N. Korea nuclear test a threat to Koreans' survival: Park






SEOUL: South Korea's new president Park Geun-Hye on Monday labelled North Korea's nuclear test a threat to the survival of the Korean people, but vowed a "step-by-step" policy of engagement with Pyongyang.

"North Korea's recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and future of the Korean people," Park said in her inauguration speech after being sworn in as South Korea's first female president.

- AFP/ck



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Samsung, Tim Burton brighten Oscars with rainbow-colored unicorn blood



Movies take a lot of thinking.



(Credit:
Samsung Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)


"This is getting too weird for me."


These are words you never expected to hear coming from the mouth of Tim Burton.


Yet Samsung, which these days leaves no competitive joke unturned and no Hollywood star untapped, delivered precisely that during the Oscars broadcast.


The ad, released by Samsung a little while before the show, features Burton playing a director delighted to be turning the "Unicorn Apocalypse" game into a movie.


In this context, "delighted" takes on a very idiosyncratic form.


We begin by hearing that another Samsung endorser, LeBron James, is addicted to "Unicorn Apocalypse."



More Technically Incorrect



It's surely hard for anyone not to become addicted to zombie unicorns.


Who more appropriate, then, to direct the movie of the game than Tim Burton?


The man who sees blackness in darkness and deep gray in white saunters into the gaming company and plays, well, himself.


"Did you guys know that unicorns were basically goats?" Burton informs the rapt game creators.


He follows that fascinating information with the perhaps even less-well known fact that unicorn blood is rainbow-colored with little weird sparkles in it.


Which would sum up this ad.


Yes, there are Samsung products in it.


More important, however, are the little weird sparkles that are being sprayed upon the brand with stars, cheek and, most of all, wit.


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Picture Archive: Dorothy Lamour and Jiggs, Circa 1938


Dorothy Lamour, most famous for her Road to ... series of movies with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, never won an Oscar. In her 50-plus-year career as an actress, she never even got nominated.

Neither did Jiggs the chimpanzee, pictured here with Lamour on the set of Her Jungle Love in a photo published in the 1938 National Geographic story "Monkey Folk."

No animal has ever been nominated for an Oscar. According to Academy Award rules, only actors and actresses are eligible.

Uggie, the Jack Russell terrier from last year's best picture winner, The Artist, didn't rate a nod. The equines that portrayed Seabiscuit and War Horse, movies that were best picture contenders in their respective years, were also snubbed.

Even the seven piglets that played Babe, the eponymous star of the best picture nominee in 1998, didn't rate. And the outlook seems to be worsening for the animal kingdom's odds of ever getting its paws on that golden statuette.

This year, two movies nominated in the best picture category had creatures that were storyline drivers with significant on-screen time. Neither Beasts of the Southern Wild (which featured extinct aurochs) or Life of Pi (which featured a CGI Bengal tiger named Richard Parker) used real animals.

An Oscar's not the only way for animals to get ahead, though. Two years after this photo was published, the American Humane Association's Los Angeles Film & TV Unit was established to monitor and protect animals working on show business sets. The group's creation was spurred by the death of a horse during the filming of 1939's Jessie James.

Today, it's still the only organization that stamps "No Animals Were Harmed" onto a movie's closing credits.

Editor's note: This is part of a series of pieces that looks at the news through the lens of the National Geographic photo archives.


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Oscars 2013: Live Blog of the Academy Awards


Feb 24, 2013 1:13pm


9:59 p.m. ET: No words. Jennifer Hudson is breaking it down with “Dreamgirls’” “And I’m Telling You.”


9:53 p.m. ET: The movie musical tribute is off to a killer start with Catherine Zeta-Jones’ performance of “All That Jazz” from “Chicago.”


9:50 p.m. ET: Best Foreign Language Film is “Amour.”


