CERN becomes first pure physics voice in UN chorus

Lisa Grossman, physical sciences reporter

(Image: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras)

If CERN observes the proceedings of the United Nations, will it change the outcome?

The international particle physics laboratory, based near Geneva, Switzerland, has been granted observer status in the General Assembly of the United Nations, CERN officials announced today. 

The lab joins environmental groups and public health agencies as the first physical sciences research organization in the ranks of UN observers. Observer status grants the right to speak at meetings, participate in procedural votes, and sign and sponsor resolutions, but not to vote on resolutions.

In some ways, CERN's addition seems a natural move - and a long time coming.

The facility was founded in 1954 under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Its initial mission was to provide collaborative projects for researchers from Allied countries and former Axis countries after the second World War.

Arguably the lab's most high-profile project, the Large Hadron Collider, made headlines worldwide this year when it revealed detection of a new particle that appears to be the elusive Higgs boson.

"Through its projects, which bring together scientists from all over the world, CERN also promotes dialogue between nations and has become a model for international cooperation," CERN states in a press release. The lab says it may use its new status with the UN to help shore up scientific education and technological capabilities in developing countries, particularly in Africa.

But just as observing a quantum particle can change its state, can CERN's involvement truly collapse the UN's wavefunction and trigger better global science and technology policies? Only time will tell.

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NEA's new partnership to enhance S'pore's radiological operational readiness

SINGAPORE: National Environment Agency (NEA) and the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) on collaboration in nuclear and radiation safety, emergency preparedness and response.

NEA's partnership with DEMA is meant to enhance Singapore's capabilities in radiological operational readiness and incident response.

The partnership will provide a platform for NEA and DEMA to share and exchange knowledge and technical expertise in several areas -- environmental radiation monitoring, risk assessment of surface contamination, and public protection policies and measures.

Staff exchange visits and attachment programmes are also included in the partnership.

Director of NEA's Centre for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Science Mr Ang Kok Kiat and chief advisor of DEMA's Nuclear Division Mr Steen Cordt Hoe signed the LOI at the sidelines of the Fukushima Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety held in Koriyama City of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

The collaboration with DEMA was first mooted following a multi-agency delegation visit to Denmark led by NEA's chief executive officer, Mr Andrew Tan, in October 2011.

DEMA, a government agency under the Danish Ministry of Defence, is tasked with leading the Danish response to nuclear emergencies abroad for protection of the population and environment.

DEMA's nuclear emergency management capabilities include a nation-wide automatic monitoring system and forecasting of possible radioactive fallout on the basis of current weather data.

- CNA/lp

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Do I really need insurance for my smartphone?

You may have only paid $200 for your latest smartphone, but if you had to replace that device before you are eligible for a subsidy from your carrier it cost your more than $600. Is it worth it to get device insurance?

That's the question I answer this time in Ask Maggie. I also offer some advice to an Apple iPhone fan who wants to know if he should wait for the next iPhone rumored to be out in June or July.

To buy insurance or live dangerously without?

Dear Maggie,
I am getting my son an
iPhone 5 for Christmas. I was wondering if I should also consider getting an insurance policy for the phone. Is it a good idea or a waste of money? Would I need to get Apple Care in addition to an insurance plan? And do you think I should get the insurance from a carrier or through a third party company?

Thanks,
Karen

Dear Karen,
The problem with buying any kind of insurance is that you simply don't know what will happen in the future. If your son's new iPhone is lost, stolen or damaged in the first few months of owning it, then it's a terrific bargain. But if he goes two years with not so much as a scratch on his precious new gadget, it's a waste of money.

Some people would rather save the money they'd spend on the insurance premiums and deductible, and hope nothing bad happens to their gadget. While others would prefer to have the peace of mind that comes with knowing their device can be replaced right away without having to pay full price for a new device.

The first thing you need to figure out is how much insurance will cost you and what it will cover. As you alluded to in your question, there are several options for purchasing smartphone and other gadget insurance. Wireless operators offer insurance plans as do third party companies. There are also extended warranty plans from device makers like Apple or from retailers like Best Buy, that typically cover mechanical defects to the device and may on some occasions cover some accidental damage coverage. But these programs typically do not cover you for a lost or stolen device.

In general, insurance plans will offer more coverage than an extended warranty. Here are a few things that many insurance policies will likely cover:

• Accidental damage (including shattered screens and liquid damage)
• Loss
• Theft or burglary
• Mechanical breakdown or malfunction beyond the manufacturer warranty

Some insurance policies may also cover things like credit monitoring as well as lock, wipe and locate services if your device is lost or stolen.

Every insurance policy will also include a fee or premium. And they all have a deductible. The fees and deductibles often depend on what kind of device you are insuring. Be aware that many policies charge higher premiums and have higher deductibles for the Apple iPhone as compared to other smartphones.

So make sure you double check the policy to see what the fees and deductibles are. Before you sign up for any insurance, you should check the specifics and fine print to see what is and is not covered.

To get you started on your search, here's a little information about a few options.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless offer insurance for the iPhone. But Sprint, which offers an insurance plan for other smartphones, does not offer a policy for the iPhone. T-Mobile, which doesn't offer the iPhone on its network, also does not have a policy that would cover the iPhone.

There are also insurance policies from third party companies you may want to consider. One such company is called ProtectYourBubble.com. It offers insurance for the iPhone as well as other gadgets. This company offers a 10 percent discount for additional policies you have either on other iPhones or on other gadgets.

Here's a quick look at the offers:

AT&T

Premium: $6.99 per month

Deductible: $199

Verizon Wireless

Premium: $9.99 per month

Deductible: $169 for 8GB, 16GB
iPhone 4, 16GB
iPhone 4S and, 8GB, 16GB iPhone 5 and $199 for 32GB iPhone 4 and 32GB, 64GB iPhone 4S and 32GB, 64GB iPhone 5

Protect Your Bubble

Premium: $7.99 per month

Deductible: $120 (Other smartphones have a deductible of $100.)

Which insurance plan is better? As you can see from the information listed above, Verizon has the most expensive insurance plan. Two years of premiums, plus the deductible will set you back $410. AT&T's premiums and deductible are $368 for the iPhone. And Protect Your Bubble's total comes to $312.

Are any of these policies really worth the cost? Again, it's hard to answer this question since it really depends on how likely it is that you'll need the insurance versus how much risk you're willing to live with if you don't get any insurance.

Remember that if you have to replace the device before your son is eligible for a new contract, it will cost you between $649 to $849 to replace his iPhone with a new iPhone 5 depending on the model you select. You may be able to get a used or refurbished iPhone for a bit less, but iPhones hold their value pretty well, so you will likely still end up paying several hundred dollars to get the same device.

Personally, I am a bit of a cheapskate. And I'm willing to take the risk of something happening to my device. I have never had insurance on any of my smartphones. And (knock on wood) I have never had a cracked screen or a device damaged by water or any other liquid. My iPhone 3G was stolen out of my backpack when I was playing in a flag football game a few years ago, but I was eligible for an upgrade from my carrier, so I only ended up paying $200 for a new phone anyway.

That said, I may soon be one of the few people who does not get insurance for my smartphone. According to Stephen Ebbett of Protect Your Bubble, 45 percent of smartphone subscribers have insurance for their devices. And he said that his company is seeing more and more people sign up for coverage.

"Our sales are growing week on week," he said. "We've been very encouraged by people recognizing the value of their smartphone in their lives. It's not just the cash value of their devices, but the fact that they really can't live without their smartphone for a week."

