News of the world

Astronomers discover planet made of diamonds

2011-08-26T09:26:00.000-07:00

It is certainly what you could call a gem of a discovery.

Astronomers believe they have found an entire planet made of diamonds.

Scientists at the University of Manchester think they have unearthed a once-massive star in the Milky Way that has been transformed into a small planet made of the precious rock.

The diamond planet - the shrunken core of a once-huge
star - is a chunk of crystallised carbon measuring
40,000 miles across, five times the diameter of Earth.

The international research team first detected an unusual star, called a pulsar, and followed up their discovery with research using a telescope based in an observatory in Cheshire.

The findings led the scientists to discover the gravitational pull of a small companion planet orbiting the pulsar.

Pulsars are small spinning stars more than ten miles in diameter – the size of a small city – that emit a beam of radio waves.

The team, also made up of scientists from Australia, Germany, Italy and the United States, thinks that the ‘diamond planet’ is all that remains of the original star, most of whose matter was siphoned off towards the pulsar.

The companion planet is small, at less than 40,000 miles wide – about five times the diameter of Earth.

But it is so close to the pulsar that if it were any bigger it would be ripped apart by the gravitational force of the star, which rotates more than 10,000 times per minute and has a mass of about 1.4 times that of the sun.

Research team member Dr Michael Keith said: 'This remnant is likely to be largely carbon and oxygen, because a star made of lighter elements like hydrogen and helium would be too big to fit the measured orbiting times.'

The density means that this material is certain to be crystalline, that is, a large part of the star may be similar to a diamond.

The pulsar, dubbed PSR J1719-1438, and its planet are part of the Milky Way's plane of stars and lie 4,000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens - the Snake.

The modulations in the radio pulses told astronomers a number of things about the planet.

It orbits the pulsar in just two hours and ten minutes, and the distance between the two objects is about 373,000 miles - a little less than the radius of our sun.

Despite its small size, the planet has slightly more mass than Jupiter.

About 70 per cent of millisecond pulsars have companions of some kind.

Astronomers think it is the companion that, in its star form, transforms an old, dead pulsar into a millisecond pulsar by transferring matter and spinning it up to a very high speed.

The result is a fast-spinning millisecond pulsar with a shrunken companion - most often a so-called white dwarf.

source: dailymail

Tag Heuer £16,000 mobile phone

2011-08-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

There’s a dilemma for any technology journalist reviewing a mobile phone that can cost more than £16,000 – who needs one? Nobody. Who even actively wants one? The ultra-luxury market is small. Devices such as the Link, made by Tag Heuer, should not be judged by the standards of your average iPhone or BlackBerry.

These are, after all, mostly about craftsmanship, and certainly not about what you might need – the Link features exposed screws, the one I used had an alligator skin back, and all models offer a solidity in the hand that feels weighty to the point of bombproof. A wheel, in the style of the crown of a Tag watch opens a panel on the side of the unit for access to the charging port, sim and memory cards. It operates with the kind of movement only serious money can buy.

So it’s the excellence of construction associated with watches that Tag is after – and yet mobile phones, whether it’s Samsung, Apple or BlackBerry, are all made as elegant, slim units that look extremely stylish. The Link’s conspicuous construction feels like a reaction against that, with those exposed screws demonstrating a conspicuous kind of artistry. Needless to say, this is not to everybody’s taste and most who like the usual mobile phones will not approve. There is an appeal in minimalistic design that cuts across all budgets.

There is, however, interesting technology in the Link. It is, currently, the smartest ultra-luxury smartphone on the market. A new model from rival Vertu is coming in October, but for now this is the most modern device in its rarified price bracket.

Running Android 2.2, the Link is not at the cutting edge – that’s version 2.3.3 – so it does not offer many of the features of the latest devices. But if you’re in the market for a Link, you can afford something with much better battery life, much newer software, and still have change for a brand new small car. You’re not buying one for the features.

Nonetheless, alongside a 5mp camera, the link also offers a usefully curated app store (SoApps), and impressive back-up and security features under the Tag Heuer brand, along with screensavers and wallpapers that are as stylish as you’d expect.

Indeed, with just a day of using the Link, its feel in the hand is slightly intoxicating. Angled corners and that leather back feel right, even if it does not look conventionally beautiful. The 3.5” screen is passably vivid, although it’s small and surrounded by a raised bezel that makes typing slightly difficult. The battery lasts the usual day or so of this generation of Android devices. Don’t worry that Tag give you just 256MB of ram and a 1GHz processor.

If you want the best mobile phone on the market, then this is probably not the device for you. But if you love the brand like so many people love Apple, want a mobile phone that is obviously a piece of jewellery and can also, thanks to Google Android, be upgraded to a newer software version over time, then the Link is the best around. Measured against its own peculiar ambitions, it is hard to find real fault.

source: telegraph

Robonaut R2 tweets from outer space

2011-08-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

The first human-like astronaut robot - Robonaut 2 or R2 - has awakened at the International Space Station - and already started tweeting.

"Those electrons feel GOOD! One small step for man, one giant leap for tinman kind," said the robot's first tweet.

R2 was brought to the ISS in February 2011 on board of space shuttle Discovery.

It has been designed to work alongside humans, helping them both inside and outside the station.

Although there were tweets sent from R2′s account (@astrorobonaut) before it "woke up", now its nearly 40,000 followers can rest assured the robot is indeed actively "tweeting" as its circuits are operational.

It is even responding to questions and sending birthday greetings.

