First artificial life 'within months'

Scientists could create the first new form of artificial life within months after a landmark breakthrough in which they turned one bacteria into another.

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The Rubberboy Auditions in Americas Got Talent

Watch rubber as he impress or scare the judges of Americas Got Talent, New York Audition.

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22 Things You Didn't Know You Could Get for Free

clipped from www.rewardprograms.org Conventional wisdom holds that you only get what you pay for, but the real free geek knows that with the right knowledge (and maybe a charming smile) pretty much anything, even the good stuff, can be had for less or in the best case scenarios nothing at all. Despite this, there are a number of things out there that don't seem to scream "free" majority of the time (MIT being one). Here's a list of a few free things that might surprise you. Classes at MIT Language Lessons Business Education Computer Classes Museum Admission Concerts, Movies and Shows Pets Gym Membership Photo Prints 411 Service Phone Calls Email Reminders Ice Cream Used Books Household Items Makeup Face Cream Good Samples Comic Books CPR Courses Legal Music Coffee While not everything you want can always be free, there are a lot of free things out there for the taking if you know when to go and where. So take advantage of this list, and start getting all the free stuff you deserve (you've worked hard for it).

PHOTOS with remarkable color contrast - surreal

I'm sorry if these are a re-post; had never seen them before.
photo credits: Avi Ornstein, I DID IT Productions

clipped from www.scribd.com Images clipped from alanocu.backpackit.com

Another Funny Prank Video

Can you trust your friends?

clipped from home.arcor.de The best Youtube videos of all times

Make Your Own Firefox Extensions

Most Firefox users have clicked through Tools | Add-ons | Get Extensions (or visited addons.mozilla.org) to download some from the main repository. But why not make your own? Fortunately, it's not hard.

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Amazing Connie Talbot Sings on Britain's Got Talent Finale

This is the performance of Connie during the final night.

An Alternative for Your Conventional TV Remote

This hack shows you how to change TV channels without a remote control, and annoy your family!


Change TV Channels Without A Remote! - Watch a funny movie here

Afternoon Walk on Helsinki's Highest Hill

This is a video taken one afternoon when Riikka and I went for a walk on the highest hill here in Helsinki, Finland. We are minding Bondi (the dog) temporarily as the the owners, Jussi and Mirva went out.

Kakorama: Guess What Happened on the Day You Were Born

Do you want to know what happened on the day you were born? This interesting website will give you some stats and trivia on your birthday including the no. 1 songs, TIME magazine cover, popular movie and other famous people on that day. Click on the photo below.

More DaBug Invites

If your into torrents and would like to be part of one of the fastest torrent trackers, DaBug.org, I have at least 8 invites available left. Please let me know.

People shooting jumping Asian carp with a bow and arrow

Outdoor show where people ride around in a boat and take mid-air shots at fish that are jumping out of the river.



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Webware 100 awards 2007

Webware.com has unveiled the winners of its first user-generated Web 2.0 awards. During 20 days in May and June, the users of Webware.com community voted for its favorite Web applications.



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Photo gallery: Head-turners: 10 most attractive cars

As cars make up a large part of any populated landscape, they should also serve as public works of art. We shouldn't be filling the roads with homogenous sedans that don't excite any kind of passion. Every road should be like a car show, with automotive manufacturers' best designs put forward.



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Air Disinfection Unit to Make Hospitals Cleaner, Safer

A device that mimics the naturally disinfecting quality of fresh air could be used to purge hospital wards of superbugs, its makers claim.

The Air Disinfector, launched in London, UK, on 19 June pumps a continual stream of reactive hydrogen radicals into the atmosphere, killing microbes within minutes.

"The same results could be obtained simply by opening all the windows of hospital wards, but that's not practical," says David Macdonald, co-inventor of the device and chief scientific officer of Inov8 Science, which developed it.

Macdonald and co-inventor Derek Elwood identified the so-called open-air factor phenomenon more than 15 years ago through experiments at the UK government’s chemical and biological defence labs at Porton Down in Wiltshire. They established that outdoors, microbes are killed by hydroxyl radicals, highly reactive agents constantly produced through natural reactions between airborne ozone and organic scented chemicals from plants such as pine trees.

Radical generation

Now, Macdonald, Elwood and collaborators say they have recreated this effect using a customised device the size of a flower vase that constantly generates the radicals. To do this, it draws in oxygen and exposes it to electric currents to produce a cold plasma rich in ozone. The hydroxyl radicals are generated by constantly reacting the ozone with pre-loaded supplies of scented chemicals, called terpenes, in cartridges that need renewing each month. The ozone and terpenes are retained within the device and not released into the room.

Bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile - two of the most notorious hospital-acquired superbugs - were undetectable within as little as an hour of the device being switched on, Macdonald says. "In earlier experiments, in which we flooded rooms with more than a billion bacteria, levels were effectively down to zero within an hour," he adds.

Although hydroxyl radicals are lethal to microbes - disrupting their ability to absorb nutrients – they appear harmless to humans.

The device is now on sale in the UK and is also being tried in wards at three hospitals. There are also plans to launch it in the US, where it is being tested at 17 veterans’ hospitals.

How to: Get Google and AJAX to Play Nice

In Google's eyes, much of your AJAX site's content is invisible. To help you as you incorporate the benefits of AJAX without making your site blind to search engines, we've assembled a guide of the best (and the worst) solutions for creating an AJAX page that maintains the ability to be indexed by Google.



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Top 20 Magic Trick Tutorials Of All Time

Be the life of the party, or get the interest of that girl. These are the 20 most amazing magic tricks tutorial videos that you will find anywhere.



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June 2007 Variety Photos Here Finland

Starting Ruby on Rails: What I Wish I Knew

Ruby on Rails is an elegant, compact and fun way to build web applications. Unfortunately, many gotchas await the new programmer. Now that I have a few rails projects under my belt, here’s my shot at sparing you the suffering I experienced when first getting started.



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Shooting the Sheeps Game to Test Your Reaction Skills

This is a game to test how fast are your reactions.

Click the tranquilizer button whenever you see a sheep leaving leaving the flock and running for freedom. There are five sheeps to stop. If you happen to shoot a dart when no sheep is running, you will receive a 3 seconds penalty.

You are a turbo-charged cheetah if you nailed the test. If you suck, you are a sluggish nail. If for the first time you play the game and you didn’t get in the “sluggish nail” category, i guess you’re good.

(Click on the photo to play the game)

Japan's Human Tetris

glumbert.com

Man, I love Japan so much. What other country would have a game show that consists of contestants dressed in metallic spandex trying to squeeze through moving walls with holes obviously smaller than they are carved into them? Although I've gotta admit I lost some respect for those contestants when none of them just dove through the middle of the cut-out shapes. You could have fit, guys!

I love the fact that the fellow contestants are busy laughing at their oponents for missing the gap and not for being dressed up as something resembling nothing so much as a novelty metallic condom.

Summer vacation 2012 destination? SPACE

The European aerospace giant EADS is going into the space tourism business. Its Astrium division says it will build a space plane capable of carrying fare-paying passengers on a sub-orbital ride more than 100km above the planet...



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Samsung's 70-inch LED-backlit LCD television now on sale

Samsung's gettin' busy this morning in Korea with the launch of their 70-inch Full HD LCD television. Not only is it the world's largest commercially available LCD, this 1080p pup also brings a 120Hz refresh along with Samsung's local dimming LED backlighting solution for a reported 500,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio... for whatever that measurement's worth. The LN70F91BD is another ACAP packer featuring 3x HDMI 1.3 terminals and a USB 2.0 jack for purposes unknown. Available in S.Korea only at the moment with worldwide sales starting in the second half of the year. Only ₩59,000,000 for the privilege which translates to about $63k or €48k -- chump-change for culturally ambiguous superstars.

Amazing 6 year old girl sings, 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' on Britain's Got Talent

Conny, 6 year old girl who has been singing since she was 2 sings, 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' on Britain's Got Talent and amazes the judges so much that it brought tears to one of the judges eyes.



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40+ Tooltips Scripts With AJAX, JavaScript & CSS

Most of solutions are JavaScript- and AJAX-based, however we’ve also managed to find some lightweight CSS-based solutions. To install and use the script, it’s often enough to include the JavaScript library in the source code and provide the hint as plain text within the “title”-attribute. Sometimes you can also insert URLs, images, tables...



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Gigantic 3000-foot Pyramid Proposed for Tokyo Bay

Unbelievable. A proposal has come forth to build a massive pyramid over Tokyo Bay. When I say massive, I mean it. Godzilla would have a tough time wrecking this structure, because at 2,004 m tall, it would stand 12 times higher than the pyramids of Giza. The building, or rather, collection of buildings reminds me of the Arcologies from SimCity, or maybe Blade runner. It might be a pipe dream to imagine seeing this any time soon, though, as construction relies on materials that aren’t even available yet, like carbon nanotubes. Still though, if it was going to be built anywhere, it would be Tokyo. Hit the jump for a video showcasing this very unique design.



