Mark Willis

The Google Carbon Cycle

January 12, 2009 – 9:22 am

“A google search produces 7g of carbon dioxide”

Two search requests on the internet website Google produce as much carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle, according to a Harvard University academic.

US physicist Alex Wissner-Gross has conducted research into the environmental impact of “googling”.

A recent study estimated the global IT sector generated as much greenhouse gas as the world’s airlines put together.

The Harvard academic argues that these carbon emissions stem from the electricity used by the computer terminal and by the power consumed by the large data centres operated by Google around the world.

An estimated 200 million internet searches are carried out each day.

[BBC]

Google says

“In fact, in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query.”

So what? When you Google - trees can breathe easier!

Google is a drop in the ocean when it comes to CO2 production. Doing such research on this is stupid. Jealous Harvard students :)

Wood found on Mars?!

December 5, 2008 – 9:56 am

Images have “leaked” out from Nasa that has got some attention from tree-hugging hippies…

Moon wood
Click for full high res photo.

Is this timber from alien trees?

The NASA explanation

“What you’re seeing is a piece of flat, platy, layered sulfur-rich outcrop rock like we’ve seen almost everywhere the Opportunity rover has been in Meridiani Planum,” said Bell. “Sometimes, like in this case, those flat, platy rocks have been tilted or dislodged, this one probably from the forces associated with the huge impact crater that formed nearby.”

Well, if it is a tree - it probably came from this martian ‘forest’…
Mars forest

Obviously it does look like a piece of wood for us, but if trees did grow on mars - why would they need to grow trunks? There is no competition from other plants - thus no need to grow high. Also why would the trees grow the same as Earth trees…. UNLESS THEY WERE PLANTED BY HUMANS IN AN ATTEMPT TO SETTLE ON MARS. ;)

[Source, and more on this story]

Gears of War 2 Campaign Video - Act 3 Boss

November 9, 2008 – 9:23 am

Learning the act 3 boss fight (big fish thing) in hardcore co-op.

Gears of War 2 Horde Wave 50 Video - River Map

November 8, 2008 – 9:23 pm

Myself, ‘DrMong’ and 4 others battled the locust horde for all 50 waves. I documented the 50th wave.

Sorry for the low quality.
More videos coming soon!

For a higher quality version, go to http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m49nIB7oZN8 and click "Watch in high quality"

Horde on River - Wave 50

Safe.

November 6, 2008 – 10:25 am

“We must work together….”

Obama - safe blud

Oh no! Not the Norwegian lemmings (Lemmus lemmus).

November 6, 2008 – 9:46 am

Lemmings!
Climate change is bringing wetter winters to southern Norway, a bleak prospect for the region’s lemmings.

The snow is not stable enough, they think, to provide winter shelter.

Writing in the journal Nature, the researchers suggest the lack of Norwegian lemmings is affecting other animals such as foxes and owls.

Rather than hibernating, lemmings spend the winter living in the space between the ground and a stable layer of snow above.

Dry winters would allow large numbers to survive until spring, resulting in a population explosion.

On occasions, there were so many that snowploughs were deployed to clear squashed animals from roads.

These years often saw Norwegian lemmings (Lemmus lemmus) having to compete hard for food.

The desperate search led some to jump off high ground into water, leading to the popular - but wrong - assumption that they were prone to commit collective suicide.

[Full story]

‘Buy why are the lemmings gone?’
They will survive, there is an environmental cycle - it’s not climate change. That’s why we always hear “Hottest year since 1978″, “Wettest month since 1962″ and so on. It’s always SINCE. The cycle is probably about 100 years or so - but as people don’t live to see the cycle companies use “climate change” to sell their carbon neutral products.

Giant Lego Man Ahoy!

October 31, 2008 – 2:46 pm

Giant Lego Man
Mystery surrounds the appearance of a giant Lego man on a beach in Brighton.

The 6ft-tall (1.8m) red, green and yellow figure has the slogan “No Real Than You Are” painted on the front and some words written in Dutch.
It is not known if the figure washed ashore or was carried to the seafront. A Lego man with the same slogan appeared on a Dutch beach last year.
[More on this story...]

Could this be some kind of marketing by the Danish Lego company? Just throw massive lego men into the sea and let nature deliver them somewhere! If so it looks to be working, media attention is resulting in alot of free advertisment…

In August 2007 a giant Lego toy, bearing a close resemblance to the Brighton figure, mysteriously appeared on Zandvoort beach in Holland.

And Like the Brighton Lego man, there was no official explanation about where the giant plastic toy had appeared from.

The blue and yellow figure was pulled out of the sea and bore the same slogan “No Real Than You Are”.

Gears of War & Cannon FS100.

October 31, 2008 – 1:47 pm

A few weeks ago I treated myself to a Cannon FS100 camera. It’s a lovely little camera with a powerful 45x optical zoom (some “smart zoom” feature - it’s only actually 39x optical) and 2000x digital (which is just stupidly pixelated). It records onto SDHC cards, and comes with some software to save the videos to your PC with ease! It’s great, and not too expensive either!

I was testing the camera out in different situations, then with the approaching launch of Gears of War 2 (and my gears of war fever), I decided to test my camera on my getting-on-a-bit Samsung 28inch widescreen CRT TV.

I set two tests:

- Finally finish GOW1 in insane mode.
- See how well my FS100 records TV (by just pointing it at the screen).

The Result

(After both WMV compression and youtube compression)

Yes, it does record quite well!

Beckham going to Spurs? No.

October 27, 2008 – 11:17 am

UPDATE:

He’s going to AC Millan as first thought.
Source: BBC

Earlier in the week:

Some people (tabloids/online news) have started to report on the possibility of David Beckham going on loan to Tottenham Hotspur.

New manager Harry Redknapp is allegidly after him. And [here] it claims Beckham himself would prefer to go to spurs.

Why would he?

Before he was signed as a schoolboy to Manchester Utd, he was playing for and at Tottenham as a youth - so he would be going back to his roots. He grew up in nearby Chingford. Also his home is in Hertfordshire - only a short drive in his supercar to the North London club. Also of course his family would be important to him.

Or he goes to AC Millan, at the age of 33. He don’t need the fame nor the money which he would get there.

New Spurs boss Harry Redknapp is lining up a last-minute raid to scupper the England hero’s loan deal to Italian giants AC Milan.

Under Harry’s dream plan, the 33-year-old dad-of-three will move back to his Hertfordshire home and play for the struggling north London outfit instead.

Insiders believe the move will also help his marriage to Victoria, 34, amid growing crisis claims.
[Daily Star]

While the move seems one mutually and wholly beneficial to both Milan and Beckham himself, he made some startling declarations this morning. “To be honest, I am happy with the Milan move but would have much rather joined Tottenham,” said the England international.

“I wanted to avoid going straight from the MLS to Calcio if I could - it’s a bit of a leap at my age.

“I think Tottenham could have been the perfect stepping stone. After all, a lot of people compare the MLS with the Championship, don’t they?

“My wife Victoria was fully supportive of the Spurs switch as well, she thought it would be better as my image as a footballer.
[Goal.com]

Obama wannabe tramp wants change too!

October 17, 2008 – 1:30 pm

Obama tramp. I just thought I’d leave this here…. :)