicsweb.org.

Astronomers Await a Nova

The Star of Bethlehem might have been a nova, like T Pyxidis, which by the way could light up the night sky any time now.

Read more about T Pyxidis at Space.com.

FAA Sets Guidelines for Space Travel

Before you strap into any U.S.-operated private spaceship, you’ll be told about the risk as well as rewards of flying the friendly space skies.

Read more about the guidelines at Space.com.

"An Inconvenient Truth" DVD available to Teachers

50,000 copies of the acclaimed documentary will be donated on a first come, first serve basis to teachers across the country interested in using the film as a teaching tool in classrooms via Participate.net. This generous donation was made possible with the cooperation of Paramount Vantage, Participant Productions, The Environmental Media Association, and private funders.

The DVD's will be given away starting Monday, December 18, 2006 thru Thursday, January 18, 2007. Teachers are encouraged to log on to Participate.net to request the DVD, which will be delivered within 6-8 weeks. A free curriculum guide is also available for download.

http://participate.net/educators/DVD/giveaway

Postcards from Mars

Looking for a last-minute Christmas gift? Postcards from Mars, featured on a Quirks and Quarks podcast, looks like a great one to display on a coffee table.

Great White Shark Clip

A clip from BBC Planet Earth. Incredible footage of great white sharks.

read more | digg story

New York City Bans Trans Fats from Restaurants

In an effort to help Americans eat healthier, NYC health officials have implemented new requirements including a ban from using artificial trans fats, and requiring many restaurants to post food calorie counts right on their menus.

Read more details from these news articles:

LiveScience.com - "NYC Bans Trans Fats From Eateries"

The New York Times - "New York Bans Most Trans Fats in Restaurants" (log-in required)

"Sugar Plum Fairy" on Bike Parts

Tchaikovsky on bicycle? This site plays a short clip of a challenge by bike part manufacturer Specialized to play holiday music using bicycle components. A very nice effect. The page describes how it was done, plus even more pictures. I hope they arrange more!

Legendary Violins Were Chemically Treated?

Texas A & M researcher, Joseph Nagyvary, hypothesizes that the beautiful sound of the famous Stradivarius and Guarneri instruments could be from the wood being chemically treated.

Read more about the mysteries behind these legendary violins at LiveScience.

Furrier Transform

Short story: The Shoulders of Giants

Escape Pod has another great sci-fi podcast. This one's a "what if" about what could happen if humanity sends a sleeper colony ship to another solar system. What do they do if they find someone's there? This one's PG.

AbbyMath.com

A great educational site led by Abby Brown, an enthusiastic math teacher at Torrey Pines High School, AbbyMath.com introduces fascination of math and science to young students and encourages their enthusiasm. The site is updated as her classes evolve, producing examples of how other students can learn about math, including some that are interactive on the web. She and her students presented their work at the recent Wolfram Technology Conference. See also her MathRules.org site.

Note the new permanent link on the right!

Spooky Astronomy!

Happy Halloween!

Did you know that Halloween or October 31st is a "cross quarter date," meaning approximately midway between an equinox and a solistice? There are four cross quarter dates in a year. Lots of folklore and legends related to these dates.

Read more by visiting Spooky Astronomy at SpaceWeather.com.

How To Make a Great Cup of Coffee

I love coffee and always on the lookout for tips to make the "perfect cup". This LA Times story has some great tips.

read more | digg story

Sweet Tired Cat

I could not resist sharing this cute little video. Enjoy!

Imagine Earth without people

Imagine that all the people on Earth - all 6.5 billion of us and counting - could be spirited away tomorrow, transported to a re-education camp in a far-off galaxy. (Let's not invoke the mother of all plagues to wipe us out, if only to avoid complications from all the corpses). Left once more to its own devices, Nature would reclaim the planet.

read more | digg story

Jupiter's Little Red Spot Changing...