9:44 p.m. ET: “Searching for Sugar Man” takes home Best Documentary Feature. Jaws music creeps in again


Full List of Winners


9:42 p.m. ET: MarFarlane gets some laughs at the expense of Ben Affleck and Jessica Chastain. On Affleck’s facial hair: “The first time I saw him with all that facial hair I thought finally the Kardashians have made the jump to film.” On Jessica Chastain’s character in “Zero Dark Thirty” — a movie about a “woman’s innate ability to never let anything go,” he jokes.


9:40 p.m. ET: Second batch of Best Picture nominees — “Argo,” “Lincoln,” “Zero Dark Thirty” – get their moment in the spotlight.


9: 36 p.m. ET: Best Documentary Short Subject goes to “Inocente.”


9: 33 p.m. ET: Shawn Christensen of “Curfew” wins for Live Action Short Film. Stars of “Django Unchained” Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx present.


9:27 p.m. ET: Standing ovation for Shirley Bassey singing “Goldfinger.” Thoughts on her performance?


9: 22 p.m. ET: Bond… James Bond! A ravishing Halle Berry takes to the stage in Marchesa for the Academy’s tribute to 50 years of James Bond films.


9:20 p.m. ET: “Les Miserables” picks up Best Makeup and Hairstyling.


9:18 p.m. ET: Jennifer Aniston and Channing Tatum Best Costume Designgoes to Jacqueline Durran for “Anna Karenina.” Click here to see her Oscar-winning costumes.


9:11 p.m. ET: And they’re playing people off with Jaws music. Hilarious and brilliant. Nicole Kidman mouths from her seat: “Poor thing.”


9:10 p.m. ET: That’s two for “Life of Pi.” The film picks up another win for Visual Effects.


9:07 p.m. ET:The Best Oscar for Cinematography goes to… Claudio Miranda for “Life of Pi.” The cast of “The Avengers” hands out the award.


Full List of Winners


9:05 p.m. ET: MacFarlane jokes about nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis’ age. “It’ll be 16 years till she’s too old for George Clooney.”


9:03 p.m. ET: Reese Witherspoon just gave us a briefing on the three of the Best Picture nominees: “Les Miserables,” “Life of Pi,” and “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” That song from “Les Mis” — “Do You Hear the People Sing?” — is now in my head.


9:00 p.m. ET: Best Animated Feature Oscar goes to….”Brave.”


8: 58 p.m. ET: “Paperman” wins Best Animated Short.


8: 58 p.m. ET: Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy lost us in their intro to animated short film.


8: 51 pm. ET: And the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor goes to Christoph Waltz in “Django Unchained.”


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Credit: Chris Pizzello/AP


8:49 p.m. ET: Every nominee for Best Supporting Actor already has an Oscar under his belt.


8: 42 p.m. ET: Another musical number with Daniel Radcliffe and Joseph-Gordon Levitt. And then we got a little Disney music too with “Be Our Guest,” which finally scored MacFarlane the “Best Oscars host ever” headline.



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Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images


8: 39 p.m. ET: Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron are dancing to MacFarlane singing “The Way You Look Tonight.” A shame not to see the “Magic Mike” star shirtless though.


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Image credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images


8:38 p.m. ET: Captain Kirk from “Star Trek” has descended on the stage to warn MacFarlane that he’s about to ruin the Oscars and be branded the worst Oscar host ever. “The show is a disaster. I’ve come back in time … to stop you from ruining the Academy Awards,” William Shatner says. “You sing an incredibly offensive song that upsets a lot of women in the audience.” Cut to MacFarlane singing “We Saw Your Boobs,” a hilarious number referencing when we’ve seen actresses nude in movies.


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Image credit: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images


8:35 p.m. ET: MacFarlane pokes fun at Daniel Day Lewis’ method. “Your process fascinates me. You were totally 100% in character in Lincoln… So if you saw a cell phone, would you have to be like, ‘Oh god, what’s that?’ If you bumped into Don Cheadle on the studio lot, you’d try and free him on the studio lot.”


