Astrophile: A scorched world with snow black and smoky

Astrophile is our weekly column on curious cosmic objects, from the solar system to the far reaches of the multiverse Object: Titanium oxide snowLocation: The hot-Jupiter planet HD 209458b There is something magical about waking...

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Apple is tops in US in mobile phones: surveys

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple dethroned Samsung as the top US mobile phone vendor in the final quarter of last year, claiming a record share of 34 per cent, research firm Strategy Analytics reported Friday.Apple shipped an estimated 17.7 million iPhones as "robust demand" for Internet connections on the move caused overall shipments of mobile phones to grow to 52 million in the United States, up...

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Battle cry: HTC's CEO leads the 'M7' chant

HTC CEO Peter Chou tests the upcoming M7 smartphone.(Credit:cnyes.com)Do you know who's overflowing with excitement for the not-yet-official HTC M7 smartphone? None other than HTC CEO Peter Chou, of course.A video from HTC's year-end party shows the company's head honcho on stage playing with the M7, and even snapping photos of the crowd. CEO Chou can be seen rallying a team of employees with a battle...

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Best Science Pictures of 2012 Announced

Image courtesy Pupa U.P.A. Gilbert and Christopher E. Killian, U.W. Madison via Science/AAASA micrograph, or microphotograph, of a sea urchin's crystalline tooth won first place and people's choice for photography in the 2012 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge.Colors applied with Photoshop reveal the interlocking crystals that form the choppers of Arbacia punctulata. The...

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Secret Video Shows Bomb Dogs Failing Tests

A new government investigation suggests that the Transportation Security Administration is not collecting enough detailed information to know if its bomb dogs are well trained and capable of finding bombs at the nation's airports, and includes secret video that shows the dogs failing tests to detect explosives.TSA has been testing bomb dogs in Miami and Oklahoma City and will...

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Swarm-mongering: Brainless blobs flock together

Birds of a feather flock together and now so do brainless, inanimate blobs. Made of microscopic particles, the artificial swarms could shed light on the mysterious mechanisms behind the natural swarming seen in fish and birds. They might also lead to materials with novel properties like self-healing. ...

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Wall Street Journal says hit by Chinese hackers too

WASHINGTON: The Wall Street Journal said Thursday its computers were hit by Chinese hackers, the latest US media organisation citing an effort to spy on its journalists covering China.The Journal made the announcement a day after The New York Times said hackers, possibly connected to China's military, had infiltrated its computers in response to its expose of the vast wealth amassed by...

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Popular security utilities for OS X put to the test

Even though the prevalence of threats for the Mac remains relatively minimal, malware on OS X has raised its ugly head a bit in the past few years. Some in the Mac community have been affected by threats such as the Flashback malware, DNSChanger, and the MacDefender Trojan, among others. As a result, while the most effective way of keeping a Mac secure is to follow safe browsing and computing practices,...

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How Drought on Mississippi River Impacts You

Woe is the Mississippi. A barge carrying light crude hit a bridge near Vicksburg, Mississippi, on Sunday, causing an oil spill.But if you think that is the worst thing that's happened this winter to the river, you'd be wrong.The middle Mississippi—the 200-mile (322-kilometer) stretch from St. Louis to Cairo, Illinois—is experiencing drought conditions unrivaled in the last 50 years. That's...

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Arias' Ex-Boyfriend Kept Affair Secret

Accused murderer Jodi Arias was kept away from the Mormon friends of her lover Travis Alexander and their torrid sex affair was kept secret by Alexander who was an elder in the Mormon church and was supposed to be a virgin, according to court testimony today.The testimony in Arias' trial for killing Alexander in 2008 was intended to bolster the defense's argument that she killed...

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