The Most Amazing View of a Comet Ever

When the Commander of the International Space Station says he just saw "the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space," you know you're in for something incredible. We've never seen a view of a comet like this.

Yesterday International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured spectacular imagery of Comet Lovejoy, as seen from about 240 miles above the Earth's horizon. The clip of him talking about it is from an interview he did with WDIV-TV in Detroit. When you see someone who's constantly seeing wondrous things filled with awe, there's something very special about it.

Lovejoy, which is primarily made of ice and dirt, survived a very close call with the sun last week. It looked to be on a collision course and didn't seem to have a snowball's chance in hell. Luckily it whizzed right by the star of pheobus, and aside from a little bit of melt it wasn't much worse for wear. We're so glad, or we wouldn't have these incredible images to drool over this week. You can see more over at NASA. [NASA via Mike Elgan]

Image Credit: NASA

Text extracted from: http://gizmodo.com/5870647/the-most-amazing-view-of-a-comet-ever/gallery/1

We Live In a Wonderful World Indeed

The sequences of this video would marvel anyone with a pair of eyes. Couple it with the lyrics of What a Wonderful World recited by Sir David Attenborough and you would make our wonderful world even more wonderful.

Text extracted from: http://gizmodo.com/5867822/heres-definitive-proof-that-we-live-in-a-wonderful-world

'Invincible' Barca Crush Santos to Win Club World Cup

YOKOHAMA, Japan (Reuters) - Lionel Messi scored two wonder goals as European champions Barcelona ripped apart Brazil's Santos 4-0 to win their second Club World Cup in swashbuckling style on Sunday.

The Times's soccer blog has the world's game covered from all angles.

"My players were like artists," purred Barca coach Pep Guardiola.

"Whatever they envisaged in their minds they were able to do on the pitch. It was an incredible performance."

Santos coach Muricy Ramalho called Barcelona "invincible" after his team were torn to shreds in Yokohama.

"Barcelona are the greatest team in the world," he told reporters. "No team can live with them. They're unbeatable at the moment. Losing 4-0 to them is no disgrace."

Barcelona, who won the title for the first time in Abu Dhabi in 2009, gave Santos no chance, hopes of a shootout between Messi and Brazil's teenage sensation Neymar quickly evaporating.

Argentine wizard Messi put Barcelona ahead in the 17th minute, exquisitely clipping a left-foot shot over goalkeeper Rafael Cabral after a clever ball from Xavi.

Only seven minutes later it was 2-0 when Xavi himself latched on to a pinpoint pass from Dani Alves, beating one defender before smashing the ball home.

Cesc Fabregas hit the post and then stabbed home Barca's third on the stroke of halftime as the Spanish champions threatened to run riot in front of a crowd of 68,000.

The former Arsenal midfielder came within a whisker of another goal moments after the restart, forcing a magnificent save from Cabral.

Player of the tournament Messi made it 4-0 eight minutes from time, bursting past Cabral at breath-taking speed to slip the ball into the net and complete the rout.

"It's beautiful to be world champions but it's a team effort," said Messi. "We often play like that but because it was a final it seemed more beautiful."

3-7-0 FORMATION

Asked whether he had adopted a 3-7-0 formation, Guardiola shrugged: "I don't think we were playing 3-7-0. 

That's just how we play. We try to control the midfield and exploit space.

"We wanted to suffocate the supply to Neymar, who we know is a dangerous player, and to Borges.

"There is no special secret to our success. I am just blessed to work with such terrific players who want to keep on winning. They deserve all the credit."

Santos, who lifted their third Libertadores Cup in June almost 50 years after Pele led them to back-to-back titles in 1962 and 1963, had no answer to Barcelona's brilliance.

"It may have looked easy but it certainly wasn't," said Barca captain Carles Puyol. "The early goals made it easier for us."

Puyol sent a 'get-well' message to Spain striker David Villa, who suffered a sickening leg break in Barca's 4-0 semi-final victory over Qatar's Al Sadd.

"I will give him a (victory) T-shirt," said Puyol. "He really wanted one. He is not here but he is part of the team and this victory.

"We never doubted ourselves and kept their forwards under control. It was a complete performance."

Neymar looked shell-shocked after the game.

"It's impossible to stop Barcelona," said the 19-year-old pin-up, biting his tongue. "But we are the second-best team in the world and for us that is a great reward." 

(Editing by Justin Palmer) 

Text extracted from: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/12/18/sports/soccer/sports-us-soccer-world.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Watch luckiest driver in world miss scary head-on collision with truck

When you drive over Russia's ice-caked roads in winter with a camera mounted on your dash it's only a matter of time before you capture a crazy near-accident. Still, who could expect you'd snag something like this amazing Michael Bay-worthy near-miss that happened just last week.

