tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46089267168882483472024-03-12T19:20:15.981-07:00Welcome to E4S - Teaching and Learning English Online for Free - Học Tiếng Anh Miễn PhíEnglish 4 Student - Teaching and Learning English Online for Free - Dạy và Học Tiếng Anh Miễn PhíUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger333125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-50952129228852445172011-06-21T18:03:00.000-07:002011-06-21T18:07:19.471-07:005-year-old children hurrying for intensive practice writing classes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbYFPZxJ4e7IQrRqJ77lff74OCrSTNdlKI5_rPC1U7hC6h4lwqozFE5eYFH-JslfNIsYhUQ-TEixeBxYwain4CJ0JJzpPnzscXcjCfR6TxrmmfnbnWb_K61X0woa3EX8_HS7ZNyfy6Bt3D/s1600/VietnameseChildren.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbYFPZxJ4e7IQrRqJ77lff74OCrSTNdlKI5_rPC1U7hC6h4lwqozFE5eYFH-JslfNIsYhUQ-TEixeBxYwain4CJ0JJzpPnzscXcjCfR6TxrmmfnbnWb_K61X0woa3EX8_HS7ZNyfy6Bt3D/s200/VietnameseChildren.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5620844235808338530" border="0" /></a>(DT) - The babyhood of Vietnam children seems to becoming shorter because they have to begin learning at the year of four or five instead of six.<br /><br />Vietnamese parents now force their 5-year-old children to practice writing before they officially go to primary schools.<br /><br />“I never thought before that my child should begin learning at the age of five. However, I now feel worried when hearing that children of my friends all can read and write already. Therefore, I have to bring my child to intensive mathematics and writing practicing classes now to prepare him for the first grade,” said Nu, a parent in Linh Dam residential quarter in Hanoi. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Every day, she and her husband take turns to bring the son to tutoring class and pick him from the class which is five kilometers far away from their house.<br /><br />Ngoc, a mother in Kim Lien area in Hanoi, also said that she has asked her son to practice writing since after-Tet days.<br /><br />“Previously, I thought that the curriculum for first graders was simple and no need to force my daughter to learn writing and reading in advance. However, it was my wrong decision,” Ngoc said.<br /><br />Ngoc’s first child began going to school two years ago. On the first days at school, the teacher told Ngoc that her child was the worst in the class in terms of writing. As a result, Ngoc had to spend her evenings with the daughter until 11 pm, when both of them practiced writing and solved mathematics questions.<br /><br />Ngoc said that she has learned lessons from the first child and she has been hurrying the second child to attend tutoring classes. “Now the boy can read and write fluently. However, I still ask him to continue practicing, because all other children now can read and write before they go to the first grade,” she said.<br /><br />A lot of parents have got rattled over the children’s learning, as the new academic year will come in just two months, and they fear that their children do not have much time more to practice writing and reading.<br /><br />On education forums, parents these days always ask each other about how to find tutors for their 5-year-old children. A lot of writing skill and mathematics practicing centers have been mushrooming to meet the increasingly high demand from parents.<br /><br />Lien Huong, the manager of a writing practicing center located on Chua Boc street in Hanoi, said that right on the after-Tet days, a lot of parents have come and registered writing practicing classes for their children. Most of the children are preparing for the first grade. However, there are also the children who were born in 2006, which means that they will only begin going to primary school in 2012.<br /><br />Lien said that some mothers registered two consecutive practicing hours for their children, saying that they cannot arrange time to pick up the children. However, the teachers of the center did not agree, saying that three consecutive practicing hours would be overloaded for the children.<br /><br />“The children at the age of five remain small, who still prefer playing than learning, therefore, it is impossible to force them to learn too much,” Lien explained. “Moreover, their hands remain weak, and they get weary quickly. The thing that children at the age need to do is just to make acquainted with letters”.<br /><br />At the age of four or five, many children feel like fish out of water when they come to classes. Some parents have to sit next to their children at the classes to calm the children down. A lot of parents have complained that children nowadays are less happy than the previous generations.<br /><br />Dang Thi Le Thuy from Smile’s House, a children’s skill practicing center, said that most of parents want to provide as much knowledge to children as possible, fearing that they would lag behind classmates if they do not learn lessons in advance. However, she believes that this may bring more harm than good.<br /><br />Psychologists believe that when children remain small, it would be a task beyond children’s capacity to ask them to write continuously for more than 20 minutes.<br /><br />The difficulties children meet when practicing writing before their age would bring negative impacts to children, because this can decline the eagerness for learning. Meanwhile, there has been no scientific evidence showing that children’s handwriting will be better if they begin practicing writing soon.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-52768491602565726522011-06-10T00:01:00.000-07:002011-06-10T00:02:43.686-07:00China told to stop harassing Vietnam’s ships<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaJlfwePZIAjxWN7N3MKcqv4aDpA6n0JKy0ZGIvaw8GXjhIo9NmEN5TVUVyMY9xwsWDsmWnFNc8rvioDJriwKvvA79IOjphHbS3Umzo3kGXnOwpu26aciIKv86ytOpHfRKEeJHuc892_o/s1600/binhminh2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaJlfwePZIAjxWN7N3MKcqv4aDpA6n0JKy0ZGIvaw8GXjhIo9NmEN5TVUVyMY9xwsWDsmWnFNc8rvioDJriwKvvA79IOjphHbS3Umzo3kGXnOwpu26aciIKv86ytOpHfRKEeJHuc892_o/s200/binhminh2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5616482544213268082" border="0" /></a>(DT) - Vietnam strongly opposed China’s acts on June 9 in harassing a ship conducting seismic surveys in Vietnam’s territorial waters in the East Sea and asked the Chinese side to stop repeating violations.<br /><br />Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga made the protest at a regular press conference in Hanoi on June 9. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />She reported to the media that at 6am on June 9, a Chinese fishing boat code-named 62226, supported by two Chinese fishery administration vessels code-named 311 and 303, deliberately hit the survey cables of Viking II, a ship hired by the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, when it was conducting seismic surveys at Lot 136/03 at a location 60 degrees 47’5” north latitude and 1090 degrees 17’5” east longitude on Vietnam’s continental shelf.<br /><br />The Chinese fishing boat 62226 trailed a cable-cutting device into the vicinity of ship Viking II and became trapped in the network of underwater cables in use by the Vietnamese vessel, despite the Vietnamese side letting off a warning flare. As a result, the ship Viking II could not operate normally.<br /><br />Then, the two Chinese fishery administration vessels joined with other Chinese fishing boats to rescue fishing boat 62226.<br /><br />The seismic survey area being studied by ship Viking II is well within Vietnam’s 200 nautical mile continental shelf, and completely belongs to Vietnam’s area of sovereignty, in line with the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the spokesperson affirmed.<br /><br />"The act by those fishing boats and fishery administration vessels of China was absolutely intentional, well designed and well prepared,” Nga emphasised.<br /><br />She added, “It seriously violates Vietnam’s sovereignty and jurisdictional rights, runs counter to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and goes against the common perception of senior leaders of the two countries on maintaining peace and stability in the East Sea, while causing significant economic losses for the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group.”<br /><br />The incident took place just two weeks after a Chinese marine surveillance vessel on May 26 cut the exploration cables of ship Binh Minh 02 at Lot 148 in Vietnam’s continental shelf, bringing continuous tension to the East Sea situation, Nga said.<br /><br />“China’s systematic acts were aimed at turning the region without disputes into one with disputes, and carry out its ambition to make China’s nine-dash line claim a reality, Nga said, stressing, “This is something that Vietnam cannot accept.”<br /><br />“The Vietnamese side strongly opposes China’s aforementioned act and demands the Chinese side immediately cease all acts violating Vietnam’s national sovereignty and jurisdiction rights to its continental shelf and exclusive economic zone and not repeat them, and provide compensation for damages caused to the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group,” she said.<br /><br />Later the same day, a Vietnam Foreign Ministry representative met with a representative from the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to protest the act and affirm Vietnam’s stance, Nga said.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-32846472146592597742011-05-25T19:25:00.000-07:002011-05-25T19:28:21.262-07:00Quang Liem becomes super international grand master<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikDGzo-AqU_Kxlfn62g6MIkBDMZLSCvhb0kaG2hYBdnVadgcQ-vk7gRes__3Uuhu9MGSMurCoFo7fh19wkvLwRtwAuflvcb5owSYzCHMKfY-Fsb9vvuVfnBN-34dG9RUC7Q_jxkR1oGG4_/s1600/Quangliem.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikDGzo-AqU_Kxlfn62g6MIkBDMZLSCvhb0kaG2hYBdnVadgcQ-vk7gRes__3Uuhu9MGSMurCoFo7fh19wkvLwRtwAuflvcb5owSYzCHMKfY-Fsb9vvuVfnBN-34dG9RUC7Q_jxkR1oGG4_/s200/Quangliem.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5610845933427670274" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Vietnam’s number one chess player, Le Quang Liem, has officially become a super international grand master after he scored an Elo score of 2,700 on May 19, a rating that calculates skill levels of chess players.<br /><br />The website www.2700chess.com which specialises in daily updates of super international grand masters’ Elo ratings, listed Le Quang Liem as one of the 40 super grand masters after he drew with U20 World Junior Chess Champion Dmitry Andreikin of Russia, within the framework of the Capablanca Chess Tournament in Cuba from May 9-21. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />With this result, Liem, 20, has become the fourth Asian player, the only Southeast Asian player and the world’s second youngest player to make this ranking, after American Italian Fabiano Caruana, 19, who achieved an Elo rating of 2,716.<br /><br />Liem said he hoped this success would offer him more chances to enter major competitions and compete with world-class players to overcome new challenges.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-72067640114535007012011-05-21T01:44:00.000-07:002011-05-21T01:49:54.565-07:00Zuckerberg: Kids under 13 should be allowed on Facebook<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDnB8fJWpDysFbai63Zq7m0_KTtbPuO52__yxPpOGb_UUuBj1jc8d3UkwuhwO_bsbvhjnKvRYiaNX0lo_u7BckEo4NfB_fCkEYBEUGKs17c9oih60ODkSPdfL9jYjVrTn4WyZJlw9e3xTS/s1600/mark_zuckerberg.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 113px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDnB8fJWpDysFbai63Zq7m0_KTtbPuO52__yxPpOGb_UUuBj1jc8d3UkwuhwO_bsbvhjnKvRYiaNX0lo_u7BckEo4NfB_fCkEYBEUGKs17c9oih60ODkSPdfL9jYjVrTn4WyZJlw9e3xTS/s200/mark_zuckerberg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5609088747277768226" border="0" /></a>(CNN) - Facebook's founder sees the social networking site as a tool with educational potential. That of course means getting kids Facebooking at an early age.<br /><br />FORTUNE -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may be a college drop-out, but the billionaire 27-year-old is passionate about education reform. That's why he took time out of his busy schedule to discuss the heated topic (and why he thinks young people can benefit from social networking sites) at a recent summit on innovation in education.