For the first time, physicists have designed an on-chip 'metamaterial' - a class of materials that display properties not found in nature - with a refractive index of zero, paving the way for light-based computers to transmit information at infinitely fast speeds. Light is the fastest thing in the Universe that can be used to transmit information, but if we want to replace our current electron-based computers with light-based ones, we’re going to have to overcome a fundamental problem. Once information is delivered to your computer or router in the form of a photon (or light particle), it has to be converted into electrons before it can be processed, and this slows everything down to the point where you’re losing a great deal of the speed you gained from using light in the first place. We’ve about hit the limits for what our current electron-based computers can achieve, so scientists around the world are trying to figure out how to build a whole new class of light-base...

his September, a team of astronomers noticed that the light from a distant star is flickering in a highly irregular pattern.1 They considered the possibility that comets, debris, and impacts could account for their observations, but each of these explanations was unlikely to varying degrees.2 What their paper didn’t explore, but they and others are beginning to speculate, is that the flickering might be caused by enormous structures built by an advanced civilization—whether the light might be evidence of ET. In thinking about this possibility, or other similarly suggestive evidence of extraterrestrial life, an image of an alien creature might come to mind—something green, perhaps, or with tentacles or eye stalks. But in this we are probably mistaken. I would argue that any positive identification of ET will very likely not originate from organic or biological life (as Paul Davies has also argued), but from machines. Few doubt that machines will gradually surpass more and more of ou...

Emerging from a nitrate fire in 1963, Quentin Tarantino was fed only exploitation films, spaghetti Westerns and actual spaghetti until he was old enough to thirst for blood. He found his way into the film industry as a PA on a Dolph Lundgren workout video, as a store clerk at Video Archives and by getting encouragement to write a screenplay by the very man who would make a name for himself producing Tarantino’s films. Peter Bogdanovich (and probably many others) think of him as the most influential director of his generation, and he’s got the legendary story to back it up — not to mention line-busting movies like Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained under his belt. He’s also the kind of name that makes introductions like this useless. So here’s a bit of free film school (for fans and filmmakers alike) from a guy who really loves Hi Diddle Diddle and plans to keep 35mm alive as long as he’s rich enough to do it. Lie Until People Think You Worked With Godard...

1. YouTube-mp3.org – Turn any YouTube video into an mp3 available for download. 2. Rip.Archives.com – Download and rip full Imgur, Flickr, or Instagram albums. 3. Gutenberg.org – Over 45,000 free ebooks. 4. MyAbondonware.com – Download computer games from the 80s and 90s. 5. OffLiberty.com – Download almost any media from any website. 6. W ikipedia.org – Download the Wikipedia archive. 7. Google Takeou t – Download your Google data. 8. MetMuseum.org – Download high resolution scans of historic art.

Here’s an alphabetical list of all available free books. Note that many of the links will bring you to an external page, usually with more info about the book and the download links. Also, the links are updated as frequently as possible, however some of them might be broken. Broken links are constantly being fixed. In case you want to report a broken link, or a link that violates copyrights, use comment system. Thanks. A A Beginner’s Guide to  Mathematica  A Brief Introduction to Particle Physics A First Course in General Relativity A New Astronomy A No-Nonsense Introduction to General Relativity A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century, Fourth Edition A Review of General Chemistry A Simple Guide to Backyard Astronomy A Text Book for High School Students Studying Physics A Tour of Triangle Geometry About Life: Concepts in Modern Biology Acoustic Emission Adaptive Control Advanced Calculus Advanced Learning Advanced Mathematics for Engine...