8: 32 p.m. ET:  Too much? MacFarlane compared “Django Unchained” to Rihanna and Chris Brown’s relationship.


8:30 p.m. ET: Seth MacFarlane is on stage and quips: “The quest to make Tommy Lee Jones laugh begins now.”


8:27 p.m. ET: The stars are seated and the show is about to start. A lot of anticipation about Seth MacFarlane’s opening monologue. Channing Tatum is tweeting that he’s getting ready to take to the stage: “Hope you like what we’ve been working on. Getting ready to hit the #Oscars stage! Wish me luck!” Will there be a musical number right off the bat?


8:20 p.m. ET: Strapless is definitely a trend of the night. We’ve also seen a lot of beauties in blue.


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Image credit: Getty Images



8: 15 p.m. ET:
We’ve confirmed that Best Supporting Actress nominee Helen Hunt is rocking … H&M! “The Session” actress is in a  custom made midnight-blue full length gown is silk satin gown (also strapless). 


8:14 p.m. ET: Anne Hathaway is talking about her dress. “My mom says it’s business in the front, party in the back.”


8:08 p.m. ET: Do Jacki Weaver and Olivia Munn share a stylist? ABC News’ Alexis Shaw spotted the Best Supporting Actress nominee and Munn in eerily similar crimson gowns with matching gold embellishment on the top. Click here for more.


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Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images



8:05 p.m. ET:
Kristen Stewart is sporting crutches on the red carpet. Might be because she took home the Worst Actress Razzie award last night for “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2.”


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Credit: Christopher Polk/Getty Images


8:00 p.m. ET: The show is now officially a half hour away. In honor of Oscar night, the President tweeted this picture from a White House movie night.


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Image credit: Twitter/BarackObama


7: 52 p.m. ET: “Les Mis” star and Best Actor nominee Hugh Jackman just picked up pre-show host Kristin Chenoweth on the red carpet and said she weighs less than an Oscar. Not really though…Each nearly 14-inch-high statue weighs 8.5 pounds and costs $500 to make. Get more Oscar trivia here.


7:40 p.m. ET: If there’s one star you can count on to look fabulous, it’s Jennifer Aniston.  She’s in a Valentino red strapless gown and has fiance Justin Theroux at her side. They’re in the running for Hollywood’s hottest couple on the red carpet.


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7:38 p.m. ET: Bradley Cooper brought his mom as his date. She’s rocking a shrug with serious feathers and what look like sneakers with her gown. Cooper is up for Best Actor in “Silver Linings Playbook.”


7:34 p.m. ET: Reese Witherspoon is in head to toe Louis Vuitton. The presenter’s black and royal blue gown with side-swept hairdo scream old Hollywood glamor. Click here.


gty reese witherspoon red carpet thg 130224 wblog Oscars 2013: Academy Awards Live Updates

Credit: Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images


7: 28 p.m. ET: Fashion miss: Jane Fonda is slightly blinding in bright yellow.


7: 24 p.m. ET: Best actress nominee Naomi Watts is in a gunmetal Giorgio Armani gown in grey sequins. Does she make your best dressed list? See more arrivals here.


7:20 p.m. ET: Anne Hathaway’s dress may raise eyebrows tonight. The “Les Miserables” star is in a backless, halter dress that appears slightly sheer on the red carpet.


gty anne hathaway kb 130224 vblog Oscars 2013: Academy Awards Live Updates

Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images


7:18 p.m. ET: We can’t get enough of Quvenzhane Wallis. The “Beasts of the Southern Wild” star has her mom’s permission to stay out a little bit later tonight, she told Lara Spencer on the red carpet.


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Credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images


7:15 p.m. ET: “I feel super tucked in,” Amanda Seyfried said of the corset in her Alexander McQueen gown. “I can’t sit down.” The “Les Miserables” star is performing tonight. Hope she can breathe on stage.


7:07 p.m. ET: Another star goes strapless. Jennifer Lawrence, who’s up for Best Actress in “Silver Linings Playbook,” is in a blush Dior Haute Couture gown with a full skirt.


