That is a new, estimated total number of species on Earth — the most precise calculation ever offered — with 6.5 million species found on land and 2.2 million (about 25 percent of the total) dwelling in the ocean depths.
Announced today by Census of Marine Life scientists, the figure is based on an innovative, validated analytical technique that dramatically narrows the range of previous estimates. Until now, the number of species on Earth was said to fall somewhere between 3 million and 100 million.
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Taking a stroll may soon be enough to re-charge your mobile phone, after US researchers developed a way to generate electricity from human motion.
Placed in a shoe, the device captures the energy of moving micro droplets and converts it into electrical current. Kinetic charging is already used in some low power devices such as watches and sensors. The University of Wisconsin team published its study in the journal Nature Communications.
“Humans, generally speaking, are very powerful energy-producing machines,” said Professor Tom Krupenkin from the university’s mechanical engineering department.
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Commissioner Thilo Weichert, of the Independent Center for Privacy Protection, said the social network’s “Like button” plugin illegally puts together a profile of their Web habits.
The ULD said if you visit Facebook.com or use a Facebook plugin such as the Like button, you should expect to be tracked by the company for two years: Facebook allegedly builds a broad profile for individuals not on the service as well as a more personalized profile for its members.
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While a fourth Austin Powers film had been long-discussed, it seemed star Myers wasn’t quite ready to reprise the character. Director Jay Roach previously told Movieline he was waiting for the day Myers was a go — and the time may be now for a new sequel to move forward.
Confirming that Myers “just closed his deal to return to the role,” Hitfix reports that Austin Powers 4 is officially on. No further details are available regarding a director or plot, but Roach recently filmed Game Change for HBO and was set to begin filming the political comedy Southern Rivals, with Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, this fall.
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Well, that didn’t take long. It’s only been a few days since HP announced its intention to discontinue production of webOS devices, and it looks like the outfit’s already throwing its flagship tablet in the bargain bin. PreCentral reports that HP sent out a memo to its affiliates asking them to cut the price of the ill-fated TouchPad to $99 and $149 for the 16GB and 32GB editions, respectively.
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One of the places in the US that most epitomizes the fact that we are constantly rebuilding and recycling landmarks is Las Vegas. Landmark hotels that were places some of the most famous people of all time stayed and played are destroyed to put up newer, larger hotels to attract visitors. MGM built a new hotel in Vegas called Harmon Tower that has had a bunch of issues crop up during its build.
The first major issue was that the hotel had been planned to be 47 stories tall. In 2008, those plans were cut back after it was discovered by inspectors that a steel reinforcement had been improperly placed. That massive oversight on someone’s part meant that the hotel had to be cut back to 26 stories. The sad part is the hits to the building didn’t stop there.
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