Link roundup

Another non-post, gah. I'll get back to real posts if/when things settle down a bit here. Until then...

"The star Fomalhaut viewed recently through the Hubble Space Telescope. The structure is about the size of a solar system... and its looking down on Earth... Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Gibber! Gibber! " ~Trotsky

Mental Processing is Continuous, Not Like a Computer — "The theory that the mind works like a computer, in a series of distinct stages, was an important steppingstone in cognitive science, but it has outlived its usefulness, concludes a new Cornell University study. Instead, the mind should be thought of more as working the way biological organisms do: as a dynamic continuum, cascading through shades of grey."

NASA Researchers Discover Planet With Largest Solid Core — "Scientists believe the large, rocky core of this planet could not have formed by cloud collapse. They think it must have grown a core first, and then acquired gas."

Young Planet Challenges Old Theories — "he Spitzer Space Telescope has detected the youngest planet ever found, claim NASA scientists. Planets are thought to take many millions of years to form after a star is born, but the discovery of a million-year old star with a planet already in orbit around it means scientists may have to rethink planetary formation models."

Entering a Dark Age of Innovation — "But according to a new analysis, this view couldn't be more wrong: far from being in technological nirvana, we are fast approaching a new dark age. That, at least, is the conclusion of Jonathan Huebner, a physicist working at the Pentagon's Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, California. He says the rate of technological innovation reached a peak a century ago and has been declining ever since."

Scientology's war on psychiatry — "The controversial church, whose founder called shrinks "terrorists" and which labels mental illness a fraud, is closer than you think to implanting its extreme beliefs in the nation's laws and schools."

Boffins create zombie dogs — "Scientists have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop suspended animation for humans."

And, as if you haven't heard already: O'Connor to resign from Supreme Court.