A NASA press release today reveals that Jupiter's Little Red Spot is growing stronger and has changed color from white to red.

Read more from the NASA press release.

Comet Swan

A newly discovered comet is visible this week with binoculars. It is in the northeastern sky not far from the Big Dipper. It is visible before dawn these next few days.

Read more about the comet at Astronomy Picture of the Day.

New Discoveries from Saturn

Saturn sports a new ring in an image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Sunday, Sept. 17, during a one-of-a-kind observation. Other spectacular sights captured by Cassini's cameras include wispy fingers of icy material stretching out tens of thousands of kilometers from the active moon, Enceladus, and a cameo color appearance by planet Earth.

read more | digg story

After 40 Years, Star Trek 'Won't Die'

It seems like the TV show that never dies. Forty years ago a science fiction show debuted on television with a paltry budget and a bold mission to go where no one had gone before.

read more | digg story

SMART-1 crash landing on the moon

No this was not by accident but planned. The European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft impacted the moon on September 2 at 10:42 PM PDT (5:42 UT, September 3).

Detailed images of before impact and after can be seen at the ESA SMART-1 website.

Learn more about the SMART-1 mission and its accomplishments.

A Smoke Angel from Airplane Flares

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a great picture of a smoke angel formed from a flare released from a jet.

Read more about the picture from the APOD website.

Male Sympathetic Pregnancy

A Quirks and Quarks podcast on male monkeys who gain weight after their partners are pregnant, even before the female shows significantly. They propose that the fathers are helping to prepare to care for the infants.

Star Trek Inspirational Posters

Amusing posters to inspire! Available for download to your computer.

See them all here: Star Trek Inspirational Posters

Cat parasite affects human culture

A cat parasite affects human personalities, according to a story in LiveScience. Makes one wonder about households with lots of cats....

Death by Caffeine?

Pick your favorite caffeinated drink, enter your weight and this amusing calculator will tell you how much of the drink you must consume to kill you!

It would take 361.32 cans of Diet Coke with Splenda to put be down!

Check out Death by Caffeine.

Autism Reveals Social Roots of Language

An NPR story discusses how we're learning that words and their rules are not the end-all in language, and how some had to learn its connection to social behavior and empathy while others take it for granted.

Jack FM

I came across an article on Wired News about a new concept radio station format called Jack FM . I am fortunate enough to have a station where I live and it is a great radio station. With a "play whatever we want" type attitude you are always bound to come across an oldy put good song you long forgot. 

Read more in the article 'Imitation iPod' Invades Radio .

Two Second Tent

Would you believe a tent that deploys in about 2 seconds? Yet another link. I didn't believe it at first, but it looks like a real product, even an ad on YouTube.

Be patient with the links; It might be getting a digg effect.

Short story: Clockwork Atom Bomb

A strikingly good, yet R-rated, fictional short story read in an Escape Pod podcast, The Clockwork Atom Bomb explores a "what if" scenario when world politics collide with astrophysical phenomena.

Podcast: Those who have ears

An Ockham's Razor podcast titled "Those who have ears" discusses different kinds of learning behavior, particularly those exhibited in children. I'd add that such learning patterns extend throughout life.

Mount an iSight to a Telescope

Very nice instructions with pictures on how to attach an Apple iSight to a telescope. Looks like he has a very nice setup from the pictures.

Read more about the iSight telescope mount.

Fire Rainbow

Beautiful picture of a rare type of rainbow.

read more | digg story

Update: Actually this phenomenon is called a circumhorizontal arc and it is not as rare as the above article states.

Wasting time on the internet?!

Oh yes, it happens to the best of us. About.com has a round up of their Top Ten Time Wasters on the Web.

30 seconds Bunny Theater is my current favorite.

If the Earth was a sandwich

Ever wonder what would happen if you digged a hole to the other side of the earth? Well now you can find out (without getting dirty) by visiting If the Earth was a Sandwich.

