Brief Answers to Cosmic Questions Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Evolution of the Universe Did the Universe expand from a point? If so, doesn't the universe have to have an edge? More about the Big Bang When they say "the universe is expanding," what exactly is expanding? Structure of the Universe Does the Universe have an edge, beyond which there is nothing? Are the galaxies arranged on the surface of a sphere? Why can't we see the whole universe? If you could suddenly freeze time everywhere in the universe, and magically survey all of creation, you would find galaxies extending out far beyond what we can see today. Does the term "universe" refer to space, or to the matter in it, or to both? Today, the situation is reversed. Evolution of the Universe Did the Universe expand from a point?
IMAGE Spacecraft Pictures Aurora From space, the aurora is a crown of light that circles each of Earth’s poles. The IMAGE satellite captured this view of the aurora australis (southern lights) on September 11, 2005, four days after a record-setting solar flare sent plasma—an ionized gas of protons and electrons—flying towards the Earth. The ring of light that the solar storm generated over Antarctica glows green in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, shown in this image. The IMAGE observations of the aurora are overlaid onto NASA’s satellite-based Blue Marble image. From the Earth’s surface, the ring would appear as a curtain of light shimmering across the night sky. Like all solar storms, the September storm distorted the shape of the magnetic field that surrounds the Earth. Since 2000, IMAGE has provided insight into how the Earth’s powerful magnetic field protects the planet from solar winds. Image courtesy NASA Instrument(s):
CrimethInc. Ex-Workers’ Collective : Home STEREO's First View of the Sun Double-Sided Design Solves Painfully Universal USB Problem Sometimes something begs for a simple solution. The nearly-ubiquitous USB port is perhaps the technological poster child for an obvious failure to work both ways (right-side-up or upside-down) despite looking perfectly symmetrical on both sides. Thankfully, and finally, this has been tackled from two directions (appropriately enough): one more idealistic, one more realistic, but both ingenious. Ma Yi Xuan is a student designer who has solved the problem in theory, and in reality by UltraTek‘s new Flipper. In the student version, there is a piece on either side of the interior that slides out of the way to reveal a data connection – which half moves depends on what way the plug is placed into the accepting slot. If you have not encountered the error of normal-style USB plugs, well, it is becoming a bigger issue the more we compute on a daily basis.
HR Interviews Beginning Game Development: Part I – Introduction | Coding4Fun Articles Part I – Introduction Welcome to the first article of an introductory series on game programming using the Microsoft .NET Framework and managed DirectX 9.0. This series as aimed at beginning programmers who are interested in developing a game for their own use with the .NET Framework and DirectX. In this series, we are going to build a simple game to illustrate the various components of a commercial game. Tools: Before we start writing our first game we need to talk about the tools we will use. The most important tool for any developer is the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Visual Studio 2005 (also known by the codename “Whidbey") is the third version of the standard Microsoft IDE for .NET Framework-based applications. The second important tool we need to create a great looking game is a graphics Application Programming Interface (API). At some point in your game development experience you are going to have to create or modify graphics. What makes a successful game? Our Game idea:
Online Speed Reading tools and software Simply start by clicking on the Play button on the left. Reading is that one activity that we do every day but we don't really practice. Most people learn the basics of reading in kindergarten and never graduate to the next levels. You are probably using the same basic rudimental tools and techniques that you learned when you were 6. The average American person reads at an average speed of 180 to 240 words per minute and has done so since he was 16 years old. Does it make sense that we hit our best performance at age 16 and that we don't improve much after that? Keep in mind less than 10% read at 400 words per minute and less than 1% faster than 600. Have you ever wished you could take one of those costly speed reading courses? The problem with those courses is that you have to keep practicing those techniques until they become second nature. That's the goal of this site. We are here to keep you focused and to help you improve your speed reading everyday. What is sub-vocalization?
Lighting Made of Galvanized Iron Table lamp made of galvanized iron parts that make it different and artistic ! ++ Available at Design2009 on Etsy Hack Apart a Highlighter to Create UV-Reactive Flowers [Science] - How-To Geek ETC College students have long been hacking apart highlighters to create glowing bottles of booze to line their dorm room walls. Far more interesting, however, is the application of the hack to flowers. Many of you may remember a science class experiment from years gone by where in you put food coloring in a beaker and then some freshly cut white flowers; returning to the experiment a day later yielded flowers colored to match the dye you added. This little experiment relies on the same technique, only instead of blue food coloring the flowers suck up UV-reactive highlighter dye. Check out the video below to see the experiment in action: Have a fun science experiment to share? Make Flowers Glow in the Dark (with Highlighter Fluid and UV Light) [YouTube via Make] Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek.
Beaver | Omegle Conversations Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on. You’re now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi! A word of advice: “asl” is boring. You: You see a beaver in the distance lumbering towards you, a menacing glare on its face. Stranger: Give me a moment, Sir or Ma’am. Stranger: This is a pondersom question! You: The beaver is getting closer with each passing second, but luckily it appears to have a broken foot You: This slows it down somewhat Stranger: First! Stranger: Then I proceed to throw the lace-less shoes at the beaver, one by one, to distract it Stranger: Next, I use the laces and duct tape to attach the balloon to my head. You: The beavier is angrier and more determined to attack Stranger: As it is a good sized balloon with helium, the loss of weight of the extra shoes lifts me off of the ground. You: The beaver jump at your rising figure, snapping at your toes, but luckily you are high enough to avoid its rabid attack Stranger: I use the nail clippers to snip the balloon string.
How To Turn A Laser Into A Tractor Beam A photon has a small momentum which it can impart to anything it hits, as Arthur Compton and Peter Lebedev discovered at the beginning of the last century. We now know that photons can be used to push anything from electrons to solar sails. Today, Jun Chen from Fudan University in China and a few pals demonstrate the counterintuitive result that photons can pull things too. Chen and buddies say this is possible when the system meets two conditions. If the scattering angle is just right, the total momentum in the direction of propagation can be negative, meaning the particle is pulled back towards the source and the light becomes a tractor beam. This must not be confused with various “optical tweezer” type mechanisms in which particles trapped in a beam follow the intensity gradient of the light. Chen and co’s new force works when there is no gradient. That’s a handy additional tool in the nanomanipulator’s box of tricks.