R2 weighs 136kg (300 pounds), has a torso, two human-like arms and hands, and wears a golden helmet with a visor on its head.

The "tinman" has yet to get its legs, but for now it will stay attached to a fixed base.

At some point though NASA will supply it with one leg - for climbing through the station's corridors.

Eventually, the torso may be mounted on a four-wheeled rover called Centaur 2 for possible explorations of Lunar and Martian surfaces.

Truly humanoid
There are currently four Robonauts on Earth - but R2 is much more advanced.

According to NASA, the robot is "capable of reaching speeds more than four times faster than R1, is more compact, is more dexterous, and includes a deeper and wider range of sensing."

R2 has been primarily designed to show how dexterous robots cope in a weightless environment - but NASA hopes that eventually it will get out of the station to assist its human colleagues on spacewalks.

"R2 is the first humanoid robot in space," said NASA in a statement on its website.

"R2, now unpacked, will be initially operated inside the Destiny laboratory for operational testing, but over time, both its territory and its applications could expand."

However there was bad news for robot fans hoping to see the new superstar on its return. "There are no plans to return R2 to Earth," said Nasa.

Moon and Mars
The US space agency said that the R2 project pointed to the future of space exploration, not as a replacement for humans, but as a companion, capable of carrying out supporting roles.

"The combined potential of humans and robots is a perfect example of the sum equalling more than the parts," said John Olson, director of NASA's Exploration Systems Integration Office, quoted on the agency's website.

"It will allow us to go farther and achieve more than we can probably even imagine today."

It took NASA and General Motors 15 years to build the human-like robot.

If the mission is a success, future R2-like "droids" could be sent into space to carry out works on satellites.

They could even venture all the way to Mars - to prepare for the arrival of their human masters on the red planet.

source: bbc news

Super-massive black hole caught shredding a star to pieces for the first time

2011-08-25T04:26:00.000-07:00

A stunning cosmic jet from a super-massive black hole which shredded then swallowed a star has been observed by astronomers for the first time.

The extremely rare phenomenon caused by stellar debris being consumed by the hole has never been observed before.

Known as 'relativistic jets', they can reach hundreds of thousands of light years in length.

This illustration shows plasma shooting out of the
black hole after it devours a star. Such an event took
place four billion light years from Earth

Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical (white, purple) and X-ray
telescopes (yellow and red) showing the bursts

Most galaxies have super-massive black holes - regions of space that suck in everything nearby with their strong gravitation pull - at their core, with masses of millions or even billions of suns.

Scientists were first alerted to the phenomenon in March after Nasa's Swift telescope detected several bursts of X-rays from a quiet patch of sky.

Teams from both Pennsylvania State University and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the bursts could be the remnants of a star pulled apart when it came too close to a black hole located 3.9billion light years away.

Dr David Burrows, from Pennsylvania State University which controls Swift, said chemical analysis of the bright flash's ultraviolet light show it comes from material being sucked into a black hole the size of a million suns.

Writing in Nature, they concluded that the Swift satellite just happened to be in the path of the jet of star remains that were shot out at 99.5 per cent the speed of light.

Dr Burrows said: 'Incredibly, this source is still producing X-rays and may remain bright enough for the Swift satellite to observe into next year. It behaves unlike anything we've seen before.'

The swallowing of a star by a black hole only happens once every one hundred million years in a galaxy. The black hole is now believed to be even more powerful because of the additional mass from the swallowed star.

The absorption of large mass such as stars or even other black holes is what gives black holes growth and spawn the existence of super-massive black holes.Super-massive black holes could contain up to billions of solar masses. By comparison, the sun is just one solar mass and the Earth is 1/332,950th of a solar mass.

source: dailymail

Steve Jobs resigns from Apple as CEO

2011-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:00

Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs on Wednesday resigned as chief executive of Apple Inc in a stunning move that ended his 14-year reign at the technology giant he co-founded in a garage.

Steve Jobs takes the stage to discuss the iCloud
service at the Apple Worldwide Developers
Conference in San Francisco June 6, 2011

Apple shares were suspended from trade before the announcement. They had gained 0.7 percent to close at $376.18.

The pancreatic cancer survivor and industry icon, who has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since January 17, will be replaced by COO and longtime heir apparent Tim Cook.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come," he said in a brief letter announcing his resignation.

The 55-year-old CEO had briefly emerged from his medical leave in March to unveil the latest version of the iPad and later to attend a dinner hosted by President Barack Obama for technology leaders in Silicon Valley.

Jobs' often-gaunt appearance has sparked questions about his health and his ability to continue at Apple.

"I will say to investors: don't panic and remain calm, it's the right thing to do. Steve will be chairman and Cook is CEO," said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.

source: reuters

'Bulletproof Human Skin' Lives Up to Name, Sort Of

2011-08-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

Take a pinch of Spider-Man's webbing, add some human skin cells, and you just may end up with skin worthy of Superman. A Dutch team created a piece of "bulletproof" skin from special, U.S.-made spider silk and human skin cells and found that it indeed can repel bullets ̶ as long as they're not traveling too fast.

The bulletproof skin showed its superiority over normal human skin by stopping a bullet fired at a reduced speed. But it fell short of surviving a shot at normal speed from a .22 caliber rifle, the benchmark for protection for a Type 1 bulletproof vest.

A bulletproof human skin managed to repel
low-velocity bullets.

The result did not discourage Jalila Essaidi, the Dutch artist who, along with the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands, created the skin. She just wanted an art project demonstrating the relative concept of safety.