<span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Last year Zuckerberg pledged $100 million to the school system in Newark, New Jersey. At the NewSchools Venture Fund's Summit in Burlingame, Calif. earlier this week, Zuckerberg told interviewer (and venture capitalist) John Doerr that improving education and making the Internet more open are two of his favorite dinnertime topics.<br /><br />Dressed in his signature T-shirt and jeans, Zuckerberg was uncharacteristically unguarded about his private life during the conversation, which lasted about an hour. He referred to his girlfriend of seven years, medical student Priscilla Chan, several times throughout the interview. He also shared anecdotes from his own education and upbringing, gave advice to other entrepreneurs and talked about why he wants kids under 13 to be on Facebook.<br /><br />"Education is clearly the biggest thing that will drive how the economy improves over the long term," Zuckerberg said. "We spend a lot of time talking about this."<br /><br />It's no surprise that Zuckerberg thinks the field of education--along with shopping, health, finance and other industries--will become much more social in the coming years.<br /><br />"In the future, software and technology will enable people to learn a lot from their fellow students," he said. For example, students could see each other studying online in the hopes it would encourage more of them to study for tests.<br /><br />Zuckerberg said he wants younger kids to be allowed on social networking sites like Facebook. Currently, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) mandates that websites that collect information about users (like Facebook does) aren't allowed to sign on anyone under the age of 13. But Zuckerberg is determined to change this.<br /><br />"That will be a fight we take on at some point," he said. "My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age."<br /><br />But just how would Facebook's social features be used by younger children?<br /><br />"Because of the restrictions we haven't even begun this learning process," Zuckerberg said. "If they're lifted then we'd start to learn what works. We'd take a lot of precautions to make sure that they [younger kids] are safe."<br /><br />Here are a few other opinions and anecdotes Zuckerberg shared at the recent summit:<br /><br />- Every year Zuckerberg sets a personal challenge for himself. His latest one is learning Chinese (he works with a tutor and regularly holds discussions with Mandarin-speaking employees at Facebook).<br /><br />- The young CEO gets upset when the media focuses on him instead of the entire Facebook management team. He says he spends 25% of his time recruiting both inside and outside Facebook and never hires someone he wouldn't want to work for himself.<br /><br />- Zuckerberg started coding in sixth grade, after he got his first computer. His first program? A virtual pet-like game starring Yoda (the goal was to keep Yoda alive).<br /><br />- The best part of going to Harvard was the other students. According to Zuckerberg: "If I had the chance to go back to Harvard and finish, I just think of how many more awesome people I would meet."<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-74066052810751227492011-05-18T02:37:00.000-07:002011-05-18T02:45:51.013-07:00Coffee 'cuts prostate cancer risk' US study suggests<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQy2eF-hqEL2Xf6AUi7INEfNSokW7_EHHNznSn_k5I5-rXVc5ImsVtHY0kc-Bh3zZFNHzCLpax2t-rrI5pmCC7tHZyP6B4UOrCNXjZrMKolI8K7AsPFfosiIV5dckUcjNtY7QFM2hyphenhyphenWJlU/s1600/coffee-spl.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQy2eF-hqEL2Xf6AUi7INEfNSokW7_EHHNznSn_k5I5-rXVc5ImsVtHY0kc-Bh3zZFNHzCLpax2t-rrI5pmCC7tHZyP6B4UOrCNXjZrMKolI8K7AsPFfosiIV5dckUcjNtY7QFM2hyphenhyphenWJlU/s200/coffee-spl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5607989973492407090" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Coffee has been linked to a reduced risk of dying from prostate cancer in a study of nearly 50,000 US men.<br /><br />Those who drank six or more cups a day were found to be 20% less likely to develop any form of the disease - which is the most common cancer in men.<br /><br />They were also 60% less likely to develop an aggressive form which can spread to other parts of the body.<span class="fullpost"><br /><br />But charities say the evidence, reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is still unclear.<br /><br />They do not recommend that men take up coffee drinking in the hope of preventing prostate cancer.<br /><br /><b>Unknown compounds</b><br /><br />The study looked at about 48,000 men in the US who work as health professionals.<br /><br />Every four years between 1986 and 2006, they were asked to report their average daily intake of coffee.<br /><br />During this 20-year period, 5,035 of the men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, including 642 fatal cases.<br /><br />No difference was seen between caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, suggesting caffeine itself was not the cause.<br /><br />But even relatively small amounts of coffee - one to three cups per day - were found to lower the risk of lethal prostate cancer by 30%.<br /><br />The researchers think there may be unknown compounds in coffee that protect against the disease.<br /><br />Lead researcher Dr Kathryn Wilson, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said: "At present we lack an understanding of risk factors that can be changed or controlled to lower the risk of lethal prostate cancer.<br /><br />"If our findings are validated, coffee could represent one modifiable factor that may lower the risk of developing the most harmful form of prostate cancer."<br /><br />Commenting on the study, Dr Helen Rippon of The Prostate Cancer Charity, said other studies had not shown the link and the research evidence was still unclear.<br /><br />She added: "Although this study is a welcome addition to our knowledge, it is far from definitive and we would not recommend men who are not already habitual coffee drinkers to become so in the hope of preventing prostate cancer.<br /><br />"Heavy caffeine intake is associated with other health problems and men with benign prostate problems might well make urinary symptoms worse."<br /><br />Yinka Ebo, senior health information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "There's no need for men to start drinking gallons of coffee in an attempt to lower their prostate cancer risk.<br /><br />"A number of other studies looking at coffee and prostate cancer have found that drinking coffee does not affect the risk of the disease, and this study only found a lower risk of advanced prostate cancer in men who drank more than six cups a day.<br /><br />"We would need to see these results repeated in other large studies before we can be sure whether coffee consumption affects the risk of prostate cancer."<br /><br /><b>Prostate cancer</b><br /><br />- Each year about 37,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK<br />- Some 10,000 die from the disease<br />- Symptoms include problems passing urine but they may be mild or non-existent<br /><br /><b>The data</b><br /><br />- Previous studies have shown no clear link between coffee and prostate cancer risk<br />- Men who drank six or more cups of coffee per day had a slightly lower risk of any form of prostate cancer and a substantially lower risk of lethal prostate cancer compared with non-coffee drinkers, according to the researchers<br />- Both caff and decaff were associated with similar risks<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-19480036249457653632011-05-13T18:55:00.000-07:002011-05-13T19:01:37.698-07:00Young people turn backs teaching careers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_SywwT29o11Ob9xgtOHAELWKaoqhdH21xiP6-kh-qOG5HWXHnqQlysHp__SLSNjEfz7ZSb_797HdUQ5pCQUyoTrcwCTBKpQ4MAbZVo7IGOlFuTqcYMTIu_zo0fcuns7GoqgQBgKIgnr-/s1600/teacherandstudents.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 151px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3_SywwT29o11Ob9xgtOHAELWKaoqhdH21xiP6-kh-qOG5HWXHnqQlysHp__SLSNjEfz7ZSb_797HdUQ5pCQUyoTrcwCTBKpQ4MAbZVo7IGOlFuTqcYMTIu_zo0fcuns7GoqgQBgKIgnr-/s200/teacherandstudents.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606385917788975490" border="0" /></a>(DT) - Fewer students are choosing to take the entrance exam for teachers’ training schools due to high rate of unemployment after graduation.<br /><br />Many recent graduates are now forced to take work as tutors, sales-people or other jobs far removed from their speciality.<br /><br />Many students who’ve received on-the job training are given jobs at high schools, while for those with regular training it’s very difficult to find a job. Also, after graduating, students, or their families often have to pay unofficial fees to someone in a educational administration agency.<span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Nguyen Thi Lan, who studied History at Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) complained, “My parents are very proud of my graduating, but when I bring to all schools to seek a job, I get the same answer: ‘We’re still waiting on our quotas from the administration agency. Our family is in the countryside, so we cannot afford to pay for a job. Perhaps I will look for another job; I don’t want to just sit and wait.”<br /><br />After graduating from philology faculty in 2005, Thuy Duong, a teacher in Thanh Hoa Province, had to experience different jobs to earn money for studying a master course; and luckily, she was admitted to work at Thanh Hoa Culture and Art College.<br /><br />A large number of students, after leaving teachers’ colleges, can not sign “indefinite permanent contracts” (a State guarantee of full-paid employment until retirement) with schools, but work instead under short-term contracts with a modest salary. As a result, many parents dissuade their children from studying at teachers’ colleges and universities.<br /><br /><b>Lowering of entrance requirements</b><br /><br />In the 1990’s, many students wished to become teachers, in part because of the tuition exemption policy. At that time jobs were much easier to find.<br /><br />Also, entrance requirements to these institutions were quite high, usually between 22 and 25 for social subjects, and 24 and 27 for the natural sciences.<br /><br />In recent years, however, the requirements have been lowered to between 13 and 17 for all subjects.<br /><br />In 2010, Hong Duc University in Thanh Hoa Province required a mark of 13 for mathematics teachers and 14 for biology. Vinh University’s entrance marks also ranged between 15.5 and 17.<br /><br />At the same time, teachers’ colleges and universities have become less attractive to students in spite of their tuition fee exemption policies and low entrance requirements.<br /><br />Last year, a number of teachers’ universities did not hold entrance exams for some departments. For instance, Hong Duc Unverisity did not recruit students of literature, primary education or nursery education.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-16265452376804352002011-05-05T06:39:00.000-07:002011-05-05T06:43:23.595-07:00Apple acts on iPhone tracking bug<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh5NBbzzSPU232eqYurp4Ka9psDZD0lu7mzpbnRbUEh9Wm1MhMcyAH4vZ9FXrQogxfCJR22gw38rVVjWjZMc1H_uyfDpzTGIsczs_ZGQ_2zAmD3fTnVidDajdtPyVkh-dt9r-mLTtEfpMO/s1600/english4student_ipad1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh5NBbzzSPU232eqYurp4Ka9psDZD0lu7mzpbnRbUEh9Wm1MhMcyAH4vZ9FXrQogxfCJR22gw38rVVjWjZMc1H_uyfDpzTGIsczs_ZGQ_2zAmD3fTnVidDajdtPyVkh-dt9r-mLTtEfpMO/s200/english4student_ipad1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603227091168295218" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Apple has released a software update to fix a glitch that saw iPhones and iPads secretly record owners' movements.<br /><br />The problem came to light when security researchers found a hidden file on the devices containing a record of everywhere they had been.<br /><br />Used with certain software, the file could generate a map of all a person's movements with the phone. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Apple denied that it has used the information to track user location and blamed a bug in the software.<br /><br /><b>No conspiracy</b><br /><br />The update, which is available through the iTunes store, cuts the amount of stored data to just a week and no longer transfers it to the owner's computer when the phone is connected.<br /><br />And if users disable the location services setting on their iPhone or iPad, it will stop collecting data completely.