I Am Murloc

Music? - check.
Metal? - check.
Funny video? - check.
World of Warcraft content? - check.

Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain - "I Am Murloc":

Street Art

"Street Art in East Village, New York City":


How cool is that?

- source: NickGray -

Realistic Mario

If you've played a Mario game before (of course you have, haven't you?) you know that the bitter rival of our favorite Italian plumber is Bowser.

Here are two images, one of Bowser and the other of a realistically-drawn Mario:

Eight irresistible principles to fun

Just what the title says... here.

The Jimmy story - WoW

A touching story of two friends that played World of Warcraft (WoW) together. That is, until...


- thx to vash -

Mooch it!

BookMooch is an online community used for swapping books, launched in July 2006, which currently has over 40,000 active members.

You can gain points by adding books that you want to give away to your inventory, by trading in your books or by providing feedback when you receive books and use those points to "buy" books that you want from other moochers.

Membership is fast and free.

Pretty impressive and very useful...I warmly recommend it to every reader or owner of a generous library :-)...

Link (and source, evidently) here:

Wallpapers

Because every one of us has had a moment when he searched for a cool wallpaper, here you go: a site that has about 200 nice wallpapers.

Definitely a keeper...

Trash as art

As the saying goes: "One man's trash, another man's treasure"...

Never thought I would take that literally, though:


- source: Slightlywarped -

Do You Know Where You're Going? - Prologue

Who here (we're not actually here, but this is another story) hasn't asked himself at least on one occasion what he wants to do with his life, who or what he wants to become when he's older?

Ok, you can put your hands down now.

I think we all need to find out what values we treasure most, what values we want to respect in life, the values that we want to live by.
So here is an article written by the Revolution Health Group titled "Do you know where you're going?".

Interested? Read on, I'm posting it in parts, because of its length.

- Proceed to Part I -

Jump to ~ Part II ~ Part III ~ Part IV ~

- source: *Photo* -

Law breaking liquid defies the rules

A team of physicists from France have discovered a simple organic substance, made out of two compounds, that turns solid when heated and back to liquid upon cooling. (figure 1)

Usually, a solid substance would melt, thus becoming liquid, when confronted with heat, or turn to gas, if it was in a liquid state. Some exceptions have been studied, especially when the heating process would cause something like polymerisation. But no case had ever been discovered of a reversible transition involving liquid turning to solid when heated.

The team of Grenoble-based scientists have attributed this peculiar transformation to the hydrogen bonds.

Read more about it in the original article here.

Wow, how about this for an original finding? Very interesting...

- source: PhysicsWorld -

PC + PS3 = love

Remember the post in which I told you about the possibility of playing PC games on the PS3 sometime in the future?

The guys over at StreamMyGame finally managed (a few weeks ago) to put together the system that would facilitate doing just that.

If you've got a PS3 with Linux installed (any type of Linux - Yellow Dog Linux, Ubuntu etc) you can get this up and running. More explanations in a thread on the StreamMyGame forum here. (and here for a tutorial on how to install Linux on the PS3)

I haven't tried it yet, but I'm planning on doing it soon enough. I've downloaded a free (legit) copy of Yellow Dog Linux and have started backing up the data on my PS3's hard drive (you need to create a special partition to install Linux => you've got to format the entire drive).

This seems to me a win-win(-win) situation for the guys at Sony, for Linux as an OS, and for all the PS3 owners, because being able to play the games you've got for PC on the PS3, taking full advantage of the HDTV you probably have, will definitely make any PC owner happy and, thus, boost sales and create the much-needed buzz for Linux.
Perhaps this could be considered as a blow to the Xbox, who's custom made operating system by Microsoft isn't open-source, thus destroying hopes of Homebrew-lovers.

What else can I say about this breakthrough other than I hope we'll get to see (more) Homebrew on the PS3?

Omg, I wonder how Microsoft feels knowing that PS3 owners all around the world are able to play their so-bitterly-kept-off-the-PS3 games like Bioshock, Gears of War or even Halo. Zomg, playing a Halo game on a Sony console!
Maybe we'll even get to see something like this sometime in the future:Blasphemy?
No, reality.

Later Edit: Make sure you read this post (How to: PC + PS3 = love) for more clarifications and a step-by-step tutorial on getting the Streamer software up and running in no time.

She reads, we see

A very interesting experiment was conducted (quite a while ago), that recorded, digitalized and then printed out the eyes' movements while reading a paper.

Here are the pictures that I've managed to gather on the experiment:



- source: DoctorHugo -

Cola victim

A sad day for all Coca-cola fans...

