Today’s readings included…

Hrmmm…

…I need to get a more interesting life so I can blog more often. Here’s some other stuff in the meantime…

Vanished Persian army said found in desert
The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology’s biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.

Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C. [full article]

Mystery ‘dark flow’ extends towards edge of universe
SOMETHING big is out there beyond the visible edge of our universe. That’s the conclusion of the largest analysis to date of over 1000 galaxy clusters streaming in one direction at blistering speeds. Some researchers say this so-called “dark flow” is a sign that other universes nestle next door. [full article]

Time-travelling browsers navigate the web’s past

Finding old versions of web pages could become far simpler thanks to a “time-travelling” web browsing technology being pioneered at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. [full article]

Flasher leads to Hamilton bus crash
Police say the strange incident happened shortly before 9am when a teenager on the Orbiter bus allegedly exposed himself to a woman passenger. She screamed, prompting the driver to phone a bus company representative, who in turn told him to drive to the nearby police station at the Flagstaff shops, River Rd.

With the female passenger still screaming, the bus driver stopped in the station carpark and – believing the bus was in neutral – activated the emergency door lock.

“Unfortunately for the driver, the bus was still in gear and it rolled into the entranceway of the station, cracking its windscreen and causing minimal damage to the building,” a police statement said. [full article]

An no, that wasn’t me.

From The Outer Regions…

Will California become America’s first failed state?
Los Angeles, 2009: California may be the eighth largest economy in the world, but its state government is issuing IOUs, unemployment is at its highest in 70 years, and teachers are on hunger strike. So what has gone so catastrophically wrong? [full article]

World’s largest dino footprints found
Found in the Jura plateau near the south-eastern city of Lyon, the prints are thought to belong to a giant vegetarian sauropod. The round prints are about one and a half metres wide, which palaeontologists at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) reckon were made by animals around 7.5 metres tall, weighing around 40 tonnes. [full article]

Cheap naked chips snap a perfect picture

HOW can image sensors – the most complicated and expensive part of a digital camera – be made cheaper and less complex? Easy: take the lid off a memory chip and use that instead. [full article]

Pirates hit navy ship ‘in error’
A group of Somali pirates has been captured after attacking a French navy ship by mistake, apparently thinking it was a harmless cargo vessel. [full article]

Whoops…

Disappeared for a bit there. I’ve been watching a new movie pretty much whenever I’m not working and it’s been great, but leaves little time for other things like blogging as one might notice. Been keeping close to the average set out in the last post though. About 10 movies watched in the last four days. Think I might take a break tonight, but that could change later.

Meanwhile, I’ve started up a twitter account which you might notice on the sidebar. Something of a tester just for September, but so far… meh. Find it fairly redundant to be posting about what I’m doing all the time and haven’t even bothered to use the mobile phone feature cause honestly… who the hell wants to know that I’m at the supermarket or what movie I’m watching or how many cancers I’ve cured in an afternoon? I mean, asides from the obligatory stalker, but they’ve already got this blog. Mind you, if they wanna real time stalk, more power to them… the hell am I saying?

Pretty tired now, so a few links and then yeah, why not? Let’s do one more movie tonight…

The Pixies have announced a one off gig next year and I’m pretty damn keen to get myself a ticket. [full article]

A website that gives recipes on how to transform your fast food takeaways into gourmet looking meals. Definitely worth checking out. A simple favourite is a KFC meal into a chicken corn chowder amongst many others. [https://www.fancyfastfood.com]

Good ol’ New Scientist brings us 13 More Things That Don’t Make Sense.

And finally a featurette for Wes Anderson’s upcoming adaptation of The Fantastic Mr Fox. I can’t wait. Apple HD options can be found here. Else embedded below.

Live! From the Hovering Robot Circus!

Rejoice! As Depressing Comic Week returns to Cyanide and Happiness. {previous weeks here and here).

Laugh! As a man locked out of his house is forced to break back in while dressed up with a sword and ammo belt for a fancy dressed party get the armed offenders squad called out on him. [article]

Amaze! As you read the background of current music obsession, the rapper known as Cage (Chris Palko). Either through his wiki page, this feature article or this interview.

