Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012







Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death

Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow five days after death to be used in life-saving treatments



Apple's patents under fire at US patent office

The tech firm is skating on thin ice with some of the patents that won it a $1 billion settlement against Samsung



Himalayan dam-building threatens endemic species

The world's highest mountains look set to become home to a huge number of dams - good news for clean energy but bad news for biodiversity



Astrophile: Black hole exposed as a dwarf in disguise

A white dwarf star caught mimicking a black hole's X-ray flashes may be the first in a new class of binary star systems



Blind juggling robot keeps a ball in the air for hours

The robot, which has no visual sensors, can juggle a ball flawlessly by analysing its trajectory



Studio sessions show how Bengalese finch stays in tune

This songbird doesn't need technological aids to stay in tune - and it's smart enough to not worry when it hears notes that are too far off to be true



Giant tooth hints at truly monumental dinosaur

A lone tooth found in Argentina may have belonged to a dinosaur even larger than those we know of, but what to call it?



Avian flu virus learns to fly without wings

A strain of bird flu that hit the Netherlands in 2003 travelled by air, a hitherto suspected by unproven route of transmission



Feedback: Are wind turbines really fans?

A tale of "disease-spreading" wind farms, the trouble with quantifying "don't know", the death of parody in the UK, and more



The link between devaluing animals and discrimination

Our feelings about other animals have important consequences for how we treat humans, say prejudice researchers Gordon Hodson and Kimberly Costello



Best videos of 2012: First motion MRI of unborn twins

Watch twins fight for space in the womb, as we reach number 6 in our countdown of the top videos of the year



2012 Flash Fiction winner: Sleep by Richard Clarke

Congratulations to Richard Clarke, who won the 2012 New Scientist Flash Fiction competition with a clever work of satire



Urban Byzantine monks gave in to temptation

They were supposed to live on an ascetic diet of mainly bread and water, but the monks in 6th-century Jerusalem were tucking into animal products



The pregnant promise of fetal medicine

As prenatal diagnosis and treatment advance, we are entering difficult ethical territory



2013 Smart Guide: Searching for human origins in Asia

Africa is where humanity began, where we took our first steps, but those interested in the latest cool stuff on our origins should now look to Asia instead



The end of the world is an opportunity, not a threat

Don't waste time bemoaning the demise of the old order; get on with building the new one



Victorian counting device gets speedy quantum makeover

A photon-based version of a 19th-century mechanical device could bring quantum computers a step closer



Did learning to fly give bats super-immunity?

When bats first took to the air, something changed in their DNA which may have triggered their incredible immunity to viruses



Van-sized space rock is a cosmic oddball

Fragments from a meteor that exploded over California in April are unusually low in amino acids, putting a twist on one theory of how life on Earth began




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New diagnostic kit allows testing for ricin poisoning






SINGAPORE: A new diagnostic kit developed by Singapore's DSO National Laboratories and the Defence Science Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Australia will allow for the testing of a potent toxin, known as ricin, in humans.

Ricin is found in the common castor bean plant and oil produced from the plant is widely used industrially.

A dose as small as a few grains of salt can kill an adult human if it is inhaled or injected.

The danger of ricin poisoning lies in the symptoms exhibited, which are similar to common food poisoning or respiratory illness.

This makes the diagnosis of ricin poisoning particularly challenging.

Ricin has also been known to be used in biological warfare.

With the new kit, ricin poisoning can be immediately detected, by running human samples such blood and stools, through the kit.

"For this test, we only need 50 micro-litres of sample. That's probably equivalent to two drops if you do a fingerprick," said Chen Hsiao Ying, senior technical staff at the Defence, Medical & Environmental Research Institute.

A person can only be tested after ricin has been in the body for at least eight hours.

Current diagnostic kits can test for ricin contamination in food, soil or water, but not humans.

The new kit will be commercially available in two years' time.

- CNA/xq



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Browsers: Top 5 events from 2012




For a while there, the browser was winning the war.


New startups launched online services rather than packaged software. Browser makers raced to transform the Web from a place to publish documents into a general-purpose programming platform. People spent more and more time using the Web instead of software that ran natively on devices.


Then the era of modern smartphones and
tablets began. And in 2012, it became clear that Web app advocates will have to work a lot harder to build a universal software foundation. Here's a look at what happened this year in the world of the Web, starting with an an extremely public vote of no confidence.



The W3C's new HTML5 logo stands for more than just the HTML5 standard.

The W3C's new HTML5 logo stands for more than just the HTML5 standard.



(Credit:
W3C)



Facebook slaps down HTML5
The basic technology for describing Web pages is Hypertext Markup Language, and the new HTML5 version now symbolizes modern Web development, even though it also relies on other standards such as JavaScript for running actual programs and CSS for formatting and effects.


The HTML5 idea is that Web apps can span many devices -- Windows machines, Macs, smartphones, tablets, and more -- because everything has a browser these days. One of the biggest advocates of the approach was Facebook, which used Web coding to reach a tremendous range of devices.


But Facebook this year abruptly changed course, choosing instead to release native iOS and
Android apps. The company had loved the Web approach, which let its programmers constantly release new versions that would load the same way a browser loads a fresh version of a Web site. But the performance wasn't acceptable.


"I think the biggest mistake that we made as a company is betting too much on HTML5 as opposed to native," Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said. "Probably we will look back saying that is one of the biggest mistakes if not the biggest strategic mistake that we made."


Zuckerberg's long-term enthusiasm for Web apps was a pretty unappealing consolation prize.



Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called his company's reliance on Web apps for mobile access to the site a major strategic error.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg called his company's reliance on Web apps for mobile access to the site a major strategic error.



(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)



Microsoft stiffs browser rivals
With
Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to make a fresh start with the operating system interfaces that software can use. Windows 8 marries the older Win32 interfaces with the new WinRT. But Windows RT, the cousin that runs on mobile devices such as Microsoft's Surface that use ARM processors, lets third-party software use only the WinRT interfaces.


That happens to hobble browsers -- well, third-party browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Microsoft's own IE10 gets access to the low-level Win32 interfaces, letting it run JavaScript faster. Mozilla objected strenuously, and Google piled on, too. Microsoft carved an exception for browsers running on Windows 8, no doubt encouraged by its earlier antitrust woes involving Internet Explorer, but the company doesn't look likely to budge on Windows RT.


Even though European officials are checking into the situation, legal experts think any opponents would have a hard antitrust case.


The result, though could be that browser choice becomes a thing of the past. Safari dominates on iOS, Android's browser on Android, and IE on Windows Phone. Even if people might want a choice, company limits often preclude it.

Do Not Track derailed
Microsoft also threw a wrench in the works of a proposed new standard called Do Not Track (DNT) that's designed to let people tell Web sites not to keep tabs on their online behavior. The effort grew out of a Federal Trade Commission request for the industry to come up with a voluntary solution to the issue, since privacy advocates are not happy with the idea of behavioral targeting of advertisements.


Mozilla proposed a solution that got traction in Chrome, Opera, and Safari, in which browsers would tell Web sites not to track if people had expressly set the browser to send the message. But Microsoft, saying it wanted more privacy, turns DNT on if people accept the Windows 8 default installation settings. That might sound great for privacy, but online advertisers say they'll ignore the setting if it hasn't been expressly set by users.


DNT author Roy Fielding, an Adobe scientist and programmer in the Apache Web server software project, one-upped Microsoft by patching Apache so it overrides IE's DNT setting. But Microsoft isn't budging.


What could break the DNT gridlock? Perhaps the appointment of Peter Swire as co-chair of the group trying to standardize it.


Microsoft's IE has stopped its market-share losses, with Chrome and Firefox jockeying for second place.

Microsoft's IE has stopped its market-share losses, with Chrome and Firefox jockeying for second place.



(Credit:
Data from Net Applications; chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

IE gets real
There's a big community of people who don't like Microsoft's browser actions -- squashing Netscape in the 1990s then letting IE6 lie fallow for years.


But that's old thinking. Microsoft dragged itself back aboard the Web standards bandwagon with IE9. But this year's release of IE10 -- packaged with Windows 8 and set to arrive in finished form later for Windows 7 -- that's the stronger statement.


IE10 supports a long list of new Web standards: IndexedDB and AppCache for writing Web apps that work even when a computer doesn't have a Net connection; support for a range of pointers including multitouch interfaces; asychronous script execution for getting Web pages to load faster and run more smoothly; the file interface for better uploads and ways for apps to access data; sandbox security restrictions; and a lot of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) effects.


And it's pretty fast to load Web pages. All this means IE10 can compete -- and not just because it's built into Windows. There are still some missing features -- the WebGL interface for 3D graphics, for instance, which Microsoft thinks is a security risk -- but even without it and some other omissions, Web programmers still can look forward to IE's transition to a modern browser.


Naturally, Microsoft is tooting its IE horn as a result. And it has a strong incentive to keep pushing ahead: Windows 8 apps can be written using the JavaScript, CSS, and HTML Web technologies. Microsoft might have a vanishingly small share of Web usage in the mobile market, but it has mostly stopped IE's share losses in PC browser usage.


The $249 Samsung Chromebook

The $249 Samsung Chromebook



(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

Price cut makes Chromebooks worthwhile
Chrome OS, Google's browser-based operating system, was a wacky idea when it debuted in 2009 and still not very compelling when it arrived in products called Chromebooks in 2011. But in 2012, Google and its Chrome OS allies came up with a much more compelling recipe by lowering the price.


First came the $249 Samsung Chromebook, which uses an ARM processor rather than a more conventional Intel chip. Next was the even cheaper Acer C7 Chromebook, which uses an Intel chip but drops the SSD in favor of a conventional hard drive.


Neither can come anywhere close to replacing a video-game rig or Photoshop workstation. But for the price, they can be a capable second or third machine to have around the house for e-mail, surfing, Facebook, and homework assignments. They may not have the entertainment appeal of a tablet packed with games, but they're cheaper than a new iPad, and a lot of people prefer a keyboard when it's time to type.


Samsung also released some higher-end Chromebooks and the first Chromebox, a small machine that requires an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse. They're more expensive, but in combination with the significantly revamped Chrome OS and integrated with Google Drive, they're useful for a certain population.


Web apps may be struggling on smartphones and tablets, but for a laptop, they're a more realistic option. Browser makers and Web developers have work to do on mobile, but they're hardly an endangered species.

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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit


Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter Institute

Mounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.

Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to.

"You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations," she said.

For example, the A. flavus fungi that she used to write this message from Santa grows very quickly. "The next day, after looking at this plate, it didn't say 'Ho Ho Ho.' It said 'blah blah blah,'" Mounaud said.

The message also eventually turned green, which was the color she was initially after. "It was a really nice green, which is what I was hoping for. But yellow will do," she said.

The hat was particularly challenging. The fungus used to create it "was troubling because at different temperatures it grows differently. The pigment in this one forms at room temperature but this type of growth needed higher temperatures," Mounaud said.

Not all fungus will grow nicely together. For example, in the hat, "N. fischeri [the brim and ball] did not want to play nice with the P. marneffei [red part of hat] ... so they remained slightly separated."

Published December 21, 2012

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Giant tooth hints at truly monumental dinosaur



































They were the biggest animals ever to walk the Earth – now a new fossil suggests the largest sauropod dinosaurs were even bigger than we thought.











Sauropods were enormous plant-eating beasts with long necks and tails. The biggest are aptly named titanosaurs, and could reach 30 metres long and weigh 80 tonnes.













But some titanosaurs may have been even bigger than that, says Rodolfo García at the National University of Río Negro in Argentina. He has found a 7.5-centimetre-long titanosaur tooth at Salitral de Santa Rosa in Río Negro – that makes it 32 per cent longer than the previous record holder.












Did it belong to a titanosaur even bigger than any found so far? García says it is possible: the tooth probably came from an enormous skull, he says, which suggests a monumental body.












Philip Mannion of Imperial College London points out that we do not yet have good fossil skulls of the largest titanosaurs, so the tooth might simply belong to one of them. We'll need to find more of the dinosaur from which the tooth came to convince him that it was an even bigger beast.












If more evidence was found to suggest its existence, the next task would be to name it. Palaeontologists would need to go one better than Ultrasaurus, Supersaurus and Megalosaurus but Colossasaurus is still up for grabs.












Journal reference: Cretaceous Research, doi.org/j2w












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Nesting turtle numbers fall in South Asia: experts






KOLKATA: Conservationists have expressed alarm over the low number of turtles arriving on the coast of east India and Bangladesh for the nesting season, blaming overfishing and climate change for the decline.

Between November and March, several species of sea turtle, including the Olive Ridley, travel thousands of miles to nest on the sandy shores of Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest.

"Just a few have so far been spotted. The long, wide beaches of the Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans look empty," Pradip Vyas, director of the Indian government's Sundarbans Biosphere project, told AFP on Thursday.

"We are monitoring the six islands where sea turtles lay their eggs but we fear they are not coming in such numbers due to degradation of the sea, pollution and climate change."

Straddling Bangladesh and India, the 10,000 square kilometre (3,900 square mile) Sundarbans is famous for being the largest wildlife home for endangered Bengal tigers, but it is also a habitat for many rare marine species.

In Bangladesh, which is home to 60 per cent of the forest, wildlife experts said the number of turtles arriving on the pristine coastline dropped by at least 50 per cent in the past 10 years.

"It's a very grim picture," said S.M. Rashid, head of the Dhaka-based Centre for Advanced Research in Natural Resources and Management.

"In the 1990s we could spot 50-60 turtles nesting in our beaches in a night.

"But now the number has come down to a maximum 10," said Rashid, whose team in June successfully bred a critically endangered turtle using an artificial beach habitat.

Environmentalists blame a spike in fishing and climate change causing sea levels to rise and more cyclones for the alarming drop in turtle population, and they say that humans stealing eggs is another major problem.

"Overfishing has emerged as a threat to sea turtles coming to beaches of the Sundarbans," said Subrata Mukherjee, India's senior Sundarbans official, adding up to 1,500 boats now catch fish along the coast.

"A large number of sea turtles die after they are caught in fishing nets."

In the last five years, the Sundarbans were hit by two devastating cyclones, killing more than 5,000 people living in the villages along the forest.

"The nesting grounds of the marine turtle are being destroyed due to erosion and deposition of fresh sands. This is happening largely because of climate change," said Anurag Danda, an Indian WWF wildlife expert.

"Sea turtles are also avoiding the Sundarbans because of fierce winds during cyclones."

- AFP/il



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Hulu chief asks bosses for $200 million in funding -- report



Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has asked his corporate overlords for twice as much cash as last year to fund the company's growth strategy, a new report claims.


Kilar has petitioned Hulu owners Walt Disney, Comcast, and News Corp. for $200 million for 2013 to be used for acquiring more programming and expanding the company's reach around the world, the Wall Street Journal is reporting today, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the talks. Last year, Kilar asked for about half of that figure.


According to the Journal's sources, a decision hasn't been made yet by the companies. However, the sources say that News Corp., which owns Fox, would like to see Hulu transition away from ads and become a subscription-only service. Disney prefers a free service supported by ads. Comcast, which now owns NBC Universal, is not allowed to vote because of regulatory guidelines placed upon it related to its NBC acquisition.



Earlier this week, Kilar touted his company's growth, saying that it will close 2012 with approximately $695 million in revenue -- up 65 percent compared to 2011. However, it's believed that Hulu is still losing money, making the decision to drop a significant amount of cash into the company a bit more difficult.


Still, Hulu had a strong 2012. The company delivered its service to several more devices, including the
Wii U and
Apple TV, and more than doubled the number of subscribers to its $8-a-month service.


Despite that growth, having ample cash continues to be the thorn in Hulu's side. In October, the company had to borrow $338 million to let early investor Providence Equity Partners out of the company.


As Hulu's investors determine their next move, persistent rumors have suggested they might decide to sell off the company instead. So far, none of the companies have confirmed Hulu is being shopped, but every so often, new rumors crop up that discussions are being held. There has also been talk of Kilar leaving Hulu.


In other words, there seems to be a lot that's up in the air at Hulu right now.


CNET has contacted Hulu for comment on the Journal's report. We will update this story when we have more information.


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Winter Solstice 2012: Facts on the Shortest Day of the Year


Today is the winter solstice and the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. It's all due to Earth's tilt, which ensures that the shortest day of every year falls around December 21.

Some predicted that today would also mark Earth's doomsday, thanks to a longstanding rumor that the Maya calendar ends on December 21, 2012. But earlier this year, National Geographic grantee William Saturno found evidence that the Maya calculated dates thousands of years past 2012.

"We keep looking for endings," Saturno said in a statement. "The Maya were looking for a guarantee that nothing would change. It's an entirely different mindset."

(Read more about the Maya apocalypse myth.)

Even without an apocalypse, the solstice has been an auspicious day since ancient times. Countless cultural and religious traditions mark the winter solstice; it's no coincidence that so many holidays surround the first day of winter.

Solstice in Space: Astronomy of the First Day of Winter

During the winter solstice the sun hugs closer to the horizon than at any other time during the year, yielding the least amount of daylight annually. On the bright side, the day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the summer solstice.

"Solstice" is derived from the Latin phrase for "sun stands still." That's because—after months of growing shorter and lower since the summer solstice—the sun's arc through the sky appears to stabilize, with the sun seeming to rise and set in the same two places for several days. Then the arc begins growing longer and higher in the sky, reaching its peak at the summer solstice.

(Related sun pictures: See a full year in a single frame.)

The solstices occur twice a year (around December 21 and June 21) because Earth is tilted by an average of 23.5 degrees as it orbits the sun—the same phenomenon that drives the seasons.

During the warmer half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. The northern winter solstice occurs when the "top" half of Earth is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle of the year.

Being the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice is essentially the year's darkest day, but it's not the coldest. Because the oceans are slow to heat and cool, in December the seas still retain some warmth from summer, delaying the coldest of winter days for another month and a half. Similarly, summer doesn't hit its heat peak until August, a month or two after the summer solstice.

Winter Solstice Marked Since Ancient Times

Throughout history, humans have celebrated the winter solstice, often with an appreciative eye toward the return of summer sunlight.

Massive prehistoric monuments such as Ireland's mysterious Newgrange tomb (video) are aligned to capture the light at the moment of the winter solstice sunrise.

Germanic peoples of Northern Europe honored the winter solstice with Yule festivals—the origin of the still-standing tradition of the long-burning Yule log.

The Roman feast of Saturnalia, honoring the God Saturn, was a weeklong December feast that included the observance of the winter solstice. Romans also celebrated the lengthening of days following the solstice by paying homage to Mithra, an ancient Persian god of light.

Many modern pagans attempt to observe the winter solstice in the traditional manner of the ancients.

"There is a resurgent interest in more traditional religious groups that is often driven by ecological motives," said Harry Yeide, a professor of religion at George Washington University. "These people do celebrate the solstice itself."

(Related: Get Stonehenge facts and pictures in National Geographic magazine.)

Pagans aren't alone in commemorating the winter solstice in modern times.

In a number of U.S. cities a Watertown, Massachusetts-based production called The Christmas Revels honors the winter solstice with an annually changing lineup of traditional music and dance from around the world.

"Nearly every northern culture has some sort of individual way of celebrating that shortest day," said Revels artistic director Patrick Swanson. "It's a lot of fun for us to dig up the traditional dance and music and even the plays [honoring] that time of the year."

Of course, as the name suggests, The Christmas Revels mix ancient winter solstice traditions with customs of the holiday that largely replaced winter solstice celebrations across much of the Northern Hemisphere: Christmas.

Winter Solstice's Christmas Connection

Scholars aren't exactly sure of the date of Jesus Christ's birthday, the first Christmas.

"In the early years of the Christian church, the calendar was centered around Easter," George Washington University's Yeide said. "Nobody knows exactly where and when they began to think it suitable to celebrate Christ's birth as well as the Passion cycle"—the Crucifixion and resurrection depicted in the Bible. (Related: "Christmas Star Mystery Continues.")

Eastern churches traditionally celebrate Christmas on January 6, a date known as Epiphany in the West. The winter date may have originally been chosen on the basis that Christ's conception and Crucifixion would have fallen during the same season—and a spring conception would have resulted in a winter birth.

But Christmas soon became commingled with traditional observances of the first day of winter.

"As the Christmas celebration moved west," Yeide said "the date that had traditionally been used to celebrate the winter solstice became sort of available for conversion to the observance of Christmas. In the Western church the December date became the date for Christmas."

Early church leaders endeavored to attract pagans to Christianity by adding Christian meaning to existing winter solstice festivals.

"This gave rise to an interesting play on words," Yeide said. "In several languages, not just in English, people have traditionally compared the rebirth of the sun with the birth of the son of God."


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NRA to Speak on Stopping Newtown Repeat













For the past week, leadership at the National Rifle Association has largely stayed away from the media, but this morning the group may weigh in on how to keep a deadly shooting massacre like last week's at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school from happening again.


The NRA will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., just before 11 a.m.


Its leadership has held off on interviews this week after refusing to appear on Sunday morning public affairs shows this past weekend.


The group came under pressure after Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six adults before shooting himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown last Friday.


"Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting," the group said in a press release Tuesday. "The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again."


NRA News anchor Ginny Simone said Thursday that in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, membership surged "with an average of 8,000 new members a day."


New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said the NRA is partially to blame for the tragedy.


"We're not trying to take away your right to advance the interests of gun owners, hunters, people who want to protect themselves," Bloomberg told "Nightline" anchor Cynthia McFadden in an interview Thursday. "But that's not an absolute right to encourage behavior which causes things like Connecticut. In fact, Connecticut is because of some of their actions."






Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP Photo











President Obama Launches Gun-Violence Task Force Watch Video









President Obama on Gun Control: Ready to Act? Watch Video









Joe Biden to Lead Task Force to Prevent Gun Violence Watch Video





The guns used in the attack were legally purchased and owned by the shooter's mother, Nancy Lanza, who Adam Lanza shot to death before his assault on the school.


In the aftermath of the shooting, many, including Bloomberg, have called for stricter regulations on the type of weapons used in this and other instances of mass gun violence this year.


Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., has said she intends to introduce a bill banning assault weapons on the first day of next year's Congress -- a step the president said he supports.


President Obama announced Wednesday that Vice President Joe Biden will head a task force of leaders from across the country that will evaluate the best solutions to reduce gun violence in the United States.


Obama said he will "use all the powers of this office to help advance efforts aimed at preventing more tragedies like this."


Mayors Against Illegal Guns, of which Mayor Bloomberg is co-chair, released a letter to President Obama signed by more than 750 mayors calling on him to produce a plan to "make it harder for dangerous people to possess guns."


The letter asked for mandatory background checks for gun buyers, a ban on high-capacity rifles and ammunition magazines, and a designation of gun trafficking as a federal crime.


ABC News' George Stephanopoulos looked at whether strict gun control laws like those that have worked for the United Kingdom and Japan could work for the U.S. on "Good Morning America" Thursday.


Others have argued that, rather than banning guns, the government should be arming teachers and administrators in schools so that they can defend students in the event of another school shooting.


While Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a measure that would have let guns into schools on Tuesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell praised the idea.


Speaking on the NRA's daily news program Tuesday, Dave Koppel of the Independence Institute said the teachers at Sandy Hook should have had weapons.


"We'd certainly be talking about fewer innocent people and children dead," Koppel said.


While a national debate over the necessary solutions to prevent a tragedy of this nature from ever happening again wages on, Connecticut residents will have to wait "several months" before the final Connecticut State Police report on the Newtown shootings is complete.



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Laser cookery makes your food more fun









































YOUR toast pops up with a strange pattern burned into it. Pointing your phone's camera at the pattern pulls up a website showing the day's traffic news for your commute. Later, as you're wondering how to make a spring roll, you notice the instructions are etched into the rice paper itself.












These are just a couple of the applications of "laser cookery" envisaged by Kentaro Fukuchi and colleagues at Meiji University in Japan. They reckon laser cutters have done their time in industry and, like 3D printers before them, it's now time for them to come into our homes - as a new breed of laser-enabled kitchen appliances.












At a cookery technology workshop in Nara, Japan, in November, the researchers showed how a benchtop industrial laser cutter - normally used to cut or engrave patterns in plastic, wood and metal - could generate a variety of fascinating foodstuffs when hooked up to a computer running graphics software and a webcam.












One delicacy they have developed is the charmingly named "melt-fat raw bacon", an allegedly tasty sliver of uncooked bacon on which the fat is cooked by the laser, using a webcam trained on the bacon to guide the beam. "The well-cooked fat and the fresh taste of the meat can then be experienced at the same time," says Fukuchi. Don't all rush at once.




















































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China economic growth likely to pick up: analysts






SHANGHAI: China's economic growth may pick up to above 8 per cent in 2013, as economists expect the government to launch policies to boost recovery.

The country is expected to report 7.5 per cent this year, the slowest pace in recent years.

Economists say investment will remain as the pillar of growth the Chinese economy in the short term, despite the government's push for consumption.

The new government may also ease some current property curbs to achieve immediate growth.

As exports are expected to remain weak, China's growth now largely relies on investment and consumption.

Experts say the country's new leaders need to roll out short-term measures to achieve immediate results and gain public support.

This is likely to start with loosening some control over the property market.

Real estate accounts for about 25 per cent of China's GDP directly and indirectly.

"Trading volume has been decreasing very quickly in the recent market, and this is a big blow to the recent investment," said Gary Liu, executive deputy director of CEIBS Lujiazui Institute of International Finance.

"For the central government, it's probably very difficult to announce that we will give up the real estate market policy because they always want to maintain their image; they care about the housing price. But the local government will loosen the real estate market policy and the price will pick up, probably not as quickly as past years, but still I think has a large space to go."

Consumption is another key growth pillar.

On top of improving income distribution and social security system to encourage spending, experts believe, it is important to encourage wealthy Chinese to spend their money at home.

This group of rich Chinese accounts for about 20 per cent of the total population, but they hold 80 per cent of China's wealth.

"What they buy overseas is mostly branded goods, which Chinese companies don't have," said Sun Lijian, vice dean of the Economy School at Fudan University.

"We need to upgrade our industries and create Chinese brands, which are recognized in the world. Our goal for next year is to attract these rich people to spend in China."

According to experts, consumers in the cities tend to splurge on properties or cars. But there are curbs and heavy traffic to consider.

China is now looking for new ways to drive growth in consumption, and encouraging urbanization could be the answer.

Qian Qimin, co-director of market research at SWS Research Co Ltd said: "For example, when people from the countryside move to towns, they need to buy cooking utensils, home appliances and furniture. This will be a good way to push consumption. Now in cities, consumption has generally reached a plateau. People in cities have own almost all the living necessities."

The Chinese economy is well on its way recovery, but experts say any major changes will have to wait till the ruling party's third plenary session or meeting of top politicians next October.

- CNA/xq



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Galaxy S3 Premium Suite upgrade starts U.K. rollout



Samsung's Galaxy S3 owners in the U.K. arey getting the Premium Suite upgrade the company has been teasing this month.


Samsung announced today that the U.K. rollout of its Premium Suite upgrade kicks off today. The company failed to provide details on where else the software will be rolled out in the coming weeks.


The Premium Suite upgrade for the Galaxy S3 was announced earlier this month. The update delivers a wide range of features, including multiple window support, a "smart rotation" feature that automatically rotates the screen based on the user's face position, and a predictive function that will open certain applications based on the user's actions (plug in headphones, and it'll open the music app, for example).


Here are two videos showing off many of the upgrade's features:




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Detecting Rabid Bats Before They Bite


A picture is worth a thousand words—or in the case of bats, a rabies diagnosis. A new study reveals that rabid bats have cooler faces compared to uninfected colony-mates. And researchers are hopeful that thermal scans of bat faces could improve rabies surveillance in wild colonies, preventing outbreaks that introduce infections into other animals—including humans.

Bats are a major reservoir for the rabies virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Previous research shows that bats can transmit their strains to other animals, potentially putting people at risk. (Popular Videos: Bats share the screen with creepy co-stars.)

Rabies, typically transmitted in saliva, targets the brain and is almost always fatal in animals and people if left untreated. No current tests detect rabies in live animals—only brain tissue analysis is accurate.

Searching for a way to detect the virus in bats before the animals died, rabies specialist James Ellison and his colleagues at the CDC turned to a captive colony of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Previous studies had found temperature increases in the noses of rabid raccoons, so the team expected to see similar results with bats.

Researchers established normal temperature ranges for E. fuscus—the bat species most commonly sent for rabies testing—then injected 24 individuals with the virus. The 21-day study monitored facial temperatures with infrared cameras, and 13 of the 21 bats that developed rabies showed temperature drops of more than 4ºC.

"I was surprised to find the bats' faces were cooler because rabies causes inflammation—and that creates heat," said Ellison. "No one has done this before with bats," he added, and so researchers aren't sure what's causing the temperature changes they've discovered in the mammals. (Related: "Bats Have Superfast Muscles—A Mammal First.")

Although thermal scans didn't catch every instance of rabies in the colony, this method may be a way to detect the virus in bats before symptoms appear. The team plans to fine-tune their measurements of facial temperatures, and then Ellison hopes to try surveillance in the field.

This study was published online November 9 in Zoonoses and Public Health.


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Virginia Tech Survivor Fights Back Against Guns













Colin Goddard knows what it's like to be in a classroom when an armed man bursts through the door and starts randomly shooting people. Goddard was a student at Virginia Tech when a gunman shot him and killed 32 people in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.


"It was the most terrifying nine minutes of my life," Goddard told Terry Moran of "Nightline" Wednesday.
"One moment you're conjugating French verbs, the next you're shot."


Four of Seung-Hui Cho's bullets hit Goddard April 16, 2007. Three of the bullets are still in him and serve as a constant reminder in his work with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.


Goddard does more than just lobby and appear in public-service announcements. He says he goes undercover to show how easy it is to buy guns without any background check. It's the subject of his documentary called "Living for 32," after the 32 people who died at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.


"There is not one thing that will stop all shootings," Goddard said. "
There's not one policy that will save us all, but a background check is something that will make it more difficult for dangerous people to get their hands on a gun."










School Shooting Survivor Documents Gun Law Fight Watch Video









Virginia Tech Documentary Debuts at Sundance Watch Video





In "Living for 32," Goddard says he was able to buy, for example, an Egyptian Maadi AK-47, a TEC-9 and a MAC-11 machine pistol at gun shows across the United States.


"I bought the same gun that was used to shoot me," he said. "I bought it all, all without a background check and it was all legal. My question is, 'Why is that legal?'"


Only licensed dealers are required by law to perform background checks on the people to whom they sell guns while private sellers can make gun-show sales with no background checks.


This is known as the "gun-show loophole" and Goddard has made it his mission to close it.


In one instance, Goddard was able to buy the Maadi Egyptian for $660 and was told by the dealer "there's no tax and no paperwork."


The dealer requested to see Goddard's Ohio driver's license. When Goddard couldn't provide it, he was still able to purchase the gun by providing an Ohio address instead.


"I didn't think I was going to be able to do it at first," he said. "And then once I did it once, then twice, then three times. I was like, 'Wow, this is really easy.'


"Toward the end I wasn't even thinking about it. I tried to do it as quickly as I could, say as few words as I could."


Polls show that a majority of Americans favor closing the loophole.


Goddard says closing the loophole won't end all gun violence, but that the government can do better.


The Brady Campaign recently launched a YouTube series, "We Are Better than This," in the wake of last week's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. The videos feature celebrities and, perhaps more significantly, families of mass-shooting victims.


In the first three videos, Goddard appears, as do Lonnie and Sandy Phillips, whose daughter Jessica Redfield Ghawi, died in the Aurora, Colo., mass shooting in July.






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Cassini captures spectacle in Saturn's shadow



Flora Graham, deputy editor, newscientist.com


PIA14934.jpg

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)


Like a Christmas bauble hanging in the night, this view of
a backlit Saturn shines in the darkness. The image was taken during a rare chance
for NASA's
Cassini spacecraft to observe the planet's rings while in Saturn's shadow. Conveniently,
Saturn blocks the sun and the rings are illuminated from behind.






As well as providing a unique view of an already enchanting
world, the image reveals details in the rings that aren't easily seen in direct
sunlight. The picture is a composite of
infrared, red and violet-spectrum photos taken by Cassini in October and
released this week.



The last opportunity for Cassini to spot Saturn from this
angle was in 2006, when NASA created a mosaic of images that revealed
previously unknown faint rings around the planet.



The two tiny dots in the lower left-hand quarter of the
photo are two of Saturn's moons, Enceladus and Tethys. Enceladus is closer to
the rings; Tethys is below and to the left. Previous Cassini fly-bys
discovered that Enceladus
is a geologist's paradise of snaking ridges, chasms and scratches,
while Tethys hosts a mysterious
spear-shaped feature.



For more on Saturn and Cassini, visit our Saturn and its
moons topic guide.




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Moon concedes S. Korea presidential election






SEOUL: Liberal candidate Moon Jae-In conceded victory Wednesday in South Korea's presidential election to conservative Park Geun-Hye, saying he "humbly" accepted the decision of the voters.

"Everyone did their best but I lacked the ability," Moon told reporters outside his Seoul residence. "I humbly accept the outcome of the election."

- AFP/ck



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Get a 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive for $19.99 shipped




Get 32GB of USB 3.0-powered flash storage for under $20.

Get 32GB of USB 3.0-powered flash storage for under $20.



(Credit:
Ice Monkey)


Regular readers know that flash-drive prices have plummeted in the past year. But you know what all those dirt-cheap drives have had in common? A USB 2.0 interface.


What is this, 2001? USB 2.0 is over, man. It's the digital equivalent of the horse and buggy. And yet it's still pretty rare to find flash drives that support the newer, faster USB 3.0 spec.


That's why I'm jazzed about today's deal. While supplies last, Ice Monkey has the Super Talent ST3U32ST1K 32GB USB 3.0 flash drive for $19.99 shipped. Elsewhere it sells for at least $28.


The black-and-turquoise drive features a retractable USB plug (my favorite design), backward compatibility with USB 2.0, and a one-year warranty. (I mention this last item not because it's especially good -- quite the opposite -- but because there's a mistake in Ice Monkey's product-features list. It says "5 Manufacturer Warranty," but I double-checked with Super Talent, and it's indeed just one year.)


With rated sequential read and write rates of 90MB/second and 16MB/second, respectively, the drive should blow the doors off any USB 2.0 storage you've used in the past. (That's assuming, of course, that you plug it into a USB 3.0 port. If you've purchased a PC within the last year or so, you should have at least one of them.)


According to Ice Monkey's "stock meter," the company has a full inventory of these drives, though how many actual units that means is anybody's guess. Also, it's worth noting that Ice Monkey has a fairly mediocre score over at ResellerRatings.com, with poor communication and slow shipping being the big complaints. (I've heard similar complaints of late about Daily Steals, Ice Monkey's "sister" company.)


Thus, if you're in a big hurry, you may want to spend extra to get it elsewhere. If not, well, this is one of the best deals on a speedy, high-capacity flash drive I've seen this year.


Bonus deal: Speaking of big hurries, it's hard to beat e-mail delivery. For a limited time, and while supplies last, Walmart is offering a $50 iTunes eGift Card for $40. You can use the card for yourself or send it along to someone else as a gift, all with just a few minutes' worth of clicking.


Deals found on The Cheapskate are subject to availability, expiration, and other terms determined by sellers.


Curious about what exactly The Cheapskate does and how it works? Read our FAQ.


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Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice



A hundred years ago, two teams of explorers set out to be the first people ever to reach the South Pole. The race between Roald Amundsen of Norway and Robert Falcon Scott of Britain became the stuff of triumph, tragedy, and legend. (See rare pictures of Scott's expedition.)


Today, another Antarctic drama is underway that has a similar daring and intensity—but very different stakes.


Three unprecedented, major expeditions are underway to drill deep through the ice covering the continent and, researchers hope, penetrate three subglacial lakes not even known to exist until recently.


The three players—Russia, Britain, and the United States—are all on the ice now and are in varying stages of their preparations. The first drilling was attempted last week by the British team at Lake Ellsworth, but mechanical problems soon cropped up in the unforgiving Antarctic cold, putting a temporary hold on their work.


The key scientific goal of the missions: to discover and identify living organisms in Antarctica's dark, pristine, and hidden recesses. (See "Antarctica May Contain 'Oasis of Life.'")


Scientists believe the lakes may well be home to the kind of "extreme" life that could eke out an existence on other planets or moons of our solar system, so finding them on Earth could help significantly in the search for life elsewhere.



An illustration shows lakes and rivers under Antarctica's ice.
Lakes and rivers are buried beneath Antarctica's thick ice (enlarge).

Illustration courtesy Zina Deretsky, NSF




While astrobiology—the search for life beyond Earth—is a prime mover in the push into subglacial lakes, so too is the need to better understand the ice sheet that covers the vast continent and holds much of the world's fresh water. If the ice sheet begins to melt due to global warming, the consequences—such as global sea level rise—could be catastrophic.


"We are the new wave of Antarctic explorers, pioneers if you will," said Montana State University's John Priscu, chief scientist of the U.S. drilling effort this season and a longtime Antarctic scientist.


"After years of planning, projects are coming together all at once," he said.


"What we find this year and next will set the stage for Antarctic science for the next generation and more—just like with the explorers a century ago."


All Eyes on the Brits


All three research teams are at work now, but the drama is currently focused on Lake Ellsworth, buried 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) below the West Antarctic ice sheet.


A 12-person British team is using a sophisticated technique that involves drilling down using water melted from the ice, which is then heated to 190 degrees Fahrenheit (88 degrees Celsius).


The first drilling attempt began on December 12, but was stopped at almost 200 feet (61 meters) because of technical problems with the sensors on the drill nozzle.


Drilling resumed on Saturday but then was delayed when both boilers malfunctioned, requiring the team to wait for spare parts. The situation is frustrating but normal due to the harsh climate, British Antarctic team leader Martin Siegert, who helped discover Lake Ellsworth in 2004, said in an email from the site.


After completing their drilling, the team will have about 24 hours to collect their samples before the hole freezes back up in the often below-zero cold. If all goes well, they could have lake water and mud samples as early as this week.


"Our expectation is that microbes will be found in the lake water and upper sediment," Siegert said. "We would be highly surprised if this were not the case."


The British team lives in tents and makeshift shelters, and endures constant wind as well as frigid temperatures. (Take an Antarctic quiz.)


"Right now we are working round the clock in a cold, demanding and extreme location-it's testing our own personal endurance, but it's worth it," Siegert said.


U.S. First to Find Life?


The U.S. team is drilling into Lake Whillans, a much shallower body about 700 miles inland (1,120 kilometers) in the region that drains into the Ross Sea.


The lake, which is part of a broader water system under the ice, may well have the greatest chances of supporting microbial life, experts say. Hot-water drilling begins there in January.


Among the challenges: Lake Whillans lies under an ice stream, which is similar to a glacier but is underground and surrounded by ice on all sides. It moves slowly but constantly, and that complicates efforts to drill into the deepest—and most scientifically interesting—part of the lake.


Montana State's Priscu—currently back in the U.S. for medical reasons—said his team will bring a full lab to the Lake Whillans drilling site to study samples as they come up: something the Russians don't have the interest or capacity in doing and that the British will be trying in a more limited way. (Also see "Pictures: 'Extreme' Antarctic Science Revealed.")


So while the U.S. team may be the last of the three to penetrate their lake, they could be the first to announce the discovery of life in deep subglacial lakes.


"We should have a good idea of the abundance and type of life in the lake and sediments before we leave the site," said Priscu, who plans to return to Antarctica in early January if doctors allow.


"And we want to know as much as possible about how they make a living down there without energy from the sun and without nutrients most life-forms need."


All subglacial lakes are kept liquid by heat generated from the pressure of the heavy load of ice above them, and also from heat emanating from deeper in the Earth's crust.


In addition, the movement of glaciers and "ice streams" produces heat from friction, which at least temporarily results in a wet layer at the very bottom of the ice.


The Lake Whillans drilling is part of the larger Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project, first funded in 2009 by the U.S. National Science Foundation with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.


That much larger effort will also study the ice streams that feed and leave the lake to learn more about another aspect of Antarctic dynamism: The recently discovered web of more than 360 lakes and untold streams and rivers—some nearing the size of the Amazon Basin—below the ice. (See "Chain of Cascading Lakes Discovered Under Antarctica.")


Helen Fricker, a member of the WISSARD team and a glaciologist at University of California, San Diego, said that scientists didn't begin to understand the vastness of Antarctica's subglacial water world until after the turn of the century.


That hidden, subterranean realm has "incredibly interesting and probably never classified biology," Fricker said.


"But it can also give us important answers about the climate history of the Earth, and clues about the future, too, as the climate changes."


Russia Returning to Successful Site


While both the U.S. and British teams have websites to keep people up to date on their work, the Russians do not, and have been generally quiet about their plans for this year.


The Russians have a team at Lake Vostok, the largest and deepest subglacial lake in Antarctica at more than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) below the icy surface of the East Antarctic plateau.


The Vostok drilling began in the 1950s, well before anyone knew there was an enormous lake beneath the ice. The Russians finally and briefly pierced the lake early this year, before having to leave because of the cold. That breakthrough was portrayed at the time as a major national accomplishment.


According to Irina Alexhina, a Russian scientist with the Vostok team who was visiting the U.S. McMurdo Station last week, the Russian plan for this season focuses on extracting the ice core that rose in February when Vostok was breached. She said the team arrived this month and can stay through early February.


Preliminary results from the February breach report no signs of life on the drill bit that entered the water, but some evidence of life in small samples of the "accretion ice," which is frozen to the bottom of the lake, said Lake Vostok expert Sergey Bulat, of the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, in May.


Both results are considered tentative because of the size of the sample and how they were retrieved. In addition, sampling water from the very top of Lake Vostok is far less likely to find organisms than farther down or in the bottom sediment, scientists say.


"It's like taking a scoop of water from the top of Lake Ontario and making conclusions about the lake based on that," said Priscu, who has worked with the Russians at Vostok.


He said he hopes to one day be part of a fully international team that will bring the most advanced drilling and sample collecting technology to Vostok.


Extreme Antarctic Microbes Found


Some results have already revealed life under the ice. A November study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that subglacial Lake Vida—which is smaller and closer to the surface than other subglacial lakes—does indeed support a menagerie of strange and often unknown bacteria.


The microbes survive in water six times saltier than the oceans, with no oxygen, and with the highest level of nitrous oxide ever found in water on Earth, said study co-author Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Center.


"What Antarctica is telling us is that organisms can eke out a living in the most extreme of environments," said McKay, an expert in the search for life beyond Earth.


McKay called Lake Vida the closest analog found so far to the two ice and water moons in the solar system deemed most likely to support extraterrestrial life—Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus.


But that "closest analog" designation may soon change. Life-forms found in Vostok, Ellsworth, or Whillans would all be living at a much greater depth than at Lake Vida—meaning that they'd have to contend with more pressure, more limited nutrients, and a source of energy entirely unrelated to the sun.


"Unique Moment in Antarctica"


The prospect of finding microscopic life in these extreme conditions may not seem to be such a big deal for understanding our planet—or the possibility of life on others. (See Antarctic pictures by National Geographic readers.)


But scientists point out that only bacteria and other microbes were present on Earth for 3 billion of the roughly 3.8 billion years that life has existed here. Our planet, however, had conditions that allowed those microbes to eventually evolve into more complex life and eventually into everything biological around us.


While other moons and planets in our solar system do not appear capable of supporting evolution, scientists say they may support—or have once supported—primitive microbial life.


And drilling into Antarctica's deep lakes could provide clues about where extraterrestrial microbes might live, and how they might be identified.


In addition, Priscu said there are scores of additional Antarctic targets to study to learn about extreme life, climate change, how glaciers move, and the dynamics of subterranean rivers and lakes.


"We actually know more about the surface of Mars than about these subglacial systems of Antarctica," he said. "That's why this work involves such important and most likely transformative science."


Mahlon "Chuck" Kennicutt, the just-retired president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, an international coordinating group, called this year "a unique moment in Antarctica."


He said the expeditions were the result of "synergy" between the national groups—of cooperation as much as competition.

Read More..

How an ancient Egyptian code unmasked a cannibal star


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MOM can and will do more for foreign workers: Tan Chuan-Jin






SINGAPORE: Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin has said his ministry can and will do more for foreign workers.

He said this in response to various criticisms about the ministry's management of migrant worker matters.

Mr Tan said the ministry's various systems, including those dealing with employment issues for workers, can be improved, and the ministry will continue to work on them.

He also pointed out that whatever systems are in place, there will always be some employers who are irresponsible and who do not treat workers fairly.

However, most are reasonable employers, and should not be tarred with the same brush.

The same goes for workers.

In a blog post on Tuesday evening to mark International Migrants Day, Mr Tan said the ministry has reviewed its legislation and will continue to do so to ensure protection for workers.

He stressed the ministry is not pro-employer or pro-worker.

Instead, it strives to balance the employer-worker relationship while ensuring vulnerable workers are not disadvantaged.

But Mr Tan added the onus is also on employers -- those who bring in foreign workers must also be responsible for them and treat them fairly.

Employers should not simply look at the bottom-line, without caring for workers' welfare and well-being. Mr Tan added that this applies for local and migrant workers alike.

He said workers are also more productive and committed, if they are taken care of.

Mr Tan stressed it is about doing what is right and time should be taken to recognise the contributions of migrant workers in Singapore.

He pointed out that Singapore's economy and businesses will continue to tap on foreign workers to supplement specific sectors and workers who may not be as familiar with the laws and avenues for help in Singapore are vulnerable.

Mr Tan said their rights should and must be protected.

More than 90 per cent of some 3,000 work pass holders surveyed in 2011 were satisfied with working in Singapore and Mr Tan said things should be kept that way.

- CNA/lp



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Google+ iOS app adds support for Google+ Communities



Apple iOS users can now do even more with Google+ on their mobile devices.


Released yesterday, version 4.1 of Google+ for iOS lets you browse, search for, and join communities. You can find communities devoted to your own interests, read posts from fellow members, and post your own comments.


You can now subscribe to any circle from your iPhone or
iPad and receive notifications of updates and other items. Those of you who stage Google+ events can now indicate how many guests you've invited.


The "Find People" feature has been improved so you can more easily search for topics as well as individuals. And you can now edit your profile via your mobile device.


The Google+ app is optimized for the
iPhone 5 and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and
iPod Touch. The app requires iOS 5.0 or higher.

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee


On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

Although the mountain is located on the nearside of the moon, there won't be any pictures because the area will be shadowed, according to a statement from NASA' Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Originally sent to map the moon's gravity field, Ebb and Flow join a long list of man-made objects that have succumbed to a deadly lunar attraction. Decades of exploration have left a trail of debris intentionally crashed, accidentally hurtled, or deliberately left on the moon's surface. Some notable examples include:

Ranger 4 - Part of NASA's first attempt to snap close-up pictures of the moon, the Ranger program did not start off well. Rangers 1 through 6 all failed, although Ranger 4, launched April 23, 1962, did make it as far as the moon. Sadly, onboard computer failures kept number 4 from sending back any pictures before it crashed. (See a map of all artifacts on the moon.)

Fallen astronaut statue - This 3.5-inch-tall aluminum figure commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died prior to the Apollo 15 mission. That crew left it behind in 1971, and NASA wasn't aware of what the astronauts had done until a post-flight press conference.

Lunar yard sale - Objects jettisoned by Apollo crews over the years include a television camera, earplugs, two "urine collection assemblies," and tools that include tongs and a hammer. Astronauts left them because they needed to shed weight in order to make it back to Earth on their remaining fuel supply, said archivist Colin Fries of the NASA History Program Office.

Luna 10 - A Soviet satellite that crashed after successfully orbiting the moon, Luna 10 was the first man-made object to orbit a celestial body other than Earth. Its Russian controllers had programmed it to broadcast the Communist anthem "Internationale" live to the Communist Party Congress on April 4, 1966. Worried that the live broadcast could fail, they decided to broadcast a recording of the satellite's test run the night before—a fact they revealed 30 years later.

Radio Astronomy Explorer B - The U.S. launched this enormous instrument, also known as Explorer 49, into a lunar orbit in 1973. At 600 feet (183 meters) across, it's the largest man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Researchers sent it into its lunar orbit so it could take measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy free from terrestrial radio interference. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 1977, and it's presumed to have crashed into the moon.

(Learn about lunar exploration.)


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Siblings of Sandy Hook Victims Face Survivor's Guilt













Six-year-old Arielle Pozner was in a classroom at Sandy Hook school when Adam Lanza burst into the school with his rifle and handguns. Her twin brother, Noah, was in a classroom down the hall.


Noah Pozner was killed by Lanza, along with 19 other children at the school, and six adults. Arielle and other students' siblings survived.


"That's going to be incredibly difficult to cope with," said Dr. Jamie Howard, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute in New York. "It is not something we expect her to cope with today and be OK with tomorrow."


READ: Two Adult Survivors of Connecticut School Shooting Will be Key Witnesses


As the community of Newtown, Conn., begins to bury the young victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting today, the equally young siblings of those killed will only be starting to comprehend what happened to their brothers and sisters.


"Children this young do experience depression in a diagnosable way, they do experience post-traumatic stress disorder. Just because they're young, they don't escape the potential for real suffering," said Rahil Briggs, a child psychologist and professor at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.






Spencer Platt/Getty Images













President Obama on Newtown Shooting: 'We Must Change' Watch Video









Newtown Shooter's Former Babysitter 'Sick to My Stomach' Watch Video





Arielle and other survivor siblings could develop anxiety or other emotional reactions to their siblings' death, including "associative logic," where they associate their own actions with their sibling's death, Howard said.


"This is when two things happen, and (children) infer that one thing caused the other. (Arielle) may be at risk for that type of magical thinking, and that could be where survivor's guilt comes in. She may think she did something, but of course she didn't," Howard said.


CLICK HERE for photos from the shooting scene.


Children in families where one sibling has died sometimes struggle as their parents are overwhelmed by grief, Howard noted. When that death is traumatic, adults and children sometimes choose not to think about the person or the event to avoid pain.


Interested in How to Help Newtown Families?


"With traumatic grief, it's really important to talk about and think about the children that died, not to avoid talking and thinking about them because that interferes with grieving process, want their lives to be celebrated," Howard said.


Children may also have difficulty understanding why their deceased brother or sister is receiving so much, or so little, attention, according Briggs.


"I think one of the most challenging questions we can be faced with as parents is how to 'appropriately' remember a child that is gone. So much that can go wrong with that," Briggs said. "You have the child who is fortunate enough to escape, who thinks 'Why me? Why did my brother go?' But if you don't remember the sibling enough the child says 'it seems like we've forgotten my brother.'"


"They may even find themselves feeling jealous of all the attention the sibling seems to be receiving," Briggs said.


Parents and other adults in the family's support system need to be on alert, watching the child's behavior, she said. Children could show signs of withdrawing, or seeming spacy or in a daze. They could also seem jumpy or have difficulty concentrating in the wake of a traumatic event.


"For kids experiencing symptoms, and interfering with ability to go to school, they may be suffering from acute stress disorder, and there are good treatments," Howard said.






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Megacity China: the ultimate in urban migration



Joanna Carver, reporter



42-33095398.jpg

(Image: Wu Hong/EPA/Corbis)



NO, YOU haven't slipped into a dream within a dream within a dream. This megacity, which you'd be forgiven for thinking is the dream-limbo city featured in the movie Inception, is Qingdao. It won the accolade of being China's most liveable city in 2009 and 2011. It is home to 8.7 million people. One of the main criteria for the prize is that the city must have a beautiful environment.






Chinese slang for urban sprawl is tan da bing, which means "spreading pancake". The pancake sure has spread rapidly since the country's economic reforms of the 1970s and 80s. These reforms have caused the middle class in China to steadily grow, and led to much of the rural population migrating to cities. By 2025, it is estimated that a total of 1 billion Chinese will live in urban areas. As of now, the country has at least 160 cities with over 1 million people. The US has nine.



Of course this means more housing, more public transportation and consequently more pollution. It's home to a number of cement and coal factories spewing filth into the atmosphere. (Qing, ironically, translates as "lush" or "green".)



Only 1 per cent of China's urban population is breathing air considered clean by European Union standards. According to the World Bank, about 375,000 people a year die prematurely because of horrendous air quality, with another 60,000 dying early due to unclean drinking water.



China aims to generate 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources, so in August this year its government committed to spending $290 billion to help achieve that. The country is now the world's largest maker of wind turbines and is increasingly focused on solar and nuclear energy. The goal is to clear the skies over the spreading pancake, not to stop the spread itself.





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New private home sales in November fall to lowest level in 2012






SINGAPORE: The number of new private homes sold in November fell to the lowest level in 2012.

Excluding executive condominiums (ECs), 1,087 units were sold in November -- 44.2 percent less than in October.

It is also the second straight month of decline.

October saw 25.7 percent less homes moved in at 1,948 units.

Analysts attribute the decline to fewer property launches last month.

Savills' research head, Alan Cheong, said: "We had expected originally much higher numbers, believing that perhaps Echelon, Senette Residences may have been launched in November, but they didn't, so they may be pushed to December or next year.

It is always a lull period for the property market at this time of the year as more people are travelling.

Some analysts said the latest cooling measure has kept buyers on the sidelines as they assess the impact of a shorter loan tenure on the property market.

Meanwhile, more homes were sold in the city last month.

Some 209 units were sold in the core central region -- 45 percent more than in October.

But in the city fringes, sales dipped 52.9 percent to 167 units.

Knight Frank's research head, Png Poh Soon, said: "The market had a good run up over time and most people are wondering where it will be, going forward. Of course, buyers are also looking around for bargain buys. And we have observed that the resale volume has increased and prices have gone up from the retail side."

Low interest rates and volatile markets have pushed many investors to seek refuge in property.

2012 would likely be a record year for the number of new private homes sold.

Up till November, 20,879 new units have been sold, breaking the previous record when 16,292 units were sold for the entire 2010.

Looking ahead, most analysts expect the healthy market demand to continue and prices to stay firm.

- CNA/lp



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Dueling analysts differ on Apple's prospects ahead



Apple's recent stock slide has elicited different opinions from two analysts on the near-term prospects for the company.


In an investors note released yesterday, Citi analyst Glen Yeung lowered his rating on Apple stock to Neutral from Buy. Citi initiated coverage of Apple last month, issuing a Buy rating based on an expected recovery from the stock's then "near-term trough."


But with the share price now below $500, Yeung now sees the "likelihood of any near-term rally as diminished." Though he expects the stock to eventually rebound, he thinks it will hover around its current range for the foreseeable future.


To back up the downgraded rating, the analyst cited a cutback in supply chain orders by Apple. Such a cutback does show that supply has caught up with demand. But since Apple would be unlikely to cut orders if demand were great, Yeung sees this as a sign that demand is simply "good not great."


Based on supply chain checks, the analyst also finds that competition from Samsung is rising, weakening some of the appeal of the
iPhone 5.


Finally, Yeung sees healthy demand for the
iPad Mini, but at the expense of the iPad 4. Again based on supply chain checks, he expects iPad Mini production to rise to 12-14 million units in the March quarter. At the same time, production of the 4th-gen iPad is likely to drop to 5-7 million units. And Apple is facing competition from other
tablet vendors.

"More broadly, we view tablet innovation as increasingly difficult, opening room for alternative solutions to iPad and creating risk of further market share loss," Yeung said. "Our survey here shows that tablets under $300 are driving the majority of incremental demand as compared to six months ago."

Apple's longer-term prospects look more promising, as the analyst cited the impact of several potential new products next year, including an iPhone 5S in the second quarter, a Retina Display iPad Mini in the second half, an iPad 5 in the second half (and one designd to compete with ultrabooks), and a large-screen iPhone or an iPad with a phone in the second half.

In rebuttal to Citi's opinion, Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty painted a rosier near-term picture for Apple in a report out this morning.

Demand for the iPhone and iPad remain strong, according to Huberty.

Based on a consumer survey, anticipated iPhone sales in the U.S. for the fourth quarter have beaten Morgan Stanley's forecast. And the iPad has retained a stable 50 percent market share despite expectations of a drop next year.

"A greater percentage of consumers plan to purchase the higher priced iPhone 5 as compared to iPhone 4S mix a year ago," the analyst said. "iPad share is expected to remain at 50 percent, better than our forecast of a six-point share drop in 2013 and despite more low-priced offerings from competitors."

As a result, Huberty believes that Apple's current stock price is unjustified in light of the estimated sales and earnings growth in both the near term and long term. She expects the share price to push higher and forecasts a 12-month target price of $714.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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Newtown Victims: 'Hero' Teacher, Principal, 20 Kids





Twenty bright first graders with their entire lives ahead of them were gunned down on Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Along with the students, the lives of six school staffers, including a devoted teacher and a proud principal, were lost. Click through to see the victims at Sandy Hook Elementary School.






Noah Pozner and his twin sister celebrated their sixth birthdays on Nov. 20. His sister, Arielle, who was in another class, survived.


Pozner's uncle Alexis Haller told The Associated Press that he was "smart as a whip," gentle but with a rambunctious streak.


Haller told the AP that Pozner called Arielle his best friend.


"They were always playing together, they loved to do things together," Haller said. When his mother, a nurse, would tell him she loved him, he would answer, "Not as much as I love you, Mom."


Funeral services Pozner are planned for Monday.



Emilie Parker, the little girl with the blond hair and bright blue eyes, would have been one of the first to comfort her classmates at Sandy Hook Elementary School, had a gunman's bullets not claimed her life, her father said.


"My daughter Emilie would be one of the first ones to be standing and giving support to all the victims because that's the kind of kid she is," her father, Robbie Parker said as he fought back tears, telling the world about his "bright, creative and loving" daughter who was one of the 20 young victims in the Newtown, Conn., shooting.


"She always had something kind to say about anybody," her father said. "We find comfort reflecting on the incredible person Emilie was and how many lives she was able to touch."


Emilie was a budding artist who carried her markers and pencils everywhere. Her grandfather recently passed away and Emilie paid tribute to him by slipping a special card she had drawn into his casket, her father said.



WATCH: Emilie's father speaks about his daughter



Jack's funeral is scheduled to take place Monday.
Jack was a fan of New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, who paid tribute to the 6-year-old during Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons.


Cruz honored Jack Sunday on his cleats, writing on them the words "Jack Pinto, My Hero."


"I also spoke to an older brother and he was distraught as well. I told him to stay strong and I was going to do whatever I can to honor him," Cruz said after the game. "He was fighting tears and could barely speak to me."
Cruz said he plans to give the gloves he wore during the game to the boy's family, and spend some time with them.


The family released a statement saying, Jack was an "inspiration to all those who knew him."


"Jack loved school, reading, wrestling, skiing and football. Most of all Jack loved to play with his friends and keep up with his big brother," said his family. "He had a wide smile that would simply light up the room and while we are all uncertain as to how we will ever cope without him, we choose to remember and celebrate his life. Not dwelling on the loss but instead on the gift that we were given and will forever cherish in our hearts forever."



Like most first graders, Jesse Lewis was excited for the holiday season. The 6-year-old, who was in Victoria Soto's class, couldn't wait to go to school on Friday because they were making gingerbread houses, and his father had planned to join them.



Victoria Soto, 27, one of the adult victims, loved being a teacher, her cousin, Jim Wiltsie, told ABC News' Chris Cuomo Friday. In fact, her first-grade students' safety was such a high priority that Soto reportedly lost her life protecting them.


"The family was informed that she was trying to shield, get her children into a closet and protect them from harm, and by doing that put herself between the gunman and the children," Wiltsie said. "And that's when she was tragically shot and killed.


"I'm very proud to have known Vicki," Wiltsie added. "Her life dream was to be a teacher. And her instincts kicked in when she saw there was harm coming to her students.


"It brings peace to know that Vicki was doing what she loved, protecting the children," he said. "And in our eyes, she is a hero."

Grace Audrey McDonnell, 7


"We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support from so many people. Our daughter Grace was the love and light of our family. Words cannot adequately express our sense of loss."



As with so many, the ABC family has been touched directly by the tragedy in Sandy Hook.


One of the young victims, Catherine Hubbard, is the niece of an ABC News employee.


Here is a statement from the family:
"We are greatly saddened by the loss of our beautiful daughter, Catherine Violet and our thoughts and prayers are with the other families who have been affected by this tragedy.


"We appreciate the overwhelming support from our community that we have received over the past 24 hours.
"We also wish to express our gratitude for all of the emergency responders who responded to this tragic incident as well as the teachers and staff of Sandy Hook School. Our local police and fire departments and the other agencies who are working on this continuing investigation have been incredible.


"We also want to recognize outstanding work of The Connecticut State Police who have been supporting us from the very beginning of this ordeal and continue to provide unwavering support to our family.


"We have no further statement to make at this time and ask that we be afforded the opportunity to grieve with our friends and family.


"We ask that you continue to pray for us and the other families who have experienced loss in this tragedy.


"Jennifer and Matthew Hubbard"



Hochsprung became principal of Sandy Hook in recent years and by all accounts, was devoted to the students and teachers at her school.


"When we had our orientation, you could tell she loved her job," Brenda Lediski, a parent, told ABC News by phone.


Kristin Larson, a former PTA secretary, told the Boston Globe that Hochsprung was "always enthusiastic, always smiling, always game to do anything."


"When I saw her at the beginning of the school year, she was hugging everyone," Larson said.


The terrifying moment Hochsprung came into contact with the gunman were heard over the school intercom and may have saved lives.


It's not clear whether the intercom was turned on purposefully to alert the school's staff to the menace or whether the intercom was on for morning announcements.


Either way, it caught the initial moments of Adam Lanza's lethal fury and gave teachers and others life saving moments to lock their doors and try to hide their children.

Mary Sherlach, School Psychologist


Sherlach had been a school psychologist at Sandy Hook since August of 1994 and had experience working on committees devoted to school safety, according to her website.


Sherlach and her husband, Bill, had been married for 31 years and have two adult daughters.


"I truly enjoy working with the SHS staff, parents and children," she wrote. "And am always ready to assist in problem solving , intervention and prevention."


Her son-in-law, Eric Schwartz, said Sherlach felt she was "doing God's work by helping children."



Lauren Rousseau worked as a substitute teacher before landing a full time position this year at Sandy Hook Elementary School. For the 30-year-old, it was a dream job.


"We will miss her terribly," Lauren's mother, Teresa Rousseau , told the Delaware County Times. "And will take comfort knowing that she had achieved that dream."



The 6-year-old was just learning the rosary and would lead the family in grace every night before dinner, the New Haven Register reported. Her favorite colors were pink and purple. She leaves behind a 3-year-old brother.


Her family released a statement describing Olivia as "creative" and a fan of craft projects and art class. She was a patient big sister to 3-year old Brayden and would lead Grace each evening at the dinner table, according to her father, Brian.


"Olivia was smart, bubbly, and unbelievably entertaining. Her physical loss will be felt every day by those who loved her most, but her sparkly spirit will live on," the statement read.



D'Avino was a behavioral therapist who had only recently started working at Sandy Hook Elementary School, according to Lissa Lovetere, a friend who is handling her funeral planned for Friday.


D'Avino's boyfriend, Anthony Cerritelli, planned to ask her to marry him on Christmas Eve, Lovetere told The Associated Press.


Police told her family that she shielded one of the students during the rampage, Lovetere told the AP.



Jessica's parents, Rich and Krista Rekos, released a statement describing their daughter's love of horses. When she turned 10, they promised, she could have a horse of her own. For Christmas, she asked Santa for new cowgirl boots and hat.


"She devoted her free time to watching horse movies, reading horse books, drawing horses, and writing stories about horses," her family said in the statement.


The family described Jessica as "a creative, beautiful little girl who loved playing with her little brothers, Travis and Shane.


"We cannot imagine our life without her. We are mourning her loss, sharing our beautiful memories we have of her, and trying to help her brother Travis understand why he can't play with his best friend," they said.



The 6-year-old, with her beaming smile, was the daughter of a jazz musician. She sang in a home video with her brother, who was also at Sandy Hook Elementary School during the massacre.


The girl's grandmother, Elba Marquez, told The Associated Press the family moved to Connecticut just two months ago, drawn from Canada, in part, by Sandy Hook's sterling reputation. The grandmother's brother, Jorge Marquez, is mayor of a Puerto Rican town.



Charlotte's parents, Joann and Joel, had lived in Newtown for four or five years, Joann's brother John Hagen, of Nisswa, Minn., told Newsday.


"She was going to go some places in this world," Hagen told the newspaper. "This little girl could light up the room for anyone."



Daniel was the youngest of three children, his family said in a statement. The family described Daniel as "fearless in the pursuit of happiness in life."


"Words really cannot express what a special boy Daniel was. Such a light. Always smiling, unfailingly polite, incredibly affectionate, fair and so thoughtful towards others, imaginative in play, both intelligent and articulate in conversation: in all, a constant source of laughter and joy," the family said.



Josephine's father, Bob, said Sunday that the family will be releasing a statement soon.



"You couldn't think of a better child," neighbor Kevin Grimes told The Associated Press.


Grimes told the AP that he was recently speaking with Chase and the little boy was telling him about winning his first mini-triathlon.



James' mother, Cindy, is a native of Sherrill, N.Y.


"It's a terrible tragedy, and we're a tight community," Mayor William Vineall told the Utica Observer-Dispatch. "Everybody will be there for them, and our thoughts and prayers are there for them," he added.

Victims of Sandy Hook Shooting


As more information and images emerge of the victims from Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in coming days, here are the names of the other students and staffers killed:


Madeleine Hsu, 6


Dylan Hockley, 6


Anne Marie Murphy, 52


Caroline Previdi, 6


Avielle Richman, 6


Benjamin Wheeler, 6


Allison Wyatt, 6


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