A day of mourning for a lost friend in the battle with Pepsi:


Rest in peace, friend :-(...we will always remember what a good drink you were... why did it have to be you? Why now? ... :-(

Half-money and half-reality

Interesting...

- source: musely -

Revenge of the Stith

Well, technically, this can't be called part III of the Counter-Stick series, because it wasn't made by those who made the other 2.

But it's a parody of CS, it's got sticks for characters, (and Star Wars episode 3 was called "Revenge of the Sith") so I'm calling it Part III - Revenge of t3h Stith (get it? stick + Sith?...).

Here it is:

I think this is the funniest one yet :))...

Make sure you also see Part I and Part II.

- source: Youtube -

Counter Stick (CS) part I

First of all, I must say that Counter-Strike (CS) is one of my favorite games ever. I think the fact that a game more than seven years of age still is one of the most played ones out there speaks for itself.

I'm in a cheerful mood today (mostly brought on by the whole paper-throwing game which has really got to me) so let me show you a parody of a Counter Strike game, called Counter-Stick Part I:


Make sure you view Part II and Part III - "Revenge of the Stith"!

- source: StickPage.com -

Throw paper!

A very fun and addictive little flash web game that tries to take away boredom:
Try and see how many pieces of paper you can consecutively throw in the bin.

P.S. My current record is 12.
P.S.2. 14.
P.S.3. (get it - PS3? :-) ) 19
P.S.4. 21

Origami Wars

Some very nice pieces of Star Wars origami work (click for bigger image):

- source: PhilipWest -

Top 10 Scientific breaktroughs of 2007

"Welcome to the first annual Wired News rundown of the year's 10 most important scientific breakthroughs. 2007 was an amazing year for science. Unlike 2006, there were no high-profile cases of scientific fraud -- none that went uncovered, anyway. Journal publishers took extra care, requiring scientists to duplicate results in an effort to avoid scientific, not to mention public relations, fiascoes. And while those are entertaining, we'll take solid science over the Sturm und Drang of 2006 any day. Here we count down the top 10 scientific discoveries that rocked our Wired world the hardest this year.

10. Transistors Get Way Smaller

In the race to make computers faster, chipmakers rely on exotic new materials. In January, Intel announced that the element hafnium and some new metal alloys will allow them to make the millions of switches on their microprocessors far smaller. Gordon Moore, co-founder of the company and father of the law that bears his name, called it the biggest change in transistor technology since the 1960s. The tremendous accomplishment allows Intel to squeeze features on each chip down to 45 nanometers from the current standard of 65 nanometers. But the greatest benefit may be an increase in energy efficiency. That improvement comes along with the hafnium alloys that will prevent electricity from leaking across the tiny switches.

Intel started using the technology, codenamed Penryn, in November in high-end servers. Home users can expect the chips in early 2008.

9. Scientists Clone Rhesus Monkey to Produce Stem Cells

At Oregon Health and Science University, Shoukhrat Mitalipov and his team cloned a Rhesus Monkey and used the resulting embryo to create stem cells. Until then, the impressive feat had been performed only with mice.

In November, the team reported in Nature a surprising key to their success: avoiding ultraviolet light and dyes -- tools that are almost always used in cloning experiments -- because they can damage delicate cells.

Stem cells could be used to repair nearly any damaged organ, but they are useless if they upset the immune system. By cloning sick patients and using cells derived from their own bodies, doctors could skirt problems similar to those experienced by people with organ transplants. But some say the No. 1 discovery on our list makes cloning unnecessary. Nonetheless, some scientists, including stem-cell researchers at Harvard, say cloning is still necessary.

8. Planet Discovered That Could Harbor Life

Astrobiology enthusiasts have had many reasons to rejoice this year, but one of them has been somewhat controversial. After Stéphane Udry and his colleagues found a pair of planets that they believed could harbor life, other researchers disputed which of the two is most habitable, but agreed that the distant solar system is worthy of further study.

Using a Canadian space telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile, Udry inferred that the most promising object is slightly larger than earth, circles its sun in 18 days, and may be rocky. In a late April issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the University of Geneva professor provided details about his sophisticated search. Both of the celestial bodies orbit the red dwarf star Gliese 581, which is only 20 light years from earth. Although prospects for the two planets may be less hopeful than Udry and his associates projected, the methods that they used to locate the small planet could be used to make many more discoveries.