What starts as a simple overtaking maneuver turns into something out of a Michael Bay film when the driver notices a truck on the other side of the narrow road trying to make a similar pass in the other direction. A quick correction on the truck driver's part leads to his tail wagging back at the camera after a near-jack-knife.

All the cameraman can do is sit there and pray he doesn't become a potato pancake. Which, amazingly, he doesn't.

Text extracted from: http://jalopnik.com/5868763/

Facebook Is Making Us Miserable

When Facebook was founded in 2004, it began with a seemingly innocuous mission: to connect friends. Some seven years and 800 million users later, the social network has taken over most aspects of our personal and professional lives, and is fast becoming the dominant communication platform of the future.

But this new world of ubiquitous connections has a dark side. In my last post, I noted that Facebook and social media are major contributors to career anxiety. After seeing some of the comments and reactions to the post, it's clear that Facebook in particular takes it a step further: It's actually making us miserable.

Facebook's explosive rate of growth and recent product releases, such as the prominent Newsticker, Top Stories on the newsfeed, and larger photos have all been focused on one goal: encouraging more sharing. As it turns out, it's precisely this hyper-sharing that is threatening our sense of happiness.

In writing Passion & Purpose, I monitored and observed how Facebook was impacting the lives of hundreds of young businesspeople. As I went about my research, it became clear that behind all the liking, commenting, sharing, and posting, there were strong hints of jealousy, anxiety, and, in one case, depression. Said one interviewee about a Facebook friend, "Although he's my best friend, I kind-of despise his updates." Said another "Now, Facebook IS my work day." As I dug deeper, I discovered disturbing by-products of Facebook's rapid ascension — three new, distressing ways in which the social media giant is fundamentally altering our daily sense of well-being in both our personal and work lives.

First, it's creating a den of comparison. Since our Facebook profiles are self-curated, users have a strong bias toward sharing positive milestones and avoid mentioning the more humdrum, negative parts of their lives. Accomplishments like, "Hey, I just got promoted!" or "Take a look at my new sports car," trump sharing the intricacies of our daily commute or a life-shattering divorce. This creates an online culture of competition and comparison. One interviewee even remarked, "I'm pretty competitive by nature, so when my close friends post good news, I always try and one-up them."

Comparing ourselves to others is a key driver of unhappiness. Tom DeLong, author of Flying Without a Net, even describes a "Comparing Trap." He writes, "No matter how successful we are and how many goals we achieve, this trap causes us to recalibrate our accomplishments and reset the bar for how we define success."And as we judge the entirety of our own lives against the top 1% of our friends' lives, we're setting impossible standards for ourselves, making us more miserable than ever.

Second, it's fragmenting our time. Not surprisingly, Facebook's "horizontal" strategy encourages users to log in more frequently from different devices. My interviewees regularly accessed Facebook from the office, at home through their iPads, and while out shopping on their smartphones. This means that hundreds of millions of people are less "present" where they are. Sketching out a mind-numbing presentation for the board meeting? Perhaps it's time to reply to your messages. Stuck in traffic? It's time to browse your newsfeed. Recounted one interviewee, "I almost got hit by a car while using Facebook crossing the street."

Leaving the risk of real physical harm aside, the issue with this constant "tabbing" between real-life tasks and Facebook is what economists and psychologists call "switching costs," the loss in productivity associated with changing from one task to another. Famed author Dr. Srikumar Rao attributes mindfulness over multitasking as one of his ten steps to happiness at work. He argues that constant distractions lead to late and poor-quality output, negatively impacting our sense of self-worth.

Last, there's a decline of close relationships. Gone are the days where Facebook merely complemented our real-life relationships. Now, Facebook is actually winning share of our core, off-line interactions. One participant summed it up simply: "We Facebook chat instead of meeting up. It's easier."

As Facebook adds new features such as video chat, it is fast becoming a viable substitute for meetings, relationship building, and even family get-togethers. But each time a Facebook interaction replaces a richer form of communication — such as an in-person meeting, a long phone call, or even a date at a restaurant — people miss opportunities to interact more deeply than Facebook could ever accommodate. As Facebook continues to add new features to help us connect more efficiently online, the battle to maintain off-line relationships will become even more difficult, which will impact their overall quality, especially in the long-run. Facebook is negatively affecting what psychology Professor Jeffrey Parker refers to as "the closeness properties of friendship."

