I woke up to a groggy morning, and to freshen up, I decided to check up on the news while I brush my teeth. It’s sort of a habit by now, and most of the time, it pays off with interesting stories to start the day with.

MySpace To Break Into Reality

MySpace Latest News about MySpace and TV producer Mark Burnett announced Friday that they are working on a new reality TV show focused on finding the next great American politician.

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Prospective candidates will apply via MySpace Video. Selected candidates will create MySpace profiles to serve as their campaign platforms and, through an interactive town-hall environment, they will receive feedback from the viewing public both within the TV series and online through the MySpace community.

[source]

This was the very first headline I saw that totally made me go “What the fuck!?”. And those just happen to be the first three words I uttered today. Not good. It looks like horror has been taken to entirely new levels.

Can someone please kill Mark Burnett? *flips through yellow pages for sniper info*

SMS Impairs Language Ability

The youth of Ireland are becoming increasingly poor spellers and writers, and their love of text messaging on cellphones is a major reason why, according to the Education Department.

In a report published Wednesday on national test results in English for about 37,000 students aged 15 and 16, the department’s Examination Commission said cutting-edge communications technology has encouraged poor literacy and a blunt, choppy style at odds with academic rigor.

[source]

Whoa. Who would’ve thought text messaging could actually impair our language ability. I think Malaysians should be aware of this as well. It’s enough that there’s just so many examples of everyday broken English, even Bahasa is getting its fair share of bloopers. And SMS isn’t the only one to blame, instant messengers play a role, too.

A New Home… 20 Light Years Away.

Astronomers say they’ve discovered a new planet with conditions just like Earth. In fact it may even have liquid water on its surface. The find is causing huge excitement among scientists because of the planet’s potential to support life.

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The planet orbits a faint star more than 20 light years away. It was spotted at the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

[source]

Hm, a planet capable of sustaining life that is 20 light years away? Simply meaning that it takes 20 years to reach there by the speed of light. Until you can travel a distance of one light year within a day, better forget about it, and push more funds towards saving the planet we have now.

PS3 Contributes Awesome Power To Folding Project

Stanford University’s research now enjoys a computing power of 700 teraflops in a single moment, 400 of which are delivered by PS3 owners. The console has also helped bring recognition to the scheme, boosting the number of PCs actively contributing by 20 per cent.

“The PS3 turnout has been amazing, greatly exceeding our expectations and allowing us to push our work dramatically forward,” said Vijay Pande, associate professor of Chemistry at Stanford University and Folding@home program lead.

[...]

The Folding@home project allows you to join the race to understand protein-folding, misfolding and related diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cystic fibrosis and various cancers.

[source]

Whoaa… now this is great. Gamers are now actively contributing towards the development of protein folding! I wonder if Sony will jump on this potential and market the PS3 even more from this piece of news.