Award Winner, Current Events, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, Money Talk, New Discoveries, Record Breaker, Video Games

Microsoft Kinect Sales Top 10 Million, Set New Guinness World Record

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Microsoft Kinect

Microsoft has sold more than 10 million Kinect systems for the Xbox 360 to retailers, the company announced Wednesday.

Kinect, a controller-free gaming system that competes with the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 Move, has been selling at animpressive rate since it launched in November.

During the first three months after its launch, this rate was fast enough to earn Kinect the title of “fastest-selling consumer device.” According to Guinness World Records, whichofficially confirmed the record today, Microsoft sold an average of 133,333 units per day between November 4 and January 3…

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Analysis, Art, Breakthrough Thinking, Entertainment, Historical Perspectives, New Viewpoints, Space

Wondrous, Detailed Map of the Wondrous History of Science Fiction

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A Spectacular View of Science Fiction’s History.

Artist Ward Shelley’s brilliant map of the history of science fiction from 2009 is a kind of interestingness black hole whose event horizon captured me for several hours this morning as I pored over the diagram and the arguments it makes about the history and origins of science fiction. I don’t agree with every conclusion illustrated here, but thinking about them made me reconsider a lot of cherished beliefs…

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Analysis, Culture, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend

The West is Becoming America’s New ‘Heartland’

heartland

Missouri has been at the U.S. center since 1980 but the geography is clearly shifting, with the West beginning to emerge as America’s new heartland.

America’s population center is edging away from the Midwest, pulled by Hispanic growth in the Southwest, according to census figures. The historic shift is changing the nation’s politics and even the traditional notion of the country’s heartland — long the symbol of mainstream American beliefs and culture.

 

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Ecological Products, Green Friendly, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Latest in Green Burials Involves Freezing Your Corpse Terminator-Style in Liquid Nitrogen

terminator

Freeze drying is one of the greenest ways to go.

There are a lot of ways to deal with a person’s body after he or she is done using it. Their last remains can be buried, burned, put in trees, or donated to science. But one Swedish company has a different approach to sending people off to their final rewards. Freeze drying. Just like the liquid T-1000 in Terminator 2. It turns out to be one of the greenest ways to go.

 

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Business, Entertainment, facebook, Internet, Science & Technology News

Warner Brothers to Offer Movie Rentals on Facebook

Dark Knight

Warner Brothers will rent “The Dark Knight” to American users over Facebook for the equivalent of $3 in Facebook’s currency.

Warner Brothers became the first major media company to offer a movie for rent on Facebook, a move that could position the social network to become a force in the digital distribution of movies, rivaling services like Netflix and iTunes.

 

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