(Video Link) This simple but beautiful video from Harvard University shows fifteen pendulums of increasing length swinging to and fro. Sometimes they appear to be in sync, but at other times, not. Here’s why: The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Neatorama Discovery Date : 02/05/2011 23:16 Number of articles : 6
Continue reading …
(Video Link) This simple but beautiful video from Harvard University shows fifteen pendulums of increasing length swinging to and fro. Sometimes they appear to be in sync, but at other times, not. Here’s why: The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. The length of the longest pendulum has been adjusted so that Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Neatorama Discovery Date : 02/05/2011 23:16 Number of articles : 6
Continue reading …
Cats in Tanks from Whitehouse Post on Vimeo. (via Tara McGinley)… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : Boing Boing Discovery Date : 14/05/2011 06:00 Number of articles : 3
Continue reading …
Will Blue triumph? Can Jedward win? Enjoy every ridiculous minute of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest live from 8pm with your glamorous hosts, Heidi and Stuart The finalists: semi-final one and The finalists: semi final two 8.16pm: It’s the first act! His name is Axel, but goes by the name of Paradise Oscar, and he is from FINLAND . Ooh, Jeff Brazier! Right, so basically it’s about someone called Peter who knows each European country by heart. He is off to save the planet, apparently, and we’re all welcome to join him as long as we sing da da dum da da dum. I’m only going if Paradise Oscar doesn’t wear that bloody awful shirt. 8.13pm: The phonelines are open, and you can start voting! Except you haven’t seen any of the acts yet, but since when did that matter? VOTE JEDWARD. You know you want to. 8.07pm: They have no been joined by 43 Lena lookalikes waving the flags of Europe. And now the actual Lena, doing the final chorus. And a full swing band. And many, many, fireworks. My head hurts. 8.00pm: IT’S STARTING! Live from the Espirit arena in Dusseldorf, which is apparently packed with 35,000 fans. Or so Graham Norton tells us, for he is in charge of UK proceedings. Our hosts for the evening are Anka, who is wearing a red dress like a 70s shagpile rug and a over-tight ponytail; Judith, who is wearing Bacofoil and doing the French bits, and a man called Stefan who is the actual Swedish Chef off the Muppets. He is talking about TV vankings. I hope these are rankings. Ah, there’s nothing like a bit of set-piece intro comedy, is there? Lena can’t perform last year’s winning song, Satellite, because she is also competing this evening, so Stefan and Anke are performing a rockabilly version. Imagine how bad that could possibly be, and then multiply it by about 7 MILLION. 7.58pm: It’s nearly time! It’s Heidi here now right through until 9.30pm, when Stuart will take over. 7.47pm: Oh, apparently the warm-up guy is cracking xenophobic gags. The Irish are drunks, the Italians are short and the British have no sense of humour. Oh, bravo. 7.44pm: Heidi Stephens: A message from James in Dusseldorf – loads of Union flags on display, apparently, and the warm-up guy is getting the crowd going. Who the hell do you book to do the warm-up for Eurovision? 7.24pm: Stuart Heritage : Right, you know how these Eurovision drinking games work by now. Whenever any of the following happens, you have to drink something. Or eat something. Or just generally despair at the world a little bit. I will be doing the last of these suggestions, whereas Heidi will be wittering incoherently in no time: 1 – The UK’s entry is described as ‘our strongest in years’ 2 – The hosts misguidedly attempt to flirt with each other 3 – A song rhymes ‘fire’ with ‘desire’ 4 – A song rhymes ‘high’ with ‘sky’ 5 – While announcing their country’s voting scores, a presenter unsuccessfully tries to chat up the host 6 – Someone wears enough fake tan to make you question the reliability of your television’s contrast settings 7 – A performer finishes their song by bellowing into a wind machine 8 – A song makes a cackhanded nation-specific political statement that’s lost on 99% of the audience 9 – The UK doesn’t do as well as people thought it would 10 – Someone mumbles bitterly about political voting 7.16pm: Heidi Stephens: Guten abend meine freunde! It’s nearly time! I’m going to take you through the first 90 minutes of this evening’s show, which should cover most of the 25 glorious musical contributions from Europe’s finest musical talent. At 9.30pm, my lovely co-host Stuart Heritage will be taking over for all the amazing interval entertainment and the scoring, right through to the bitter end when Blue are crowned champions and the UK faces the prospect of hosting the 2012 show on a budget of £8.50 and a pocketful of fluff