<br /><br />Permission for the tracking was given by users, albeit hidden away in the terms and conditions for the iTunes store.<br /><br />The data was logged via cell towers and wi-fi access points.<br /><br />The storage of the data was brought to light in a blog post from researchers Alasdair Allan and Peter Warden.<br /><br />At the time Mr Allan said that he did not think there was "any sort of conspiracy going on".<br /><br />"However, we're both worried about this level of detailed location data being out there in the wild. While the cell phone operators already have this data, it takes a court order to obtain it from them. You can now do the equivalent by simply leaving your iPhone in a bar. That doesn't seem right to me."<br /><br /><b>Mobile privacy</b><br /><br />In response Apple said: "The iPhone is not logging your location, rather it's maintaining a database of wi-fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than 100 miles away from your iPhone to help your phone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested."<br /><br />It said it was collecting some location data with the goal of providing iPhone users with an "improved traffic service in the next couple of years".<br /><br />Many smartphone owners chose to voluntarily opt in to location tracking services such as Foursquare and Mobile Me but there is rising concern about how companies use such data.<br /><br />Later this month Apple and Google are due to testify at a US senate hearing on mobile privacy as the firms come under increasing pressure to reveal how they collect and store location data.<br /><br />Smartphones running Google's Android operating system also store data but it is an opt-in service, according to the firm.<br /><br />A lawsuit has been filed against Apple in Florida last week, accusing the firm of violating privacy laws. Two women in Michigan are also suing Google over data collected by Android devices.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-84393314874671538142011-05-05T00:29:00.000-07:002011-05-05T00:36:06.706-07:00Man Utd do not need to fear Barcelona - Ferguson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOpaoND8P91l9ob3fYY9vlSu2bAOsm61brUOad_GLNDWiJtIjDWdt77Loxwk7f5bDgOI48IlTuAc9rUkjRxosOmHwmoNlf8LvZeK-rc_LEi4qYxIoE9i_LxyubSAfY9nPk3DdWkModGpas/s1600/Sir_ferguson.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOpaoND8P91l9ob3fYY9vlSu2bAOsm61brUOad_GLNDWiJtIjDWdt77Loxwk7f5bDgOI48IlTuAc9rUkjRxosOmHwmoNlf8LvZeK-rc_LEi4qYxIoE9i_LxyubSAfY9nPk3DdWkModGpas/s200/Sir_ferguson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603132427941474978" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has told his players they have no need to fear Barcelona in the Champions League final on 28 May.<br /><br />United beat Schalke 6-1 on aggregate to set up a clash at Wembley against the team that beat them in the 2009 final.<br /><br />"I don't think we should be going there lacking in confidence," Ferguson said. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />"We are playing a fantastic team but we can't be frightened out of our skins. Their form is there for everyone to see. Our job is to find a solution."<br /><br />Barcelona defeated arch-rivals Real Madrid, 3-1 on aggregate to book their spot at Wembley after an acrimonious semi-final against their Spanish rivals.<br /><br />But Ferguson is planning to speak to Real boss Jose Mourinho in his quest to avenge United's 2-0 defeat by Barcelona in the 2009 final in Rome.<br /><br />"I speak to him [Mourinho] quite a lot," added Ferguson. "I spoke to him last week.<br /><br />"I think we will depend on our own knowledge of Barcelona. It's not as if we haven't seen them before. We've watched them many times this season.<br /><br />"But the experience Real Madrid have from Jose's angle, you always take information from him like that because he is very helpful in that way."<br /><br />When asked if he would have chosen to play Barcelona to earn revenge, Ferguson replied: "We'd choose Brechin City or somebody like that. No disrespect to Brechin City, I love that wee club."<br /><br />He continued: "I think we'll be quite well prepared for that game [the final]."<br /><br />The comfortable manner of United's victory over Schalke was not in keeping with the type of challenge they might have expected in a Champions League semi-final.<br /><br />Antonio Valencia and Darron Gibson added to the Old Trafford club's 2-0 first-leg lead before the Bundesliga outfit responded with a Jose Manuel Jurado strike.<br /><br />But two goals in quick succession from Anderson emphasised United's dominance as the second leg finished 4-1.<br /><br />Ferguson even had the comfort of giving several key players a rest against Schalke as Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand were rested, while Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra, Ryan Giggs and Javier Hernandez were on the bench.<br /><br />In all, Ferguson made eight changes from the Premier League defeat to Arsenal last Sunday.<br /><br />"It wasn't an easy decision," Ferguson commented on his team selection. "It was one of these ones I wrestled with for a few days.<br /><br />"The Arsenal result forced the situation. I think there was emotional tiredness on Sunday and these European games can do that.<br /><br />"I had to make that decision. If it was a tight result in the last game there is no way I could have done it. With a two goal lead there was just enough leeway to do it."<br /><br />Ferguson's side next play Chelsea at Old Trafford in the Premier League on Sunday in a crucial game in the title race.<br /><br />Chelsea are three points behind United and can overtake them with a win.<br /><br />The two clubs also met late last season in a game that had a significant say in the title race - the Blues won 2-1 and went on to be crowned champions.<br /><br />But Ferguson believes his players will be better prepared this time around.<br /><br />"There is a massive difference from last year when we had to go into the game after losing to Bayern Munich," he reflected.<br /><br />"In the first half of that game we were really tired so it will be a fresh team on Sunday and we will go for it."<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-74153889327838787332011-04-08T19:37:00.000-07:002011-04-08T19:45:44.260-07:00Facebook shares green data centre technology<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxodpjq9pZMYLL0IMLD4I1sH9x6Yshqdta1vzo3Dm49hpn43J_rmIljZ13EFzdQGq0ZbCQXH3OIbnKsUM2rMHSCWD9OmArPoFHBux62KUoDjWnvYSH6VhDBiLMOmPPBT_kHUJwA2uzBxEx/s1600/English4student_greentechnology.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxodpjq9pZMYLL0IMLD4I1sH9x6Yshqdta1vzo3Dm49hpn43J_rmIljZ13EFzdQGq0ZbCQXH3OIbnKsUM2rMHSCWD9OmArPoFHBux62KUoDjWnvYSH6VhDBiLMOmPPBT_kHUJwA2uzBxEx/s200/English4student_greentechnology.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5593409281751407474" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Facebook has announced that it will share the design secrets behind its new energy-efficient data centre with rival companies.<br /><br />The social network's facility in Prineville, Oregon is said to use 38% less power than existing centres.<br /><br />It hopes, by making make the innovations public, to cut the amount of electricity the industry consumes.<br /><br />Despite Facebook's advances, some environmental groups have criticised the firm over its green credentials. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Working under the title "Open Compute Project", Facebook will release specifications and mechanical drawings of the building and its servers.<br /><br />"It's time to stop treating data centres like Fight Club [do not talk about them]," said Jonathan Heiliger, the company's vice president of technical operations.<br /><br />His comments are likely to be interpreted as a dig at other web firms, such as Google, Twitter and Amazon which have kept their own designs under wraps.<br /><br /><b>Power hungry</b><br /><br />Data centres use vast amounts of electricity to run their computer equipment and also to keep it cool.<br /><br />Environmental group Greenpeace has estimated that their total global energy use will have reached 2 trillion kw/h by 2020.<br /><br />Until now, Facebook has paid to lease its servers and storage space from other companies.<br /><br />The Prineville plant is its first custom-built facility and cost $188m (£117m). Much has been made of its environmentally friendly specifications.<br /><br />Among the innovations, the centre make extensive use of outside air, as opposed to air conditioning, to cool the rows of servers.<br /><br />The machines themselves are also specially designed to maximise the new cooling system.<br /><br />"The best way to reduce CO2 and improve the environment is to cut energy consumption and that is what we are doing," said Mr Heiliger.<br /><br />Facebook has stripped out nonessential parts, paint, logos and stickers - saving, it claims, more than 6 pounds of materials per server.<br /><br />However, Greenpeace said the company could have gone further to prove its commitment to sustainability.<br /><br />"If Facebook wants to be a truly green company, it needs to reduce its gas emissions," said Casey Harrell, a climate campaigner.<br /><br />"The way to do that is decouple its growth from its emissions footprint by using clean, renewable energy to power its business instead of dirty coal and dangerous nuclear power."<br /><br />Greenpeace launched a campaign last year calling on Facebook to stop powering its business with energy from suppliers that use coal.<br /><br />More than 101,000 Facebook users have so far clicked the "like" button on Greenpeace's campaign, dubbed "Facebook: Unfriend Coal" .<br /><br /><b>Customised cool</b><br /><br />As well as saving money on power, the company said that running its own data centre would help it to push through future changes on the site.<br /><br />"We found a lot of stuff mass manufacturers were putting out wasn't what we needed, so we customised it to better fit social applications," said Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.<br /><br />Jonathan Heiliger explained further: "Having this control over our infrastructure gives us a ton of flexibility especially when turning on a new feature.<br /><br />"Live commenting or searching for friends of friends requires this massive amount of computing and the fact we can do this and innovate and have all this control gives our engineers the flexibility to develop those products that wouldn't exist potentially."<br /><br /><b>Money and power</b><br /><br />Facebook claims that, by sharing its design innovations, the wider web economy will benefit, especially small start-up companies.<br /><br />Social gaming firm Zynga said it was looking at perhaps using some of the designs, while computer maker Dell said it definitely would.<br /><br />"It's a very important step in helping the industry drive efficiency end-to-end," Forrest Norrod, Dell's vice president of servers told BBC News.<br /><br />"This project is also very important in promoting the understanding of this technology and presents an opportunity to turbo charge innovation around data centre efficiency."<br /><br />Dell announced that it plans to spend $1bn (£600m) building 10 data centres around the world.<br /><br />The PC manufacturer is a partner in the Open Compute Project along with HP, AMD and Intel.<br /><br />Rackspace, which manages servers for smaller companies, believes the cost savings cannot be ignored.<br /><br />"This is a huge leap forward and will save millions and millions of dollars," said Graham Weston, chairman of Rackspace.<br /><br />"A good sized data centre probably spends about $10m a year on power and these new designs should drive down that cost by about 40% or $4m."<br /><br />Facebook claimed that if one quarter of US data centres used specifications released by the Open Compute Project, the energy saved could power more than 160,000 homes.<br /><br /><b>Blue, not green</b><br /><br />While Facebook hopes to make significant savings with its new data centre, the company has not been penny-pinching completely.<br /><br />One area the team splurged on was lighting for the servers.<br /><br />Engineer Amir Michael said he wanted to use blue LEDs but was told they cost 7 cents each, compared to green ones which were 2 cents per LED.<br /><br />He opted for the blue ones anyway.<br /><br />"I thought it would be really cool if the data centre glowed in blue. It's a pretty big environment and I wanted to add a little bit of character, a little bit of style to it," said Mr Michael.