Fire is a different beast in space than it is on the ground. When flames burn on Earth, heated gases rise from the fire, drawing oxygen in and pushing combustion products out. In microgravity, hot gases don’t rise. So an entirely different process, called molecular diffusion, drives flame behavior.
It’s the end of the year, and even as we wind down with the best games of the year like Modern Warfare 3, and Skyrim, we look to see what the next year has to offer us and empty our wallets once more. There’s no end to great games to look forward to, and 2012 looks like it’ll shape up to be just as good as everything this year, though it’s certainly hard to top.
If you’re anything like us, your to-do list for the next year is already packed full of great games that you just didn’t have time to play. 2011 has been, without question, one of the busiest years in the Xbox 360’s six-year lifespan, especially over the last few months. Between Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Gears 3, Arkham City, Battlefield 3, Skyrim, and far too many more to list, you and your rapidly dwindling bank account are probably desperately hoping for a reprieve.
The European Commission is cracking down on the way Facebook gathers information about European users. A new EC Directive will ban targeted advertising unless users specifically say they want it. This is great news for European Facebook users, especially after the case of 24-year-old Austrian law student Max Schrems who, in late October, started an online campaign aimed at forcing Facebook to abide by European data privacy laws.
No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square, it would incite protests that would topple dictators and start a global wave of dissent. In 2011, protesters didn’t just voice their complaints; they changed the world.
Google has just been granted a landing strip patent for its driverless cars. Somehow the term “landing strip” doesn’t instill confidence in me when we are talking about self-driving cars.
