NetBeat

Let me show that number to you: 18,000,000,000. That’s 18 billion. This is the amount of suns the biggest black hole ever found, measures in weight and size. On a side note I’d like to mention that a more accurate name for this phenomena actually is Black Star.

They found this sucker a while ago, and to put it into easy terms: this monster is the size of a small galaxy. Believe you me, that shit is BIG – alright?

A computer generated image of the biggest Black Hole (Black Star dammit!) known to man – 18 billion suns… WHOA!!

To give you the perspective, our galaxy has around 300-400 billion stars, most of which are either pretty big or smaller than our own sun. It is believed that there is a Black Hole in the centre of our Milky Way, with “only” 100,000 sun’s weight. This Black Hole, so it is believed, is responsible for the rotation of our entire home galaxy.

Luckily, this super-sucker of 18 billion suns is 3.5 billion light years away, so Earth is pretty safe (phew!). It is the heart of a quasar conveniently named OJ287.

It is orbited by a smaller black hole, which completes an orbit every 12 years. BUT – since the big one is pulling everything toward it, the smaller one will eventually merge with the big one.

Just how big can Black Holes get? There’s no limit. The longer they are around, the bigger they are and can get bigger and bigger. Some say that eventually everything that will be left of our universe will be consumed by a hyper-sized Black Hole.

Source: Daily Galaxy – 18 billion suns

In a stunning turn of events, I learned the USAF released a chart to correctly identify any kind of objects you may see in the sky.

Here it is.

EXTRA WIN for swamp gas

Legend has it, that if too much awesomeness is compressed into one place in a location in space and time, weird things happen. Like the room where it happens will collapse. Or a strange twister of hyperspace shows up or something. At least they say that about Chuck Norris.

Now, I have put this theory to the test. I think the shelf was either pretty strong or the legend is false

The awesomeness particles are off the charts captain… what shall we do?

I’d say: Myth BUSTED!

It is not every day that you can spot and photograph a Google Street View car, especially not directly in front of your office. I was lucky enough to capture one, after my colleague had informed that there is one outside.

That’s how a Street View car looks like. License plate says “GOOGLE 1″

You said both to yes? Well then move over to Kubuntu (the KDE variant of Ubuntu), and get the latest one (right now it’s 8.10).

If you have a fairly recent machine, chances are that you will be able to run the equivalent of Windows’ Aero, you know, translucent titlebars and everything. Also the rest like the signature Desktop Cube, wobbly windows, all of that.

Once you got everything installed and set up your way, you should quickly upgrade to KDE 4.2. You can do that in the Adept Package manager by enabling unsupported updates. This will re-index all available software and tell you that updates for KDE are downloadable. Download all of them, reboot. Welcome to KDE 4.2

Then, install this little Plasmoid: STasks. With over 90% one of the highest rated KDE add-ons ever, it gives you what Windows users still wait for: it effectively transforms your taskbar into Windows 7’s Superbar.

And with everything done, you can have a desktop like this:

KDE 4.2, on Kubuntu 8.10 with STasks. Emulates Windows 7’s Superbar in the last detail

Much to my surprise of having missed it, Apple released Safari 4 Beta to the people.

Quickly installed it, checked it. Let me summarize:

Cover Flow + Apple TV wall in a browser? That’s a FAIL.

Also the 200 MB memory consumption (at least on Windows) should not go unnoticed. Ah, and one more thing… say you patched the UXTheme.dll on XP so that you can use 3rd party themes. And you use another theme… Well the browser is made to only blend and work with XP’s default themes. Try it… has interesting effects. So another FAIL.

kthxbai

Every day President Barack Obama is handed a special purple folder. The folder contains ten letters, and every day President Obama takes time to read them.

Are they from world leaders? From members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Members of the intelligence community?

No, these letters have been culled from the thousands the White House Correspondence Office receives each day from Americans who have taken the time to sit down and write to their president.

“Dear President Obama”: The President Reads 10 Letters a Day from the Public, With Policy Ramifications

In ancient times, the holy-grail of alchemy was the creation of a Homunculus – a servant or lifeform, artifically created – man-made life. Now, scientists believe we’ll create life within the next ten years.

Homunculus, a shadowy, mysterious figure with supernatural powers – one core character in the game “Shadow Of Memories”. At one stage he says: “I am Homunculus… not that there’s much in the name.”

I don’t know if I should be excited or freaked about this article.

“It’s going to be a big deal and everybody’s going to know about it,” said Mark Bedau, chief operating officer of ProtoLife of Venice, Italy, one of those in the race. “We’re talking about a technology that could change our world in pretty fundamental ways — in fact, in ways that are impossible to predict.”

MSNBC: Scientists expect to create life in next 10 years

Since I have been pretty much blown away by the show Madlax, I’ll have a custom t-shirt made tomorrow morning in the city centre. It will be the only one of its kind with this particular image. If you want one too, I can have it made. Comment here and we’ll get in touch if you like.

This is what is gonna be on the front. When it’s done, I’ll post photos.

Madlax on the left – Margaret Burton on the right. These are also the images used for both Madlax soundtrack albums

There are three holy books in the show:

- Firstari contains the Words of Awakening – “Elda Taluta”
- Secondari contains the Words of True Nature – “Sarkus Sark”
- Thirstari contains the Words of the Truth – “Ark Arkus”

This is where “Elda Taluta” comes from =)