Now we aren’t all millionaires, so we can’t possibly afford having a
couple hundred gold bars to put in our personal
safes. As an alternative, we normal folks can get ones of these Gold Bullion Optical Mouse instead. You know, to show that we can keep up with the gold trend without going into debt.
If you’ve taken all the information we covered about home automation earlier and decided that you want to install one in your home, then the next (and obvious) thing you need to do is figure out which provider to go with. Vivint appears to be a prime contender, seeing as they’ve just recently got the Central Station of the Year Award.
Pluto may no longer be able to roll with the big boys, but that isn’t stopping NASA scientists from continuing to take an interest in it. As it turns out, the Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a fifth moon orbiting the solar system’s second-most-massive dwarf planet. P5, as it’s being called, is an irregularly shaped moon that’s 6 to 15 miles across and whips around Pluto in a 56,000-mile-diameter circular orbit.
P5 was discovered as NASA’s Pluto team used the Hubble Space Telescope to scan the area surrounding the planet for debris or anything else (like undiscovered moons, perhaps?) that may damage or destroy NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft as it flies through the Pluto system in 2015. NASA says that with New Horizons travelling at 30,000 miles per hour, the spacecraft could be destroyed by a piece of debris the size of a BB. “The discovery of so many small moons indirectly tells us that there must be lots of small particles lurking unseen in the Pluto system,” says Harold Weaver of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Indeed, as strange as it may seem, NASA scientists are discovering moons orbiting Pluto at something of an alarming rate. It was only last year that P4 was discovered, and before that came the discovery of Nix and Hyrda in 2006. Up until that point, we thought that the only moon orbiting Pluto was Charon, which was discovered back in 1978.
As for how P5 came into existence, the Pluto team thinks that it was formed when Pluto collided with another celestial body billions of years ago, much in the same way scientists believe our own moon was formed. Take a look at our story timeline below for more interesting stories from space!
[via NASA]
Hubble Space Telescope spots fifth moon orbiting Pluto is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Last week’s discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle set the internet ablaze with discussion and debate, but as with most scientific discoveries, there are some who are having a hard time understanding what it all means. After all, not everyone has advanced degrees in physics. In an attempt to make the significance of the discovery easier for people to comprehend, a group of scientists have taken CERN’s preliminary ATLAS data that revealed this Higgs-like particle and set it to music.
The piece of music you see above is the end result of that sonification, a 12 second-long piano solo. See that trio of really high notes there in the second measure? That’s the particle itself, and when listening to the solo, it’s pretty easy to pick out (listen for it around 3.5 seconds into the recording). DANTE’s Domenico Vicinanza, one of the scientists responsible for the sonification, explained today why this process is important:
By using sonification we are able to make this breakthrough easier to understand by the general public, highlighting the depth and breadth of the enormous research efforts by the thousands of scientists around the world involved with the Large Hadron Collider. Neither the discovery of the particle or this sonification process would have been possible without the high speed research networks that connect scientists across the world, enabling them to collaborate, analyse data and share their results.
If you’re in the mood for something a little more substantial, the team also created a longer track that features bass, marimba, xylophone, and percussion alongside the piano part. Both versions are excellent, but then again, we’re just surprised that scientific data is capable of sounding so good to begin with.
[via GÉANT]
Higgs Boson put to music in an effort to make it easier to understand is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Try as I might, I’ve never been able to skip a stone across water in my life. And while there are some people who possess this skill, I’m not one of them. That’s okay, because it turns out there’s a robot to do my bidding skipping.
Skippy the Robot flings stones perfectly across the surface of water every time. The ‘bot is set up along a lake in Sun Valley, Idaho, and you can actually instruct Skippy to skip a stone across this idyllic scene if you are patient enough to wait in line for it. But even if you don’t want to wait, here’s a little clip of Skippy in action, doing his thing, so you can get the point.
If you’d like to ask Skippy to fling a stone on your behalf, head on over to the appropriately named www.stoneskippingrobot.com.
[via Mashable]
It’s been believed for some time that there are “dark galaxies” in the universe, gas-rich clusters that don’t have any stars. Until now such galaxies have never been seen, but thanks to the use of the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the first dark galaxies may have been sighted. Since they’re devoid of stars, very little light is emitted from the galaxies, although they’ve been spotted by the illumination of nearby quasars.
This is the first time that the dark galaxies have been directly observed, previously theorized to be be a part of general galaxy formation by feeding gas to those galaxies with stars. Simon Lilly, a researcher at the ETH Zurich University, says, “We searched for the fluorescent glow of the gas in dark galaxies when they are illuminated by the ultraviolet light from a nearby and very bright quasar. The light from the quasar makes the dark galaxies light up in a process similar to how white clothes are illuminated by ultraviolet lamps in a night club.”
Using the sensitivity of the Very Large Telescope, the team that made the discovery took advantage of a series of long exposures to detect the faint glow of the galaxies. Sebastiano Cantalupo, the lead author behind the study from the University of California, says the plan eventually reaped rewards: “After several years of attempts to detect fluorescent emission from dark galaxies, our results demonstrate the potential of our method to discover and study these fascinating and previously invisible objects.”