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Credit: Steve Granitz/Getty Images



7:01 p.m. ET:
ABC’s pre-show is kicking off! “Red carpet is 500 feet long. That’s about 2,000 of me,” Chenoweth joked. Tune into ABC now and get a behind-the-scenes look via Backstage Pass on the Oscar App.


6:56 p.m. ET: The red carpet is packed, but not everyone is making it through the notorious L.A. traffic. Mark Ruffalo is running late. The actor, who’s presenting tonight, tweeted to the Academy: “Dear @TheAcademy. We are running a good deal behind would you mind starting a little later this year? Mark and Sunrise Ruffalo.”



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Credit: ABC News



6:49 p.m. ET: Presenter Kerry Washington is in Miu Miu. The “Django Unchained” and star “Scandal” star always keeps us guessing and never fails to impress.

The Best Apps for Hollywood’s Big Night


6:44 p.m. ET: Who are you most excited to see on the red carpet? What will be the meme of the night? Angelia Jolie’s right leg stole the show last year and Twitter is reminding us. “1 year ago today you met the glorious thing that is ME #neverforget,” @Angelina Jolie’sLeg posted.  


6:35 p.m. ET: The reigning “Sexiest Man Alive” Channing Tatum and a pregnant Jenna Dewan are both glowing on the red carpet. See them canoodling here.


6:25 p.m. ET: Amy Adams looks ethereal in a seafoam green Oscar de la Renta strapless dress. She’s up for Best Supporting Actress for “The Master.”


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Credit: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images


PHOTOS: Oscar Red Carpet Arrivals


6:22 p.m. ET: Cutest moment of the red carpet so far, as captured by the Academy. Nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, nominated for “Beasts of the Southern Wild” shows off her puppy-shaped purse to fellow Best Actress nominee Jessica Chastain. It’s reportedly named Sammy after her dog at home.


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Credit: @TheAcademy/Twitter


6:10 p.m. ET: The winners have arrived, WABC’s Sandy Kenyon reports! In these briefcases are the top secret ballots from the Academy. Read more here.


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Credit: Twitter/SandyKenyon7



5:56 p.m. ET:
“GMA” anchors Robin Roberts and Lara Spencer smile backstage before the red carpet heats up.



abc lara robin kb 130224 vblog Oscars 2013: Academy Awards Live Updates

Credit: ABC


5:42 p.m. ET: ABC pre-show hosts Kristin Chenoweth and Kelly Rowland have arrived on the red carpet and are looking fabulous in black and white.


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Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images


5:30 p.m. ET: See what the stars see as they walk down the grand staircase to the red carpet at the Dolby Theatre. This cool 360 view is courtesy of the Academy.


5:15 p.m. ET: Get your Oscar party on. Impress your friends with these movie-themed recipes and cocktails. We could go for some Spinach “Argo-choke Dip” right about now…


Oscar 2013: Movie-Themed Recipes
9 Cocktails for Your Oscar Party


5:00 p.m. ET: “GMA” anchor Robin Roberts is back and looking better than ever! Roberts, who returned to the morning show Wednesday after undergoing a bone marrow transplant to treat MDS, will be on the red carpet tonight. “To my wonderful, beloved #TeamRobin … This one’s for you. XO,” she tweeted. She’s in a cobalt blue velvet halter gown from designer Marc Bouwer.


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Credit: Twitter/RobinRoberts


4:44 p.m. ET: We’re less than an hour away from red carpet arrivals. “Good Morning America” anchor Lara Spencer is getting red-carpet ready to host the Oscar pre-show.  “Hair + Make-up = Butterflies!” @LaraSpencer tweeted. Spencer, actress Kristin Chenoweth, Entertainment Weekly’s Jess Cagle and singer Kelly Rowland will have interviews with all of the stars, starting at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on ABC.


