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We’re Trekkies And We Know It via Giant Freakin Robot I’m proud to be a Trekkie and I’m glad these fellows feel comfortable enough in their nerdiness to do this video. But I also cringe while watching it because of the stereotype...

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'Game Of Thrones', A Clash Of Food Fine Dining Lovers, an online magazine for food enthusiasts, thought you might be interested in the story about Game of Thrones from a foodie point of view. Fans of Game of Thrones want to eat and...

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The Art of Film & TV Title Design The credits are often the first thing we see when we watch a great film or TV show, but the complexity and artistry of title design is rarely discussed.  From PBS Off Book, a quick look at the thinking...

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Rash of UFO Sightings Around the World There’s been a lot of UFO sightings in the USA, England, Canada and Australia, all reporting seeing an object in the sky shaped like a pyramid. Coincidence? Conspiracy? You decide. Here’s a...

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A Plethora of News Links: 4/29/2008

Category : News Links

 News for Geeks

Games:

- How I Played Games for Science: East Carolina University’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies has announced the results of a PopCap underwritten study claiming that casual games have a demonstrative affect at relieving stress and improving moods.

The academic group underwent a “six-month long, randomized, controlled study” measuring the impact of three PopCap games — Bejeweled 2, Peggle and Bookworm Adventures.

- Record Sales Expected For Grand Theft Auto IV: Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., is about to launch the latest version of Grand Theft Auto GTA IV. It’s expected to break records and pull in about $400M in just a single week.

Computing:

- With Cray, Intel seeks greater supercomputer share: Intel is ratcheting up the competition with smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices by joining forces w/ supercomputer maker Cray, which for the past six years has used only AMD chips in its high-performance machines.

- Apple powers up iMac with Penryn processor: Apple on Monday refreshed its iMac line with faster Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Core 2 Duo processors and an optional more powerful graphics processor on its high-end 24-inch model.

The new iMac is available in three basic configurations: a 20-inch 2.4-GHz model ($1,199), a 20-inch 2.66-GHz model, and a 24-inch 2.8- GHz model. The 2.4-GHz iMac comes with an ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT (128-MB memory) while the 2.66-GHz and 2.8-GHz models come with an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO (256-MB memory).

Gadgets:

- Nokia’s New Phones: Built For Comfort And Speed: Nokia has just announced three new additions to its lineup, all boast a gorgeous jet black finish and quad-band GSM reception. The Nokia 6600 Slide, 6600 Fold, and 3600 Slide all fall under the fashion phone category, thanks to the smooth rounded lines and stylized directional pad.

- Cut your gadgets‘ appetite for electricity: In honor of the month that brings us Earth Day, here are some tips on cutting down the amount of electricity you use to power your gadgets

Science:

- Using Nanotech to Shut Down Troublesome Genes: MIT scientists say they’ve found a new way to silence disease-causing genes in specific tissues using RNA interference

- ‘Frankenfoods’ Gain Popularity During Food Crisis: Europe has pushed back for quite a while, is the world ready to think seriously about cheaper bio-engineered grains?

Forget About Asteroids Colliding w/ Earth, Here Comes Mercury

Category : Science

Solar System - Planets

Bad news:

Computer simulations of long-term planetary motion for our solar systems reveals that Jupiter may eventually destabilize Mercury’s orbit over time. Mercury already has an eccentric orbit and it’s entirely possible influences from larger bodies could accentuate that orbit to the point where it overlaps with Venus.

And if that happens, the smaller planet (Mercury) would careen off and all bets are off at that point, Earth could be a likely recipient of a catastrophic kissing of planets and I’m sure you know what that means for civilization.

Good news:

There is only a 1% chance of this occurring before Sol balloons into a red giant billions of years from now, but still…wouldn’t that be cool?

Sky & Telescope has the doomsday scenario announced by the Paris Observatory and University of California, Santa Cruz.

[via fark]

Lost Producers Give a Few Hints To Popular Mechanics

2

Category : Just geeky, Science

Lost - Hadron Collider

Executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse tell Popular Mechanics they’ve been following the development of the Large Hadron Collider above (right) as they lay out Lost‘s time-travel plot for the rest of this season.

Could one of the Dharma Initiative’s stations (left) create a mini black hole into the future?

Note: One of the safety concerns of this collider constructed in Switzerland is that it may actually generate micro black holes that could lead to a doomsday scenario, though this claim is not widely adopted by the scientific community.

T-Rex ‘Tissue’ May Be the Real Deal After All

Category : Science

Dino

Scientists are puzzled by the purported discovery of something they thought couldn’t possibly still exist — bits of soft tissue from a Tyrannosaurus rex bone from Utah. Fossil-hunters found the matter two years ago, and skeptics have challenged its authenticity ever since.

But now there’s new evidence suggesting the tissue is the real thing. They’ve successfully retrieved a tiny sequence of protein from the 68 million year old fossil.

Listen to the 3 minute NPR podcast on the find.

Shutdown Day 2008

Category : Announcement, Just geeky

Shutdown Day

Shutdown Day 2008 is your opportunity to be part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the Internet. The idea behind Shutdown Day is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate; the initiative was started by Denis Bystrov and Ashutosh Rajekar, both of Montreal, Canada.

I think we can all agree that being asked to go without your computer for a day is a big ask, especially if you’re addicted to e-mail, IM’ing, surfing the web. But if you could find some other interesting activities to do for just a day other than sitting at your PC, you may discover something about yourself and your priorities.

Here’s a youtube video they produced, pitching the event: