'Leaked' First Pictures Of iPhone 4G Surface On The Web With Rumours Of June Release... But Are They Real?

Apple's next iPhone? There is a fierce online debate on whether this grainy image is the new 4G

From The Daily Mail:

Gadget geeks, prepare yourselves to be overwhelmed - or at least feel a flutter of excitement.

For these grainy pictures are supposedly the first peek at the next generation of iPhone - the 4G.

Apparently leaked onto the internet, the images show what look like a sleeker version of the current iPhone, with a thinner, aluminium case.

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When Black Holes Go Rogue, They Kill Galaxies

A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy in the system known as 3C321 (Image: (NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al.; Optical/UV: NASA/STScI; Radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN)

From New Scientist:

Massive black holes may be kicking the life out of galaxies by ripping out their vital gaseous essence, leaving reddened galactic victims scattered throughout the universe. While the case is not yet closed, new research shows that these black holes have at least the means to commit the violent crime.

It was already known that "supermassive" black holes at the centre of most galaxies sometimes emit vast amounts of radiation. But nobody had a good idea how common such violence is. A snapshot of the universe doesn't give enough information to judge this because the activity of the black holes is thought to be intermittent, depending on how much nearby matter they have to feed on.

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Infected XP Owners Left Unpatched

From The BBC:

Some of the latest security updates for Windows XP will not be installed on machines infected with a rootkit virus.

A rootkit is sneaky malware that buries itself deep inside the Windows operating system to avoid detection.

Microsoft said it had taken the action because similar updates issued in February made machines infected with the Alureon rootkit crash endlessly.

The latest updates can spot if a system is compromised by the Alureon rootkit and halt installation.

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Iceland Eruption: New Satellite Image of Volcanic Ash Cloud

This image, acquired on 15 April 2010 by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), shows the vast cloud of volcanic ash sweeping across the UK from the eruption in Iceland, more than 1000 km away. The ash, which can be seen as the large grey streak in the image, is drifting from west to east at a height of about 11 km above the surface Earth. (Credit: ESA)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Apr. 15, 2010) — A vast cloud of volcanic ash has been sweeping across parts of northern Europe from the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite has imaged the ash cloud, showing for example the extent over the UK, more than 1,000 kilometers away.

Carried by winds high up in the atmosphere, the cloud of ash from the eruption of the volcano near the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in southwest Iceland has led to the closure of airports throughout the UK and Scandinavia, with further disruption in northern Europe expected later.

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What Was Different About China's Quake?

From Live Science:

The earthquake that struck China in the early hours of the morning was different than some of the major temblors that have struck around the world so far this year in that it occurred in the middle of one of Earth's tectonic plates, instead of at the junction between them.

The 6.9-magnitude quake, according to estimates by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), struck at 7:49 a.m. local time (2349 GMT, 7:49 p.m. EDT) near the area of Yushu in Qinghai province. This area is part of the Tibetan Plateau, which stands over 3 miles (5 kilometers) above sea level.

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Icelandic Volcano’s Ash Plume As Seen From Space

From Wired Science:

A NASA satellite captured an image of the ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano’s Wednesday eruption. We can see the ash plume from the event sweeping east just north of the United Kingdom en route to Norway.

The plume has disrupted air travel in western Europe, The New York Times reports, because of (well-founded) fears that the silicates in the ash could turn into molten glass inside planes’ jet engines.

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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.