- Courtney Love plans to auction off Cobain memorabilia
Courtney Love says she wants to “move on” and plans to sell most of her late husband Kurt Cobain’s belongings.
Translation: “I ran out of money for drugs.”
- Video Games Not to Blame for Violence
Despite decades of research , there is no proven link between video game violence and real-world violence.
If violent entertainment caused real violence, logic would dictate that the violent crime rate would have skyrocketed in recent years. In fact, exactly the opposite occurred: Violent crime has dropped significantly over the past 20 years—just as video games have become more prevalent and more violent. In fact, one could make the (equally illogical) argument that violent video games actually decrease violent crimes.
- Out-of-This-World Hypothesis: Cosmic Forces Control Life on Earth
Scientists know the Milky Way is being gravitationally pulled toward a massive cluster of galaxies, called the Virgo Cluster, located about 50 million light years away. Adrian Melott and his colleague Mikhail Medvedev, both KU researchers, speculate that as the Milky Way hurdles towards the Virgo Cluster, it generates a so-called bow shock in front of it that is similar to the shock wave created by a supersonic jet.
“Our solar system has a shock wave around it, and it produces a good quantity of the cosmic rays that hit the Earth. Why shouldn’t the galaxy have a shock wave, too?” Melott said.
The galactic bow shock is only present on the north side of the Milky Way’s galactic plane, because that is the side facing the Virgo Cluster as it moves through space, and it would cause superheated gas and cosmic rays to stream behind it, the researchers say. Normally, our galaxy’s magnetic field shields our solar system from this “galactic wind.” But every 64 million years, the solar system’s cyclical travels take it above the galactic plane.
- Earth-like planet found outside solar system
- And this one may even have water on it.
- The beginning of the end of static desktop pictures?
From an Apple patent filing:
“Since the desktop picture can be computed very quickly using a GPU, it may be made to move on demand,” the company explained. “This includes movement, for example, when logging in, logging out, and transitioning to and from a screen saver, providing a seamless experience. It can also include slow movement, such as seen when a soft tree shadow is cast, with the gentle rustling of leaves in the breeze, or slow movement over time, or concerted movement to mark the passing of time (e.g., a noticeable change to pattern or color every hour).”
Apple also hinted at an editing tool that could allow desktop picture designers to edit and specify the user experience. “In certain embodiments of the present invention, a single frame may be computed,” the company said. “In other embodiments of the present invention, multiple frames may be computed. Furthermore, transitions between frames effectively provide movement of desktop pictures on demand.”
A seamless transition from one desktop picture to another may be used to simulate motion or animation, according to the filing, where several gradations may be computed over time. “For example, the color gradation may be computed based on the time of day to mimic the changes in the colors of the sky,” Apple wrote.
- Plants on Other Planets Might Not Be Green
“When we look at these faraway planets, we’re not going to be able to spatially resolve them. We won’t be able to see continents and oceans,” Meadows said. “Everything we must learn about that planet will be in a single dot of light.”
- Belief in Reincarnation Tied to Memory Errors
There’s a funny coincidence here, and that’s that I have a really good memory and I don’t believe in reincarnation. Good article, though.