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Credit: Twitter/LaraSpencer



1:15 p.m. ET: Hollywood’s biggest night of the year is officially here: the Oscars. Funnyman Seth MacFarlane is hosting the 85th Annual Academy Awards and we’ll be covering all of the big winners, best moments, surprises, and all-important red carpet arrivals. Refresh for the latest updates all night long.


We are just hours away from seeing the gorgeous gowns and finding out who’s going home with those coveted statuettes. It’s not too late to make your picks and predictions on our interactive Oscar ballot. To get up to speed before the festivities begin, check out our complete Oscars coverage.


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Credit: Bob D'Amico/ABC


Full List of the Nominees


7 Things to Know About Seth MacFarlane


PHOTOS: The Best Oscar Dresses of All Time


TRIVIA: 15 Things You Don’t Know About the Oscars


PHOTOS: Top 30 Worst Oscar Looks Ever


Backstage Pass: Download the Oscars App for insider views from the red carpet and behind the scenes. Click here to learn how!

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Amazon to open market in second-hand MP3s and e-books






















A new market for second-hand digital downloads could let us hold virtual yard sales of our ever-growing piles of intangible possessions






















WHY buy second-hand? For physical goods, the appeal is in the price – you don't mind the creases in a book or rust spots on a car if it's a bargain. Although digital objects never lose their good-as-new lustre, their very nature means there is still uncertainty about whether we actually own them in the first place, making it tricky to set up a second-hand market. Now an Amazon patent for a system to support reselling digital purchases could change that.












Amazon's move comes after last year's European Union ruling that software vendors cannot stop customers from reselling their products. But without technical support, the ruling has had no impact. In Amazon's system, customers will keep their digital purchases – such as e-books or music – in a personal data store in the cloud that only they can access, allowing them to stream or download the content.












This part is like any cloud-based digital locker except that the customer can resell previous purchases by passing the access rights to another person. Once the transaction is complete, the seller will lose access to the content. Any system for reselling an e-book, for example, would have to ensure that it is not duplicated in the transaction. That means deleting any copies the seller may have lying around on hard drives, e-book readers, and other cloud services, since that would violate copyright.












Amazon may be the biggest company to consider a second-hand market, but it is not the first. ReDigi, based in Boston, has been running a resale market for digital goods since 2011. After downloading an app, users can buy a song on ReDigi for as little as 49 cents that would costs 99 cents new on iTunes.












When users want to sell an item, they upload it to ReDigi's servers via a mechanism that ensures no copy is made during the transfer. Software checks that the seller does not retain a copy. Once transferred, the item can be bought and downloaded by another customer. ReDigi is set to launch in Europe in a few months.












Digital items on ReDigi are cheaper because they are one-offs. If your hard drive crashes and you lose your iTunes collection you can download it again. But you can only download an item from ReDigi once – there is no other copy. That is the trade-off that makes a second-hand digital market work: the risk justifies the price. The idea has ruffled a few feathers – last year EMI sued ReDigi for infringement of copyright. A judge denied the claim, but the case continues.


















Used digital goods can also come with added charm. ReDigi tracks the history of the items traded so when you buy something, you can see who has owned it and when. ReDigi's second-hand marketplace has grown into a social network. According to ReDigi founder John Ossenmacher, customers like seeing who has previously listened to a song. "It's got soul like an old guitar," he says. "We've introduced this whole feeling of connectedness."












It could be good for business too if the original vendors, such as iTunes, were to support resale and take a cut of the resell price. Nevertheless, Amazon's move bucks the industry trend. Microsoft's new Xbox, for example, is expected not to work with second-hand games.












But the market could change rapidly now that Amazon's weight is behind this, says Ossenmacher. "The industry is waking up."












This article appeared in print under the headline "Old MP3, one careful owner"




















































If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.




































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Woodlands Regional Centre to have two distinct precincts






SINGAPORE: The Woodlands Regional Centre, which aims to bring jobs closer to homes, will have two distinct precincts.

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed this as he unveiled preliminary plans for the regional centre at a community event in Woodlands on Sunday.