I found this great site from the Bad Astronomy Blog.

Three New Lemurs Discovered

Three new species of lemur in the African island nation of Madagascar have been discovered. All three are mouse lemurs and are as tiny as their name implies. The palm-size creatures are primates-the group that includes apes and humans.

read more | digg story

Cat in a Bottle

What will they think of next?!

Check out the video on YouTube of a Cat in a Bottle.

Naming Pluto's Moons

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has officially named Pluto's two newly discovered small moons Nix and Hydra.

Read more at Sky and Telescope.

Robot Bias?

Check out the Brewster Rockit comic for June 17, 2006.

Which would you choose?

Cat chases bear up a tree...

Don't mess with a cat's territory. Even if it is a bear!

Read more about "Jack the cat chases black bear up tree"

Juggling

A great juggling video showcasing the creative and artistic side of the sport.

TWINKIE Experiments

Scientific experiments on the famous Twinkie.

The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project.

Stephen Hawking to write children's book

Physicist Stephen Hawking is to write a science book for children which will be "a bit like Harry Potter", but without the magic and with significantly more quantum mechanics.

read more | digg story

Video of Meteoroid Hitting the Moon

Astronomers at Marshall Space Flight Center were able to catch video of a meteoroid impact using a 10-inch telescope. The impact occured May 2, 2006.

View the Meteoroid Video.

Trunk Monkey

Oh yes, another set of funny videos. These are actually commericals for the Suburban Auto Group. They are absolutely hysterical.

Visit Trunkmonkey for fun and laughs.

Top 10 Emerging Environmental Technologies

Ideas that could help us achieve sustainable living on this planet.

read more | digg story

Squirrel in a Sweater?!

Okay so its Friday afternoon and I am ready for the weekend. I came across this picture on Cute Overload and could not resist posting.

Oh yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. Yes, someone really KNITTED a sweater for a squirrel!

Astronomers Find Nearby Galactic Highway

Astronomers have discovered a long, slender stream of ancient stars racing across the northern sky. The stream is about 30,000 light-years from Earth and flowing high over the Milky Way at some 230 kilometers per second, or more than half a million miles per hour.

read more | digg story

Corkscrew Asteroid

"...Asteroid 2003 YN107 is looping around our planet once a year. Measuring only 20 meters across, the asteroid is too small to see with the unaided eye—but it is there. "

Read more about the Corkscrew Asteroid.

Fun with bubble wrap...

Okay so not the most productive thing to do on the internet, but it sure is fun!

Check out Bubble Wrap.

Historic Yerkes Observatory Sold to become a Luxury Spa

Historic Yerkes Observatory, home of the largest refracting telescope, where hundreds of important astronomical discoveries were made in the 20th century, has been sold by the U. of Chicago to a NY developer to build luxury homes and a spa...

read more | digg story

TiVo Launches TiVoCast - Download Your TV Shows

TiVo unveiled on Wednesday broadband video downloads, marking the latest move by the digital video recorder company to expand its Internet-related services.

read more | digg story

Mysterious carbon excess found in infant solar system

Astronomers detected unusually high quantities of carbon, the basis of all terrestrial life, in an infant solar system around nearby star Beta Pictoris, 63 light-years away.

read more | digg story

How to eat healthy on a low budget

Change the way you eat.

If you are looking for healthy food on a small budget, then fruits and vegetables and other whole foods are the way to go. They are the basic building blocks of a nutritious diet, and they are much cheaper than processed foods.

read more | digg story

Amazing Pictures of Storms!

Enjoy some stunning pictures of storms :)

read more | digg story

Amusing Monday Videos

Here are some funny videos that friends sent me today:

The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments

Bjork Street Fighter

Enjoy!

Doughnut Day June 2, 2006

Didn't know that there is a National Doughnut Day?! Well there is! Krispy Kreme is celebrating by giving away a free doughnut of your choice.

