’Earth-Like’ Asteroid Devoured by Dead Star

The Hubble Space Telescope has recorded an intriguing event some 150 light-years from Earth.

A large asteroid was pulled into the White Dwarf star (named ‘GD 61’ by astronomers) and utterly destroyed. This is not an unusual event, as even dead stars still exhibit a very high level of gravity. However, scientists are interested because the chemical signatures left in the star’s atmosphere indicate the presence of water and a rocky surface, both considered to be key building blocks for the creation of life on our planet.

Until this event was observed, water and a rocky surface had never been found together on an object outside our solar system.

The asteroid consisted of the elements magnesium, silicon, iron and oxygen, all of which are usually found in rock minerals, but scientists believe that the abundance of oxygen indicated the heavy presence of H20.

The object was at least 90KM across and as much as 26% of that is thought to have been water. Earth is considered to be just 0.02% water.

This discovery is important because it gives scientists a vindicating glimpse of how inhabitable environments may have been formed, receiving key components (such as water) from outside sources such as meteorites.

It is thought that water first arrived on our planet by similar means and that other planets in the GD 61 system would once have received water this way as well. According to BBC News, scientists consider the presence of rocky planets in the GD system to have been “very likely”.

Scientists have observed over 1,000 planets outside our solar system, but none is thought to contain water.

Closer to home, some planets and heavenly bodies are thought to contain water. Mars is considered by many to once have had liquid water, but if this is still the case, it is a greatly reduced amount.

Elsewhere, Jupiter’s moon Europa raises a tantalizing prospect that there are oceans under its icy surface. This has led to some convincing research into the possible presence of ocean currents there. However, Europa is not alone, its fellow moons Callisto and Ganymede have also been suggested as candidates for liquid water.

In addition, Rhea (moon of Saturn), Titania (moon or Uranus), Oberon (also orbiting Uranus), Triton (moon of Neptune), Pluto (dwarf planet), Eris (dwarf planet), Sedna (possible dwarf planet) and Orcus (another possible dwarf planet) are all speculated to have oceans, some of which may be in contact with the rocky core of the respective body, which would hypothetically result in a steady stream of minerals and salts into the water – an important factor in creating life.

Saturn’s moon Enceladus has geysers, which is seen as proof of the presence of water or at least water vapours. It has even been theorized by some that Neptune contains oceans of liquid diamond.

The heavy presence of water on this asteroid is a vital clue for scientists and their understanding, not only of the cosmos, but also of how our home planet came into being.

 

SOURCES

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24491845

’Earth-Like’ Asteroid Devoured by Dead Star

Stallone To Play ‘Rocky’ Once more

Rumours abound that Sylvester Stallone is going to be playing the character of ‘Rocky Balboa’ once again, in a brand new movie set inside the ‘Rocky’ world.

The incredibly popular character Rocky Balboa formerly appeared in the Oscar-winning 1976 movie ‘Rocky’ and is the central hero in no less than six films to date.

MGM films have basically offered the brand new project, at present identified only as ‘Creed’ to director Ryan Coogler.

The future movie is actually a spin-off as opposed to a direct sequel.

Michael B. Jordan, star of this year’s ‘Fruitville Station’ and also HBO TV drama ‘The Wire’, will play the grandson of recurring series character Apollo Creed. The planned story would call for young Creed to enter the world of boxing, with Stallone’s Balboa playing the function of his mentor.

Director Ryan Coogler, who worked with Jordan on the aforementioned ‘Fruitville Station’ film, is said to be enthusiastic about the concept and is hoping to co-write the screenplay.

Apollo Creed, as portrayed by Carl Weathers, was originally presented as Rocky’s adversary. In the initial role, Creed (who was reportedly similar to a combination of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Joe Louis) was the World Heavyweight Boxing Champ as well as a savvy entrepreneur. When faced with a deficiency of proper opponents, Creed decided to put his championship on the line against a neighborhood, unknown fighter.

The initial film mainly centred around the elected fighter Rocky Balboa as he trained for the biggest fight of his life. In the later movies, Apollo Creed became a adviser and a close pal to Rocky.

Weathers played Creed in each ‘Rocky’ film until ‘Rocky IV’, where the character was killed during a match with Russian boxer Ivan Drago (portrayed by Dolph Lundgren).

In spite of the character’s downfall, he’s significantly mentioned in both follow-up films and remains very popular with fans of this series.

The final film in the original Rocky series, ‘Rocky Balboa’ was released in 2006 to strong critical and commercial reception. In 2010, Sylvester Stallone was inducted into the Worldwide Boxing Hall of Fame and Museum for his creation and portrayal of Rocky, as well as the many tributes he has paid to boxers and also the sport of boxing in his career.

SOURCES:

http://www.sylvesterstallone.com/stallone-inducted-into-boxing-hall-of-fame/

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/stallone-to-play-rocky-again-in-spin-off-creed-053257511.html

Stallone To Play ‘Rocky’ Once more

Sony 42-Inches of pure brilliance

Similar to lots of people reading this, I take pleasure in the celebration of Christmas a great deal.

