If you’re free this weekend, April 21-22, 2012, you might want to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. The largest book festival in the country with more than 140,000 attendees, 400 authors, 300 exhibitors, 100 panels, cooking demonstrations, and poetry readings. The festival is a free public event held on the campus of …
Monthly Archives: April 2012
HBO posts first episode of new show, Girls, on YouTube until May 14
In a new twist for HBO, they have posted episode 1 of their new series, Girls, on YouTube. The show, which will only be available until May 14, is about four college graduates struggling to get by in New York City. A sort-of Sex in the City, the early years. The bio from HBO: Created …
Continue reading “HBO posts first episode of new show, Girls, on YouTube until May 14”
The Scale of the Universe – a fun, educational animation
An interactive Flash animation titled “Scale Of The Universe 2“, covering everything in the universe from the fabric of space-time to the estimated size of the universe, was posted earlier this year, and it is awesome. A month or so later, it went viral, but why…so popular? First, the actual scale of the universe is mind blowing …
Continue reading “The Scale of the Universe – a fun, educational animation”
Video games wasted about 1% of America’s electrical energy
A new study from Carnegie Mellon University found that in 2010, video games wasted about 1% of America’s electrical energy. They found that up to 75% of energy consumed by video game consoles is during idle use, because the machines don’t have an auto-power-down feature (like every computer does). The authors of the study say …
Continue reading “Video games wasted about 1% of America’s electrical energy”
100 days until the summer Olympics in London (photos)
On Wednesday, celebrations took place across the UK to mark 100 days to go until the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Psychology’s five aspects of wisdom
A recent article in the Economist used a complex, but somewhat small in scope, survey to study wisdom. They found that Americans definitely get smarter with age. They scored 45 points at age 25, and 55 by age 75. In comparison, the Japanese learn wisdom much quicker, scoring 51 in both age groups. This led …
Bike sharing comes to Los Angeles with Bike Nation
A couple of years ago bike sharing came to Washington D.C. when I was living there. At first the concept confused me until someone explained that it’s like a taxi, designed to get you from one point to another. With enough stations it can be a convenient, healthy, and cheaper method to get around town. …
Continue reading “Bike sharing comes to Los Angeles with Bike Nation”
Energy 101: Wind turbines, how those slow moving blades create electricity
“The same wind that used to pump water for cattle is now turning giant wind turbines to power cities and homes.” “The blades only turn about 18 RPM, not nearly fast enough to create electricity, so the rotor shaft spins a series of gears that increase the rotation up to 1800 RPM. At that speed …
Continue reading “Energy 101: Wind turbines, how those slow moving blades create electricity”
Historical photos of UCLA and Westwood Village from first day of classes to late-1930s
Historical photos of UCLA and Westwood village from the late-1920s to late-1930s, just as the school and campus was being built. The first day of classes in Westwood were in 1929 with 5,500 students and was also the first year the UCLA football team played the USC football team. Thx to KS Bruin
How close does an object have to be to earth to be pulled by gravity?
Pulled from Quora, here is one of the best, and most popular, answers to a question. Written by Mark Eichenlaub, a graduate student in physics. How close does an object have to be to earth to be pulled by gravity? This question doesn’t have a direct answer because, for lack of a less-direct way of …
Continue reading “How close does an object have to be to earth to be pulled by gravity?”