Planet Earth Archive

  • Is the Sun about to destroy every single piece of electronics you own?

    Is the Sun about to destroy every single piece of electronics you own?

    We, and by "we" I mean all life on Planet Earth, owe our very existence to the Sun. It's nothing more than a typical star, really, but without it, this planet would be as barren as the day is long. (CG: Your home for old-timey phrases.) With that in mind, here's what could become a pretty important story as we move forward. NASA now believes that, for much of the modern era, the Sun has been, for lack of a better term, "asleep." What happens, then, to our electricity-based infrastructure when the Sun "wakes up"? The Solar Wind has already blown away the atmospheres of planets lacking a magnetosphere, so what else does the Sun have up its sleeve?

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  • Engadget Mobile is podcasting live at 6:15PM ET!

    Engadget Mobile is podcasting live at 6:15PM ET!

    A merry band of Engadget editors hatched a glorious plan today -- a plan that would forever change the way we look at cellphones and mobile technology. A plan that would shake the very foundation of Engadget, its readers, and the good people of Planet Earth. A plan that... ah, who are we kidding? Listen in at 6:15PM ET to catch Chris opine on the state of the phone world along with some very special guests!

    Engadget Mobile is podcasting live at 6:15PM ET! originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 26 May 2010 18:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • The Sapphire 5970 4G Toxic Edition is the fastest video card on Planet Earth

    The Sapphire 5970 4G Toxic Edition is the fastest video card on Planet Earth

    Damn you, Sapphire. Three weeks ago I bought your vanilla Radeon 5970, and now you release the Radeon 5970 4G TOXIC Edition? What a load of bunk. Fastest video card on the planet, you say? Well I say FE$%Fxtgredth.

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  • Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 20th birthday with ridiculous photo

    Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its 20th birthday with ridiculous photo

    It was 20 years ago today that NASA (working in conjunction with the European Space Agency) launched the Hubble Space Telescope into the heavens—well, a low Earth orbit, at least. I recall some of the buzz back then along the lines of “What a giant waste of money!” Once they fixed that mirror, it was smooth sailing.

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  • Use your laptop to detect the next big earthquake before it happens

    Use your laptop to detect the next big earthquake before it happens

    It's pretty great that people are just now realizing that Planet Earth isn't some sort of static strip mall. There are volcanoes, and earthquakes, and hurricanes, and tornadoes, and tsunamis—objects from outer space regularly invade the atmosphere. This planet is alive, brother! So, idea: you know how certain laptop models, like ThinkPads and MacBooks, come with built-in accelerometers? They're there in order to protect the hard drive from a devastating fall, but what it you could use said accelerometer to detect an earthquake before it happens?

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  • Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City now available for PS3, PC. Took them long enough!

    Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City now available for PS3, PC. Took them long enough!

    Just a friendly reminder that Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, the stand-alone pack of Grand Theft Auto IV DLC is now available for PCand PS3. As DLC goes, it's not bad

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  • Battlefield: Earth writer says sorry to all of Planet Earth

    Battlefield: Earth writer says sorry to all of Planet Earth

    Contrition is a wonderful thing. Now, I'm not the biggest sci-fi guy here, but even I know that Battlefield: Earth ranks among the worst films ever created—some would even say that it is the single worst movie in the history of cinema. That may well be, but the gentleman who penned the original script has now, on the record, officially apologized to mankind for helping to create the movie. That's called integrity, folks.

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  • Latest Battlefield: Bad Company 2 map pack locks, loads (even though maps can’t lock nor load, per se)

    Latest Battlefield: Bad Company 2 map pack locks, loads (even though maps can’t lock nor load, per se)

    Soldats, je suis contents de vous! EA and DICE just released the second VIP map pack for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I take it I’m the only person on Planet Earth to buy the game strictly for the single-player mode, but go ahead and have fun without me!

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  • TNA Wrestling can trend on Twitter just fine, but can it draw actual TV ratings? (No.)