Other information was also taken away from the study. The mass of the gas in the galaxies is said to be over one billion times of what’s found in the Sun. The star formation efficiency has also been suppressed over 100 times that of typical galaxies.
[via European Southern Observatory]
Scientists confirm existence of dark galaxies is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
MediaTek made headlines not too long ago when it promised to bring dual-core processors to phones costing $199 and under. Now the company has announced a partnership with Twitter that will see the social network integrated with devices featuring MediaTek chips so that users in emerging markets can get in on the tweeting action. MediaTek will bundle Twitter into its reference design for phones as a result of the partnership.
MediaTek will include Twitter in its MRE middleware, enabling “smart-feature phones” that will run Twitter with minimal hardware requirements. Manufacturers can keep offering cheap handsets, and Twitter will reaching a massive user base of customers used to purchasing affordable phones. The app that will be included is said to be a native experience comparable to Twitter for iPhone or Android.
The first chipset that will feature Twitter integration is the MediaTek MT6255, although MediaTek says that Twitter will expand to all of its solutions later on. That would open up the massive Chinese and Asian market to Twitter, as well as other developing markets that current buy devices using MediaTek’s silicon.
MediaTek partners with Twitter on feature phone integration is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Apple, along with a large list of other technology companies, abided by EPEAT regulations to ensure that its products had a minimal impact on the environment. Just a few days ago, Apple requested that all its product be removed from the EPEAT certification list, which will have a knock-on effect for schools and businesses in San Francisco. State employees can use city funds to buy products covered by EPEAT, although they’ll no longer be able to purchase future Apple products now that they’re no longer registered under the scheme.
The city requires that any computer products that are purchased by agencies be 100% EPEAT compatible, something that no longer applies to Apple’s products. Around 50 departments and 28,000 employees currently rely on the EPEAT list for technology purchases, and the University of California is mulling a decision to suspend Apple computer purchases following the EPEAT removal. The institution is currently reviewing the decision by working with Apple over the next two weeks in coordination with school administrators.
Apple, meanwhile, is placing emphasis on other standards such as Energy Star: “Apple takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government, Energy Star 5.2. We also lead the industry by reporting each product’s greenhouse gas emissions on our website, and Apple products are superior in other important environmental areas not measured by EPEAT, such as removal of toxic materials.”
[via The Telegraph]
San Francisco drops Apple purchases over EPEAT withdrawal is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
On numerous occasions, the game console market has been declared “dead” or “dying” over the years, and there have definitely been some duds and challenges with the market – especially the cost of developing and distributing games. A new upstart console aims to enter living rooms taking advantage of the Android platform to ease the development and remove risks for game creators, and to help democratize living room gaming.
The Android 4.0 based OUYA is the brainchild of gaming executive Julie Uhrman along with industrial designer Yyes Behar. It’s quite a spiffy looking little box, and includes a slick matching controller to go with. Under the hood of the OUYA is a Tegra3 quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal flash storage, HDMI output (up to 1080p), 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE 4.0, and a USB 2.0 port, which I’m assuming can be used for either controllers or additional storage.
The console will support games using a free-to-play model, which will include games which are completely free, playable demos, as well as games with purchasable upgrades and other DLC. Game developers are encouraged to submit apps to the marketplace, cutting down on distribution barriers, and they’re even encouraging hackers to do what they can with the console. They even want you to root your console and come up with your own innovations. Wow.
Best thing about the OUYA is that it costs just $99 (USD). You can get in on the pre-order action over at Kickstarter now. Assuming they hit their $950,000 goal by August 9th, the OUYA will go into production, and start shipping around March 2013. Given the fact that they’re already over the $600,000 mark with nearly 5000 consoles ordered, there’s little doubt the OUYA will hit its funding goal.
Garmin is expanding its range of watches by introducing its new fenix outdoor watch. As you might expect, it makes full use of GPS in order to help adventures better navigate the great outdoors, and adds some useful functionality in the process. You can record waypoints using the watch, such as landmarks or campsites, and make notes of points along your route using GPS tracklogs.
The watch provides a navigation arrow that will help steer users to destination points, and there’s a TracBack function that will help the owner retrace their steps as well. In combination with a desktop application, users can also plan certain routes and trips and share them out to friends and families in the process.
In terms of connectivity, the fenix comes equipped with Bluetooth plus altimeter, barometer, and compass sensors. The altimeter will provide elevation data, the barometer may be used to see any upcoming changes in the weather, and the compass naturally helps the user with their bearing. The fenix can also auto-calibrate using the built in GPS chip, and automatically set the time by determining the location of the watch.
Garmin has made sure the watch is rugged and durable too. There’s a “high-strength housing” that will survive shocks and bumps, plus a glass front that will resist scratches. The LCD display is LED backlit, with the watch held together by polyurethane wristbands. Garmin says the watch should be capable of 50 hours of battery life when actively using GPS, and its also waterproof up to 50 meters. The fenix should be on sale sometime this Fall, and cost around $399.99.
Garmin introduces fenix outdoor GPS watch is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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