Category: Here & There

Googleplex Going Solar

Google will be partnering with EI Solutions, to begin installation of 9,200 (1.6 megawatts) of solar photovoltaic panels at their Mountain View campus. This project will be the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S., and maybe even the world.

The panels will cover the roofs of the four main buildings of the Googleplex, and also those of two additional buildings across the street. There will also be a portion of the installation on new solar panel support structures in a few parking lots. The amount of electricity that will be generated is equivalent to powering about 1,000 average California homes.

The electricity will be used to power several of Google’s Mountain View office facilities, offsetting approximately 30% of their peak electricity consumption at those buildings.

The system cost Google $3 million dollars, but will pay for itself within 15 years according to EI Solutions. Savings will be around $393,000 per year

Top Habit Goals on 43 Things

The guys over at 43 Things have released a list of the the top habit goals from the site’s users, including:

– Stop procrastinating: 11615 people
– Drink more water: 7309 people
– Take more pictures: 6598 people
– Save money: 5554 people
– Read more books: 5120 people
– Exercise regularly: 4023 people
– Eat healthier: 3923 people
– Wake up when my alarm clock goes off: 3759 people
– Quit Smoking: 3555 people
– Spend less time fooling around on the net and more time actually working: 3258 people

Really interesting… Being a non-smoker and therefore not having to quit smoking, the rest of the top 10 should be on my list if it’s not already there.

[Via: LifeHacker]

Update: Yahoo has dropped plans to use Mexico’s Teotihuacan archaeological site for its time capsule project after authorities fearing damage to the ancient ruins denied them permission. (Thanks to Muh’d Mansour)

Six Word Story

Just came across this on Flickr:

Ernest Hemingway was once prodded to compose a complete story in six words. His answer, personally felt to be his best prose ever, was “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” Some people say it was to settle a bar bet. Others say it was a personal challenge directed at other famous authors.

The flickr group asks people to post photos with a Six Word Story in the title section of the photo, with those few words telling the whole tale, and the picture being its visual interpretation.

First of all, I’m still amazed at how much Hemingway was able to tell using just six words, simply brilliant.
Secondly, I think this is a really cool idea. I’ll be going through some of my photos and thinking of some story I could tell in a few words and a photo.

If you come up with anything, even without a photo, please do share in the comments.

[Via: Caterina]

Order A Fatwa

Need a custom-made fatwa (religious decree) to fit your needs?
Apparently you can get that in India for the great price of $22 per fatwa.
This month being Ramadan and all, I bet you could get a special offer if you order a bunch, sort of like a “buy 2 get 1 for free” or something.

Among the fatwas bought were decrees saying Muslims may not use credit cards or double beds. One cleric issued a fatwa in support of watching TV; another wrote one against.

So let your imagination run wild and order the fatwa you want as long as the offer lasts. I doubt these clerics will even have a problem issuing fatwas that directly contradict with the teachings of the Koran.

What a scandal!!

[Source: TIME]
[Via: Moorish Girl]

Anousheh Ansari, First Muslim Woman On International Space Station

Iranian-born Anousheh Ansari made history last thursday, when she became the first Muslim woman to reach the International Space Station on board Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with two astronauts.

Ansari is also the world’s first female space tourist. She accompanied NASA’s Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russia’s Mikhail Tyurin.

The three blasted off on Monday from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their TMA-9 space vehicle docked successfully with the ISS at 0521 GMT.

Ansari, who owns a telecom company in the US, paid $20 million to make her space dream come true after a six-month course of Russian language and cosmonaut at the Gagarin centre in Stellar City near Moscow.

The first muslim man in space was Prince Sultan ibn Salman ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Al Sa’ud of Saudi Arabia who traveled to space aboard a NASA space shuttle in 1985.

Five Quotes

A quick little meme I found via Kottke, on Rivers Are Damp:

Go here and look through random quotes until you find five that you think reflect who you are or what you believe.

Here are the five I found:

– “The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” (Walter Bagehot (1826 – 1877))

– “Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane.” (Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982), Valis)

– “It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” (Agnes Repplier (1855 – 1950))

– “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” (Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790))

– “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” (Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862))

Pluto No Longer A Planet

2,500 Astronomers meeting in the Czech capital Prague for the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) general assembly have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

The scientists rejected a proposal that would have retained Pluto as a planet and brought three other objects into the cosmic club.

Pluto has been considered a planet since its discovery in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh. The ninth planet will now effectively be airbrushed out of school and university textbooks.
The eight official planets are now Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The initial proposal put before the IAU to raise the number of planets in the Solar System to 12 – adding the asteroid Ceres, Pluto’s “moon” Charon and the distant object known as 2003 UB313 – was met with opposition.

Poor, poor old Pluto…
After 76 years of being a planet, it suddenly gets demoted and becomes just another sad lonely rock floating in space…
I don’t know why this somehow saddens me, it’s like losing a distant relative you’ve always wanted to get to know better, but never got the chance to…
But no worries Pluto, I don’t care what those stupid astronomers say, you’ll always be a planet in my eyes.

We should start a campaign and fight for Pluto’s rights as a planet till the very end!
Who knows what planet will be demoted next… What if it’s Earth??
I don’t want to end up living on some meaningless dumb rock…
I’m sure you don’t too…

Long live Pluto…

Tomb Raider: Legend

Last night, I finished playing Tomb Raider: Legend on PlayStation 2.

It’s been nearly eight years since I last played a Tomb Raider game, back then it was Tomb Raider 2: Dagger Of Xian on my PC, and it was a really nice game that I truly enjoyed.

Anyway, since then, even though I didn’t play any of the other installments of the game series, I heard it was getting crappy and boring, until I came across some reviews saying that this one, the 7th installment, going by the name of “Tomb Raider: Legend” was actually a surprise, that it was really good, and mostly that it was fun again.

So I grabbed the game and started playing it a few days ago, and it’s true, it’s a really fun game, the graphics are great and smooth, the puzzles are good, the action is cool, the controls are pretty fluid and intuitive and the story is a nice one.

Lara Croft looks a lot better in this game, more acrobatic too, taking some lessons from Prince of Persia. Her movements and abilities are also more realistic than previous installments.

This installment was developed by Crystal Dynamics instead of Core Design who worked on the previous six installments.

The only shortcoming of this game is that it’s quite short and is quickly finished. Though judging by its ending, there surely will be a sequel with the rest of the story, but I think they shouldn’t have cheapened out, and that they should’ve just finished the story with this one and made it a bit longer.

Anyway, I recommend this game to people who played and liked one or both of the first two installments, as well as to people who never played any Tomb Raider game and who want to give it a try with a cool installment.

MySpace Sucks!

I just don’t get what this whole craze surrounding MySpace is all about?!

It has become one of the most popular websites on the internet, it has gobbled up 80% of the social networking market, it was sold to Murdoch for $600 millions dollars, Google just inked a $900 million advertising deal with them, …etc.
And yet, I can’t see why??!

To me all it looks like is a pile of crap thrown together on page after page of useless flashing unorganized garbage with shitty eye-unfriendly design.
Even the social networking side of it sucks.

I just don’t get why it has become so popular and why people are so obsessed with it.

Please if anyone has any clue why it is supposed to be so cool, I beg you to enlighten me. It’s just beyond me at this point.

To me: MySpace simply sucks big time!