Saturday 28 September 2013

Was leedsichthys problematicus the biggest sea animal ever seen?

A combined Scottish-Canadian team has verified the prehistoric fish leedsichthys problematicus is the biggest boned fish yet to travel the seas of our earth.

Growing to lengths of 16.5 m over a projected increase period of 40 years, the Jurassic-era fish would have outgrown even today’s immense whale sharks. Even with its imposing mass, though, leedsichthys is believed to have been a filter feeder, just like baleen whales, basking sharks and whale sharks are today.

Found in the late 19th century and formally named (after British farmer and fossil collector Alfred Leeds) in 1889, relics of leedsichthys have been unearthed throughout Europe, and in South America.

The ‘problematicus’ piece of its logical name stems from the indisputable fact that leedsichthys fossils are disreputably tricky to spot. That is due to a proven fact that leedsichthys’ skeleton #was not# made entirely of bone. Large portions #of the# animal’s internal structure were actually #made from# cartilage, just #as a# shark’s bone structure is. Cartilage #does not# mineralize as eagerly as bone and, as the result, fossil cartilage is fairly exceptional.

Out of perspective, the fossilized bones can symbolize a problem to palaeontologists. Through the years, remains of leedsichthys have even been posited as belonging to bone-plated fossil stegosaurus!

Because leedsichthys vertebrae was cartilaginous, it has been very hard to determine how long the fish may have been, with some unproven estimates signifying that it was as long as 30 metres.

Nonetheless, when a new, more complete, fossil was found near Peterborough, UK, scientists were at last in a position to acquire an exact measurement. Professor Jeff Liston, of our National Museum of Scotland, said, “We sat down and checked out a good range of specimens, not just at the bones, but their interior development set ups as well – much like the expansion rings in plants – to have some ideas about the ages of these animals, as well as their estimated dimensions,”

The team finally resolute that a tiny adult leedsichthys would grow to eight or 9 metres after some 20 years and, in another two decades; it could reach approximately 16.5 metres in length. This is greater than the whale shark, the largest bony fish existing now, despite persistent and credible reports of whale sharks growing as long as 14 metres in length.

This information is thrilling to scientists and natural history enthusiasts as it delivers a functional insight into the changes in ocean life that occurred up to and through the Jurassic era.

Scientists now accept as true that filter-feeding fish started as relatively small animals, before growing to the enormous sizes we know these days. The unbelievable mass of leedishthys problematicus thus implies that there was a huge surge within the plankton populace of the Mesozoic oceans.

The invention also demands a serious change to the record books.



Wednesday 25 September 2013

Connect, Update and stay in the know on Facebook, Twitter and Google + whilst watching programmes on your Smart TV

Since its beginning in 2004, ‘Facebook’ has become an enormous success story, albeit not one without controversy. Plenty of controversy. But I’m not here to talk about that. I am here to tell you a little about social networking and why it’s a welcome addition to any Smart TV.

In some ways coming out from the now forgotten ‘Myspace’ and also the excess of imitators it left in its wake, Facebook emerged as champion of those social networks, (until the next one comes along, that is). Facebook has occupied the Internet with a clever exploitation of those three ever-reliable ideas:

1)         Folks love talking about other people, particularly anonymously.

2)         Folks are inordinately keen on and poking their noses into the lives of others.

3)         People’s unquenchable self interest, which, when fuelled by Facebook, is narcissism on steroids.

Facebook is the remarkable tool and one which has quickly adapted itself to mobile phones, portable tablets and now, even TV. In the end, Myspace was the cumbersome Neanderthal, who, even though being popular, smarter and stronger than Homo Sapiens, succumbed to that retreating ice age somewhat rapidly, failing to adapt to a world he could no longer understand. Facebook, conversely, was the eventual Cro Magnon victor, trembling in the cave throughout Neanderthal’s time, he emerged over on the warm plains of that modern-day and, either directly or indirectly, eradicated his rival before moving within the shifting technology and times, the point he might sit at his writing table and update his position several times a day.

‘Twitter’ is an extremely limited site that acts sort of a miniature Facebook. Users take a number of words to announce their dealings, thoughts and/or emotions to a world that frequently does not care unless its concerned that it is being cheated on. However, whereas famous people on Facebook tend not to update their web pages, on Twitter an individual can follow (and often communicate with) the behavior of Hollywood luminaries, celebrities, sports stars and other notable people, who are often surprisingly candid about their daily lives.

Facebook and Twitter are the two big ones, but there’s others, a lot more than I can count that follow a similar simple model but specialise in a different area (LinkedIn, for instance, deals with business interactions a lot more than personal ones). Many websites co-exist with Facebook now, feeding off their scraps like remoras on the back of a Tiger Shark. With most online content, there’s even an option to ‘Like’ it, thus adding it to the Facebook page (when you look closely at this page, you will almost certainly find one, which serves to highlight just how all-encompassing Facebook’s presence is.