What about Apple Care?

Apple's AppleCare+ program costs $99 and extends the warranty of the iPhone for another year. The plan covers all repair coverage and technical support. And it also covers up to two incidents of accidental damage, each with an additional cost of $49.

While Apple Care+ is considerably less expensive than the insurance plans, you must remember that it is essentially an extended warranty. And it does not cover you if the device is lost or stolen. For iPhone users, this is a particularly important distinction since iPhone thefts are on the rise. The New York City Police Department said earlier this year that iPhone and iPad thefts went up 40 percent between January and the end of September.

Why? Compared to other gadgets, iPhones have high resale values, so they are often a target for thieves.

Do you need Apple Care+ in addition to insurance? The short answer to that question is no. The insurance policy for the phone will likely cover the same types of technical and accidental damage that the Apple Care+ service offers. The only thing you may lose by forgoing Apple Care+ is online and telephone technical support from Apple. But you should still be able to get some tech support from the Genius bar at your local Apple store. And your son's iPhone will be covered under the regular warranty for the first year that he owns it.

I hope this advice was helpful. And good luck! Happy holidays!

Should I wait for the next iPhone?

Dear Maggie,
I am in need of a new phone (currently using Blackberry Bold 9930 from Sprint) and would like to get the new iPhone. Here is the issue - as a guy who likes to have all the latest and greatest tech I'm rather scared to buy the iPhone 5 with all the "iPhone 5S" rumors that just started. I know it is pretty much impossible to stay up to date with every piece of technology (especially phones) . But if I am going to upgrade I would at least like the newest iteration. So what do you think about these rumors? Any chance that these will be true (it seems nearly every Apple rumor comes true these days)? Should I wait until June/July or just go ahead and get the iPhone 5 that is available now? Lots of questions I know, but these are confusing times.

Thanks in advance,
Jordan

Dear Jordan,
As you mentioned in your question, it is almost impossible to stay up to date with every piece of technology. So my recommendation to you is to not even try to play that game. The soonest we'd likely see an iPhone 5S, if it even exists, is June. That's is still half a year away. That's a long time in the fast-paced smartphone market.

Earlier this month, French Web site Nowhereelse.fr spotted alleged pictures of the next iPhone, commonly referred to as the iPhone 5S, on a forum run by iPhone5parts.net.

(Credit:
Screenshot taken by Roger Cheng/CNET)

It sounds like you need a new smartphone now. So I'd recommend that you stop waiting and purchase a phone that you like right now. If a new iPhone comes out in six months, you could always sell it and still make bake a good portion of your money, which you could put toward a new iPhone.

Good luck with your decision.

Ask Maggie is an advice column that answers readers' wireless and broadband questions. The column now appears twice a week on CNET offering readers a double dosage of Ask Maggie's advice. If you have a question, I'd love to hear from you. Please send me an e-mail at maggie dot reardon at cbs dot com. And please put "Ask Maggie" in the subject header. You can also follow me on Facebook on my Ask Maggie page.

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

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Conn. Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'

Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.

This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then drove her car to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.

There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot and killed 20 children, who President Obama later described as "beautiful little kids" between five and 10 years of age. Six adults were also killed at the school. Nancy Lanza was found dead in her home.

A relative told ABC News that Adam was "obviously not well."

Family friends in Newtown also described the young man as troubled and described Nancy as rigid. "[Adam] was not connected with the other kids," said Barbara Frey, who also said he was "a little bit different ... Kind of repressed."

State and federal authorities believe his mother may have once worked at the elementary school where Adam went on his deadly rampage, although she was not a teacher, according to relatives, perhaps a volunteer.

Nancy and her husband Peter, Adam's father, divorced in 2009. When they first filed for divorce in 2008, a judge ordered that they participate in a "parenting education program."

Peter Lanza, who drove to northern New Jersey to talk to police and the FBI, is a vice president at GE Capital and had been a partner at global accounting giant Ernst & Young.

Adam's older brother Ryan Lanza, 24, has worked at Ernst & Young for four years, apparently following in his father's footsteps and carving out a solid niche in the tax practice. He too was interviewed by the FBI. Neither he nor his father is under any suspicion.

Tragedy at the Elementary School: What Happened in Newtown, Conn. Watch Video

Newtown, Connecticut Shooting: 27 Killed, Gunman Dead Watch Video

"[Ryan] is a tax guy and he is clean as a whistle," a source familiar with his work said.

Police had initially identified Ryan as the killer. Ryan sent out a series of Facebook posts saying it wasn't him and that he was at work all day. Video records as well as card swipes at Ernst & Young verified his statement that he had been at the office.

Two federal sources told ABC News that identification belonging to Ryan Lanza was found at the scene of the mass shooting. They say that identification may have led to the confusion by authorities during the first hours after the shooting. Neither Adam nor Ryan has any known criminal history.

A Sig Sauer handgun and a Glock handgun were used in the slaying and .223 shell casings – a round used in a semi-automatic military-style rifle -- were also found at the scene. Nancy Lanza had numerous weapons registered to her, including a Glock and a Sig Sauer. She also owned a Bushmaster rifle -- a semi-automatic carbine chambered for a .223 caliber round. However, federal authorities cannot confirm that the handguns or the rifle were the weapons recovered at the school.

Numerous relatives of the Lanzas in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, as well as multiple friends, are being interviewed by the FBI in an effort to put together a better picture of the gunman and any explanation for today's tragedy.

"I think the most important thing to point out with this kind of individual is that he did not snap this morning and decide to act out violently," said former FBI profiler Mary Ellen O'Toole. "These acts involve planning and thoughtfulness and strategizing in order to put the plan together so what may appear to be snap behavior is not that at all."

With reporting by Pierre Thomas, Jim Avila, Santina Leuci, Aaron Katersky, Matthew Mosk, Jason Ryan and Jay Shaylor

MORE: 27 Dead, Mostly Children, at Connecticut Elementary School Shooting

LIVE UPDATES: Newton, Conn. School Shooting

Click Here for the Blotter Homepage.

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Permian mass extinction triggered by humble microbe

AROUND 251 million years ago, over 90 per cent of the species on Earth suddenly went extinct. Their killer may not have been a devastating meteorite or a catastrophic volcanic eruption, but a humble microbe.

The prevailing theory is that the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period was triggered by volcanic eruptions over a vast area of what is now Siberia. This led, among other things, to a dramatic rise in greenhouse gas emissions.

But the scenario just doesn't fit the facts, says Daniel Rothman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From his analysis of an end-Permian sediment sample from China, Rothman says carbon levels surged much too quickly for geological processes to be at work.

Microbes can generate carbon compounds that fast, though. When Rothman's group analysed the genome of Methanosarcina - a methanogen responsible for most of Earth's biogenic methane today - they discovered that the microbe gained this ability about 231 million years ago. The date was close to that of the mass extinction, but not close enough to suggest a link.

But Methanosarcina needs large amounts of nickel to produce methane quickly. When the team went back to their sediment cores, they discovered that nickel levels spiked almost exactly 251 million years ago - probably because the Siberian lavas were rich in the metal. That suggests Methanosarcina did trigger the extinction, Rothman told the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco last week.

Other geologists remain to be convinced. "[But] it's a fascinating idea that the evolution of a new life form led to an extinction," says Anthony Barnosky of the University of California, Berkeley. Today's mass extinction of biodiversity is similar, says Barnosky, because it is largely driven by our species.

