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12 Must-See Skywatching Events in 2012

This story was updated on Jan. 2. As the year 2011 comes to a close, some might wonder what is looming sky-wise for 2012? What celestial events might we look forward to seeing? I've selected what I consider to be the top 12 "skylights" for this coming year, and list them here in chronological order. Not all these events will be visible from any one locality … for the eclipses, for instance, you'll probably have to do some traveling … but many can be observed from the comfort of your backyard. Hopefully your local weather will cooperate on most, if not all, of these dates. Jan. 4: Quadrantid meteor shower peaks This meteor shower reaches its peak in the predawn hours of Jan. 4 for eastern North America. From the eastern half of North America, a single observer might count on seeing as many as 50-to-100 "Quads" in a single hour. The first major meteor shower of 2012 takes place on the night of Tuesday, Jan. 3 and the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 4. March 3: Mars arrives at opposition

6 Books Everyone (Including Your English Teacher) Got Wrong #3. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Anybody who grew up in the 1960s (and still remembers anything about it) can tell you what Lewis Carroll's classic children's book was really all about: A girl takes a "trip" down the rabbit hole and finds herself in a surreal world where animals start talking to her. After she eats some "mushrooms," everything starts to change sizes before her eyes. We didn't really need Jefferson Airplane to clarify it; Alice in Wonderland is the Fear and Loathing of fairy tales. What it's really about: Lewis Carroll was the pen name of the very conservative Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Anglican deacon and professor of mathematics. All the weird drug-trippy stuff that's been misinterpreted since Woodstock is, we're sorry to say, really just an elaborate satire of modern mathematics. What incensed Dodgson was that math no longer had any real-world grounding. Dodgson to new mathematics: "Get the hell off my lawn." #2. Crazy, baby. #1.

Left 4 Dead - Fan made film by Airsoft GI - Geeky.ly Like Left 4 Dead this is a little bit mental. There are surprises aplenty in here (you’ll know exactly what I mean) but you’ll either take it as it was intended (as a bit of fun) or there’ll be immense nerd rage. Either are completely acceptable. I’ll let you watch it before I ramble on about the rest. The inclusion of cameo characters is a bold move but let’s think about it this way; I’ve seen more wooden acting in multi-million dollar blockbusters. They’ve captured the mood of Left 4 Dead perfectly along with the frenetic pace of action. Have you made a short film you’d like featured on Geeky.ly? gamingShort film Related Posts About the Author: Trey Douglas Builder of worlds, raider of dungeons, explorer par excellence and almighty ruler of Nerfed.co.uk. « Siri: The Holiday Horror Movie – A short by Rooster Teeth TFTS Presents: The Top 5 Xbox Live Arcade Titles of 2011 »

Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Reviews - StumbleUpon The Official ModRetro Forums! View topic - The Envision - Tchay's Second Portable Gamecube Merry Christmas everyone. I have a present for you. The Envision Zelda Remix Video! photos taken by my lil bro and I Specs:- OMGWTF rev A mobo- wii classic controller- Buttons and triggers from GC microcon controller- Runs off wall power DC 12V- Thinkpad heatsink and fan (credits to Zenloc for pointing it out)- 1.375"x6.5"x4.125" or 587108.811mm³- feels like a pound- Unmodded L and R potentiometers- No Disc drive - uses Wiikey Fusion runing games off of SD card (major credit to Ashen)- volume control- Smartphone speakers as they are incredibly small yet sound great- PS2 madcatz retrocon joysticks- Case molded by Chris Downing Fun Facts! Special Thanks:Sifuf - His Sixty Free Lite-R inspired me to think up the Envision back before the Ccube was even done. _________________Almost done with my last Envision.

of Philosophy&-&Philosophy - the best subject in the world The first reason why Philosophy is the best and most important subject in the world, is because it gives us the opportunity to think more deeply about the subjects that really matter to us as individuals and to societies, nations and humanity itself. These include such questions as: Everyday life often seems so full of pushes and pulls that it can be hard to address such matters in as full a way as we might wish. Philosophy gives the opportunity to come to a greater understanding of such questions, to examine our own thoughts and attitudes. Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young, nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the benefits of philosophy. (Letter to Menoeceus) The second reason why philosophy is so important as a subject is because it deals in the realm of causes and ideas which govern human life. These are some of the reasons why the study of philosophy is so valuable.