One of the precincts will for now be called the Woodlands North Coast and will include the area between the Republic Polytechnic and the Woodlands Waterfront.

The National Development Ministry said it will be a waterfront destination with a vibrant mix of business, residential and lifestyle uses.

Woodlands Central, the area around the Woodlands MRT station, will form the other precinct.

There will be a commercial centre for residents to shop, eat and participate in community events.

There will also be retail malls that are inter-connected with MRT stations and bus interchange.

Two new MRT stations will be added to the area when the Thomson Line is fully completed by 2021.

The Woodlands Regional Centre, like its predecessors in Tampines and Jurong, will take 15 to 20 years to develop.

Woodlands will be a key part of the new North Coast Innovation Corridor announced in the Land Use Plan last month.

The corridor spans Woodlands, Sembawang, the future Seletar Regional Centre and Punggol.

The plans for the Woodlands Regional Centre will be fine-tuned, as the public is invited to give their ideas on the development including the names for the two precincts.

A draft masterplan will then be exhibited later this year.

- CNA/ir



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The Facebook mistakes people make after a date



February can make people excitable.


A new year is barely old. Hope springs eternal. And then there's Valentine's Day to add a little piquancy to their emotional state.


Sometimes, though, lovers suffer from a certain lack of self-control. This can manifest itself on society's everyday manifest: Facebook.


I was moved, therefore, that someone had taken the time to list the major faux pas that occur when social contact accelerates beyond decent norms.


I am lovingly grateful to Ranker, which has taken it upon itself to reduce the rancor that might be caused by Facebooked overenthusiasm -- the site has listed behavior to avoid.



Apparently the worst thing you can do after meeting someone in whose charm and personality you might be interested is to immediately send them a Facebook friend request.


This might seem obvious to some.


You don't necessarily have any idea what the other person might really think of you. You know, inside their heads.


And, as Ranker wisely offers: "Now you've just given yourself something else to obsess over: 'Why hasn't my friend request been accepted? Why is it taking so long? Did they even see it?!'


And from one small click, a whole new series of sessions with your shrink is created.


It seems, though, that the human imagination has found many more ways of ruining the course of true love on Facebook.


People apparently pore over their new date's Facebook page, seeking secrets to their true friends, thoughts, and, who knows, other objects of affection.


Some devolve into what seems utterly psychotic behavior, such as liking old photos of their new potential paramour. Who does that? Twisted humans, that's who.


But Facebook offers so many more opportunities for self-destruction.


There's revealing too much in your status update. Sample: "I just went on the best date ever with Marie Dupree and her sexy knees."



More Technically Incorrect



Some people, though, go even further and attempt to insert themselves into comments on their love-object's Facebook page, should they already be Facebook friends. Sample: "You look so WONDERFUL when you're saluting the sun, Shoshanna. Can't wait until we do some saluting together!!"


No, it doesn't end there.


The Facebook gauche end up stalking every second of their new friend's Timeline. ("She dated a clown in 2008? Why would she DO that?")


Worse, there are apparently instances of enthusiasts who get so carried away that they start friending the families of their new objects of affection. ("Hi, Mrs. Aziel, you don't know me, but your daughter and I...." Oh, you finish the sentence.)


Facebook offers so many avenues of potential despair that there is only one way that you can use it to avoid complication, pain, sorrow, heartbreak, sleepless nights, and that bottomless feeling of lost opportunity: Don't go anywhere near it.



Top 10 Facebook Mistakes to Avoid After 1st Dates
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Elderly Abandoned at World's Largest Religious Festival


Every 12 years, the northern Indian city of Allahabad plays host to a vast gathering of Hindu pilgrims called the Maha Kumbh Mela. This year, Allahabad is expected to host an estimated 80 million pilgrims between January and March. (See Kumbh Mela: Pictures From the Hindu Holy Festival)

People come to Allahabad to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges. For many it's the realization of their life's goal, and they emerge feeling joyful and rejuvenated. But there is also a darker side to the world's largest religious gathering, as some take advantage of the swirling crowds to abandon elderly relatives.

