Blogs Being Infected With Fake Entries

It is being reported that some Blogger blogs are being accessed by unauthorized people and they are posting entries that link to malicious websites. The entries are appearing to link to YouTube videos or e-greeting cards.
Several of these reports are saying it is only 'spam blogs' that are being affected, but exercise caution. If you read a blog that just posts some vague link or has an entry that is entirely uncharacteristic of the blog writer and tries to link you to one of the mentioned items, better safe than sorry.
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HD Formats Update

Microsoft has repeatedly denied having anything to do with the $150M payouts that studios Paramount and Dreamworks have reportedly received to eschew the Blu-ray format and go all HD-DVD on their releases. Now TheDigitalBits has done some digging and is now reporting that Toshiba/the HD-DVD group are the ones that gave the financial incentives to these studios.

We've been doing a lot of digging into the events of last week, and have learned from reliable sources some of what went on behind the scenes. And our friends up in Microsoft's HD-DVD Evangelism office will be pleased to know that we've CONFIRMED what they've been saying in recent days: The $150 million payment to Paramount and DreamWorks didn't come from Microsoft. It apparently came from Toshiba and/or the HD-DVD camp collectively. We've been told that Microsoft was involved in the process, but they didn't cut the checks. We've also learned from sources inside the studio and elsewhere around the industry that, despite Paramount and DreamWorks' decision, Warner remains committed to retaining their format neutral stance, and will continue to support BOTH Blu-ray and HD-DVD for the foreseeable future. So we wanted to post this, as we believe it's reliable (the most reliable information we've been able to obtain so far from independent sources) and it clarifies the situation a little bit. 'Nuff said.

Meanwhile, a poll over at IMDB reveals that 82% of 16,500 people polled either don't know about the HD formats, don't care, or have no plans to enter the HD packaged media market. Pretty much what I had thought all along.
The simple fact is for the vast majority of people, DVD is simply good enough. The new formats do not offer the vast improvement in picture quality or features that DVD offered over VHS. There is significant improvement in the audio capability of Blu-ray, but most people are clearly not that interested in improving audio quality over the compressed 5.1 Dolby Digital sound that DVD offers. (See the current SACD vs. DVD-A "war" to support this.)
Add to this the fact that there are two incompatible formats offered, each one exclusively supported by half the major studios and that adds up to consumers not investing in HD packaged media at all.

DIY Fix for Xbox360 Red Ring of Death

Many people have known about a method to fix a busted Xbox 360 for quite some time which is dubbed the 'X-Clamp fix'. The respective fix was carried out by a number of specialist webstores, but a German company is claiming that their special kit has enhanced the fix so an Xbox 360 owner can do it themselves. The respective website/comany also has a lot of information on the fix. While a number of hard core modders have already performed the mod, this is the first kit to put together all the components required at a price of under $15.


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Bizarre Giant Spider Web In Texas Park

WILLS POINT, Texas (AP) -- Entomologists are debating the origin and rarity of a sprawling spider web that blankets several trees, shrubs and the ground along a 200-yard stretch of trail in a North Texas park.
Officials at Lake Tawakoni State Park say the massive mosquito trap is a big attraction for some visitors, while others won't go anywhere near it.
"At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent of the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes that it's turned a little brown. There are times you can literally hear the screech of millions of mosquitoes caught in those webs."
Creepy!
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Nokia Copies The iPhone?

A Nokia branded iPhone? Nokia's held their GoPlay event this morning and presented a new device that has an interface design that looks somewhat familiar...Let's hope they won't come with any of those BL-5C batteries. I know...that was a cheap shot...

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GetAmnesty.com: MPAA Extortion at its Finest

I'm not in favor of people violating copyright law for personal gain. I don't pirate music or movies and encourage others not to. But I'm also not in favor of the MPAA circumventing the legal system for their personal gain.
Many internet users have received notices from the MPAA or RIAA claiming they have 'evidence' of that user infringing copyright law. Problem is, many that receive that letter have never downloaded a movie or song or even know how to use a P2P network. In this age of wi-fi use and multiple users of the same internet account, IP address identification is simply not personally identifying information. Which brings us to what the MPAA is now doing.

The MPAA and their fellow anti-piracy organizations send out thousands of infringement notices. Only a fraction of these are played out in court, and those that do make it into court are settled at an early stage. So why not circumvent the whole legal system, and gently coerce people to pay for “amnesty”?
The GetAmnesty program is a combination of both enforcement activities and efforts to turn infringers into paying “customers”. It tracks down copyright infringers by using a wide variety of methods. But, instead of sending out the regular infringement notices, they now include links for people to get amnesty. Basically they are asking to pay them an X amount of money, and they promise to drop everything and go away.