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-49925574627474421932011-03-26T04:02:00.000-07:002011-03-26T04:09:24.123-07:00MySpace loses millions of users in a few weeks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4N530CFy5cKS1RlOeD0F_u5_Loud6aHvLshlhJ2rFuIbmecvs0w0o3AdQCMHYMPTFrYU0XZUY6qG6l1DVd56yi2lHaTONEg5cH-buhBkZy3hcBGOLUako0y9ZZTY-vWH8sSX44CrfwLp/s1600/myspace.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4N530CFy5cKS1RlOeD0F_u5_Loud6aHvLshlhJ2rFuIbmecvs0w0o3AdQCMHYMPTFrYU0XZUY6qG6l1DVd56yi2lHaTONEg5cH-buhBkZy3hcBGOLUako0y9ZZTY-vWH8sSX44CrfwLp/s200/myspace.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588343875922870226" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - <b>Latest statistics suggest attempts to kick new life into MySpace may be failing.</b><br /><br />Tech industry analysts comScore say figures show MySpace lost more than 10 million unique users worldwide between January and February.<br /><br />There were almost 63 million users of MySpace in February 2011, down from more than 73 million. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Year on year the site has lost almost 50 million users, down from close to 110 million in February 2010.<br /><br />The loss of users comes despite a series of changes to the site to make it more about music.<br /><br />It was the social network site that helped launch the careers of artists like Arctic Monkeys, Kate Nash and Lily Allen.<br /><br />But so far this year MySpace has already announced plans to cut half its workforce.<br /><br /><b>Falling numbers</b><br /><br />Around 500 staff are going worldwide.<br /><br />Five years ago it was booming and for many was the first place to visit to talk to friends and listen to music.<br /><br />But the arrival of sites likes Facebook has changed the face of social networking.<br /><br />In the UK, 2.3 million people used the site in February 2011.<br /><br />Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought the company for £330 million back in 2005.<br /><br />If they were to sell today, they might get as little as £50 million for it.<br /><br />MySpace boss Mike Jones has been putting a brave face on the falling numbers.<br /><br />He said the site is no longer a social network and is instead an "entertainment destination".<br /><br />But with competition from YouTube, streaming services and increased file-sharing it faces tough times.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-18760235726322824562011-02-19T20:16:00.000-08:002011-02-19T20:22:41.466-08:00Google-backed Moon robot teams confirmed<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9mM-H8LWThBalGpuggrMPUWQl8cHWWcogCKS-mUq0nH7vYMGG5IcWmJnRAP_iYSzhVhPGU8JYYjBUmvaSw7PEOuZYcHZnUIVQkgn4oXVDMQNAy1U9E2_7arLC0C4PnVwFL4lBGKoQmn6T/s1600/Google-backedMoonrobot.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9mM-H8LWThBalGpuggrMPUWQl8cHWWcogCKS-mUq0nH7vYMGG5IcWmJnRAP_iYSzhVhPGU8JYYjBUmvaSw7PEOuZYcHZnUIVQkgn4oXVDMQNAy1U9E2_7arLC0C4PnVwFL4lBGKoQmn6T/s200/Google-backedMoonrobot.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575622031816564930" /></a>(BBC) - The final line-up of teams competing for the $30 million (£18.5m) robotic Moon-explorer prize has been confirmed.<br /><br />The prize will go to the builders of the first robot to send back video as it travels over 500 metres of the Moon's surface.<br /><br />Competition organisers hope to spur the development of low-cost robotic space exploration.<br /><br />The Google-sponsored Lunar X-Prize will be fought over by 29 teams from 17 different countries. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Organisers believe that the competition - first announced in 2007 - could have a winner by 2015.<br /><br />"The official private race to the Moon is on," said Peter Diamandis, chief executive of the X-Prize Foundation.<br /><br />The teams come from a wildly divergent background, ranging from non-profit consortia and university groups to well-funded businesses.<br /><br /><b>Robotic explorers</b><br /><br />Several of the teams have already bought rides on spacecraft to transport their robots.<br /><br />Astrobotic Technology, a spin off-off from Carnegie Mellon University has signed a deal with SpaceX - the private space company set up by PayPal founder Elon Musk - to use its Falcon 9 rocket.<br /><br />Meanwhile, government-backed space agencies are also planning to send craft to the Moon.<br /><br />Spacecraft from a joint Russian and Indian team and a separate one from China are pencilled to set off for the Moon in 2013.<br /><br />But the X-Prize's backers think the future of space exploration will be driven by privately-funded groups.<br /><br />"The most successful and revolutionary discoveries often come from small, entrepreneurial teams," said Tiffany Montague, of Google Space Initiatives.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-24289080458299665782011-02-14T01:32:00.000-08:002011-02-14T01:48:00.498-08:00Universities open doors to foreigners<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NqTIxOKcILMMeG-XzBhveq5GDuewILxBF8LkTiqPjTpQEqp-72lq4D3dMZFummob7ZvMqm0Bs_aGv7viejzkQd0tDMfJOu0dmNDb2BMLzSMNDtefvHzcbBAqzT0lKewr3nanGwM8aCru/s1600/foreingStudents.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0NqTIxOKcILMMeG-XzBhveq5GDuewILxBF8LkTiqPjTpQEqp-72lq4D3dMZFummob7ZvMqm0Bs_aGv7viejzkQd0tDMfJOu0dmNDb2BMLzSMNDtefvHzcbBAqzT0lKewr3nanGwM8aCru/s200/foreingStudents.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5573476212545878498" border="0" /></a>(DT) - Foreign students wishing to study at Vietnamese universities or colleges may soon be exempted from sitting for entrance examinations.<br /><br />A draft circular issued by the Ministry of Education and Training said foreigners only had to provide their high school grades to the institutions at which they wished to enrol.<br /><br />Vietnamese students, however, must sit for an entrance examination, often described as difficult. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />In addition to good study records, foreign students must be able to study in Vietnamese and possess good general knowledge. Admission will be decided by the school.<br /><br />The new circular is aimed at attracting and encouraging foreign students to study in Vietnam.<br /><br />A Chinese student at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said most foreign students chose to study in Vietnam because of its interesting culture and remarkable developing economy.<br /><br />However, he said foreign students faced difficulties in learning Vietnamese, cultural differences and finding accommodation.<br /><br />The new circular has not met approval from many Vietnamese. "It's unfair. My children have to study really hard to pass the entrance university exams while others don't," Tran Minh Phuong, mother of a 12th grader, said.<br /><br />Phuong said the specific criteria should be designed by the ministry, not schools, to enrol foreign students to ensure transparency and fairness.<br /><br />However, Nguyen Thu Nga, a teacher at a Hanoi private high school, said foreign students would find it hard to catch up with their Vietnamese classmates.<br /><br />The ministry is collecting opinions from relevant authorities and agencies before submitting the draft to the government for approval.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-31959274005967188612011-02-07T18:16:00.000-08:002011-02-07T18:19:56.758-08:00Stereo satellites move either side of Sun<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_4_KEvxuckNN-wg0LUQoD5e-SbK9-top0UsWsGvs9jbmcsNyYCJtgJCCbhHG6LtXH0uv_AeVAe893BaWUVomTzOJfgou92TmbmKezhOlPPguwogAHZflRxSa_HBkb4SdKir9eiD6xPZDl/s1600/artist_nasa.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_4_KEvxuckNN-wg0LUQoD5e-SbK9-top0UsWsGvs9jbmcsNyYCJtgJCCbhHG6LtXH0uv_AeVAe893BaWUVomTzOJfgou92TmbmKezhOlPPguwogAHZflRxSa_HBkb4SdKir9eiD6xPZDl/s200/artist_nasa.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571137687463500386" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Two US spacecraft have moved either side of the Sun to establish observing positions that should return remarkable new information about our star.<br /><br />Launched in 2006, the Stereo satellites have gradually been drifting apart - one in front of the Earth in its orbit, the other lagging behind.<br /><br />On Sunday, Nasa said the spacecraft had arrived at points that put the Sun directly between them. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />It will give solar physicists the first 360-degree view of our star.<br /><br />Stereo is short for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory.<br /><br />The mission is studying the Sun's great explosive events that hurl billions of tonnes of charged particles at Earth - events that can disrupt power grids and satellites.<br /><br />These Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), as they are known, can also be hazardous to astronauts in space.<br /><br />Professor Richard Harrison of the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, is an investigator on the project.<br /><br />He told BBC News: "By being away from the Sun-Earth line, you can look back at the space between the Sun and the Earth and see any of these clouds, these coronal mass ejections that are thrown out of the Sun and are coming our way - you can even see these things passing over the Earth. Those are the key to what Stereo's all about."<br /><br />The two spacecraft will continue to move further apart, heading toward each other on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth; this means that the full view provided by the two craft will fade, leaving a growing region behind the Sun - on the Earth side - that they do not see.<br /><br />However, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, launched in Earth orbit a year ago, will remain fixed on the Sun, providing the missing piece of the puzzle.<br /><br />Achieving an all-round-view view of the Sun will be key to understanding what drives the complex processes in the Sun, believes Professor Harrison.<br /><br />"You really see it with these widely separated regions of the Sun's atmosphere that are connected magnetically, showing activity at the same time, or causing activity somewhere else," he explained.<br /><br />"These things stress to us that you can't really study the Sun in great detail just by looking at a bit of it, any more than you could understand the brain by looking at a bit of it or study the Earth's polar regions by looking at the equator. You need this global view to really piece the jigsaw puzzle together."<br /><br />Scientists suspect that activity on the Sun can on occasions go global, with eruptions on opposite sides of the Sun triggering and feeding off one another. With the Stereo craft in their new positions, this phenomenon can now be studied.<br /><br />Stereo is already being used to improve "space weather" forecasts for airlines, power companies, satellite operators, and other customers.<br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-27713633362829228052011-02-07T18:10:00.000-08:002011-02-07T18:14:53.302-08:00Google eyes Apple in tablet war<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha0no5Nqd_uJcIQyuSBfj5lAk6AHLZrNFOCSaXD7xaUOvrW5HP5CrpAaO4SVmwyS8P0xjaCIHXY6uDwylSHccWCK0O-0DBYJAGqBw5Er7e5IgDg1g9NTlY37g1Jvqrzv2BPbCOTQ3jKXe5/s1600/honeycomblaunch.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha0no5Nqd_uJcIQyuSBfj5lAk6AHLZrNFOCSaXD7xaUOvrW5HP5CrpAaO4SVmwyS8P0xjaCIHXY6uDwylSHccWCK0O-0DBYJAGqBw5Er7e5IgDg1g9NTlY37g1Jvqrzv2BPbCOTQ3jKXe5/s200/honeycomblaunch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571136359235558034" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Google has unveiled an operating system for tablet computers aimed at ramping up the competition with Apple's iPad.<br /><br />More than 15 million iPads have been sold since Apple launched the gadget in 2010.<br /><br />The latest version of Google's Android OS is called Honeycomb and it has been specifically optimised for tablets. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />The features include the ability to buy applications from a computer, buy features inside the app, video chat and improved graphics.<br /><br />"This is a serious investment of years of design and engineering to really nail the experience for a larger screen," Hugo Barra, Google's director of products for mobile, told BBC News.<br /><br />"This is not a large phone - we wanted tablets running Honeycomb to not just be bigger but also to be better."