Publisher Simon & Schuster has announced that Ray Bradbury has relented and his classic Fahrenheit 451 will be released today as an eBook. Well, it’s about time, Ray. Yeah, I know that it’s spooky that a book about the decline of reading and book burning is being released as an eBook, the format that directly competes with the printed word. And, yes, Bradbury has been a longtime proponent of written books and has, according to the WaPo, referred to the Internet as “a big distraction,” but that doesn’t mean he can’t get with the times! Besides there’s, nothing sinister about reading Fahrenheit 451 on my Kindle.

It’s no surprise that you can make all kinds of crazy, intricate and ridiculous things out of LEGOs. This, however, marks the first time that I’ve ever seen a LEGO model literally play with fire. This dragon, built by Aaron Amatnieks, has some crazy internal piping that lets it be the coolest lighter, candle or flamethrower you ever seen, made out of LEGOs. It’s a small miracle that the blocks don’t immediately melt or set on fire, but given the force at which this little guy is belching up those flames, I can sort of see how he’s pulling it off. I think we may be coming up on the limit of new things that can be done with LEGOs. Quick, somebody get working on something that involves corrosive acid.

We’ve all marveled at footage of coronal mass ejections, but scientists now think they have a better understanding of what causes these dramatic events on our star. Using imagery from NASA’s Solar Dynamic Observatory, researchers at George Mason University believe that massive “magnetic ropes” are the culprits behind solar storms.

For those unfamiliar, a magnetic rope is formed by magnetic field lines that get wrapped around a central axis. The whole mess of magnetism begins twisting, which could create an electrical charge. The end result is a powerful force applied to the surface of the sun, which heats the region affected by the rope to some 10 million degrees. When the heat and electro-magnetic force is large enough, an eruption occurs sending out a plume of energy and material into space.

Understanding the forces behind these eruptions is important here on Earth, especially in the digital age. Though our planet’s own magnetic field shields us from the full force of solar storms, powerful ones can affect unprotected satellites which in turn could cripple global communications and GPS. By better understanding solar storms, scientists aim to be able to predict them with greater accuracy, hopefully giving us and  satellites time to take precautions against them.

(image and story from George Mason University via New Scientist, Engadget)

Alternate endings have been making their way through the great tubes of the internet, and none more chillingly prophetic than this one.

Remember, kids, the next time you blow up a battle station the size of a moon, move it away from the planet inhabited by adorable teddy-bear creatures.

It is worth noting, however, that if this is how the movie had ended, no one would have suffered through those Ewok spinoffs.

(Via The Daily What)

A spinning column of fire several meters tall was recently spotted in São Paulo, Brazil, stopping traffic and torching dry fields in the midst of the country’s devastating wildfires. Fire tornados are a rare natural phenomenon; according to Wikipedia, they’re most common during wildfires, when a warm updraft carries the ground-level flames upwards, where they proceed under some circumstances to start whirling like a tornado, usually for just a few minutes, but sometimes for as many as twenty.

Video below:

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