The result did not discourage Jalila Essaidi, the Dutch artist who, along with the Forensic Genomics Consortium Netherlands, created the skin. She just wanted an art project demonstrating the relative concept of safety.

"Even with the 'bulletproof' skin being pierced by the faster bullet, the experiment is, in my view, still a success," Essaidi said. "The art project is based on and leads to a debate on the question, 'Which forms of safety are socially important?'"

The special brand of spider silk came from genetically modified goats and worms at Utah State University in Logan. U.S. researchers have spent years harvesting the spider silk protein from the goat milk to try to make new types of super-strong fibers.

Essaidi combined the spider silk with human skin cells from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Such skin is still a long way from adding practical protection to humans, but it gives a glimpse of what future soldiers or would-be superheroes might expect. After all, the U.S. military and other armed forces have continually sought new ways to bulletproof their warriors on the battlefield, and also have shown interest in discovering the ultimate warrior genes.

source: technewsdaily

Fenerbahce kicked out of Champions League

2011-08-24T11:37:00.000-07:00

The Turkish Football Federation has decided to ban domestic champions Fenerbahce from this season's European Champions League.

European football's governing body UEFA called for the move amid a match-fixing investigation involving the top Istanbul club, the federation said.

It said it took the decision at an extraordinary board meeting on Wednesday ahead of Thursday's Champions League draw.

UEFA had promised that any club found guilty of corrupting matches would be kicked out of its marquee competition and have results wiped from the record.

"UEFA is working very hard behind the scenes to ride the game of these threats," general secretary Gianni Infantino said at the playoffs draw this month.

"We will not hesitate to prosecute any individual, any official or any club."

It was unclear how UEFA will allocate Fenerbahce's place in the draw.

Turkish league runners-up Trabzonspor were eliminated in the qualifying rounds and could be reinstated, yet have also been implicated in the match-fixing probe.

Spanish rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid will join England's elite clubs Manchester United and Chelsea among the top seeded teams.

Inter Milan also heads one of eight four-team groups to be drawn in Monaco.

AC Milan need Serie A rivals Udinese to eliminate high-ranked Arsenal in Wednesday's playoffs for the seven-time European champions to avoid dropping into the pot of number two seeded teams.

source: Aljazeera

Discovered: Stars as Cool as the Human Body

2011-08-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

Scientists using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have discovered six "Y dwarfs"-- star-like bodies with temperatures as cool as the human body.

This artist's conception illustrates what a "Y dwarf"
might look like.

Astronomers hunted these dark orbs for more than a decade without success. When viewed with a visible-light telescope, they are nearly impossible to see. WISE's infrared vision allowed the telescope to finally spot the faint glow of a half dozen Y dwarfs relatively close to our sun, within a distance of about 40 light-years.

"WISE scanned the entire sky for these and other objects, and was able to spot their feeble light with its highly sensitive infrared vision," says Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The Y's are the coldest members of the brown dwarf family. Brown dwarfs are sometimes referred to as "failed" stars. They are too low in mass to fuse atoms at their cores and thus don't burn with the fires that keep stars like our sun shining steadily for billions of years. Instead, these objects cool and fade with time, until what little light they do emit is at infrared wavelengths. The atmospheres of brown dwarfs are similar to those of gas giant planets like Jupiter, but they are easier to observe because they are alone in space, away from the blinding light of a parent star.

So far, WISE data have revealed 100 new brown dwarfs. Of these, six are classified as cool Y's. One of the Y dwarfs, called WISE 1828+2650, is the record holder for the coldest brown dwarf with an estimated atmospheric temperature cooler than room temperature, or less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit (25 degrees Celsius).

The coldest brown dwarf known so far, is denoted by a
green dot in very center of this infrared image.
The chilly star-like body isn't even as warm as a human
body, at less than about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The brown dwarfs we were turning up before this discovery were more like the temperature of your oven," says Davy Kirkpatrick, a WISE science team member at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. "With the discovery of Y dwarfs, we've moved out of the kitchen and into the cooler parts of the house."

The Y dwarfs are in our sun's neighborhood, from approximately nine to 40 light-years away. The Y dwarf approximately nine light-years away, WISE 1541-2250, may become the seventh closest star system, bumping Ross 154 back to eighth. By comparison, the star closest to our solar system, Proxima Centauri, is about four light-years away.

"Finding brown dwarfs near our sun is like discovering there's a hidden house on your block that you didn't know about," says Michael Cushing, a WISE team member at JPL. "It's thrilling to me to know we've got neighbors out there yet to be discovered. With WISE, we may even find a brown dwarf closer to us than our closest known star."

Once the WISE team identified brown dwarf candidates, they turned to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to narrow their list. To definitively confirm them, the WISE team used some of the most powerful telescopes and spectrometers on Earth to split apart the objects' light and look for telltale molecular signatures of water, methane and possibly ammonia. For the very coldest of the new Y dwarfs, the team used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The Y dwarfs were identified based on a change in these spectral features compared to other brown dwarfs, indicating they have a lower atmospheric temperature.

source: NASA

Google+ better than Facebook? A list of ten reasons why.

2011-08-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

Google+, Google's new social networking service, might cautiously be called a hit. With 25 million visitors at last count, Google+ may well be the fastest-growing social network to launch thus far.
A glance at Google+'s most popular users, however, would indicate that the social service is still a playground for tech's early adopters.

The unofficial leaderboard of the site's "most circled" users is dominated by technologists -- from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Even I make the list -- and while that's surely flattering, I'm hardly a household name.

This is the next great challenge for Google+ -- mainstream users may now be hearing about the service from time to time, but in a world of social networking overload, why would anyone spend time on Google+?

It's a question I struggle to answer: Google+ is certainly more fun to use than some of its rivals, but pinning down its specific advantages can be a challenge.

After all, the main features of the service are familiar: Post text updates, photos, videos and links to your friends from the Web or your mobile device. What's the big deal? I polled the Google+ community for answers to Google's marketing conundrum, and 10 distinct differences emerged. Could these be enough to convince the masses?

1. "Circles"

Overwhelmingly, Google+ users say they prefer Google+'s model for organizing your contacts. While Twitter allows you to "follow" others, and Facebook is all about mutual "friendship," Google+ instead introduces the concept of "Circles."

Circles are groups of friends with different labels such as "co-workers" or "family." Users can choose to share each update with a different group, and also view their incoming streams by group, rather than all at once. "I'm finding the circles help with keeping my life and work separate," explains Google+ fan Richard Walden.

2. Privacy

Google+ users say they find the service's privacy settings easier to use. This might be surprising given that Google+ profiles themselves cannot be private. However, thanks to Circles, it's easy to control which users can see each of your updates. "I want fine grained control of how my posts are shared," says Jen Delisle.

3. Longer, more thoughtful posts

Twitter might be king when it comes to brevity, but Ward Anderson says he reads more insightful postings on Google+. This thoughtfulness is enabled by Google+'s higher character limit -- users can post multiple paragraphs of text, versus one or two sentences on Twitter.

4. No ads

Google+ users, including Dave Francis Rotaquio, say they love that Google+ is currently ad-free. With Facebook having run ads for years, and Twitter now ramping up its use of advertising, Google+ is now one of the few successful social networks that lacks commercial interruption.

However, the free lunch is unlikely to last forever: Google runs the largest ad network on the Web and may eventually have to face the economic realities of operating a large social site.

5. Group video chat

Want to video chat with up to 10 friends? With Google+, switching from a text chat to a group video conversation takes a click -- and it's one feature that Google's rivals lack. Facebook now supports video calls thanks to a deal with Skype, but group chatting isn't possible there.

What's more, Google just integrated this "Hangouts" feature into YouTube, letting you and your friends chat about videos while you watch.

6. Farmville-free

Google+ recently added games to its lineup -- a feature that's often cited as an annoyance on rival social networks. (Do you have a Facebook friend who can't help but post Farmville updates all day?)

Google+ makes its games less irritating, says Inniya Kim, by relegating all gaming updates to a dedicated tab -- this keeps your stream free from noisy distractions. So if Farmville were ever to come to Google+, few would consider it a pest.

7. Better photos

Some Google+ users say the network is becoming a leader in photo-sharing: Full-screen photo galleries and a highly active community consisting of some the Web's most popular photographers must surely have helped here.

8. Friendly staff

Who said social networks don't need great customer service? The creators of Google+ are active on the service themselves and use it to respond to questions and criticisms. Rob Michael feels this has made Google+ feel more collaborative.

9. Less clutter

Perhaps it's simply the lack of advertising, but many Google+ users say they like Google's clean, white aesthetic. On Google+, there's nothing to distract you from the content.

10. Integrated with Google products

Fans of Google's other services, such as Gmail and Google Calendar, say they like the way Google+ works across many of Google's existing products.

"They had everything else, for the most part, already working so all they needed was to add the social networking aspect to things," says Josiah Stone.

Perhaps the greatest selling point of Google+ is the most obvious, however: It's new. The opportunity to start afresh with an up-to-date list of friends, no spam, no ads and an uncluttered interface is a novel experience for those of us who have spent years maintaining profiles on other websites.

Whether that "new car feel" lasts -- especially for neophiles like me -- remains to be seen.

source: cnn

Colorado experiences rare strong earthquake

2011-08-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

The largest natural earthquake in Colorado in more than a century struck Monday night in the state’s southeast corner, but there had been no reports of damage or injuries.

The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 and centered about nine miles from the city of Trinidad, hit at 11:46 p.m. local time. It was felt as far away as Greeley, about 350 miles north, and into Kansas and New Mexico, said Julie Dutton, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

Colorado, with its mix of mountains and plains, sits astride a seismically stable part of the nation where earthquakes are mostly mild and far between. But the area around Trinidad is regularly hit by tiny quakes as a result of a local fault zone, Ms. Dutton said.

She said that while Colorado has experienced several earthquakes close to Monday’s size in recent decades — a magnitude 5.3 near Denver in 1967 and a magnitude 5.7 in the state’s northwest corner in 1973 — both of those quakes were ultimately determined to have been caused by human activity, from explosives or drilling.

The last known natural event of comparable size was an earthquake in 1882 in what is now Rocky Mountain National Park, several hours northwest of Denver. That quake, based on historical reports, was about a magnitude 6.5, Ms. Dutton said.

source: nytimes

Space hotel: a room with intergalactic view

2011-08-22T06:09:00.000-07:00

Tiring of the annual two-week break in a Med hot spot? Fed up with overcrowded resorts with no room to move?
Then how about a real get-away-from-it-all holiday with plenty of space – in space?

Russia yesterday announced plans for a hotel in orbit 217 miles up which would house seven guests in four cabins and have huge windows for views of the Earth turning below.

Futuristic: Orbital Technologies has revealed plans for a
space hotel,which could be open by 2016

Just getting there will be an adventure in itself – it will take two days aboard a Soyuz rocket – and it won’t exactly be a budget holiday: A five-day stay will cost you £100,000, on top of £500,000 for your journey.

The hotel, or the Commercial Space Station to give it its proper name, is due to open by 2016 and, according to those behind it, will be ‘far more comfortable’ than the International Space Station used by astronauts and cosmonauts.

In the weightlessness of space, visitors can choose to have beds that are either vertical or horizontal, while showers will be sealed affairs to stop water going where it shouldn’t (those aboard the International Space Station must make do with sponge baths until they return home).

Tourists, who will be accompanied by experienced crew, will dine on food prepared on Earth and sent up on the rocket, to be reheated in microwave ovens.

The plan is to do away with the freeze-dried tubes of nourishment given to astronauts and replace them with delicacies such as braised veal cheeks with wild mushrooms, white bean puree, potato soup and plum compote.

Space age: The rooms will also act as an emergency
bothole for astronauts at the manned space station

Iced tea, mineral water and fruit juices will be available, but alcohol will be strictly prohibited. Toilets will use flowing air instead of water to move waste through the system.
Waste water will be recycled, while the air will be filtered to remove odour and bacteria and then returned to the cabin.
Sergei Kostenko, chief executive of Orbital Technologies which will construct the hotel, said: ‘Our planned module inside will not remind you of the International Space Station. A hotel should be comfortable inside, and it will be possible to look at the Earth through large portholes.

‘The hotel will be aimed at wealthy individuals and people working for private companies who want to do research in space.’

Tourists might also find themselves playing host to unexpected guests – there is a plan for the hotel to be used as an emergency bolthole for astronauts aboard the International Space Station if there is a crisis, rather than bringing them all the way back to Earth.

source: dailymail

Apple faces £15m lawsuit over iPhone location privacy

2011-08-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

Apple faces a class-action lawsuit from 27,000 South Koreans who claim it invaded their privacy by storing a hidden log of their movements on their iPhones.

The practice emerged in April, when two British security researchers found the file on both iPhone handsets and the computers with which they were associated. The unencrypted location data it contained stretched back almost a year.

In May, Apple was ordered by a South Korean court to pay Kim Hyung-souk, a lawyer, one million won (£565) in compensation as a result.

His firm, Mirae law, is now representing 27,000 iPhone users in a class-action. Each is also seeking the same compensation, which would mean a total payout of more than £15.2m if their claim is successful.

“I’m an iPhone user myself, so when I first heard about this in the media, I reviewed the legality of the matter based on Korean law,” Mr Kim said. “I concluded it was clearly illegal.”

Apple has declined to comment on the case.

A week after the existence of the hidden log was publicised, Apple announced that it would update iOS to fix a “bug” that made storing location data hard to turn off. It also said it would stop backing up the file on the computer associated with each iPhone, and encrypt it.

Apple said it had been “maintaining a database of WiFi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested”.

The update has since been released.

source: telegraph

Candle flame contains millions of tiny diamonds

2011-08-18T15:57:00.000-07:00

As if a candlelit dinner wasn’t romantic enough.

Scientists have shown that a flickering flame is studded with millions of tiny diamonds. Roughly 1.5million of the twinkling gems are created every second.

Sadly, for those whose eyes are lighting up the thought of making a fortune, the jewels are so small that up to 300,000 would fit on the head of a pin. And they disappear in the blink of an eye.

But if scientists come up with a way of harnessing the technology, people could use little more than a candle and a match to ‘grow’ diamonds from scratch. As well as costing a fraction of the price of ‘real’ diamonds, they would be an ethically sound alternative to the blood diamonds mined in African war zones.

An alternative source of diamonds would also be a boon to industry, which uses the fantastically hard stones in everything from saw blades to prosthetic hips.

The idea comes from a St Andrews University scientist challenged to find out just what is inside a flame.

Wuzong Zhou, a professor of chemistry, said: ‘A colleague from another university said to me: "Of course, no one knows what a candle flame is actually made of."

‘I told him I believed science could explain everything eventually, so I decided to find out.’

The professor invented a filter that allowed him to successfully extract particles from the centre of the flame, where temperatures top 1,400C, and then examined them.'

To his surprise, he discovered that the carbon in the candle wax had formed all four types of pure carbon, including diamonds and graphite, or pencil lead.

Pure carbon can make very different structures depending on how the atoms are arranged and how they bond to each other.

Professor Zhou said: ‘This was a surprise because each form is usually created under different conditions.

‘Unfortunately, the diamond particles are burned away in the process and converted into carbon dioxide, but this will change the way we view a candle flame forever.’

source: dailymail

Scientists discover how cancers generate muscle-like contractions to spread around the body

2011-08-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Cancer Research UK-funded scientists have discovered that a protein called JAK triggers contractions in tumours that allow cancer cells to squeeze though tiny spaces and spread, in research published in Cancer Cell on monday.

The collaboration of scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London together with scientists in France at INSERM and the University of Nice showed that when a protein called JAK becomes ‘switched on’ it leads to muscle-like contractions in cells to generate the force that cancer cells require to move.

The finding raises the possibility that drugs targeting JAK could potentially stop the spread of tumours, called metastasis, which is responsible for 90 per cent of cancer-related deaths.

Tumours consist of cancer cells, tumour-associated healthy cells and scaffolding that sticks everything together called the cell matrix. Cancer cells spread by moving from the tumour, through this matrix, to new locations.

