'Explicit' Category Rumoured To Be Coming To App Store

Screengrabs show a new 'explicit' category for App Store apps. The listing has since disappeared. Image courtesy of Recombu Photo: Recombu

From The Telegraph:

Apple is thought to be considering introducing a new category to its App Store, as the row over 'overtly sexual' apps rumbles on

Several developers have reported seeing a new category appearing in the drop-down menus of iTunes Connect, the platform they use to distribute apps through the App Store. Alongside standard categories, such as "entertainment", "games" and "productivity", is a new tag: "explicit".

Read more ....

Disaster Awaits Cities In Earthquake Zones

Istanbul has a program to secure its schools against earthquakes. Above, construction at the Atakoy Lisesi school. Johan Spanner for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

ISTANBUL — As he surveys the streets of this sprawling mega-city, Mustafa Erdik, the director of an earthquake engineering institute here, says he sometimes feels like a doctor scanning a crowded hospital ward.

It is not so much the city’s modern core, where two sleek Trump Towers and a huge airport terminal were built to withstand a major earthquake that is considered all but inevitable in the next few decades. Nor does Dr. Erdik agonize over Istanbul’s ancient monuments, whose yards-thick walls have largely withstood more than a dozen potent seismic blows over the past two millenniums.

Read more ....

Ocean Robot 'Plans Experiments'

From The BBC:

Scientists in the US are using an underwater vehicle that can "plan its own experiments" on the seafloor.

The "Gulper AUV" is programmed to look for the information that scientists want and plan its own route, avoiding hazardous currents and obstacles.

The research team described this advance at the Ocean Sciences meeting in Portland.

The group explained how it could "train" the robot to bring the best science back to the surface.

Read more ....

U.N. To Create Science Panel To Review IPCC

From ABC News:

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) - An independent board of scientists is to review the work of a U.N. climate panel, whose credibility came under attack after it published errors, a U.N. environment spokesman said on Friday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) accepted last month that its 2007 report had exaggerated the pace of melt of Himalayan glaciers, and this month admitted the report had also overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level.

Read more ....

Torn Apart By Its Own Tides, Massive Planet Is On A 'Death March'

Illustration of WASP-12b in orbit about its host star. (Credit: ESA/C Carreau)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 25, 2010) — An international group of astrophysicists has determined that a massive planet outside our Solar System is being distorted and destroyed by its host star -- a finding that helps explain the unexpectedly large size of the planet, WASP-12b.

Read more ....

Killer Whales Don't Usually Kill People

From Live Science:

News of a trainer being killed by a killer whale at SeaWorld Orlando today doesn't change the fact that these giants, while deadly predators, do not kill humans at sea.

"They have never killed a human in the wild," said Nancy Black, a marine biologist with Monterey Bay Whale Watch. That's mostly because, unlike sharks, killer whales don't frequent near-shore areas where people swim. (Even shark attacks on humans are generally accidental, experts say, with sharks mistaking humans for seals or other typical food.)

Read more ....

Interval Training Can Cut Exercise Hours Sharply

By training intensely, people can cut their training hours
dramatically, research finds. Getty Images

From Discovery News:

By working out in intense intervals, people can squeeze a week's worth of exercise into less than an hour.

THE GIST:

* Intense exercise sessions can help squeeze a whole week's workout into less than an hour.
* Experts say interval training is twice as effective as normal exercise.
* Researchers are trying to learn now if older and less fit people can handle this type of exercise.

People who complain they have no time to exercise may soon need another excuse.

Read more ....

Under Fire, Administrator Defends NASA’s New Direction

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, faced skeptical, sometimes hostile questioning on Thursday from members of a key House committee who said they opposed the Obama administration’s plans to revamp the nation’s human spaceflight program.

General Bolden told the Committee on Science and Technology that the president’s $19 billion budget proposal for NASA — which would cancel the agency’s program to send astronauts back to the Moon, invest in new space technologies and turn to commercial companies for transportation beyond low-Earth orbit — would provide a “more affordable and more sustainable” approach to space exploration.

Read more ....

Space Pioneer Burt Rutan Blasts NASA Plan

From The Wall Street Journal:

Commercial space pioneer Burt Rutan has sharply criticized Obama administration proposals to outsource key portions of NASA's manned space program to private firms.

The White House wants NASA to use outside firms to develop and operate new rockets and spacecraft that would transport astronauts into orbit and beyond, functions that had previously been considered a core function of the agency. Mr. Rutan, a veteran aerospace designer and entrepreneur, in a letter addressed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, says he is "fearful that the commercial guys will fail" to deliver on the promises to get beyond low earth orbit, and that the policy risks setting back the nation's space program.

Read more ....

Italian Court Convicts Google Execs Over Video

From The San Francisco Chronicle:

In a case that could have broad implications for Internet use around the world, an Italian court convicted three Google Inc. executives Wednesday of criminal charges for failing to quickly remove an uploaded video.