<br /><br />Motorola will be the first to bring a product running Honeycomb to market. Its Xoom device is due to go on sale this month, although a release date and price have not yet been revealed.<br /><br />"Honeycomb brings Google closer to parity with Apple and underlines the battle between these two titans," said Ben Parr, co-editor of technology news site Mashable.<br /><br />"Google has its strengths especially in the cloud, with their open source platform and integration with other Google products like Gmail and Google docs," he said. "But Apple has the design edge and a vast number of apps as well as a new iPad expected in the next couple of months."<br /><br /><b>'Big win'</b><br /><br />Google's announcement of a web-based version of the Android market is one that is seen as long overdue.<br /><br />This now means that users can browse and buy apps directly from the web. Previously users had to purchase through the Android market directly from the device making it difficult to find, download and buy apps.<br /><br />Thanks to the cloud, users can send apps directly to any Android device with just a few clicks of their mouse.<br /><br />"There's no wires, no synching with computers - none of that nonsense. Everything is connected," said Chris Yerga, Android engineering director.<br /><br />Technology blog TechCrunch called the webstore a "big win" for developers.<br /><br />"It lowers the hurdle you have to go through to buy an app," said Jason Kincaid of TechCrunch.<br /><br />"If you are bored online, I can imagine a lot of people heading to the webstore and clicking on five apps before they have really thought about it."<br /><br /><b>Making money</b><br /><br />Google also unveiled in-app purchasing, a new feature to let developers make money by selling virtual goods and upgrades in their apps to consumers.<br /><br />Convincing developers to back Android is seen as key to drawing in more customers.<br /><br />So far Android has more than 100,000 apps in its store, while more than 300,000 have been created for Apple's iOS.<br /><br />At the launch of Honeycomb at Google's California headquarters a number of developers showcased apps designed specifically using the new operating system.<br /><br />CNN presented a new tablet optimised app while Disney said it would be joining the webstore with three apps including a version of the music rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge.<br /><br />Disney's head of mobile Bart Decrem said there had been more than 50 million downloads of Tap Tap Revenge on the iPhone alone.<br /><br />"We have been waiting for in-app purchases and for Android to get to this stage. This really represents a general maturing of the platform and it's a really important one," said Mr Decrem.<br /><br /><b>'Best foot forward'</b><br /><br />Unlike Apple, Google does not make its own devices but gives its operating system to manufacturers for nothing. That approach has served it well in the smartphone market.<br /><br />To date there are around 145 devices running on Android, including a handful of tablets.<br /><br />Google said it would be up to hardware sellers when users would see Honeycomb appear in more tablets.<br /><br />Motorola will be first out of the gate but LG and T-Mobile are expected to follow close behind with their upcoming G-Slate tablet.<br /><br />"We've put our best foot forward and now it's up to the ecosystem, the manufacturers, to make it flourish," said Google's Mr Barra.<br /><br />He said some of the features in Honeycomb would find their way on to Android smartphones when that is updated.<br /><br />But will Honeycomb help Google slay Apple, which has a new iPad out in the coming months?<br /><br />That depends, says Ina Fried, senior editor of AllThingsD and the Mobilized blog.<br /><br />"It's a combination of what's the speed, what's the price of the device, what type of apps will be available and when.<br /><br />"This is about other people's products competing with the iPad. Clearly Google is putting a lot of resources into Android and with this first entry it's going to be a fun thing to watch," Ms Fried told BBC News.<br /><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-74747867336985741062011-01-06T18:08:00.000-08:002011-01-06T18:24:12.056-08:00CES 2011: Microsoft shows Windows running on Arm chips<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXmwg4klZCwZtjffaA3qKELgA0C7BlM_WvprVsqYxZRlove1SSuIv_peEGqDOamY-WInMn68oGJgOia4l4BxcKZzD-KHzSoZ5y0hC4TY-Y5xTgXK1hrz5US932fNawc7zY1GhiQFco4VT/s1600/WindowsrunningonArmchips.jpg"></a><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXmwg4klZCwZtjffaA3qKELgA0C7BlM_WvprVsqYxZRlove1SSuIv_peEGqDOamY-WInMn68oGJgOia4l4BxcKZzD-KHzSoZ5y0hC4TY-Y5xTgXK1hrz5US932fNawc7zY1GhiQFco4VT/s200/WindowsrunningonArmchips.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559263755469873186"/>(BBC) - The next release of Windows will be able to run on chips usually found in mobile phones.<br /><br />A desktop version of Windows 7 was shown working with three processors built around designs from UK firm Arm.<br /><br />The demonstration is significant because before now Windows was closely connected with Intel-designed chips.<br /><br />The announcement formed part of a keynote speech by Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer that opened the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />In his speech, Mr Ballmer said the "next version" of Windows, likely to be Windows 8, would support what he called "systems on a chip" (SOC).<br /><br />These are widely used in mobiles and other portable computers and collapse the discrete chip components in desktops used to handle graphics and data into a single package. In this way they reduce the power needed to keep a device working and boost battery life.<br /><br />About 80% of all mobiles, including Apple's iPhone 4, are built around SOCs made from Arm designs.<br /><br /><b>Virtual being</b><br /><br />In recent months chip giants Intel and AMD have been working hard to turn the chips used in desktop PCs in to SOCs that can work in smaller devices.<br /><br />Mr Ballmer said that the next generation of Windows would also run on new versions of these SOCs - Atom from Intel and Fusion from AMD.<br /><br />Microsoft was working to get a full version of Windows running on mobile chips in a bid to end the compromises people typically have to make when using portable gadgets, said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live division during a demo held prior to Mr Ballmer's speech.<br /><br />During its demonstration, Microsoft showed Windows running on Arm-designed chips made by Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia.<br /><br />Microsoft has a mobile version of Windows, known as Windows Phone 7, that already runs on Arm-designed chips. But, said Mr Sinofsky, Windows Phone 7 was aimed at smaller devices and the full version would be for larger tablets, slates and netbooks.<br /><br />As well as running Windows, Microsoft also showed the work it was doing to get applications such as Word, Powerpoint and Internet Explorer plus common tasks such as printing running on Arm chips.<br /><br />Mr Ballmer made no mention of when Arm-powered Windows devices would surface. However, if they coincide with the release of the next version of Windows, this would mean a launch date in 2012.<br /><br />Many expect the two to come together as Windows 8, which will handle multi-touch interfaces, a feature poorly supported in the current version of Windows but which is key for slates and tablets where the chips are likely to find a use.<br /><br />"Increasingly customers expect the full range of capabilities from every device they use," he said.<br /><br />In his keynote, Mr Ballmer also gave CES attendees an update on its plans for its Xbox games console and Windows Phone 7.<br /><br />Forthcoming updates for Windows Phone 7 would speed up response times on its handsets and introduce a copy and paste feature, said Mr Ballmer.<br /><br />The Kinect add-on for the Xbox was proving very popular, he said, with more than eight million of the motion-spotting systems sold.<br /><br />A future update would tie motions made by a human to what their avatar does in the social spaces of the Xbox Live gaming service, he said.<br /><br />The Avatar Kinect system will let people host and attend virtual meetings and gatherings with the avatars of their friends and have their on-screen doubles act out what they are doing in real life.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-18191510662587996242011-01-06T18:02:00.000-08:002011-01-06T18:07:36.595-08:00Protecting Hoan Kiem’s famed soft-shell turtle<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVZkF-DMwXsthZdNIl_B__OLDFRnNGz62rlNTGWKnHOHEiaWlTBRlSnIkPq5Cv7yLFiecrEN1mcJrTcSQYg4pBo5Sl_ButftSOUOkuTmfyMDNdCYFzGrdHNykAtDVk7bjubGneefVGd9u/s1600/red_earTurtle.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBVZkF-DMwXsthZdNIl_B__OLDFRnNGz62rlNTGWKnHOHEiaWlTBRlSnIkPq5Cv7yLFiecrEN1mcJrTcSQYg4pBo5Sl_ButftSOUOkuTmfyMDNdCYFzGrdHNykAtDVk7bjubGneefVGd9u/s200/red_earTurtle.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559259392389285650" /></a>(Dantri) - Hanoi is taking measures to counter red-ear turtles which are threatening the legendary soft shell turtle living in Hoan Kiem Lake.<br /><br />Ngo Thi Thanh Hang, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, has just approved the measures proposed by the city’s Department of Science and Technology.<br />Initially, the city will catch red-ear turtles, one of the most dangerous invasive species in the world, by using cages put under water, floating rafts and nets. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />In addition, the city will disseminate information about negative impacts of red-ear turtles for the lake’s ecosystem, ban all activities of red-turtle trading, storage and transport while exploring areas in which this kind of animal can lay eggs.<br /><br />A taskforce, including representatives from the Department of Information and Technology, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and several other agencies will be set up eliminate red-ear turtles.<br /><br />Despite being approved, these solutions will be carried out after the Lunar New Year because they need to be exercised with great caution, according to a representative from the Department of Science and Technology.<br /><br />Dr. Nguyen Dinh Hoe, Head of the Central Public Debate under the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment, said the top measure is prohibiting people from releasing red-ear turtles into the lake. He added that the solutions are suitable but can also be a risk for the legendary turtle.<br /><br />Nguyen Minh Tuan, head of the Sword Lake (Hoan Kiem) management board, said that the massive infiltration of red ear turtles in the lake began in 2009.<br />Professor Ha Dinh Duc, an expert on this species, said that after eating the algae in the lake, red-ear turtles will attack the legendary turtle when they find it difficult to seek food, causing serious injury.<br /><br />He also warned that in years to come, these turtles could devour all the algae in the lake and even all the plant life. He also believed that this destructive species of turtles was increasing in numbers and would soon overtake all existing living creatures in the lake.<br /><br />The legendary turtle is very important in Vietnamese culture. It is reclusive and rare and considered holy because of a 15th-century legend that claims King Le Loi drove out invading Chinese with a magical sword, which the gods gave him and which he later returned by giving it to the lake's turtle, which swam it back to the gods.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-63545075200554320892011-01-01T19:54:00.000-08:002011-01-01T19:59:27.965-08:00Hackers crack open mobile network<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilaxlt9ZTH57XJFTSMQrj4U8PkDPizbH-ueik-VxKKf1m9WquG8CSlYMGsFn-r12GD0SyhoTSGUIRJhckl4FgD7QbgWvrwJ4wozQVSGhrREBt4feazAE-ziCs2l3XYbb1Rk4CWHz0JEW2e/s1600/manusingmobile.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilaxlt9ZTH57XJFTSMQrj4U8PkDPizbH-ueik-VxKKf1m9WquG8CSlYMGsFn-r12GD0SyhoTSGUIRJhckl4FgD7QbgWvrwJ4wozQVSGhrREBt4feazAE-ziCs2l3XYbb1Rk4CWHz0JEW2e/s200/manusingmobile.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557433141762805586" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Mobile calls and texts made on any GSM network can be eavesdropped upon using four cheap phones and open source software, say security researchers.