Global warming a threat to polar bears? Judge orders review of US rule

A judge rules that the US has met its obligations for protecting polar bears, but ordered a review of a special rule that excludes greenhouse gases from the list of threats to the bears.

By Pete Spotts,  October 18, 201

A US district court judge in Washington on Monday rejected arguments from environmental groups that the US Department of Interior was failing to protect polar bears because of its refusal to consider greenhouse gases as one of the threats facing the bears.

The environmentalists had hoped that a ruling in their favor would force the government to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions in order to comply with the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Most scientists agree that greenhouse-gas emissions are causing global warming, and that the rising temperatures are leading to the disappearance of Arctic Ocean ice, which is crucial to the health of polar bear populations.

Overall, the ruling highlights the challenge conservation groups can face as they turn to federal regulators to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.

The Planet Is Heating Up—and Fast

Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It's becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years.
We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. It's changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon.

A Surge of Wind Over Brazil

 
      Rio do Fogo wind farm, Brazil (Photograph by danishwindindustryassociation/Flickr)

by Sergio Abranches

 Brazil has suddenly realized the attractiveness of its immense wind power potential. Once deemed too expensive and small-scale, unable to meet the country’s power needs, it is now braced to grow sevenfold to 2014.
Brazil has today a dismal 1 gigawatt of wind power installed capacity. But the government’s regulatory agency has already approved an additional 6.7 gigawatts to 2014. Wind power got the largest share in the last energy auctions for new electricity capacity. Bid prices for wind were lower than those offered by gas-fired thermo projects. Wind farm bid prices have dropped 33 percent since 2009. The Brazilian regulatory agency estimates that wind farms could yield over 12 gigawatts in 2020. Experts and industry representatives have told me they expect wind farms to get a larger share of the electric power grid. They estimate that total installed capacity could almost triple from 2014 to 2020, nearing 20 gigawatts, provided the government does not hold investors back.

Xperia mini and Xperia mini pro now in Malaysia

By Nigel Chew

Riding on the popularity and success of Xperia devices, Sony Ericsson has just announced the availability of two new additions to its lineup, in the form of the Xperia mini and Xperia mini pro.

Sony Ericsson Xperia mini, Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro

New Saturn-Like Planet Has Two Suns, NASA Says

    An artist's impression of Kepler 16b and its two suns.

by Andrew Fazekas

Like the imaginary Star Wars world Tatooine, a new planet found 200 light-years away has two suns, astronomers announced today.

NASA's Kepler spacecraft uncovered the new planet, dubbed Kepler 16b, as it transited—or crossed in front of—both its parent stars, causing the brightness of each star to dim periodically.
Kepler data first allowed scientists to see that the stars are what's known as an eclipsing binary system—a pair of stars that orbit in such a way that they eclipse each other, causing them to dim, as seen from Earth.

Nokia 701- The Smartphone With The Brightest Screen

While Nokia has been facing tough times lately in terms of handing over its top mobile phone maker status to its competitors, it hasn’t stopped in trying to regain back its market share by coming up with new and interesting products. One of the recent ones it came up with is the new Nokia 701 smartphone.

Samsung i5500 Corby Smartphone Galaxy 5

Corby comes with a display stylist in Corby Smartphone version of the Samsung i5500 Galaxy 5. The existence of this latest Corby family came with the Android operating system, OS made ​​by Google.

But still, the phone is popularly known as the Galaxy 5 is still targeted for the beginner segment alias below, although the Android OS has advantages that usually refers to the upper segment.

Meteors Delivered Gold to Baby Earth, New Study Hints

      A bright Geminid meteor pierces the night sky over California's Mojave Desert in 2009.

by Rachel Kaufman

Not all that glitters is gold. But Earth would have a lot less of the glittery stuff if not for a massive rain of meteors about 3.9 billion years ago, according to a new study.
Based on analysis of some of the world's oldest rocks, scientists have the first direct evidence that a cataclysmic meteor shower changed early Earth's chemical composition.
The find offers support for the theory that meteors delivered gold and other precious metals to infant Earth.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Accessories Price List

by Lim Pei Hao

We have met up Samsung representative to give us a sneak peak of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the array of accessories for the Honeycomb tablet. You can check out more about the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in our review here. Samsung will be offering a wide range of accessories to enhance the Galaxy Tab 10.1 experience and it includes:

Google South Korea raided over alleged Android antitrust violation

By Loh Ving Sung
 

07 September 2011 – Google offices in South Korea were raided by the country's anti-trust commission, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KTFC). Allegedly over Google limiting access to rival search engines on its Android mobile operating system.

Back in April, South Korea's NHN and Daum Communications, two Internet companies providing search, email and news, filed a joint complaint with regulators over the alleged unfair competition claim. The companies pointed out that smartphones in South Korea running Android OS have Google's search engine as a default page and is 'systematically designed' to make it difficult for users to switch to a different company’s search engine.

Huge Black Hole Found in Dwarf Galaxy

A supermassive black hole discovered inside a nearby dwarf galaxy may help explain how galaxies grew in the early universe.

At its center, nearly every large galaxy contains a supermassive black hole surrounded by a big bulge of stars. But whether the black hole or the bulge formed first has long been a chicken-and-egg question in astronomy.

New x-ray and radio observations of the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10 show that, while the tiny galaxy lacks a bulge, it very likely contains a supermassive black hole—one about a quarter as large as the black hole at the center of our Milky Way.

Looting suspect traced on Facebook by stolen laptop's owner

A teenager who allegedly stole a laptop from a west London flat during the riots was traced on Facebook by the computer's owner.

Greg Martin, an information security professional, had a Macbook Pro laptop and other belongings taken from his flat in West Kensington last week. He had installed a tracking device on the laptop and got the suspect's ID from the social networking site.