In some cancer types the cancer cells use force to ‘elbow’ their way through the matrix. The force is produced by a process similar to muscle contraction. In other types of tumours the tumour-associated healthy cells use force to create tunnels down which the tumour cells move.

The scientists showed that same processes are used to generate force in cancer cells and in the tumour associated normal cells.

Lead author Professor Chris Marshall, a Cancer Research UK-funded scientist from The Institute of Cancer Research, said: “There’s an urgent need to understand how tumours can spread from their site of origin, for example the skin, to other tissues, such as the lungs, liver and bone where the disease becomes more difficult to treat successfully.

“We’ve shown that the same protein called JAK triggers tumour spread via two different routes – it generates the force needed for cancer cells to move around the body and also for triggers healthy cells in tumours to create furrows in tissues down which cancer cells move.

“Encouragingly drugs that block JAK are already in development to stop the growth of tumours. Our new study suggests that such drugs may also stop the spread of cancer.”

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK’s director of cancer information, said: “A huge challenge in successfully treating cancer is stopping it from spreading around the body, and keeping cancer that has already spread at bay. Most deaths from cancer are caused when cancer cells travel to different parts of the body and grow as secondary tumours.

“Discovering how cancer cells can funnel grooves though tissues, to squeeze away from primary tumours and spread to new sites, gives scientists fresh understanding of ways to stop cancer spread - literally in its tracks.”

source: ICR

Djokovic sets new record for Masters titles with Montreal win

2011-08-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

This man just keeps getting better and better.

Novak Djokovic became the first player to claim five Masters title in one season with a 6-2 3-6 6-4 victory over Mardy Fish in the Montreal final Sunday.

The world number one continued his incredible run of success in 2011 which has seen him claim nine titles, including grand slam triumphs at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. His only defeat came against Roger Federer in the semifinals of the French Open and he will head to the U.S. Open later this month as a warm favorite.

Djokovic took his career record to 7-0 against American Fish, who was losing for the fourth time in a Masters 1000 final. The pair shared the first four games until Serbia's Djokovic conjured up a run of four straight games to take command. But Fish bravely rallied to claim the second set to force the decider which Djokovic won with a single break of service as he wrapped up victory in two hours 23 minutes.

"I'm not getting tired of this (victories), it was a pleasure playing against Mardy. My team and I have done it again," said Djokovic in his on-court interview. "We played a great match, I had a few lucky points in the third set to break."

He is now 53-1 for the year.

source: CNN

Google to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

In a bid to strengthen its mobile business, Google announced on Monday that it would acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings, the cellphone business that was split from Motorola, for $40 a share in cash, or $12.5 billion.

The offer — by far Google’s largest ever for an acquisition — is 63 percent above the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday. Motorola manufactures phones that run on Google’s Android software.

Android has become an increasingly important platform for Google, as global smartphone adoption accelerates. The platform, launched in 2007, is now used in more than 150 million devices, with 39 manufacturers.

The acquisition would turn Google, which makes the Android mobile operating system, into a full-fledged cellphone manufacturer, in direct competition with Apple.

“This is an emphatic exclamation point that Google is a mobile company,” said Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Capital. “This is clearly a defensive deal, they were backed in a corner and they had to protect the Android platform.”

The deal answers a big question about Google’s next strategic step in wireless. Google has been battling with Apple and Microsoft over patents. Motorola holds more than 17,000 patents.

source: nytimes

El clásico del clásicos: Barça and Real ready for Super cup duel

2011-08-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

How to make soccer fans all over the world end their summer vacation with a huge bright smile on their face? By starting the Spanish soccer season with the classic of classics of course. Messi vs Ronaldo, Guardiola vs Mourinho, Barcelona vs Real Madrid, Champion vs Challenger. The crown holders will face their bitter rivals at the ever so hostile Santiago Bernabéu this Sunday for the Spanish Super cup, despite reports of a strike coming from the Spanish players union. Fans in and out of Spain couldn't wish for a better kick off.

As coach of Barcelona, Pep Guardiola has so far maintained a record of zero losses at the impressive stadium of Real Madrid. His track record in the palace of the "Royals" stands at three wins and one draw.

Last season the notorious El Clásico took place for an impressive amount of five times. During these historic encounters Real Madrid only managed to beat Barcelona in the Copa del Rey final (1-0). In the competition rounds (5-0 and 1-1) and the semi finals of the Champions League (2-0 and 1-1) Barcelona were the ones who came forth as the overall victors.

Leaving the past in the past, Real Madrid have enjoyed a delightful pre-season getting seven wins out of the seven friendlies and are more than ready to face arch rivals Barcelona. Especially the French forward Karim Benzema made a notable impression scoring a total amount of eight goals during the pre-season friendlies.

Barcelona are able to name a full-strength squad, in which three new players could be given their Bernabeu debuts, in the form of Alexis Sanchez, Thiago Alcantara and Andreu Fontas.

Real Madrid have been handed a huge boost ahead of the game, with Sergio Ramos having been named in the squad to face Barcelona. However, no such luck is in the offering for Esteban Granero and new recruits Nuri Sahin and Hamit Altintop, who will all miss out.

Be sure not to miss out on this exciting derby between two of the greatest teams in the world: it's Barcelona vs Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu.

source: goal.com, ad.nl

Women spend over £100k on make up in a lifetime... and would rather dump their boyfriend than go barefaced

2011-08-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

It will come as no surprise to the women who despair at the rising cost of cosmetics.

With their clever marketing ploys and promises of youth, big beauty firms have women in their grip.
And as a new study shows, this addiction to cosmetics does not come cheap. Figures reveal that women fork out a staggering £100,000 on cosmetics over their a lifetime, according to a new study.

The sum equates to shelling out £40 a week, or £2,000 a year between the ages of 16 and 65 on products women are convinced will make them look prettier.

The obsession doesn’t stop at spending either. A worrying 57 per cent of women would rather break up with their boyfriend then go without make up and, in Birmingham where the most extreme make up addicts were to be found, two thirds of women surveyed said they would rather buy make up than go on a dinner date.

The figures showed that the average woman's cosmetic collection is worth an impressive £512, while the 10 percent who are happy to spend more admit their love of make up has seen their collection grow to be worth an eye-watering £700.

And the most expensive thing of all? It is not the make up, but the make up bag itself. According to the study, the make up bag is often the priciest piece in a collection, with over a third of the 2,000 British women polled saying their make-up bag was worth over £75.

source: dailymail

Angry birds owners take it to the next level

2011-08-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

Seems like the owners of the worldwide popular mobile-game Angry Birds have a lot in common with their main characters, as they are also close to finding a big golden egg. The Finnish company Rovio is in deep talks with investors to receive funding that would value the company at about $1.2 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions. The company needs the money to further expand her activities.

The company involved seems to be an entertainment company whose name couldn't immediately be determined. Seemingly notable is that until recently, Rovio declined similar offers from large institutional investors.

The Finns have expansion thoughts, and plan to make an Angry Birds movie, open offices outside Finland, and are seeking to capitalize on the popularity of its brand in countries such as China, by selling stuffed animals and clothing in 200 retail stores.

The aggressive eying birds already started spreading their wings carefully as earlier this month a cookbook named 'Bad piggies egg recipes' was released for sale. The recipe book focuses on the the antagonists of the Angry Birds games, the inexplicably green and spherical pigs with a hunger for eggs. As such, all the recipes within are egg-based.

Oh, and you are warned; go armed and protected to the book stores if you don't want to get hurt by angry bird attacks on your way there.

source: telegraaf.nl, chinadaily, metro.co.uk

Chip and skin: How hi-tech 'tattoo' will monitor patients' vital signs

2011-08-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

Monitoring a patient’s vital signs - such as temperature and heart rate - could soon be a simple as sticking on a tiny, wireless patch similar to a temporary tattoo.

Eliminating the bulky wiring and electrodes used in current monitors would make the devices more comfortable for patients, according to an international team of researchers who report their findings in today’s edition of the journal Science.

The researchers embedded electronic sensors in a film thinner than the diameter of a human hair, which was placed on a polyester backing like those used for the temporary tattoos popular with children.

The result was a sensor that was flexible enough to move with the skin and would adhere without adhesives.

The researchers said the test devices had remained in place for up to 24 hours. Although normal shedding of skin cells would eventually cause the monitors to come off, the team believe the new device could remain in place for as long as two weeks.

'What we are trying to do here is to really reshape and redefine electronics to look a lot more like the human body, in this case the surface layers of the skin,' said John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois.

'The goal is really to blur the distinction between electronics and biological tissue.'

In addition to monitoring patients in hospitals, other uses for the devices could include monitoring brain waves, muscle movement, sensing the larynx for speech, emitting heat to help heal wounds and perhaps even being made touch sensitive and placed on artificial limbs

The device will help fill the need for equipment that is more convenient and less stressful for patients, permitting easier and more reliable monitoring, said Zhenqiang Ma, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin, who was not part of the research team.

The electronic skin can simply be stuck on or peeled off like an adhesive bandage, he noted in a commentary on the report.

The team declined to speculate on how soon the electronic skin would be ready for market or what it would cost.

source: dailymail

9-year-old's memory inspires over $1 million in donations

2011-08-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

The 9-year-old who died shortly after trying to raise $300 for 15 people in need has posthumously surpassed her goal thousands of times over.

It has been almost three weeks since Rachel Beckwith's death, and on Friday her online fundraising page hit a milestone and has drawn more than $1,000,000 in donations, affording clean water to over 50,000 people.

Rachel Beckwith had wanted to give back for her birthday. Instead of the bicycles and charm bracelets on which most 9-year-old girls fixate, the Seattle-area child wanted to provide clean water to 15 people. She asked that friends and family donate money to a fundraising page she created through Charity Water.

"On June 12th 2011, I'm turning 9," Rachel wrote on her page. "I found out that millions of people don't live to see their 5th birthday. And why? Because they didn't have access to clean, safe water so I'm celebrating my birthday like never before. I'm asking from everyone I know to donate to my campaign instead of gifts for my birthday."

When she turned 9 in June, Rachel was $80 short of her goal. A month later, a 14-car pileup severed her spinal cord and left her on life support for three days. When she died on July 23, she had already exceeded her goal. Her church had taken to social media, spreading the word about Rachel's fundraising page, titled "Rachel's 9th Birthday Wish."

Since then, more than 21,000 donations have been made. Some are for $9, in honor of Rachel's age, while others are for thousands. Some donors commented, speaking of their own children who had asked for donations to Rachel's campaign for their own birthdays.

Two days after she died, on Monday July 25, her page had already raised $130,000, now only a fraction of total donations.

That day, Rachel's mother updated the statement her daughter had written on the site, saying, "I am in awe of the overwhelming love to take my daughter's dream and make it a reality. In the face of unexplainable pain you have provided undeniable hope. Thank you for your generosity! I know Rachel is smiling!"

source: CNN

The world that's darker than black

2011-08-12T16:07:00.000-07:00

An artist's conception of how TrES-2b, the darkest planet
ever found, might look up close.

