Sun May Soon Send Magnetic Storms Toward Earth

From US News And World Report/AP:

BOULDER, Colo.—The sun may finally be awakening from its longest quiet period in about a century and powering up to solar maximum, when it could fling disruptive electromagnetic storms toward Earth.
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But once the sun does ramp up, it could be a relatively quiet solar maximum, with a below-average number of eruptions, scientists say.

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We Will Find 'Twins Of Earth' This Year, Says Astronomer Michel Mayor

From Times Online:

Scientists will have detected the first truly Earth-like planet outside the solar system by the end of the year, one of the world’s leading astronomers predicted yesterday.

Professor Michel Mayor, of Geneva University, who led the team that discovered the first extrasolar planet (or exoplanet) in 1995, said he was confident that a planet of a similar size and composition to Earth would be found in the near future.

Addressing a Royal Society conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) programme, he said: “The search for twins of Earth is motivated by the ultimate prospect of finding sites with favourable conditions for the development of life. We’ve entered a new phase in this search.”

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The Face Of First Contact: What Aliens Look Like

Just one possibility (Image: c.20thC.Fox/Everett/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

TENTACLED monsters, pale skinny humanoids, shimmery beings of pure energy... When it comes to the question of what alien life forms might look like, we are free to let our imagination roam. The science-in-waiting of extraterrestrial anatomy has yet to acquire its first piece of data, so nobody knows what features we will behold if and when humans and aliens come face-to-face. Or face to squirmy something.

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Ambassador Or Slave? East Asian Skeleton Discovered In Vagnari Roman Cemetery

Researchers announced that the skeleton of a man, seen here, has DNA that indicates an East Asian ancestry. Sadly he may have been a slave. His sole surviving grave good, a single pot, can be seen on the far left. A person was buried on top of him and appears to have been given more grave goods. Photo courtesy Professor Tracy Prowse.

From The Independent:

A team of researchers announced a surprising discovery during a scholarly presentation in Toronto last Friday. The research team, based at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, has been helping to excavate an ancient Roman cemetery at the site of Vagnari in southern Italy. Led by Professor Tracy Prowse, they’ve been analyzing the skeletons found there by performing DNA and oxygen isotope tests.

The surprise is that the DNA tests show that one of the skeletons, a man, has an East Asian ancestry – on his mother’s side. This appears to be the first time that a skeleton with an East Asian ancestry has been discovered in the Roman Empire.

However, it seems like this contact between east and west did not go well.

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Everybody Laughs, Everybody Cries: Researchers Identify Universal Emotions

Laughter is a universal language, according to new research. The study suggests that basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness are shared by all humans. (Credit: iStockphoto/Eduard Härkönen)

From Live Science:

Science Daily (Jan. 26, 2010) — Here's a piece of research that might leave you tickled: laughter is a universal language, according to new research. The study, conducted with people from Britain and Namibia, suggests that basic emotions such as amusement, anger, fear and sadness are shared by all humans.

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Seniors Have Rewarding Sex Lives

From Live Science:

Senior citizens often have rewarding sex lives, according to new research aimed at revealing the nuances of sexuality in the elderly.

The findings from a set of studies showed that older men between the ages of 57 and 85 are more likely than older women to be sexually active and open. The intimacy of sex, however, was found to be important to both men and women across all ages.

And just as in younger adults, healthy sex means healthy senior citizens.

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Satellite TV 'Making Humans Invisible To Aliens On Other Planets'

The digital age is effectively gagging the Earth by cutting the transmission of TV and radio signals into space Photo: REX

From The Telegraph:

Satellite television and the digital revolution is making humanity more and more invisible to inquisitive aliens on other planets, the world's leading ET hunter has said.

That might be good news for anyone who fears an ''Independence Day'' – style invasion by little green men. But it is also likely to make the search for extraterrestrial intelligence by Earthly scientists harder, Dr Frank Drake believes.

Dr Drake, who founded the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) organisation in the US 50 years ago, said the digital age was effectively gagging the Earth by cutting the transmission of TV and radio signals into space.

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Browser Usage Over The Past 7 Years

The following is an awesome graphic of browser usage over the last 7 years. The link is here.

Pentagon Tests A Global Internet Routing System Via Satellite

Atlas Launch Cisco's space Internet router launched aboard an Atlas 5 rocket on November 23, 2009. ULA/Pat Corkery

From Popular Science:

Communication satellites have traditionally acted as transfer points for data beamed up from the ground. But the first commercial satellite with its own Internet router could eliminate the usual satellite-relay transfer lag and more flexibly handle voice, video and data communications for U.S. and NATO military forces anywhere around the world. The U.S. Department of Defense plans to kick off a three-month demo of the space technology this week, according to Aviation Week's Ares Defense Blog.

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My Comment: With the growth of UAV and other robotic systems/platforms continuing at a rapid rate, having the proper (and secure) communication platforms will become even more essential in the years to come. I can only presume that this "space internet router" is just one more vital piece of technology to make all of this work.

Is This The iSlate? 'Pictures Of New Tablet' Surface Online As Apple Frenzy Hits Fever Pitch

Could this be a picture of Apple's hugely anticipated iSlate?
Blogger Dustin Curtis' idea of what the device will look like

From The Daily Mail:

Apple is expected to launch its next generation gadget - an iSlate entertainment device - in San Francisco tomorrow.

But as frenzy surrounding the new device, dubbed the 'Jesus tablet', hits fever pitch, it seems some fans cannot wait that long.

Several alleged pictures of the gadget have surfaced online in anticipation of Apple's sleek new design as speculation continues to grow.