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The "Parallelogram" Galaxy

This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows in unprecedented detail the galaxy Centaurus A's last big meal: a spiral galaxy seemingly twisted into a parallelogram-shaped structure of dust.
Spitzer's ability to see dust and also see through it allowed the telescope to peer into the center of Centaurus A and capture this galactic remnant as never before. An elliptical galaxy located 10 million light-years from Earth, Centaurus A is one of the brightest sources of radio waves in the sky. These radio waves indicate the presence of a supermassive black hole, which may be "feeding" off the leftover galactic meal.
A high-speed jet of gas can be seen shooting above the plane of the galaxy (the faint, fuzzy feature pointing from the center toward the upper left). Jets are a common feature of galaxies, and this one is probably receiving an extra boost from the galactic remnant. Scientists have created a model that explains how such a strangely geometric structure could arise.
In this model, a spiral galaxy falls into an elliptical galaxy, becoming warped and twisted in the process. The folds in the warped disc create the parallelogram-shaped illusion.

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Rare Parrot First Photo Ever

Adriana Tovar and Luis Eduardo Urueña, researchers of the Colombia-based nonprofit Fundación ProAves, found and photographed the extremely rare Perija parakeet (Pyrrhura caeruleiceps), of which only 30 to 50 individuals likely survive.
These photographs are the first ever taken of the species. Deforestation and wildfires for agriculture and grazing have denuded much of the birds’ habitat, conservationists say. The parrot that is distinguished by its bright blue fronted head and white breast may also be threatened by illegal trade in the species.

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WGA Goes Down Over Weekend

This is the screen that greeted Windows users this weekend as Microsoft's servers that control Windows Genuine Advantage went down sometime Friday (or earlier according to some reports.) Anyone trying to register a new copy of Windows or running an install or update requiring WGA verification was unable to do so.
Although this problem seems to now be fixed, it highlights inherent problems with Microsoft's anti-piracy strategy. Even when working "correctly," a number of legitimate Windows users experience problems with WGA. If Microsoft's claims of WGA error rates to be "under 1%" are true, that still means for every one million users of Windows up to 10,000 legitimate users are accused of having an illegal copy of Windows on their system. Whatever the cause of these problems, it seems like a poorly designed system.
ArsTechnica has a good article posted today regarding this issue.

Hubble Telescope’s Top 10 Greatest Space Photographs

Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos “illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.”
Pictured: The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across. Click the link for 9 more amazing pictures.
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Pool Transformed Into Home Theater

I used to subscribe to this magazine, every issue featured some kind of cool installation or custom design.
The owners of this Wisconsin home converted their indoor swimming pool into an all-season home theater. Many of the pool’s existing elements, like the sloped bottom, the ladder and the steps, were retained to give the home theater a unique look and feel.

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Weekend Box Office Report

The box office continued to be 'Superbad' with that comedy holding on to the top slot for it's second week; new films Mr. Beans Holiday, War, and The Nanny Diaries failed to enter the top three slots as older films The Bourne Ultimatum and Rush Hour 3 rounded out the top three.

Rank		Title	Weekend	Gross
1		Superbad (2007)	$18M	$68.6M
2		The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)	$12.4M	$185M
3		Rush Hour 3 (2007)	$12.2M	$109M
4		Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)	$10.1M	$10.1M
5		War (2007)	$10M	$10M
6		The Nanny Diaries (2007)	$7.81M	$7.81M
7		The Simpsons Movie (2007)	$4.4M	$173M
8		Stardust (2007)	$3.95M	$26.5M
9		Hairspray (2007)	$3.45M	$107M
10		The Invasion (2007)	$3.14M	$11.5M

Palm Centro Leaked Official Shot

Gizmodo has claims to an official leaked promotional photo of the much rumored Palm Centro. With all the information on the net on this item, it does seem to be legit that Palm is releasing this device. Rumors are that this will be a low cost Treo-like device possibly aimed at a younger market than the other Treos. Remember this is all speculation but the picture sure looks authentic, no?

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Boy Hacks Australian Government's Porn Filter

A 16 year old boy has exposed the pointlessness of trying to filter the internet. Instead of hiring local programmers to design it, the Australian government paid an overseas company $84.4 million for something called the National Filter Scheme. Boy did they get ripped off.

