instantly translates words as you watch

A remarkable new iPhone app has been developed that instantly translates words viewed through the phone's camera from Spanish into English, and back again.

There's a mini ice age coming, says man who beats weather experts

He seems to get it right about 85 per cent of the time and serious business people - notably in farming - are starting to invest in his forecasts. In the eyes of many punters, he puts the taxpayer-funded Met Office to shame. How on earth does he do it? He studies the Sun.

Piers Corbyn believes that the last three winters could be the harbinger of a mini ice age that could be upon us by 2035, and that it could start to be colder than at any time in the last 200 years. He goes on to speculate that a genuine ice age might then settle in, since an ice age is now cyclically overdue.

Solar activity lowest in hunderds of years

Does this explain the cold Winter in south America and in Europe and North America?

By many measures things look to be cool for at least several more years.

The Dalton Minimum was a period of low solar activity, named after the English meteorologist John Dalton, lasting from about 1790 to 1830.[1] Like the Maunder Minimum and Spörer Minimum, the Dalton Minimum coincided with a period of lower-than-average global temperatures. The Oberlach Station in Germany, for example, experienced a 2.0°C decline over 20 years.[2] The Year Without a Summer, in 1816, also occurred during the Dalton Minimum. Solar cycles 5 and 6, as shown below, were greatly reduced in amplitude.

Ice Station, Britain, as cold as the Winter of 1659...

By some measures the UK is having the coldest weather since 1659

Remember South America had a very cold Winter earlier this year.

Basically as long as they have kept official temperature data. And the Army is called in to help.

The Army was called in today to help clear away ice and snow as Britain headed towards its coldest December for 100 years.

As temperatures plunged to -15c (5f) David Cameron ordered the military to step in and help the UK's beleaguered local councils.

The Prime Minister also revealed Cobra-style emergency meetings of senior officials and Ministers had been held to discuss the Government’s response to the big freeze.

Edinburgh City Council was the first local authority to ask for help. Officials have held talks with the Ministry of Defence and the Scottish government to allow soldiers to remove built up snow and ice from roads and pavements.

Jolie rules out White House Run?

Drat! She'd rather have fun, raise a family and do good.

Instead, she will continue to make films and continue her work with the UN.

Climate Prediction Shows Plants Slow Warming

Neat. turns out plants eat and thrive on CO2, who could have guessed that?

growth of plants and trees in a world with doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide levels would create a new negative feedback – a cooling effect – in the Earth's climate system that could work to reduce future global warming.

know if they adjust the models to vary the solar input and atmospheric density (most models assume the atmosphere is the same density for thousands of feet, and adjust for urban heat islands, and rural stations moving into cities, then we may start to have some real science going on.

Nice to hear we may not have to gut the world economy for no reason anymore.

Man buys Ansel Adams photos at garage sale

for $45, discovers they are worth $200 million

The Right Trousers

Paralysed inventor to sell robotic 'trousers' for $100,000

Sounds helpful, interesting, and cool. Walking and stairs for over three hours.
Being able to move in a different fashion should provide great therapy, physically and mental, as well as make people more productive. a win-win-win.

I would hope over time that the cost would comes down, but it is nice to see them at any price.

A harness around the patient's waist and shoulders keeps the suit in place, and a backpack holds the computer and rechargeable 3 1/2-hour battery.

When operated, it makes clanging robotic sounds, like the hero of the 1980s cult movie 'Robocop.'

25 most epic ads that aren't '1984'

A few great ones, a few misses, and creepy clowns,
I hate clowns...

25 interesting ads with links to video.

Global temperatures flat for past 15 years, warmists upset

CO2 levels rise and tempertures stay flat?
Seems like cause and effect are broken in some way.

UK Mail Newspaper on "Global Warming"

The question now emerging for climate scientists and policymakers alike is very simple. Just how long does a pause have to be before the thesis that the world is getting hotter because of human activity starts to collapse?

Looks like some new model or explination is needed and more public sharing of data and data sources.

Read carefully with other official data, they conceal a truth that for some, to paraphrase former US VicePresident Al Gore, is really inconvenient: for the past 15 years, global warming has stopped.

Actually, with the exception of 1998 - a 'blip' year when temperatures spiked because of a strong 'El Nino' effect (the cyclical warming of the southern Pacific that affects weather around the world) - the data on the Met Office's and CRU's own websites show that global temperatures have been flat, not for ten, but for the past 15 years.

Old weather data project, collecting old weather data from ships

Old weather org

Help scientists recover worldwide weather observations made by Royal Navy ships around the time of World War I. These transcriptions will contribute to climate model projections and improve a database of weather extremes. Historians will use your work to track past ship movements and the stories of the people on board.