Report: Google to open U.S. retail stores later this year

Google Chrome Zone section of PC World on London's Tottenham Court Road.

(Credit:
CNET Crave U.K.)

Google plans to open its own retail stores across the United States, according to a new report, giving the increasingly hardware-focused company a place to show off its growing number of physical products.

Citing "an extremely reliable source," 9to5Google says the company "hopes to have the first flagship Google Stores open for the holidays in major metropolitan areas."

The report says Google accelerated plans to build physical stores because customers are unlikely to buy expensive hardware, including the upcoming Google Glass, without first having a chance to try it for free.

Google already has set up Chrome mini-stores inside U.S. Best Buy locations and electronic retailers in the United Kingdom. From the start, those stores have prompted speculation that Google will open a full-scale retail presence. Google Stores could help bolster the company's brand image, showcase new products and win over
Android skeptics.

Still, Google is on the record denying any move into retail. In December, Google Shopping head Sameer Samat told All Things D that the company "had no aspirations to open a store."

"We aren't planning on being a retailer," he said. "We don't view being a retailer right now as the right decision."

CNET has contacted Google for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

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Meteorites: Best Places to See Them Up Close

The meteorite that touched down in central Russia on Friday sent many people running, hoping to avoid getting hurt. Now, plenty of others will be running in search of valuable meteorite pieces, which can be filled with precious metals.

Although it can be cost prohibitive to collect them, museums and other tourist sites offer an inexpensive way to admire space rocks. (Related: Asteroid Impacts: 10 Biggest Known Hits)

Here are five noteworthy meteorites from around the globe.

1. Hoba Meteorite

Where is it: Right where it landed, in Namibia, South Africa. It was declared a National Monument in 1955.

Specs: This is the largest single meteorite ever found and the largest slab of naturally-occurring iron ever discovered on Earth's surface. The Hoba Meteorite weighs 60 tons and measures roughly nine feet wide by nine feet long, with a depth of three feet.

Origin: The Hoba is thought to have fallen through Earth's atmosphere 80,000 years ago, but it wasn't discovered until a farmer came across it in 1920. Despite its size, the meteorite left no impact crater, which scientists are still trying to explain. Many believe that the combination of its shape and the Earth's atmosphere must have significantly decreased the speed at which it was traveling before it crash-landed.

2. El Chaco Meteorite

Where is it: After an attempt to move the rock to Germany was blocked in 2012 by Argentine citizens and scientists, El Chaco and the rest of the pieces sit comfortably in the El Chaco province in northeastern Argentina.

Specs: The El Chaco Meteorite is one of many fragments of a group of iron meteorites called Campo del Cielo. Weighing over 37 tons, it is not only the largest fragment of that group but also the second-largest single-piece meteorite. The combined weight of the fragments discovered far exceeds 60 tons, which would have allowed it to steal the Hoba's mantle of largest meteorite found on Earth.

Origin: The meteorite was believed to have landed in the northeastern part of Argentina as part of a meteor shower sometime between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.

3. Willamette Meteorite

Where is it now: The American Natural History Museum in New York

Specs: Weighing 15.5 tons, the iron Willamette Meteorite is the largest ever found in the United States. It is also the sixth-largest in the world.

Origin: Although discovered in Oregon in 1902 by a miner named Ellis Hughes, the pitted meteorite is believed to have crashed into Earth at least a million years ago, the result of an iron-nickel core of a planet or moon shattering in a stellar collision. It is revered by an American Indian tribe known as the Clackamas Chinook, who lived in Willamette Valley prior to European settlement.

4. Ahnighito, also known as the Tent

Where is it: The American Natural History Museum in New York

Specs: Ahnighito weighs in at 31 tons and is the largest meteorite ever moved by man.

Origin: The meteorite is one fragment of the massive Cape York Meteorite that was thought to hit Earth over 10,000 years ago in an area that is now northwestern Greenland.  Once belonging to the native Inuit tribe, the chunk of iron was coveted by many different people. It wasn't until 1897 when explorer Sir John Ross risked everything to take the Tent to New York. He had to manually slide the rock onto his ship, making it the ultimate battle of man vs. nature—with man coming out on top.

5. Bacubirito Meteorite

Where is it: It is currently on display at the Centro de Ciencias building in Culiacan, a city in northwestern Mexico.

Specs: The Bacubirito Meteorite weighs 24 tons—much smaller than the ones described above—but measuring 14 feet across, it is one of the longest meteorites ever found.

Origin: The meteorite was discovered in 1863 by geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey and is considered one of Mexico's most famous tourist attractions.