MIT Student Develops $3 Cutting-Edge Healing Device, Field Tested in Haiti No one really knows why, but for an open wound, simply applying suction dramatically speeds healing times. (The theory is that the negative pressure draws bacteria out, and encourages circulation.) But for almost everyone, that treatment is out of reach--simply because the systems are expensive--rentals cost at least $100 a day and need to be recharged every six hours. No more. Danielle Zurovcik, a doctoral student at MIT, has created a hand-powered suction-healing system that costs about $3. The device is composed of an airtight wound dressing, connected by a plastic tube to a cylinder with accordion-like folds. Zurovcik originally intended to field-test the device in Rwanda, but then the Haiti Earthquake struck. Currently, Zurovcik is verifying the healing benefits of the device, and developing a new model that can be readily carried and concealed. [Top image: Melanie Gonick/MIT; Bottom image: Patrick Gillooly/MIT]

DNA/Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Infocom Adventure History There was a time when computer games didn't have graphics. Or at least they couldn't have graphics and sound at the same time. Then graphics games came along and the computer using portion of the human race forgot all about 500,000 years of language evolution and went straight back to the electronic equivalent of banging rocks together - the point'n'click game. Something strange has now happened. And now some news ... If you've read this far, congratulations, you clearly have one of the necessary requirements to play the actual game online. If you don't have Java, then may we suggest the BBC's rather excellent 20th Anniversary Edition? To avoid the dissapointment of a pointless quarter-megabyte download (and to prevent our poor server from being hammered by thousands of fruitless fetches) we moved the game to its own page. We apologise for the inconvenience, but the game is still so insanely popular that our bandwidth budget has been ravenously bug-blattered. Enjoy!

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 - In Focus National Geographic is currently holding its annual photo contest, with the deadline for submissions coming up on November 30. For the past nine weeks, the society has been gathering and presenting galleries of submissions, encouraging readers to vote for them as well. National Geographic was kind enough to let me choose among its entries from 2011 for display here on In Focus. Gathered below are 45 images from the three categories of People, Places, and Nature, with captions written by the individual photographers. [45 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: Many people pilgrimage to Uluru, but what is seen there often depends on where you've come from. Eruption of the Cordon del Caulle. Beluga whales in the arctic having fun. This is a streetcar in New Orleans traveling back towards The Quarter on St. This image captures almost 6 hours of climbing parties on Rainier going for the summit under starry skies. Russia, polar region of West Siberia, Tazovsky Peninsula.

Ghost Web Cams: Live Ghost Cams to Hunt Ghosts Ghost web cams are listed below that allow you to hunt for ghosts and the paranormal... Ghost cams monitor haunted hallways and rooms...if you see something out of the ordinary, then simply save the picture to your hard drive by "right clicking" and selecting "save as". Webcams now bring you a way to ghost hunt right from your computer! List of Popular Webcams for Ghost Hunting:Ghost CamerasWebsite devoted to keeping haunted places open to the public - watch for signs of haunting! Willard Library Ghost CamsThree Web Cams monitor three areas for the Lady in Grey and other ghosts. The Paranormal World Ghost CamTPW covers an 1843 castle with four web cameras. David's Ghost CamSix ghost webcams set up in a 100 year old Victorian house. Lincolnshire Ghost WebcamGhost webcam set up on the roof of an old cinema is very active.

English Pronunciation If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud. Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. English Pronunciation by G. Source Breaking News: Fake News Special! Recent Database Breaches Teach Security Lessons -- The Hard Way Gawker, Epsilon, TSS of San Juan offer window into database hacks -- and how to defend against them [Excerpted from "Database Breaches: Lessons Learned From Real-World Attacks," a new report posted this week on Dark Reading's Database Security Tech Center.] If a hack successfully queries and exports hundreds of thousands -- or even millions -- of customers' records, you have a major problem that’s likely to cost your company millions of dollars in notifications, incident investigation/recovery, and lost business. According to the Ponemon Institute’s sixth annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study, data breach incidents cost U.S. companies $214 per compromised customer record in 2010. The average total per-incident cost in 2010 was $7.2 million. Yet despite the threat, many companies still have no idea that their most important data -- especially databases -- are being pillaged. How do such major breaches happen -- and how can you prevent them from happening to your organization?

Belief in Nothing - StumbleUpon Nihilism confuses people. "How can you care about anything, or strive for anything, if you believe nothing means anything?" they ask. In return, nihilists point to the assumption of inherent meaning and question that assumption. Nihilists who aren't of the kiddie anarchist variety tend to draw a distinction between nihilism and fatalism. What is nihilism? As a nihilist, I recognize that meaning does not exist. In the same way, I accept that when I die, the most likely outcome will be a cessation of being. Even further, I recognize that there is no golden standard for life. A tree falling in a forest unobserved makes a sound. Many people "feel" marginalized when they think of this. Meaning is the human attempt to mold the world in our own image. This distanced mentality further affirms our tendency to find the world alienating to our consciousness. As a result, we like to separate the world from our minds and live in a world created by our minds. Nihilism reverses this process.

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