New iPhone app lets you talk to extraterrestrials

Kepler telescope moves on the Earth’s orbit since 2009 trying to find habitable planets in other solar systems, and it already found around 2300 candidates. Users of iPhone and iPad now have a free available app that allows them to come into contact to these distant worlds. With the extraordinary power of the Internet and social networks, we might expect that now we will know not only whether there is life on these planets or not, but also what aliens eat for breakfast, what they do on weekends, what brands of clothing they wear, etc. Yes, because scientists can build the communication devices, but they’re unable to have a normal conversation, even with human beings who live next to them every day.

Live Science >

Man flies with his grandfather’s wings

The great historical moment mankind has always dreamed of finally happened: man can fly! A video spread on the Internet shows us a Dutch engineer frantically slapping his arms where he had attached a pair of huge wings – according to him built by the plans of his grandfather – and flying a few dozens of meters. But, beyond the necessity of having motorized aid for lifting and landing, the man was so exhausted after this short distance, that despite his great satisfaction at the end, we consider this great historic achievement as the most useless of all time.

The Telegraph >

Titanic sank because of the Moon

We all know the Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg, but all was not yet explained. The terrible accident of April 15, 1912, which killed 1,517 people, happened – according to a physicist at Texas – because the Moon was much closer to Earth than usual. The gravitational attraction of the Moon’s originated abnormally high tides, and made the huge icebergs, that get normally stuck in the shallow waters of Greenland, get loose and go down south still in a piece. In other words, the culprit was Isaac Newton, the English physicist who discovered universal gravitation. Before him, there was no gravity and we all lived quietly, without this kind of problems.

Reuters >

Can a penny dropped from a skyscraper kill you?

According to Scientific American, it cannot. A coin is a very light and flat shaped object, which is much delayed by collisions with air molecules, preventing it to reach a high speed, despite the acceleration of gravity. But this excellent magazine does not disappoint those who rely on it to find ways to commit murder. In the same article in which we learn pennys are good for nothing, we learn pens have an almost guaranteed success, for they are heavier and sharp. Of course you can make the penny heavier and sharp, for instance, by throwing yourself along with it, but we must warn you that you will be killing yourself.

Scientific American >

The world's most boring journal

The Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine only gives negative news, publishing results of experiments that result in nothing. By reading this paper, we'll know that certain causes don’t have certain effects, unlike what usually happens, which is being told the effects certain causes have. This publication makes sense and seems quite interesting. We particularly want to know all the crap we eat and all the mess we do that don’t make us harm, because we're all sick of the positive news that regular journals give us all the time.

Washington Post >

Acidity of the oceans is increasing like never before in the last 300 million years

In addition to causing global warming, the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is also the main cause to progressive acidity of the oceans. Throughout the history of the planet, these increases were due to natural phenomena such as volcanic activity and thaws. But now human activities are said to be the main cause of the release of this gas, which thus can disrupt marine ecosystems. So think carefully when you are bathing on the beach and you feel like pissing in the water. Don’t make things worse than they already are.

Reuters >

Solar storm may happen in 2020

According to Peter Riley, a physicist from California, there is a 1 in 8 chance of happening a solar storm in 2020. This phenomenon, observed in 1859 by the English astronomer Richard Carrington, consists of an emission of particles from the sun, with a very fast moving, which – If it happens – will be devastating for electric grids, radio devices, etc. So, remember to turn off all your electrical appliances in 2019, at night, and reconnect them only in 2021, in the morning. There will be only a 7 in 8 chance you're going to be an asshole.

Wired >

Psychologists say that the rich are more dishonest

Psychologists at the University of Berkeley, California, conducted a study that concluded that people of upper classes lie and cheat more than those of the lower classes. Everyone knew that is through greed and lack of ethics that people ascend socially as moral behavior only benefits others. But it is important this scientific confirmation of the common sense. Unless these psychologists, most certainly high-class people, have made this all up only to appear on the news. Here at The Caricaturist, as we are good people, we are one of those who are always ready to be deceived willingly.

Digg >