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Carnival Cruise Ship Hit With First Lawsuit

The first lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Lines has been filed and it is expected to be the beginning of a wave of lawsuits against the ship's owners.

Cassie Terry, 25, of Brazoria County, Texas, filed a lawsuit today in Miami federal court, calling the disabled Triumph cruise ship "a floating hell."

"Plaintiff was forced to endure unbearable and horrendous odors on the filthy and disabled vessel, and wade through human feces in order to reach food lines where the wait was counted in hours, only to receive rations of spoiled food," according to the lawsuit, obtained by ABCNews.com. "Plaintiff was forced to subsist for days in a floating toilet, a floating Petri dish, a floating hell."

Click Here for Photos of the Stranded Ship at Sea

The filing also said that during the "horrifying and excruciating tow back to the United States," the ship tilted several times "causing human waste to spill out of non-functioning toilets, flood across the vessel's floors and halls, and drip down the vessel's walls."

Terry's attorney Brent Allison told ABCNews.com that Terry knew she wanted to sue before she even got off the boat. When she was able to reach her husband, she told her husband and he contacted the attorneys.

Allison said Terry is thankful to be home with her husband, but is not feeling well and is going to a doctor.

Carnival's Triumph Passengers: 'We Were Homeless' Watch Video

Girl Disembarks Cruise Ship, Kisses the Ground Watch Video

Carnival Cruise Ship Passengers Line Up for Food Watch Video

"She's nauseated and actually has a fever," Allison said.

Terry is suing for breach of maritime contract, negligence, negligent misrepresentation and fraud as a result of the "unseaworthy, unsafe, unsanitary, and generally despicable conditions" on the crippled cruise ship.

"Plaintiff feared for her life and safety, under constant threat of contracting serious illness by the raw sewage filling the vessel, and suffering actual or some bodily injury," the lawsuit says.

Despite having their feet back on solid ground and making their way home, many passengers from the cruise ship are still fuming over their five days of squalor on the stricken ship and the cruise ship company is likely to be hit with a wave of lawsuits.

"I think people are going to file suits and rightly so," maritime trial attorney John Hickey told ABCNews.com. "I think, frankly, that the conduct of Carnival has been outrageous from the get-go."

Hickey, a Miami-based attorney, said his firm has already received "quite a few" inquiries from passengers who just got off the ship early this morning.

"What you have here is a) negligence on the part of Carnival and b) you have them, the passengers, being exposed to the risk of actual physical injury," Hickey said.

The attorney said that whether passengers can recover monetary compensation will depend on maritime law and the 15-pages of legal "gobbledygook," as Hickey described it, that passengers signed before boarding, but "nobody really agrees to."

One of the ticket conditions is that class action lawsuits are not allowed, but Hickey said there is a possibility that could be voided when all the conditions of the situation are taken into account.

One of the passengers already thinking about legal action is Tammy Hilley, a mother of two, who was on a girl's getaway with her two friends when a fire in the ship's engine room disabled the vessel's propulsion system and knocked out most of its power.

"I think that's a direction that our families will talk about, consider and see what's right for us," Hilley told "Good Morning America" when asked if she would be seeking legal action.

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US, UN urge Iran to ensure 'progress' at talks

WASHINGTON: Top US and EU leaders urged Iran on Thursday to help ensure "progress" in the next round of talks over its nuclear program, even as moves to boost UN inspections of Iranian sites failed.

US Secretary of State John Kerry cautioned the next negotiations, due on February 26 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, "can only make progress if the Iranians come to the table determined to make and discuss real offers."

And he warned as he met with UN chief Ban Ki-moon that the United States was determined not to get trapped in "a delay-after-delay process."

"Countries that have peaceful programs do not have problems proving to people that they are peaceful," Kerry told reporters.

"I think it is incumbent on the Iranians to prove that they are prepared to meet our willingness... to be open to a diplomatic resolution."

It took weeks of negotiations to agree on a date and venue for the next talks aimed at getting Tehran to rein in its nuclear enrichment program between the world powers, known as the P5+1, and Iran.

Ban also expressed hope that the P5+1 meetings would "bring fruitful progress."

And EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who met with Kerry separately Thursday at the State Department, said: "I always look for success... and I will do my best on behalf of the P5+1."

"It is important that we continue to track and make our efforts successful," she said.

But the chief UN atomic inspector said Thursday that separate talks with Iran had failed again to agree on enhanced inspections of its nuclear program.

"We had discussions on the structured approach document but could not finalize the document," Herman Nackaerts of the International Atomic Energy Agency told reporters after returning from Tehran.

"We will work hard now to resolve the remaining differences, but time is needed to reflect on the way forward."

