The character of Batman (or Bat-Man) was introduced in comic books during the late 1930s after the popularity of Superman had created a market for other colorful superheroes.(Check it out via Red Eye)
"We're farming the wind, which is something that we have up here," Crawford said. "The payback on a per-acre basis is generally quite good when compared to a lot of other crops, and it's as simple as getting a cup of coffee and watching the blades spin."(via Live Science)
"Royal Device has on its own developped and built in Italy the biggest subwoofer of the world for an AUDIO/VIDEO room that can be also considered as the greatest AUDIO ROOM for private music listening of the world. The Royal Device audio room belongs to Roberto - the audio designer who made it.Link
The audio reproduction is focused on the speakers output capability more than electric power output of the amplifiers with no need of KWatts power supply lines, releasing more than 110 dB/1W/1 meter sensitivity starting from below 10 Hz focused on the listening position."
"This 100,000-year-old skull was found in a cave in Qafzeh, Israel, along with other fossils, including a horse tooth and burned flints. Cutting-edge techniques were used to date the fossils —revealing that modern humans left Africa much earlier than had been thought, even coexisting with Neanderthals, once believed to be our ancestors."(National Geographic)
"Apparently Apple completely underestimated the load on their servers for activation and ALL COMPUTERS in the Boston Apple store are stuck" "I was in the first group of 30 to get an iPhone 3g at the biggest AT&T Experience store in Houston, Texas. The staff couldn't get anyone's phones to activate"Link
"Evo projector is an affordable solution for a projector and does not have costly bulb replacements like most projector, bulbs only around $20. Once you have the projector build yourself a coat-hanger HDTV antenna that works better than most store bought ones. Finally, connect it all together with some cheap cables bought off of monoprice.com."Link
"Unfortunately, Angular Momentum is pretty brief in its press release, only saying that the Axis Time Spiral comes with a two-body circular stainless steel case with downturned lugs, and satin finish. The bezel is polished, though. The watch’s crown features the AM logo inlayed in the same black enamel that the crystal is coated with. The movement is some ETA automatic with 25 jewels."Link
"About two years ago I was looking at a map of the world and noticed that Britain seemed disproportionately large.Link
My companion remarked that this was because in days of yore whoever was drawing the map always made their country look bigger and more important. This nugget of information sticks in the brain.
So for the last two years I've been taking pictures of Britain on world maps. Not accurate maps, but drawings or illustrations of maps. The differences are amazing. You might assume that all maps were accurate, or at least accurate-ish. But no, designers play fast and loose with the truth making the host country bigger, more important or more central."
"Turtle Airship just might be the future of air travel - if it delivers on all of its promises. This airship doesn't look anything like the Goodyear blimp. It has a rigid exterior shell that resembles, well, a turtle shell. The shell is covered in solar panels that provide the ship's main source of power. When solar energy is not available, the Turtle is designed to run on back-up, biodiesel engines. Here's all of the good things I've heard and read about this marvel:Link
* It runs on solar, so emissions and energy costs would be low.
* It takes off and lands like a helicopter, and can land just about anywhere on land or water. It can touch down in the middle of the ocean or the middle of the desert.
* It can travel at speeds of 200 mph, which, though a third of the speed of a traditional airplane, is still pretty quick. You can spend your extra time on the ship thinking about how much carbon emissions you saved."
"Weddings in space could be right around the corner, and experts figure the inevitable cosmic consummation will be just around the next corner.Link
The Japanese firm First Advantage and the U.S.-based private spaceflight firm Rocketplane Global, Inc., announced last week they will host weddings in space for about $2.3 million (240 million yen) apiece.
For all we know, sex in space has already taken place. But NASA officials aren't talking about that much.
Beyond space tourism as a platform for steamy shenanigans, space missions are the perfect petri dishes for close encounters, and this year NASA certainly has a busy flight schedule, with five missions planned. And more countries than ever are now venturing into space, with Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata slated to become Japan's first long-duration space flyer this year and China gearing up for its first spacewalk scheduled for October."
"The HiRISE has uncovered a wealth of information in a canyon bank at Chasma Boreale at Mars’s north pole. Here, the canyon has eroded to reveal layers of minerals and other materials. The layers are rich in water ice, while the dark material toward the bottom is most likely sand dunes. These layers are helping scientists decode Mars’s recent climate variations."
