NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has found 11 new planetary systems, including one with five planets all orbiting closer to their parent star than Mercury circles the Sun, scientists say.

The discoveries boost the list of confirmed extra-solar planets to 729, including 60 credited to the Kepler team. The telescope, launched in space in March 2009, can detect slight but regular dips in the amount of light coming from stars. Scientists can then determine if the changes are caused by orbiting planets passing by, relative to Kepler’s view.

Kepler scientists have another 2,300 candidate planets awaiting additional confirmation.

None of the newly discovered planetary systems are like our solar system, though Kepler-33, a star that is older and bigger than the Sun, comes close in terms of sheer numbers. It has five planets, compared to our solar system’s eight, but the quintet all fly closer to their parent star than Mercury orbits the Sun.

The planets range in size from about 1.5 times the diameter of Earth to five times Earth’s diameter. Scientists have not yet determined if any are solid rocky bodies like Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury or if they are filled with gas like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

via Kepler telescope team finds 11 new solar systems | TECHNOLOGY News.

Strange Random Planet Quuote:

“The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the Universe to do.” – Galileo Galilei

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Russian police don’t take kindly to opposition protesters – even if they’re 5cm high and made of plastic.

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: “I’m for clean elections” and “A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin“.

“Political opposition forces are using new technologies to carry out public events – using toys with placards at mini-protests,” Andrei Mulintsev, the city’s deputy police chief, said at a press conference this week, according to local media. “In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event.”

Activists set up the display after authorities repeatedly rejected their request to hold a sanctioned demonstration of the kind held in Moscow to protest disputed parliamentary elections results and Vladimir Putin‘s expected return to the presidency in a March vote.

Passersby admired the display with giggles, but police took it more seriously, examining its details and writing down each placard.

“The authorities’ attempt to limit citizens’ rights to express their position has become absurd,” said Lyudmila Alexandrova, a 26-year-old graduate student and protest organiser. “We wanted to hyperbolise this attempt and show the absurdity and farce of officials’ struggle with their own people.”

They are not the first. Russia‘s Blue Buckets group, formed to protest officials’ wanton flouting of traffic rules, have run across government cars while wearing buckets on their heads, drawing the state’s ire.

via Doll ‘protesters’ present small problem for Russian police | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Strange Random Doll Quote:

“You know you’ve made it when you’ve been moulded in miniature plastic. But you know what children do with Barbie dolls – it’s a bit scary, actually.” – Cate Blanchett (Australian Actress. b.1969 Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)

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• Pussy Riot against Vladimir Putin (osocio.org)
• Toying with the right to protest: police try to ban Russian doll rally (independent.co.uk)
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• Moscow police arrest 2 at protest (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Moscow rally halted amid arrests (bbc.co.uk)
• Police arrest anti-Putin protesters in Moscow – Times of India (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
• You: The Law Of Putin’s Jungle (thedailybeast.com)

The euro collapsed last night in Berlin. To be precise, it simply exploded offstage after eating too much confit de canard and snails.

So goes the finale of a fun musical fairy tale that is touring Berlin, Frankfurt and London on a shoestring. Euro boffins will enjoy some of its wackier creations, like a European currency snake whose body is completely out of kilter. She yelps as the Italian lira slips out of place in her spine during the course of the evening.

“EuroCrash! The Musical” transposes the single-currency story to a deep dark forest. Mark and Gilda can’t find their way out. They are lured into the gingerbread Euroland house, where Papa Kohl and Madame Mitterrand run a school of fiscal discipline attended by some wayward pupils — personified nation states like Callum of Ireland and Stavros of Greece.

The show’s numbers include a chorus praising the virtues of the Bundesbank and former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont singing “Our currency’s gone down the plughole” in the shower. There are jokes about the Bundesbank’s “steady hand” policy and allusions to Jean-Claude Trichet’s “vigilance” at the European Central Bank, as well as throwaway references to former central bankers like Karl Otto Poehl.

The bad guys in the black cowboy hats are the credit-rating companies. “I’m Standard, he’s Poor’s/ For a dollar we’re yours” and “I’m Moody’s, he’s Fitch, It don’t matter which.”

via Euro Binges on Snails, Pound Drops Down Plughole in Wacky Currency Musical – Bloomberg.

Strange Random Euro Quote:

“European citizens can be assured that the future of the euro is that of a strong currency, based on price stability and the strength of the European economy,” – Wim Duisenberg

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• Euro Undermined as Draghi Undoing Trichet Interest Rates Removes Support – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Just Say Nein – Bundesbank On European QE: “Abandon The Idea Once And For All” (zerohedge.com)

It’s a fresh take on Sherlock Holmes which will transplant the sleuth to a modern-day setting. But it doesn’t take Baker Street’s finest to deduce the source material for a major new drama announced by American network CBS.

The producers of the BBC’s acclaimed Sherlock series, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, are prepared to take legal action against the US network over a rival Holmes series which appears to tread on familiar ground.

The BBC version is already a cult hit in America, where it is screened on the PBS network. The show’s contemporary reinvention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, allied to slick production values, impressed network executives at CBS – so when an offer to remake the BBC’s Sherlock for US viewers came to nothing, they decided to go ahead and make their own.

In a move which has caused concern at Hartswood Films, the BBC show’s producers, CBS has commissioned Elementary, described as a new Sherlock Holmes adaptation set in modern-day New York.

Sue Vertue, Sherlock Executive Producer at Hartswood Films, said: “We understand that CBS are doing their own version of an updated Sherlock Holmes. It’s interesting, as they approached us a while back about remaking our show. At the time, they made great assurances about their integrity, so we have to assume that their modernised Sherlock Holmes doesn’t resemble ours in any way, as that would be extremely worrying.” She added: “We are very proud of our show and like any proud parent, will protect the interest and wellbeing of our offspring.”

via Legal thriller looms as Sherlock takes his caseload to New York – News – TV & Radio – The Independent.