 

Though I am not religious (in truth, I’ve frequently described myself like the ‘spiritually inclined’ atheist – even if I have taken to observing all 8 Pagan Sabbats over the course of this year), I still view Christmas as the joyous time being spent with family, friends and people you think as belonging to the closest ring of the ‘inner circle’.

 

My relatives is one with many enduring Christmas traditions, plenty of that will obviously be passed on to my family (should my girlfriend and I ever choose to have any). We bring out similarly decorations year after year (a few of which have always been in the family for over a 100 years).

 

On Christmas Eve, my Mum will still read ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas’ by Clement C. Moore to my brother and myself (and latterly my girlfriend too), although we are now in our twenties. Until lately, we would move out into the streets and chime the ‘sleigh bells’ for our neighbours’ kids to hear from their window (as their mother and father did for my brother and I when we were kids).

 

Maybe our best family tradition, yet, is the ritual viewing of a Frank Capra Christmas tradition ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. The flick stars Jimmy Stewart as the perennial ‘nice guy fallen on misfortune’ George Bailey, Donna Reed as his wife Mary, Henry Travers as Clarence, George’s guardian angel and of course, Lionel Barrymore as a truly dastardly ‘Old Man Potter’.

 

No matter what else goes on (or how confused Christmas Eve might be, especially now that travel may be a factor in our coming together), we ALWAYS find time to stream that particular film on that individual evening.

 

When George runs gleefully through the streets of Bedford Falls shouting “Merry Christmas you wonderful old building and loan!” My Father is welling up, by the point George’s brother Harry declares him being “the richest man in town”, I’m right there with him. There’s just a certain, sparkling, honest-to-goodness enchartment to it, the script is wonderful , the direction is miles ahead of its time and the performances, well, (to quote Bernard Black of ‘Black Books’ fame) “Ah, they’d soften your face”.

 

Why am I revealing you this?

 

Well, seeing as there’s no way to enhance upon the film itself, the experience would almost certainly only be bettered if we have a Sony 42-Inch TV. With a jaw dropping ‘X-Reality’ picture, a wireless smartphone link-up element and lots more besides, this brand new 2013 smart tv is a doozy. It could lack some of the more compulsive features of Sony’s other smart TVs, but, after considering the display and glossy, ultramodern design of this Smart tv, it hardly seems to matter.

 

With the brand new Blu Ray edition of ‘It is a Wonderful Life’, a shiny Sony 42-Inch TV with a good speaker, you will never be happier to see an angel getting his wings.  

Sony 42-Inches of pure brilliance

Xbox One unboxing – headset included with all versions

Editorial – this year will be a huge year for the console industry. The new generations of Xbox and Playstation, are due for being released inside weeks of each other. Both are vying for our consideration and hard-earned money, unlike the past generation, Sony with the Playstation 4 have put a less expensive price together compared to that xbox one, which surprised everybody at E3 this year. But recent news announced by Microsoft proves that the xbox one contains kinect plus a headset, proving that xbox ones added cost is actually for additional extras.

 

The standard and Day One editions of the Xbox One console will both include a headset, despite Microsoft suggesting that Kinect would be used instead.

As U-turns go it’s one of Microsoft’s more minor in recent months, but Xbox Live director of programming Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb has confirmed that all Xbox One consoles will be sold with a headset.

The unboxing video below is for the limited edition ‘Day One’ boxed set, although the only difference is an exclusive Achievement and a specially embossed controller.

That means the other contents of the box will also be included in the ordinary edition, namely a 4K compatible HDMI cable and the controversial Kinect sensor.

Initially Microsoft said that the Xbox One wouldn’t come with a headset, despite the console using a new audio connector port that means existing headsets need an adaptor to work.

The idea was that you were going to have to pay for that separately or just use Kinect’s microphone to speak to people. Microsoft then reversed its decision, then pretended it hadn’t reversed its decision, and has now admitted that actually, yes: it does come with a headset.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/08/xbox-one-unboxing-headset-included-with-all-versions-3917117/

Xbox One unboxing – headset included with all versions

Playstation 3: Is The Latest Batch The Best?

Where do the latest ps3 games sit on the Pantheon of the PS3? Let’s have a look-see.

 

cheked my Facebook and caught a status update from my friend.

“Well, with a little trepidation I’ve finally done it” the update read “I’ve bought my own detached house. It has all appliances I could need and a beautiful thatched roof”

I was surprised and impressed by this news, Bob is only a little older than me. I was shocked that he was enjoying so much success. I was pleased for him. Bob and I were at college together. I enjoyed it.  He moved away and I only met him a few years later, whilst we were on the same train. We still had a lot in common. I went to offer my congratulations until I realized I’d been had by two words. Dork.

 

Bob is not alone, loads of people had great fun last year with PS3 games. Around half my mates had their social lives decimated by Skyrim. Great. Each. Saw him.

 

Fell prey to. is extremely unlikely to work if they make the title any shorter. Might annoy F1 fans who get confused and buy it by mistake. It is the sequel to…Don’t make me tell you!, with updated squad lists and slightly better graphics. It sold well, but I can’t say it’s hugely better than FIFA11.