Make sure you stop on by your local store to get one. Yummy!

The Evolution of Honda's Asimo Robot

A look at the history and evolution of Honda's Asimo Robot.

If you can, check out the Asimo show at Disneyland in Anahiem, CA.

read more | digg story

An Alignment of the Stars and Planets

The month of June is going to be filled with some great night sky observing.

Read more about An Alignment of Stars and Planets at Science@NASA.

Striking photo of land erosion in New Mexico

An amazing view of land erosion from 30,000 feet above New Mexico.

read more | digg story

HIPerWall: New Vistas in Scientific Visualization

Innovative ways of envisioning scientific phenomena are on the rise in data-rich research environments. Case in point is the HIPerWall. The HIPerWall, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a massively tiled, grid-based display built using fifty 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays and twenty-five Power Mac G5 computers at the UC Irvine campus.

read more | digg story

Earth's ozone layer appears to be on the road to recovery.

Current trends might actually be helping. The global ozone layer could be restored to 1980 levels sometime between 2030 and 2070.

read more | digg story

Towel Day, May 25th

In remembrance of Douglas Adams, author of the book, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, carry your towel with you throughout the day on Thursday, May 25th.

Read more about Towel Day.

Things to do with a MacBook...

The things you can find on YouTube.

The latest find I read about on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Check out the application MacSaber and then watch the video.

Very amusing...

Voyager 2 Detects Odd Shape of Solar System's Edge

Voyager 2 could pass beyond the outermost layer of our solar system, called the \"termination shock,\" sometime within the next year, NASA scientists announced at a media teleconference today.

read more | digg story

New Nike + iPod Sports Kit

Nike and Apple have teamed up for the Nike iPod Sports Kit. A sensor is located in the Nike shoes and, with a wireless adaptor connected to your iPod Nano, the sensor data is transmitted to your iPod while you work out. Now your Nano is a fancy pedometer!

Read more about the Nike iPod Sports Kit.

Shopping for a Hubble Telescope?

A friend forwarded this along to me...

Just in case you are thinking of owning your own Hubble Telescope. Read more by visiting Telescope.com. Amusing indeed!

Real Time Satellite Tracking using Google Maps

I read about this site at the Bad Astronomy Blog. It is a very cool website overlaying satellite tracking data with Google Maps. It has an array of satellites from Hubble to GPS and Weather satellites. It even shows you the latitude and longitude for the closest land location that one could see the satellite all in real time.

Play here at the Real Time Satellite Tracking site.

Why do girls lose interest in math and science?

Government data show that girls fall behind boys in math and science as they progress through school. In the fourth grade, 68 percent of boys and 66 percent of girls say they like science, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

read more | digg story

Discovery of Triple-Neptune System

Astronomers have discovered 3 Neptune-sized planets circling star HD 69830 in the constellation Puppis. The planets were discovered using the 3.6 meter telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Read Extrasolar-planet hunters find triple-Neptune system from New Scientist.

Amusing cat videos

Okay, have you figured out we like cats yet?

If not, these videos on YouTube should convince you that we are:

Talking Cats and Funny Kitties

eBay rules that New Zealand not for sale

What will they think of next?

An eBay trader in Australia tried to sell the country New Zealand! The bid started at one cent and was up to 3,000 Australian dollars before eBay pulled the auction.

read more | digg story

SCUBA diving bugs

From a CBC's Quirks and Quarks, an interview with a researcher who learned how bugs SCUBA dive, complete with their own BCD and oxygen supply.

Evolution of Dance

A friend forwarded this video to me. I do not want to spoil it so all I will say is that this video made me cry I was laughing so hard.

The Evolution of Dance on YouTube.

Cuteness!

If you ever feel down, I have found the website for you.

Click on over to Cute Overload and enjoy the imagery. I guarantee it will put a smile on your face!