Strange Random Sherlock Holmes Quote:

I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. – The Sign of the Four (1890)

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The next time you stop in for a morning latte or head out for a restaurant lunch, take a look around – and don’t be surprised if you see a lot of young men standing in line.

A new survey of workers finds that men spend significantly more on coffee and lunch than women.

The survey, from staffing firm Accounting Principals, also found that younger workers spend more than older workers on lunch and coffee during the workday.

Overall, those lunches out and coffee breaks are costing workers a bundle. American workers who buy coffee and lunch spend an average of $1,000 a year on coffee and $2,000 a year on lunch, based on the survey of 1,000 workers.

About two-thirds of workers buy lunch and half buy coffee during the week.

via Life Inc. – It’s guys, not ladies, who splurge on lunch.

Strange Random Lunch Quote:

“The Dalai Lama visited the White House and told the President that he could teach him to find a higher state of consciousness. Then after talking to Bush for a few minutes, he said, “You know what? Let’s just grab lunch.”” – Bill Maher (American Comedian, Actor, Writer and Producer. b.1956)

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THE centrepiece exhibit at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is Locomotive No 1: the steam engine and its carriages comprised the first passenger train in NSW, running between Central Station and Parramatta.

The engine was built by Robert Stevenson & Co in England and began operation in Sydney in 1855, giving proud service to NSW Railways for 22 years.

Visit the Powerhouse today, though, and you’d swear the venerable locomotive was the Hogwarts Express. Since last November the Powerhouse has been in thrall to Pottermania.

Its Harry Potter exhibition, with costumes and models from the film series, is pulling the crowds unlike anything the museum has seen. A row of buses is parked outside. Queues snake through the entry area. A sign reading “Sold Out” seems to be a permanent fixture.

More than 180,000 people have seen Harry Potter to date, and museum staff are quietly confident that 320,000 will come through the doors by the time it closes on March 18.

The exhibition has been a boon for the Powerhouse which, if a NSW Auditor-General’s report is an indication, was seriously running out of steam. In the dry language of bureaucratese, the auditor’s report was frankly damning of the Trustees of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.

Visitor numbers “fell by 19.3 per cent in the past two years”. There was a “dramatic decrease in the number of exhibitions” since 2007. And so few people went to the Top Secret and ABBAWorld shows last year that the $22 entry fee had to be abolished.

The Powerhouse disputes the report’s findings.

More chronic, though, is confusion about what the museum stands for. The outside signage reads “Science + Design”, which sounds like neither one thing nor the other, and in practice means incongruous displays of locomotive engines and contemporary lacework. As far as curatorial consistency goes, it’s a train wreck.

via Powerhouse seeks touch of magic | The Australian.

Strange Random Museum Quote:

I never can pass by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York without thinking of it not as a gallery of living portraits but as a cemetery of tax-deductible wealth. – Lewis H.Lapham

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A student has sent her own rejection letter to a prestigious university, criticising it for “intimidating” pupils from comprehensive school backgrounds during the interview process.

Elly Nowell, from Winchester, Hampshire, wrote in her letter to Oxford University that using “grand formal settings” for the interviews allowed public school applicants to “flourish”.

The 19-year-old, who studied at Brockenhurst College, had applied to Magdalen College to read law (jurisprudence).

Parodying a standard university rejection letter, she wrote: “I have now considered your establishment as a place to read Law (jurisprudence).

“I very much regret to inform you that I will be withdrawing my application.”I realise you may be disappointed by this decision, but you were in competition with many fantastic universities and following your interview I am afraid you do not quite meet the standard of the universities I will be considering.”

The letter continued: “While you may believe your decision to hold interviews in grand formal settings is inspiring, it allows public school applicants to flourish and intimidates state school applicants, distorting the academic potential of both.”

Ms Nowell, who hopes to be accepted into University College London, told the BBC that she had felt like “the only atheist in a gigantic monastery” when she had attended the interview at Magdalen.

via Student sends Oxford University rejection letter for ‘taking itself too seriously’ – Higher – Education – The Independent.

Strange Random University Quote:

“Of course there’s a lot of knowledge in universities: the freshmen bring a little in; the seniors don’t take much away, so knowledge sort of accumulates.” – Abbott Lawrence Lowell (American Lawyer and University President of Harvard, 1856-1943)

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Finding a new man to take home for the holidays proved surprisingly easy for Lily Li. He had to be reliable, taciturn – and available for a few hundred yuan.

“I was not looking for some perfect guy to marry. Just someone tall – my parents like tall guys a lot – honest and not too talkative, so he doesn’t say something wrong,” explained the 26-year-old.

Next week’s lunar new year is China‘s biggest festival. It can also be a major headache for those returning home without a potential spouse. Pressure on young adults to settle down goes into overdrive, as gathering family members begin the inquisition and line up possible candidates.

Taking a boyfriend or girlfriend home is a fast way to curb the speculation, which is why Li, like other twentysomethings, has hired a fake partner through an online agency.

“My parents want me to get married by 30,” the office worker explained. “Bringing a ‘boyfriend’ back home simply means I get less hassle from relatives and my parents will stop worrying about my romantic life.”

Li will pay him between 500 and 700 yuan £51-£72 a day – they are still haggling – to accompany her from Beijing to Hunan to meet her parents.

“I don’t need him to stay long, just one night, New Year‘s Eve, and he can just say work is busy and he has to go back the next day, like [the guy I hired] last year,” she said.

via New year, new fake partners for China’s young singletons with parents to please | World news | guardian.co.uk.

Strange Random Matchmaking Quote:

“What the world really needs is more love and less paperwork.” – Pearl Bailey

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