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Facebook Users Told To Beware Fresh Wave Of Spam And Phishing Attacks

From Times Online:

A tidal wave of spam has been predicted this year as cyber criminals target social networks such as Facebook.

The networking computer company Cisco estimated that worldwide spam volumes this year could rise by 30 to 40 per cent compared with 2009. Spammers already send out up to 100 million junk e-mails a day and, although the vast majority are never opened, enough people click on the links to make spam a multimillion-dollar industry.

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Internet Backbone Breaks The 100-Gigabit Barrier

Same fibre network, more traffic (Image: Fancy/Alamy)

From New Scientist:

THERE are few facets of society that have remained untouched by the internet. From business communication to leisure activity, the net has transformed the way we behave.

Yet at its heart the internet has stagnated. As a slew of bandwidth-hungry services come on-stream, the fibre-optic backbone that forms its trunk routes are at risk of becoming overwhelmed by too much data. It's due for an upgrade.

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Was The Threat of H1N1 Flu Exaggerated?

Win McNamee / Getty

From Time Magazine:

By the summer of 2009, shortly after the H1N1 flu pandemic had first emerged, there was a waiting list for the first several million doses of the forthcoming new flu vaccine. At the head of the line, naturally, were the world's richest nations. "Again we see the advantage of affluence," said Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), at a news conference on July 14. "Again we see access denied by an inability to pay." Describing H1N1 as "entirely new and highly contagious," Chan scolded rich countries at the time for hoarding the "lion's share" of the global H1N1-vaccine supply.

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Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous... Egyptians

Virtual recreation of King Tut's Death Mask. Heritage Key

From The Independent:

The rich and famous people of ancient Egypt lived a decadent lifestyle with fine wine, sex, high fashion, and plenty of partying. How do they compare with their equivalents today - the modern western celebrity set?

The main differences might be regarding who were the richest people then, and who are the richest people now. In ancient Egypt the pharaoh was at the top of the ‘pyramid’ and his family, noble people who owned land, and the priests came after. Scribes, architects and doctors were well off, and skilled craftsmen also had many privileges.

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Engineers Plot The Future Of A Hobbled Mars Rover

European Pressphoto Agency

From The New York Times:

PASADENA, Calif. — As they have on many days during the past six years, about 10 engineers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory gathered in a conference room here last Tuesday to plan the schedule of the Mars rover Spirit.

From Cornell University in upstate New York, Steven W. Squyres, the mission’s principal investigator, appeared on a screen in the room as he presided over the “surface operations working group” meeting that day — a SOWG meeting for short, pronounced “sog.”

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Ozone Hole Healing Could Cause Further Climate Warming

Total Antarctic ozone - September 2009. (Credit: NOAA)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 26, 2010) — The hole in the ozone layer is now steadily closing, but its repair could actually increase warming in the southern hemisphere, according to scientists at the University of Leeds.

The Antarctic ozone hole was once regarded as one of the biggest environmental threats, but the discovery of a previously undiscovered feedback shows that it has instead helped to shield this region from carbon-induced warming over the past two decades.

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No Help Wanted: Shopping Tactics Different For Men

From Live Science:

The stereotype of a man refusing to ask for directions while driving may carry over to shopping as well, researchers announced recently.

The results, which are based on survey questions, show that women are much more likely to seek out other people for guidance about wine purchases, usually from interpersonal relationships, such as friends and family. But men are less likely to ask others for help, and instead prefer to get information from impersonal and published materials, as well as from their own experiences.

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What Happens In Sex Rehab?

Gentle Path facility in Hattiesburg, Miss.

From Time Magazine:

The calls for Tiger Woods to get help did not go unheeded: on Jan. 16, after weeks of sordid allegations regarding his extramarital affairs, Radaronline.com reported that Woods had enrolled in the Gentle Path program at Pine Grove Behavioral Health and Addiction Services, in Hattiesburg, Miss., to be treated for sex addiction. Local television stations later confirmed the story.

Few people know what actually happens at sex rehab. While those who treat it say sex addiction is a disease like any other compulsion, the field is in its infancy: there is virtually no research on it compared to the vast resources on drug or alcohol addiction. "You look at ways that your behavior has made your life unmanageable. That's really the question," says Benoit Denizet-Lewis, author of America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life, who has been treated for sex addiction himself. "That often differentiates a sex addict from a nonsex addict."

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Hunt For Earth's 'Twin Planet' Takes Leap Forward

Scientists claim the search for an Earth-like planet outside the solar system has entered a new phase Photo: GETTY IMAGES

From The Telegraph:

Scientists are on the brink of discovering the first Earth-like planet outside the solar system, a leading astronomer has claimed.

Professor Michel Mayor, the scientist who led the team that identified the first extrasolar planet in 1995, believes a planet similar in size and composition to Earth will soon be found.

Prof Mayor, of Geneva University, said that the prospect of finding a planet habitable for humans had come a step closer through rapid technological advances allowing observation of planets outside the solar system.

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World Wide Web May Split Up Into Several Separate Networks

From Investors Business Daily:

Google's threat to exit China is igniting worries that the Web, a linchpin of globalization, may fracture into regional fiefdoms.

The U.S. and China are ratcheting up rhetoric over the Internet's future. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned that "a new information curtain is descending across much of the world."

China says it'll make no exception for Google (GOOG) or other U.S. firms on its Internet policies. China's government has lashed back at Clinton's speech, saying it damaged bilateral ties. On Monday, the Communist Party's People's Daily accused the U.S. of using social Web sites like Twitter to cook up unrest in Iran.

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