You have passion about Astronomy? Here is a short enjoyable video.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Fast, "Nasty" Little Dinosaur Discovered
If you think dinosaurs are big, you were wrong. This is one little dinosaur.
Source: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
Source: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/
10 Tokoh yang Percaya UFO dan Alien
Kepler, teleskop milik badan antariksa Amerika Serikat (NASA) awal Februari lalu menemukan lima planet seukuran bumi yang mengorbit di galaksi kita. Lima planet ini mengorbit di zona yang cukup nyaman bagi sebuah kehidupan. Letaknya cukup jauh dari matahari dan kemungkinan besar memiliki air. Kita tahu, air adalah faktor kunci bagi kehidupan.
Dengan temuan NASA ini memunculkan harapan harapan: Alien atau mahluk angkasa luar itu kemungkinan ada. Termasuk Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) yang identik dengan alien.
Beberapa tokoh publik yang terdiri dari ilmuwan dan politikus telah mengungkapkan bahwa mereka percaya ada kehidupan di planet lain. Inilah 10 tokoh tersebut.
1. Stephen Hawking
Tahun lalu, ahli fisika dan kosmolog ini mengatakan mahluk angkasa luar hampir pasti ada tapi manusia lebih menghindarinya ketimbang mencari kebenarannya. "Menurut otak matematika saya, alien sangat rasional, tantangannya, seperti apa alien itu."
2. Lord Rees
Astronom Inggris ini yakin alien nyata. Menurut dia kemungkinan besar alien lebih pintar dari manusia.
3. Lachezar Filipov
Dia adalah ilmuwan Bulgaria. Dua tahun lalu, Filipov mengklaim telah menjalin kontak dengan kehidupan luar angkasa. "Alien ada di sekitar kita, mereka selalu memperhatikan kita," kata Filipov. "Mereka tidak ingin berbuat jahat kepada kita, mereka ingin membantu tapi kita tidak membangun hubungan dengan mereka."
4. Edgar Mitchell
Bekas astronot NASA yang mengklaim menemukan bukti bahwa alien itu ada. Namun pemerintah Amerika Serikat tidak mengeluarkan bukti tersebut. Mitchell, salah satu astronot yang dipilih dalam menjalankan misi Apollo 14 tahun 1971.
5. Jimmy Carter
Presiden Amerika Serikat 1976 sampai 1980. Dia berjanji saat kampanye dia kan membuka dokumen soal UFO ke publik. "Saya tidak mengetawakan orang ketika mereka berkata telah melihat UFO. Karena saya juga pernah melihatnya."
6. Jenderal Douglas MacArthur
Veteran perang Korea dan Perang Dunia kedua ini mengatakan perang berikutnya adalah perang antar planet. Pada 1955, dia mengatakan politik di masa depan adalah politik kosmik atau antar planet, mahluk bumi harus berastu melawan mahluk dari planet lain.
7. Monsignor Corrado Balducci
Balducci seorang ahli teologi. Dia mengatakan mahluk angkasa luar adalah fenomena yang nyata. Vatikan menerima banyak informasi soal itu. Mereka memiliki kantor perwakilan di beberapa negara, seperti Meksiko, Chile dan Venezuela.
8. Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding
Dowding komandan perang dunia kedua dari Inggris. Dia yakin UFO itu nyata. "Saya yakin objek itu ada dan mereka tidak dibuat oleh negara manapun di dunia."
9. Ronald Reagan
Presiden Amerika Serikat periode 1980 hingga 1988 ini mengklaim melihat UFO. "Saya melihat ke luar jendela dan melihat cahaya putih. Saya lalu bertanya kepada pilot, pernah lihat seperti itu?' dia terkejut dan mengaku tidak pernah," kata Reagan. Dia lalu meminta pilot untuk mengikuti cahaya yang bergerak zigzag itu, setelah diikuti beberapa menit, cahaya putih itu lalu melesat ke atas hingga menghilang. "Ketika saya turun, saya menceritakannya ke Nancy," kata dia.
10. Mikhail Gorbachev
Bekas pemimpin Uni Soviet ini pernah berkata, "Fenomena UFO itu benar-benar ada, dan kita harus melihatnya secara serius."