Astronomers say they've uncovered the darkest world ever, a planet blacker than coal that absorbs 99% of the light its star sends its way.

TrES-2b is a Jupiter-sized gas giant orbiting a star 750 light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Draco. Astronomers found out the dark truth about TrES-2b using data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft, a satellite telescope to survey our Milky Way galaxy in search of Earth-like planets. TrES-2b won't fall into that category, however.

"TrES-2b is considerably less reflective than black acrylic paint, so it's truly an alien world," astronomer David kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a press release. He is the lead author of a research paper n the dark planet submitted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Kipping and co-author David Spiegel of Princetion University say TrES-2b is a scalding world, with a temperature of about 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Its atmosphere probably contains vaporized sodium and potassium, or gaseous titanium oxide, all substances that absorb light but wouldn't alone account for the planet's darkness.

"It's not clear what is responsible for making this planet so extraordinarily dark," Spiegel said in a press release. "However, it's not completely pitch black. it's so hot that it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove."

TrES-2b revealed itself when as its orbit took it between Kepler and its star, changing the amount of light coming from the star ever so slightly.

"By combining the impressive precision from Kepler with observation of over 50 orbits, we detected the smallest-ever change in brightness from an exoplanet: just 6 parts per million," Kipping said in the press release. "In other words, Kepler was able to directly detect visible light coming from the planet itself."

source: CNN

Google+ scores another blow against its archenemy

2011-08-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

One of the main ways that Facebook addicts users is games, and now Google+ is following Facebook into gaming.

Google began introducing games on its social network Thursday, and while it is starting with just a few options, they include big-name games like Angry Birds from Rovio, Bejeweled Blitz from PopCap Games and most notably, Zynga Poker.

Google+ has been growing remarkably quickly, and already rivals existing social networks. Though it does not have Zynga’s most well-known games, FarmVille and Mafia Wars, the two companies already have a partnership because Google has invested in Zynga.

Google+ users will see a Games page at the top of their news-feeds and can click on it to play games or see gaming updates from friends. But updates will be shared only with select circles of people when users are on the Games page, so they will not appear in general news-feeds — something that has annoyed Facebook users in the past.

Google also sent a message to software developers, who have been clamoring to build applications for Google+. It said it was partnering with only a few game developers now, but would open the doors to other developers as soon as it works out some kinks. Google will invite developers slowly, it said, emphasizing the quality of applications over quantity.

Google made his move. It's your turn now Facebook. What will you do? Sit this turn out in order to launch an even bigger move the next turn? Or maybe you had something else in mind? Well..No matter what happens, it's always good to see companies battling with each other for the users don't you think?

source: nytimes

Netherlands Meter Plan Links Gas Pedals to Wallets

2011-08-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

As Sander Van Dedem recalled watching the charges tick up every 10 seconds on the dashboard meter on the way to the airport, he resolved to try public transportation next time. “Looking at the money makes you realize that a car isn’t always a good idea,” said Mr. Van Dedem, a commercial sales manager for I.B.M. here. But his pricey ride was not in a taxi. He was driving his own Volvo XC60.

The car had been outfitted with the meter so that Mr. Van Dedem could take part in a trial of a controversial government tax proposal to charge drivers a fee for the miles they drive. The meter also factors in the cost to society in the form of pollution, traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and wear and tear on roads.

Hooked up to the Internet wirelessly and to GPS, the system tabulates a charge for each car trip by using a mileage-based formula that also takes account of a car’s fuel efficiency, the time of day and the route. (Driving on busier thoroughfares costs more than driving on less-traveled roads.) At the end of each month, the vehicle’s owner would receive a bill detailing times and costs of usage, not unlike a cellphone bill, although participants in the trial did not have to pay the charges.

Governments in car-clogged regions of Europe, Asia and even the United States have shown an eagerness to explore such systems, but they face a nagging challenge in placing them in private vehicles. Even in environmentally conscious places like the Netherlands, voters and politicians often vehemently oppose the programs, citing privacy concerns about the monitoring of drivers’ whereabouts and the introduction of what amounts to a new type of tax.

source: nytimes

Possible new treatment on memory problems

2011-08-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

With over one in three people, memory declines with age. Neuroscientists from the Free University of Amsterdam have recently shown how and where this happens in the brains. This offers new opportunities for the treatment of memory problems with elderly people.

Receptor

With over one in three people the memory and concentration ability will decline with age. This is partly because the amount of the messenger substance acetylcholine in the brains decreases when getting older. Acetylcholine makes signal transportation from one nerve cell to the other possible.

The memory and concentration ability may imrpove by stimulating the receptor that recognizes and captures the acetylcholine in the brains. This way signal transmission in the brains will be better which will result in an improvement of the memory and concentration.

The researchers showed in their study that a particular component of the acetylcholine receptor is essential for optimal concentration. In addition, they showed in which part of the brains this process occurs.

Treatment

The results of the research, which will be published in the scientific journal 'Schience' this Friday, make a major contribution to our understanding of how attention and concentration in the brains are organized at molecular level.

This knowledge also provides clues with which after further inquiry problems on concentration and memory at aging may be treated better.

So what would this mean for our future grandchildren? They may either rejoice or get frustrated, because stories about the good ol' days will be longer, a lot more detailed, and well..yeah..Longer, much much longer.

source: www.nu.nl