and buttons. OK, maybe not, but I think the UK might do alright. The good news is, we can’t do any worse than last place in 2010, so hurrah. I haven’t seen much by way of the performances this year, so most of what’s going to occur this evening will be new to my unpolluted eyes and ears. I’ve also heard bits of the UK entry, but not the entire song, so if there’s bit in the middle where they all make a human pyramid with Duncan on top playing the spoons, my horror will be unfeigned. I have, however, made a note of the all the artists’ names and song titles, so I don’t waste valuable viewing time looking up how to spell something in Slovenian that sounds like it’s just been coughed up by a horse. Alas Stuart and I didn’t make it to Dusseldorf this year, but we are receiving dispatches from JAMES HODGE, who is sending all the news and gossip from inside the arena so we can post it here. Apparently it is currently packed to the rafters with lots of very excited people, some of whom are waving the flags of more than one nation. And this, my friends, is the spirit of Eurovision. Also, Jagermeister. 7.10pm: Heidi: Hello and welcome to the annual Guardian Eurovision Song Contest liveblog, coming to you live from the UK! Stuart: Bonjour et bienvenue à la réunion annuelle Guardian Eurovision de la chanson liveblog concours, à venir avec vous en direct du Royaume-Uni! Heidi: You’re doing this on Google Translate, aren’t you? Stuart: Yes. Heidi: Oh. Hello! I’m Heidi! Stuart: And I’m Stuart! Heidi: And we’re your Eurovision liveblog hosts! Stuart: Bonsoir! It’s going to be a crazy crazy Euro liveblog party! Heidi, you are looking very beautiful this evening. Heidi: Thank you Stuart, and you are also looking very handsome. Right, that’s the obligatory clunky flirting over. Welcome to the 2011 Eurovision Liveblog! It’s a night of bad outfits, demented dancing and impenetrable lyrics, and that’s just from Blue and Jedward. We are very excited. Clearly the whole of Eurovision is too much drama for one liveblogger to cope with, so tonight’s liveblog will be a two person affair – Heidi Stephens will be kicking things off at 8pm, with Stuart Heritage picking up the sequinned baton at 9.30pm. Do feel free to join the fun by leaving your comments below, and don’t forget to let us know where you are, who you’re with and who you’re cheering for this evening. We do not discriminate. If Moldova float your boat, so be it. Yay, Eurovision! Enjoy! Eurovision 2011 Eurovision Television Heidi Stephens Stuart Heritage guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
Unnamed worker taken along with an Italian after gunmen raid building in north-west part of the country A British contract worker has been kidnapped by gunmen in Nigeria. The raiders stormed into the man’s apartment on Thursday night and fled with him and an Italian worker, police said. The pair have not been named. A police chief said a “horde of gunmen” burst into the building in Birnin Kebbi, in the north west of the country. A German colleague managed to escape by scaling a wall but a Nigerian engineer was shot and wounded, Kebbi state police chief Adamu Hassan said. He told Nigerian media the missing pair had been working for a construction company in the state capitaland that there had not been a ransom demand. The men worked for the firm B. Stabilini and were building a bank. The firm was unavailable for comment. The policeman said a large amount of cash in the apartment was not taken, according to the website This Day Live . A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of reports of a missing British national. We are urgently looking into these reports.” Kidnappings in Nigeria’s north-west are unusual, unlike in the country’s southern delta where oil workers have routinely been kidnapped. In September 2008 two Britons were held by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, while in April 2009 a Scottish oil worker was abducted and his guard killed in Port Harcourt. In January 2010 three Britons and a Colombian were kidnapped, and in November of the same year, four men from the US, Canada and France were taken while 7.5 miles offshore on the Okoro field. Nigeria Africa guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Microsoft-approved tool fixes your ‘walshed’ Windows Phone, helps you get official updates once more
May 14, 2011 No Comment