<br /><br />Karsten Nohl and Sylvain Munaut demonstrated their eavesdropping toolkit at the Chaos Computer Club Congress (CCC) in Berlin.<br /><br />The work builds on earlier research that has found holes in many parts of the most widely used mobile technology. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />The pair spent a year putting together the parts of the eavesdropping toolkit.<br /><br />"Now there's a path from your telephone number to me finding you and listening to your calls," Mr Nohl told BBC News. "The whole way."<br /><br />He said many of the pieces in the eavesdropping toolkit already existed thanks to work by other security researchers but there was one part the pair had to create themselves.<br /><br />"The one piece that completed the chain was the ability to record data off the air," he said.<br /><br />In a demonstration at the CCC, the pair took attendees through all the steps that led from locating a particular phone to seizing its unique ID, then leap-frogging from that to getting hold of data swapped between a handset and a base station as calls are made and texts sent.<br /><br />Key to grabbing the data from the air were cheap Motorola phones which can have their onboard software swapped for an open source alternative.<br /><br />"We used the cheap Motorola telephones because a description of their firmware leaked to the internet," he said.<br /><br />This led to the creation of open source alternative firmware that, he said, has its "filters" removed so it could see all the data being broadcast by a base station.<br /><br />This allows attackers to home in on the data they need to eavesdrop, said Mr Nohl. The encryption system that scrambles this data can be defeated using a huge list of encryption keys, called a rainbow table, that Mr Nohl generated in a separate research project.<br /><br />"Any GSM call is fair game," he said.<br /><br />GSM is the name of the technology used on the vast majority of mobile phone networks around the world. The GSMA, which represents operators and phone makers, estimates that there are more than five billion GSM mobiles in use around the world.<br /><br />The GSMA has not responded to requests for comment about the research.<br /><br /><b>Playing around</b><br /><br />Simeon Coney, a spokesman for mobile security firm Adaptive Mobile, said the work looked fairly thorough.<br /><br />"Especially interesting is how the attack is aimed at a specific target phone, which could lead to malicious interest of high value targets," he added.<br /><br />"This isn't an attack that is today readily repeatable yet by the anyone unfamiliar with the underlying technology," he said. "However, it does illustrate the manners in which the mobile phone system could be compromised in a focussed attack in less protected markets."<br /><br />Mr Nohl said that before now commercial equipment that could spy on calls cost upwards of £35,000. The kit demonstrated at the Berlin event cost far less than that, he said. For instance, the Motorola phones used to grab data cost only 10 euros (£9) each.<br /><br />Despite showing off the entire eavesdropping kit, there were no plans to release all of it for others to use, said Mr Nohl.<br /><br />However, recreating the missing parts would not be difficult for a tech savvy amateur, he added.<br /><br />"I expect people to do it for the fun of doing it."<br /><br />Mr Nohl said the motivation for carrying out the research was to create awareness around the problem and perhaps prompt operators to improve security.<br /><br />A few simple steps could make it much harder for eavesdroppers, he said.<br /><br />"Raising their awareness is the most likely outcome, but the technical changes would be better."<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-15963464023459747792010-12-19T17:26:00.000-08:002010-12-19T17:30:23.149-08:00Bank of America stops handling Wikileaks payments<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9djYDm_56cs_nkTCEaIkC6PncofkwH5FjT34pT5u95bfPuZowU4XkQAN8ftKSSfPoY3ZRSE_stF_xAZuQXc1SKE0gNq9uxM1_mJlJVaDDCJj5iBkLDOdRG-4Yc-dwhdYhj4hSok6e13i/s1600/stopshandlingWikileaks.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9djYDm_56cs_nkTCEaIkC6PncofkwH5FjT34pT5u95bfPuZowU4XkQAN8ftKSSfPoY3ZRSE_stF_xAZuQXc1SKE0gNq9uxM1_mJlJVaDDCJj5iBkLDOdRG-4Yc-dwhdYhj4hSok6e13i/s200/stopshandlingWikileaks.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5552570650189987106" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Bank of America has stopped handling payments for whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, joining several other major financial institutions.<br /><br />It said it acted because "Wikileaks may be engaged in activities that are... inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments".<br /><br />In response, Wikileaks urged its supporters to stop doing business with the bank - one of the world's largest. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />MasterCard, PayPal and other companies earlier cut off Wikileaks' payments.<br /><br />The financial institutions acted after Wikileaks - together with several major media organisations - began publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, causing tension between Washington and some of its allies.<br /><br />Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was earlier this week freed on bail in the UK while facing extradition proceedings to Sweden over sexual assault allegations.<br /><br />Mr Assange, 39, dismissed the claims as part of a "smear" campaign.<br /><br />He also said he was worried about an attempt to extradite him to the United States, adding that Washington was conducting an "aggressive" and "illegal" investigation into him and the website.<br /><br />'Unethical practices'<br /><br />In a statement, the North Carolina-based Bank of America said it would "not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for Wikileaks".<br /><br />The statement provided no further details.<br /><br />Wikileaks responded in a message on Twitter, urging "all people who love freedom close out their accounts at Bank of America".<br /><br />The website also called for businesses to "place your funds somewhere safer".<br /><br />Wikileaks has recently said it will soon release documents that will point to "unethical" practices" at some US banks.<br /><br />There has been speculation that the Bank of America could be one of the institutions mentioned in the US diplomatic cables.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-29276950589479457842010-12-08T19:52:00.000-08:002010-12-08T19:56:43.496-08:00Hackers hit Mastercard and Visa over Wikileaks row<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8GG825mctGgQJ3g7bquEhI_e_a3RnnY-NpejlLYwrZVyhEmOzgY0jf-HkTpvJQ9r0R9toKyOs4RRpeED1IRdPF_Ty1XbC5Nb-lySNW0xDWhCH0XZbqxLp02Ci5ZGnFyGqIlD-8jW5u4h/s1600/HackershitMastercard.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8GG825mctGgQJ3g7bquEhI_e_a3RnnY-NpejlLYwrZVyhEmOzgY0jf-HkTpvJQ9r0R9toKyOs4RRpeED1IRdPF_Ty1XbC5Nb-lySNW0xDWhCH0XZbqxLp02Ci5ZGnFyGqIlD-8jW5u4h/s200/HackershitMastercard.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5548526425238185202" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Hackers have attacked the websites of credit card giants Mastercard and Visa.<br /><br />The attacks came after the Anonymous group of hackers pledged to pursue firms that have withdrawn services from Wikileaks.<br /><br />Mastercard payments were disrupted but the firm said there was "no impact" on people's ability to use their cards.<br /><br />Visa's website also experienced problems. The attacks came after both companies stopped processing payments to the whistle-blowing site. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Entries on the Twitter page of Operation Payback, the Anonymous campaign, said the Visa site had been taken down.<br /><br />Visa's website was later restored and spokesman Ted Carr said its processing network, which handles cardholder transactions, was working normally.<br /><br />But in a day of fast-moving developments, the Anonymous Twitter page then went down, replaced by a message from Twitter saying the account had been suspended.<br /><br />Twitter say they do not comment on "the actions we take on specific user accounts". However, a source told the BBC that the last tweet sent out by Anonymous included a link to a file containing consumer credit card information.<br /><br />Paul Mutton at the security firm Netcraft, who is monitoring the attacks, said Visa is considered a more difficult target and the attack on it required a much larger number of "hacktivist" - politically motivated hackers - 2,000 compared with 400 for Mastercard.<br /><br />Earlier the BBC was contacted by a payment firm linked to Mastercard that said its customers had "a complete loss of service".<br /><br />In particular, it said that an authentication service for online payments known as Mastercard's SecureCode, had been disrupted.<br /><br />Other readers have also said that they have had problems with online payments. The scale of the problems is still unclear.<br /><br />Mastercard acknowledged there had been "a service disruption" involving its SecureCode system, but it added: "Our core processing capabilities have not been compromised and cardholder account data has not been placed at risk.<br /><br />"While we have seen limited interruption in some web-based services, cardholders can continue to use their cards for secure transactions globally."<br /><br /><b>False account</b><br /><br />Anonymous, which claimed to have carried out the attack, is a loose-knit group of hacktivists, with links to the notorious message board 4chan.<br /><br />It said that it has hit several targets, including the website of the prosecutors who are acting in a legal case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.<br /><br />An Anonymous member told AFP news agency the group would extend their campaign to anyone with "an anti-Wikileaks agenda".<br /><br />PayPal, which has stopped processing donations to Wikileaks, has also been targeted.<br /><br />The firm said Wikileaks' account had violated its terms of services.<br /><br />"On 27 November the State Department, the US government, basically wrote a letter [to Wikileaks] saying that [its] activities were deemed illegal in the United States," PayPal's Osama Bedier told the Le Web conference in France.<br /><br />"And as a result our policy group had to make the decision of suspending their account.<br /><br />"It's honestly, just pretty straightforward from our perspective and there's not much more to it than that," he said.<br /><br />Other firms that have distanced themselves from the site have also been hit in the recent spate of attacks including the Swiss bank, PostFinance, which closed the account of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.<br /><br />The bank said Mr Assange had provided false information when opening his account.<br /><br /><b>Swamp site</b><br /><br />Security experts said the sites had been targeted by a so-called distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS), which swamp a site with so many page requests that it becomes overwhelmed and drops offline.<br /><br />Noa Bar Yosef, a senior analyst at Imperva said the attacks were "very focused".<br /><br />"It is recruiting people from within their own network. They are actually asking supporters to download a piece of code, the DDoSing malware, and upon a wake-up call the computer engages in the denial of service," he said.<br /><br />Before the Mastercard attack, a member of Anonymous, who calls himself Coldblood, told the BBC that "multiple things" were being done to target companies that had stopped working with Wikileaks or which were perceived to have attacked the site.<br /><br />"Websites that are bowing down to government pressure have become targets," he said.<br /><br />"As an organisation we have always taken a strong stance on censorship and freedom of expression on the internet and come out against those who seek to destroy it by any means."<br /><br />"We feel that Wikileaks has become more than just about leaking of documents, it has become a war ground, the people vs. the government," he said.<br /><br />Some of the early DDoS hits failed to take sites offline, although that was not the point of the attacks, according to Coldblood.<br /><br />"The idea is not to wipe them off but to give the companies a wake-up call," he said. "Companies will notice the increase in traffic and an increase in traffic means increase in costs associated with running a website."