Smart TV, recognising the ubiquity of such websites and the emphasis that current online business places on this ubiquity, has Facebook, Twitter (and other social network websites) readily available for download. Which means you can have full (or nearly full) access to your Facebook account and update it without even going to a PC. Last night, I wanted to update my own Facebook to say that I was watching, for what should be the hundredth time, the movie ‘The 40 Year Old Virgin’ I might have easily done it during a tea break in the movie itself rather than desiring to do it after which eventually forgetting, as I actually did.

In case you’re wondering how people are doing and you want up-to-the-minute information, Facebook is usually the place to go. Facebook the site is free to use, could be the Smart TV app at time of writing and is a wonderful comms tool, especially for people you don’t essentially know that well. These days, people change their mobile numbers every point three of a second, so Facebook remains the one reliable way to ensure you can always keep in touch.  I like to think of it as a really poorly written newspaper, where the headlines are a bit sunnier, a great deal less biased and contain people I essentially give a damn about.


Saturday 21 September 2013

Finding the most effective sports video games for your console, so many to choose from

Sport video games are the final fan’s revenge. You think that the referee threw the match? Put your dollars where your mouth is, sport games fan. Naturally, if you think that Mike Tyson was overvalued, it doesn’t necessarily follow you’d be the person to inform him so. But perhaps Mohammed Ali or George Foreman could? Thus, sport games are born.

One of the oldest gaming genres, sport games have an everlasting application as everlasting as sport itself. You simply can not go and play for England in the next world cup on a whim, no, that kind of thing takes time, and airplane tickets, and days off work, and years in treatment and may end in any confused divorce. sport games are also great for proving your points throughout pub arguments.

sport games have their roots as far back as 1958, when ‘Tennis For Two’ was first pioneered (yes, that does predate ‘Pong’ within the pantheon of sport games) Racing games followed in 1962 and football games seem to have begun in about 1967. sport games are an enormous style.

Today’s sport games are the foremost superior sport games ever created. The latest series of Madden NFL games in reality looks like you’re watching it on tv. No joke, sport games have reached that far. Real looking faces, figures and stats means that in some ways, sport games bring you closer to your game than ever before.

sport games come in as a number of styles as we now have sports. You will find sport games for activities as diverse as boxing, horse riding, swimming, weight lifting, snowboarding and anything you care to name. Though, in writing that list, it’s occurred to me that I have never seen any water polo sport video games. Are there? Answers to customary address…

Friday 20 September 2013

Connect on Skype with other family using your Smart TV

Once the exclusive field of Star Trek, video telephone calls are actually a very genuine part of contemporary life. Rewind back to that ‘Friends’ episode when Monica was courting guest star Jon Favreau’s character ‘Pete the millionaire’ and you’ll remember the one where Monica and co had sneaked into Pete’s house, only to get interrupted by a surprise video call. So unprepared for the millionaire’s-only technology were the friends, that Pete needed to point out that they all “sucked at hiding” as he exposed them one by one. Nowadays, if you have a computer, or a portable device, you may make a video telephone call. It’s that simple.

In fact, Skype (this system frequently used to make such phone calls) is gratis, remarkably easy to set up and saves you plenty of money on the phone bill. It’ll even make Worldwide telephone calls, exactly like that! (I just clicked my fingers, but you can’t see it).

Whilst at Uni, I recall being woken up early almost every morning by a Taiwanese girl in the living room next to me as she got phone calls from her Mum and proceeded to have her speakers on full blast at the same time as they conversed in Mandarin (once my knowledge of basic Mandarin got better, though, they kept it down for fear that I’d snoop). I in fact spoke to another friend of mine who was staying in America and was able to ‘meet’ her boyfriend’s relatives (oddly, where my use of Mandarin Chinese language would again come in useful) without having to dress and go to a airport.

I even once had a job interview over Skype. That’s the amount people are using video calls as of late.

Well, as you can no doubt work out, Skype (and other video call apps) are now downloadable via your Smart TV. This means you and your mates or family can meet round and converse with other family and friends who could be as far as half a world away. It’s the perfect strategy to communicate, conduct business and interact in long conversations without constantly fretting about your telephone bill.

Skype is a kind of Innovation, like the mobile phone (and soon possibly the Smart TV) that it is hard to recollect a time without — and I’m only 26. I don’t think I even got Skype until approximately 2008 or so.

Downloading Skype to your big screen Television will allow you to talk to your friends whilst sat about the couch, it’ll be just like they’re visiting you apart from you do not have to make then tea plus they won’t scoff all of the Hob Nobs.