Officials at the Mountain View company pledged to appeal, saying if the verdict is allowed to stand, "the Web as we know it will cease to exist."

Legal experts agreed the case raises troubling questions for all U.S. Internet companies that do business globally.

Read more ....

Band of Bots: Two Military Robots Team Up To Cover Land and Air

From Popular Mechanics:

In war, teamwork is everything, even if you're a robot. Just as human soldiers and airmen support each other, teams of robots will likely roam future battlefields, helping each other on missions.

Read more ....

Chinese Scientists Would Feel "Blind" If Google Pulled Out

From Popular Science:

Scientists don't want to see Google go bai bai.

Most Chinese citizens may still rely on homegrown Baidu for their Internet search needs, but Google's threatened pullout apparently worries the vast majority of Chinese scientists surveyed by the journal Nature. "If I lose Google, it will [be] just like a man without his eyes," one respondent said.

Read more ....

Google Hit With Antitrust Complaints In Europe

Photo: The European Union Commission is located in Brussels, Belgium. Photo courtesy Wikimedia.

From Epicenter:

The European Commission has acknowledged receipt of three antitrust complaints against Google. It did not identify the companies and said it had not started a formal investigation.

“The Commission can confirm that it has received three complaints against Google which it is examining. The Commission has not opened a formal investigation for the time being,” an unidentified E.U. executive said in a statement on Wednesday.

Read more ....

New All-In-One Space Weather Tool From NASA

From Watts Up With That?:

The press release doesn’t contain any pictures, and really doesn’t do this new web tool justice, so I’ve added some screencaps. In a nutshell, the new iSWA site lets you arrange graphical packages of solar images and plots oncsreen for simultaneous evaluation. Stuff that had been scattered over several solar related websites is now in one interface. Pretty cool. – Anthony

Read more ....

Physicists Discover Odd Fluctuating Magnetic Waves

Brown University physicist Vesna Mitrovic and colleagues have discovered magnetic waves that fluctuate when exposed to certain conditions in a superconducting material. The find may help scientists understand more fully the relationship between magnetism and superconductivity. (Credit: Lauren Brennan/Brown University)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Feb. 24, 2010) — At the quantum level, the forces of magnetism and superconductivity exist in an uneasy relationship. Superconducting materials repel a magnetic field, so to create a superconducting current, the magnetic forces must be strong enough to overcome the natural repulsion and penetrate the body of the superconductor. But there's a limit: Apply too much magnetic force, and the superconductor's capability is destroyed.

Read more ....

Heaviest Element Officially Named Copernicium

From Live Science:

The heaviest element yet known is now officially named "Copernicium," after the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicum has the atomic number 112 — this number denotes the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. It is 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element officially recognized by international union for chemistry IUPAC.

Read more ....

Wireless Speed Freaks Set To Leave Wi-Fi Standing

Wi-Fi is so pedestrian. Gi-Fi anyone? (Image: Sipa Press/Rex Features)

From New Scientist:

WI-FI as we know it is reaching the limits of its usefulness. It just can't keep up with our appetite for services, such as new video formats, that gobble up bandwidth. So what's next in the world of blisteringly fast home-based wireless technologies?

For clues to where Wi-Fi is going, it helps to delve into the soup of standards that will shape the future of wireless communications.

Read more ....

Larger Threat Is Seen In Google Case

Bill Echikson, a spokesman for Google, called a judge's ruling against executives “astonishing.” Paolo Bona/Reuters

From The New York Times:

ROME — Three Google executives were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws on Wednesday, the first case to hold the company’s executives criminally responsible for the content posted on its system.

The verdict, though subject to appeal, could have sweeping implications worldwide for Internet freedom: It suggests that Google is not simply a tool for its users, as it contends, but is effectively no different from any other media company, like newspapers or television, that provides content and could be regulated.

Read more ....

One In 10 Teenagers Fall Victim To Cyberbullies, Research Finds

One in 10 children has fallen victim to cyberbullies, research shows Photo: GETTY

From The Telegraph:

One in 10 teenagers has been a victim of cyberbullies, according to university research.

The internet means that they can be targeted round-the-clock, researchers warned.

Experts claim that cyberbullying can be more damaging than conventional teasing because perpetrators can remain anonymous and therefore make more hurtful claims.

Read more ....

Why Millions Of Consumers Are Breaking The Law When They Use Their iPod

Photo: Law breaker? Millions of consumers transfer albums to MP3 players

From The Daily Mail:

Copying your favourite CD on to your iPod has become a routine part of modern life for music lovers.

But millions of consumers are unaware they are breaking the law every time they transfer an album or a DVD to their MP3 player or home computer – despite having purchased both legitimately.

Now, the threat of prosecution could be lifted after a customer body called for copyright laws to be updated for the technological age.

Read more ....