Dave's shared items

"They're into everything, from the Russian prostitute rings in resorts like Cannes and St Tropez to gassing tourists in their villa and stealing everything they've got. Bosses are now based here permanently, with foot soldiers working for them, often flying in for set periods before returning home with their profits in cash. The numbers really are unprecedented at the moment."—a French police officer, on the "military-like precision" with which Russian mafia are said to be taking over the French Riviera. (Telegraph UK)

It's finally, really, actually ... maybe going to happen at this point. The rumors are true: Gearbox Software and 2K Games have taken on the Herculean task of completing and releasing 3D Realms' unfinished Duke Nukem Forever. The project was officially unveiled today at PAX during a livestreamed presentation at the 2K Games booth and announced for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. "It's coming out in 2011," Gearbox president Randy Pitchford said during the presentation. (Of course, we're skeptical about any release date associated with this particular title.)

Gearbox began finishing Duke Nukem Forever in late 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal. "Clearly the game hadn't been finished at 3D Realms but a lot of content had been created," Pitchford told WSJ.

"We're in the polishing phase now. This is a game where we can not make a promise we can not fulfill," Pitchford added. "We need to get past the shock and awe, and then we can go to all the retailers and first parties and work out a launch plan."

Duke Nukem Forever is a sequel to Duke Nukem 3D and will feature both a single-player campaign and multiplayer. "Aliens come and say they're going to be our friends, and Duke knows this isn't going to work out," Pitchford revealed of the plot. "Duke once again is in the pivotal spot and it's up to him to save the world."

[Image credit: Kurt Miller]

Duke Nukem Forever coming '2011' on Xbox 360, PS3 & PC, courtesy of Gearbox originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First there was the discovery of dozens of bottles of 200-year-old champagne, but now salvage divers have recovered what they believe to be the world's oldest beer, taking advertisers' notion of 'drinkability' to another level.

Via Prolly Is Not Probably.

Amino acids that can block ultraviolet light are commonly harvested from algae, and used in cosmetics like Helioguard 365. Now researchers at Harvard have discovered the genes responsible for producing these materials and, with a little gene tweaking, managed get E. coli bacteria to produce them too. Now that bacteria can produce the sunblock, can a new product be far behind? I can't wait for a friendly colony of bacteria to live on my skin, and prevent me from getting burned. More »

"What Would a Zombie Do?" Spinner Folder – $4.95

Poor zombies – being the undead is hard work and rotting brains don’t exactly make quick decisions. But take heart, this What Would a Zombie Do? Spinner Folder (yes, with a disembodied zombie arm spinner) over at the NeatoShop surely will make their lives (deaths?) a lot easier!

Link | More Fun Back to School Items | Fun and Unusual Office & Desk Items

Photo: Rebecca A. Pyles

Scientists studying a species of Australian lizard called the yellow-bellied three-toed skink discovered that they’re seeing evolution in action: the lizard lays eggs on coasts but birth babies in mountains.

Evolutionary records shows that nearly a hundred reptile lineages have independently made the transition from egg-laying to live birth in the past, and today about 20 percent of all living snakes and lizards give birth to live young only.

But modern reptiles that have live young provide only a single snapshot on a long evolutionary time line, said study co-author James Stewart, a biologist at East Tennessee State University. The dual behavior of the yellow-bellied three-toed skink therefore offers scientists a rare opportunity.

"By studying differences among populations that are in different stages of this process, you can begin to put together what looks like the transition from one [birth style] to the other."

Link – Thanks Ethan!

This image is stunning. And not just because, well, it’s all explodey and stuff:

[Click to explodenate.]

The three panels show a 1986 test of a Tomahawk cruise missile. The missile traveled 640 km (400 mile) low over the terrain to detonate above the target, a decommissioned fighter plane. It’s pretty clear the test was a success.

But what caught my eye immediately was the middle panel. Let me zoom it for you:

[Click to hugely embiggen!]

[Note: added noon PDT Friday: There's a lot of discussion in the comments below on both the veracity of this test and my interpretation. I've been on travel the past couple of days, finishing up some Bad Universe stuff, so I haven't been able to look into this. So I admit I might be wrong, but won't know one way or another until I can sit and look into this. Stay Tuned.]

Now look carefully there. When the missile exploded, the expanding debris cloud from the vaporized weapon was probably moving faster than the speed of sound. Even so, in this second picture you can see none of it had touched the plane yet when the shot was snapped.

Yet look at the plane: it’s on fire. How can that be?

It’s because of something that moves much faster even than supersonic debris: light. When the warhead exploded, it sent out a huge pulse of heat in the form of infrared photons, light that travels about a million times faster than sound. As far as that flash of heat was concerned, the expanding debris was standing perfectly still! There was plenty of time for that heat to get to the plane and set it aflame before the explosion itself could reach that far.

Note that third picture, taken from an oblique angle. You can match the features in the fireball to the ones in the second picture. The ground around the plane is lit up by the blast, and again no debris had yet reached the plane itself.

It’s a little counterintuitive that the explosion works this way. We think of explosions as being made of expanding stuff, but it turns out that light has its role to fill as well. In fact, this is important in other ways: one idea to push Earth-crossing asteroids out of the way is to light off a nuke nearby. The force of the explosion itself isn’t all that great in space, because there’s no air to create a shock wave. The only momentum you give the rock directly is the expanding debris from the bomb itself, which isn’t all that much. But the blast of heat/light is immense, and can heat the asteroid past its vaporization point. The flash-vaporized rock expands, pushing on the asteroid like a rocket motor.

Unfortunately, modeling of this shows it doesn’t work terribly well compared to other methods (like simply slamming the asteroid with a space probe like a linebacker hitting a quarterback). Still, you need to consider all the details when thinking about things like this. The devil hides in them, y’know!

Oh, and one more thing. This Tomahawk test was done 24 years ago. How much has the technology improved since then?

Yikes.

Rebecca Crane matched the geography of US states with planets in Star Wars to create a composite map of the United States. Texas is Kessel, Oregon is Endor, and Maine is Naboo. Crane writes:

Planets were assigned based on partial terrain, landmarks that correlate with the planet and state, types of people in the state and planet, famous landmarks, or slightly randomly selected (but loosely based on facts) from my brother and myself.

Link via Geekologie