Sci-Tech Today

Powerful 7.4 Quake Hits New Zealand's South Island

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:49:13 -0500

A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck much of New Zealand's South Island early Saturday. No tsunami alert was issued and there were no reports of injuries.

The quake, which hit 19 miles (30 kilometers) west of the southern city of Christchurch, shook a wide area with some residents there saying buildings had collapsed and power was severed.

Christchurch police reported some road damage in parts of the city of 400,000 people, with a series of sharp aftershocks rocking the area. Police officers cordoned off some streets where rubble was strewn about from the quake.

Christchurch resident Colleen Simpson said panicked residents ran into the street in their pajamas. Some buildings had collapsed, there was no power, and the mobile telephone network had failed.

"Oh my God. There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," Simpson told the Stuff news Web site.

Another person from Christchurch, Kevin O'Hanlon, said the jolt was extremely powerful.

"I was awake to go to work and then just heard this massive noise and 'boom,' it was like the house got hit. It just started shaking. I've never felt anything like it," he told the news Web site.

The earthquake was 21 miles (33 kilometers) below the Earth's surface, the geological agency GNS Science said. Radio reports said items were tossed from store shelves and roof tiles cracked by the strong temblor.

The quake hit at 4:35 a.m. shaking thousands of residents awake, New Zealand's National Radio reported.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said "no destructive widespread tsunami threat existed, based on historical earthquake and tsunami data."

New Zealand sits above an area of the Earth's crust where two tectonic plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year -- but only about 150 are felt by residents. Fewer than 10 a year do any damage.

Verizon Offers Prepaid Data Plans on Top Phones

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:51:23 -0500

In what could be the first phase of a transformation in the way its smartphone users pay for Internet use, the nation's biggest carrier, Verizon Wireless, has introduced prepaid data plans. The no-contract plans, which go into effect Sept. 28, offer unlimited 3G access on select handsets for $30 per month, or $10 per month for 25 megabytes, with a 20-cent charge for each additional megabyte.

Verizon customers can sign up for the plans immediately at Verizon stores or online. Verizon already offered prepaid service for many voice plans.

'Robust Device Portfolio'

"These new data offerings will help our prepaid customers experience the full breadth of Verizon Wireless' robust device portfolio and the many engaging, informative and helpful applications that depend on a data plan," said Jim Sullivan, director of marketing for Verizon. "Our prepaid customers will now have the freedom to enjoy all of the capabilities that these phones have to offer, while controlling costs and without being tied to a contract."

The plans are likely intended to increase the appeal of some of Verizon's top-shelf handsets. They are available on a range of models, including the BlackBerry Curve, the Palm Pre and Pixi, all five models of the top-selling Droid (made by Motorola or HTC), the Motorola Devour and LG Ally, as well as multimedia phones such as LG's enV TOUCH and enV3, LG's Chocolate Touch and VX8360, Samsung's Alias 2 and Renown, Nokia's Twist, and Casio's EXILIM.

Prepaid is an emerging sector of the wireless industry, with Sprint Nextel now offering a $25 monthly prepaid calling plan and T-Mobile offering a $50 plan for unlimited voice and text. Clearwire and Virgin Mobile are also expected to roll out prepaid plans.

Sliding Toward Tiered Prices?

While Verizon appears to be the first out of the gate with prepaid data, the cost is no cheaper than...

Samsung Expects Galaxy S To Lead Fast Sales Growth

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:18:37 -0500

Samsung Electronics is predicting it will sell 20 million to 25 million smartphones this year. The company also aims to ship 50 million smartphones in 2011, J.K. Shin, the president of Samsung's mobile communications division, told South Korean media outlet EDaily on Friday.

Shin said Samsung's robust smartphone sales predictions are based on the resounding success of the company's Galaxy S series in the Asia-Pacific and North America regions. More than one million handsets based on the Galaxy S platform shipped to AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers during their first 45 days of availability in the United States, the company said.

Verizon Wireless, U.S. Cellular, and Cellular South are all slated to introduce Galaxy S devices in the United States before Christmas. Moreover, on Aug. 31 Sprint Nextel launched the Samsung Epic 4G, which recorded one of the best first-day sales results for any mobile device on the carrier's network. "As we continue to build out our 4G network, more and more of our customers will realize the benefits of these amazing [Samsung Galaxy S] devices and the realities of life at these blazing-fast speeds," said Sprint Vice President Fared Adib on Friday.

High U.S. Expectations

According to IDC, global smartphone sales totaled 63 million units in the second quarter. What's more, Samsung supplanted Motorola as the world's fifth largest smartphone maker by shipping a record number of smartphones. Additionally, the Korea-based handset maker posted its highest smartphone growth rate since the third quarter of 2008, the firm's analysts said.

Nokia led the global smartphone market in the second quarter with a 38.1 percent market share on 24 million unit shipments, IDC's analysts said. Nokia was followed by Research In Motion (17.8 percent, 11.2 million), Apple (13.3 percent, 8.4 million), HTC (7.6 percent, 4.8 million) and Samsung (4.8 percent, three million).

Based on...