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.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

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Enough blood for injured Navy serviceman & others in need

SINGAPORE: Singapore Red Cross and the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said injured Navy serviceman Jason Chee is well supported by the National Blood Programme.

In a joint statement, they assured well wishers that there is sufficient blood for his surgeries.

The statement revealed that the Singapore Red Cross has already been recalling donors who are due for donation and blood donors of O+ type to ensure sufficient stock.

SRC and HSA thanked donors who have been prompted by Mr Chee's incident to come forward to donate blood.

They clarified that directed and replacement donations -- where families and friends are obliged to donate blood for the patient or to replace blood used by the patient -- are not practised in Singapore.

The statement said blood collected at the blood banks is available to all patients who need it.

It added that voluntary and non-remunerated blood donation is key to the safety and quality of Singapore's blood supply.

It noted that because of the regular contribution of donors, there was sufficient blood for Mr Chee and others when they needed transfusions.

Mr Chee, a regular serviceman, was injured on Monday after he got caught between a motorised winch and a rope on Landing Ship Tank RSS Endeavour.

His elderly father has been shaken by the news, and has been taken care of by relatives.

Mr Chee is the family's only child and sole breadwinner.

He recently lost his mother, who was a kidney dialysis patient.

Mr Chee had been working on board the ship in the Gulf of Aden on anti-piracy patrol when he received news of his mother's worsening condition.

The Navy had flown him home to be with his mother. He was in Singapore when she died.

- CNA/xq

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Crave giveaway: Sprint LG Optimus G smartphone

Congrats to Oliver M. of Anaheim, Calif., for winning a copy of Symantec's Norton 360 Multi-Device security suite in last week's giveaway. Now, for this week's prize... Is your smartphone starting to look (and act) a bit shabby? You're in luck! We're offering up a free LG Optimus G from Sprint (please note: you'll be responsible for your own voice and data plan; Sprint includes an unlimited data plan among its choices).

CNET reviewers love this quad-core Android smartphone, calling it "undoubtedly the best phone LG has ever offered." In particular, they're fond of the phone's zippy Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor, attractively bright 4.7-inch display, and 13-megapixel camera. The device is also 4G LTE-enabled.

The phone sports a 13-megapixel camera.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Normally, the LG Optimus G would run you $549.99 without a contract, but you have the chance to get one gratis. How do you go about doing that? There are a few rules, so please read carefully.

• Register as a CNET user. Go to the top of this page and hit the Join CNET link to start the registration process. If you're already registered, there's no need to register again.


• Leave a comment below. You can leave whatever comment you want. If it's funny or insightful, it won't help you win, but we're trying to have fun here, so anything entertaining is appreciated.


• Leave only one comment. You may enter for this specific giveaway only once. If you enter more than one comment, you will be automatically disqualified.
  


• The winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Sprint LG Optimus G, with a retail value of $549.99.


• If you are chosen, you will be notified via e-mail. The winner must respond within three days of the end of the sweepstakes. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.


• Entries can be submitted until Monday, December 17, at 12 p.m. ET.

And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, December 17, 2012. See official rules for details.

Good luck.

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Global Checkup: Most People Living Longer, But Sicker

If the world's entire population went in for a collective checkup, would the doctor's prognosis be good or bad? Both, according to new studies published in The Lancet medical journal.

The vast collaborative effort, called the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, includes papers by nearly 500 authors in 50 countries. Spanning four decades of data, it represents the most comprehensive analysis ever undertaken of health problems around the world.

It reveals that, globally, we're living longer but coping with more illness as adults. In 1990, "childhood underweight"—a condition associated with malnutrition, measles, malaria, and other infectious diseases—was the world's biggest health problem. Now the top causes of global disease are adult ailments: high blood pressure (associated with 9.4 million deaths in 2010), tobacco smoking (6.2 million), and alcohol use (4.9 million).

First, the good news:

We're living longer. Average life expectancy has risen globally since 1970 and has increased in all but eight of the world's countries within the past decade.

Both men and women are gaining years. From 1970 to 2010, the average lifespan rose from 56.4 years to 67.5 years for men, and from 61.2 years to 73.3 years for women.

Efforts to combat childhood diseases and malnutrition have been very successful. Deaths in children under five years old declined almost 60 percent in the past four decades.

Developing countries have made huge strides in public health. In the Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Iran, and Peru, life expectancy has increased by more than 20 years since 1970. Within the past two decades, gains of 12 to 15 years have occurred in Angola, Ethiopia, Niger, and Rwanda, an indication of successful strategies for curbing HIV, malaria, and nutritional deficiencies.

We're beating many communicable diseases. Thanks to improvements in sanitation and vaccination, the death rate for diarrheal diseases, lower respiratory infections, meningitis, and other common infectious diseases has dropped by 42 percent since 1990.

And the bad:

Non-infectious diseases are on the rise, accounting for two of every three deaths globally in 2010. Heart disease and stroke are the primary culprits.

Young adults aren't doing as well as others. Deaths in the 15 to 49 age bracket have increased globally in the past 20 years. The reasons vary by region, but diabetes, smoking, alcohol, HIV/AIDS, and malaria all play a role.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is taking a toll in sub-Saharan Africa. Life expectancy has declined overall by one to seven years in Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and young adult deaths have surged by more than 500 percent since 1970 in South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

We drink too much. Alcohol overconsumption is a growing problem in the developed world, especially in Eastern Europe, where it accounts for almost a quarter of the total disease burden. Worldwide, it has become the top risk factor for people ages 15 to 49.

We eat too much, and not the right things. Deaths attributable to obesity are on the rise, with 3.4 million in 2010 compared to 2 million in 1990. Similarly, deaths attributable to dietary risk factors and physical inactivity have increased by 50 percent (4 million) in the past 20 years. Overall, we're consuming too much sodium, trans fat, processed meat, and sugar-sweetened beverages, and not enough fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, fiber, calcium, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Smoking is a lingering problem. Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke, is still the top risk factor for disease in North America and Western Europe, just as it was in 1990. Globally, it's risen in rank from the third to second leading cause of disease.

To find out more and see related charts and graphics, see the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which led the collaboration.

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What Is a Right-to-Work Law?

This week Michigan became the 24th state in the country to adopt a right-to-work law. The passage of the bill by the state legislature, and eventual signing by Rick Snyder, the state's Republican governor, brought a huge wave of protests in a state with deep union roots.

Right-to-work laws have garnered a lot of national attention in recent years as more states have implemented this legislation that prohibits unions from requiring workers to pay dues as a condition of their employment. The laws are meant to regulate agreements between employers and labor unions that would prohibit the employer from hiring non-union workers.

The laws are particularly divisive--proponents argue that businesses will be more likely to set up shop in the state, while opponents argue that weakening union power will lead to lower wages. Because each state has a variety of factors that must be considered individually when assessing its overall economic standing, it's difficult to fully assess the validity of each side's argument, since you can't isolate the direct effect of these laws on the state's economy.

However, a study conducted in 2007 by Lonnie Stevans of Hofstra University suggested that both sides of the argument are, to some degree, accurate.

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"Findings are that the number of businesses and self-employed are greater on average in right-to-work states, but employment, wages, and per-capita personal income are all lower on average in right-to-work states," Stevans wrote.

But he noted that there was little "trickle down" from the business owners to the workers--the laws benefitted the business owners who did not have to contend with union contracts, but business employees didn't get those same positive effects--as evidenced by the lower salaries on average.

