Sooty ships may be geoengineering by accident

GEOENGINEERING is being tested - albeit inadvertently - in the north Pacific. Soot from oil-burning ships is dumping about 1000 tonnes of soluble iron per year across 6 million square kilometres of ocean, new research has revealed. Fertilising the world's...

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Horsemeat 'contamination' could date back to August: Findus

LONDON: French frozen food supplier Comigel told the Findus brand that "the contamination" of processed beef products with horsemeat could date back to August 2012, Findus said in a statement Saturday."Findus want to be absolutely explicit that they were not aware of any issue of contamination with horsemeat last year," it said in a statement."They were only made aware of a possible August...

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YouTube to be blocked in Egypt over anti-Islam film

An Egyptian administrative court ordered Google's Youtube suspended for a month as a penalty for broadcasting the controversial film, "Innocents of Muslims," which mocks the prophet Muhammad, according to a Reuters report.The 13-minute film, originally uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, was a trailer for a movie produced in the U.S. It denigrates the prophet Muhammad as a buffoonish molester, and sparked...

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Space Pictures This Week: Sun Dragon, Celestial Seagull

Solar DragonImage courtesy SDO/NASAResembling a dragon's tail, remnants of a solar filament strain to escape the sun's gravity in an image released this week by NASA's Solar Dynamics...

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Storm Drops More Than 2 Feet of Snow on Northeast

A behemoth storm packing hurricane-force wind gusts and blizzard conditions swept through the Northeast overnight, where more than 650,000 homes and businesses in the densely populated region lost power, roads were impassable and New Englanders awoke Saturday to more than 2 feet of snow.More than 38 inches of snow fell in Milford in central Connecticut, and an 82-mph wind gust...

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Life savings: Inside London's brain bank

New Scientist visits the lab where brains are sliced in search of the underlying mechanisms of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's FOR 12 years, the man in front of me lived with Parkinson's: he had a stammer; he dragged his left foot. At 79, his mental faculties...

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DPM Teo issues correction to footnote in Population White Paper

SINGAPORE - Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on Friday issued a corrigendum to the Population White Paper in Parliament to delete a segment of a footnote that classified nursing as a low-skilled job.Mr Teo said, in the Notice of Corrigendum, that he intends to delete the part of Footnote 12 on Page 40 of the White Paper, which said: "Certain low-skilled jobs like personal services,...

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Get a Kobo Mini e-reader for $59.99

The Kobo Mini has a pocket-friendly form factor and a touchscreen.(Credit:Best Buy)Tablets are great and all, but if you're mostly into reading, it's hard to beat an e-reader. Eye-friendly screens, ultra-light designs, amazing battery life -- the perks go on and on.And let's not forget price. Amazon's entry-level Kindle is now down to $69. But here's an even more wallet-friendly option: Best Buy has...

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Asteroid to Make Closest Flyby in History

Talk about too close for comfort. In a rare cosmic encounter, an asteroid will barnstorm Earth next week, missing our planet by a mere 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers).Designated 2012 DA14, the space rock is approximately 150 feet (45 meters) across, and astronomers are certain it will zip harmlessly past our planet on February 15—but not before making history. It will pass within...

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Door-to-Door Search for Suspected Cop Killer

More than 100 police officers were going door-to-door and searching for new tracks in the snow in hopes of catching suspected cop-killer Christopher Dorner overnight in Big Bear Lake, Calif., before he strikes again, as laid out in his rambling online manifesto.Police late Thursday night alerted the residents near Big Bear Lake that Dorner was still on the loose after finding...

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Parcel sensor knows your delivery has been dropped

Paul Marks, chief technology correspondent(Image: C.WisHisSoc/Everett/Rex)When I was a Christmas postman, many years ago, some of the bored guys in the sorting office's loading bay liked to play a boisterous game of "catch" when parcels marked "video recorder" and "fragile" arrived. How they guffawed when one landed in the bottom of a skip with a sickening crunch, ruining somebody's Christmas.I...

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S'pore the single largest foreign investor in Iskandar Malaysia

SINGAPORE: Global Capital & Development (GCD), the lead investor of Medini in Iskandar Malaysia's Nusajaya development zone, says the region has attracted some S$2 billion in investments from Singapore since 2006.GCD says investment from Singapore in Iskandar Malaysia is set to soar; Singapore is already the single largest foreign investor in the region. Link (THM) Holdings, a Singapore...

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Sprint CEO: No changes in smartphone pricing expected

Enjoy that unlimited data plan.(Credit:CNET)Sprint Nextel won't be abandoning its unlimited data plan or current pricing structure any time soon. The company isn't considering any changes to its current offering, CEO Dan Hesse said during a conference call with investors today."We always reserve the right to make changes, but we are not anticipating any," Hesse said. Over the past few years, Sprint...

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Severed Heads Were Sacrifices in Ancient Mexico

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of more than 150 skulls from an ancient shrine in central Mexico—evidence of one of the largest mass sacrifices of humans in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.The skulls, many facing east, lay beneath a crude, slightly elevated mound of crushed stone on what was once an artificial island in a vast shallow lake, now completely dry."The site is barely a bump...

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Ex-LA Cop Sought in Shootings of 3 Cops, 2 Slayings

Police in Southern California say they suspect that a fired cop is connected to the shootings -- one fatal -- of three police officers this morning, as well as the weekend slayings of an assistant women's college basketball coach and her fiancé in what cops believe are acts of revenge against the LAPD, as suggested in the suspect's online manifesto.Former police officer Christopher...

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Lifelogging captures a real picture of your health

Claire O'Connell, contributor(Image: Jacqueline Kerr et al.)What difference does it make to your lifestyle if you've got a camera hanging around your neck that is recording every move? A clutch of papers in a special issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine aims to answer that question by looking at how so-called lifelogging can influence behaviour. Much of the research involves Microsoft's...

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Population White Paper will benefit S'pore economy: SICC

SINGAPORE: The Singapore International Chamber of Commerce (SICC) said the Singapore economy will benefit from the many long-term principles outlined in the Population White Paper.In a statement on Wednesday, the SICC pointed out that early planning to build the infrastructure for a growing population will help Singapore maintain its competitive edge.SICC said that while attracting foreign...

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Google spends $125 million for e-commerce firm Channel Intelligence

Google has signed a deal to acquire e-commerce-solutions company Channel Intelligence for $125 million in cash.Channel's parent company, ICG, announced the deal today.Channel's technologies are designed to boost the sale of products online. The company offers a Facebook platform, product search engines, and other services created for companies looking to improve product sales. Channel, based near...

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The Real Richard III

It's a question that actors from Laurence Olivier to Kevin Spacey have grappled with: What did Richard III, the villainous protagonist of Shakespeare's famous historical drama, really look and sound like?In the wake of this week's announcement by the University of Leicester that archaeologists have discovered the 15th-century British king's lost skeleton beneath a parking lot, news continues...

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Hostage Taker Waged Firefight With SWAT Agents

Jimmy Lee Dykes, the man who held a 5-year-old boy hostage for nearly a week in an underground bunker in Alabama, had two homemade explosive devices on his property and engaged in a firefight with SWAT agents before they stormed the bunker and killed him, according to the FBI.One explosive device was found inside the bunker and another was located in the PVC pipe negotiators...

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China gets the blame for hacking spree

So, whodunnit? Last week, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reported that their networks had been hacked. All three were quick to blame China. The New York Times cited the type of malware and techniques...

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New SAFRA Toa Payoh officially opens

SINGAPORE: President Tony Tan officially opened the new SAFRA Toa Payoh on Tuesday.The facility will provide better facilities to NSmen and their families.The new club features a fencing academy which is a first for all SAFRA clubs.Members can also look forward to a new gym, which will be the biggest among the clubs.There is also an indoor playground for children.The club at Toa Payoh...

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It's official: Dell being taken private for $24.4B

The Dell XPS 13 ultrabook(Credit:Dell)It's official: Dell is being taken private for $24.4 billion, or $13.65 a share in cash, a transaction that will allow the company to turn itself around away from shareholder scrutiny. Michael Dell, who owns about 14 percent of Dell's common shares, teamed up with Silver Lake Partners to acquire the company. Microsoft also kicked in a $2 billion loan. Following...

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