- AFP/jc

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FDA approves bionic eye for adults with rare genetic disease

The system includes an eyeglass-mounted camera and a tiny antenna and electrode array surgically implanted onto the retina.

(Credit:
Second Sight Medical)

For most of us, light-sensitive cells that line our retinas convert light rays into electrical impulses that travel through the optic nerve to the brain to be assembled into images. But for an estimated 1 in 4,000 people in the U.S. with a genetic condition called retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, those cells are damaged, which most commonly impairs vision at night. What's more, treatment to prevent eventual (if unlikely) total blindness remains elusive.

Enter the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System, which the FDA approved today to treat a very specific population: adults 25 and older with severe to profound RP who have bare or no light perception in both eyes but inner layer retinal function and a history of the ability to see forms.

Though the bionic eye doesn't restore vision to these patients, it could allow them to detect light and dark, which in turn could help them identify the movement or location of objects.

"This new surgically implanted assistive device provides an option for patients who have lost their sight to RP, for whom there have been no FDA-approved treatments," Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., director of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a news release. "The device may help adults with RP who have lost the ability to perceive shapes and movement to be more mobile and to perform day-to-day activities."

The system works via an array of electrodes implanted onto the retina, which transform images transmitted wirelessly from an eyeglass-mounted video camera into electrical impulses that stimulate the retina to produce images.

The FDA says it reviewed data from a clinical study of 30 patients with RP who were equipped with the Argus II and monitored for at least two years after receiving the implant.

After implant surgery, 19 of the 30 participants reported no adverse events related to the surgery or device, while 11 reported a total of 23 adverse events, including inflammation, retinal detachment, and the opening of a wound along the surgical suture.

The FDA is categorizing the system as a humanitarian use device, meaning there is a "reasonable assurance" that the device is safe and its "probable benefit outweighs the risk of illness or injury."

Most participants reported that they were able to perform basic activities better with the Argus II than without it, ranging from detecting the direction of a motion, detecting street curbs, walking on a sidwalk without stepping off, and matching black, gray, and white socks.

Three government organizations -- the Department of Energy, the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation -- provided grant funding of more than $100 million as well as other basic research for the project.

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In Need of "Sausage and Mash"? Visit an East London ATM

Visitors to East London in search of a cash machine while attending the Olympics this past summer might have been puzzled by the ATM on Commercial Street. Tap the screen and a prompt pops up: English or Cockney? If Cockney is chosen, the next prompt advises the customer in search of "fast sausage and mash" (cash) to select the amount. Among the options: A "Lady Godiva" (£5), "speckled hen" (£10), or "horn of plenty" (£20), to be dispensed after the customer enters a "Huckleberry Finn" (pin). (Take a tour of East London with this photo gallery from National Geographic magazine.)

The shtick (not a Cockney word) was the idea of Bank Machine, an ATM operator based in the United Kingdom. "We wanted to introduce something fun and of local interest to our London machines," a company official explained when the machines were launched a few years ago. (Your London Pictures: See the city through the eyes of Nat Geo fans.)

No one is certain when Cockney rhyming slang became the verbal currency of East End London, but British lexicographer Jonathon Green, author of Cassell's Rhyming Slang, guesses it was around the 1820s or '30s. Rhyming slang, he says, was created by market traders, or costermongers, in part for the sheer pleasure of playing with language but also, more subversively, as a way of talking over the heads of authorities and the police. In Cockney rhyming slang, a common word is replaced by a rhyming phrase (traditionally, the secondary rhyming word is omitted). For example: To use your loaf (short for loaf of bread) in rhyming slang means to use your head.

Rhyming slang, says Green, who has spent his life career as its chronicler, is the dark side of language. "It is what Freud would call the id, or unfettered self," he says. "The themes are sex, insults, defecation, racism, nationalism, or calling someone mad, fat, or stupid." So it is with Cockney slang, where a "Johnny Bliss" is a piss.

Changing Scene, Changing Sounds

Is it still viable? East End London has changed. Displaced by the influx of immigrants, not to mention the metamorphosis of gentrification, the original East Enders, the Cockney white working class, have long since moved to outlying areas east or northwest of the city. These days in East London you may hear more than 200 different languages—Bengali, Urdu, and Swahili among others—and the lingua franca of the younger generation is something called Multicultural London English, a mix of West Indies, hip-hop, and bits and bobs of traditional Cockney.

