Viacom: Google Used Piracy To Coerce Content Owners

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)

From CNET:

Viacom says newly released documents in its copyright fight with Google over its YouTube subsidiary help prove its case against the search engine.

We've heard these kinds of sweeping declarations from both sides throughout the legal standoff, which began when Viacom filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Google in 2007. A review of the documents filed with the court on Thursday shows that much of the material, such as Google employees making critical statements about YouTube's "rogue" business model before buying it in October 2006 for $1.65 billion, have been well covered.

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Video: Swoop Through the Real New York as Google Earth Meets Google Street View

From The Popular Science:

Google Earth has long allowed users to zoom in on textured, three-dimensional representations of cities, but the view was more or less limited to one angle: straight down. But the search giant has now mashed up its wealth of high-res Street View data with some existing city textures, making it possible to zoom right down to street level and take in a pedestrian's view in 3-D.

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Icelandic Volcanologists Carefully Watching Eyjafjallajokull’s Big Sister

From Times Online:

The erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano may be causing its fair share of havoc but scientists say we may have seen nothing yet.

All eyes in the volcanology community are focused on Eyjafjallajökull’s far larger sister, called Katla, which could cause disruption on a far larger scale. Katla is about eight miles to the west under the Myrdalsjökull ice cap. An eruption could cause widespread flooding and disrupt air traffic between Europe and North America.

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Get Ready For Decades Of Icelandic Fireworks

Ready for more of the same? (Image: Icelandic Coast Guard)

From New Scientist:

We're not quite back to the pre-plane era, but air travel over and around the north Atlantic might get a lot more disrupted in the coming years.

Volcanologists say the fireworks exploding from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Iceland, which is responsible for the ash cloud that is grounding all commercial flights across northern Europe, may become a familiar sight. Increased rumblings under Iceland over the past decade suggest that the area is entering a more active phase, with more eruptions and the potential for some very large bangs.

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Allergies Worse Than Ever? Blame Global Warming

Blend Images / Getty Images

From Time Magazine:

Allergy sufferers like to claim — in between sniffles — that each spring's allergy season is worse than the last. But this year, they might actually be right.

Thanks to an unusually cold and snowy winter, followed by an early and warm spring, pollen counts are through the roof in much of the U.S., especially in the Southeast, which is already home to some of the most allergenic cities in the country. A pollen count — the number of grains of pollen in a cubic meter of air — of 120 is considered high, but in Atlanta last week the number hit 5,733, the second highest level ever recorded in the city.

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Widening Gullies On Mars Point To Liquid Water

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies near the
edge of Hale crater on southern Mars. Credit: NASA

From Cosmos:

WASHINGTON, D.C.: Changes in gullies on Mars suggest that there is flowing water on the red planet, scientists said.

Martian gullies carved into hill slopes and the walls of impact craters were discovered several years ago. On Earth, gullies usually form through the action of liquid water – long thought to be absent on the Martian surface because the temperature and atmospheric pressure were believed to be too low.

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Whaling Peace Plan To Go Forward This Year

From The BBC:

A proposal aimed at bridging the split between whaling nations and their opponents will almost certainly come to governments for decision this year.

Sources say it could involve Japan accepting quotas below current levels; but Iceland is opposing proposed catch limits and an international trade ban.

Some anti-whaling countries see such a "peace package" as the only way to constrain whale hunting.

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Why Iceland's Volcano Is A Hazard For Air Travel

From Time Magazine:

Passengers sitting in planes on the runways of Heathrow Airport outside London on Thursday morning must have wondered what the problem was.

The sky above was clear and blue, yet the British government had closed the country's entire airspace, grounding all flights at five airports and disrupting the itineraries of tens of thousands of travelers — including those whose journeys originated elsewhere in Europe, North America and beyond and who would have only passed through Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport and a major international hub that handles more than 1,200 flights and 180,000 passengers per day.

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Biggest Comet Measured to Date: Comet McNaught

Comet McNaught viewed over the Pacific in 2007. (Credit: Sebastian Deiries/ESO)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2010) — British scientists have identified a new candidate for the biggest comet measured to date. Dr Geraint Jones of UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory presented the results at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Glasgow on April 13. Instead of using the length of the tail to measure the scale of the comet, the group used data from the ESA/NASA Ulysses spacecraft to gauge the size of the region of space disturbed by the comet's presence.

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Why We Can't Do 3 Things At Once

When humans pursue two goals A and B concurrently, the two frontal lobes divide for representing the two goals and related actions simultaneously. The anterior most part of the frontal lobes enables to switch back and forth between the two goals, i.e. executing one goal while maintaining the other one on hold. This inter-hemispheric division of labor explains why humans appear unable to accurately carry out more than two tasks at one time. Credit: Etienne Koechlin, INSERM-ENS, Paris, France, 2010.

From Live Science:

For those who find it tough to juggle more than a couple things at once, don't despair. The brain is set up to manage two tasks, but not more, a new study suggests.

That's because, when faced with two tasks, a part of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex (MFC) divides so that half of the region focuses on one task and the other half on the other task. This division of labor allows a person to keep track of two tasks pretty readily, but if you throw in a third, things get a bit muddled.