7. Engineers Create Transparent Material as Strong as Steel

Engineering researchers at the University of Michigan have created a material similar to "transparent aluminum," the fantastic substance described by Scotty in Star Trek IV. In the Oct. 5 issue of Science, Nicholas Kotov showed that clay is good for far more than making bricks and expensive skincare products. The earthen material is made up of phenomenally strong nanometer-sized particles. When arranged neatly between thin layers of a sticky but weak plastic, the tiny bits of dirt act as the ultimate reinforcements -- giving the ordinary material extraordinary strength. The sturdy composite could be used in lightweight armor or aircraft.

6. Soft Tissue from T. Rex Leg Bone Analyzed

This spring, the oldest patient in the pathology department of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston was a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex. For the first time, scientists have analyzed biological molecules from the ancient creatures. Working with soft tissue from a leg bone that was extremely well-preserved in prehistoric Montana sediments, John Asara read the chemical recipe of a protein that served as a springy structural element in the dinosaur's bones. In the April 13 issue of Science, he and his colleagues compared the deadly predator to animals that roam the earth today and concluded that it has a lot in common with chickens.

5. Laboratory Mice Cured of Rett Syndrome

Researchers affiliated with the Wellcome Trust have shown evidence that Rett syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that afflicts one in every 10,000 female births, might be curable. Caused by a mutation, the disorder prevents children from walking, talking or speaking and gives them terrible tremors. By creating mice with a similar affliction, Adrian Bird and his colleagues at Edinburgh University and the University of Glasgow tested the effects of fixing the bad gene. In the Feb. 23 issue of Science, they explained that the disease does not cause permanent damage to nerve cells, and breathing problems and tremors in mice stop when they are nudged into producing normal MeCP2 -- the protein corrupted by the disease.

4. Enzymes Convert Any Blood Type to O

Several major Type O blood shortages, including crises at the National Institutes of Health this fall and throughout Georgia in late summer, highlight the importance of creating a versatile blood type. In the rare instance that someone receives a transfusion of the wrong type, deadly reactions (caused by sugar molecules on the surfaces of red blood cells) can cause the immune system to go haywire.

In April, Henrik Clausen, a professor at the University of Denmark, published research in Nature describing a way to convert any kind of blood into Type O -- the type that almost anyone can tolerate. He discovered enzymes that shear the problem-causing sugars from the surfaces of A, B and AB type red blood cells. Produced by bacteria, the molecular machines could theoretically turn any kind of blood into Type O. Clausen and his colleagues described their search for the pacifying proteins in the April 1 issue of Nature Biotechnology.

ZymeQuest, a startup company from Massachusetts, is now developing a device that hospitals can use during blood shortages.

3. Mummified Dinosaur Excavated and Scanned

Paleontologists from England's University of Manchester have excavated the mummy of a nearly intact plant-eating dinosaur. Preserved by minerals for over 65 million years, the petrified body is in such pristine condition that the researchers could see a striped pattern on what remains of its scales. The scientists transported the fossilized hadrosaur this fall to a giant CT scanner in Canoga Park, California, where technicians captured terabytes of 3-D images that have already revealed surprises about the creature's muscle mass and the spacing of its bones. Tyler Lyson, now a graduate student in geology at Yale University, made the initial find seven years ago while fossil hunting in the Hell Creek formation of North Dakota.

2. Chimpanzees Make Spears for Hunting

Two anthropologists watched in mixed amazement and horror as several female chimpanzees crafted spears and used them to somewhat brutally hunt smaller mammals. Following a troop of the primates in a Senegalese savanna, Jill Pruetz of Iowa State University and Paco Bertolani of Cambridge observed them breaking the branches off of trees, picking leaves from the sides, and sharpening the tips to deadly points. In the March edition of Current Biology, the scientists explained that such sophisticated animal behavior could reveal a great deal about how early humans used primitive tools.

1. Researchers Turn Skin Cells to Stem Cells

Using a virus to reprogram skin cells, two teams of scientists managed to skirt the greatest ethical issue facing regenerative medicine -- the destruction of human embryos. Groups led by Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and Junying Yu of the University of Wisconsin coaxed a type of skin cell called fibroblasts into forming muscle, heart, fat and nerve tissues without using any eggs. Unfortunately, the hijacked cells often became tumors. Following up on his initial discovery this November, Yamanaka told Nature Biotechnology that by inserting three growth genes instead of four, the lab-grown flesh can be controlled without becoming cancerous."

- source: Wired.com -

Seven Blunders of the World

"Seven Blunders of the World", as written by Mahatma Gandhi:


1. Wealth without work

2. Pleasure without conscience

3. Knowledge without character

4. Commerce without morality

5. Science without humanity

6. Worship without sacrifice

7. Politics without principle