Giant Mysterious Spiral Takes Over the Skies of Norway [Science]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-bnqdX-gSJ8/giant-mysterious-spiral-takes-over-the-skies-of-norway

People are freaking out all over Norway because of what you are seeing here. According to Norwegian news outlets, the spooky giant spiral was seen, photographed, and recorded on video from all over the country. Updated with video

Could it all be a hoax? Maybe it's a massive joke, but all kinds of Norwegian news sites are reporting on it. According to NKR—Norway's national TV channel—it could be related to a rocket fired from a Russian submarine in the White Sea. The Russians are denying any part on it at this at the moment. Nick Banbury, a witness located at Harstad, described how it all happened:

We are used to seeing lots of auroras here in Arctic Norway, but on my way to work this morning I saw something completely unexpected. Between 7:50 and 8:00 a.m. local time, there was a strange light in the sky. It consisted initially of a green beam of light similar in colour to the aurora with a mysterious rotating spiral at one end. This spiral then got bigger and bigger until it turned into a huge halo in the sky with the green beam extending down to the earth.

As hard as it is to believe, you can't dispute the fact that the strange spiral was witnessed and recorded by thousands of people from hundreds of miles away, which means that the phenomenon occurred at a very high altitude. Even Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy agrees that this is real, and says that it was probably a rocket out of control.

So barring any epic group joke, expect your new alien overlords to arrive at any time now. We can only hope they ! are all peace-loving voluptuous blondes with blue eyes. [Altaposten, VG, NRK via SpaceWeather via Universe Today—thanks Gonzalo Oxenford]

If you know Norwegian and have any information, contact me on AIM or by mail.

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How Huge Is the Internet on an Average Day? [Data]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/W4LF5lm5brs/how-huge-is-the-internet-on-an-average-day

The internet is, like, big. So's this infographic showing just how crazy huge it is, and what 210 billion emails, 3 million Flickr images, 43 million gigabytes (on phones) sent on an average day really means. It hurts.

[Online Education]

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The Best Windows Laptops, From $400 to $1500 [Laptops]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/-nVmxRrCIuI/the-best-windows-laptops-from-400-to-1500

Mark Spoonauer is the editor in chief of LAPTOP Magazine and Laptopmag.com, which reviewed over 130 notebooks and netbooks in the last year. Here are his favorite notebooks of 2009. So iIf you're buying a notebook, buy one of these.)

Sub $400

Acer Aspire 1410

Starting Price: $399
This 3.2-pound ultraportable is such a sweet deal it makes us question whether netbooks are long for this world. Acer stuffed a dual-core Celeron processor (about double the performance of Atom), 2GB of RAM and Windows 7 Premium inside a 11.6-inch system with a full-size keyboard—all for just $399. Plus, you get 6.5 hours of battery life. Sure, the 160GB hard drive is a bit skimpy, but the 1410 is a real PC you can take anywhere. [Review]

Sub $700

Gateway NV

Starting Price: $599.99
The NV proves that you can get a good-looking budget laptop that performs. In addition to four color choices (blue, brown, read, and black), this 15.6-inch notebook sports a fashionable metal hinge and glowing LED controls. Under the hood the NV satisfies with the combination of an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive. Our only nitpick is the narrow touchpad button. [Review]

ASUS UL30A< br>
Starting Price: $649.99
If we had to pick a notebook of the year, the UL30A would be it. Why? Because this 13 incher is light enough to take anywhere yet offers enough pep to be your primary machine. This 4-pound ultraportable lasted nearly 10 hours on a charge in our tests (continuous surfing over Wi-Fi), and its ultra-low voltage Core 2 Duo processor can easily handle Windows 7. Bonus: 500GB of storage is nice for the $650 price. [Review]

Sub $1000

Dell Studio 14z

Starting Price: $749.99
Think of it as the poor man's MacBook—with better specs and sound. Dell's 14-inch thin and light notebook weighs in at just 4.4 pounds and features Nvidia 9400 graphics for extra multimedia punch. But unlike the entry level $999 Mac, the Dell offers 70GB more hard drive space, superior speakers, and a backlit keyboard for $160 less. The only trade-offs are the lack of a DVD drive and the need for an adapter for plugging in memory cards. [Review]

Sub $1500

Toshiba Qosmio X505

Starting Price : $1399
Ideal for multimedia mavens and good enough for gamers, the 18.4-inch Qosmio X505 brings serious muscle in the $1,499 configuration, including a blazing Core i7 CPU and Nvidia ! GTS 250M graphics (with 1 GB of dedicated video memory). We also dig the classy glossy black design with metallic red accents, integrated Blu-ray drive, and booming Harman Kardon speakers. If you want to step up from the 1680 x 945 display to a full HD screen, splurge for the $1,899 model, which also sports 6GB of RAM and an SSD. [Review]

ThinkPad T400s

Starting Price: $1599 ($1359.15 after coupon)
If BMWs are the ultimate driving machines, ThinkPads are the ultimate business machines, and this is the flagship vehicle. The T400s measures just 0.8 inches thick and weighs 3.9 pounds, and it's decked out in supersturdy magnesium (for the bottom and deck) and carbon fiber (for the lid). More important, this 14-incher blows away the competition in terms of ergonomic comfort and performance—when you spring for the 2.53-GHz processor and 128GB solid state drive. [Review]

To see all of LAPTOP's top picks of the year, click here.

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Acer's Ferrari One netbook now available -- might not help you get a date

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/09/acers-ferrari-one-netbook-now-available-might-not-help-you-g/

You're probably already fairly familiar with Acer's foray into speedy netbooks with the the Ferrari One -- the 11.6-incher we found to be slightly underwhelming when we got our hands on it back in September. Still, the famous branding and the red hot lid is sure to be a draw for some, and other than that, this laptop boasts an 1.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU, an AMD M780G chipset, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 graphics, plus WiFi, Bluetooth, optional WWAN and a 6-cell battery. It'll run you about $600 to grab one up and it's available now. Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Acer's Ferrari One netbook now available -- might not help you get a date

Acer's Ferrari One netbook now available -- might not help you get a date originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI rolls out Wind Top AE2020 all-in-one in the UK

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/09/msi-rolls-out-wind-top-ae2020-all-in-one-in-the-uk/

MSI's Wind Top AE2220 may have just started shipping 'round these parts a few weeks ago, but it looks like the company is already set to drop another model on the UK. While it remains mostly identical in appearance, the new Wind Top AE2020 scales things back a bit with a slightly smaller, lower resolution 20-inch, 1,600 x 900 display -- though you do still get the same multitouch functionality as its larger counterpart. Otherwise, you can expect to get an Ion chipset paired with a 2.1GHz Pentium T4300 processor, along with a standard 3GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, a DVD burner, and Windows 7 for an OS, among other standard all-in-one fare. Still no indication of this one making its way over here, but folks in the UK can apparently pick one up right now for £599.

MSI rolls out Wind Top AE2020 all-in-one in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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