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Google 31 March

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Google is celebrating Robert Bunsen's 200th birthday today. Google logo, 31 March 2011. Online Encyclopaedia ROBERT WILHELM VON BUNSEN (1811-1899) , German chemist, was born at Gottingen on the 31st of March 1811, his father, Christian Bunsen, being chief librarian and professor of modern philology at the university . He himself entered the university in 1828, and in 1834 became Privat-docent . In 1836 he became teacher of chemistry at the Polytechnic School of Cassel, and in 1839 took up the appointment of professor of chemistry at Marburg, where he remained till 1851 . In 1852, after a brief period in Breslau, he was appointed to the chair of chemistry at Heidelberg, where he spent the rest of his life, in spite of an urgent invitation to migrate to Berlin as successor to E . Mitscherlich . He retired from active work in 1889, and died at Heidelberg on the 16th of August 1899 . The first re-search by which attention was drawn to Bunsen's abilities was concerned with the

Pale Blue Dot

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Source: Wikipedia The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by Voyager 1 from a record distance, showing it against the vastness of space. By request of Carl Sagan, NASA commanded the Voyager 1 spacecraft, having completed its primary mission and now leaving the Solar System, to turn its camera around and to take a photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space. Subsequently, the title of the photograph was used by Sagan as the primary title of his 1994 book, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. In the book, Sagan related his thoughts on a deeper meaning of the photograph: From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands

Global Corruption Index

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Pic: Visual Loop, Google Reader

Adam Sandler's Lifetime horoscope

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Aquarius (Jan 23 - Feb 22) -  You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You lie a great deal. You make the same mistakes repeatedly because you are stupid. Everyone thinks you are a fucking jerk. Pisces (Feb 23 - Mar 22) - You are a pioneer type and think most people are dickheads. You are quick to reprimand, impatient, and full of advice. You do nothing but piss-off everyone you come in contact with. You are a prick. Aries (Mar 23 - April 22) - You have a wild imagination and often think you are being followed by the FBI or CIA. You have minor influence on your friends and people resent you for flaunting your power. You lack confidence and are a general dipshit. Taurus (April 23 - May 22) - You are practical and persistent. You have a dogged determination and work like hell. Most people think you are stubborn and bullheaded. You are nothing but a goddamned communist. Gemini (May 23 - June 22) - You are a quick and intelligent thinker. People like you because you

CNN: 3 types of plutonium detected at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant

Three types of plutonium have turned up amid the radioactive contamination on the grounds of the earthquake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, its owner reported Monday. The plutonium is a byproduct of nuclear reactions that is also part of the fuel mix at the damaged No. 3 reactor. It was found in soil at five different points inside the plant grounds, the Tokyo Electric Power Company said late Monday. Plutonium can be a serious health hazard if inhaled or ingested, but external exposure poses little health risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Crack the code!

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Boy George returns Cypriot icon he’s had for 26 years

Jan 20: The legendary pop icon Boy George has returned a Cypriot church icon that he bought in the eighties, after a Bishop saw it hanging on the singer’s wall on a TV show. The discovery was made by the Cyprus Orthodox Church’s representative in Brussels, Bishop Porfyrios of Neapolis while watching an interview with the former “culture club” and “Jesus Loves You” front man. Porfyrios told the BBC’s PM show “On left side of fireplace at his house during the interview we located in Boy George’s living room an icon of the Jesus Christ Pantokrator” Suspecting the icon to be one of the many stolen and sold on after 1974 invasion, Porfyrios decided to delve deeper. He said: “Afterwards we researched the story with expert accounts, and we found it stems from Cyprus, specifically from the church of St Charalambous in the occupied village of New Chorio Kithrea” After verifying this with the priest from St Charalambous, he contacted the singer and told him about the icon’s provenance and he was