The new Star Trek movie trailer, people still talking about Pluto and more GeekNews.
Sorry for the informal title, but this new item is just plain goofy. The Illinois Senate has decided to promote Pluto back to being a planet. There are several things wrong with this:
1. Pluto does not fall under the new definition of a planet. Whether we think it is fair, or unfair, it’s the way it is. So sayeth the IAU (International Astronomical Union)
2. Who says the senate of Illinois has any authority to make such a claim? Oh yes, that’s right. Nobody!
Not to mention, the resolution is subjective, and states incorrect facts. Namely, many Americans have discovered planets, contrary to the resolution’s claim.
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Star Trek colognes and perfume based on the original 1960s television show. In our latest look at Trek
Bubble Buddy
Friday, 3/6/09, NASA successfully launched the Kepler mission. From their website:
“The Kepler Mission, NASA Discovery mission #10, is specifically designed to survey our region of the Milky Way galaxy to discover hundreds of Earth-size and smaller planets in or near the habitable zone and determine how many of the billions of stars in our galaxy have such planets.
Results from this mission will allow us to place our solar system within the continuum of planetary systems in the Galaxy."
Previously discovered planets have been too large and/or far from their suns to contain liquid water. Many of planets that will be discovered by this mission will be smaller and closer to their suns; the discovery of these planets will be the first step (the first of many) toward discovering life on other worlds.
You know the names, but do you know where those names came from? Here are the stories behind the naming of TiVo, BlackBerry and more
Are you one of the biggest nerds in the world? If so, you probably know the fake Klingon language from Star Trek. And maybe you want to write things in this fake tongue. But here you are stuck with a stupid English keyboard. What to do? Buy a keyboard with Klingon symbols on it, that’s what!
Feeling powerless? Escape to the captain
Piscataway, NJ 9 Feb. 2009 Staff. Richard Perkins never though he would set any records, but this local student has reached a milestone few others could conceive of: a cumulative 27293 minutes of Star Trek in less than three weeks.
Armed with nothing more than a library card, a freezer full of prepared meals and a non-functioning cellphone, Perkins began with classic Star Trek and moved in ascending order through Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
A man who lost his sight 30 years ago says he can now see flashes of light after being fitted with a bionic eye.
Ron, 73, had the experimental surgery seven months ago at London’s Moorfield’s eye hospital.
He says he can now follow white lines on the road, and even sort socks, using the bionic eye, known as Argus II.
“The State of Colorado’s Office of Technology (OIT) has set up a work skills website. The problem is that the site says ‘DO NOT use FIREFOX or other Browsers besides IE. It has been decided that Mozilla based, non-IE browsers pose a security risk.’ (Original emphasis from site.) If the leading IT agency for the State is making these uneducated claims, should the people worry about their other decisions?”
“With Adobe’s patch for the current PDF vulnerability still some time away, news has emerged of more techniques that are available to exploit the vulnerability, this time without needing the victim to actually open a malicious file.”
“Microsoft has confirmed that users will be able to remove its IE8 browser, as well as several other integrated applications, from Windows 7.”
“Premier Election Solutions’ (formerly Diebold) GEMS 1.18.19 election software audit logs don’t record the deletion of ballots, don’t always record correct dates, and can be deleted by the operator, either accidentally or intentionally. The California Secretary of State’s office has just released a report about the situation (PDF) in the November 2008 election in Humboldt County, California.”
“Is this a milestone or the bottom for silicon-based panels?” The problem being that these cheap panels rely on relatively rare materials that can’t scale to the levels we need to put some on everyone’s roof. Where do we go from here?
Corrections: Our planets are named after the Roman gods.
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