Chrome Browser Updated After Two Years of Growth

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:51:10 -0500

Google's Chrome browser is now two years old, and the youngster -- and its proud parent -- are celebrating its steady rise in popularity. According to Net Applications, Chrome had 7.5 percent of the browser market in August -- putting it in third place behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox, and above Apple's Safari.

That market share is a slight rise from the 7.2 percent market share the browser had in July, while IE dropped 0.3 percent from last month and Firefox stayed even. In May, the search giant said Chrome had 70 million users worldwide.

Chrome 6

To celebrate, Google is releasing Chrome version 6, which product manager Brian Rakowski described on the company blog as "even faster and more streamlined" than the previous version. Rakowski cited several changes in the new browser, including a "minimalist user interface," the combination of two menus into one, an adjustment of the color scheme, and other modifications.

Looking into the future, he said Google is planning to make the browser faster, to improve graphics performance through hardware acceleration, and to launch later this year The Chrome Web Store, with apps designed for use in standards-based browsers.

Google has indicated that Chrome was designed to be more of a platform for applications than other browsers. Both the browser and Google's in-progress Chrome operating system are derived from the Chromium open-source project.

Jeffrey Hammond, an analyst with industry research firm Forrester, said the relationship between the Chrome browser and the Chromium project "was a bit of a mystery to me," although he suspects the core rendering engine was used in both.

HTML5 Implementation

Google is still trying to sort out the Chrome OS positioning against its open-source Android portable operating system, suggested Al Hilwa, program director for application development at industry research firm IDC. Android has enjoyed a huge...

Bone Drugs May Raise Risk of Throat Cancer

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:48:47 -0500

People who take bone-strengthening drugs for several years may have a slightly higher risk of esophageal cancer, a new study suggests.

The findings are in contrast to another recent study that used the same database of 80,000 patients and concluded that there was no link between the drugs and esophageal cancer. That study was published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Authors of the new study say they tracked patients for nearly twice as long -- nearly eight years. Other studies have been divided over whether the risk is real.

In the latest study, British researchers started with nearly 3,000 people with esophageal cancer and matched each one to five similar people who didn't have the disease. Ninety of the cancer patients and 345 people in the comparison group had been prescribed bone-building pills called bisphosphonates. These drugs, sold as Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva and other brands, are widely used after menopause to prevent or treat osteoporosis.

Normally, the risk of developing cancer of the esophagus, or throat, in people aged 60 to 79 is 1 in 1,000. The researchers estimated that with about five years use of the drugs, the risk was 2 in 1,000.

They also looked at about 10,000 people with bowel cancer and about 2,000 people with stomach cancer, and found no increased risk with use of the drugs.

The study was paid for by Britain's Medical Research Council and Cancer Research UK. It was published Friday in the medical journal, BMJ.

The study was only observational and is not the kind of evidence that can show whether such drugs cause cancer.

"Esophageal cancer is an uncommon cancer," said Jane Green, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, one of the paper's authors. "Even a doubled risk is still a very small risk."

The chances of developing esophageal cancer after taking...

HP vs. Dell: The Showdown That Ended in Spectacle

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:31:10 -0500

The showdown over 3Par Inc. that ended Thursday was a puzzling spectacle.

It pitted two of the world's biggest technology companies against each other for control of a company that was obscure outside of technology circles and flat-out unloved on Wall Street, with a stock that was stuck around $10 for a year and a half.

3Par, which was founded 11 years ago by former Sun Microsystems managers, was seen as a takeover candidate well before Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. started bidding on it in mid-August. The company's uneven financial performance dampened investors' enthusiasm despite the fact it is in the lucrative market for "virtualized storage," which is an important technology for companies that sell services over the Internet.

What wasn't anticipated was the ferocity of the wrestling match for a company that was seen as only tangential to HP's and Dell's core businesses.

The bidding contest revealed more about HP and Dell and the changing technology landscape than it did about the innovations that 3Par brings to the table.

HP won 3Par with an offer of $2.07 billion, or $33 per share, which is more than three times what 3Par's stock was trading at when rival Dell Inc. made its first offer Aug. 16. Dell said Thursday it is walking away from the negotiations after a final bid of $2 billion, or $32 per share.

Many analysts were surprised the bidding went so high.

"At this price, it's a little ridiculous," said Jayson Noland, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. "To me, it tells you how far behind HP and Dell are in storage, not necessarily how incredible an asset 3Par is."

Technologies from 3Par will be part of HP's expansion beyond personal computers and printer ink. HP's former CEO, Mark Hurd, aggressively pursued that expansion, and many industry analysts saw HP's intensity in...

Scientists Uncover Secret of Famed Roberto Carlos Goal

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:49:00 -0500

Thirteen years after Roberto Carlos stunned onlookers with his amazing "banana" free kick that seemed to defy the law of physics, scientists have finally worked out just how he did it.

In what many people regard as the best free kick ever, the Brazil defender struck the ball with the outside of his left foot 35 yards (meters) out, bending it around the outside of France's three-man wall during a friendly tournament in Lyon in 1997.