<br /><br />DDoS attacks are illegal in many countries, including the UK.<br /><br />Coldblood admitted that such attacks "may hurt people trying to get to these sites" but said it was "the only effective way to tell these companies that us, the people, are displeased".<br /><br />Anonymous is also helping to create hundreds of mirror sites for Wikileaks, after its US domain name provider withdrew its services.<br /><br />Coldblood said that the group was beginning to wind down the DDoS attacks so that it could concentrate on using "other methods which are more focused on supporting Wikileaks and making sure the Internet stays a free and open place".<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-64367637693073956052010-12-04T15:14:00.000-08:002010-12-04T15:24:32.761-08:00Cyber attack forces Wikileaks to change web address<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6yG8_uUuje_Aq-kVwGV01cOvcj5Rj4pQTscwLlBOBk8fNVTby0aD-WQoXaViGmYUM32ncxDy6nlapL1d_EodOwgS7PPuvCBYcix4PDhXWmGeFeqyniRa7uUxNevrj1Dylob1LeuBDyUoR/s1600/Wikileaks.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6yG8_uUuje_Aq-kVwGV01cOvcj5Rj4pQTscwLlBOBk8fNVTby0aD-WQoXaViGmYUM32ncxDy6nlapL1d_EodOwgS7PPuvCBYcix4PDhXWmGeFeqyniRa7uUxNevrj1Dylob1LeuBDyUoR/s200/Wikileaks.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546971655470265570" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks has been forced to change its web address after the company providing its domain name cut off service.<br /><br />EveryDNS.net said it had terminated services because Wikileaks.org had come under massive cyber attacks.<br /><br />But Wikileaks has already reappeared using a Swiss web address.<br /><br />Wikileaks has also used the micro-blogging site Twitter to urge its fans to redistribute its "raw" net address so it can be viewed at any time. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />This numerical internet protocol (IP) address remains live and accessible even when web domains - the normal "www" addresses used to access most sites - are unavailable.<br /><br />Experts say it is likely that Wikileaks has done deals with lots of web hosting companies, although many are likely to back away from dealing with the controversial site in the light of recent web attacks.<br /><br />There is also a published list of mirror sites, which Wikileaks hopes will provide constant access to the site.<br /><br />Some of these sites have simply copied Wikileaks' content and put it on a different web server, while others are using different domain names to point at the original content.<br /><br />The more of these sites there are, the more difficult it will be to shut Wikileaks down, security analyst Paul Mutton told the BBC.<br /><br />In France, Industry Minister Eric Besson has called for a ban of Wikileaks on French servers.<br /><br />One of the mirror sites, Wikileaks.ch, is currently hosted on servers in France.<br /><br /><b>Downtime</b><br /><br />In a post on Twitter, Wikileaks acknowledged that its domain had been "killed" by EveryDNS.net.<br /><br />It was not clear how long disruption to the wikileaks.org site would last.<br /><br />In a statement on its website, EveryDNS.net said it had issued a 24-hour termination notice to Wikileaks which ended at 0300 GMT on 2 December.<br /><br />It said the domain wikileaks.org had become the target of "multiple distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks".<br /><br />"These attacks have, and future attacks would, threaten the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites," it said.<br /><br />"Any downtime of the wikileaks.org website has resulted from its failure to use another hosted DNS service provider," it added.<br /><br />Websites use hosting firms such as EveryDNS.net to translate their raw IP addresses to a more memorable web address such as Wikileaks.org.<br /><br />But the IP address of a website will also direct users to the site.<br /><br />One web expert explained that Wikileaks had managed to re-establish web access via a different address.<br /><br />"Users visiting the www.wikileaks.ch website appear to be directed via a Swedish website on to a server in France which is now hosting their main website," explained Sebastien Lahtinen, director of web hosting firm NetConnex.<br /><br />In a surprising twist, the .ch address is also hosted by EveryDNS.<br /><br />"It seems a strange choice given that they pulled the plug on the .org address just a few hours ago," said Paul Mutton, a security analyst at internet services firm Netcraft. "It could be that Wikileaks is quite happy to play a cat and mouse game with them," he added.<br /><br /><b>'Death threats'</b><br /><br />Using a Swiss domain could be Wikileaks anticipating the next line of attack - having its IP address de-registered, thinks Mr Mutton.<br /><br />"Moving to a non-US domain makes sense. Its previous domain was registered with a US company and as such has to work within US laws, with potential for the government to lean on it and get it suspended," said Mr Mutton.<br /><br />Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is currently reported to be staying at a secret address in the UK.<br /><br />In a question-and-answer session on the website of the Guardian newspaper, he said there had been threats against his life.<br /><br />"We are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a super power," Mr Assange wrote.<br /><br />He also called for criminal charges to be brought against Tom Flanagan, a former adviser to Canada's prime minister Stephen Harper.<br /><br />Mr Assange was referring to Mr Flanagan's comments that "Assange should be assassinated... I think Obama should put out a contract ... I wouldn't feel unhappy if Assange does disappear".<br /><br />When asked about the alternatives for Wikileaks' cache of material if it were to be "taken out" technically, Mr Assange said: "The Cable Gate archive has been spread, along with significant material from the US and other countries to over 100,000 people in encrypted form.<br /><br />"If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically. Further, the Cable Gate archives is in the hands of multiple news organisations. History will win. The world will be elevated to a better place. Will we survive? That depends on you."<br /><br />Wikileaks says its website has been under attack since it began publishing more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables.<br /><br />The memos, which discuss US diplomatic relations and military activities, have been causing controversy across the world.<br /><br />It turned to the online store Amazon to host its site but the company ended the agreement on Wednesday - a move welcomed by US officials.<br /><br />Amazon said that it had not removed Wikileaks because of a government inquiry. Instead it said Wikileaks had failed to adhere to its terms of service.<br /><br />"It's clear that Wikileaks doesn't own or otherwise control all the rights to this classified content. Further it is not credible that the extraordinary volume of 250,000 classified documents that Wikileaks is publishing could have been carefully redacted in such a way as to ensure that they weren't putting innocent people in jeopardy," Amazon said on its website.<br /><br />But freedom-of-speech campaigners remain defiant.<br /><br />"The first serious info war is now engaged. The field of battle is Wikileaks. You are troops," tweeted John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-69419691491261273872010-11-15T17:08:00.000-08:002010-11-15T17:16:19.178-08:00Facebook revamps messaging system<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTB0LqOzPbrv8HrMQXTS1hx-Vdgmm7D7WCL9-AM87TFVpZV3WlVt6qAFh3OdQcmdo2xfgnFNsGBk4i0jFQIvJXaJ6tnEELXNfd4e24W0hGOB9X4h63EEgaceaf0GQo2GKW9Hnv4Pex06n/s1600/InstantMessages.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcTB0LqOzPbrv8HrMQXTS1hx-Vdgmm7D7WCL9-AM87TFVpZV3WlVt6qAFh3OdQcmdo2xfgnFNsGBk4i0jFQIvJXaJ6tnEELXNfd4e24W0hGOB9X4h63EEgaceaf0GQo2GKW9Hnv4Pex06n/s200/InstantMessages.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539950100943055138" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - Facebook has revamped its messaging system to make it the main way people communicate with friends and family.<br /><br />Confounding rumours about what Facebook would announce, founder Mark Zuckerberg said the system was "not e-mail".<br /><br />Instead, he said, it was modelled on instant messaging systems and will route messages to people no matter how they are using Facebook. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />"It will handle messages across all the ways you want to communicate," said Mr Zuckerberg.<br /><br /><b>Fast friends</b><br /><br />"This is not an e-mail killer," said Mr Zuckerberg. "It is a messaging system that includes e-mail as part of it."<br /><br />Mr Zuckerberg said it would bring together four separate messaging types - SMS, Instant Messaging, e-mail and Facebook chat.<br /><br />While those using it can attach their Facebook name to an @facebook.com e-mail address this was not compulsory, said Mr Zuckerberg.<br /><br />At a special event called to unveil the revamp, he said the re-design was triggered by the need to do something to cope with the growing number of messages Facebook users were sending every day.<br /><br />To meet that need, he said, Facebook did not want to simply create an e-mail system because research revealed that e-mail felt too formal and slow for many people, particularly the young.<br /><br />Instead, he said, people expected communication to fit expectations set by their use of Instant Messaging, SMS and Facebook's own chat system.<br /><br />"We wanted to make this really simple and lightweight," he said.<br /><br />Instead of forcing people to use separate systems, Facebook messaging will work out the most appropriate way to get a message to a person. It had a sophisticated "policy engine" that knew how Facebook friends preferred to be contacted.<br /><br />"If we do a good job, some people will say this is the way that the future will work," said Mr Zuckerberg.<br /><br />He denied that it should be characterised as a "Gmail killer". Instead, he said, it would synch with other products and let messages flow to and fro.<br /><br />"We want to enable to connect how they want to connect," said Andrew Bosworth, lead engineer on the revamp, "People should be allowed to share however they want to share."<br /><br />Mr Bosworth said the revamp was the biggest project the company had worked on to date and involved 15 engineers working for more than 15 months.<br /><br />The product will roll out slowly over the next few months with invites sent out to users to get them trying it.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-76407937628268231182010-11-14T03:14:00.000-08:002010-11-14T03:16:56.804-08:00Vietnam joins Asia-Europe educational cooperation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyeGjlxoBaGZp-NZBunb58ViLfiZmMtRqTv8k3iYr0kIQVxFZlne1e7DRDZ_viyBRrpNmhwkxJEwwfAJ_KazHQCTMbrYO98JfGGXcLTetUpX8Uo9S6kubwPip0fn30Iwe93pHgWjv8Sc6/s1600/VietnamEducation.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUyeGjlxoBaGZp-NZBunb58ViLfiZmMtRqTv8k3iYr0kIQVxFZlne1e7DRDZ_viyBRrpNmhwkxJEwwfAJ_KazHQCTMbrYO98JfGGXcLTetUpX8Uo9S6kubwPip0fn30Iwe93pHgWjv8Sc6/s200/VietnamEducation.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539362678598130658" border="0" /></a>(Vietnamplus) - Vietnam has joined other nine Asian and seven European countries in an Asia-Europe university education cooperation programme called “Man Health Environment Biodiversity in Asia” (MAHEVA).<br /><br />A delegation from the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST) led by Prof. Nguyen Canh Luong and Prof. Ha Manh Thu, the MAHEVA coordinators, paid a working visit to France’s Monpellier city to kick off the project. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Through the exchange of students and managers, the MAHEVA aims to step up cooperation in science and technology, economics, culture and education between Europe and Asia, strengthen high-quality graduate and post-graduate education and conduct joint researches into environmental and social protection.<br /><br />The project also consolidates multilateral cooperation among European and Asian universities, thus strengthening mutual understanding between nations.<br /><br />It encourages graduates and post-graduates to study at European laboratories and develop new teaching programmes and applied researches.<br /><br />Through the Asia-Europe cooperation, partners will have an opportunity to cooperate in such areas as biology, environmental protection and health.