An analysis by ABC News of the most recent seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in states with right-to-work laws vs. those without such laws found that on average, the unemployment rate in states with right to work laws was slightly lower than those without. The average unemployment rate in the 24 states with right-to-work laws was 7 percent, while the average rate in the 26 states plus D.C. that do not have right-to-work laws was just under 7.6 percent--a difference of just under .6 percent.

The state with the lowest unemployment rate in the country--Nebraska at just 3.8 percent unemployment--has such a law in place, as does the state with the highest unemployment rate, Nevada at 11.5 percent.

Support for the laws has often tended to fall along party lines, with Democrats opposing and Republicans supporting. The vast majority of states with right-to-work laws are Republican led, the majority of states without are led by Democrats.

Below is the list of the 24 states with right-to-work laws.

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Louisiana

Michigan

Mississippi

Nebraska

Nevada

North Carolina

North Dakota

Oklahoma

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Virginia

Wyoming

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Robot apps get a cash boost

APPS aren't just for your smartphone. The one-year-old Robot-App Store got a cash boost this week in the form of $250,000 from the first company dedicated to investing in consumer robotics.

Dmitry Grishin, founder of Grishin Robotics, already spent $250,000 on a telepresent robotics company called Double Robotics in September, and plans to invest a total of $25 million in the field.

Grishin says software like the apps on offer at the Robot-App Store is the key to creating a vibrant market in household robots. "Once you find a cool app, it will help to sell robots." He compares robots to computers. "A good application, like a spreadsheet, helped to sell PCs and to grow the PC market."

One app from the Robot-App Store makes the NAO robot (pictured) whistle and say "Hello, gorgeous" whenever it detects a face. Another allows you to steer the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner using your keyboard.

No killer app yet perhaps, but Grishin says that will come with the establishment of a "robot ecosystem", in which more developers create apps for a growing pool of consumers, who are in turn encouraged by the number of apps to choose from.

The world of robot software is certainly maturing. The open source Robot Operating System celebrated its fifth birthday in November.

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.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

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Fare increases needed to improve service to commuters, says Lui Tuck Yew

SINGAPORE: Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew has said fare increases are needed to improve service to commuters while keeping public transport operations commercially viable.

In a Facebook post, Mr Lui said fare increases are not to boost the short-term profits of Public Transport Operators (PTOs) or improve the salaries of bus drivers.

He said that's why the government must work with the PTOs to ensure that when granted any fare increase, they would re-invest part of this revenue to improve the public transport system to benefit commuters.

This can be in hardware, like more buses and trains and upgrading the signalling systems.

It can also be in software, like better terms and salaries for staff. This includes bus drivers and train operators, as well as the maintenance and service personnel.

Mr Lui said as fares increase, the government will have to play a larger role to keep the public transport system affordable.

He said there must be a concerted and sustained effort to upgrade the bus driving profession.

Employment terms and conditions must also be improved further to recruit new drivers and retain existing ones in order to ramp up bus capacity over the next few years.

On who pays for the increased costs, Mr Lui said there must be a proper balance among commuters in fares, or taxpayers in government subsidies, or the PTOs.

He said the government is fully committed to an affordable public transport system for the middle-income groups, the lower-income groups, the disabled community, and other vulnerable groups.

He said the bottom line is this. It is a matter of all the stakeholders - the PTOs, the government, and commuters - coming together to ensure everyone enjoys a reliable, high-quality and affordable public transport system.

- CNA/de

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Social media notes on the 12-12-12 Concert

A screen shot of 121212concert.org, featuring the night's last act, Sir Paul McCartney. As you can see, one of the author's tweets

12-12-12 was a day tailor-made for social media and there was a lot going on timed to the date. Here are some notes from the serious to the ridiculous:

12-12-12, THE DATE: Millions of people spent the days talking about the rare confluence of numbers (won't happen again till 01/01/01 in 2101), starting with 12:12:12 am local time, on Facebook and Twitter and continued around the world, hitting a peak at 12:12:12 pm local time. I, too, gave into the hype and posted a screen grab of the official US atomic clock at Time.gov turning 12:12:12 pm.

There were, of course, thousands of others making fun of all the 12-12-12 obsessed. Among them, Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff), who tweeted:
"Did you know that today is 12-12-12? Amazing! This is the only chance I'll ever have to share this incredibly dull fact!"

Here's a collection by BuzzFeed of how various corporations from McDonald's to UPS handled 12-12-12.

No one took the 12:12:12 idea more seriously than India-based entrepreneur Sharik Currimbhoy, who donated $12.12 million to his alma mater and my employer, Columbia University. The press release said, "The gift is timed to coincide with the auspicious moment of 12:12 p.m. on Wednesday, December 12, 2012--12:12 on 12-12-12."

RIP, RAVI SHANKAR: The first unusual thing I noticed after the date business was the fact that the name Ravi Shankar was trending worldwide. You wouldn't expect the passing of a 92-year-old sitar player from India to be that widely noted, but it certainly was. I tweeted a screen grab of the trending chart, saying: "Nice to see Ravi Shankar trending, thx in part to tweets from folks as different as @MarioBatali & @CoryBooker." 

Shankar became famous in the U.S. because of his work with the Beatles (though Slate's Geeta Dayal - @GeetaDayal - reminds us "Ravi Shankar wasn't just the Indian guy who hung out with the Beatles." The fact that he was the father of superstar Norah Jones (@NorahJones) and her half-sister, sitarist Anoushka Shankar (@ShankarAnoushka), who was nominated for a Grammy this week, played a role in younger folks' interest.

12-12-12, THE CONCERT: The day ended with an all-star benefit concert along the lines of what's been done for the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Asian tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Haiti earthquake in 2010. The "12-12-12" concert, for Superstorm Sandy relief in New York and New Jersey, had a lot of hype built into it, starting with its memorable date, the brand-name performers and the fact that it was being broadcast live on 37 networks in the US and more than 100 overseas and streamed live on many major sites (the night's quasi emcee, Billy Crystal, promised an audience of 2 billion). There were also many celebrities manning the phone banks and brought attention to the festivities.

The concert was held at Madison Square Garden, which was also the site, in 1971, of the first of these massive benefit concerts, created, of all people, by Ravi Shankar and George Harrison. The Concert of Bangladesh (here's the Wikipedia entry; and here are several video excerpts), has quite the legacy. It inspired Bob Geldof's 1995 Live Aid concert and continues to have an impact as proceeds from the concert album and DVD benefit the George Harrison Fund for UNICEF, which has programs in Bangladesh today.

Alas, no mention of the 1971 concert or Shankar's passing was made at the 12-12-12 concert, though that would have been timely and the right thing to do (below a quick video remembering Shankar and Harrison by video news newcomer Now This News). Eric Clapton was the only star at both concerts.

Social media was baked into many parts of the evening. The #121212concert hashtag was constantly plugged on the air (see my earlier post on the right way and wrong way to do hashtags on TV). Many of the celebrities used their Twitter accounts to promote the concert before and during the gathering. Examples: Here's Cold Play (@ColdPlay), tweeting about it's lead singer Chris Martin's performance: "Don't forget, Chris plays at tomorrow's @121212Concert for Hurricane Sandy victims. Live stream info: http://bit.ly/121212Watch #121212Concert." Here's Alicia Keys (@AliciaKeys), who tweeted an Instagram of herself at the piano: "Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, and ME?! WTF?! ;-) #121212Concert"

The 121212concert.org site has prominent links to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google+ and GetGlue (a mobile-based social network that let's users check-in to TV shows, films, concerts, etc). There were electronic signs around the stage promoting highlighted tweets, encouraging those in the audience to tweet, too. And the

The site also highlighted tweets from such high-profile accounts as @MickJagger, @GQMagazine, @NYRangers and @KimKardashian. Into that mix, somehow, one of my tweets sneaked in, as you can see from the screen shot at the top of this post: "Almost entire cast of Sopranos is working the phone bank right now, so some of you may want to call 1-855-465-4357 & donate #121212concert" (this generated 63 retweets and 20 favorites as I write this).

