Hogwarts is Accepting Online Students – Enroll Now!

I have some very good news for all of you Harry Potter fans out there…and let’s face it – who isn’t a Harry Potter fan? If you thought your adventure with Hogwarts was all over when you finished reading Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows for the seventh time or when you got back into your car after visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, there is hope on the horizon for you.

If you’ve read the books, (and most of us have read the books…once or twice) than you know how easy it was to place yourself alongside Harry and Co. A testament to the prose skills of J.K. Rowling, it didn’t take many pages at all before you actually felt like you were sitting in class with Hermione, or soaring over the Quidditch field with Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor team. In short, we all felt like we were vicariously studying at Hogwarts as well. Well now, fans don’t have to live through Harry and his friends any longer, because they can enroll themselves into online classes at Hogwarts this very moment.

Enroll Now At Hogwarts!

Whoever is behind this website (it’s not J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros.) has done an amazing job of making Hogwarts look like a “real” online school. After you answer a few questions you get an official letter of acceptance signed by Professor McGonagall herself. Who wouldn’t want to frame that and put it on their wall?

Probably a disappointment to some, there is no sorting hat – you have to choose which house you want to belong to. And after you do that, you can sign up for your first year of classes. Here’s the neat part – your classes actually have assignments (essays) you have to complete which will be graded by someone and sent back to you.

While students won’t actually get to board the Hogwarts Express, this is just about the closest you can get to actually living out the books.

What do you think? Go ahead and check out the site here.

 

 

 

Next StoryIneda Raises $17 Million For Wearable Device Chip R&D

Lamps That Spy On People & Tweet Their Conversations

Be careful what you say in public. No, really – be careful what you say in public because you just never know who or what may be listening to your words. It could be the person sitting at the table beside you. It could be the waitress who overhears part of your conversation as she’s coming to take your order. It could be the person standing behind you as you’re waiting in line. Or, it could be one of the lamps residing on top of your table. Especially if you’re in New York City. I wish I was kidding, but I’m totally serious.

It has recently come to light that 2 people who wanted to try their hand at hidden surveillance did just that in the Big Apple. They went to Washington Square Park and put hidden wi-fi enabled listening devices inside of lamps at a bank, a library, McDonalds, and of all places, someone’s bedroom. But that’s not the end of the story. After the conversations are recorded by the lamps, they’re sent to Mechanical Turk, where they are transcribed and then tweeted out on Twitter. This has been going on for about 7 months under the Twitter handle @Conversnitch. Kyle McDonald and Brian House, who are behind the spying, state that they want people to be extra cautious about being watched.

That Lamp Does More Than Just Light Up The Room

While this may seem (and probably is) slightly unethical, the pair seem to want to teach us all a lesson, that if they’re able to do this, just imagine what the government is able to do without our knowledge. It’s scary when you actually stop and think about it.

So, that old adage “be careful what you say” is never more true than in today’s world, because you never know who – or, what – is listening to your conversations.

 

Star Wars with Unconventional Sound Effects

For as long as there has been Star Wars, there have been people who have tried to duplicate the sound effects with their mouths. The problem is, some sounds are harder than others to replicate, such as that of the lightsaber or the blaster. Go ahead – give it your best shot. But just because the sounds that come from our mouths usually sound nothing like the sounds from the screen, that doesn’t make them any less hilarious. And usually, we’re just making the sounds to entertain ourselves, our children, or our friends; we’re not usually recording them for the whole world to hear. At least most people aren’t, anyway.

But there are some who release their sound effects to the world, such as the video below. And the result is pretty funny. In the video, the regular character voices are left intact, but most everything else is replaced with sounds made from the human mouth. Have a look for yourself. And while you’re watching, ask yourself: what is it about Star Wars sounds that makes them so fun to imitate?

What do you think? Could you make better sound effects with your mouth? While the original sounds could never really be outdone, it is fun to try.

   

Build Your Own Iron Man Suit!

Two friends have worked together to create a replica of the Iron Man suit, complete with moving parts. Greg Hatter built the actual suit, while Jerome Kelty got some of the parts moving.