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Apollo 13: Australia's Untold Story

This view of the severely damaged Apollo 13 Service Module (SM) was photographed from the Lunar Module/Command Module (LM/CM) following SM jettisoning. An entire panel on the SM was blown away by the explosion of oxygen tank. Credit: NASA

From Cosmos:

MELBOURNE: Forty years ago, on 13 April 1970, NASA's worst nightmare became reality when there was an explosion aboard Apollo 13.

And in Australia, scientists and engineers at the Parkes radiotelescope - celebrated in the 2000 movie The Dish - had to find a way to stay in contact with the stranded astronauts.

"The expertise and skills of Australian scientists proved vital in the tracking of the spacecraft - without which the rescue would not have succeeded," said John Sarkissian, the operations scientist at Parkes.

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April 16, 1943: Setting The Stage for World’s First Acid Trip

1943: Albert Hofmann accidentally discovers the psychedelic properties of LSD.

From Wired:

Hofmann, a Swiss chemist, was researching the synthesis of a lysergic acid compound, LSD-25, when he inadvertently absorbed a bit through his fingertips. Intrigued by the stimulating effects on his perception, Hofmann decided further exploration was warranted. Three days later he ingested 250 micrograms of LSD, embarking on the first full-fledged acid trip.

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Google's Q1 Earnings Show Continued Ad Growth

From CNET:

Google continues to demonstrate that an online advertising recovery is well under way, at least when it comes to search advertising.

For its fiscal first quarter, which ended March 31, Google on Thursday reported revenue of $6.77 billion, up 23 percent from the same period last year. Financial analysts evaluate Google's revenue performance by excluding traffic-acquisition costs paid to Google's partners, which totaled $1.71 billion. That puts net revenue at $5.06 billion, slightly ahead of analyst estimates of $4.95 billion for the quarter.

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DARPA Spills Details On Its Plans For The Transformer TX Flying Car

Transformer Car Oh hi DARPA, you called?

From Popular Science:

DARPA didn't reveal much at first about its "Transformer TX" program aimed at developing a flying car for the military. But now the full proposal has been published, and shows that the Pentagon agency hopes to get a prototype airborne by 2015, The Register reports.

The mad scientists want a vertical-takeoff vehicle that handles like an off-road-capable SUV on the ground, and can cruise like a light single-engine aircraft at altitudes of up to 10,000 feet.

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My Comment: Someone has been watching wayyyy too many movies.

Facebook Attacked Over Refusal To Install Panic Button

From Times Online:

Britain's online child protection agency attacked Facebook yesterday for its continued refusal to install a panic button on its site.

Richard Allan, head of policy for the social networking site in Europe, said it had agreed a series of measures allowing users in the UK to report concerns about child safety directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (Ceop).

The new system flags up Ceop after users have already gone through Facebook's own reporting procedure.

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Google 'Suicide' Search Feature Offers Lifeline

From ABC News:

Suicide-Related Searches Trigger Information for Suicide Prevention Hotline.

Google may be in the business of search, but one of its newest features could save lives.

Starting last week, Google searches related to suicide started appearing with a message guiding users to the toll-free number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The number is 1-800-273-8255.

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For Prom, Teens Let YouTube Do The Asking

From ABC News:

High School Students Woo Would-Be Prom Dates With Online Creativity.

Sweaty-palmed, tongue-tied teens take note: If you want to score a date to the prom, asking the simple question just might not cut it anymore.

Hallway conversations and handwritten notes might have worked for previous generations, but with prom season under way, high school students across the country are turning to YouTube to give an age-old rite of passage a new media moment of fame.

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New Material Is A Breakthrough In Magnetism; Step Closer to 'Magnetic Monopole'

Physicists have created a structure that acts like a single pole of a magnet -- a step closer to isolating a 'magnetic monopole.' (Credit: Image courtesy of Imperial College London)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2010) — Researchers from Imperial College London have created a structure that acts like a single pole of a magnet, a feat that has evaded scientists for decades.

The researchers say their new Nature Physics study takes them a step closer to isolating a 'magnetic monopole.'

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Navy SEALs Recognize Anger More Quickly

From Live Science:

The brains of elite soldiers can respond faster to signs of anger than normal, which could help them detect threats and make the difference between life and death when under fire.

The differences in the brains of those who excel in extreme circumstances are poorly understood. Such research might help improve military performance, explained neuroscientist Alan Simmons at the University of California at San Diego.

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Body Heat: Sweden's New Green Energy Source

Commuters at Stockholm's Central station. Jim Stenman

From Time Magazine:

It's 7:30 a.m. on a wintry morning in downtown Stockholm and a sea of Swedes are flooding Central Station to catch a train to work. The station is toasty thanks to the busy shops and restaurants and the body heat being generated by the 250,000 commuters who crowd Scandinavia's busiest travel hub each day. This heat used to be lost by the end of the morning rush hour. Now, however, engineers have figured out a way to harness it and transfer it to a newly refurbished office building down the block. Unbeknownst to them, these sweaty Swedes have become a green energy source: "They're cheap and renewable," says Karl Sundholm, a project manager at Jernhusen, a Stockholm real estate company, and one of the creators of the system.

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