[Update] Here is another cute and funny site: Stuff On My Cat

Air Purifiers Can Create Indoor Air Pollution

Not all indoor air purifiers are the same. Ionic air purifiers can emit ozone as a byproduct of the ionization process.

Read more via the LiveScience article "Isn't it Ionic? Air Purifiers Make Smog". Check whether your indoor air purifier is safe via the California Air Resources Board website.

Microbes Convert Wastewater into Useable Electricity

Millions of tiny microbes infest the water carrying the detritus of human life and society. Some of them steadily break down the organic material in waste streams and produce electrons in the process.New research shows how such biological power plants can be stacked to create usable current.

read more | digg story

"Spore" Demonstration

A twenty minute presentation demonstrating the new video game "Spore" from the E3 conference going on this week in Northern California.

Looks like an amazing game. We hope to see it out someday.

read more | digg story

Palm Trade-In Program

Trade in your old smartphone or pda for a new Palm Treo Smartphone. 

Learn more from the Palm Trade-In Program website.

Tivo and Brightcove Partner

This new agreement will enable internet video via Brightcove to be downloaded and viewed from a TiVo box. Very cool!

Read the official press release.

Rock Slab Growing at Mt. St. Helens Volcano

Check out the photos and time-lapse video.

Hilarious commericals...

If you have not seen the Trunk Monkey commericals yet then you are missing out. Quite hilarious!

Explosive sting of jellyfish captured on film

The explosion of stingers released when a jellyfish brushes against its victim has been captured for the first time on film. The footage shows what may be the fastest cellular process in nature. What's more the little darts hit with the force of bullets. The most rapid camera available was needed - it takes 1.4 million frames per second

read more | digg story

Hydrogen fuel cells 20 years off, hybrids to become common

A recent report says that hybrids will become very common within the next few years as gas prices rise and people reallize that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are at least 20 years off. Interesting, Toyota has reduced cost of hybrid engine by 2700 to 700 bucks.

read more | digg story

FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms (radar time-lapse)

Radar view of FedEx flights dodging thunderstorms that are moving towards Memphis Int'l airport.

read more | digg story

Google News Cloud

NewsCloud is a site experiment that fetches news from Google News, tries to find tags related to each news and presents a tag cloud of the daily news. During the news process, there's no human intervention. All tags are discovered automatically from Google News by text analysis. The pages are served statically, and are generated every hour.

read more | digg story

Tips for Skywatchers

In celebration of Astronomy Day (May 6), Space.com published a great article for the beginning stargazer.

Tips for Skywatching

Even Garfield has an iPod

One of my favorite comics for a long time. 

Visit Garfield online.

Mac Maintenance Quick Assist

For the newbie or advanced Mac user, this Apple Support Document highlights 10 tips to keep your Mac in optimum form.

Top 10 Tips to Keep Your Mac in Top Form

Living Responsibly

Help to ensure clean and healthy oceans. The Ocean Conservancy has a great list of actions to help preserve our oceans and marine life.

Living Responsibly

Learn how to use Apple's Automator

This site's full of tours, examples and downloads. Very nice resource for any one curious on how to use that fancy Tiger app.

read more | digg story

Students invent natural way to purify polluted water

The three teenagers got the idea from a documentary about a Japanese fish farmer who tossed oyster shells into a pond and found it cleared the dirty water. They began experimenting with scallop shells immersed in dirty dish water. The water cleared in 24 hours. Their research has already won prizes at three science fairs.

read more | digg story

Saturn Moon Has Seas of Sand, Images Reveal

When scientists first started observing Titan, they saw what they thought were oceans. The latest images from NASA's Cassini probe reveal that these dark areas are seas of sand, complete with vast complexes of startlingly Earthlike dunes.

read more | digg story

TiVo's impact on the future of television advertising

This article talks about the future of television advertising and the impact that TiVo and other DVR's have on television advertising. It also contains a statement from a law professor at Duke that says broadcasters offer a program knowing that only a fraction of the audience watches the commercials.

read more | digg story

Electrically Powered Sports Car

The Wrightspeed X1 can do 0 to 60 mph in 3 seconds and is completely powered by advanced lithium-ion cells. 