Of all the obtainable apps available on Smart TV, this is probably probably the most universal in its appeal and, I think, the most welcome. Over the course of this series, we’ve seen the Smart TV be a device where what you want to watch is actually on, a games system so you’re never bored, a pc, a network that connects you to a family and friends and now it can even take the place of the home phone.

Skype is a fast, fun and interactive way to keep in contact with folks and, when connected with your Smart TV, doesn’t even involve getting up to go to the next room. We can’t say fairer than that. Furthermore, you can always telephone your mates and tell them they’re in the telly. You’ll get a kick out of it, even if they don’t quite get what you’re on about and why you laugh when they ask ‘what channel?’


Thursday 12 September 2013

Games pioneer John Carmack joins virtual reality headset firm

Editorial – The Group at Oculus are re-inventing the Virtual Reality Headset with their kick starter funded Oculus Rift headset. John Carmack of half life, call of duty and Quake fame and a guru in 1st person shooters, has joined the Oculus team to develop a game, presumably a 1st person shooter, for the headset. Mind how this develops as the future of games may be in this appointment.

A firm developing a hotly-tipped virtual reality gaming headset has hired a gaming pioneer to be its chief technology officer.

John Carmack is famed for developing the first-person shooter genre, creating games such as Doom and Quake.

He will join Oculus VR to work on Oculus Rift, a goggle-like device which uses two small screens to “immerse” players into a game.

The company has not yet announced a release date for the headset.

However, developer kits have been sent out to companies keen to make use of the device within their titles.

The Oculus Rift, which has been made thanks in part to $2.4m (£1.5m) raised through crowd-funding site Kickstarter, requires the user to wear a black headset, the front of which contains two small screens, each displaying a slightly different perspective on the same scene.

The effect is one of being “in” the game – if the player moves his or her head around, the scene changes accordingly.

‘Transformative technology’

Movement is still achieved by using a traditional controller, although other designers have experimented with creating treadmill-like add-ons for the device.

Early demo models of the headset used a single screen divided to produce two 640 by 800 pixel images – one for each eye – but it is likely that the version that gets released publicly will be in high-definition.

Mr Carmack said: “Now is a special time. I believe that VR will have a huge impact in the coming years, but everyone working today is a pioneer.

“The paradigms that everyone will take for granted in the future are being figured out today. I’m extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology.”

Mr Carmack is best known for founding iD Software, the firm responsible for the likes of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake and others – all of which pushed boundaries in what remains one of the most popular gaming formats.

Mr Carmack said he will continue to work with iD, but that his main focus was now on Oculus VR.

He also runs a small aerospace company, however this has been put in “hibernation mode” following various setbacks including a crashed rocket.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23615877

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Promoting Wellbeing and Fitness, World"s strongest man give a helping hand

At the end of the other week, hundreds of schoolchildren from Round Rock, Texas came face to face with the World’s Strongest Guy.

Texas native Mark Henry, a past Olympic weightlifter, record-breaking powerlifter and Proficient Wrestling World Champion, was joined by a group of ex-NFL stars as well as his WWE best friend, Mark Callaway, AKA The Undertaker.

The occasion was created to promote the importance of education, wellbeing and exercise in time for that new school term. Henry flew in from New York in order to visit the children and inspire them to better things for coming school months. As part of the day’s celebrations, Henry pulled a Semi Truck for a great distance in front of a group of amazed kids, event organizers and parents.

Mark Henry’s inventory of athletic accomplishments is amazing. He competed in both the 1992 and 1996 Olympic games as a weightlifter; Henry was also a Gold Medal winner in the 1995 Pan American Games and was named Drug-Free World Champion Powerlifter in 1995. He was named U.S powerlifting champion twice. He’s a reigning world record holder in several areas is credited with the biggest raw squat and raw powerlifting total ever performed by a drug-tested athlete.

Henry is also a three-time U.S National Weightlifting Champion, an American Open winner, Two-Time U.S Olympic Festival Champion and NACAC Champion. In 2002, he won the very first annual Arnold Strongman Classic Competition and has publicly performed many feats of strength, as well as pushing a tank.

Mark Henry’s declaration to being the ‘World’s Strongest Man’ is fairly dubious and never thought sanctioned by most organizations, but having set lifting records all through his life and winning no less than one strongman contest, his claim is respected by most (and also the visual evidence is tough to deny).

Henry has also had a 17-year career in Professional Wrestling, competing in the WWE (formerly WWF) ever since corporation owner Vince McMahon learned that Henry was a wrestling fan. His consequent profession has seen him win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship two times, as well as the ECW Championship and also the WWE European Championship.

Notwithstanding his no-nonsense on-screen facade (a personality who regularly welcomes his enemies to the ‘Hall of Pain’) Henry is extremely active within the ‘Make a Wish’ Foundation, (a charity group that grants wishes to children with life-threatening or fatal illnesses) as well as many anti-drug and anti-bullying campaigns.