Do you believe in UFO?!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Report: Smaller iPhone slated for summer launch
After Bloomberg last week reported that Apple was working on a smaller, cheaper iPhone, the Wall Street Journal has added some more details to the rumors, suggesting the new, smaller iPhone could be available as soon as this summer.
According to the report, a person who saw a prototype of the new iPhone said the "device was significantly lighter than the iPhone 4 and had an edge-to-edge screen that could be manipulated by touch, as well as a virtual keyboard and voice-based navigation". The source added that the new line of iPhones along with a revamped MobileMe"are intended for release this summer, though those plans could change".
The new products are "the top priorities of Apple Chief Executive Steve Job", said one of the people familiar with the situation. Despite being on medical leave, Jobs has "been closely involved in the development efforts".
As previously reported, the new iPhone would be about half the size of the iPhone 4 and be available to carriers for half the price of the current model, potentially allowing them to subsidize its entire cost, making it a free phone with a two-year contract (that would obviously help Apple compete with new, cheaper Android smartphones).
The new model--the Journal says one of its code names is the N97, which ironically is a Nokia model number--would offer the same functionality as the current iPhone and not be a stripped-down model. However, the report offered no hint as to what screen the new phone would have or what chips would power it. That said, Bloomberg reported that the smaller iPhone would likely use components of the current-generation iPhone to lower costs.
The Journal's source also indicated that Apple, "also plans to upgrade the iPhone 4", which isn't news. However, the choice of words is interesting because it suggests the next iPhone might be more of an "upgrade", not a substantially redesigned phone. In other words, we could be looking at an iPhone 4GS instead of an iPhone 5.
Either way, we should officially know in June what Apple's iPhone line looks like. But expect plenty of rumors between now and then.
Source: http://asia.cnet.com/crave/2011/02/15/smaller-iphone-slated-for-summer-launch/
IE9 for Windows Phone outpaces Safari on iPhone
Apple gets plenty of praise for advancing mobile browsers with its iPhone's version of Safari, but an audience greeted its performance with some laughter as Microsoft compared it to an upcoming version of IE9 for Windows Phone 7.
Joe Belfiore, a Microsoft corporate vice president, showed off the browser here at the Mobile World Congress show during a keynote speech by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Specifically, Belfiore showed it running a Microsoft fishtank demonstration that's been in widespread use since the hardware acceleration work began in earnest among personal computer browser makers last year.
And he got a laugh from out of the audience when he compared the 50 fish in the IE9 virtual fishtank on an unnamed HTC phone. They flitted rapidly on IE9 but barely moved on Safari.
"The Safari Web browser is not taking advantage of hardware acceleration so you really get a sense for how dramatic the difference is when we use the full-power capability of the device," he said.
Belfiore neglected to emphasize that the version of IE9 he was pitting against Safari isn't due until toward the end of 2011 with an update to Windows Phone 7, and it's quite likely Safari will look different then, presumably running on new iPhone hardware.
Like IE9 for Windows on PCs, the mobile version includes hardware acceleration in some domains and supports HTML5, a next-generation standard for Web pages. Belfiore also showed the mobile browser using HTML5's ability to show built-in video, in this case with a demonstration version of an IMDb movie site.
Microsoft, lagging Apple's iOS and Google's Android in the smartphone market, is trying furiously to become a contender with Windows Phone 7. Released in November, a minor upgrade is due in weeks bringing copy and paste abilities and some better application performance, said Greg Sullivan, senior product manager for Windows Phone 7. The IE9 for mobile devices will arrive later in 2011 in a major release, an upgrade pace not as rapid as Google's.
Windows Phone customers could well be pleased with IE9--indeed, they'd better be, because it's unlikely they'll get an alternative. That's because Microsoft requires third-party apps to be written in Silverlight or XNA, and browsers today typically aren't.
"If you can write a browser in Silverlight or XNA, you could submit it to the market," Sullivan said. "We have no policy" to specifically bar other browsers, he added.
Opera and Firefox are available on Android, though only in beta thus far, because Google released a native development kit (NDK) that lets programmers write to lower-level interfaces.
Is it possible that Microsoft might take that route? Not likely, he said.
"We have no plans" for an NDC, Sullivan said. "We think our development platform and tools are a key strength of the platform."
