Particles Recorded Exceeding the Speed of Light

http://io9.com/5842947/scientific-breakthrough-physicists-at-cern-have-recorded-...

Antonio Ereditato, who works at the CERN particle physics center on the Franco-Swiss border, told Reuters that measurements over three years showed the neutrinos moving 60 nanoseconds quicker than light over a distance of 730 km between Geneva and Gran Sasso, Italy.

"We have high confidence in our results. But we need other colleagues to do their tests and confirm them," he said.

If confirmed, the discovery would overturn a key part of Albert Einstein's 1905 theory of special relativity, which says that nothing in the universe can travel faster than light.

Often, when fans say they could have done a better job than someone perceived to have ruined the object of their devotion, it’s just a lot of hot air. Unless, of course, that fan is That 70s Show‘s Topher Grace, who recently treated a group of 50 people to a screening of his pet project: an 85-minute recut of the Star Wars prequels. You read that correctly. Topher Grace re-edited George Lucas’ three prequel films – which run a collective 418 minutes – into one, coherent, feature length film. And, apparently, it’s pretty good!

In addition to slashing the running time (and in order to make those cuts and still have a coherent storyline), Grace shifted and refocused things a little from the prequels we know and argue over. Gone is all the pod racing, unnecessary exposition and obnoxious CGI characters that clutter Episode I. Instead, Grace begins his film with the end of that one: with the final showdown between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul. He kept much of the action from Lucas’ films but eliminated any lightsaber battles unless they were relevant to the actual storylines he emphasizes, which are largely the Anakin-Padme relationship and Obi-Wan’s search for the individuals trying to assassinate politicians. Scenes like the one where Padme brings Anakin home to meet her family that were deleted from Lucas’ films but shed light on characters and relationships are reinstated. Grace provides a smooth transition to the original trilogy by ending his film on the image of the menacing Darth Vader sans that much maligned “Nooo!”

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/scifi/topher-grace-reedits-star-wars-prequels-8...

Space Shuttle Discovery's Last Flight

WASHINGTON — The space shuttle Discovery, NASA's fleet leader and the world's most flown spacecraft, lifted off for the last time on Tuesday to be delivered to the Smithsonian for its permanent display.

Discovery took off atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified Boeing 747, leaving the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:58 a.m. ET, just after dawn, for Washington. The ferry flight was expected to take about three and a half hours.