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Is Our Universe A Matrix-Like Computer Game?

May 31, 2015

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There's more to reality than you experience first-hand.

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Earth-Sun ideal combination for intelligent life, once thought commonplace in the universe – now determined by science to be ‘extremely extremely’ rare

A new study suggests that there are around 700 quintillion planets in the universe, but only one like Earth. It’s a revelation that’s both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Astrophysicist Erik Zackrisson from Uppsala University in Sweden arrived at this staggering figure — a 7 followed by 20 zeros — with the aid of a computer model that simulated the universe’s evolution following the Big Bang. Zackrisson’s model combined information about known exoplanets with our understanding of the early universe and the laws of physics to recreate the past 13.8 billion years. Zackrisson found that Earth appears to have been dealt a fairly lucky hand. In a galaxy like the Milky Way, for example, most of the planets Zackrisson’s model generated looked very different than Earth — they were larger, older and very unlikely to support life. The study can be found on the pre-print server arXiv, and has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. – Discovery

Cleaning Startup Homejoy Opens An Office In New York City

Homejoy offers its home cleaning services in more than 30 North American markets , but it managed to expand without opening any offices outside of its San Francisco headquarters — until January, when it opened an office in New York City’s financial district. It’s been almost exactly a year since Homejoy launched its services in the Big Apple , following the same system it has used in other geographies — a network of contract cleaners overseen by on-the-ground city and regional managers. That approach makes for “an effective business model” by keeping costs relatively low, said Danny Rueda, the company’s northeast regional manager. However, this presents challenges when it comes to giving those managers “a connection to HQ, a connection to the company.” So one of the main purposes of the New York office is create “a hub” where Homejoy city managers across the northeast can meet up and share tips and experiences. In addition, Rueda said he’s hiring small teams for customer service and d

Funny Pictures – November 4, 2017

Calm down. via As a parent, the best birthday card I’ve ever received. The toilet humor is strong in our house. via Idiot of the century. via My school just held an actual funeral for our rival highschool’s football team. via There is something wrong with your medulla oblongata. via My friend tried to use one of those “love meter” machines the other day, and it wasn’t working for him. I guess we’ll never know. via Use the law suit, Luke. via My lord is the light. via What happens when you give an ENT doctor an IV cannula. via Just gotta unlock one more character. via Canopy in the background makes it look like DJ Khaled just graduated. via 2 local police were nice enough to stop and admire my sons costume. Made his day. via Boss asked me to take down his Halloween decorations. via My girlfriend picked the wrong parking spot. via So much truth to this. via It’s not just a coffee; it’s an experience. via He sits on the couch like this every

22 Pictures of Animals Close to Extinction with a Pixel Representing Each One Still Alive

Back in 2008 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) produced a saddening campaign entitled WWF Japan – Population by pixel. The hard-hitting campaign showed us just how low the numbers are for certain endangered species, using a unique visual representation of one pixel per animal still alive. Sadly some of the pictures have so few pixels, making it impossible to see the species in question. A man named JJSmooth44 has created an up-to-date set of images using the python programming language and the results are upsetting. African Wild Dog. Estimated between 3000 and 5500 remain. Amur Leopard. Estimated about 60 remain. Amur Tiger. Estimated about 450 remain. Asian Elephant. Estimated between 40000 and 50000 remain. Bengal Tiger. Estimated about 2500 remain. Black Footed Ferret. Estimated about 300 remain. Black Rhino. Estimated about 5000 remain. Blue Whale. Estimated between 10000 and 25000 remain. Bonobo. Estimated between 10000 and 50000 remain. Bornean Orangutan. Estimat

Funny Pictures – February 24, 2017

McDonald’s Fly-Trhu. via My friend’s trip to Machu Picchu went well. via Got room for one more if you still want to go to Aspen. via What is the Universe made of? via Our Porkchop is quite the Cubist. via That’s a little aggressive… via Australian Police with some helpful advice. via Can you make the girl and taller girl look the same height… Sure. via A friend asked me to mind his houseplant for a few days. I hope he likes the makeover I gave it. via The wrong kind of leaves. via Karl Marx would be proud. via Bathrooms at a Meatball Restaurant in Fells Point, MD. via My dad recently retired as a Colonel in the Air Force. I asked him what he was going to do next and he said he didn’t know yet. I sent him this and he told me to F*ck off. via Do you gentlemen have a moment to talk about the environment? via Now you don’t have to be an alcoholic to decorate. via My fortune today. What does it say? via The difference on how men and women choo

Egan: Republicans Root for Failure

Timothy Egan: I just spent 15 minutes on my local health care exchange and realized that I could save a couple hundred dollars a month on my family's insurance. Of course, I live in Washington State, which has a very competitive market, a superbly functioning website and no Koch-brothers-sponsored saboteurs trying to discourage people from getting health care. California is just as good. It's enrolling more than 2,000 people a day. New York is humming as well. And Kentucky, it's the gold standard now: More than 56,000 people have signed up for new health care coverage -- enough to fill a stadium in Louisville. This is terrible news, and cannot be allowed to continue.

Funny Pictures – February 4, 2017

Art imitates life. via The unfortunate way her jersey was photographed in today’s paper. via My boss has talked to me several times about leaving a note while I’m away from my desk. Today I made this convenient slider. via A long, sad chapter of the drug war is brought to a close as investigators finally arrest marijuana. via They wouldn’t stop knocking on my door so I had to improvise. via The grind is real. via Well played, biology textbook. via Just another day at the office. via Ralph. via When you’re so bad at catching smurfs you need another job. via Me after eating some tacos. via Plastic Toys. via Peyton Manning’s forehead is so big it couldn’t fit the billboard. via My wife and I did one of those couples’ paint classes. We had different visions (mine on right). via Gonna be some picnic! via This sandwich shop knows what’s up. via Hibachi! via Jeremy Clarkson when he was a little girl. via Kids these days will never know the

Funny Pictures – January 14, 2018

Tell Schrödinger I Survived. via My twin brother and I ran into our celebrity lookalikes, the property brothers. via Well howdy pardner! via Beware of attack waitress. via I think I just found a horcrux in my local theater. via About 5 years ago, I put googly eyes on a picture of my brother as a baby. They’re still there to this day. via Special instructions. via True love. via We have a 6 week old baby, our neighbors knew we were having a little trouble getting her to sleep! They made us this great little cross stitch. via I was at the right place at the right time. via In photography, timing is everything. via My neighbor peels out daily, so I wrote him a nice poem! via This why I always go mini golfing for 1st dates. via I wish more people did this. via That feeling, when you want unfriend your parents, but can’t do so. via My parents sent me this after breaking up with my gf. via I asked my friend to change facial expressions as I sho

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Christopher Stokes 2018

Is Our Universe A Matrix-Like Computer Game?

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