The suit, which has been made from molded fiberglass, has been designed so that the helmet, forearm missile, hip pods and the back flaps can all be moved. Complete with the illuminated arc reactor on the chest, the suit also has boots that play a sound effect when you move around.

To get these parts moving, Jerome used an Arduino Pro and three Arduino Pro Minis. To make it easier to remove, the helmet can be controlled wirelessly via an Xbee radio. By attaching RFID tags and an RFID reader on to the gloves, all the moving parts can be triggered.

If you want to build your own animatronic Iron Man suit, then head over to Hack A Day or Instructables where Jerome Kelty has posted detailed logs as well as the code you’ll need for the task.

Sleep Apnea Implant Has Been Approved in U.S.

I am being one-hundred percent honest when I say that my biggest pet-peeve in this world is hearing people snore. When I hear snoring I just get irritated. Right off the bat. It doesn’t matter if it’s quiet snoring, medium snoring, or “who’s cutting down a tree in my bedroom?” snoring. When I hear snoring I am put on edge. I can’t relax, I can’t sleep, and all I can think about is trying to figure out a way to get whoever it is to stop snoring. Permanently. When I was younger I even tried putting a clothespin on my brother’s noise, but the only effect that had was him waking up, throwing the clothespin across the room, and then starting to snore again.

The fact is a lot of people around the world snore while they sleep. Some snore because their nasal passages are blocked due to colds, etc., while others snore regularly due to a condition known as sleep apnea. Those who suffer from sleep apnea have a hard time breathing while they sleep, so they snore loudly, and they wake up several times during the night because of their labored breathing. It’s definitely no fun for those with the condition, and it’s not a picnic for those who sleep in the same room as them, either. While there are several methods of treatment for sleep apnea, the FDA has just approved the first kind of sleep apnea implant.

It’s known as the Inspire Upper Airway Stimulation therapy. While all of the details are not known, what is known is this: the device is surgically implanted into a person’s chest, and it will have leads that help to stimulate nerves which will ultimately help them to (theoretically) breathe better as they sleep. The implant would be powered on by a remote control.

If all goes according to plan, these implants should be available toward the end of 2014. It sounds like they’ll help a lot of people to get a good night’s sleep.

This Woman Spent $15,000 to Look Good in Selfies

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever spent a huge amount of money on? A gigantic TV? A video game system? A motorcycle? Diamond jewelry? While “expensive” is a bit of a relative term anymore, I think most of us would agree that $15,000 isn’t exactly pocket change. (Unless your last name is Buffet or Gates). And while I could see spending $15,000 (and upwards) on a vehicle or some necessity like that, I can’t imagine spending that much to look good in pictures I take of myself.

Yet that’s exactly what a 38-year-old woman from Los Angeles did. Triana Lavey, who works as a talent manager, recently shelled out $15,000 so she would look better when taking selfies. The $15,000 paid for a chin implant, a nose job, and some fat grafting. She also gets regularly budgeted Botox injections to her face. I realize selfies are slowly taking over social media, but are they really worth that much? Ms. Lavey would at least say so.

I care about my own appearance, don’t get me wrong, but there’s no way in this world I’d spend that much money just so I’d look good in a selfie. That makes me wonder – what’s the big deal with selfies anyway? Why do we have to take a picture of ourselves anywhere and everywhere we roam? I’m just as guilty as everyone else, and I have absolutely no idea why. It almost seems that we, as a culture, are falling a little too in love with ourselves, walking somewhere along the same path as Narcissus. Hopefully someone will save us before we all wither from staring too long at ourselves.

What do you think? Could you imagine spending that much to look better in selfies? Let us know in the comments section below!

