Captain America’s shield Captain America harnesses the power of “Vibranium,” a metal extracted from a meteorite that crashed in Africa. The shield is capable of absorbing, storing and redirecting kinetic energy, and the material becomes more powerful as more weapons are turned against it. In the movie, Captain America redirects a shot from Iron Man’s …
Continue reading “Five awesome ways they bent physics for ‘The Avengers’”
Sci-fi author Ray Bradbury reads his space travel-themed poem “If Only We Had Taller Been” in this 1971 video posted yesterday by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Also in the scene are Arthur C. Clarke, Walter Sullivan, Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray “hoping an inch of good is worth a pound of years” // …
Continue reading “Ray Bradbury reads his poem – “If Only We Had Taller Been” (1971)”
It’s only the most significant architectural development in the history of the Internet, and presto, it transpired last night at 00:01 GMT. Did you notice? I’m betting not, and that you probably didn’t even know it was happening, which is precisely how things were supposed to go down. Don’t worry, you’re fine, you don’t need …
Continue reading “IPv6 – It’s only the biggest change to the internet – ever!”
Mike Bloomberg is a mayor with a mission. More specifically, a public health mission: Over the course of a decade he has made New York City a laboratory to test policies that manipulate the healthiness of public environments. His much-protested idea for a large-soda ban comes from a long lineage of much-protested smoking bans and …
Continue reading “NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s multiple crusades to improve public health”
Two San Diegans — a scholar who found fulfillment studying Mexican migrants and a refugee who built a successful spa in Baja California — are receiving Mexico’s highest honor for foreigners, it was announced Wednesday. Wayne Cornelius, 66, a longtime professor at the University of California San Diego, was selected “for his work of more …
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France – 77 million United States – 61 million China – 56 million Spain – 53 million Italy – 43 million United Kingdom – 28 million Turkey – 27 million Germany – 27 million Malaysia – 25 million Mexico – 22 million Interesting to note that both France and Spain receive more visitors than …
Peter Jackson has released his newest high definition HD Hobbit movie video blog from New Zealand. This time the video features Jackson at the studio and introduces many popular Hobbit characters. Enjoy!
Honda has leapfrogged its competitors in mileage range and EPA ratings for the upcoming Honda Fit electric vehicle. The all-electric version of the popular Fit subcompact will be able to travel 82 miles on a single charge, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s better than the Ford Focus electric (76 miles), the Nissan Leaf …
I’ve been fascinating by the British Monarchy for a while, having written about topics ranging from their extensive wealth to the Queen’s favorite dresses. I even watched the CNN footage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee last Sunday, despite all the rain and bad weather. To keep learning about the Jubilee, I found Time Magazine’s special coverage …
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The material, called aluminum oxynitride (AlON), or transparent aluminum is used to make bulletproof windows in armored cars. Here’s the story: The scene, as written, seems to imply that Scotty is talking about some fancy way of making metallic aluminum into a transparent form. Which ain’t happening. What has happened, however, (and in fact what …
Continue reading “Transparent Aluminum from Star Trek – yeah we’ve had that since 1981”