Mr Pepper's Pop Post

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

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

Pic: Visual Loop, Google Reader

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

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.

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

Source: NDTV.com New Delhi:  The much-awaited Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was launched at the Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Thursday. The move will allow users to switch operators without losing their phone numbers and will force telecom providers to improve the quality of their services. Addressing a press conference after the launch, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said, "It is a historic moment, we have demonstrated the customer is king. The whole process will not take more than seven days and cost Rs. 19 only which is likely to be reduced further." Speaking about the MNP, Sibal said, "This is the most complex exercise ever done. We want that everybody must compete and improve." I have announced a 100-day programme and we will stick to it, Sibal added. MNP services were first launched in Haryana in November last year. Nevertheless, companies like Idea Cellular and Vodafone started marketing their services to subscribers in other parts of the country that are loo

Google on January 19 2011 Celebrating Cézanne's 172nd birthday Google tweeted this morning that the logo you see on the home page was first created as a real oil painting by a Googler and then digitized. Google posted the following picture to show off the real painting. Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th century Impressionism and the early 20th century's new line of artistic enquiry, Cubism. The line attributed to both Matisse and Picasso that Cézanne "is the father of us all" cannot be easily dismissed. Cézanne's work demonstrates a mastery of design, colour, tone, composition and draftsmanship. His often repetitive, sensitive and exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He

Today is the 202nd birth anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe, one of America's most posthumously celebrated authors. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. List of Poe's works Tales --------------------------------------------------------------------     "The Black Cat"     "The Cask of Amontillado"     "A Descent into the Maelström"     "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar"     "The Fall of the House of Usher

Final Fantasy XIII is told in two worlds; Cocoon, safe, isolated and civilized, and Pulse, dangerous, wild, and diseased. Cocoon was created by supernatural beings, the fal’Cie, where tens of millions of people live out their lives, away from the dangers of the world below. The fal’Cie, or Crystals, reside in Pulse but have designed the advanced society of Cocoon as the ultimate home for humanity. The degree of isolation is so great that anyone that might have come in contact with or has a connection with Pulse is asked to migrate out of Cocoon. It exists as an airborne habitat, permanently separated from Pulse, which is believed to be the entire planet below. The story follows Lightning, a young woman whose true identity and agenda is unknown. With connections to the Cocoon military, she is searching for the Pulse fal’Cie with her old army acquaintance, Sazh Katzroy. Snow Villiers leads Team Nora, a militant group rebelling against Cocoon’s Holy Government and army, PSICOM. Oerba Dia

A 100km stretch from Baguio to Sagada in the Phillipines A road linking Kuwait to Basra, Iraq littered with debris and hundreds of vehicles that were destroyed in the Gulf War The M56 Lena Highway in Russia A narrow road that snakes its way through Skipper’s Canyon in New Zealand The Guoliang Tunnel in the Taihang mountains in China Bolivia’s Road of Death that connects many isolated villages in that country

Plastic Logic is a spin-off company from Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory and specializes in polymer transistors and electronics. The company was founded in 2000. The principal product the company claims it has developed is a flexible A4-size and robust plastic electronic display the thickness of a credit-card. The headquarters of Plastic Logic is in Mountain View, California. First factory of Plastic Logic was opened on November 11, 2003 in Cambridge, UK. A factory for the mass-production of the display units was opened on September 17, 2008 in Dresden, Germany. Plastic Logic has raised more than $200m in venture capital to develop its technology. In the news Rusnano promises $650m investment Jan 18 (Reuters) - British display screen maker  Plastic Logic has won the promise of a $650 million investment from Russia's state-owned Rusnano, the Financial Times said on Tuesday in an unsourced report. Nanotechnology corporation Rusnano will take an immediate stake of abou

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

who ONE is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa, by raising public awareness and pressuring political leaders to support smart and effective policies and programs that are saving lives, helping to put kids in school and improving futures. Cofounded by Bono and other campaigners, ONE is nonpartisan and works closely with African activists and policy makers. what Backed by a movement of 2 million ONE members, ONE achieves change through advocacy. We hold world leaders to account for the commitments they've made to fight extreme poverty, and we campaign for better development policies, more effective aid and trade reform. We also support greater democracy, accountability and transparency to ensure policies to beat poverty are implemented effectively. ONE is not a grant-making organization and we do not solicit funding from the general public. As we have always said, at ONE, 'we're not ask

Celebrated this year on January 17, 2011, the holiday falls on the third Monday of January every year, right around King's birthday, which is January 15. King would have been 82 this year. "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,  From every mountainside, let freedom ring!"  hear  I have a dream    I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still s

    Natalie Portman has insisted she is feeling calm about her first pregnancy. The actress, who is expecting a child with fiancé Benjamin Millepied, told Us Weekly: 'I feel great, I'm through my first trimester.”   What's making the news now? A New York film production company has sued its former president, claiming "gross lapses in judgment" cost the company millions of dollars in lost revenue and a producer credit on the movie "Black Swan." Read more here _______________________________________________________ Golden Globes winners 2011  While Colin Firth took home the Best Actor award at the Golden Globes 2011, while Natalie Portman took home the Best Actress gong.  1. Best Motion Picture – Drama The Social Network 2. Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Drama Natalie Portman - Black Swan 3. Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama   Colin Firth - The King's Speech 4. Best Motion Picture – Comedy