Some of my other tweets got more than 10 retweets:
* At 9:16 pm ET, I tweeted this: #121212concert hasn't had any women or people of color sing yet - 105 minutes and counting. Great acts so far, but... [It was almost 180 before Alicia Keys took the stage. In a sign of the times, she kept telling the audience to "put your cellphones in the air" as she sang her hit "No One."]

* At 10:06 pm, I tweeted this: #121212concert needs on-screen listings of who's who & what they're performing. My kids don't know the old stuff and I don't know the new.

* At 12:23 am, I tweeted this: "I know that you really wanted @OneDirection, but it's way past their bedtime" - Chris Martin of @ColdPlay apologizing at #121212concert [Martin had a great line, reflecting on being the youngest person on the show. He said if everything donated the average age of the performers, we'd raise billions."]

Rapper Kanye West (@KanyeWest) trended during his performance, though it wasn't necessarily for his music. He was wearing something that looked like a cross between a kilt and skirt, and, sure enough, people were talking about #kanyeskilt.

The six-hour concert ended with Sir Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) performing with a variety of musicians, including a rare appearance by the remaining members of Nirvana, which set Twitter abuzz.

The fundraising, through the Robin Hood Foundation, carries on and you can still donate at 121212concert.org.

Did you catch the concert on TV, the web or just via glancing blows on social media? Share your thoughts in the comments below, please.

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Hubble Discovers Oldest Known Galaxy

The Hubble space telescope has discovered seven primitive galaxies formed in the earliest days of the cosmos, including one believed to be the oldest ever detected.

The discovery, announced Wednesday, is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign to determine how and when galaxies first assembled following the Big Bang.

"This 'cosmic dawn' was not a single, dramatic event," said astrophysicist Richard Ellis with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Rather, galaxies appear to have been formed over hundreds of millions of years.

Ellis led a team that used Hubble to look at one small section of the sky for a hundred hours. The grainy images of faint galaxies include one researchers determined to be from a period 380 million years after the onset of the universe—the closest in time to the Big Bang ever observed.

The cosmos is about 13.7 billion years old, so the newly discovered galaxy was present when the universe was 4 percent of its current age. The other six galaxies were sending out light from between 380 million and 600 million years after the Big Bang. (See pictures of "Hubble's Top Ten Discoveries.")

Baby Pictures

The images are "like the first ultrasounds of [an] infant," said Abraham Loeb, a specialist in the early cosmos at Harvard University. "These are the building blocks of the galaxies we now have."

These early galaxies were a thousand times denser than galaxies are now and were much closer together as well, Ellis said. But they were also less luminous than later galaxies.

The team used a set of four filters to analyze the near infrared wavelengths captured by Hubble Wide Field Camera 3, and estimated the galaxies' distances from Earth by studying their colors. At a NASA teleconference, team members said they had pushed Hubble's detection capabilities about as far as they could go and would most likely not be able to identify galaxies from further back in time until the James Webb Space Telescope launches toward the end of the decade. (Learn about the Hubble telescope.)

"Although we may have reached back as far as Hubble will see, Hubble has set the stage for Webb," said team member Anton Koekemoer of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "Our work indicates there is a rich field of even earlier galaxies that Webb will be able to study."

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Workers' Party ready to offer voters a choice again

SINGAPORE: The Workers' Party (WP), which contested the 2011 general election in the Punggol East Single Member Constituency (SMC), said it is ready to offer voters a choice again in a by-election.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the WP said it has noted the announcement that the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Michael Palmer, has resigned from the People's Action Party and, by virtue of Article 46 of the Constitution, Mr Palmer's Parliamentary seat for Punggol East SMC has become vacant.

It added, that for the residents of Punggol East to be properly represented, the Workers' Party urges the Prime Minister to call a by-election in the constituency as soon as possible.

The WP statement came shortly after Mr Michael Palmer, the Speaker of Singapore Parliament and MP for Punggol East SMC, resigned over a "grave mistake" of having an improper relationship with a staff member of the People's Association.

- CNA/ck/sf

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MediaTek joins Samsung, Nvidia quad-core club

MediaTek will take on Samsung and Nvidia in the emerging market for mobile quad-core chips.

The Hsinchu, Taiwan-based company announced today the MT6589, a quad-core system-on-a-chip (SoC) that integrates a modem supporting HSPA+ and other international standards.

Integration of a modem into a quad-core chip is a first, the company says.

The processor is based on ARM's Cortex-A7 design, the same technology used in Qualcomm's upcoming quad-core S4 processors.

But that Qualcomm chip won't be available commercially until well into next year. The MediaTek chip, on the other hand, will appear in smartphones that are expected to ship in the first quarter of 2013.

That said, there isn't exactly a dearth of quad-core competition. Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 is already used in phones from HTC. And the Galaxy S3 uses Samsung's new Exynos 4 Quad chip.

The MediaTek MT6589 supports 1080p 30fps/30fps low-power video playback and recording, a 13MP camera, and up to a 1,920x1,080 resolution display.

No carriers announced smartphones using the chip today. Those phone roll-outs are expected next year.

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal Observatory

This image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.

To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon and evening planets, then take in the Perseids meteor shower.

"We live in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, so when we gaze through the thickness of our galaxy, we see it as a band of dense star fields encircling the sky," said Marek Kukula, the Royal Observatory's public astronomer and a contest judge.

Full story>>

Why We Love It

"I like the way this view of the Milky Way also shows us a compelling foreground landscape. It also hints at the astronomy problems caused by light pollution."—Chris Combs, news photo editor

Published December 11, 2012

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Gunman 'Tentatively' Identified in Oregon Shooting

A masked gunman who opened fire in the crowded Clackamas Town Center mall in suburban Portland, Ore., killing two individuals before killing himself, has been "tentatively" identified by police, though they have not yet released his name.

The shooter, wearing a white hockey mask, black clothing, and a bullet proof vest, tore through the mall around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, entering through a Macy's store and proceeding to the food court and public areas spraying bullets, according to witness reports.

Police have not released the names of the deceased. Clackamas County Sheriff's Department Lt. James Rhodes said authorities are in the process of notifying victims' families.

The injured victim has been transported to a local hospital, according to Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts.

PHOTOS: Oregon Mall Shooting

Nadia Telguz, who said she was a friend of the injured victim, told ABC News affiliate KATU-TV in Portland that the woman was expected to recover.

"My friend's sister got shot," Teleguz told KATU. "She's on her way to (Oregon Health and Science University hospital). They're saying she got shot in her side and so it's not life-threatening, so she'll be OK."

Christopher Onstott/Pamplen Media Group/Portland Tribune

911 Calls From New Jersey Supermarket Shooting Watch Video

Witnesses from the shooting rampage said that a young man who appeared to be a teenager ran through the upper level of Macy's to the mall food court, firing multiple shots, one right after the other, with what is believed to be a black, semi-automatic rifle.