There are certainly advantages to rooting your Windows Phone 7 device, but there’s a heck of a downside too — Microsoft can’t update your handset to the latest and greatest build if you’ve unofficially patched your phone. Good to know, but what if you’ve already done the deed? That’s why you’ll want the application above, a ChevronWP7 -tested, Microsoft-approved program for pulling your phone out of Bizzaro World and setting things right. Find it at our source link, follow the instructions carefully, and don’t fret if the official update doesn’t immediately appear after you’re done — developer Chris Walsh says availability of the build depends on carrier approval. [Thanks, Brianna] Microsoft-approved tool fixes your ‘walshed’ Windows Phone, helps you get official updates once more originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 May 2011 14:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …California is planning to close more than a quarter of its 278 state parks and slash services at the rest as part of sweeping budget cuts. Southern California’s beaches will stay open but redwood forests, coastal woodlands, and many of the state’s historic sites will be shut down in September,…
Continue reading …
The NRSC goes on the offensive today against Barack Obama’s energy policy in a snappy new one-minute video that might eventually see some play in key states — like, say, Missouri. Claire McCaskill makes an appearance in the ad, which mainly focuses on Obama’s pledge to “necessarily skyrocket” the cost of electricity and to push Hotair: NRSC Video Says Obama’s Energy Policy Is … is a post from:… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Katy Pundit Discovery Date : 13/05/2011 19:11 Number of articles : 4
Continue reading …
Report showing trains in Europe cost 40% less to run will fuel attack on pay and outdated travel perks Transport secretary Philip Hammond will spark a confrontation with unions this week by demanding steep cuts in the wage bills of Britain’s railways, citing an official study suggesting that they cost 40% more to operate than equivalent systems in France, Germany and the Netherlands. The report, by former Civil Aviation Authority chief Sir Roy McNulty, will set an “aspiration” of reducing the cost of transporting passengers by 30% by 2019, with potential savings of more than £1bn annually by the end of the decade. Commissioned in the latter days of Gordon Brown’s government, the study, to be published on Thursday, is likely to be used by ministers to attack both unions and the historical perks enjoyed by rail staff. Train drivers earned an average of £41,179 last year, more than police officers, teachers, firemen and nurses, and unions have
Continue reading …
US and Britain condemn conviction of Andrei Sannikov, who described charges of staging riots as ‘absurd’ A Belarussian presidential candidate has been sentenced to five years in prison following a trial that he denounced as political punishment for challenging the nation’s authoritarian leader. A district court in the Belarussian capital Minsk handed out the sentence to Andrei Sannikov after convicting him on charges of staging riots following December’s presidential election. Sannikov called the charges “absurd” in a statement before the verdict, which was condemned by the US and Britain. “This is a political punishment for me as a presidential candidate who has formed a strong team of professionals and declared readiness to take charge of the country,” he said. Sannikov, a 57-year-old former deputy foreign minister, said he was tortured by Belarus’s secret police and that its chief personally threatened harsh reprisals against his wife – a journalist – and their four-year-old son. Another four opposition activists were also given prison terms in the same trial. Sannikov’s trial was the latest move in an ongoing crackdown on dissent by the government of President Alexander Lukashenko, who was declared the winner of December’s election with nearly 80% of the vote. International observers criticised the election. The exchange rate of the national currency of Belarus plunged by 30% this week after the government completed its devaluation. Hard currency reserves have plummeted to less than $4bn, and staples such as vegetable oil and sugar began vanishing from stores. “A severe economic crisis has prompted Lukashenko to tighten repression to prevent the opposition from forming the core of protests,” said Alexander Klaskovsky, an independent political analyst. The US state department issued a statement condemning Sannikov’s conviction and other trials of presidential candidates and opposition activists. “Belarus should immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners and cease continuing human rights violations against critics of the government,” it said. “The results of ongoing trials will be taken into account as the United States continues to review its relations with Belarus and consider further measures.” The Europe minister David Lidington also voiced concern about Sannikov’s conviction, calling it a “new low for the rule of law in Belarus”. “Mr Sannikov is guilty of nothing more than the peaceful expression of his opinion about the results of December’s flawed elections,” he said. Belarus Alexander Lukashenko Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …