Thursday, July 30, 2015

Foo Fighters, 2015-07-30 - SPIN, Watch 1,000 Musicians Play the Foo Fighters’ ‘Learn to Fly’ at the Same Time

http://www.spin.com/2015/07/watch-1000-musicians-play-foo-fighters-learn-to-fly-same-time-italy-dave-grohl/

Watch 1,000 Musicians Play the Foo Fighters’ ‘Learn to Fly’ at the Same Time


It's a veritable army of Fighters




By: James Grebey// July 30, 2015

One thousand musicians banded together in Italy to perform the Foo Fighters’ “Learn to Fly” all at once in an attempt to woo the band to come play a show for them. Let’s repeat that — 1,000 musicians. A thousand.

“The Foo Fighters are not in Romagna since 1997, it’s time to get them back, but we need a crazy idea,” the description on Rockin’ 1000’s website explains. “We have to organize something that kicks ass worldwide and can be seen by Dave Grohl: We will ask one thousand rockers to play one of their songs, all together and at the same time.”

And they did it — magnificently, after more than a year of work. “What we did here is a huge, huge miracle,” the event’s creator Fabio Zaffagnini explained. “One thousand rockers that came from all over the nation at their own expense, and they just did one song — your song. We ask you, the Foo Fighters, to come play for us.”

It’s an invitation that’s going to be pretty hard to turn down. Check it out here.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

NASA, 2015-05-23 - NASA, NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-kepler-mission-discovers-bigger-older-cousin-to-earth

July 23, 2015
15-156

NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to Earth


NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed the first near-Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” around a sun-like star. This discovery and the introduction of 11 other new small habitable zone candidate planets mark another milestone in the journey to finding another “Earth.”

The newly discovered Kepler-452b is the smallest planet to date discovered orbiting in the habitable zone -- the area around a star where liquid water could pool on the surface of an orbiting planet -- of a G2-type star, like our sun. The confirmation of Kepler-452b brings the total number of confirmed planets to 1,030.

"On the 20th anniversary year of the discovery that proved other suns host planets, the Kepler exoplanet explorer has discovered a planet and star which most closely resemble the Earth and our Sun," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This exciting result brings us one step closer to finding an Earth 2.0."

Kepler-452b is 60 percent larger in diameter than Earth and is considered a super-Earth-size planet. While its mass and composition are not yet determined, previous research suggests that planets the size of Kepler-452b have a good chance of being rocky.

While Kepler-452b is larger than Earth, its 385-day orbit is only 5 percent longer. The planet is 5 percent farther from its parent star Kepler-452 than Earth is from the Sun. Kepler-452 is 6 billion years old, 1.5 billion years older than our sun, has the same temperature, and is 20 percent brighter and has a diameter 10 percent larger.

“We can think of Kepler-452b as an older, bigger cousin to Earth, providing an opportunity to understand and reflect upon Earth’s evolving environment," said Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, who led the team that discovered Kepler-452b. "It’s awe-inspiring to consider that this planet has spent 6 billion years in the habitable zone of its star; longer than Earth. That’s substantial opportunity for life to arise, should all the necessary ingredients and conditions for life exist on this planet.”

To help confirm the finding and better determine the properties of the Kepler-452 system, the team conducted ground-based observations at the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory, the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the W. M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. These measurements were key for the researchers to confirm the planetary nature of Kepler-452b, to refine the size and brightness of its host star and to better pin down the size of the planet and its orbit.

The Kepler-452 system is located 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The research paper reporting this finding has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

In addition to confirming Kepler-452b, the Kepler team has increased the number of new exoplanet candidates by 521 from their analysis of observations conducted from May 2009 to May 2013, raising the number of planet candidates detected by the Kepler mission to 4,696. Candidates require follow-up observations and analysis to verify they are actual planets.

Twelve of the new planet candidates have diameters between one to two times that of Earth, and orbit in their star's habitable zone. Of these, nine orbit stars that are similar to our sun in size and temperature.

