Today on New Scientist: 30 November 2012

Dinosaurs might have once gazed into the Grand Canyon It had been thought that the canyon formed 6 million years ago, but now two geologists say it is actually closer to 70 million years oldSaturn's rings may double up as a moon factory A new model suggests Saturn's famous rings spawned the planet's moons. Could the mechanism explain the moons of Uranus, Neptune and even Earth?Gaming the future:...

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North Korea to launch rocket in December: KCNA

SEOUL: North Korea plans to launch a long-range rocket between December 10 and 22, the North's official news agency said Saturday.In a statement carried by Korean Central News Agency, the Korean Committee for Space Technology said it planned to launch a working satellite after scientists had studied mistakes made during a failed rocket launch in April."Scientists and technicians of the...

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Android-based Ouya game console shipping soon

Early birds get their hands on Ouya after December 28.(Credit:Ouya)Let the gamers,Android nuts, and open-source geeks rejoice -- the Ouya is shipping on time!Well, at least the developers' consoles are, that is. Ouya first garnered attention by raising more than $8.5 million on Kickstarter this summer to create an inexpensive, open-source, Android-based game system. Early supporters of the crowdfunding...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Could Outgoing Republicans Hold Keys to 'Cliff' Deal?

Nov 30, 2012 1:45pm AP Photo/Carolyn KasterThe outlook for reaching some sort of bipartisan agreement on the so-called “fiscal cliff” before the Dec. 31 deadline is looking increasingly grim. Shortly after noon today, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared before the cameras to say the talks had reached a “stalemate.”But there may be a glimmer...

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Florida pet spa mystery link to China's great firewall

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More Filipinos taking up hotel and restaurant management courses

MANILA: More and more young Filipinos are taking up hotel and restaurant management courses, all thanks to the country's booming tourism industry.Twenty-seven-year-old Daisy Carbaque can't wait to finish her household service course.In three months' time, she will finally be able to fulfill her dream of working in a luxury hotel.Ms Carbaque, a household service student at the Magsaysay...

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Crave giveaway: Element Case Sector 5 for iPhone, Joule II for iPad

This Sector 5 features a modular "multi-link" design.(Credit:Element Case)Congrats to Jamie M. of Portland, Ore., for winning a Vinci Tab IIAndroidtablet for kids in last week's giveaway. Now, down to business: Could youriPhone 5 use a new outfit to wear to all those holiday shindigs? You're hanging out in the right place. We're giving away a Sector 5 from Element Case, which calls the accessory...

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Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNLLooking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand...

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Man Arrested in Fla. Girl's 1993 Disappearance

Police have arrested a 42-year-old man and charged him with murder in the case of a Florida girl who vanished almost 20 years ago.Andrea Gail Parsons, 10, of Port Salerno, Fla., was last seen on July 11, 1993, shortly after 6 p.m. She had just purchased candy and soda at a grocery store when she waved to a local couple as they drove by on an area street and honked, police said.Today,...

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Google's Ingress is a gold mine for augmented reality

The new game sees players do battle via smartphones as they roam their city – but it's paving the way for something even more interesting THERE'S a battle raging on Massachusetts Avenue. I'm hopelessly outnumbered, trying to take control of a patch of land at the edge of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology....

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Four SMRT bus drivers to be charged for role in illegal strike

SINGAPORE: Four SMRT bus drivers from China were arrested between Wednesday and Thursday for their role in an illegal strike at Woodlands Dormitory on Monday and Tuesday.They will be charged in court at 5pm on Thursday, Police said in a statement.- CNA/de !-- Zone Tag : Channel News Asia In Text innity_pub = "66368270ffd51418ec58bd793f2d9b1b"; innity_zone = "12251"; innity_width...

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Curiosity: Behind the amazing success (and disaster) of a mobile gaming hit

Curiosity lets people tap little "cubelets" to make them disappear. Writing messages is one motivation to keep on tapping at the 64 billion cubelets.(Credit:screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)For storied video game designer Peter Molyneux, November 6 was supposed to be the calm before the storm. But it became the storm itself when his newest project, Curiosity, arrived a day early and exploded in...

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite...

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Two Winners in Record Powerball Jackpot

Winning tickets for the record Powerball jackpot worth more than $579 million were purchased in Arizona and Missouri.Missouri Lottery official Susan Goedde confirmed to ABC News this morning that one of the winning tickets was purchased in the state, but they would not be announcing a town until later this morning. Powerball's website reports the other winning ticket was purchased...

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What truly exists? Structure as a route to the real

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Man fined for molesting woman at bus stop

SINGAPORE: A 62-year-old gardener was fined $3,000 on Wednesday for molesting a woman at a bus stop outside Peace Centre in Sophia Road.Low Hock Leng admitted that he brushed the upper inner thigh of the 32-year-old woman at about 1pm on March 3 this year.The court heard that Low had earlier brushed against her left shoulder when he walked past her at the bus stop, which was not crowded.The...

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Can you ditch your smartphone data plan for Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is just about everywhere these days, so why do you still have to pay an arm and a leg for pricey 3G and 4G wireless data service from a carrier if you want to get online from your smartphone?This is a very good question. Now that every smartphone on the market comes with Wi-Fi capability built-in, some frugal wireless customers are wondering whether they can subscribe to a voice-only service...

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation IndiaA young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian...

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Study Finds Most Pork Contaminated

Nov 27, 2012 6:24pm A sample of raw pork products from supermarkets around the United States found that yersinia enterocolitica, a lesser-known food-borne pathogen, was present in 69 percent of the products tested, according to a study released today by Consumer Reports.The  bacteria  infects more than 100,000 Americans a year, according to the Centers for...

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Lake life survives in total isolation for 3000 years

It is seven times as salty as the sea, pitch dark and 13 degrees below freezing. Lake Vida in East Antarctica has been buried for 2800 years under 20 metres of ice, but teems with life. The discovery of strange, abundant bacteria in a completely...

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Sec-Gen Surin seeks bigger mandate to represent ASEAN

JAKARTA: ASEAN's outgoing Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan has made an impassioned plea for the grouping to re-examine its decision-making process.Dr Surin said the grouping's chief should be given a bigger mandate to represent and act on behalf of the 10-member organisation.This will be the last major briefing by 63-year-old Dr Surin as ASEAN's secretary-general, capping what has probably...

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Bing's top searches reveal iPhone 5 as No. 1 news story

Bing reveals the top searches for 2012.Believe it or not but the No. 1 most searched for news story on Bing this year has been the launch of Apple's iPhone 5. In fact, the debut of this device beat out the 2012 presidential election, the Olympics, and Superstorm Sandy, which followed respectively for the next top searches. The Honey Boo Boo reality TV show came in at No. 5. Microsoft released its...

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