Get cirrus in the fight against climate change

FEATHERY cirrus clouds are beautiful, but when it comes to climate change, they are the enemy. Found at high-altitude and made of small ice crystals, they trap heat - so more cirrus means a warmer world. Now it seems that, by destroying cirrus, we could reverse all the warming Earth has experienced so far. ...

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Latin America, Europe back free trade

SANTIAGO: European and Latin American leaders pledged here Saturday to shun protectionism and boost their strategic partnership to foster free trade.Some 60 countries are represented at the summit between the 27-member European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).Set up in Caracas in December 2011 at the behest of Venezuela, CELAC groups all nations from...

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The ultimate gall of a heartless iPhone thief

An object of desire?(Credit:CNET)One should never expect justice in life.The best one can hope for is poetry. And yet, just once or twice, both manage to collide with a deliciousness that moves the soul.Here is the tale of a teenage girl who had her iPhone stolen.As The New York Times composes it, the girl had her iPhone 4S ripped from her by a teenage boy in Brooklyn's notoriously difficult Prospect...

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Pictures: The Story Behind Sun Dogs, Penitent Ice, and More

Photograph by Art Wolfe, Getty ImagesIf you want the beauty of winter without having to brave the bone-chilling temperatures blasting much of the United States this week, snuggle into a soft blanket, grab a warm beverage, and curl up with some of these natural frozen wonders. Nieve penitente, or penitent snow, are collections of spires that resemble robed monks—or penitents. They are flattened columns...

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Newtown Families March for Gun Control in DC

Jan 26, 2013 4:59pm (YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images)WASHINGTON, D.C. — Near-freezing temperatures didn’t stop several thousand gun-control activists from bearing their pickets today, carrying signs emblazoned with “Ban Assault Weapons Now” and the names of gun violence victims in a demonstration organized as a response to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. last month.Walking...

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Today on New Scientist: 25 January 2013

Hagfish gulped up in first video of deep-sea seal hunt Watch the first sighting of a seal's underwater eating habits spotted by a teenager watching a live video feedWorld's oldest portrait reveals the ice-age mind A 26,000-year-old carved ivory head of a woman is not just an archaeological find - a new exhibition in London wants us to see works like this as artDung beetles navigate using the...

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Obama, Hollande hold phone talks on Mali offensive

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama voiced support Friday for France's military intervention in Mali and vowed to work with French counterpart Francois Hollande to tackle extremism across North Africa.The two presidents discussed other "shared security concerns," including Algeria, Libya and Syria, during telephone talks, the White House said in a statement."The president expressed his...

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How I misjudged Vine, and came to see it as a new artform

I'll admit it, I misjudged Vine. Here's why.One of the first things I read about Vine, Twitter's new stand-alone video app for iPhone and iPod Touch, was Jack Dorsey's gushing tweet about the service."Vine is the most exciting thing I've seen in a while," Dorsey, Twitter's co-founder (and also founder of Square), tweeted yesterday morning. "Not just because of the team, because it brings an entirely...

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Pictures: The Story Behind Sun Dogs, Penitent Ice, and More

Photograph by Art Wolfe, Getty ImagesIf you want the beauty of winter without having to brave the bone-chilling temperatures blasting much of the United States this week, snuggle into a soft blanket, grab a warm beverage, and curl up with some of these natural frozen wonders. Nieve penitente, or penitent snow, are collections of spires that resemble robed monks—or penitents. They are flattened columns...

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'Hot' Guns Fueling Crime, US Study Says

Christmas is the one day of the year that Wal-Mart is closed, but for a group of four New Mexico burglars, it was the perfect time to stop in for some firearms.Video surveillance cameras caught the masked burglars red-handed, stealing rifle after rifle. Police arrested the four men, and were able to recover the guns. But all too often, stolen weapons end up in the hands of criminals.The...

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Shrinking proton puzzle persists in new measurement

A puzzle at the heart of the atom refuses to go away. The most precise measurement yet of the proton's radius confirms that it sometimes seems smaller than the laws of physics demand – an issue that has been hotly debated for two years. The latest finding...

