"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff," said Dr. Sagan. Pumpkin pies too.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/wv6r-DTK5VM/@caseychan"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff," said Dr. Sagan. Pumpkin pies too.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/wv6r-DTK5VM/@caseychanEpisode 1 of the documentary serial, UFC Primetime: St-Pierre vs. Hendricks, premiered Wednesday night and took fans inside the lives and camps of both welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and challenger Johny Hendricks as they head into their UFC 167 main event bout next month. Watch the full episode above to see what kinds of training St. Pierre is doing in Montreal and Hendricks has been doing in Dallas.
A couple things stood out to Cagewriter while watching UFC Primetime. First off, St. Pierre seems completely focused on motivated to fight Hendricks.
When you're champ as long as the Canadian has been, there's always the question of if you can stay motivated to keep doing what you've been doing. In St. Pierre's case, there's been indication that he's already thinking of retirement.
In episode 1 of Primetime, however, we see a St. Pierre who is either a really good actor or that he is truly obsessed with Hendricks. Unfortunately, we'd already seen enough commercials and "films" that he's appeared in to know the former isn't the case.
But take two examples from last night's UFC Primetime to let the point sink in. St. Pierre talks about learning recently during a media tour to promote the fight that Hendricks was planning to get to Las Vegas - the site of the bout - three weeks early in order to train in and acclimate himself to the regulation-sized Octagon.
St. Pierre lost his mind thinking that his opponent might have even the smallest advantage there and so says he purchased and and had constructed a full-sized UFC Octagon replica in the Tri-Star gym in Montreal where he trains.
Also, Primetime shows that St. Pierre and his coach Firas Zihabi have brought in Rick Story to train with the champ in preparation for Hendricks and UFC 167. Now, Rick Story is an excellent fighter but he's certainly not red-hot or appearing to be at his all-time sharpest of late.
Story has lost two out of his last three bouts and four out of his last six. However, Story is the only person to have ever beaten Hendricks in an MMA bout, back in 2010. Therein lies his true value to the Hendricks-obsessed St. Pierre.
There's lots of fun intimate, family time and training footage in episode 1 of Primetime, but the main other take away for us was simply this - Johny Hendricks may have been the most adorable little kid in America.
While learning about Hendricks' life growing up in a tough, wrestling family, we're treated to photo after photo of Hendricks being way too cute for anyone's good. As fearsome as he looks now as a grown man and knockout specialist, it is hilarious to see pictures of a chubby-cheeked and wide-smiling little Johny in Primetime.
(Lil' Johny Hendricks. Cutest. Baby. Ever.)
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This is a pretty cool new iOS app from Russia’s Displair, maker of the Minority Report-styled Multi-Touch “air” display.
Similar to Google-acquired Bump, using an iPhone’s various sensors in combination with its own cloud-powered algorithms, Airlike lets you share photos, videos and contacts with other iPhone users in close proximity, but with one key difference: There’s no need to bump phones or fists. Instead, you flick content through the “air” from one phone to another.
Shunning Bluetooth or WiFi for peer-to-peer networking, the app uses a combination of GPS, and each phone’s gyroscope, compass and accelerometer sensors, and relays that information to its own servers to know when two phones are pointing at each other. You then each confirm a connection and can begin flicking content from phone-to-phone — an experience the company describes in Arthur C. Clarke fashion as “absolutely magic”.
And in our quick testing, the iPhone app works as advertised.
In addition, and crucially longterm, Displair plans to release Android and Windows Phone versions of the app, making Airlike, just like Bump before it, truly cross-platform.
One thing lacking for now, however, is an Airlike API that other developers can tap into, though I’m told that this is on the roadmap and could be one way the company hopes to monetize the technology.
Interestingly, the ability to transfer money between contacts peer-to-peer is also currently in development, thus taking another page from the Bump playbook.
Meanwhile, the longer term business model revolves around the way Airlike will tie into the Russian startup’s Displair Digital Signage product to enables users to grab content from advertising displays. So, for example, you could walk into a mall, see interesting ad-related content on Displair (or even a standard LCD screen) and have it sent to your smartphone using a simple gesture, much in the same way as the Airlike app works for phone-to-phone content sharing.
TechCrunch’s Darrel Etherington contributed to this article
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — After two years of review, Montana and federal officials notified Exxon Mobil Corp. on Thursday that they intend to seek damages for injuries to birds, fish and other natural resources from a major crude oil spill into the Yellowstone River.
The Texas company's 12-inch Silvertip pipeline broke near Laurel during flooding in July 2011, releasing 63,000 gallons of oil that washed up along an 85-mile stretch of the scenic river.
The move puts Exxon on notice that Montana and the Department of Interior expect the company to make up for harm done to wildlife and their habitat. The company also is being asked to pay for long-term environmental studies and for lost opportunities for fishing and recreation during and since the cleanup.
Separate fines totaling $3.4 million for safety and water pollution violations already have been resolved or are pending before state and federal agencies.
Exxon has told regulators it spent $135 million on the cleanup and related repair work intended to prevent a repeat of the spill, which came on a line installed just a few feet beneath the riverbed.
State officials said some of the damage is ongoing and will take years to fully understand and quantify.
That includes harm done to the river and its banks during the cleanup itself, when Exxon brought in 1,000 workers who removed hundreds of oil-stained wood piles along the river.
"You picked up the oil, but you picked up the stuff that makes the habitat work, as well," said Bob Gibson, a spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. "We know there's damage out there that has not been mitigated, cleaned up or compensated for. We need to decide what further can be done."
Representatives of Exxon said they were preparing a response to Thursday's notice.
The break spurred Congress to demand a Department of Transportation review of oil and other hazardous liquid pipelines that cross beneath major rivers and other waterways across the U.S. The agency last year said there were more than 2,800 such locations.
The Transportation Department recently revised its estimate to 18,136 hazardous pipeline crossings, including 5,110 locations where the body of water has a width of 100 feet or greater.
Federal officials have said they will return to Congress in early 2014 with a determination on whether rules such as a 4-foot depth requirement for pipeline crossings are sufficient.
The Yellowstone spill also prompted oil companies including Exxon to rebury pipelines at other water crossings where the lines were considered at risk of failure due to erosion. In the case of Silvertip, the company installed new sections of line dozens of feet beneath the surface at the Laurel site and two other crossings.
Negotiations with Exxon are ongoing but no agreement has been reached, said Robert Collins, the state's lead attorney in the case.
If the company resists paying for the upcoming studies or for compensation, Collins said the state and federal government could take legal action. It's uncertain how long it will take to gauge the extent of damages. For other spills the process has taken many years.
"We're anticipating we could go to court, but we want to give (negotiations) a try before we take that step because that would string things out even further," Collins said.
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
In the wake of a multitude of rumors, the $349 Nexus 5 is finally here. Google's newest handset, made by LG, sports a 2.3Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 800, the premium feel of edge-to-edge glass and, most notably, Android KitKat (version 4.4). Click through to our hands-on for the rest of the details, most of which we already knew.
The FAA has decided to allow the usage of personal electronics during all phases of flight with "very limited exception." Carriers may even act on the decision as early as 2014. Read on to find out about how Delta's already made provisions to grant its customers this newfound privilege by November 1st.
Anyone in need a full-sized iPad that's lighter than last year's model can start hammering Apple's online store now. The new iPad Air is now on sale, marking Apple's biggest tablet launch yet. Starting with Australia, by the close of November 1st, it will have landed in 42 countries, and you know ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/y5Hrv3yjRD0/