Tom Wood, 16, said it took him just over 30 minutes to bypass the Government's filter, released on Tuesday. His technique ensures the software's toolbar icon is not deleted, leaving parents under the impression the filter is still working.
A former cyber bullying victim, Tom feared a computer-savvy child could work out the bypass and put it on the Internet for others to use.
"They could get a much better filter for a few million dollars made here rather than paying overseas companies for an ineffective one."
"Filters aren't addressing the bigger issues anyway," he said.
"Cyber bullying, educating children on how to protect themselves and their privacy are the first problems I'd fix.
"They really need to develop a youth-involved forum to discuss some of these problems and ideas for fixing them."

Leave it to a federal government to be this ignorant. It is well known that internet filters are easily worked around by the kids they are supposed to protect. Australian Communications Minister Helen Coonan was quoted in the article: "Unfortunately, no single measure can protect children from online harm and ... traditional parenting skills have never been more important."
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20% of US Homes Now Have DVR

From ArsTechnica:
According to a new study, DVR use has exploded in the last four years. More than one in every five U.S. households now have a digital video recorder, up from about one in every 13 households just two years ago, according to consumer research released Tuesday by Leichtman Research Group.
Oddly enough, the explosion in DVR ownership isn't entirely due to consumer demand. Most of the increase can be attributed to cable and satellite TV providers aggressively pushing the devices, especially when consumers make the switch to HDTV.
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Top 10 HD Misunderstandings

When many people ask me about HDTV it is apparent that there is a huge amount of misinformation out there about HD and Digital TV. This article at DavidLovesLife seeks to educate about what he thinks are the top 10.

It pains me to surf the Internet and read the horror stories of people buying a Vizio at Wal-Mart, plugging it into analog cable and wondering why “this new fancy HD” looks like crap. There are a lot of myths about HD and even more misinformation out there. Electronic stores are pushing under-trained employees to sell more and mass media always seems to get things just a little off. So hopefully I can clear up some of what I think are popular misunderstandings and myths about HDTV.

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Mysterious Twist Found in Saturn's Electric Ring

An invisible donut of trapped, hot particles surrounding Saturn is all bent out of shape--a finding that astronomers can't yet explain.A similar "ring current" phenomenon occurs around Earth as a relatively stable donut when present, but new Cassini spacecraft images show Saturn's loop is a lopsided mess."It's curious that Saturn's ring current isn't symmetric," said Don Mitchell, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who helped examine the images beamed back to Earth. "We think the solar wind is squishing the sunward side of the ring current, kind of like a wind sock."

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Read Cooltidbits On Your Phone

FeedM8, the mobile feed reader created by Wattpad, has officially launched.

FeedM8 uses patent-pending technology to enable content to be accessed and read on your cell phone. This allows content creators to wash their hands from creating multiple feeds to support a multitude of various mobile platforms. FeedM8 also let’s you search for content with short codes, and will also modify the content and graphics to work with your screen size and network bandwidth. Bloggers, registering for a Publisher account also lets you join in on some revenue sharing on the advertising, earning 60% from ad splits and referrals.

Click the "Read it on my Mobile Phone" button to the right to get CoolTidbits on your phone!

Bay Backpedaling on Blu-ray Statement?

Old Michael seems to be trying to do some damage control over at his blog. His now infamous post has since been removed from his site (Michael, nothing ever disappears from the internet) and he is trying to explain away his previous "No Transformers 2!" diatribe.
Whether some Paramount lawyers had a discussion with him or he is just reacting to the thought of someone else taking over his sequel is not known.
So Michael, explain away...

Last night at dinner I was having dinner with three Blu-Ray owners, they were pissed about no Transformers Blu-Ray and I drank the kool aid hook line and sinker. So at 1:30 in the morning I posted - nothing good ever comes out of early am posts mind you - I over reacted. I heard where Paramount is coming from and the future of HD and players that will be close to the $200 mark which is the magic number. I like what I heard.
As a director, I'm all about people seeing films in the best quality possible, and I saw and heard firsthand people upset about a corporate decision.
So today I saw 300 on HD-DVD, it rocks!
So I think I might be back on to do Transformers 2!

Michael Bay

Earth and ISS As Seen From Shuttle Endeavour

Backdropped by Earth's horizon and the blackness of space, the International Space Station appears to be very small as it moves away from Space Shuttle Endeavour. Earlier the STS-118 and Expedition 15 crews concluded nearly nine days of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station. The lower portion of Italy is visible at left. Click the pic for a larger view.

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Asus To Sell $199 Ultra Mobile Linux Laptops

Asus has announced it intends to begin shipping the ultra low-cost EEE PC in September. According to Asus, the E's in the title stand for "Easy to learn", "Excellent Internet", and "Excellent mobile computing experience." Asus reportedly plans to ship up to 500,000 of these systems in 2007, and up to 3-5 million in 2008.
They will have 7 inch screens and solid-state memory (no hard drive.) The price point will vary with the amount of storage (from 4-16 G) starting at $199.
Will this give the Foleo a run for it's money?

