Sunday, April 29, 2007

[PICS] Top 10 Most Awe-Inspiring Photos

Ok so without further ado, I compiled this list after browsing through thousands of photos, picking out the top 10 (In my opinion) most awe-inspiring photos.

10. b2

Simply a great landscape, with wonderful colors

9. b1

A very similar photo, except now at night...gives a mystical feeling of solidarity.

8. b5

An incredible landscape, with somewhat of a foreboding feel. Definately worth a second look!

7. 1183104

A photo of an aurora taken from the window of a plane at night. It may not be the most elegant photo, but something about it's mood keeps your interest.

6. b8

An amazing photo of the atlantic ocean taken in Maine, with an incredible array of colors makes it worth keeping.

5. b9

A completely different direction for mood, this picture represents bliss and carelessness.

4. b4

Indescribable in words, this picture is one of the best I have found, and it's difficult to look away.

3. 792px-peacekeeper-missile-testing

A dark, and foreboding picture showing a missle breaking apart and crashing into an ocean near a deserted strip of land. The tone is what makes this picture so strong.

2. b3

Another picture where words can't seem to describe the experience of looking at it.

1. atmosphere

Finally, the picture representative of coplete awe...not quite in this world, yet not quite apart...you're looking at the brink of space yet you are still very much in the atmosphere of the Eart. A simply incredible picture.

[VIDEO] Tanker Explosion and Collapse of Freeway



A recent uploaded video on Youtube shows the fire and finally the collapse of the section of freeway where a tanker crashed and exploded earlier this morning.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Want $250? Hate DRM-ed Music?

Anti-DRM T-Shirt Design Contest
Written by Ernesto on April 24, 2007

Most of us would agree that DRM is doomed to fail. Unfortunately the Music and Movie Industry is not convinced yet, we still have to let them know that we (their consumers) are against DRM. What better way to do this than organizing an Anti-DRM T-Shirt contest? Spread the word, the winner gets $250.

In collaboration with Beautiful Crime, we challenge you to create a T-Shirt design that shows the Anti-DRM message to the rest of the world.



Prizes
No contest without prizes of course.

1st place: $250

2nd place: $100

3rd place: $50

Guidelines:
You can enter as many designs as you like
Color is okay, but not more that two colors per design
Don’t worry about dpi’s and vectors, the winning designs will be optimized for printing after the winner is announced
Email your submission(s) to ernesto (at) torrentfreak.com
Submission Deadline: May 31, 2007
After the deadline has passed, all submissions will be posted on TorrentFreak and the readers will vote for the best design. The winning designs will go into print and will be sold for $15.