When interviewed on the day, Henry said: “I would like the children to see what I didn’t have. I did not have a great deal growing up. I wish more people did it for me, so I try to do it in kind.”


SOURCES: http://www.keyetv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/wwe-star-mark-henry-meets-round-rock-kids-11058.shtml

http://pop-break.com/2013/05/08/rant-a-mania-wwe-the-make-a-wish-foundation/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_henry

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/henry_mark.html


Thursday 5 September 2013

Find out why you need to be purchasing GTA V on release day

That’s correct folks, folkettes and folking mother folkers, ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ is coming soon!

Made to be Rockstar’s largest ‘open world’ title to date, we can expect this mischievous misadventure to become Colossal. If you happen to took the sprawling simulated worlds of Grand theft auto 4, GTA: San Andreas and Red Dead Redemption and slapped them all together, end to end, you would fit all of them inside the boundaries of Grand theft auto 5’s painstakingly constructed virtual stage and also you’d still have space to spare. That’s not only us talking either, that’s an official announcement. Get this, even the sea floor is fully mapped and explored.

There are 3 characters and also you’ll be able to swap between them without restraint so as to discover various aspects in the story from varying angles. When you choose which player to ‘be’ next, the camera pans out, (Google Earth style) and deposits you within the current location of that chosen avatar. Surprising.

Do not worry however, there’s much more than pretty, destroyable scenery and many narratives to maintain the more bloodthirsty players at bay. Everything of GTA V is chock full of vehicles, weapons and options to inflict misery upon unsuspecting civilians, if that happens as your bag, anyway. If you are not #in the# mood for chainsawing gullible citizens to death (and if not, why don’t you?) you are able to simply ‘flip them off’ and check out a variety of various pre-programmed responses which are player (and area) dependent.

Besides that, the gameplay system has had a complete refurbishment and Grand theft auto V “evolves virtually every mechanic” in accordance with ‘Game Informer’s Matt Bertz. The fight system has been re-jigged and also the aiming and shooting controls have been totally re-designed.

Generally though, the general feel and the tone of the game won’t be experiencing any crucial changes. You won’t be driving around delivering flowers or going to church on Sunday. You will be stealing automobiles and murdering citizens.

Many people. Probably in a number of mean ways.

In the event you followed the series so far, then believe us, you’ll choose to be here for the next chapter.

On this respect, GTA V is about what GTA has continuously been about, complete and utter bloodshed. It is a gangster film that stars you; enslaving, surprising plus much more sophisticated than ever before…

Get GTA V around the 19th of september now

Sunday 1 September 2013

The Finest Motorola cp040 earpiece

Previously, we looked at an earpiece exclusively designed to work on the Motorola multi pin two way radio series. This time, we’ll be investigating the CP040 earpiece, an inexpensive and adaptable little doohickey that is amazingly exciting, but also does little to damage one’s deposit account.

The CP040 earpiece is much like the Motorola gp300 earpiece. It is little, smart and inexpensive, however it also is quite good value for money. EarpieceOnline lists this earpiece for about £11.50, however it’s a reasonably good buy for the cost.

We’ll be direct, everything is pretty basic on that model, but the device performs its operation well and certainly won’t let anyone down.

The noise quality of this CP040 earpiece is very good indeed and also the PTT ‘push to talk’ function is handy and simple to use. As usual, the Motorola cp040 earpiece has a sprung clothing clip that attaches easily to most items of clothing (you will find it a problem if you’re planning on using it while dressed as the giant Sumo wrestler and competing on ‘Takeshi’s Castle’, but besides that…).

As with the motorola gp300 series, as it only features a two-pin plug, an adaptor block will be necessary to be used with the Motorola gp320 and Gp 340 series of 2 way radios.

The ergonomic D-shaped earpiece itself is comfortable to wear and typically inconspicuous. It may be easily used in either the left or right ear, depending on one’s individual preference. The CP040 earpiece fits nearly all ear sizes, so if you happen to be Prince Charles or Martin Clunes (Editor’s Note: or my Uncle Steve), you should not have too many comfort problems, if any.

There’s no Kevlar cable on this one, yet but it certainly isn’t one of the best model around. Still, this isn’t to say the CP040 is a inferior earpiece, not at all. It just is not the greatest.

Overall, the Cp040 2-pin earpiece is practical, rather than flashy. It does its job without frills (but also no temper tantrums). This is a good, dependable product from a company that excels at making such products. It also offers great value for money, too.

Next episode: We’ve looked at some of those mid level models available, now its time to see what else is around. We are talking James Bond stuff! (Well, y’know, But if you need to discover more on this earpieces visit earpieceonline