    TNA Wrestling can trend on Twitter just fine, but can it draw actual TV ratings? (No.)

    We're all well aware that Twitter represents man's best chance of Redemption. No one's disputing that. What is in dispute today is just how representative Twitter is of The Real World. Case in point: TNA Wrestling made its long awaited move to Monday nights this week, and all throughout the night "TNA" was a trending topic on Twitter. We've been led to believe that anything that trends on Twitter is hugely important, not merely in the cozy confines of the Twitterverse, but all over Planet Earth. Explain this, then: the show only drew a 0.98 rating (it rounds up to a 1.0). I thought Twitter = ratings?

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  • The ISS gets its own HD video tour

    The ISS gets its own HD video tour

    Sit back, relax, and enjoy this extensive HD video tour of International Space Station. You better enjoy the ISS while you can. There’s a good chance it’s going to crash into Planet Earth within the next couple of years because of budget issues unless the ESA can save it.

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  • Use Internet Explorer, says Microsoft, but stop using IE6

    Use Internet Explorer, says Microsoft, but stop using IE6

    Why-you-dont-use-Internet-ExplorerSo Google got hacked, or something, by cyber criminals in China, and Microsoft has acknowledged that their Internet Explorer browser was part of the problem. Specifically, Interent Explorer version 6 was part of the problem, and Microsoft is quick to point out that version 8 is much better, and much more secure. Cliff Evans, Microsoft's Head of Security and Privacy in the UK, further states that switching away from Internet Explorer is also a bad idea. According to him, it's MSIE8 or nothing. Firefox? Chrome? Safari? Opera? None of those will keep you as safe from cyber attacks as Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 8.

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  • President Obama’s policies have pushed the Doomsday Clock back by one minute

    President Obama’s policies have pushed the Doomsday Clock back by one minute

    Way to go, President Obama! Thanks to your bold and forward-thinking policies, the Doomsday Clock has been moved back by one minute! That means Planet Earth is “one minute” further away from utter destruction! Well, destruction brought about by man himself; an asteroid can still smash into the planet and we'd all be doomed. Or, as we've seen in Haiti this week, some other cataclysm can strike and we'd have zero control over it.

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  • Google and Microsoft join I3A’s Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative

    Google and Microsoft join I3A’s Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative

    The International Imaging Industry Association -- colloquially known as I3A -- announced today that Google's signed on as a member of the non-profit organization. They've also simultaneously announced that pre-existing member Microsoft has joined forces with Google on the Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative. What's that all about? The initiative, which also calls Motorola, Eastman Kodak, Nokia, and other members, is dedicated to creating the metrics needed to "produce an accurate and repeatable testing program for camera phone image quality." Considering the wild variances in quality among different cellphones, such formalized measurement techniques would surely be welcomed by everyone on planet earth.

    Google and Microsoft join I3A's Camera Phone Image Quality Initiative originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Fight Night Round 4 (and everyone else on planet earth) predicts a Pacquiao win

    Fight Night Round 4 (and everyone else on planet earth) predicts a Pacquiao win

    I know something about MMA, but I know next to nothing about boxing. Yet even I can laugh about the latest EA Sports prediction, via Fight Night 4, that says that Manny Pacquiao will beat Miguel Cotto this weekend. I laugh because saying Pacquiao will win the fight is like saying the sun will rise in the morning. (Now watch Cotto knock out Pacquiao in the first.)

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  • Wherein we discuss Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony

    Wherein we discuss Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony

    Let me preface this by saying that I could be the worst GTA player on Planet Earth. I don't know if my thumbs just can't twiddle like they used to when I was a spry 16-year-old. I don't know if the sandbox “oh my god everything is happening all at once~!” style of gameplay is exacting its revenge on me for some previous offense I committed in a past life. I simply don't know what's up. The bottom line is: I completely stink on ice when it comes to all things GTA.

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