Earth-Like, Not Earth.

Scientists have found a planet approximatly 1.5x the size of earth. Temperatures estimated to range from 0-40c. Planet is thought to be either rocky, or covered in oceans.

Links: @ Bad Astronomy, @ Skepchick

Worst Theory Ever

I just recently became aware of this. Whoever dreamed this up had too much time on their hands, or was incredibly stupid. I'm supposed to find it amazing that that "20 - United States of America - 20" contains the characters needed (although we're subbing a zero for an O) to spell Osama ?

Admittedly I'm not sure if this was actually originally intended as a conspiracy theory, or if it was just someone dicking around and decided to post it online.

Here's a link explaining the whole thing in more detail.

Something you're writing may kill you...more at 11.

"Keeping a diary is bad for your health, say UK psychologists. They found that regular diarists were more likely than non-diarists to suffer from headaches, sleeplessness, digestive problems and social awkwardness."

This was taken from a 2004 article at NewScientist.com

Well, that must apply to blogging too because I have all those symptoms. Although a strong argument could be made that people with those symptoms are more likely to be come diarists or bloggers. Certianly the social awkwardness thing. " But she acknowledges that her experiment could not demonstrate which came first - the diary writing or the health problems."

The article also says that those who have had traumatic experiences in their life and write about it were even more likely to have health problems. Again, an argument can be made that people who have had traumatic experiences in their life are going to have stress and health problems and be more likey to write about traumatic experiences (...because they actually happened). Though I'll admit it says nothing about what percentage of people who have had traumatic experiences feel compelled to write it down.

Free 24

Hurray. Current episodes of 24 can now be viewed and pretty damn good quality at http://www.myspace.com/24

EMI Press Release

London, 2 April 2007 -- EMI Music today announced that it is launching new premium downloads for retail on a global basis, making all of its digital repertoire available at a much higher sound quality than existing downloads and free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

The new higher quality DRM-free music will complement EMI's existing range of standard DRM-protected downloads already available. From today, EMI's retailers will be offered downloads of tracks and albums in the DRM-free audio format of their choice in a variety of bit rates up to CD quality. EMI is releasing the premium downloads in response to consumer demand for high fidelity digital music for use on home music systems, mobile phones and digital music players. EMI's new DRM-free products will enable full interoperability of digital music across all devices and platforms.

Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, said, "Our goal is to give consumers the best possible digital music experience. By providing DRM-free downloads, we aim to address the lack of interoperability which is frustrating for many music fans. We believe that offering consumers the opportunity to buy higher quality tracks and listen to them on the device or platform of their choice will boost sales of digital music.

"Apple have been a true pioneer in digital music, and we are delighted that they share our vision of an interoperable market that provides consumers with greater choice, quality, convenience and value for money."

"Selling digital music DRM-free is the right step forward for the music industry," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "EMI has been a great partner for iTunes and is once again leading the industry as the first major music company to offer its entire digital catalogue DRM-free."

Apple's iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) is the first online music store to receive EMI's new premium downloads. Apple has announced that iTunes will make individual AAC format tracks available from EMI artists at twice the sound quality of existing downloads, with their DRM removed, at a price of $1.29/€1.29/£0.99. iTunes will continue to offer consumers the ability to pay $0.99/€0.99/£0.79 for standard sound quality tracks with DRM still applied. Complete albums from EMI Music artists purchased on the iTunes Store will automatically be sold at the higher sound quality and DRM-free, with no change in the price. Consumers who have already purchased standard tracks or albums with DRM will be able to upgrade their digital music for $0.30/€0.30/£0.20 per track. All EMI music videos will also be available on the iTunes Store DRM-free with no change in price.

EMI is introducing a new wholesale price for premium single track downloads, while maintaining the existing wholesale price for complete albums. EMI expects that consumers will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free downloads from a variety of digital music stores within the coming weeks, with each retailer choosing whether to sell downloads in AAC, WMA, MP3 or other unprotected formats of their choice. Music fans will be able to purchase higher quality DRM-free digital music for personal use, and listen to it on a wide range of digital music players and music-enabled phones.

EMI's move follows a series of experiments it conducted recently. Norah Jones's "Thinking About You", Relient K's "Must've Done Something Right", and Lily Allen's "Littlest Things" were all made available for sale in the MP3 format in trials held at the end of last year.

EMI Music will continue to employ DRM as appropriate to enable innovative digital models such as subscription services (where users pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to music), super-distribution (allowing fans to share music with their friends) and time-limited downloads (such as those offered by ad-supported services).

Nicoli added: "Protecting the intellectual property of EMI and our artists is as important as ever, and we will continue to work to fight piracy in all its forms and to educate consumers. We believe that fans will be excited by the flexibility that DRM-free formats provide, and will see this as an incentive to purchase more of our artists' music."