Cockney rhyming slang hasn't disappeared, says Paul Kerswill, a professor in the University of York's Department of Language and Linguistics. "It's regenerating itself in new circumstances." And so it has. These days the ne plus ultra of fame is to have a Cockney rhyming slang sobriquet named after you: A "Britney Spears" (or a "Britney" for short) is a beer. "Posh and Becks" (celebrity couple Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice, and husband David Beckham) is Cockney slang for sex.

Like much else in the world, Cockney slang has been commercialized. "It's like tourist London," says Jonathon Green, the lexicographer. "Think black cabs and red buses." It's also, predictably, been Hollywood-ized (think Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle, Bert the Chimney Sweep in Mary Poppins, and Guy Ritchie's bumbling thugs.) There's even an app—TripLingo UK Edition, a cyber-translator with a Cockney option. And for those in search of "bread and honey" (money)—cash from a Cockney-speaking ATM.

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Ship Overcomes Towing Issues, Inches Closer to Port

The agonizingly slow progress of the stricken Carnival Triumph cruise ship carrying 4,000 passengers and crew was further delayed today by problems with the tug boats towing it in, meaning exhausted passengers may not get off the ship until nearly dawn.

The ship is now expected in port between 9:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. CT, according to Carnival. It could take up to five more hours to get everybody off the huge ship.

"There are some limitations. We know that up front," Carnival Cruise Senior Vice President of Marketing Terry Thornton said at a news conference this afternoon. "The ship still does not have power. We only have one functioning elevator aboard."

Thornton said that anyone with special needs and children will be the first to get off the boat. He said the company's number one priority is to make the process as "quick, efficient and comfortable" for guests as possible.

"We're not anticipating any additional difficulties," he said.

Click here for photos of the stranded ship at sea.

The passengers were achingly close to port about noon today as the ship began to enter the channel and proceed to the cruise terminal. At 1 p.m., the lead tow boat had a tow gear break, so a spare tug boat that was on standby had to be sent in to replace it.

But once the second tug was in position and the lines were re-set, the towing resumed only briefly before the tow line snapped.

"We had to replace that tow line so the ship did not begin progressing back into the cruise terminal until 2 p.m.," Thornton said

Lt. Cmdr. Paul McConnell/U.S. Coast Guard/AP Photo

Stranded Carnival Cruise Ship On Its Way to Port Watch Video

Carnival Cancels All Scheduled Voyages Aboard the Triumph Watch Video

Carnival Cruise Ship Making Its Way to Port Watch Video

Passengers desperate to get off the vessel waved at media helicopters that flew out to film the ship and passenger Rob Mowlam told ABCNews.com by phone today that most of the passengers on board were "really upbeat and positive."

Nevertheless, when he gets off Mowlam said, "I will probably flush the toilet 10 times just because I can."

Mowlam, 37, got married on board the Triumph Friday and said he and his wife, Stephanie Stevenson, 27, haven't yet thought of redoing the honeymoon other than to say, "It won't be a cruise."

Alabama State Port Authority Director Jimmy Lyons said that with powerless "dead ships" like the Triumph, it is usually safer to bring them in during daylight hours, but, "Once they make the initial effort to come into the channel, there's no turning back."

"There are issues regarding coming into the ship channel and docking at night because the ship has no power and there's safety issues there," Richard Tillman of the Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau told ABCNews.com.

When asked if the ship could be disembarked in the dark of night, Tillman said, "It is not advised. It would be very unusual."

Thornton denied the rumors that there was a fatality on the ship. He said that there was one illness early on, a dialysis patient, but that passenger was removed from the vessel and transferred to a medical facility.

The U.S. Coast Guard is assisting now and there are multiple generators on board. And customs officials will board the ship while it is being piloted to port to accelerate the embarkation, officials said.

After eight miserable days at sea, the ship's owners have increased the compensation for what some on board are calling the vacation from hell.

All 3,143 passengers aboard the 900 foot colossus, which stalled in the Gulf of Mexico after an engine room fire early Sunday, were already being given a full refund for the cruise, transportation expenses and vouchers for a another cruise. Carnival Cruise Lines is now boosting that offer to include another $500 per person. Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, announced the additional compensation Wednesday.

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EU must press ahead with bank oversight reforms: report

BRUSSELS: Europe has made real progress in setting up a single bank supervisory system but it is only a first step and provisions for winding up failed lenders and protecting depositors are urgently needed alongside it, a report prepared for the International Monetary Fund warned Wednesday.

In December, the eurozone agreed to set up a Single Supervisory Mechanism under the oversight of the European Central Bank as a first step toward a wider banking union, aiming to prevent any repeat of the debt crisis driven by the collapse of over-extended banks.

"Time is of the essence," with a banking union the "logical conclusion of the idea that integrated banking systems require integrated prudential oversight," said the report, written by IMF economists but which does not represent IMF policy.

