Hasta La Gadget!

TRIPOLI, Libya — The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three American members of his staff were killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, Libyan officials said Wednesday.

They said Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed Tuesday night when he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate to try to evacuate staff as the building came under attack by a mob guns and rocket propelled grenades.

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And why wouldn’t it be? That’s how the Kraay family of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada gets down, as evidenced by the family’s past 13 years of elaborate corn maze designs — from a logo of the Edmonton Oilers to a 25th anniversary commemoration of Rick Hansen’s “Man in Motion” tour. Said QR code sends adventurous scanners to a website for the Kraay’s family farm website. The code also got the Kraays into the Guinness Book of World Records for “World’s Largest QR Code,” which was really what drove this whole project. At approximately 29,000 meters (1.1 square miles), that’s quite a bit of carefully crafted corn designing. It’s certainly more elaborate than the previously claimed record holder, and a lot more official.

“It was something that we didn’t think would happen. There were a lot of little things we had to do and Guinness is pretty picky with how you collect your evidence. We were a little bit on edge on whether it would come through so we were very relieved and very excited,” Rachel Kraay told CTV News about the project. To verify that the code works, the Kraays had to commission a helicopter to fly them over their own farm, allowing them to scan it while hovering hundreds of feet above. And then, at the end of last week, the Guinness folks sent over a package certifying the bizarre world record. “They didn’t even call. I just went to the door and there was a large package and inside was the certificate and a letter. I guess that’s how they do it.”

[Image credit: Facebook]

Filed under: Misc, Internet, Alt

Visualized: World’s largest QR code is a Canadian maize maze originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Sep 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Nokia unveiled its Windows Phone 8 smartphones, some people yawned. The phones didn’t have a lot to set them apart from any other smartphones on the market other than being some of the first devices shown off to run Windows Phone 8. Reports are now coming in that indicate Nokia might have a hard time meeting its launch schedule.

According to reports, problems with the launch schedule aren’t necessarily on Nokia’s part, rather the chance for the delay rests at the feet of Microsoft. Reports indicate that Microsoft has yet to finish the Windows Phone 8 software. The Verge reports that it has learned from multiple sources that Microsoft originally planned Windows Phone 8 to launch in early October, before the PC operating system.

However, these sources are now indicating that Microsoft is targeting October 29 to launch Windows Phone 8. A late October launch for the mobile phone operating system would put the Nokia smartphones on the market sometime in November. The reason Microsoft is behind according to sources is delays and bugs encountered during testing.

These bugs and delays have pushed the launch back by weeks. According to The Verge, HTC has had particular difficulty testing one of its Windows Phone 8 devices. These issues are said to have affected HTC’s ability to announce new smartphones based on the operating system as early as Samsung, and Nokia were able to. The delay in the launch of the operating system is believed to be forcing some manufacturers to ship devices without the customizations common to most carriers. Reports indicate that any delays and final carrier testing could also affect when smartphones running the operating system market.

[via The Verge]

Report indicates Microsoft Windows Phone 8 isn’t complete is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Mars is a very strange planet. The surface of the planet is inhospitable to human life, yet scientists have discovered evidence that in the past Mars could have been habitable. Evidence of liquid water flowing on the surface of the planet in the past is one of the main reasons Mars is such a focus for scientific discovery.

While we spent most of our time talking about the Curiosity Rover that landed on the surface of the planet not too long ago, another NASA scientific mission has been on station for much longer with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter zipping around the planet gathering data as it goes. Recently, the orbiter captured data that has provided scientists with the clearest evidence yet that carbon dioxide snow is falling on the surface of Mars.

The evidence collected by the orbiter hints at the only known example of carbon dioxide snow falling anywhere in our solar system. You may remember from science class that frozen carbon dioxide is dry ice and requires temperatures of about -193°F to form. Evidence of dry ice snow was discovered in clouds around the Martian south pole, and snowfalls occurred during the Martian winter.

Falling water ice snow was also discovered in northern Mars by the Phoenix Lander mission in 2008. The evidence of dry ice snow was discovered by looking at clouds over the southern pole from directly overhead and sideways use using the Mars Climate Sounder, which is one of the six instruments aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This particular instrument records brightness in nine different wave bands of visible and infrared light.

The data gathered provided scientists with information on temperature, particle size, and particle concentration. Scientists say that the south polar residual ice cap is the only place on Mars where frozen carbon dioxide persists on the surface year-round. Scientists have been unable to determine exactly how the frozen carbon dioxide from Mars’ atmosphere is deposited on the ground. The question the team of scientists has been trying to answer is whether the frozen carbon dioxide is deposited as snow or by freezing out at ground level as frost. The new data indicates that snowfall is especially vigorous on top of the residual cap.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finds evidence of dry ice snowfall on Mars is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Sept 12 (Reuters) – A fire raced through a garment factory in the Pakistani city of Karachi overnight, killing 60 people, a senior police official said on Wednesday.

Senior Superintendent of Police Amir Farooqi told Reuters 35 people were injured and bodies were still being recovered from the factory, which employed about 450 people.

Farooqi said the cause of the fire was not immediately clear. In a fire on Tuesday, at least 23 people were killed at a shoe factory in the city of Lahore.

The fires could raise fresh questions about Pakistan’s industrial safety.

Critics say the government is too corrupt and ineffective to tackle an array of problems, from struggling industries to suicide bombings in the South Asian nation, a strategic U.S. ally.

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