by Damon Martin

Scientists from the University of California Santa-Cruz and the Carnegie Institute of Washington have announced the discovery of a planet a scant 20 light years away from Earth that could theoretically be habitable since it has all the characteristics of a planet that could support life.

Gliese 581-g is the latest planet discovered by scientists studying the Red Dwarf star called Gliese 581, which resides in the Libra constellation. The team’s findings were strong enough for them to declare the new planet livable by Earth standards. As many scientists state when dealing with extraterrestrial life, where there is water there could be life. Gliese 581-g has all of the necessary factors to create and sustain water, as well as an atmosphere similar to what we have on Earth.

Professor Stephen Vogt, a member of the team that discovered Gliese 581-g, admits that they don’t know for sure if the planet currently has any life forms growing or living on the surface, but he is confident enough to make a very educated guess going as far as saying, “that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent.”

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by Nicole Powers

“Restraint means more to me now.”
– Jake Shears

When Scissor Sisters first burst forth with their debut self-titled filthy gorgeous album in 2004 their brand of hedonistic dance was too hot for mainstream America to handle (the CD was even pulled from Wal-Mart’s shelves). It was a different story across the Atlantic in the U.K. however, where the band were welcomed with open arms – and notable record sales. There the release spawned a total of five Top 20 singles, and became the country’s top-selling album that year (and the 9th biggest seller of the decade). The band’s follow up full-length, Ta-Dah, released in 2006, also fared much better outside of the U.S. It went straight to the top of the U.K. album charts, and the first single, “I Don’t Feel Like Dancin'”(a collaboration with Elton John), also hit the number one spot – and stayed there for four consecutive weeks.

The wide chasm in reception and record sales between the two continents – the Scissor Sisters’ first two albums each sold in excess of 3 million units across Europe – can easily be explained when looked at in the context of cultural attitudes. The more liberal Europeans have been dancing continuously since the ’70s and dance-based music is ingrained in the fabric of European life. In America however, seizing on the opportunity afforded by AIDS, the disproportionately influential Christian right whipped up a frenzy of anti-dance “disco sucks” hysteria, stopping the party in its tracks and creating a deep-seated prejudice against the genre as a whole that remains prevalent to this day in significant pockets of society.

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By Edward Kelly

The Night House was not a place we had a name for. I started calling it The Night House about 30 seconds ago when I decided the place I’m about to describe needs a name, otherwise I’m going to keep calling it “the house” or “that place.” The Night House was, quite obviously, a house – technically. As a kid, I lived in a small community, a relatively idyllic suburb in upstate New York. Most of the houses in my neighborhood were less than five years old. I think the term for it is “tract housing” but that might be wrong. What it meant is that they were constantly building new houses at the end of our estate so new families could move in. And without fail we, that is my friends and I, always had a Night House — a house at the end of the estate that looked like a skeleton home, all angular wood jutting out at weird places, made even creepier at night with its ghoulish pockets of utter darkness, window holes cut out but not yet illuminated by the warm incandescence of electricity.

[..]

Feyne Suicide in Wolf Spirit

• INTO: Being lost, animals and nature, solitude, silence, independence, reading, studies, foreign languages, nudity, sincerity, trees, philosophy, Asian films, Mandarin Chinese, China, traveling, motorcycling, herbal tea, cold climates, Great Britain, rain, having fits of laughter, smiling, feeling like a raindrop in the ocean, Léon Spilliaert, Jack Gescheidt, Kim ki-duk, Leslie Cheung, being natural, being mortal.
• NOT INTO: Fake bodies, fake souls.
• MAKES ME HAPPY: True love.
• MAKES ME SAD: Animal cruelty, contemporary environmental issues, society as it is today, consumerism, advertising, money, watches, Facebook, television, Photoshop, cars.
• 5 THINGS I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT: Nothing is indispensable.
• I SPEND MOST OF MY FREE TIME: Enjoying my life and good health.
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Get to know Feyne better over at SuicideGirls.com!