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Asteroid Will Pass Under Satellite Orbit in 2029

April 13, 2029
Asteroid 99942 Apophis will pass 21,557 miles from Earth—if you think that's pretty far away, remember that your TV satellite is coming from 22,500 miles up. It will be visible to the naked eye.
It is possible that Earth's gravity may alter the 820-foot asteroid's orbit and magnify its chance of returning to hit us on April 13, 2036. Yikes!

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HD Announcement Developments

The internet is busy today with reaction to yesterday's surprise announcement regarding Paramount and Dreamworks exclusive support for HD-DVD.
As posted earlier today, Michael Bay fired off his little response to Paramount now that his recent film Transformers will evidently be getting an HD-DVD release only.
The Blu-ray Disc Association and it’s 3 major backing studios made a public response today saying they were unveiling "an aggressive global Blu-ray Disc release strategy, including 29 new release and 'must-have' catalog titles that runs through the end of the 2007 calendar year."
Evidently the Blu-ray studios are really going to step it up in regards to capabilities and features offered on upcoming Blu-ray releases.
A New York Times article was posted that was interesting that reported on the alleged Microsoft financing of this change of heart, which Microsoft is denying.
Also, they are pointing out that

The two studios may have left themselves wiggle room, however. Paramount’s agreement to use only HD DVD is limited to only 18 months. And Paramount noted that no films directed by Steven Spielberg were included in the deal “as his films are not exclusive to either format.” Mr. Spielberg is a co-founder of DreamWorks SKG, a unit of Paramount.

Reaction from the public does not seem to be positive. Angry video collectors are emailing the studios and making their thoughts known on various internet forums and blogs.
"So Far, Consumers Lose In Battle Between Blu-ray, HD-DVD" is the headline over at NY1.
This post over at Crave seems to sum it up nicely.

"The problem right now is that you're almost going to have to pick your format by the studios you like. The impact may ultimately be that people just don't buy any of the next-gen players. 'Shrek' is going to look pretty good on DVD, so you just buy the DVD and call it a day."

Fake Gmail Phishing Email Making Rounds

Read article at consumerbits

Michael Bay Fires Off Against Paramount

From engadget:
Michael Bay -- the director behind "Transformers," "Bad Boys," "Pear Harbor," etc. --is responding to yesterday's HD format news.
He in ranting against Paramount in his personal blog. In a forum post titled "Paramount p----- me off!", he states, "I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me!"
Undoubtedly there will be more on the HD format "war" as the day progresses...
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Astronomers Find Closest Neutron Star

Astronomers using NASA's Swift X-ray telescope have detected a neutron star within 250 to 1,000 light-years of Earth, making it the closest neutron star ever known.
The object, located in the constellation Ursa Minor, is nicknamed Calvera, after the villain in the movie "The Magnificent Seven." If confirmed, it would be only the eighth known "isolated neutron star," or one that does not have supernova remnants, binary companions or radio pulsations.

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Breaking News: Paramount, Dreamworks Drop Blu-ray for HD-DVD

Wow, more HD format news. This will only serve to further confuse and discourage consumers from buying into any HD format.
Looks like Blockbuster may have to rethink that Blu-ray decision with exactly half of the major studios releasing only in HD-DVD now. From PRNewswire:

Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. and DreamWorks Animation SKG , each announced today that they will exclusively support the next-generation HD DVD format on a worldwide basis. The exclusive HD DVD commitment will include all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment.

This means that recent big hits like Transformers, Shrek the 3rd, and Blades of Glory will not be releasing on Blu-ray. That's gotta hurt, Sony.
But why a sudden change? Both studios had been releasing it's films on both formats for some time now. In fact, Jeffery Katzenberg (the K in DreamworksSKG) reportedly told a Bank of America conference that he expected "neither" high-def DVD format to win the war "because they're not going to become the next platform." source
Bill Hunt over at The Digital Bits, a site I have trusted for 10 years now, has an interesting perspective regarding how Microsoft is having a hand in all this. From thedigitalbits:

Microsoft has paid DreamWorks and Paramount so much money that they've decided to join Universal in the HD-DVD exclusive camp. No kidding.

engadget story | digg story | digital bits story

Microsoft Patch Tuesday Killed Skype

Skype has finished its sleuthing and is ready to report on the conditions which led to the company discovering a flaw in its P2P networking code. The culprit? It turns out that Skype's code wasn't prepared for a massive restart of PCs caused by the standard Windows patching process.
Yes, Windows Update restarted millions of PCs starting last Tuesday night and throughout the next day or so as more users turned on their computers and had to do a forced reboot.
Why previous instances of Windows Update did not cause problems with Skype is unknown.
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Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: Scam of the year?