Read more in the Business 2.0 May 2006 Issue and also visit the Wrightspeed Inc. site to learn more about the X1.

Nobel prize-winner Frank Wilczek on physics progress

On the SciAm podcast, Professor Wilczek and his wife Betsy Devine are interviewed about their Nobel experience and the progress and purpose of physics. Listen to the podcast here.

NASA & ESA Release Stunning New Videos of Huygens' Landing on Titan

New views of the most distant touchdown ever made by a spacecraft were released by NASA, ESA & the Univ. of Arizona. The movies show the dramatic descent of the Huygens probe to the surface of Saturn's moon Titan on Jan. 14, 2005. The movies were put together with data from the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer during the 147-minute descent.

read more | digg story

Challenger Center for Space Science Education 20th Anniv. On-line Auction

On-line Auction is from April 24, 2006 - May 29, 2006. Proceeds go to Challenger Center for Space Science Education in order to help "continue the mission" of Flight 51-L into the next decade. More information about the organization and its mission is available at Challenger Center.

read more | digg story

Jupiter in May

For the whole month of May, Jupiter will be unusually big and bright. A great time to go out and take a look!

Read more about viewing Jupiter.

Saturn's rotation puts astronomers in a spin

Saturn is apparently spinning faster than originally thought.

read more | digg story

TiVo Desktop released as a Universal binary

A step in the right direction. Still waiting for TivoToGo for the Mac.

read more | digg story

New Apple Macintosh Ads

Check out the new Mac ads!

Get A Mac Ads

DARPA Urban Grand Challenge is official

"DARPA will award prizes for the top three autonomous ground vehicles that compete in a final event where they must safely complete a 60-mile urban area course in fewer than six hours. First prize is $2 million, second prize is $500,000 and third prize is $250,000."

read more | digg story

Scientists Polled on Solar System Exploration Program Priorities

View the results of a survey on priorities for solar system exploration programs in light of the uncertain future of NASA space science. 

Conducted by a collaboration of the Planetary Science Institute, the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of The University of Arizona, the SETI Institute, and the Space Science Institute.

Survey Results

Seafood Watch

If you are worried about what you eat these days, especially when it comes to seafood I highly recommend this site. By the Monterey Bay Aquarium, this site offers valuable resources and insight to help you make informed choices.

Seafood Watch Program

SCI FI Channel Announces New Spinoff Show "Caprica"

SCI FI Channel announced the development of Caprica, a spinoff prequel of its hit Battlestar Galactica, in presentations to advertisers in New York on April 26. Caprica would come from Galactica executive producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick, writer Remi Aubuchon (24) and NBC Universal Television Studio.

read more | digg story

Clean Air Anyone?

A webmd.com article summarizing the American Lung Association's "State of the Air 2006".

Conclusion - if you want to breathe easy do not live in Los Angeles, Long Beach, or the Riverside - basically stay away from most of Southern California. Ugh - this is depressing.

Read more here: Top 25 Towns for Clean Air, Dirty Air

High Resolution Galactic Imagery

Stunning pictures of galaxies and nebulae. Various screen resolutions are provided for desktop images if interested.

read more | digg story

Scientists suggest Black Holes are Energy-Efficient

Summary:
With gasoline hitting $3 per gallon, scientists have just found the most energy-efficient engines in the universe — black holes, those whirling super-dense centers of galaxies that suck in nearly everything.


Visit the article by clicking this link:

Energy Efficient Black Holes

Hubble Space Telescope is 16 years old!

NASA and ESA have released wonderful pictures to celebrate.

read more | digg story

Apple Offers Free Computer Take-Back Program

New computer recycling program for US citizens starting in June.

