I really hope the movie does the book justice! Oh well, I guess only time will tell.
The Hunger Games is set to be released on March 23, 2012.
[Via]
Om Nom Nom Nom: Death Star Wedding Cake [Picture]
This awesome Death Star wedding cake, featuring the bride and groom as Stormtroopers, was made by the very talented folks over at the Sweet on Cakes bakery.
Super-Earth: A Candidate for Real-World Caprica?
A team of scientists using data from the European Southern Observatory, have determined there is a potentially Earth-like planet in a nearby solar system, only 22 light years away, but it’s at least 4.5 times the mass of Earth!
In addition to the public data from the European Southern Observatory, they were incorporating new measurements from the Keck Observatory’s High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph and the new Carnegie Planet Finder Spectrograph at the Magellan II Telescope. The technique used to find the planet was the effect of the planet’s gravity on the star – making it wobble.
The super-Earth planet in question is called GJ 667Cc. GJ 667C is the name of the star, GJ 667AB are a pair of orange K dwarfs that reside in the same solar system – yes, it’s a triple-star system – and GJ667Cb is another ‘super-Earth’ planet that has an orbit too close to the sun to be of a life-friendly temperature. The new planet discovered has an orbital period of 28.15 days and receives about 90% of the light that Earth gets. However, since this star gives off mostly infrared light, being an M-class dwarf star, the percentage of energy absorbed should be higher. This means the planet most likely absorbs the same amount of energy as good ol’ Mother Earth.
Anglada-Escudé, one of the leading scientists on the project, claims that, “This planet is the new best candidate to support liquid water and, perhaps, life as we know it.”
Of course, nothing can be confirmed until we get more information about the planets atmosphere – even though it has the same energy absorption as Earth, we don’t know enough yet to know if liquid water can actually be sustained on its surface.
But who knows? Only a century ago, the idea of being able to fly across the world in a few hours seemed a ridiculously impossible feat. Perhaps in another century, the idea of travelling a couple of light years might not be so hard? Maybe we can start populating the Universe and have a United Federation of Planets? Maybe the planet GJ 667Cc is already populated with inhabitants that are enslaved by a race of aliens that attach themselves to human brains? Maybe they’ve got a prime directive that they can’t violate, and we’re just some quaint little planet that doesn’t quite get it yet.
Let’s just make sure we rein them in when they decide to build robotic slaves.
[Via Science Daily]
The Best Rejection Letter Rejection Letter of All Time [Pic]
[Via Buzzfeed]
Europe to Google: Hold your Horses
European privacy officials have demanded that Google put planned privacy policy changes on hold until they can check that the new rules comply with local laws.
The demand comes from the Article 29 Working Party. That’s not a legal organization in itself, but rather a group made up of the data protection authorities in each of the European Union’s member countries. The group itself doesn’t have enforcement powers, so this is more of a co-ordinated warning of potential individual action.
The new Google policy is set to take effect on March 1st and contains two main changes. Firstly, the existing collection of 70 separate policy documents, each covering an individual service, is to be reduced to 11. That will include one master policy that covers most services, with the remaining 10 requiring individual policies for legal reasons. Google says this change will make it easier for users to keep track of the way it behaves.
The second change is that Google is now claiming the right to treat all data it collects about a user from across its services as a single record. From a user perspective, this could mean for example that the contents of your Gmail messages influences the ads you see on YouTube, the clips you view on YouTube influences your autocomplete suggestions when searching, and the sites you visit most often could even influence your dictionary suggestions in Gmail.
Of course, this also means Google will have even more accurate and detailed information with which to sell advertising. It also potentially increases the risk of inappropriate data use according to privacy campaigners.
The changes have already prompted a hostile advertising campaign by Microsoft which effectively accuses Google of compromising user privacy for the sake of profit.
Although Google doesn’t have to take notice of the European request, and it seems unlikely it will delay the changes at this stage, it has said it’s happy to talk to authorities about its policies. Between European governments being particularly unhappy with the debacle of Google unintentionally collecting Wi-Fi data through its Street View work, and European Union officials proposing a major overhaul of online data protection laws including giving users the right to demand a company delete all data about them, now wouldn’t be a smart time for Google to pick a fight.
The Facebook Post with a Million Replies
Facebook is all full of firsts. The groundbreaking website that defined modern social media has set a new record as a post has reached One Million Replies, officially setting a world record.
on October 31st, 2011, a post was, er, posted, with the goal of reaching as many comments as the Frontierville Fan Group page could possibly muster. Only 100 or so different people commented, and those that did posted an average of over 9,500 times apiece. Needless to say, this wasn’t generated by a hilarious joke, powerful opinion, and certainly not sheer popularity. No sir. This was done by brute force and willpower.
Facebook has become such a social hub for so many, and it was only a matter of time before a benchmark like this was achieved.
But it was a thread about Frontierville? This game woudln’t exist if it wasn’t trying so hard to replicate the success of its predecessor Farmville. Oh, you don’t care about that game either? Odd that.
This is exactly my point. If this incredible landmark achievement was on a near endless thread about solving world hunger, or sharing ideas for a renewable energy source, I could see it having value. But this is like getting a Guiness Book of World Records for passing gas for the millionth time.
While it is an elite few that get recognition from the Guinness Book of World Records, and it’s not something that anyone can take away from them, I have to wonder if these intrepid facebookers are actually proud of this crowning achievement?
[Editor’s note: And when I think that this group only has 1141 fans… Imagine the greatness we could achieve with our 260k-fan-strong page! Ok, let’s all work to bring this post above 1 MILLION LIKES! (Below!) GO GEEKS! :) ]
The Lord of the Rings – Olympic Rivalry [Video]
GO TEAM GANDALF! :)
In 2012 the Olympics are coming to Middle Earth, and Gandalf has hired a trainer to whip his team into shape.
Thanks Christer!
Superhero and Villain Alignment Chart [Pic]
Click Picture to Enlarge
[Via Blastr]