Playing Video Games - BBFC Publishes Research

Video games tend to polarise opinions in a way that other entertainment media do not. People who do not play them cannot understand their attraction and that lack of understanding can lead to some games being demonised. While there is research designed to show the short term physical reactions of video games players, there is very little information about why people play video games and what impact they think playing games has on them. The BBFC today published the results of a research project involving video games players ranging from children as young as seven through to players in their early 40s; parents of young games players; games industry representatives; and games reviewers.
The research set out to gain insights into a number of issues including:
the attractions of playing video games;
what impact games players think playing has on them and their behaviour;
whether the interactivity element of games alters the experience;
what players think about the violence in some games;
how they choose which games to play; and
what parents think about video games.
The key findings of the research were:
that children begin playing games at an increasingly early age, but that the overall age of games players is getting older;
there is a sharp divide between male and female games players in their taste in games and how long they spend playing;
female games players tend to prefer ‘strategic life simulation’ games like The Sims and puzzle games and spend less time playing than their male counterparts;
male players favour first ‘person shooter’ and sports games and are much more likely to become deeply absorbed in the play;
younger games players are influenced to play particular games by peer pressure and word of mouth, but negative press coverage for a game will significantly increase its take up;
people play games to escape from every day life and to escape to a world of adventure without risk which is under the control of the gamer, unlike the real world;
games provide a sense of achievement and are active, unlike television and films which are passive. However, games are better at developing action than building character and as such gamers tend to care less about the storyline than making progress in the game;
gamers appear to forget they are playing games less readily than film goers forget they are watching a film because they have to participate in the game for it to proceed. They appear to non-games players to be engrossed in what they are doing, but, they are concentrating on making progress, and are unlikely to be emotionally involved;
gamers claim that playing games is mentally stimulating and that playing develops hand eye coordination;
violence in games, in the sense of eliminating obstacles, is built into the structure of some games and is necessary to progress through the game. It contributes to the tension because gamers are not just shooting, they are vulnerable to being shot and most gamers are concentrating on their own survival rather than the damage they are inflicting on the characters in the game. While there is an appeal in being able to be violent without being vulnerable to the consequences which similar actions in real life would create, gamers are aware that they are playing a game and that it is not real life;
gamers are aware that violence in games is an issue and younger players find some of the violence upsetting, particularly in games rated for adults. There is also concern that in some games wickedness prevails over innocence. However, most gamers are not seriously concerned about violence in games because they think that the violence on television and in films is more upsetting and more real;
gamers are virtually unanimous in rejecting the suggestion that video games encourage people to be violent in real life or that they have become desensitised. They see no evidence in themselves or their friends who play games that they have become more violent in real life. As one participant said: “I no more feel that I have actually scored a goal than I do that I have actually killed someone. I know it’s not real. The emphasis is on achievement.”;
non-games playing parents are concerned about the amount of time their children, particularly boys, spend playing games and would prefer that they were outside in the fresh air. However, they are more concerned about the ‘stranger-danger’ of internet chat rooms. While the violence in games surprises them and concerns some of them, they are confident that their children are well balanced enough to not be influenced by playing violent games;
while parents agree that there should be regulation of games some are happy to give their children adult games because they are “only games”.
David Cooke, Director of the BBFC said:“The BBFC classified just under three hundred video games last year. Most games in the UK are classified under a pan-European voluntary system, but those with adult content are required to come to us. We take this part of our responsibilities under the Video Recordings Act very seriously. Our examiners actually play the games for up to five hours, assessing all levels of the games and considering all the key issues. Players and the parents of young players can be sure that all aspects of the game have been taken into account before reaching a classification. We require key issues to be flagged and aids such as cheat codes to be supplied to us. We take context into account, and examine works in a way which is as thorough and penetrating as anywhere in the world.
“The element of interactivity in games carries some weight when we are considering a video game. We were particularly interested to see that this research suggests that, far from having a potentially negative impact on the reaction of the player, the very fact that they have to interact with the game seems to keep them more firmly rooted in reality. People who do not play games raise concerns about their engrossing nature, assuming that players are also emotionally engrossed. This research suggests the opposite; a range of factors seems to make them less emotionally involving than film or television. The adversaries which players have to eliminate have no personality and so are not real and their destruction is therefore not real, regardless of how violent that destruction might be. This firm grasp on reality seems to extend to younger players, but this is no reason to allow them access to adult rated games, as they themselves often admit that they find the violence in games like Manhunt very upsetting. Parents should not treat video games in the same way they would board games. We will continue to examine very carefully those games which come to us, to flag any concerns we have and, if necessary, to use our statutory powers.
“There is no question that video games are an important form of entertainment for an ever increasing number of people. As the technology improves the games will become more and more realistic and it is important that games are properly rated to protect younger players from the games with adult content, which the BBFC does. This research provides some valuable insights into why people play video games and what effect they think playing has on themselves and friends. It has also highlighted parental attitudes to video games. We hope that it will provide some food for thought for the industry, and everyone who has an interest in the impact of games and we will be taking the research outcomes into account as we review our games classification policies over the coming months.”
Notes for Editors
The research was carried out by Cragg Ross Dawson and was qualitative and consisted of interviews and discussions with people who play games. There was also field work with parents, people involved in the production of games, games designers and games reviewers writing in the specialist press. These were carried out in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle upon Tyne, Radlett in Hertfordshire, Croydon and greater London.
Copies of the report as well as a summary of the main findings can be downloaded from the BBFC website, or copies can be obtained from the BBFC Press Office.

[PIC]First Ever 3D Images of the Sun




April 23, 2007—Break out those 3-D glasses and get ready to see the sun in a whole new light.

NASA today released the first three-dimensional images of the sun ever compiled, a feat made possible by the agency's twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft.

Like a person's two eyes providing depth perception, the two spacecraft orbit the sun at a set distance from each other to offer a stereo view.

"The improvement with STEREO's 3-D view is like going from a regular x-ray to a 3-D CAT scan in the medical field," Michael Kaiser, STEREO project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a press release.

Until now, 2-D images of our star (such as the one at top) have allowed scientists to see the sun's weather, but the flat views made it difficult to decipher the exact motion of solar eruptions and the distance they spanned.

Understanding the sun's physics is critical, scientists say, because especially strong events called coronal mass ejections create radiation storms that can disrupt satellites and radio communications and can even knock out power grids on Earth.

The new 3-D images (such as the one at bottom) will help researchers better track these ejections—like meteorologists tracking hurricanes—and thus predict when and where violent storms are headed.