 

Another one that did well towards the end of last year. I think you play it in groups of three. I hate Dragonball Z. Sit through earlier episode or showing you what’s to come in the next episode. Apart from that, our lead characters do nothing but get angrier. Extremely pissed off) hero gets really mad, glows yellow and kills him. The end. Installments. What’s that? Oh, the game? {I have no idea, I got sidetracked|Distracted|Taken off on a tangent…Madder.

 

Overview

Playstation 3: Is The Latest Batch The Best?

“Pee As You Go?” - Pee Can Recharge Cellphones, Seemingly

Scientists working at the University West of England (UWE) in Bristol, UK, have discovered one way to recharge a mobile phone with Human pee.

The team have been capable of recharge a Samsung smart phone by placing the fluid through a surge of microbial fuel cells. With this process, enough power has been produced to send text messages, browse the Internet and also make a short telephone call.

Based on the scientists responsible, the next stage is to completely charge the device with urine…Seemingly cleaning their hands straight afterwards.

Dr. Ioannis Ieropoulos has worked for ages with microbial energy cells; he’s considered a guru in harnessing power from abnormal options. The potential purposes of his work are very appealing from an environmental point of view.

Dr. Ieropoulos said, “We are very excited as this is a world first, no-one has harnessed energy from urine to try this so it is an interesting finding. Using the final waste product as a supply of energy to produce electrical power is almost as eco as it gets.” Eco-friendly tech is, apparently, the good doctor’s main area of interest.

The microbial cells work as an energy converter, they take the organic substance straight into electricity, via the metabolism of live microbes. The electrical power is the by-product of a microorganism’s natural life cycle, meaning that as they ‘eat’ the urine, they generate power the energy that powers the mobile. Now that is what we call ‘pee as you go’.

Toilet humour aside, the team have engineered a world first, as nothing as large as the mobile battery has ever been charged using this process before.

There are, at present, no plans to market this tech on a large scale, but maybe someday we could be signing a ‘P’ mobile agreement, the trick, as they are saying, shall be pissistance.

PS – I’m apologetic about this one. The work and its implications are instead astonishing. All credit to the UWE team. However, I constantly wanted to do one to those ‘And Finally’ type tales and now I finally get to. Please forgive me, one and all.

SOURCES:

 

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/urine-could-charge-mobile-phones-152225132.html

“Pee As You Go?” - Pee Can Recharge Cellphones, Seemingly

Can I move photos from my camera to my Amazon kindle fire a PC

The quick answer is no, you possibly can’t. I’m sad, but that is just the way it is.

On the other hand, all hope isn’t lost in spite of this dreadful news. There are two main avenues you can still go down.

The very first is to simply message the photos to yourself and download them to your Kindle. This process works fine if you only need several holiday snaps or pictures of your little nephew’s birthday or what, but its not much use for a great deal of photos.

The 2nd technique is little more refined. With a hard disk, you can transfer pictures relatively easily from one device to the other, this may help you transfer a better quantity of photos and will likely take much less time.

The most suitable choice, Experts say, is probably the second, especially when you hunt down the “eye-Fi” SD card, compatible with most recent cameras (although, as always, it’s certainly best to double check). Sime, of The Digital Photography Educate website, was obviously impressed. In the review, he said,

“With the Eye-Fi X2 card, I could upload full res photos from my NEX 5  to my iPhone and then do what I wanted with them [Instagram / Facebook / Flickr etc] when you’re using the X2 card, you can connect the camera directly to your iPhone / iPad without having to use a Wifi router etc… You can also use the Eye-Fi app on your phone [iPhone and Android] to upload your images to your computer / Flickr etc. Yep – works, works well”.

He then gave an individual account of the Eye-Fi’s usefulness, which I have re-printed below.

“My wife and I went to the zoo with our almost-three year old a couple of weeks back and I had a look through her images afterwards, realising that there were images from her camera dating back to… well, when I gave her the camera! She’s currently using a 32GB SDHC card in there, and just leaves everything on the card! When I asked if she had copied any on to her computer, I was told “That’s too hard / I don’t have time / Where’s the cable” (Yes, a combo of the three, I didn’t press for details…;) So – I cunningly swapped out the existing card for the Eye-Fi card, loaded the app on her Macbook and added it to start when her computer starts, but to hide in the background (This is an option in the application) so basically, the camera connects to her laptop whenever it can and copies the photographs across – they are there, ready to use. Guess who won ‘awesome technical husband of the week award?’ (Obviously a lot of you are tech savvy, but well… )”

In no way let it be said that I disregard a question of yours without making a proposal of my own.

You’ll permit me a brief tangent, there is the line in a single of the beloved books of my teen years ‘Have Nice Day: A Tale of Blood & Sweatsocks’ by Mick Foley (which is the immense book about life generally, even when you are not a wrestling fan) where Mick says, “I had always felt that it was not good enough to shoot something down – It was best to have a answer”. Take that and work with it, reprobates.

Can I move photos from my camera to my Amazon kindle fire a PC