Passenger Films Plane’s Burning Engine With Mobile

While I’ve only flown a few times in my life, I’m not the biggest fan of flying. Don’t misunderstand me – I like being up in the air and gazing down at the tiny world below, but something about the whole experience is just a bit scary to me. After all, there’s more than a few things that could go wrong over the course of the trek through the air, such as, lightning storms, mechanical failures, passengers with body odor worse than your own, running out of jet fuel, and then there’s the obvious risk of the pilot and the co-pilot falling asleep in the cockpit and having forgotten to turn on the autopilot. And if none of that happens, there’s always the off chance that the plane’s engine will catch on fire mid-flight.

On a recent Australian flight, the latter is exactly what happened. Brad McCoy, a passenger on the flight, looked out his window and noticed the shooting flames coming from one of the plan’s engines. Now think about this for a moment – if this were you, what would you do? Would you pray? Would you try and calm everyone down as they prepared for the inevitable? Would you just stare death in the face? Or, perhaps would you be more like Mr. McCoy, who simply took out his cell phone and started to record the whole ordeal.

Luckily, for everyone who was involved, this story had a happy ending landing, and thankfully none of the 92 passengers who were onboard were physically injured at all.

Now, I have to ask – what kind of world do we live in where we record our supposed final moments instead of actually living in them? Regardless, I guess he now has an interesting video to show anyone who’ll watch.

Again, what would you do in the above situation? Let us know in the comments.

Florida Man Used Cell Phone Jammer On Highway For 2 Years

I don’t exactly know how you feel about people talking on their cell phones while driving, but it certainly annoys some people more than it does others. While there are those who claim it’s perfectly safe, there are still others who think it distracts a driver too much to safely operate a vehicle. Even if you hate the fact that some people drive and talk, you’ve probably never gone to any kind of extreme measures to prevent it from happening around you. After all, what could you even do in the first place? I guess you could try giving out dirty looks until each car around you ends their call(s), but good luck with that. Or, you could just go out and get yourself a cell phone jammer and prevent anyone around you within a certain radius from making any type of cell phone call.

At least that’s the length one Florida man went to so he could make sure all of the drivers on the road around him focused solely on their driving

Jason Humphreys, a 60-year-old from Florida, used a personal cell phone jammer for 2 years whenever he decided to drive anywhere.

Obviously, while he was using the cell phone jammer, no vehicles within a certain distance were able to make or receive any type of phone calls. This worked out well for Humphreys until certain phone providers were noticing some peculiar activity around the town of Tampa. Eventually, it was discovered that certain frequencies which jammed cell phones were coming out of the vehicle driven by Humphreys.

It took a while, but Humphreys was eventually pulled over by the police who found the jammer in the car. He now must pay $48,000 in fines. Jeez – all this because he didn’t want anyone to talk on the phone while they were driving.

EPA’s New Car Emissions Standards Will Clear the Air (Op-Ed)

Peter Lehner is executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). This Op-Ed is adapted from a post that appeared onthe NRDC blogSwitchboard. Lehner contributed this article to LiveScience’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

When I worked for the City of New York, I often asked people what they felt was the worst environmental problem. Many said tailpipe pollution. Emissions from the tailpipes of cars and trucks seemed particularly insulting because — as we all walked our kids to school — the tailpipes seemed to be spewing black smoke just at the level of our kids’ heads.

Cars and trucks have become a lot cleaner since then, but exhaust from vehicle tailpipes is still a major source of air pollution, responsible for up to 45 percent of soot and smog-forming pollution in many areas of the country. Air pollution still sends thousands of kids and adults to the emergency room every year with asthma attacks or breathing difficulty, and keeps hundreds of thousands more home from school or work; it can even shorten the lives of people with heart or lung trouble.

The latest set of tailpipe and clean-gasoline standards announced this week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will help reduce smog and soot, and clear the air for millions of Americans — saving thousands of lives and up to $19 billion in health costs each year.

The EPA’s new standards will reduce the amount of sulfur in gasoline by two-thirds. This will have an immediate impact on air quality. Sulfur, in addition to being a source of air pollution, builds up in a car’s exhaust system and makes emissions-control less effective. When every gas-powered car on the road fills up with cleaner, lower-sulfur gasoline, they’ll all start running cleaner — even older vehicles. Smog-forming pollution is expected drop by 260,000 tons by 2018, a year after the new standards take effect — that’s the equivalent of replacing roughly 30 million of today’s cars with zero-emission vehicles.