Here's an 8-minute video that shows you a grandiose idea somebody dreamed up: building a 3000 foot-tall pyramid in Tokyo Bay. This megacity would be so tall, and has such tremendous volume that 24 80-story skyscrapers can be suspended within, and people would travel inside it via the tubes that are also supporting the enormous structure. It's extreme engineering, indeed. You gotta feel sorry for those people living in Tokyo, all crammed together like sardines in a can, so maybe this grandiose idea can give them some elbow room. To rent the amount of space made by this huge structure, it would cost $10 billion a year within the city of Tokyo. If built, it will be the largest structure in the world. Go for it!

$3 Gadget Produces Safe Drinking Water

Is clean water a safe water?A $3 gadget that promises to quench a user's thirst for a year without spare parts, electricity or maintenance...



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A Killer Airbrush Photoshop Post Editing Tutorial!

This is very informative.Hello everyone! I thought I would put this tutorial together, as it seems every time I post an image that I have processed in this way, everyone wants to know how I did it. Well here it is and check it out. Enjoy.



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Most Distant Black Hole Discovered

The most distant black hole ever found is nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth, astronomers announced today.

The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope spotted the bright burst of light the black hole created as it sucked up nearby gas, heating it and causing it to glow very brightly in what's known as a quasar.

The distance to the quasar, which sits in the constellation Pisces, was determined by measuring the amount of redshift in the lines of the quasar's spectrum, or prism of light. Because light is "redshifted" to longer wavelengths as an object moves away from an observer, the higher the redshift, the further away the object is-and this quasar had quite a large redshift.

"As soon as I saw the spectrum with its booming emission line, I knew this one was a long way away," said team member Chris Willott of the University of Ottawa.

Because the Big Bang is believed to have occurred around 13.7 billion years ago, astronomers are seeing the quasar as it appeared a mere 1 billion years after the Big Bang, which gives them a unique view into universe's past.

Sometime around the universe's one billionth birthday, the first stars and galaxies began to shine and ionized all of the hydrogen atoms in the universe (or removed an electron from each atom). The quasar's bright light illuminates the hydrogen gas in front of it, which lets astronomers see whether the atoms still have their electrons attached or not, which could help pin down the date of this momentous event.

The quasar might also be able to help astronomers learn about the growth of the first black holes; the black hole powering this quasar is estimated to be about 500 million times the mass of the sun, which is thought to be unusual for an early black hole.

"It is puzzling how such enormous black holes are found so early on in the universe ... because we believe that black holes take a long time to grow," said team member John Hutchings of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.

The finding was announced at the annual conference of the Canadian Astronomical Society.


When a supermassive star dies, its corpse collapses into a knot so tight not even light can escape. And this drain on the fabric of the Universe can actually warp the shape of space... and of time.

See the video here.

Find out how the black holes form in this video.

Unveiled: The World's First Zero Emission Home [Pics]

A new house design that will be the first to meet the environmental standards all new UK homes must achieve by 2016 is being unveiled later. The two-bedroom house is insulated to lose two-thirds less heat than a standard new home. Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in his budget in March that zero-carbon houses would be exempt from stamp duty



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MIT Dudes Develop Mind-Boggling Wireless Electricity

Now those eggheads at MIT have done something truly magic, figuring out a way to send power seven feet away, and look ma, no wires. Their trick uses resonant coupling, turning electricity into magnetic energy resonating at a certain frequency that proved to have that old black magic.

For some reason, 10MHz is that certain magic number. Resonating a coil at that frequency on one side of the room, it sends its magneto-goodness over to the other side where there's another coil that also resonates at that same 10MHz frequency. Yeah, for some strange reason, this magnetic energy is able to jump across a 7-foot space, but only at that specific 10MHz frequency. Cool.

There must be a catch to this.

For one thing, the power is transferred with 45% efficiency, which won't exactly be energy-saving. Also, with all those techno-power magnetic waves floating around, some crackpots will be tempted to get out their tinfoil hats, and those who believe that magnets can have profoundly dangerous effects on the human body will also be getting pretty jittery.


Never mind all that, say the genius researchers, who declare the power transmission safe, even for pacemaker wearers. They admit it might be a few years before we see this jaw-dropping tech in general use, but this is a start. They've proven that the idea works, and now they just going to need to perfect it. Wireless electricity?

Can you tell the difference between a fake smile and a real smile?