So, what should we do to avoid these three traps? Recognizing that "quitting" Facebook altogether is unrealistic, we can still take measures to alter our usage patterns and strengthen our real-world relationships. Some useful tactics I've seen include blocking out designated time for Facebook, rather than visiting intermittently throughout the day; selectively trimming Facebook friends lists to avoid undesirable ex-partners and gossipy coworkers; and investing more time in building off-line relationships. The particularly courageous choose to delete Facebook from their smartphones and iPads, and log off the platform entirely for long stretches of time.

Is Facebook making you miserable? What other tips can you share?

This post is part of a series of blog posts by and about the new generation of purpose-driven leaders. 

Text extracted from: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/facebook_is_making_us_miserabl.html

The Complete List of All the Phones With Carrier IQ Spyware Installed

Responding to the US Senate request lead by Senator Al Franken, AT&T, Sprint, HTC, and Samsung have sent the list of all the phones with Carrier IQ spyware installed in them.
The carriers have also admitted that Carrier IQ also captured the content of text messages "under certain conditions."
Here's the complete list:

AT&T

AT&T claims about 900,000 users using phones with Carrier IQ. The software is active on eleven AT&T wireless consumer devices:
• Motorola Atrix 2
• Motorola Bravo
• Pantech Pursuit II
• Pantech Breeze 3
• Pantech P5000 (Link 2)
• Pantech Pocket
• Sierra Wireless Shockwave
• LG Thrill
• ZTE Avail
• ZTE Z331
• SEMC Xperia Play
It's also installed but not active "due to the potential for the software agent to interfere with the performance" of the following phones:
• HTC Vivid
• LG Nitro
• Samsung Skyrocket
Carrier IQ is also packaged in the free AT&T Mark the Spot application, available for Android and RIM.

Sprint

26 million active Sprint devices have the Carrier IQ software installed, says Sprint. That's almost half of all their subscribers, 53.4 million customers, so you can assume that they have it installed in all the Android phones of the manufacturers Sprint reported to the US senate:
• Audiovox
• Franklin
• HTC
• Huawei
• Kyocera
• LG
• Motorola
• Novatel
• Palmone
• Samsung
• Sanyo
• Sierra Wireless

Samsung

Samsung claims 25 million phones affected. It has directly installed Carrier IQ at the factory in the following models:
Sprint
• SPH-M800 (Samsung Instinct)
• SPH-M540 (Samsung Rant)
• SPH-M630 (Samsung Highnote)
• SPH-M810 (Samsung Instinct s30)
• SPH-M550 (Samsung Exclaim)
• SPH-M560 (Samsung Reclaim)
• SPH-M850 (Samsung Instinct HD)
• SPH-I350 (Samsung Intrepid)
• SPH-M900 (Samsung Moment)
• SPH-M350 (Samsung Seek)
• SPH-M570 (Samsung Restore)
• SPH-D700 (Samsung Epic 4G)
• SPH-M910 (Samsung Intercept)
• SPH-M920 (Samsung Transform)
• SPH-M260 (Samsung Factor)
• SPH-M380 (Samsung Trender)
• SPH-M820 (Samsung Galaxy Prevail)
• SPH-M580 (Samsung Replenish)
• SPH-D600 (Samsung Conquer 4G)
• SPH-M930 (Samsung Transform Ultra)
• SPH-D710 (Samsung Epic 4G Touch)
• SPH-M220
• SPH-M240
• SPH-M320
• SPH-M330
• SPH-M360
• SPH-P100
• SPH-Z400
T-Mobile
•T989 (Samsung Hercules)
•T679 (Samsung Galaxy W)
Cricket
• SCH-R500 (Samsung Hue)
• SCH-R631 (Samsung Messager Touch)
• SCH-R261 (Samsung Chrono)
• SCH-R380 (Samsung Freeform III)
AT&T
• SGH-i727 (Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket)

HTC

HTC preinstalled Carrier IQ spyware on about 6.3 million Android phones:
Sprint
• Snap
• Touch Pro 2
• Hero
• EVO 4G
• EVO Shift 4G
• EVO Design
T-Mobile
• Amaze 4G
AT&T
• Vivid

What is Carrier IQ?

Carrier IQ logs information about your whereabouts as well as other personal data such as browsing history, application usage and phone numbers.
The Carrier IQ application also captures the content of your text messages, according to AT&T. This happens when you are talking on the phone and you sned or receive a text message: "the CIQ software also captured the content of SMS text messages—when and only when—such messages were sent or received while a voice call was in progress." [US Senator Al Franken's response, AT&T Response (PDF), Sprint Response (PDF), Samsung Response (PDF), HTC Response (PDF), CarrierIQ response (PDF), via Verge and Business Week]

Text extracted from: http://gizmodo.com/5868732/the-complete-list-of-all-the-phones-with-carrier-iq-spyware-installed