Press Release

'Star Trek' to Return with 'Mission Impossible: 3' Director at Helm

No plot has been confirmed yet but J.J. Abrams is set to produce and possibly direct the 11th Star Trek Movie.

read more | digg story

In Search of the Real Dracula

True or Fiction?

read more | digg story

Why Rice Krispies Go Snap, Crackle, Pop!

Suggestions that explain this noisy cereal.

read more | digg story

Jedi Breakfast

A funny comedy short about breakfast and Star Wars.

read more | digg story

Ashes and Snow Exhibit - Santa Monica Pier

A beautiful sensory experience of still photography and film. If you are in Southern California, I highly recommend a visit.

Ashes and Snow

A Tour of Microsoft's Mac Lab

A tour of the Mac Lab at Microsoft - 2000 square feet and LOTS of computers.

read more | digg story

100 Interesting Science Facts

The title says it all!

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Cooking With Google

Choose a main ingredient and a cuisine, let Google do the rest. Unfortunately, no "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

read more | digg story

Mac OS X First Aid

With this guide to OS X first aid by your side, you will be able to quickly resolve the most common Mac problems: freezes, crashes, startup woes, and kernel panics.

read more | digg story

New Meat Eating Dinosaur Discovered: The Mapusaurus

Huge meat-eating dinosaurs roamed in groups in Argentina, scientists say

read more | digg story

TiVo victorious in major DVR patent suit

TiVo now has enforced a patent that may open up huge revenue streams for the company.The company has emerged victorious in their patent lawsuit against EchoStar. The jury in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has awarded TiVo US $73 million in damages.

read more | digg story

Caltech counter-pranks MIT by reclaiming stolen cannon

Last week, MIT students tricked rival tech school Caltech's campus security and stole the Fleming cannon, a campus landmark. In less than four days, Caltech students from Fleming House planned and executed a quick recovery operation and flew over 20 students to Boston to reclaim the three-ton, 111-year-old cannon.

read more | digg story

Beautiful Astrophotography Images

Beautiful astrophotography images taken by Robert Gendler, a regular on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website. His site not only showcases his work but also provides in depth instructions as to how he creates these images in Photoshop. Definitely check it out!

read more | digg story

Star Trek - What is Love

An amusing spoof of the movie Night at the Roxbury

read more | digg story

Serenity HD DVD Available April 18th

Looks like Universal Studios will release Serenity as their first HD DVD debut. Cool!

Read more at icv2.com.

First "iPod" Emmy Category Announced

Check out the nominees:

24: Conspiracy by Fox Mobile Entertainment
It’s Jerrytime! produced by Ozone Inc.
Live 8 on AOL produced by America Online
mtvU Stand In produced by MTV Networks’ mtvU
Sophie Chase produced by CB Films Inc.
Stranger Adventures “Helen Beaumont” produced by Riddle Productions

The nominee entries can be seen via Emmy Online

Apple Announces Remote Desktop 3

Building on Mac OS X version 10.4 "Tiger" innovations such as Spotlight, Dashboard and Automator, Apple Remote Desktop 3 is a Universal application optimized to take advantage of the power of Intel-based Macs with more than 50 new features that deliver improvements in software distribution, asset management and remote assistance.

read more | digg story

Hybrid Comet-Asteroid In Mysterious Break-Up

Something substantial has broken off an icy 50-kilometre object beyond the orbit of Saturn, leaving puzzled astronomers trying to figure out why. Comets have been seen breaking up before, but only after heating when passing close to the Sun or a gravitational disturbance following a close encounter with a planet.

read more | digg story

Welcome!

So I have decided to join the world wide web of blogging. Not sure why. Maybe boredom or a chance to share. Who knows really? The point is I am now here on Blogger.

Let's start off with something amusing to watch. I love You Tube. So many amusing videos out there in this world! Check out this video a friend of mine sent me:

Darth Vader in Japan

What do you think?