NEWSMAKERS: ============= NASAs Kepler Spacecraft Finds 1st Alien Planet of New Mission: NASAs Kepler space telescope is discovering alien planets again. The prolific spacecraft has spotted its first newalien planet since being hobbled by a malfunction in May 2013, researchers announced today (Dec. 18). The newly discovered world, called HIP 116454b, is a super Earth about 2.5 times larger than our home planet. It lies 180 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Pisces — close enough to be studied by other instruments, scientists said. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Kepler has been reborn and is continuing to make discoveries, study lead author Andrew Vanderburg, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), said in a statement. Even better, the planet it found is ripe for follow-up studies. Kepler launched in March 2009, on a 3.5-year mission to determine how frequently Earth-like planets occur around the Milky Way galaxy. The spacecraft has been incredibly successful to date, finding nearly 1,000 confirmed planets — more than half of all known alien worlds — along with about 3,200 other candidates, the vast majority of which should turn out to be the real deal. >>>>>> A lamp that lasts 40 years will debut in May: For nearly a century, lightbulbs have been the poster child of planned obsolescence. Manufacturers have been accused of deliberately designing products that only last months or years — and there is even evidence that a formal cartel called Pheobus existed in 1920s and ’30s. Major manufacturers belonging to Phoebus pledged not to launch bulbs that would last longer than 2,000 hours. The cartel was officially disbanded in 1939, but the lifetime of a light bulb has remained suspiciously low, even with incredible advances in materials and engineering. Some of the light bulbs manufactured in Great Britain during the crisis conditions of World War II are still in use today, which some say supports the theory that a manufacturing conspiracy endured beyond 1939. Now a British inventor is set to defy the diabolical forces of a possibly ancient international light bulb conspiracy — Jake Dyson has developed a LED lamp that will last 40 years if used for 12 hours a day. That’s a hefty life span. The bad news is that the lamp will cost more than $2,000. If you do the math, the device will pay for itself in the long run…. but its early commercial appeal is likely going to be limited to public spaces such as airports and malls. Interestingly, one secret to the longevity of Dyson’s Aerial light lies in temperature control — radiators dissipating heat will keep the lamp always at 55 degrees or under. >>>>>> Hackers recreate fingerprints using public photos: A German hacking group claims that it can recreate your fingerprints from the other wide of the world. At a cybersecurity convention in Hamburg last week, the Chaos Computer Club demonstrated how it can mimic a fingerprint just by analyzing photographs. Fingerprints have been recreated from smudges on windows and other smooth surfaces. In the past, forgers have used tape, a scanner, some plastic material and glue to build a gummy fingerprint that can fool scanners. But the Chaos Computer Club says this is the first time fingerprints have been spoofed from afar. The groups leader, known as Starbug, said he was able to recreate the thumbprint of the German Minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen, from several news photos. The hack isnt terribly complicated, but its also not something most people would have the patience or ability to pull off. Starbug printed the fingerprint from the photos onto tracing paper, copied it onto a plastic board, covered it in graphite and made a dummy print by coating the plastic in wood glue. >>>>>> The Most Used Word of 2014 Isnt Even a Word: The top word of 2014 isn’t even a word, but an emoji: the heart emoji to be exact. This is the 15th that media company Global Language Monitor has unveiled what it says are the most commonly used words, phrases and names. The lists are comprised through computerized algorithms that analyze the use of English words across the Internet, the Austin, Texas-based company says. “We have millions of sources that we check,” says Paul J.J. Payack, president and chief word analyst at the GLM. “We look at the 275,000 top newspapers in the world, books, social media, and several million blogs. Specifically, the heart emoji went wild, showing up millions of times a day.” The heart emoji tops the list of the most used words in 2014. Trailing behind at number two is the popular pound-sign “hashtag,” followed by “vape” (short for smoking an electronic cigarette), which stands at number three. In addition to measuring the most popular words, GLM also ranks the top names and phrases annually. >>>>>> Brightly burning Lovejoy comet to be visible with naked eye: You won’t need fancy equipment to watch a dazzling space rock soar across the night sky early next month. The Lovejoy comet, known to the scientific community as C/2014 Q2, is visible with the aid of binoculars throughout much of January. And it will be at its brightest on Jan. 7, 2015. People in the countryside — far from the light population of major cities — will get to scope out the comet with nothing but their eyes. Terry Lovejoy, an Australian amateur astronomer, discovered the comet on Aug. 17, 2014, from his rooftop observatory in Brisbane, Queensland. It is his fifth comet discovery.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 14:33:38 +0000
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