Most people are surprisingly bad at spotting fake smiles. One possible explanation for this is that it may be easier for people to get along if they don't always know what others are really feeling.



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Top Ten of Programming Advice NOT to Follow

A top programmer examines a number of the top items of programming advice commonly given, and makes a great case for why they should NOT be followed. Some interesting food for thought for any programmer.



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Joost Very First Commercial

Anyone who would like to receive an invitation to test Joost Beta, please leave your full name and email address.

Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End (7/10)

Great Movie of the year for sure.Great Review of Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End that explains many of the plot twists and makes movie less confusing.



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DaBug.org Invites

If your into torrents and would like to be part of one of the fastest torrent trackers, DaBug.org, I have at least 5 invites available left. Please let me know.

Polar Clock - Easiest Clock to Read EVER.

Very cool clock that I can't wait to use with the new widget feature in Leopard.



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Best Passed Out Prank Ever

Definitely do not pass out around these guys. They woke up one morning after a long night of hard partying and found that their buddy was still out cold. So at first they drew on him... then they took it up a notch.



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The Best Of Late Night With Conan O'Brien

This is really funny...ha!ha!ha!The best clips form Late Night With Conan O'Brien.



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(Video) Amazing Bird Mimics Every Thing - BBC

Amazing bird...watch it.This animal can imitate the call of at least 20 different bird species but that’s nothing compared to the fact that it can mime the sound made by photo camera shutters, car alarms or even saws and chainsaws.



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Maroon 5 - It Won't Be Soon Before Long (2007)

The newest music album in my mp3 and I enjoyed listening the most is Maroon 5's new album. I particularly like their latest single "Makes Me Wonder" and "Won't Go Home Without You".

Official Maroon 5 Website
Sample the tracks here


Makes Me Wonder Video


Below is the the album's details and it's review:


Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine may or may not be the carousing ''man-whore'' that Page Six pegs him to be. (Did the beady-eyed soul singer really speed-dump Jessica Simpson via text message? Who knows? Who actually cares?) But judging from his band's sophomore album, it certainly seems like he views romance as terribly fleeting. It Won't Be Soon Before Long is a fast-moving collection of fizzy but entertaining come-ons, get-offs, breakups, and makeups. There's not a lot to fall deeply in love with here, but Levine and crew understand the importance of packing as much thrill as possible into each tryst, leaving you with mostly good feelings and no lasting emotional scars.
Before Long establishes its smarmy, smooth-operator vibe immediately with the droll optimism of a grown man on permanent spring break. ''If I never see your face again,'' sings Levine, nonchalantly, on the track of the same name, ''I don't mind 'cause we've gone much further than I thought we'd get tonight.'' Just like he's rumored to do with the wham, bam, thank you ma'ams who make up his tabloid fodder, Levine leaves us with his true gift — that smug, R&B-slick deadpan.
Yes, the singer seems detached — cold, even — but over a plucky dance-floor groove like the single ''Makes Me Wonder,'' there's a twisted logic to his dispassionate delivery (a steady, nasally distillation of early Sting and Jamiroquai's goofy-hatted singer Jay Kay). He's eager to give up on reconciliation and boogie over to the next conquest, singing ''It really makes me wonder if I ever gave a f--- about you.''
But whether breaking hearts brusquely or semi-sweetly as on ''Nothing Lasts Forever,'' Maroon 5 score with their big, memorable, melodic hooks. Tracks like ''Little of Your Time'' and ''Can't Stop'' kick off with staccato, chunky but toothless funk. Within seconds, though, both swell in the grandiose pop manner of the band's ubiquitous 2006 Grammy award clincher, ''This Love.''
No pickup artist is perfect, and Maroon 5 definitely exhibit some slackin' to their mackin'. The cheap Prince knockoff ''Kiwi'' rides a dull bass line to an icky chorus that's unlikely to drive the ladies anywhere but away. ''Sweet Kiwi,'' croons Levine, trying too hard to convey sexy over a guitar vamp worthy of '70s porn and little else, ''your juices drippin' down my chin.'' But aside from the occasional libido overflow and a few too many riffs cribbed directly from Synchronicity, Maroon 5's flirty new set is fine for at least an evening's worth of wild times. Whether you'll want to bring it home to Mom the next day is another story. B

Stockholm Cruise May 2007 - Photos

To celebrate Riikka's birthday, we went for a cruise to Stockholm, Sweden along with her little sister, Marja. Below are the photos taken then. When I was there, I had the chance to get a new passport.