More than 10,000 shoppers were at the mall during the day, police said. Roberts said that officers responded to the scene of the shooting within minutes, and four SWAT teams swept the 1.4 million-square-foot building searching for the shooter. He was eventually found dead, an apparent suicide.

"I can confirm the shooter is dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound," Rhodes said. "By all accounts there were no rounds fired by law enforcement today in the mall."

Roberts said more than 100 law enforcement officers responded to the shooting, and at least four local agencies were working on the investigation, including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which is working to trace the shooter's weapon.

READ: Guns in America: A Statistical Look

Roberts also said that shoppers, including two emergency room nurses and one physician who happened to be at the mall, provided medical assistance to victims who had been shot. Other shoppers helped escort individuals out of the mall and out of harm's way, he said.

"There were a huge amount of people running in different directions, and it was chaos for a lot of citizens, but true heroes were stepping up in this time of high stress," Roberts said. "E.R. nurses on the scene were providing medical care to those injured, a physician on the scene was helping provide care to the wounded."

Mall shopper Daniel Martinez told KATU that he had just sat down at a Jamba Juice inside the mall when he heard rapid gunfire. He turned and saw the masked gunman, dressed in all black, about 10 feet away from him.

"I just saw him (the gunman) and thought, 'I need to go somewhere,'" Martinez said. "It was so fast, and at that time, everyone was moving around."

Martinez said he ran to the nearest clothing store. As he ran, he motioned for another woman to follow; several others ran to the store as well, hiding in a fitting room. They stayed there for an hour and a half until SWAT teams told them it was safe to leave the mall.

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Japan researchers invent solar-cell fabric

TOKYO: Clothes that could literally light up your life were unveiled Tuesday by Japanese researchers who said their solar-cell fabric would eventually let wearers harvest energy on the go.

The new fabric is made of wafer-thin solar cells woven together that could see people powering up their mobile phones and other electronics with their sweater or trousers.

But its creators conceded there was work to do before taking the fabric to market.

"We still have things to solve before commercialisation, such as coating for the conductive wires and improving the fabric's durability," said an official at the Industrial Technology Center in central Japan's Fukui Prefecture.

"But we've already been contacted by electronics makers, blind makers and others who showed interested in our invention."

The centre developed the fabric with a Kyoto-based solar cell maker and other private firms, the official said.

Solar power generation is attracting renewed attention in Japan as the country looks to alternative energy sources in the aftermath of last year's tsunami-sparked atomic crisis, the worst nuclear accident in a generation.

-AFP/fl

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Twitter vs. Instagram in a knock-down, drag out filters fight

With one bold step Monday, Twitter took the photo filtering fight directly to Instagram.

Until yesterday, Instagram was the undisputed leader when it comes to mobile photo filtering and sharing. But with its release of a new version of its mobile app that enables filters, Twitter has launched a very credible challenge to the crown.

To be sure, Instagram has a massive lead, and a very passionate community. But Twitter has a nine-figure user base, and now that it is offering filters -- albeit just eight, while Instagram has 18 free filters -- it can begin to chip away at its competitor's lead.

There's only one way to decide whose filters are best, though, and that's to compare them side by side. With that in mind, CNET took a single photograph and applied each of Twitter's and Instagram's free filters. Only you can decide which is best.

Which filter do you think is best? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section.

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U.K. Dash for Shale Gas a Test for Global Fracking

Thomas K. Grose in London

The starting gun has sounded for the United Kingdom's "dash for gas," as the media here have dubbed it.

As early as this week, a moratorium on shale gas production is expected to be lifted. And plans to streamline and speed the regulatory process through a new Office for Unconventional Gas and Oil were unveiled last week in the annual autumn budget statement by the chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne.

In the U.K., where all underground mineral rights concerning fossil fuels belong to the crown, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could unlock a new stream of government revenue as well as fuel. But it also means that there is no natural constituency of fracking supporters as there is in the United States, birthplace of the technology. In the U.S., concerns over land and water impact have held back fracking in some places, like New York, but production has advanced rapidly in shale basins from Texas to Pennsylvania, with support of private landowners who earn royalties from leasing to gas companies. (Related: "Natural Gas Stirs Hope and Fear in Pennsylvania")

A taste of the fight ahead in the U.K. came ahead of Osborne's speech last weekend, when several hundred protesters gathered outside of Parliament with a mock 23-foot (7-meter) drilling rig. In a letter they delivered to Prime Minister David Cameron, they called fracking "an unpredictable, unregulatable process" that was potentially toxic to the environment.

Giving shale gas a green light "would be a costly mistake," said Andy Atkins, executive director of the U.K.'s Friends of the Earth, in a statement. "People up and down the U.K. will be rightly alarmed about being guinea pigs in Osborne's fracking experiment. It's unnecessary, unwanted and unsafe."

The government has countered that natural gas-fired power plants would produce half the carbon dioxide emissions of the coal plants that still provide about 30 percent of the U.K.'s electricity. London Mayor Boris Johnson, viewed as a potential future prime minister, weighed in Monday with a blistering cry for Britain to "get fracking" to boost cleaner, cheaper energy and jobs. "In their mad denunciations of fracking, the Greens and the eco-warriors betray the mindset of people who cannot bear a piece of unadulterated good news," he wrote in the Daily Telegraph. (Related Quiz: "What You Don't Know About Natural Gas")

Energy Secretary Edward Davey, who is expected this week to lift the U.K.'s year-and-a-half-old moratorium on shale gas exploration, said gas "will ensure we can keep the lights on as increasing amounts of wind and nuclear come online through the 2020s."

A Big Role for Gas

If the fracking plan advances, it will not be the first "dash for gas" in the U.K. In the 1980s, while Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher battled with mining unions, she undercut their clout by moving the nation toward generating a greater share of its electricity from natural gas and less from coal. So natural gas already is the largest electricity fuel in Britain, providing 40 percent of electricity. (Related Interactive: "World Electricity Mix")

The United Kingdom gets about 10 percent of its electricity from renewable energy, and has plans to expand its role. But Davey has stressed the usefulness of gas-fired plants long-term as a flexible backup source to the intermittent electricity generated from wind and solar power. Johnson, on the other hand, offered an acerbic critique of renewables, including the "satanic white mills" he said were popping up on Britain's landscape. "Wave power, solar power, biomass—their collective oomph wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding," he wrote.

As recently as 2000, Great Britain was self-sufficient in natural gas because of conventional gas production in the North Sea. But that source is quickly drying up. North Sea production peaked in 2000 at 1,260 terawatt-hours (TWH); last year it totaled just 526 TWh.

Because of the North Sea, the U.K. is still one of the world's top 20 producers of gas, accounting for 1.5 percent of total global production. But Britain has been a net importer of gas since 2004. Last year, gas imports—mainly from Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands—accounted for more than 40 percent of domestic demand.

The government hopes to revive domestic natural gas production with the technology that has transformed the energy picture in the United States—horizontal drilling into deep underground shale, and high-pressure injection of water, sand, and chemicals to create fissures in the rock to release the gas. (Related Interactive: "Breaking Fuel From the Rock")

A Tougher Road

But for a number of reasons, the political landscape is far different in the United Kingdom. Britain made a foray into shale gas early last year, with a will drilled near Blackpool in northwest England. The operator, Cuadrilla, said that that area alone could contain 200 trillion cubic feet of gas, which is more than the known reserves of Iraq. But the project was halted after drilling, by the company's own admission, caused two small earthquakes. (Related: "Tracing Links Between Fracking and Earthquakes" and "Report Links Energy Activities To Higher Quake Risk") The April 2011 incident triggered the moratorium that government now appears to be ready to lift. Cuadrilla has argued that modifications to its procedures would mitigate the seismic risk, including lower injection rates and lesser fluid and sand volumes. The company said it will abandon the U.K. unless the moratorium is soon lifted.

