Month: June 2015

After pointing out what Ultron should have done in Avengers: Age of Ultron, How It Should Have Ended demonstrates how the heroes could have made their lives easier, if time and licensing (and stupidity) were not issues.
via The Awesomer
How Age of Ultron Should’ve Ended 2

Satellite imagery has become a part of our daily digital lives; we use stills of our planet to navigate to the mall, for goodness sake. But when those images are moving, the result is so stunning that it’s almost magical. UrtheCast has released the first full-color HD video of Earth shot from the International Space Station. And it’s just freaking gorgeous.

UrtheCast published three videos captured by its ISS-mounted ultra HD camera, which Gizmodo compiled into a short montage. The camera (named Iris) can zoom into an area of about 1.19 x 0.67 square miles and can capture anywhere on Earth. Here you can see footage of London, Boston and Barcelona, almost as animated maps: freeways buzzing with cars, colorful container yards in motion, boats drifting down the Thames.

I was surprised how emotional I got watching these. Although the images aren’t live, there is a difference between zooming in on a frozen moment on a grainy Google Earth image and watching humanity in crisp, precise motion from above. To me, seeing ourselves in this way feels almost like another Pale Blue Dot moment—a new portrait of our planet from space.

Check out more of Gizmodo’s original videos.

via Gizmodo
The First Full-Color HD Videos Of Earth Taken From Space Are Amazing

Gun control advocates use the words “common sense” to describe laws that degrade and destroy Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Background checks are “common sense.” Ammunition magazine capacity limits are “common sense.” Gun … Read More

The post A Common Sense Guide to Gun Rights appeared first on The Truth About Guns.

via The Truth About Guns
A Common Sense Guide to Gun Rights

Police have apprehended Dylan Roof, the suspected gunman in the shooting at a Charleston, South Carolina church. The cops nabbed Roof in Shelby, North Carolina. According to a law enforcement official who spoke to CNN, witnesses said Roof entered … Read More

The post Racially Motivated South Carolina Church Shooter Caught appeared first on The Truth About Guns.

via The Truth About Guns
Racially Motivated South Carolina Church Shooter Caught

I don’t care that I supposedly understand how vinyl records work because I still totally think they’re the work of at least some low level sorcery. Trapping sound and music and voices? Come on! Anyways, my disbelief aside of analog technology aside, here’s a cool microscope view of vinyl records being played.

The video by Applied Science also delves into how they managed to capture the footage using an electron microscope. A little bit technical but really interesting stuff.

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via Gizmodo
Incredible microscope view of a vinyl record playing in slow motion

A researcher who studied the posture of people who experience virtually no back pain offers us a few exercises to get that pain-free life ourselves. One involves a simple breathing exercise, another asks us to clench our butts.

Esther Gokhale found that villagers in Ecuador, Portugal, and West Africa had differently shaped spines compared to Americans: J-shaped rather than S-shaped spines. She was able to eliminate her back pain—and that of her clients—by working to get the spine into that J shape.

She shares some of the exercises for better posture and less back pain on NPR. The breathing exercise is the easiest and you’ll likely notice a difference right away:

Lengthen your spine: Adding extra length to your spine is easy, Gokhale says. Being careful not to arch your back, take a deep breath in and grow tall. Then maintain that height as you exhale. Repeat: Breathe in, grow even taller and maintain that new height as you exhale. “It takes some effort, but it really strengthens your abdominal muscles,” Gokhale says.

Another strategy is to squeeze your glute muscles (or buttocks muscles, particularly the gluteus medius, which is high up on your bum) when you walk, since those muscles support your lower back. As a bonus, you might also end up with a more shapely butt.

Check out the NPR article for more tips on improving your posture and getting rid of back pain.

Lost Posture: Why Some Indigenous Cultures May Not Have Back Pain | NPR

Photo by Bigstock.

via Lifehacker
Improve Posture and Reduce Back Pain with a Quick Breathing Exercise

Consider yourself lucky if the plane takes off and you have an empty seat next to you, no strangers to deal with. Travel Codex offers a few strategies to increase your chances of getting lucky.

The “rules” are for sitting in coach on an international flight, but also can apply to domestic flights. For example, even if there are many empty seats available when you select your seats, it’s possible the plane will still fill up by the time of departure. You’ll have a better chance of having no one sit next to you if you choose a seat in the back (particularly an aisle seat, since many people dislike climbing over strangers on the plane):

[Many customers don’t pick seats ahead of time.] If those passengers wait until they check-in, the gate agent might select a seat for them. The gate agent will make some effort to space out passengers, but when things get full they generally move from front to back. If you are worried about a flight selling out and losing the empty seat next to you, sit in the back because that seat will stay empty longer than any of the others.

The article also recommends looking for a cabin configuration, if possible, of 2-3-2 or 2-4-2 seats rather than 3-3-3, because there are fewer middle seats per row. If you don’t have any options except that center section, choose a spot that leaves only one empty seat next to you rather than a lot of empty seats, since people will be more likely to try to sit elsewhere.

None of these tips will assure you an empty seat next to you, but they’re worth a try if you want to minimize your exposure to rude seatmates or gabby ones.

How to Pick a Seat in Coach for International Travel | Travel Codex

via Lifehacker
The Best Place to Sit in Coach If You Hope for an Empty Seat Next to You

It’s becoming very common these days for people to “back up” their DVDs and Blu-Rays onto their computer. This despite the fact that the exact legality for making backups is murky at best. But my own personal opinion is that “if you own it, you can do what you want with it”. Watch it, burn it, eat it, use it as a frisbee in the park, whatever. But how do you do it? Which programs are the best at ripping those disks? Which ones eat copy protection for breakfast? Here are nine free tools to consider. MakeMKV Intuitive cross-platform tool to rip…

Read the full article: 9 Tools to Easily Rip Your DVDs & Blu-Rays to Your Computer

via MakeUseOf
9 Tools to Easily Rip Your DVDs & Blu-Rays to Your Computer