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Australians warned to leave Benghazi immediately

SYDNEY: Australia on Friday joined three European nations in urging its citizens to leave the Libyan city of Benghazi due to a "specific, imminent threat to Westerners" linked to French action in Mali.The advice followed similar warnings from governments in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, which sparked an angry response from Libya's government. Tripoli said there was "no new intelligence"...

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Microsoft: We're going to broaden Surface lineup

Microsoft Surface RT. The Surface Pro version goes on sale February 9. The CTO today reiterated that the lineup will grow.(Credit:Brooke Crothers)During Microsoft's second-quarter earnings conference call today, the company's chief financial officer reiterated that the lineup of Surface devices will expand. After Microsoft reported reported earning today, Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein spoke...

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The researchers observed the group in...

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Feds Bust Man in Alleged Bombs-for-Drugs Sting

Jan 24, 2013 7:07pm Ryan Budnick/KMGHA Colorado man who claimed to be a former demolition expert in the U.S. Marines was arrested Thursday after he allegedly tried to trade guns and homemade bombs with a 20-meter “kill zone” for cocaine.Richard Lawrence Sandberg, 35, was taken into custody Thursday at his Morrison, Colo. home, ATF spokesman Bradley Beyersdorf told...

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Wallace: Wonders of nature have been solace of my life

Alfred Russel Wallace discovered natural selection independently of Charles Darwin. Through his letters, available online for the first time, he tells us of his research, expeditions and enduring fascination for nature's mysteries. You are famously joint author, with Darwin, of the first paper describing...

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More covered linkways, elderly friendly bridges for commuters

SINGAPORE: The government will spend close to S$700 million to make transport nodes more accessible, elderly friendly and conducive for commuters.The plans, mapped out in the new Land Transport Master Plan, were announced by Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew on Wednesday.One of the new initiatives -- Walk2Ride -- will make it easier for more commuters to walk to MRT stations.The Land Transport...

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Amazon's Kindle and Paperwhite available in Canada

The latest generation of Kindle and the Kindle Paperwhite are now available for sale in Canada, according to Amazon.The company has started selling its e-readers on Amazon.ca, its Canadian site, today. The Kindle costs 89 Canadian dollars ($88.98). The Paperwhite, which has a lighted touch screen, starts at 139 Canadian dollars ($138.95) for the 3G version. The Paperwhite with both Wi-Fi and 3G costs...

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). The researchers observed the group in...

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Clinton on Benghazi: Afghanistan Diverted Resources

House Republicans slammed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today for her lack of awareness of State Department cables warning of security threats in Benghazi, Libya, prior to the Sept. 11 attack that killed four Americans, including Amb. Chris Stevens.In the second congressional hearing of the day reviewing a report by the Accountability Review Board on the State Department's...

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MIT website hacked in tribute to Aaron Swartz

Hal Hodson, technology reporterA tribute to internet activist Aaron Swartz replaced the homepage for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology today, in an apparent act of protest over the university's role in the legal case that led up to Swartz's suicide on 11 Jan.For a short time, visitors to the MIT.edu home page found a message that read: "R.I.P. Aaron Swartz. Hacked by grand wizard of Lulzsec,...

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British PM to offer "in-or-out" referendum on EU

LONDON: Prime Minister David Cameron will on Wednesday propose holding a referendum after 2015 giving British people the choice of staying in or leaving the European Union.Cameron will say in a long-awaited speech in London that he wants to renegotiate the terms of Britain's membership because "public disillusionment with the EU is at an all-time high", and then put the new terms to the...

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Elder Scrolls Online trailer, beta electrify the imagination

Will The Elder Scrolls Online recapture MMORPG gamers?(Credit:Screenshot by Christopher MacManus/CNET)Developer Zenimax Online Studios wowed the gaming community today with a six-minute explosive cinematic trailer showing some heart-racing action in the grandiose world of Tamriel, the primary location of the upcoming The Elder Scrolls Online. Be sure to play the CGI trailer in high-definition and...

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The Promise and Perils of Mining Asteroids

Encouraged by new space technologies, a growing fleet of commercial rockets and the vast potential to generate riches, a group of entrepreneurs announced Tuesday that they planned to mine the thousands of near-Earth asteroids in the coming decades.The new company, Deep Space Industries (DSI), is not the first in the field, nor is it the most well-financed. But with their ambition to become...

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