"Previous imagery did not show the front of a solar disturbance as it traveled toward Earth, so we had to make estimates of when the storm would arrive," STEREO investigator Russell Howard of the Naval Research Laboratory told Space.com.

"These estimates were uncertain by a day or so. With STEREO, we can track the front from the sun all the way to Earth and forecast its arrival within a couple hours."

Dazzling Image Captures the Violent Birth of Stars




WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A dazzlingly detailed image released by NASA scientists on Tuesday shows the chaotic conditions in which stars are born and die -- in this case in a huge nebula in another neighborhood of our Milky Way galaxy.
The image, made from a series of 48 shots taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in spring and summer of 2005, depicts star birth in a new level of detail.
It provides a view spanning a distance of 50 light years across of the Carina Nebula. A nebula is an immense cloud of hot interstellar gas and dust.
This messy and chaotic region includes at least a dozen brilliant stars estimated to be perhaps 50 to 100 times the mass of the sun, astronomers said.
One of them, called Eta Carinae, is in the final stages of its short life span, with two billowing lobes of gas and dust -- a harbinger of its future explosion as a large supernova.
"In short, it gives us a glimpse of the violent conditions that most stars are born in, where they are exposed to the relentless irradiation from their older siblings," astronomer Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley, the lead investigator in this work, said by e-mail.
"There are several clues suggesting that our sun and planets were indeed born in a violent region something like this, along with some very hot and massive stars," Smith added. Our solar system was formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
The nebula is about 7,500 light years away from Earth in the constellation Carina in a neighboring spiral arm of our Milky Way galaxy. The Hubble image depicts a massive region, but it is only a small portion of the whole nebula, which spans 150 to 200 light years across, Smith said.
People can see the nebula with the naked eye from Earth's southern hemisphere, Smith said.
"What you are seeing in the image is hot ionized gas -- in this case, the colors represent oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur at different temperatures," Smith added.
The image was released to coincide with the 17th anniversary of launching Hubble into orbit to provide scientists with clear and deep views of the universe without the Earth's atmosphere getting in the way. It is one of the largest panoramic images ever taken by Hubble.
The future of Hubble is in doubt because the space shuttle program is winding down in the coming years and the telescope needs manned maintenance missions to continue operations.
The image was released by NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.


Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Girl brings medieval weapons to school and attacks classmates!

Girl Attacks Classmate With Medieval Weapon

(CBS) GARY, Ind. A fight at an Indiana high school turned into a medieval attack when a freshman girl hit another student and tried to hit a teacher with an uncommon weapon.Gary police say the girl still has not said how she got the medieval weapon, which weighs about six pounds. The freshman, who has been charged with battery, told police she brought the weapon to school because she was tired of being picked on."She was aiming for my face,” said Shanique Ballard, the target of the attack.Ballard said she bumped into one of the freshman's friends in the hallway at Lew Wallace High School, and an argument started. Ballard said that's when the young girl pulled out a flail – a sharp, spiked metal ball attached to a handle by a chain or short stick – and started swinging."She swung it quick but I just jumped back real quick, 'cause it was long and I had to keep runnin' back,” Ballard said. “I was running back as she was comin' to me."Ballard said her friend's hand got cut when she tried to get between her and the freshman. She added that the girl also swung the metal club at a teacher. “It’s heavy, and it’s metal, and it’s sharp,” Detective Sgt. Darlene Breitenstein said after delivering the girl to the Lake County (Ind.) Juvenile Justice Center, where she is being held on battery charges.“I took the weapon to the detention center for the judge to see,” said Breitenstein."That type of weapon would surprise anyone,” said Lt. Samuel Roberts of the Gary Police Department. “It's not the typical weapon that you may find at a school."School officials told police a fight broke out in a hallway as students changed classes at third hour. The freshman told Breitenstein she took the flail to school because she needed protection.Charmella Greer of the Gary Community School Corp. said disciplinary action will be taken.In a statement, the school's superintendent said the teen entered Lew Wallace using an unauthorized side door to avoid the main entrance where metal detectors and cameras are located. The statement does not say why a security officer is not stationed at that door. The superintendent also said a teacher was never attacked, she just tried to intervene. One parent CBS 2 spoke to Friday afternoon said he was surprised too. He said he was never notified by phone or letter about the attack. He also says he's concerned the heavy object made it past metal detectors inside the school."Any time something like that happens, you know, I believe all parents should be contacted, so something needs to be done about it, definitely,” said parent Raymond Spencer.