"They wait for this Maha Kumbh because many people are there so nobody will know," said one human rights activist who has helped people in this predicament and who wished to remain anonymous. "Old people have become useless, they don't want to look after them, so they leave them and go."

Anshu Malviya, an Allahabad-based social worker, confirmed that both men and women have been abandoned during the religious event, though it has happened more often to elderly widows. Numbers are hard to come by, since many people genuinely become separated from their groups in the crowd, and those who have been abandoned may not admit it. But Malviya estimates that dozens of people are deliberately abandoned during a Maha Kumbh Mela, at a very rough guess.

To a foreigner, it seems puzzling that these people are not capable of finding their own way home. Malviya smiles. "If you were Indian," he said, "you wouldn't be puzzled. Often they have never left their homes. They are not educated, they don't work. A lot of the time they don't even know which district their village is in."

Once the crowd disperses and the volunteer-run lost-and-found camps that provide temporary respite have packed away their tents, the abandoned elderly may have the option of entering a government-run shelter. Conditions are notoriously bad in these homes, however, and many prefer to remain on the streets, begging. Some gravitate to other holy cities such as Varanasi or Vrindavan where, if they're lucky, they are taken in by temples or charity-funded shelters.

In these cities, they join a much larger population, predominantly women, whose families no longer wish to support them, and who have been brought there because, in the Hindu religion, to die in these holy cities is to achieve moksha or Nirvana. Mohini Giri, a Delhi-based campaigner for women's rights and former chair of India's National Commission for Women, estimates that there are 10,000 such women in Varanasi and 16,000 in Vrindavan.

But even these women are just the tip of the iceberg, says economist Jean Drèze of the University of Allahabad, who has campaigned on social issues in India since 1979. "For one woman who has been explicitly parked in Vrindavan or Varanasi, there are a thousand or ten thousand who are living next door to their sons and are as good as abandoned, literally kept on a starvation diet," he said.

According to the Hindu ideal, a woman should be looked after until the end of her life by her male relatives—with responsibility for her shifting from her father to her husband to her son. But Martha Chen, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University who published a study of widows in India in 2001, found that the reality was often very different.

Chen's survey of 562 widows of different ages revealed that about half of them were supporting themselves in households that did not include an adult male—either living alone, or with young children or other single women. Many of those who did live with their families reported harassment or even violence.

According to Drèze, the situation hasn't changed since Chen's study, despite the economic growth that has taken place in India, because widows remain vulnerable due to their lack of education and employment. In 2010, the World Bank reported that only 29 percent of the Indian workforce was female. Moreover, despite changes in the law designed to protect women's rights to property, in practice sons predominantly inherit from their parents—leaving women eternally dependent on men. In a country where 37 percent of the population still lives below the poverty line, elderly dependent relatives fall low on many people's lists of priorities.

This bleak picture is all too familiar to Devshran Singh, who oversees the Durga Kund old people's home in Varanasi. People don't pay toward the upkeep of their relatives, he said, and they rarely visit. In one case, a doctor brought an old woman to Durga Kund claiming she had been abandoned. After he had gone, the woman revealed that the doctor was her son. "In modern life," said Singh, "people don't have time for their elderly."

Drèze is currently campaigning for pensions for the elderly, including widows. Giri is working to make more women aware of their rights. And most experts agree that education, which is increasingly accessible to girls in India, will help improve women's plight. "Education is a big force of social change," said Drèze. "There's no doubt about that."


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Fiery Last-Lap Daytona Crash Injures Dozens











A fiery last-lap crash at the Daytona International Speedway today sent chunks of debris flying into the stands, injuring more than 30 spectators, who were seen being carried away from the stands on stretchers.


At least 14 of the injured were transported to hospitals and more than a dozen others were treated at the speedway, Dayton president Joie Chitwood III. All the drivers involved in the crash have been treated and released, Chitwood said.