With less sulfur in the fuel tank to gum up the works, automakers can move ahead with cleaner engines and exhaust systems optimized for cleaner gasoline. Vehicles built in 2017 and beyond will produce 80-percent less smog-forming pollution, and 70-percent less particle pollution — the soot — than cars built under today’s tailpipe standards. Soot is a particularly harmful type of air pollution, because very tiny particles can lodge deep in the lungs or even enter the bloodstream. It’s been linked to premature death, heart attacks, aggravated asthma and other heart and lung problems.

The American public has expressed strong support for the new standards, which will prevent, according to EPA estimates, as many as 2,000 premature deaths each year, as well as thousands of hospital visits and 1.4 million days of missed work, school absences or activity restrictions. By 2030, these standards will save Americans anywhere from $6.7 billion to $19 billion in health costs each year. The additional cost for cleaner gasoline will be less than a penny per gallon.

If you’re a topical expert — researcher, business leader, author or innovator — and would like to contribute an op-ed piece,

Automakers, eager to move forward with more clean-car technologies, support the new standards. The oil industry, however, has been a major roadblock against getting these standards through, protesting that meeting them would be prohibitively expensive. But analysis from the EPA, and even some oil-industry analysts, showed their numbers didn’t add up.

The oil industry voiced similar concerns about earlier sulfur reductions, which were achieved successfully, and objected to the removal of lead from gasoline, which NRDC began advocating for in the 1970s. Lead standards, which NRDC helped push through in the United States and then worked to expand globally, have effectively eliminated lead in gasoline around the world, resulting in a remarkable 90-percent drop in blood-lead levels globally, and an estimated $2.4 trillion in annual health, societal and economic benefits. This is truly amazing public-health victory, achieved at a fraction of the cost the industry originally claimed.

Like removing lead from gasoline, reducing sulfur and tailpipe emissions is an important win for clean air and public health. Clearing the air of lung-damaging pollution will save thousands of lives. It means fewer trips to the emergency room with an acute asthma attack or irregular heartbeat; fewer days when asthmatic kids can’t go outside and play. These are cost-effective, health-protective standards that will produce real benefits for millions of Americans who can look forward to breathing cleaner air.

Astronomers Discover ‘Death Star’

Astronomers have claimed that vast O-type stars are littered across the galaxy destroying young planets before they have had time to form.  A research team from US and Canadian are using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to discover that massive quantities of ultraviolet radiation from stars 16-times the mass of our own Sun can destroy the raw materials for fresh planetary systems.

The researchers were tracking stars and protostars in the Orion Nebula when they found that any protostars within 0.1 light years (approx 600bn miles) of an O-type star would have their raw material wiped out by the radiation before it even had a chance to cluster together.  Astronomer Rita Mann explained the situation, “Using ALMA, we looked at dozens of embryonic stars with planet-forming potential and, for the first time, found clear indications where protoplanetary disks simply vanished under the intense glow of a neighbouring massive star”

Scientist estimate that it takes millions of years for gases and stellar dust to begin to combine into something denser and over further time, form into planets. The raw materials in these pre-clusters are believed to come from the explosions of massive stars going supernova.  James Di Francesco, National Research Council of Canada said, “Massive stars are hot and hundreds of times more luminous than our Sun. Their energetic photons can quickly deplete a nearby protoplanetary disk by heating up its gas, breaking it up, and sweeping it away.”

Telescopes such as Hubble have previously allowed astronomers to view very young protostars, (known as proplyds) in Orion; they have lacked the skill to recognize how much mass each one had. But using ALMA meant researcher teams could look inside these forms, to reveal what dust was contained within them.  The team says that with future investigations they will hopefully indicate how ‘common’ solar systems such as our own are.  Who knows? Maybe there are a couple of ‘Sith’ trying to control star systems?

If you have any sensible comments regarding this story, please leave your comments in the section below.