The ball looked way off target to the right -- a ball boy standing 10 meters (yards) from the goal even ducked his head -- but at the last moment, it swerved dramatically inside the post and into the net. The bewildered France goalkeeper, Fabien Barthez, had not even moved.

Many people thought the shot was a fluke, but researchers say it can all be explained by science.

"What happened that day was so special," researcher David Quere told The Associated Press. "We are confronted with an unexpected law of physics, but it's possible to see this again."

Quere, a physicist at the ESPCI and Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, and his colleagues have developed an equation to explain the bizarre trajectory of the shot. Using a small pistol to fire bullets into water at the speed of 100 kph -- approximately the speed of Roberto Carlos' shot -- they discovered that the path of a sphere when it spins is actually a spiral.

Quere said the study, which has been published in the New Journal of Physics, confirmed the "Magnus effect" -- which is responsible for the curved motion of a spinning ball -- but it also revealed what the scientists call the "spinning ball spiral."

The spiral effect appears after about 40 meters (yards) with a football. As the ball slows down, the "Magnus effect" becomes more and more pronounced,...

Time Warner Cable Gets ESPN3.com in New Deal

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:30:34 -0500

Time Warner Cable Inc. customers will finally get access to the sports Web site ESPN3.com, even if they are not subscribers of the company's Internet service, according to a long-term deal with The Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday.

In the deal, 12.7 million of Time Warner's video subscribers and 2.4 million Bright House Networks video subscribers will get access to ESPN3.com without an extra charge. ESPN3.com offers full game videos, and recently it carried live World Cup matches that built huge audiences via computer screens in the workplace. About 7.4 million people tuned in to ESPN3.com at one point during the tournament, on average watching two hours each.

Time Warner Cable and Bright House had long been holdouts on ESPN3.com, which has been around in different forms since 2001. They said Disney's pattern of tying fees to the number of Internet subscribers was inappropriate, since not all its Internet customers wanted to pay extra to access a single Web site.

In conceding the deal terms on ESPN3.com, in exchange Disney cut its most extensive deal ever with the companies. They had not renegotiated since 2000, only agreeing to a three-year extension in 2007.

Among the expanded offerings, Time Warner is launching a new college football channel called "ESPN Goal Line" that gives fans a live peek at games around the nation on Saturdays, a similar offering to the NFL Network's "NFL RedZone." The first program starts Saturday for sports tier subscribers. A similar service called "ESPN Buzzer Beater" will be offered for the college basketball season in January.

Disney also won cash payment for granting Time Warner Cable the right to retransmit signals from four ABC stations and also secured carriage of a new 24-hour channel called Disney Junior, a rebranding of its SOAPnet channel, when it launches in 2012.

Carriage of other channels such as...

NASA To Launch Mission To Study the Sun

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:48:34 -0500

NASA is working on a plan to launch a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced on Thursday.

The unprecedented project, named Solar Probe Plus, is slated to launch no later than 2018, according to the JPL.

The small car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the sun's atmosphere approximately 6.4 million kilometers (four million miles) from our star's surface, the JPL said.

The spacecraft will explore a region no other spacecraft ever has encountered, said the JPL, headquartered in Pasadena, Los Angeles.

As the spacecraft approaches the sun, its revolutionary carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures exceeding about 1, 400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit) and blasts of intense radiation, the JPL said on its Web.

The spacecraft will have an up-close and personal view of the sun, enabling scientists to better understand, characterize and forecast the radiation environment for future space explorers, according to the JPL.

"The experiments selected for Solar Probe Plus are specifically designed to solve two key questions of solar physics -- why is the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than the sun's visible surface and what propels the solar wind that affects Earth and our solar system? " said Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington.

"We've been struggling with these questions for decades and this mission should finally provide those answers."

NASA has selected five science investigations that will unlock the sun's biggest mysteries, including one led by a scientist from NASA's JPL.

In 2009, NASA invited researchers to submit science proposals. Thirteen were reviewed by a panel of NASA and outside scientists. The total dollar amount for the five selected investigations is approximately 180 million dollars for preliminary analysis, design, development and tests.

Remnants of Ancient Feasting Unearthed

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:48:20 -0500

Communal feasting on significant occasions goes back in human history at least 12,000 years, say researchers investigating an ancient burial site in Israel.

University of Connecticut Associate Professor of Anthropology Natalie Munro and a team of scientists digging at an ancient burial site near Karmiel, Israel, found unusually high densities of butchered tortoise and wild cattle, suggesting the people who lived in the area at the time gathered there for "special rituals to commemorate the burial of the dead, and that feasts were central elements," a National Science Foundation release said Monday.

Such communal feasts were instrumental in bringing about the world's first established communities, the researchers say.

"Feasting ... is one of humanity's most universal and unique social behaviors," the researchers say in an article published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers say they believe feasts may have played a significant role in easing the potentially difficult transition from a hunting-gathering lifestyle to one of agricultural dependency.

"Sedentary communities require other means to resolve conflict, smooth tensions and provide a sense of community," Munro said. "We believe that feasts, especially in funerary contexts, served to integrate communities by providing this sense of community."