When I talk to regular people about the HD formats, most are either unaware of them, don't see the need for them yet, or are utterly confused about them. The point of this format "war" is lost on them. In fact, both formats are selling so poorly that it is ridiculous to even call it that. To be sure, both formats offer impressive storage capacity and features which are particularly applicable to gaming. But for movie playback, do most people see the need to get yet another movie playback device, even if it offers improved video quality and features?
Speed over at Fragland.net has written an article which elaborates on the format "war."

Since the launch of Sony’s PS3, the hi-def platform war is at full speed. Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD are competing to win us all over and become the standard format for all our home entertainment needs. But do we actually care? And should we give in to the Hi-def hype that’s being poured over us on an almost daily basis?
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Comic Book Covers That Revealed Superman's Identity

A compilation of 20 comic book covers on which Superman's identity (Clark Kent) is supposedly found out by some enemy/ friend/by-stander. They seem to have done this kind of thing quite often decades ago. Stilted, overly dramatic word balloons with preposterous or imaginary situations were common on comic covers until about the mid 70s.

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Weekend Box Office Report

Teen comedy Superbad premiered at #1 this weekend bumping last week's Rush Hour 3 to second place. Three weed old The Bourne Ultimatum slipped to third place. Box Office info courtesy imdb.com. The first amount is weekend gross, the second is total for that film.

1		Superbad (2007)	$31.2M	$31.2M
2		Rush Hour 3 (2007)	$21.8M	$88.2M
3		The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)	$19M	$164M
4		The Simpsons Movie (2007)	$6.67M	$165M
5		The Invasion (2007)	$6M	$6M
6		Stardust (2007)	$5.24M	$19.1M
7		Hairspray (2007)	$4.27M	$101M
8		Underdog (2007)	$3.61M	$31.7M
9		Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)	$3.54M	$279M
10		I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)	$3.5M	$110M

Justice League Film News

IESB.net is reporting to have inside information on the upcoming live-action Justice League film announced earlier this year:

The JLA script has been received with open arms by Warners and the goal is for the film to be the launching point for The Flash, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern and Aquaman as well as rejuvenate Superman.

When do the powers-that-be want to start production on Justice League? Apparently, as soon as the first quarter of 2008, that’s right, WB sources have informed the IESB that execs behind the Justice League of America want it to be in production as early as February/March 2008 to be ready for a summer of 2009 release.

What this may mean to a Superman Returns sequel is unclear. Will Brandon Routh star? Will Warner produce both another SR film as well as a JL film? The next Batman film is already well into production, so will Christian Bale be in this film? IESB goes into speculation about this.
read article

New Smallville ComicCon Interview Posted

The CW has released some video footage and interviews from the recent ComicCon. New Supergirl actress Laura Vandervoort is interviewed about the addition of her role to the show.

CD is 25 Years Old Today

Exactly 25 years ago today, the CD was born. Royal Philips Electronics manufactured the world's first compact disc at a Philips factory in Langenhagen, just outside of Hanover, Germany. Who knew at the time how universal and ubiquitous the CD would become. And that it would lead to the development of basically all subsequent optical disc formats. The data on optical discs are read with light instead of magnetically, like a hard drive.
But did you know there was an earlier optical disc? An optical videodisc was developed in 1958, before the term "laser" was even coined. This led to the development of the Laserdisc which was demonstrated in 1972 but not released to the public until 1978; two years after the VCR debuted and four years before the CD.
Never heard of it? Not surprising, given that due to expense and marketing, only about 1 million players were ever sold in the US; thats about 1% of households having Laserdisc at it's peak. Even so, Laserdisc offered superior audio/video quality at the time and definitely led to the development of the CD.
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NASA Discovers Literal Shooting Star

A new ultraviolet mosaic from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows a speeding star that is leaving an enormous trail of "seeds" for new solar systems. The star, named Mira (pronounced my-rah) after the latin word for "wonderful," is shedding material that will be recycled into new stars, planets and possibly even life as it hurls through our galaxy.
A red giant, Mira has been observed for 400 years but only now this 13 light-years long trail is seen through ultraviolet detection. About 350 light-years from Earth, Mira will be visible to the naked eye in mid-November. read more | digg story

Great New Images from The Dark Knight

Here is something to get excited about. A slew of photos from The Dark Knight. There were 18 photos all smashed together, so FilmSchoolRejects decided to cut them up for you and present them individually. Click below to see all 18!

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