Apple Siapkan iPhone Ukuran Kecil dan Lebih Murah
WASHINGTON, KOMPAS.com — Sangat kompetitif bermain di pasar smartphone kelas atas, Apple kelihatannya mengincar kelas menengah. Kabar terakhir yang dilansir situs web Wall Street Journal, perusahaan yang berpusat di Cupertino, California, AS, itu sedang menyiapkan iPhone versi kecil.
Mengutip sumber yang mengaku melihat langsung prototipenya, produk yang sedang dikembangkan itu diberi kode N97. Ukurannya setengah dari ukuran iPhone 4 dan disebut akan dijual dengan harga setengahnya pula.
Tidak hanya itu, Apple dilaporkan bakal menggratiskan layanan penyimpan data onlineMobileMe. Sebelumnya, setiap pengguna perangkat Apple harus membayar 99-149 dollar AS per tahun guna menikmati layanan untuk menyimpan foto dan video di internet itu. MobileMe kemungkinan juga akan dimanfaatkan sebagai platform untuk layanan musik.
Perangkat iPhone versi mini itu diperkirakan keluar ke pasar pada musim panas tengah tahun ini. Namun, rencana tersebut bisa saja mundur. Tidak ada konfirmasi dari Apple menanggapi laporan tersebut seperti biasanya.
Wall Street Journal juga melansir, pengembangan produk Apple ini tak lepas dari peran CEO Apple Steve Jobs. Meski tengah cuti karena sakit, Steve Jobs tetap terlibat aktif dalam pengembangan produk baru.
Brazil footballer Ronaldo ends 'marvellous' career
SAO PAULO (AFP) - – Three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldo, whose goalscoring genius led Brazil to the 2002 World Cup title, confirmed his retirement on Monday at the age of 34.
The tearful Corinthians striker announced his decision at a press conference in Sao Paulo.
"I'm stopping my career as a professional footballer," he said, his voice breaking. "It's been a beautiful, emotional, marvellous career.
"These last two years, I've had a long series of injuries, from one side to the other, one leg to the other, one muscle to the other. The pain pushed me to think about the end of my career."
Ronaldo also revealed that he suffered from a thyroid problem that had made it difficult to control his weight.
"Four years ago, in Milan, I discovered that I suffered from an under-active thyroid that slowed down my metabolism and that to control it, I had to take hormones that weren't authorised in football as they were considered a form of doping," he said.
"Lots of people must regret having made jokes about my weight. But I feel no anger towards anyone."
Having earlier indicated that he hoped to play on until the end of the year, injuries and Corinthians' early elimination from the Copa Libertadores prompted him to bring forward his retirement.
During a glittering 14-year spell in Europe, Ronaldo scored goals at a prolific rate for PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and AC Milan, before returning to Brazil in 2009.
He won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002 and became the leading scorer in World Cup finals tournaments when he scored his 15th goal at the 2006 tournament in Germany.
He was twice named European Footballer of the Year, in 1997 and 2002, and finished his international career with 62 goals in 97 appearances.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, 'El Fenomeno' (The Phenomenon) won the World Cup with Brazil for the first time in 1994, though on that occasion the 17-year-old was part of the squad and did not play.
In 1998, he was among the losing finalists, beaten 3-0 at Stade de France by a rampant French side that included the inspirational Zinedine Zidane.
Brazil's star striker suffered a convulsive fit on the eve of the match and was removed from the starting line-up.
In a dramatic changing-room re-shuffle, he was reinstated just before kick-off but was a shadow of the intimidating forward who had scored four goals in the run-up to the final.
But the 2002 tournament was where he made history.
Shrugging off injury in the tournament, which was hosted by Japan and South Korea, he played a key role in helping Brazil to the trophy, scoring both goals in his country's 2-0 win over Germany in the final in Yokohoma.
At the 2006 World Cup in Germany he took his World Cup tally to 15 goals, surpassing the previous record held by Gerd Mueller by one goal.
Ronaldo, who began his career with Cruzeiro, had to fight back from three career-threatening knee injuries over the course of his career.
He was sidelined while playing for Inter by a knee injury in 1999 only to damage the same knee in his comeback for the club in February 2000, effectively keeping him out of action until March 2002.
In February 2008 he ruptured a tendon in his right knee playing for AC Milan against Livorno, an injury that ended his career in Europe.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
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