“We've been able to fully automate our process of identifying planet candidates, which means we can finally assess every transit signal in the entire Kepler dataset quickly and uniformly,” said Jeff Coughlin, Kepler scientist at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, who led the analysis of a new candidate catalog. “This gives astronomers a statistically sound population of planet candidates to accurately determine the number of small, possibly rocky planets like Earth in our Milky Way galaxy.”

These findings, presented in the seventh Kepler Candidate Catalog, will be submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. These findings are derived from data publicly available on the NASA Exoplanet Archive.

Scientists now are producing the last catalog based on the original Kepler mission’s four-year data set. The final analysis will be conducted using sophisticated software that is increasingly sensitive to the tiny telltale signatures of Earth-size planets.

Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

A related feature story about other potentially habitable planets is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/finding-another-earth

-end-

Kepler-452b and Earth
This artist's concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger in diameter.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

Scale of Kepler-452b System
This size and scale of the Kepler-452 system compared alongside the Kepler-186 system and the solar system. Kepler-186 is a miniature solar system that would fit entirely inside the orbit of Mercury.
Credits: NASA/JPL-CalTech/R. Hurt

Kepler Planet Candidates July 2015
There are 4,696 planet candidates now known with the release of the seventh Kepler planet candidate catalog - an increase of 521 since the release of the previous catalog in January 2015.
Credits: NASA/W. Stenzel

Twelve Small Habitable Zone Kepler Planets
Since Kepler launched in 2009, twelve planets less than twice the size of Earth have been discovered in the habitable zones of their stars.
Credits: NASA/N. Batalha and W. Stenzel

Kepler-452 in space
This artist's concept depicts one possible appearance of the planet Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world to be found in the habitable zone of star that is similar to our sun.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

Friday, July 10, 2015

U2, 2015-07-10 - U2.com, 'There is a light, don't let it go out...'

http://www.u2.com/news/title/there-is-a-light-dont-let-it-go-out

'There is a light, don't let it go out...'

10 Jul 2015


'There is a light, don't let it go out...'

Directed by Vincent Haycock and featuring Woody Harrelson and Zoe Harrelson, this seven and a half minute short film accompanies 'Song For Someone', the third single from Songs of Innocence and released on Monday.

Premiered in the US on Sundance TV, the film goes out to the world on Monday... but we've got it for our subscribers ahead of general release.

With cinematography by Steve Annis and produced by Pete Vitale & Park Pictures, Song for Someone features Woody Harrelson as a man being released from prison after years of incarceration and also features his daughter Zoe Harrelson.

Speaking about the film Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. said, 'Vincent Haycock’s vision and Woody and Zoe Harrelson’s performances didn’t just complement Song For Someone — they completed it. We could never have envisioned the new dimension this beautiful story would give our song, and we thank everyone involved for their part in fully bringing Song For Someone to life.'

Watch the video and tell us what you think in the comments below.



And in another exclusive for U2.com subscribers we're now premiering this special behind-the-scenes video in which Vincent Haycock talks about how he came up with the narrative idea - and how Woody and Zoe became involved.

Thursday, July 09, 2015

U2, 2015-07-09 - U2.com, Stories That Haven't Been Told...

http://www.u2.com/news/title/stories-that-havent-been-told

Stories That Haven't Been Told...

09 Jul 2015







'Listening to the track I was thinking of stories that haven't been told... how to tell a story that would fit the language of Songs Of Innocence and the idea of what this album is about.'

A seven and a half minute short film by Vincent Haycock, starring Woody Harrelson and Zoe Harrelson, accompanies the release of Song For Someone, the third single from Songs of Innocence, released this Monday.

The video features Woody Harrelson as a man being released from prison after years of incarceration and also features his daughter Zoe Harrelson.

In the US you can now watch the video on Sundance TV.

In an exclusive for U2.com subscribers we're premiering this special behind-the-scenes video in which Vincent Haycock talks about how he came up with the narrative idea - and how Woody and Zoe became involved.