Earth may be crashing through dark matter walls

Earth is constantly crashing through huge walls of dark matter, and we already have the tools to detect them. That's the conclusion of physicists who say the universe may be filled with a patchwork quilt of force fields created shortly after the big bang. ...

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Economic summit must tackle Arab Spring, says Saudi minister

RIYADH: A two-day economic summit that opens on Monday in Saudi Arabia must break with tradition and tackle people's aspirations in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings, the Saudi foreign minister said."Our meeting should not be mired in routine," Prince Saud al-Faisal said at a meeting Saturday to prepare for the third Arab Economic and Social Development Summit."The Arab world has faced...

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Man posts on Facebook: 'im about to get shot'; gets shot

It seems that people want to announce everything on Facebook, even their imminent demise.30-year-old Eric L. Ramsey knew his time was up, so he took out his cell phone and posted on his Facebook wall: "Well folkes [sic] im about to get shot. Peace"As NBC News reports, some of his friends thought he was joking.However, shortly after his 3:15 a.m. post, he was fatally shot by a policeman.More Technically...

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and...

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Inauguration to Cost Millions But Total Price Unclear

How much will all the inaugural events cost? It's hard to say.While most events that occur in the capital have a hard-and-fast budget, the inauguration's many moving parts, safety concerns and large geographic reach make it hard to quantify – especially before the main event.In 2009, ABC reported the total cost of Obama's first inauguration was $170 million. While incumbent...

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Today on New Scientist: 18 January 2013

Megaballoon launches big bang telescope in Antarctica The 2.7-tonne EBEX telescope will detect the weak light that remains from the big bang, helping to reveal the origin and evolutionary history of the universeMoth navigation probed to improve micro-drone flight Flying through a virtual forest, hawkmoths tailor their navigation according to visibility conditionsMussels with backpacks monitor...

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Toyota settles 'bellwether' US wrongful death suit

WASHINGTON: Japanese automaker Toyota has settled a wrongful death lawsuit in the United States over sudden, unintended acceleration that allegedly killed two people in Utah in 2010."We are satisfied that both parties reached a mutually acceptable agreement to settle this case," Toyota Motor Corp said in a statement late Thursday.A Toyota spokeswoman, Celeste Migliore, told AFP it was...

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Sign up for SimCity beta -- if you can

Trying to get into the SimCity beta is an exercise in patience, but at least the game looks beautiful.(Credit:Maxis/EA)Did you miss the last SimCity beta sign-up event? You're in luck, because EA and Maxis want to give you another chance to get in on the beta for the highly anticipated building game. There's a catch, though: beta builders only get to play a snapshot of game for up to one hour at any...

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First Human Contact With Large Emperor Penguin Colony

One of the largest emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica was discovered last month by a team from the International Polar Foundation's Princess Elisabeth station.The penguin colony had previously been identified through satellite imagery by researchers from the British Antarctic Survey. The penguins themselves didn't show up very clearly, but their excrement stains on the ice did.Expedition...

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Algeria Terrorists Want to Trade US Hostages for Blind Sheikh

The al Qaeda-linked terrorists holding Americans and other Westerners hostage at a gas plant in Algeria have now demanded the release of two convicted terrorists held in U.S. prisons, including the "blind sheikh" who helped plan the first attack on New York's World Trade Center, in exchange for the freedom of two American hostages, according to an African news service.The terror...

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Matching names to genes: the end of genetic privacy?

Continue reading page |1 |2 Are we being too free with our genetic information? What if you started receiving targeted ads for Prozac for the depression risk revealed by your publicly accessible genome? As increasing amounts of genetic information is placed online, many researchers believe that guaranteeing...

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22 killed in third day of deadly Iraq violence

BAGHDAD: A spate of bombings targeting Shiite Muslims across Iraq killed 22 people on Thursday, the latest in a spike in unrest amid weeks of anti-government protests and a political crisis engulfing the country.The attacks marked the third consecutive day of violence which has claimed 81 lives overall, including that of a Sunni Iraqi MP killed by a suicide bomber and 33 others who died...

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Troubleshooting a freezing or hanging OS X menu bar

The OS X menu bar is a central location for accessing system resources in the Apple menu, application-specific menus, and also a number of system settings through menu extras that can be appended to the right side of the menu bar. Some extras that are on by default include the time and date, battery level, and volume control, but others can be added to the bar, including VPN status, keychain, the...