A few days ahead of Osborne's speech, the Independent newspaper reported that maps created for Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) showed that 32,000 square miles, or 64 percent of the U.K. countryside, could hold shale gas reserves and thus be open for exploration. But a DECC spokeswoman said "things are not quite what it [the Independent story] suggests." Theoretically, she said, those gas deposits do exist, but "it is too soon to predict the scale of exploration here." She said many other issues, ranging from local planning permission to environmental impact, would mean that some tracts would be off limits, no matter how much reserve they held. DECC has commissioned the British Geological Survey to map the extent of Britain's reserves.

Professor Paul Stevens, a fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said the U.K. is clearly interested in trying to replicate America's shale gas revolution. "That's an important part of the story," he said, but trying to use the American playbook won't be easy. "It's a totally different ballgame." In addition to the fact that mineral rights belong to the crown, large expanses of private land that are commonplace in America don't exist in England. Just as important, there is no oil- and gas-service industry in place in Britain to quickly begin shale gas operations here. "We don't have the infrastructure set up," said Richard Davies, director of the Durham Energy Institute at Durham University, adding that it would take years to build it.

Shale gas production would also likely ignite bigger and louder protests in the U.K. and Europe. "It's much more of a big deal in Europe," Stevens said. "There are more green [nongovernmental organizations] opposed to it, and a lot more local opposition."

In any case, the U.K. government plans to move ahead. Osborne said he'll soon begin consultations on possible tax breaks for the shale gas industry. He also announced that Britain would build up to 30 new natural gas-fired power plants with 26 gigawatts (GW) of capacity. The new gas plants would largely replace decommissioned coal and nuclear power plants, though they would ultimately add 5GW of additional power to the U.K. grid. The coalition government's plan, however, leaves open the possibility of increasing the amount of gas-generated electricity to 37GW, or around half of total U.K. demand.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that Europe may have as much as 600 trillion cubic feet of shale gas that could be recovered. But Stevens said no European country is ready to emulate the United States in producing massive amounts of unconventional gas. They all lack the necessary service industry, he said, and geological differences will require different technologies. And governments aren't funding the research and development needed to develop them.

Globally, the track record for efforts to produce shale gas is mixed:

• In France, the EIA's estimate is that shale gas reserves total 5 trillion cubic meters, or enough to fuel the country for 90 years. But in September, President Francois Hollande pledged to continue a ban on fracking imposed last year by his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.
• Poland was also thought to have rich shale gas resources, but initial explorations have determined that original estimates of the country's reserves were overstated by 80 percent to 90 percent. After drilling two exploratory wells there, Exxon Mobil stopped operations. But because of its dependence on Russian gas, Poland is still keen to begin shale gas production.
• South Africa removed a ban on fracking earlier this year. Developers are eyeing large shale gas reserves believed to underlie the semidesert Karoo between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
• Canada's Quebec Province has had a moratorium on shale gas exploration and production, but a U.S. drilling company last month filed a notice of intent to sue to overturn the ban as a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
• Germany's Environment Ministry has backed a call to ban fracking near drinking water reservoirs.
• China drilled its initial shale gas wells this year; by 2020, the nation's goal is for shale gas to provide 6 percent of its massive energy needs. The U.S. government's preliminary assessment is that China has the world's largest "technically recoverable" shale resources, about 50 percent larger than stores in the United States. (Related: "China Drills Into Shale Gas, Targeting Huge Reserves")

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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SEAL Killed in Rescue Mission Identified

The Pentagon has identified Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas Checque as the Navy SEAL who died of injuries sustained in the successful rescue of an American doctor from the Taliban over the weekend.

Checque, who hailed from Monroeville, Pa., died of "combat related injuries," according to a Pentagon release. Though the release only said Checque was assigned to "an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit," ABC News previously reported the fallen servicemember was a part of the Navy's elite SEAL Team 6, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden.

Checque, 28, sustained his mortal injuries while on a nighttime mission Saturday to free Dr. Dilip Joseph, an American doctor who worked for an non-governmental organization based in Kabul. Joseph was kidnapped by the Taliban earlier this month and American officials believed he was in imminent danger.

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Joseph's family released a statement thanking the U.S. government and military for the operation and offering their condolences to Checque's family.

"We could not be more grateful for that soldier's heroism and for the bravery of all involved in the mission to bring Dilip home," the statement said.

Before Checque was identified publicly, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Sunday he was "deeply saddened" to learn one of the servicemen had died.

"The special operators who conducted this raid knew they were putting their lives on the line to free a fellow American from the enemy's grip. They put the safety of another American ahead of their own, as so many of our brave warriors do every day and every night. In this fallen hero, and all of our special operators, Americans see the highest ideals of citizenship, sacrifice and service upheld. The torch of freedom burns brighter because of them," Panetta said.

President Obama also praised the Special Operations force for their bravery.

"Yesterday, our special operators in Afghanistan rescued an American citizen in a mission that was characteristic of the extraordinary courage, skill and patriotism that our troops show every day," he said Sunday.

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Why the world is arguing over who runs the internet

The ethos of freedom from control that underpins the web is facing its first serious test, says Wendy M. Grossman

WHO runs the internet? For the past 30 years, pretty much no one. Some governments might call this a bug, but to the engineers who designed the protocols, standards, naming and numbering systems of the internet, it's a feature.

The goal was to build a network that could withstand damage and would enable the sharing of information. In that, they clearly succeeded - hence the oft-repeated line from John Gilmore, founder of digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation: "The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." These pioneers also created a robust platform on which a guy in a dorm room could build a business that serves a billion people.

But perhaps not for much longer. This week, 2000 people have gathered for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates to discuss, in part, whether they should be in charge.

The stated goal of the Dubai meeting is to update the obscure International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), last revised in 1988. These relate to the way international telecom providers operate. In charge of this process is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an agency set up in 1865 with the advent of the telegraph. Its $200 million annual budget is mainly funded by membership fees from 193 countries and about 700 companies. Civil society groups are only represented if their governments choose to include them in their delegations. Some do, some don't. This is part of the controversy: the WCIT is effectively a closed shop.

Vinton Cerf, Google's chief internet evangelist and co-inventor of the TCP/IP internet protocols, wrote in May that decisions in Dubai "have the potential to put government handcuffs on the net".

The need to update the ITRs isn't surprising. Consider what has happened since 1988: the internet, Wi-Fi, broadband, successive generations of mobile telephony, international data centres, cloud computing. In 1988, there were a handful of telephone companies - now there are thousands of relevant providers.

Controversy surrounding the WCIT gathering has been building for months. In May, 30 digital and human rights organisations from all over the world wrote to the ITU with three demands: first, that it publicly release all preparatory documents and proposals; second, that it open the process to civil society; and third that it ask member states to solicit input from all interested groups at national level. In June, two academics at George Mason University in Virginia - Jerry Brito and Eli Dourado - set up the WCITLeaks site, soliciting copies of the WCIT documents and posting those they received. There were still gaps in late November when .nxt, a consultancy firm and ITU member, broke ranks and posted the lot on its own site.

The issue entered the mainstream when Greenpeace and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) launched the Stop the Net Grab campaign, demanding that the WCIT be opened up to outsiders. At the launch of the campaign on 12 November, Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the ITUC, pledged to fight for as long it took to ensure an open debate on whether regulation was necessary. "We will stay the distance," she said.