Progress is necessary on all three elements -- supervision, winding up failed banks and depositor protection, it said, adding that the SSM must "ultimately supervise all banks".

The SSM negotiations were marked by sharp differences between France, which wanted all eurozone banks included, and Germany which wanted only several hundred of the biggest to be covered, at least initially.

Eurozone leaders also agreed on the need to set up a bank resolution and deposit protection system but there are concerns that with the debt crisis easing recently, the momentum for reform could slow.

The report said that if there is no provision for winding up banks and a safety net for depositors, "an SSM will do little to weaken vicious sovereign-bank links."

Failing banks were at the heart of the debt crisis as governments tried to keep them afloat with massive injections of capital, a step which only weakened their own financial position and in some cases, as in Ireland, forced them to seek an international bailout.

The report recommended that to head off fresh problems on this count, "it will be important to undertake as soon as possible direct recapitalisation of frail domestically systemic banks by the European Stability Mechanism."

The ESM, which became operational last year, is the eurozone's debt rescue backstop. Once the SSM is fully in place, expected by early 2014, the ESM will have the authority to intervene and inject funds into failing banks directly so as to head off any wider problems.

The report also picked up on importance of relations between the eurozone/SSM oversight system for the 17-nation eurozone and the 10 non-euro members, among them Britain which is home to one of the world's most important financial centres in London.

"A banking union is necessary for the euro area but accommodating the concerns of non-euro (members) ... will augur well for consistency with the EU single market," it said.

- AFP/jc

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Today on New Scientist: 12 February 2013

Exploring oscillation proves a moving experience

From the animating pigs' hearts to diving into an acoustic pod, an exhibition exploring the world of oscillation is full of surprises

Gene therapy cures diabetic dogs

Diabetic beagles haven't needed an insulin injection for four years following treatment with two genes that work together to regulate glucose

Withering heights: Why animals are shrinking

It might sound incredible, but many animals are shrinking - and they will become ever tinier in the centuries to come

Suspicious quake gives away North Korea's third nuke

The magnitude-4.9 earthquake was probably due to a 10-kiloton underground nuclear bomb; the next step is to monitor for signs of radioactive gas

Latest Landsat in 40-year mission blasts off

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission, the newest addition to NASA's 40-year mission monitoring Earth from space, blasted into orbit yesterday

Robotic tormenter depresses lab rats

A new robotic rat induces stress and depression in lab animals, creating models of psychological disorders for testing new drugs

Curiosity's first drilling hints at Martian mining

The NASA rover has sampled beneath the Martian surface, perhaps laying the groundwork for future craft to build on or even mine the Red Planet

Algorithm learns how to revive lost languages

An automated system that reconstructs ancient languages could help recover the sound of words not spoken for thousands of years

Arctic sunshine cranks up threat from greenhouse gases

Soil microbes break down organic matter in permafrost more rapidly when exposed to ultraviolet light, so sunshine could speed up carbon dioxide release

Trading places with us makes robots better teammates

It's good when co-workers understand each other - especially if one of them is a robot. Read how a mechanical arm learned the mind of Celeste Biever

Wind power is now cheaper than coal in some countries

Steady technological improvements and uncertainty over the future of fossil fuels are making wind power truly competitive

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Chinese in Costa Rica set record for fried rice

SAN JOSE: Members of Costa Rica's Chinese community celebrated the the arrival of the Year of the Snake by setting the world record on Tuesday for the largest amount of fried rice ever cooked.

Briton Ralph Hannah, an inspector with the Guinness World Records, certified the win after putting the giant meal - enough to feed some 7,000 people - on a scale.

The official weight: 837 kilogrammes (1,845 pounds), which nearly doubles the previous record.

Armed with shovel-sized spoons, 52 cooks toiled over an enormous wok built especially for the event in San Jose's recently inaugurated Chinatown.

Some 735 kilogrammes of rice were used, along with 200 kilogrammes of chicken, 120 kilogrammes of ham, 20 kilogrammes of Chinese sausage, hundreds of eggs and vast amounts of chopped vegetables.

The Chinese Association of Costa Rica came up with the idea for the giant meal, said Godwin Pang, who helped coordinate the event.

Pang said the Chinese community wanted to mark the Year of the Snake, which began on Sunday, with a big event.

Most Chinese residents in Costa Rica are in the restaurant business. Chinese restaurants can be found even in small towns across this Central American country of 4.7 million.

Hannah, the Guinness representative for Latin America, said this was the first time that Costa Rica enters the world record book.

- AFP/de

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