Hulleye Comes By!

One of the world’s most powerful supercomputers has conjured a fleeting moment in the life of a virus. The researchers say the simulation is the first to capture a whole biological organism in such intricate molecular detail. The simulation pushes today’s computing power to the limit. But it is only a first step. In future researchers hope that bigger, longer simulations will reveal details about how viruses invade cells and cause disease. Klaus Schulten at the University of Illinois, Urbana, and his colleagues built a computer model of the satellite tobacco mosaic virus, a tiny spherical package of RNA.

From Scientific American: An international team of scientists has discovered a massive new planet thanks to an effect described by Einstein 70 years ago. Microlensing–which occurs when a star crosses in front of another star and bends the light from the more distant star, magnifying it like a lens–predicted extra brightness for a red dwarf star roughly 9,000 light years from Earth. Based on the more than 1,000 images from the MDM Observatory in Arizona, team leader Andrew Gould of Ohio State University and his fellow astronomers calculate that this new planet has roughly 13 times the mass of Earth–making it about the size of Neptune–and orbits its star at about the distance of the asteroid belt in our own solar system.

Web 2.0 company or Star Wars character?

well well, look who made the news again. he think’s we’re satanic now. that’s hilarious. here’s a bunch of his comments. i’ve mentioned him before too.

how to surf porn safely. here’s an introduction to the topic.

it’s ridiculous how tough these little critters are. just check out the extremities they can survive in. pretty darned impressive.

so ya’ll who think we live up here in blocks of ice and hang out with polar bears, here’s a reality check. these here are photos of buildings in Canada’s Nunavut territory, “where high winds, freezing temperatures, and the difficulty of transporting raw materials pose some interesting architectural constraints. all of the buildings [shown] are in the city of Iqaluit, except for the flying saucer, which is in Igloolik.

via BB

hey, so yeah i’ve been a bit irregular in posting around here, though i’ve been reading other blogs a bit. i suppose i should explain that. i got outsourced recently and thus wihout a job and since then been a bit busy with some courses i’m doing at the same time, along with spending time with the wife, catching up on movies that i had been meaning to watch, reading three books, and making plans for heading out to varadero for a week or so. went to see david copperfield last week as well which wasn’t as fun as it was when i saw him two years ago, especially since he did pretty much the same illusions. recently i caught the blue man group as well which was significantly more fun. anyway, will try and get a bit more regular soon enough.