HP’s fanless 2.2-pound laptop includes Broadwell and a 2560×1440 screen

The high-end Ultrabook market is tightly bound to Intel’s release schedule. No other company is offering similar performance and power consumption, so when Intel hits a delay like it did with its new Broadwell architecture, it means that things get boring for a while. We’re expecting the landscape to get more intriguing as we draw closer to CES in January, though, and HP has just announced a pair of Ultrabooks that have piqued our interest. The EliteBook Folio 1020 G1 series comes in two flavors, both of which are 0.62 inches thick: the first is the Standard Edition, a more run-of-the-mill system that starts with a 12.5-inch 1080p display and weighs 2.6 pounds. It’s slated for availability sometime in February. You’ll have to wait longer for the more interesting Special Edition, a laptop which shares the same design but uses “green carbon fiber” to reduce the weight to 2.2 pounds and bumps the entry-level screen resolution to 2560×1440. That system unfortunately won’t be available until April, and we don’t yet have pricing information for either model. The Standard Edition will have a 2560×1440 upgrade option, both laptops will come in touch and non-touch versions, and each will ship with your choice of Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Ubuntu, or FreeDOS 2.0. Windows 10 support is promised when that OS ships next year. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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HP’s fanless 2.2-pound laptop includes Broadwell and a 2560×1440 screen

44% Of All Twitter Accounts Have Yet To Send A Tweet

A new report from Twopcharts has found that 44% of the world’s Twitter accounts have yet to send a Tweet . With approximately 974 million Twitter accounts, that’s an awful lot of dead air. As the Wall Street Journal points out, however, this could mean that people, scammers, or bots simply signed up for an account and never came back—or that there are hordes of shy people out there waiting for the moment to strike. Do you have a Twitter account you have never used? If not, why not? [ Wall Street Journal ] Read more…

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44% Of All Twitter Accounts Have Yet To Send A Tweet

Imagine Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Arthur C. Clarke together in conversation. It happened.

Back in 1988, Magnus Magnusson (best name ever) somehow managed to bring three of the 20th Century’s most fascinating personalities together to discuss God, the Universe, and Everything Else . In the hour-long program, the three talked about the Big Bang theory, the connection between science and scifi, the rise of computer science, extraterrestrial intelligence, and the puzzle that is human existence. More »

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Imagine Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Arthur C. Clarke together in conversation. It happened.

These serene Chinese landscapes are actually photographs of landfills

At first glance, Yao Lu’s digital collages look like watercolor paintings of misty Chinese mountains. But upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that the real subjects of these photographs aren’t plant-covered hills but landfills, and the initial beauty of the images takes on an entirely different meaning. More »

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These serene Chinese landscapes are actually photographs of landfills

The Cancer Death Rate is Down 20%

Death rates from cancer have gone down 20% since 1991, according to data in a new study published this month. This does not mean that fewer people are developing cancer, nor does it even mean that fewer people are dying of it — it just means that, year by year, fewer people are dying of the disease. Possible reasons for the shift include better therapies, and earlier diagnosis. In the chart above, and the one below (click to enlarge), you can also see over the past twenty-two years that certain cancers are killing more people — and certain ones are killing fewer. More »

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The Cancer Death Rate is Down 20%

7 Japanese Kids’ Anime That American Kids Will Never, Ever See

Some of the most popular anime in Japan have never set foot on American shores. Oh sure, we have Naruto and Pokémon and Dragonball Z , but what we don’t have are the kids shows — the Japanese anime equivalent of SpongeBob SquarePants , Dora the Explorer and the like. Why? Because while you’d think they’d be the most adaptable for worldwide audiences –- kids are kids, right? –- they’re actually quite insane. Here are seven anime series that Japanese kids love that no American parent would ever let their kids watch. More »

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7 Japanese Kids’ Anime That American Kids Will Never, Ever See

This interactive travel map of the Roman Empire is like Oregon Trail meets Civilization

Ever wondered how long it would take to travel from Rome to Constantinople at the peak of the Roman Empire? Or from Luna to Larissa? Or Parma to Thessalonica? This map of the Roman World created at Stanford University is awesomely realistic — all the ancient transportation lines on it actually existed 2,000 years ago. More »

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This interactive travel map of the Roman Empire is like Oregon Trail meets Civilization

Researchers create two different kinds of lava lamp… for science!

Okay, technically this isn’t a lava lamp, but you could have fooled me, given the mellow music and the drifting plumes of colored liquid. Researchers at Cambridge performed an experiment to find out more about fluid dynamics by coming up with two completely different ways that liquids can mix due to Rayleigh-Taylor instability, along with a video to watch if/when you’re stoned. More »

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Researchers create two different kinds of lava lamp… for science!

This classical music was created by a supercomputer in less than a second

The composition being performed in this video is entitled “Nasciturus”, and it’s one of the many pieces of contemporary classical music created by Iamus — who just so happens to be a computer cluster housed in Spain’s University of Málaga. More »

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This classical music was created by a supercomputer in less than a second