<br /><br />The project also encourages the recognition of equivalent teaching programmes and degrees using the European Train Control System (ETCS) in order to increase occupational opportunities for Asia students and help Asian universities implement tertiary education reforms through the exchange of teaching and researching experiences taken from European universities.<br /><br />Other MAHEVA participants include Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia, India, Sri Lanka, the Phillipines, France, Finland, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Poland and Spain.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-23388937027728827852010-11-14T03:08:00.000-08:002010-11-14T03:13:41.349-08:00PM to answer National Assembly’s questions about Vinashin<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzAAnPaUz2FsQAQefKvaxiClM6kWWspTaxHI4nzY10LAPzVQiOmIfvynf8IqYVUjJadtYP3DXqlaBPi5QAPW1DtO-ctU7Yo_Xt56NYCXI_pgph6vFYW951YLX6xHgW9BmfuJ2l5NbNwF9/s1600/thutuong_nguyentandung.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzAAnPaUz2FsQAQefKvaxiClM6kWWspTaxHI4nzY10LAPzVQiOmIfvynf8IqYVUjJadtYP3DXqlaBPi5QAPW1DtO-ctU7Yo_Xt56NYCXI_pgph6vFYW951YLX6xHgW9BmfuJ2l5NbNwF9/s200/thutuong_nguyentandung.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539361871519855330" border="0" /></a>(DT) - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will answer questions raised about Vinashin by National Assembly (NA) deputies, said Tran Van Truyen, Chief Government Inspector, on November 12.<br /><br />The PM will reply to questions of why violations of Vinashin (Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group) were not detected through 12 inspections and audits and who was responsible.<br /><br />Regarding these issues, Truyen said each inspection and audit conducted by different agencies uncovered certain wrongdoings of Vinashin. The PM asked Vinashin to reduce non-core investments and not to buy old ships. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />However, Truyen added that for a long time no comprehensive inspection on Vinashin was carried out to fully detect in a timely manner infringements of the shipbuilder. He added that no sanctions/punishments were strict enough in the PM-instructed inspections to deal with the group’s violations. As a result, Vinashin still reported profits despite huge losses.<br /><br />“It was lax management that made concerned agencies fail to assess and interfere in the Vinashin case. The Vinashin fall is also due to management mechanisms in which many agencies inspected the firm, but none of them had a general and final assessment about it. Therefore, Vinashin was able to continue making mistakes,” Truyen noted.<br /><br />As for the Government Inspectorate’s comprehensive inspection, Truyen disclosed that the inspection team had just finished on-site examining Vinashin and now will finalise documents of their final conclusion on the group’s infringements.<br /><br />“When the final decision is made, the delegation team will inform me of it. I will have to check the conclusion’s accuracy before submitting it to the PM,” Truyen shared.<br /><br />In terms of the time to end the comprehensive inspection, under the law, within one month after completion of on-site examination, the conclusion will be made public. However, in this case, the conclusion results will be informed earlier in line with the PM’s instruction.<br /><br />Truyen said the comprehensive inspection will clarify specific violations of Vinashin as well as agencies which help the government manage Vinashin.<br /><br />Based on the Government Inspectorate’s report and the conclusion of the Central Inspection Committee, the government will instruct to deal with the wrongdoings of leaders.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-67149524725394444532010-11-14T03:05:00.000-08:002010-11-14T03:08:08.052-08:00Free trade ambitions of Pacific Rim leaders<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJiuIzYTEEj9ekO2SgAhng1Beh2KSpf-vBeM75RmUx1jN77B1yGFcY-WOOPLvv0LYORCn_OR1wte5Ku356oKXJCNZO79umqdXYXfMJv87AABg90VgVXXSpk9__U3_JyO2m0MIoyXp873r-/s1600/FreeTrade.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJiuIzYTEEj9ekO2SgAhng1Beh2KSpf-vBeM75RmUx1jN77B1yGFcY-WOOPLvv0LYORCn_OR1wte5Ku356oKXJCNZO79umqdXYXfMJv87AABg90VgVXXSpk9__U3_JyO2m0MIoyXp873r-/s200/FreeTrade.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539360322056358594" border="0" /></a>(DT) - Pacific Rim leaders met Sunday to propel ambitions for a vast free-trade pact, concluding a summit that has been overshadowed by economic wrangles that proved a setback at the G20 summit.<br /><br />US President Barack Obama made an appeal to tear down trade barriers Saturday as the 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum gathered under the cloud of tensions between its biggest economies. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />Obama also pushed China on its flood of exports aided by a cheap yuan, undeterred by a knockback at the Group of 20 summit in Seoul last week, which rejected US policy proposals to rebalance the global economy.<br /><br />Voicing support for an emerging treaty that would group countries on both sides of the Pacific, Obama said that "the security and prosperity of the American people is inextricably linked to the security and prosperity of Asia".<br /><br />He said that the United States, which hosts next year's APEC summit in Hawaii, wants to pursue the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed free trade zone that now includes Brunei, Singapore, Chile and New Zealand.<br /><br />The United States, Australia and three other countries are now in talks to join the grouping, which would eliminate most tariffs and other trade barriers and is seen as a vehicle towards a much wider Pacific Rim treaty.<br /><br />APEC's grand plan is for a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP) that would link economies from China to Chile and the United States, but it currently remains an undefined and long-term goal.<br /><br />With WTO negotiations in limbo, and warnings rife of a return to protectionism, talks to expand the TPP seem to be the only hope of regaining momentum in global trade reform, analysts say.<br /><br />Leaders of the TPP group met for the first time in Yokohama on Sunday, in an advance hailed by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera who said the summit-level talks would now become a regular event.<br /><br />"We cannot lose time," he said. "We have to move fast. And for that, we need a lot of leadership and courage," he said in an interview with the Nikkei business daily Saturday.<br /><br />South Korea's President Lee Myung-Bak said according to a Japanese newspaper report Sunday that his country was also eyeing the TPP.<br /><br />"Every country is considering it. South Korea is one of them," Lee said in an interview with the Asahi Shimbun. "I think it has a symbolic meaning although actual effects are still unknown."<br /><br />Peru's trade minister told Dow Jones Newswires that China would not attend the TPP summit but that he hoped the world's second-biggest economy would eventually become a part of the discussions.<br /><br />"I would really like China to join the group," Eduardo Ferreyros told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.<br /><br />Other economies are watching closely and could also jump onto the bandwagon, but many are torn between not wanting to be left out, and reluctance to make the deep commitments TPP membership could require.<br /><br />During the APEC talks, Chinese President Hu Jintao also reiterated Beijing's commitment to "peaceful development" after Beijing and Tokyo sank into a bitter territorial dispute sparked by Japan's arrest of a Chinese fishing captain in September.<br /><br />In a diplomatic breakthrough Saturday, Hu and Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan held formal talks, their first since the row started, and emerged with warm comments that represented a major thaw.<br /><br />Kan met with Obama Saturday and thanked him for US backing in the dispute with China, and a separate territorial dispute with Russia.<br /><br />"I told him that the Japanese people as well as our neighbours recognised that the US military presence is all the more important for the peace and security of this region."<br /><br />Many Asian nations have viewed with alarm China's newly assertive posture on territorial issues this year, and welcomed Washington's efforts to re-engage with a region where it is seen as an important counterbalance.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4608926716888248347.post-68576833546109193872010-11-14T02:55:00.000-08:002010-11-14T03:04:03.594-08:00Earth's pull 'shaped Moon's surface'<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYN_u3HOSzVlpdk9rrKvgtHwWyc9N9Q7tktjr20jXPUeqqLBWHP2wV-DJwj2ZVRx_AxC1LH1nmzHTYxCC5t7_SoAWgLTLqHmDLpYDUKJf4IxAIq8UJLhMABtfecF5mY2403Aq5p4flHUoK/s1600/MoonSurface.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYN_u3HOSzVlpdk9rrKvgtHwWyc9N9Q7tktjr20jXPUeqqLBWHP2wV-DJwj2ZVRx_AxC1LH1nmzHTYxCC5t7_SoAWgLTLqHmDLpYDUKJf4IxAIq8UJLhMABtfecF5mY2403Aq5p4flHUoK/s200/MoonSurface.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539359418540983234" border="0" /></a>(BBC) - The Earth may have played a major role in shaping the lunar surface, according to a new research study by US researchers.<br /><br />The team members say our planet's gravitational pull distorted the shape of the Moon in ancient times.<br /><br />This led to "bulging" at the equator and could explain why the far side is more elevated than the near side of the Moon even today.<br /><br />Details of the study are published in the journal Science. <span class="fullpost"><br /><br />The far side of the Moon remains a mystery in many ways. Densely cratered, it has few of the volcanic plains that characterise the near side with which we are all familiar, and it is much higher - several kilometres higher in places.<br /><br />Now the authors of a new study think they know why it might have become so high and are blaming the Earth.<br /><br />Over four billion years ago, soon after the Moon's formation and before it had solidified to its core, its crust floated on a sea of magma.<br /><br />It was during this time that the Earth was able to tug on that floating crust, distorting it, much like the Moon tugs on the Earth's oceans today creating the tides.<br /><br />This "tidal bulge" in the Moon's shape led to the crust melting and thinning at the poles where the strain was greatest, while the crust around the equator remained thicker and fatter, say the scientists.<br /><br /><b>Tidal bulge</b><br /><br />Professor Ian Garrick-Bethell of the University of California in Santa Cruz, who led the study, believes tidal processes can explain between 25% and 40% of the Moon's topography.<br /><br />But while the evidence for this remains in the elevated surfaces of the far side, the evidence on the near side has been obliterated by subsequent volcanic activity.<br /><br />"Since the Apollo missions... people have known that the topography on the far side of the Moon is much more elevated than anywhere else on the moon," said Professor Garrick-Bethell.<br /><br />"Our study is the first to quantify the structure and shape on the far side and in doing that, we were able to demonstrate that this topography bears the signature of a tidal process."<br /><br />The process by which the stretching and pulling of the Moon by the Earth leads to variations in crust thickness is called "tidal heating".<br /><br />"You can imagine that the part of the Moon that's pointing towards the Earth will start to flex and begin to be drawn towards the Earth and away from the Earth on the far side, and during this, the poles will be stretched and heated."<br /><br />"The amount of strain in the rock is going to be greater at the poles so there will be more heating at the poles and there'll be thinner crust at the poles."<br /><br />Tidal bulging probably occurs across the solar system today. The oceans on Earth bulge as a result of the Moon's gravitational pull and the same process is thought to occur on Jupiter's moon Europa.<br /><br />Europa consists of an ice crust on an ocean of water, and Jupiter's massive gravitational pull is thought to distort the moon's shape much like the process described in this new paper.<br /><br />A similar process could be occurring on the moon Titan, Saturn's largest moon.<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com