ESPN reported that one of the spectators taken to the hospital was on the way to surgery with head trauma.


The 12-car crash happened moments before the end of the Nationwide race, and on the eve of the Daytona 500, one of NASCAR's biggest events.




The crash was apparently triggered when driver Regan Smith's car, which was being tailed by Brad Keselowski on his back bumper, spun to the right and shot up the track. Smith had been in the lead and said after the crash he had been trying to throw a "block."


PHOTOS: Crash at Daytona Sends Wreckage Into Stands


Rookie Kyle Larson's car slammed into the wall that separates the track from the grandstands, causing his No. 32 car to go airborne and erupt in flames.


When a haze of smoke cleared and Larson's car came to a stop, he jumped out uninjured.


His engine and one of his wheels were sitting in a walkway of the grandstand.


"I was getting pushed from behind," Larson told ESPN. "Before I could react, it was too late."


Tony Stewart pulled out the win, but in victory lane, what would have been a celebratory mood was tempered by concern for the injured fans.


"We've always known this is a dangerous sport," Stewart said. "But it's hard when the fans get caught up in it."


Repairs are under way on the fence where the crash happened and are expected to be completed before the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Chitwood said.


He told reporters NASCAR does not anticipate having to move any of their fans for the Daytona 500 and expects all seats will be filled.



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Rusty rocks reveal ancient origin of photosynthesis



































SUN-WORSHIP began even earlier than we thought. The world's oldest sedimentary rocks suggest an early form of photosynthesis may have evolved almost 3.8 billion years ago, not long after life appeared on Earth.











A hallmark of photosynthesis in plants is that the process splits water and produces oxygen gas. But some groups of bacteria oxidise substances like iron instead – a form of photosynthesis that doesn't generate oxygen. Evolutionary biologists think these non-oxygen-generating forms of photosynthesis evolved first, giving rise to oxygen-generating photosynthesis sometime before the Earth's atmosphere gained oxygen 2.4 billion years ago (New Scientist, 8 December 2012, p 12).













But when did non-oxygen-generating photosynthesis evolve? Fossilised microbial mats that formed in shallow water 3.4 billion years ago in what is now South Africa show the chemical fingerprints of the process. However, geologists have long wondered whether even earlier evidence exists.












The world's oldest sedimentary rocks – a class of rock that can preserve evidence of life – are a logical place to look, says Andrew Czaja of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. These rocks, which are found in Greenland and date back almost 3.8 billion years, contain vast deposits of iron oxide that are a puzzle. "What could have formed these giant masses of oxidised iron?" asks Czaja.


















To investigate, he analysed the isotopic composition of samples taken from the oxidised iron. He found that some isotopes of iron were more common than they would be if oxygen gas was indiscriminately oxidising the metal. Moreover, the exact isotopic balance varied subtly from point to point in the rock.












Both findings make sense if photosynthetic bacteria were responsible for the iron oxide, says Czaja. That's because these microbes preferentially oxidise only a small fraction of the dissolved iron, and the iron isotopes they prefer vary slightly as environmental conditions change (Earth and Planetary Science Letters, doi.org/kh5). His findings suggest that this form of photosynthesis appeared about 370 million years earlier than we thought.












It is "the best current working hypothesis for the origin of these deposits", says Mike Tice of Texas A&M University in College Station – one of the team who analysed the 3.4-billion-year-old microbial mats from South Africa.












William Martin at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, agrees. "Anoxygenic photosynthesis is a good candidate for the isotope evidence they see," he says. "Had these fascinating results been collected on Mars, the verdict of the jury would surely remain open," says Martin Brasier at the University of Oxford. "But [on Earth] opinion seems to be swinging in the direction of non-oxygen-generating photosynthesis during the interval from 3.8 to 2.9 billion years ago."












This article appeared in print under the headline "Photosynthesis has truly ancient origins"




















































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