This marks the first time that such large, experienced, international campaigners, whose primary work has nothing to do with the internet, have sought to protect its freedoms. This shows how fundamental a technology the internet has become.

A week later, the European parliament passed a resolution stating that the ITU was "not the appropriate body to assert regulatory authority over either internet governance or internet traffic flows", opposing any efforts to extend the ITU's scope and insisting that its human rights principles took precedence. The US has always argued against regulation.

Efforts by ITU secretary general Hamadoun Touré to spread calm have largely failed. In October, he argued that extending the internet to the two-thirds of the world currently without access required the UN's leadership. Elsewhere, he has repeatedly claimed that the more radical proposals on the table in Dubai would not be passed because they would require consensus.

These proposals raise two key fears for digital rights campaigners. The first concerns censorship and surveillance: some nations, such as Russia, favour regulation as a way to control or monitor content transiting their networks.

The second is financial. Traditional international calls attract settlement fees, which are paid by the operator in the originating country to the operator in the terminating country for completing the call. On the internet, everyone simply pays for their part of the network, and ISPs do not charge to carry each other's traffic. These arrangements underpin network neutrality, the principle that all packets are delivered equally on a "best efforts" basis. Regulation to bring in settlement costs would end today's free-for-all, in which anyone may set up a site without permission. Small wonder that Google is one of the most vocal anti-WCIT campaigners.

How worried should we be? Well, the ITU cannot enforce its decisions, but, as was pointed out at the Stop the Net Grab launch, the system is so thoroughly interconnected that there is plenty of scope for damage if a few countries decide to adopt any new regulatory measures.

This is why so many people want to be represented in a dull, lengthy process run by an organisation that may be outdated to revise regulations that can be safely ignored. If you're not in the room you can't stop the bad stuff.

Wendy M. Grossman is a science writer and the author of net.wars (NYU Press)

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Jackie Chan wills HK$2.2 billion fortune to wife, charity

HONG KONG: Hong Kong superstar Jackie Chan revealed in a recent interview with a Hong Kong newspaper that he will leave his entire fortune, estimated to be worth about HK$2.2 billion (S$347 million), to his charity and his wife, Joan Lin, reported Hong Kong media.

Chan said he decided to do so after Lin stood by him, even when he strayed and had a daughter, Etta, with Hong Kong actress Elaine Ng in 1999.

The action star added that he does not intend to acknowledge Etta as it "is pointless even if I acknowledge her now", and would not include her in his will.

When asked for her response to Chan's comments, Ng said that it "did not concern" her, and stressed that she can care for her daughter alone.

Ng also clarified that she did not get a big 'breakup-fee' from Chan, after they parted ways many years ago, and said she no longer wished to talk about it as "it is all in the past".

Chan's son with Lin, Hong Kong actor Jaycee Chan, won't inherit anything either.

Jackie Chan, who is currently on the road to promote his new film "Chinese Zodiac", had previously expressed that he expected his son to make his own money.

"If he is capable, he can make his own money," said Chan, at a Beijing awards ceremony last year.

"If he is not, then he will just be wasting my money."

-CNA/ha

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Five lies your TV salesperson will tell you

Using the time-honored tactics of obfuscation, misdirection, and a little bit of fear, the people who try to sell you TVs can hit you with some heavy-duty lies.

Now this isn't to say that all TV sales people are bad, nor that any necessarily do this out of malice (there's plenty of misinformation out there confused as truth). But when it's your dollar on the line, being prepared with some facts can only be a good thing.

For a primer on all the jargon, check out "TV tech explainer: Every HDTV technology decoded."

'This TV has a million-to-one contrast ratio.'
No, it doesn't. Every TV manufacturer lies about contrast ratio. Not a single one is remotely accurate. So it's impossible to prescribe an exact number to any TV given only the manufacturers data. The fact is, plasmas have better native contrast ratios than LCDs (LED or otherwise). There are three local-dimming LED LCDs on the market this year (Elite by Sharp, Sony HX950, and LG LM9600), and they're all extremely expensive. These offer similar contrast ratios than the best plasmas, though not exactly. For more info, check out "Contrast ratio (or how every TV manufacturer lies to you)."

'This TV has better sound.'
You know what, let's say they're right. Let's say TV A has better sound than TV B. The fact is, no TV sounds good. So all they're really saying is, "This TV sounds less bad than this other TV."

The thinness that we all love in flat-panel TVs means the speaker drivers by their very nature have to be very small. Small drivers can't do much to create sound waves.

The wiser salespeople will direct you towards a sound bar or other home audio system. This is definitely where you should spend a few dollars. Pretty much every sound bar will sound better than the TV speakers, and the better sound bars actually sound pretty good.

Check out CNET's page on the best home audio and best sound bars.

'TVs break all the time. You need an extended warranty.'
Another example of this is "I see TVs come in for repair all the time." From a rhetorical standpoint, this is a rather brilliant argument. This person works at the store. They see lots of TVs coming in for repair. So as an "authority," this seems a valid point.

Except, it isn't.

What the salesperson isn't seeing, is all the TVs that don't come in for repair. Which is most of them. Flat-panel TVs are very reliable, so an extended warranty is a largely a waste of money.

'LED TVs have the best picture quality.'
Nope. First of all, there's no such thing as an "LED TV." Every
LED TV is just a standard LCD TV that uses LEDs to create light instead of the "old-fashioned" cold-cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL). LCDs have their positives, like light output and lower energy consumption, but when it comes to a direct picture quality comparison, plasmas have better black levels, better contrast ratios, and better viewing angles (for those not sitting directly in front of the TV). For example, four of the five TVs CNET picked for best picture quality are plasmas (the one LED LCD is also the most expensive TV you can buy per-screen-inch).

There's more to it than that, as I lay out in "Why LED does not mean a better picture" and "LED LCD vs. plasma vs. LCD."

'If you want the best picture and sound, you need the best HDMI cable.'
This is the one that annoys me the most, and I've written four articles about it for CNET alone. This is the one that eliminates any guilt I have impugning the good name of some hard-working salespeople. There is no picture or sound quality difference between any HDMI cable. None. At all. So if you spend $3 or $300, the image and sound will be 100 percent exactly the same.

I could talk about this forever, and indeed I have. Check out "Why all HDMI cables are the same,"
"Why all HDMI cables are the same, Part 2,"
"Still more reasons why all HDMI cable are the same," and the "HDMI cable buying guide."

Bottom line

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it! -- Upton Sinclair

A commenter on one of the HDMI articles posted the above quote, and it's perfect. But look, be polite. Don't waste someone's time. This goes for both sides. They're just trying to make a living, you're just trying to keep as much of your living as possible. When I sold electronics at Circuit City, I was given all sorts of information, presented as truth, to tell customers. Much of which I know now to be false, or at least "truth adjacent." But as an 18-year-old, long haired (yep, believe it), wannabe guitar god, I didn't know any better. So give the poor guy or gal the benefit of the doubt that they're not knowingly lying to you.

Except for that HDMI cable stuff; man that bugs me.

How about you? Been told any doozys?

---

Got a question for Geoff? Send him an e-mail! If it's witty, amusing, and/or a good question, you may just see it in a post just like this one. No, he won't tell you which TV to buy. Yes, he'll probably truncate and/or clean up your e-mail. You can also send him a message on Twitter: @TechWriterGeoff.

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