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6 Ways Climate Change Will Affect You

Photograph by AP Photo/Marcio Jose SanchezThe planet keeps getting hotter, new data showed this week. Especially in America, where 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded, by far. Every few years, the U.S. federal government engages hundreds of experts to assess the impacts of climate change, now and in the future. From agriculture (pictured) to infrastructure to how humans consume energy, the National...

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Football Star Manti Te'o Faces Tough Questions

Notre Dame's star linebackerManti Te'o faces a problem bigger than any running back he's had to bring down.As the elaborate hoax about his dead "girlfriend" unravels, many questions remain to be answered, chief among them whether he was complicit in promoting the dramatic story of his girlfriend's death from leukemia. Te'o may soon be forced to tackle those questions himself."A...

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NASA buys blow-up habitat for space station astronauts

NASA wants to blow up part of the International Space Station – and a Las Vegas firm is eager to help. The US space agency has signed a $17.8-million contract with Bigelow Aerospace of Nevada to build an inflatable crew habitat for...

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Netanyahu to Obama: only Israel knows its own best interests

JERUSALEM: Only the people of Israel can decide who will represent their best interests, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday in remarks directed at US President Barack Obama a week before a general election."I think everyone knows that the citizens of Israel are the only ones who can decide who will faithfully represent the vital interests of the state," he said.His remarks...

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How to clip your fingernails in space without inhaling them

Astronaut Chris Hadfield demonstrates safe clipping in space.(Credit:Video screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is known for playing his guitar in zero gravity on the International Space Station. To keep his fingers in playing shape, he has to keep his nails clipped. Down here on Earth, that's no problem -- you just grab some clippers and go at it. In space, it's a little...

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Mars Rover Finds Intriguing New Evidence of Water

The first drill sample ever collected on Mars will come from a rockbed shot through with unexpected veins of what appears to be the mineral gypsum.Delighted members of the Curiosity science team announced Tuesday that the rover was now in a virtual "candy store" of scientific targets—the lowest point of Gale Crater, called Yellowknife Bay, is filled with many different materials that could...

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Obama Unveils Sweeping Plan to Curb Gun Violence

Flanked by four children from across the country, President Obama today unveiled a sweeping plan to curb gun violence in America through an extensive package of legislation and executive actions not seen since the 1960s.Obama is asking Congress to implement mandatory background checks for all gun purchases, including private sales; reinstate a ban on some assault-style weapons;...

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Today on New Scientist: 15 January 2013

Record-breaking temperatures are now the norm Find out how temperatures are changing in your backyard with our interactive map of NASA's historical temperature record for the whole planetBeijing skylines yields dramatic view of choking city The city's suffocating smog is not just bad for health - a new study reveals it also has a more potent effect on climate change than previously thoughtNations...

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Hagel wins key endorsement for Pentagon job

WASHINGTON: US defence secretary-designate Chuck Hagel cleared a key bar to his Senate confirmation Tuesday, winning the backing of a powerful Democrat who had been concerned about his stances on Iran and Israel.Senator Chuck Schumer said he met Hagel for 90 minutes on Monday and had been convinced to endorse the blunt former Republican senator to run the Pentagon in Obama's second term...

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X-Wing Fighter coffee table goes galactic in your living room

This just needs some "Star Wars" action figures to complete the look.(Credit:Barry Shields)If Luke Skywalker had a living room with a big-screen TV, he would also have a hand-carved X-Wing Fighter coffee table made of wood and glass. The detailed model looks like it's in mid-flight, except instead of blasting the forces of the Dark Side, it's calmly guarding your coffee.The table is designed so that...

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"Fantastic" New Flying Frog Found—Has Flappy Forearms

Scientists have stumbled across a new species of flying frog—on the ground.While hiking a lowland forest in 2009, not far from Ho Chi Minh City (map), Vietnam, "we came across a huge green frog, sitting on a log," said Jodi Rowley, an amphibian biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney and lead author of a new study on the frog.Rowley later discovered that the 3.5-inch-long (9-centimeter-long)...

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Secret Revealed: Facebook Announces New Tool

How you search Facebook is about to change. In fact, just the act of searching Facebook is probably about to start.Facebook is trying to give Google a run for its money, with a new product called "Graph Search." It turns some of the personal information people have shared on Facebook into a powerful searchable database.For the social network's 170 million users in the U.S., it's...

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