Enjoy! The website of the awesomeness that is Beck. The man has been posting some brilliant stuff, ranging from videos to interviews and all should see. [beck.com]

Keeping it Simple

Still pretty tired and have to wake up early in the morning so keeping this even briefer.

Cracked.com is great. This new post Clippy Finally Messes With the Wrong Word Doc is pretty amusing.

So is this of a Man Glued to Toilet Seat.

New Scientist presents the Mystery of the Missing Mini-Galaxies and my mind went a little missing reading it.

And finally a very cool Lego animated video tribute to the 8-bit games of yesteryears. Cheers to Fin for the awesomeness there.

Shaped Exactly Like The Earth

Slow day. Trying to configure phone to be able to blog on the go and solve quantum physics equations. Having more success with the quantum physics.

Everyone watched the new Avatar teaser trailer yet? Half the internet already seems to have. Fin’s got some nice screencaps from it on his blog here. There hasn’t been much publicity about the 15 minute 3D previews this weekend which is kinda good, cause I don’t want to risk not getting a ticket so shhhhhh!

Friend Rocky started up a blog this week where he plans to post a photo from around London once per day. He’s already behind, but with his lifestyle sometimes, I’d understand why. [P365 – A Photo A Day]

And then this great article from stuff.co.nz had me gut laugh a bit:

Sting backfires as Aussie police PC hacked
An Australian police boast on TV about breaking up an underground hacker forum has backfired after hackers broke into a police computer system.

Security consultants say police appear to have been using the computer as a honeypot to collect information on members of the forum but the scheme came undone after the officers forgot to set a password. [full article]

Quick Articles Links…

The awesomest job requirement, a real life jewel heist, space stuff still rules and freaky gross nature video…

Shooting the boss (and getting paid for it)
To thank him for letting them spend the last two hours of their workweek playing video games on the company dime, Kevin Grinnell’s employees often single him out and shoot him in the head.
&nbsp &nbsp To be fair, the employees at Grinnell Computers aren’t firing real weapons at their boss but are instead releasing the stresses of their week in a multiplayer online game known as Combat Arms.
[full article]

>£1m reward offered over gems raid
A £1m reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of robbers who stole jewellery worth £40m during a raid in central London. [full article]

US probe captures Saturn equinox
Raw images of the moment Saturn reached its equinox have been beamed to Earth by the US Cassini spacecraft. [full article]

‘Alien scene’ of tadpoles’ feast
“Alien-like” scenes of tadpoles feasting on eggs emerging from their mother have been caught on camera. [full article]

Some articles to take your mind off swine flu and robot armies

Space impact ‘saved Christianity’
A team of geologists believes it has found the incoming space rock’s impact crater, and dating suggests its formation coincided with the celestial vision said to have converted a future Roman emperor to Christianity. [full article]

Lost in Space
What really happened to Russia’s missing cosmonauts? An incredible tale of space hacking, espionage and death in the lonely reaches of space. [full article]

The LRV, America’s Nuclear Flying Saucer
“The operational mission design is six weeks’ duration at a nominal orbital altitude of 300 nautical miles, with a crew of four men,” according to the report. The weapons bay would hold “four winged weapons” that could be either launched or detached and parked on orbit. There are repeated references to the LRV launching weapons-carrying clusters. [full article]

Man, 84, fights off crims with groin kick
Ted Mazetier said he stopped Wednesday night to help two men with a disabled car when one punched him in the face and demanded his keys.

Mazetier said he kicked the man in the groin and the other in the belly. The two men fled as a passer-by stopped to help. [full article]

Bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover
“Bread is high in carbohydrates and bacon is full of protein, which breaks down into amino acids. Your body needs these amino acids, so eating them will make you feel good.”

Ms Roberts told The Mirror: “Bingeing on alcohol depletes neurotransmitters too, but bacon contains a high level of aminos which tops these up, giving you a clearer head.” [full article]