Washington - A United States public interest group asked a federal court on Wednesday to block Google from consolidating more than 60 of its privacy policies, saying it could make it easier for advertisers to target users. A lawsuit by the Electronic Privacy Information Centre alleged Google violated a settlement agreement reached with US regulators last March that requires consent from the user if Google collects information under one priva...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 3:00 pm Press Release: Ministry of Economic Development 9 February 2012 Next steps towards oil and gas exploration Improvements in the process for permitting exploration for oil and gas will be implemented this year. “From 2012 we will exclusively use a ‘block offer’ annual competitive tender process to allocate permits for oil and gas exploration, and no longer use first-in, first-served permi...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 3:05 pm Press Release: SweeneyVesty February 8, 2012 New Zealand Entrepreneur Launches Amphibious Trucks Amphitrucks capable of traveling up to 130km/h on land and over 60km/h on water were launched in Washington today. US military engineers and invited guests were the first in the world to see the “Phibian” in action at an event preceding the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) annual conferen...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 2:56 pm Press Release: Ports of Auckland 9 February 2012 MEDIA STATEMENT Ports of Auckland comment re: reports of strike action Ports of Auckland said this afternoon that despite media reports, it was yet to receive a 8th strike...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 2:50 pm Press Release: Dairy Women's Network 9 February 2012 Dairying with Resilience: theme of Dairy Women’s Network annual conference Helping dairying women along their journeys toward developing dairy businesses in the face of challenges is one of the main themes of this year’s Dairy Women’s Network annual conference. The conference will be held at Rotorua’s Millennium Hotel on 21 and...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 2:51 pm Press Release: Canstar Media Release 9 February 2012 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dunedin - Home of Coffee Connoisseurs New Zealand’s coffee connoisseurs live in Dunedin according to the findings of an independent survey. The survey by Canstar Blue asked kiwis to rate their satisfaction with the coffee shop where they had most recently purchased a coffee. Mojo Café with locations in Wellington, Palmers...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 2:48 pm Article: BusinessDesk NZ consumers would be lured to highspeed broadband by video content, survey says By Paul McBeth Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand consumers would take up ultrafast broadband (UFB) to tap into video content such as blockbuster movies and top-rating television programmes, according to a study commissioned by the antitrust regulator. The Roy Morgan survey found the first few year...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 2:44 pm Press Release: Going Digital MEDIA RELEASE 09 February 2011 83 per cent of New Zealand watching digital television New Zealand will start going digital in seven months and 83 per cent of households are ready for it, an increase of four per cent compared to the previous quarter. The transition from analogue to digital television...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 3:04 pm Press Release: NIWA Thursday 9 February Our Far South voyage sets sail Fifty intrepid travellers set off from Bluff tomorrow, onboard the Spirit of Enderby, a Russian ice-strengthened ship, destined for Antarctica and the sub-Antarctica. Organised by Dr Gareth Morgan, the Our Far South voyage aims to raise New Zealanders’ awareness of this unique area. The crew is made up of interested individuals, i...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 2:17 pm Press Release: Joint Media Statement [Original letter: Open_letter_to_Mr_Tony_Ryall.pdf] 8th February 2012 Mr Tony Ryall Minister of Health New Zealand Government Re: An open letter regarding the changes to ethics committee processes and the potential for harm to research participants At the NZ Bioethics conference held on January 27th - 29th, a panel discussed the worrying implications of the forthcoming c...

Since 1964, the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery in California has supplied the watershed with four to 10 million juvenile Chinook salmon each year. The hatchery began the practice as a way of countering the effects of dams that block migration and making sure that the salmon population remained viable. But recent research shows that the massive influx of hatchery-raised fish is masking the fact that wild fish populations are not holding up. “W...

NEW YORK (AP) - Facebook's top executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are eligible for twice-a-year bonuses of up to 45 percent of their base...

After several days of uncertainty, the head of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute has confirmed that a drilling project that started over 20 years ago has finally made it through nearly four kilometers of ice to...

Transparency is generally a property of a material's density or crystal structure, and varies depending on the wavelength of light. However, transparency can also be achieved by exploiting quantum interference between energy level transitions in atoms. Up until now, such transparency has been confined to optical wavelengths, due to the typical energies of atomic transitions. Transitioning between energy levels within atomic nuclei (instead o...

Using a unique pair of satellites that have monitored the disappearing ice over the entire surface of the globe, scientists estimated that some 1,000 cubic miles of ice has disappeared between 2003 and 2010 – enough to cover the US in one-and-a-half feet of water. The survey found that the melting of the cryosphere has been responsible for raising sea levels by about half an inch over the same period, equivalent to a rise of about 1.5mm a......

Bellingham, WA - An informational workshop titled ‘Elder Care Options – Help When You Need It’ will take place at Whatcom Community College from 6-8:30pm on Monday, February 27th, 2012. The workshop,...

Addiction treatment centers often offer addicts and alcoholics treatment plans designed to stay clean and sober. At 12 Palms Recovery Center, treatment plans center on the focus of each patient living a satisfying and fulfilling life as well. Addiction treatment centers are specifically designed to introduce an alcoholic or addict to a clean and sober way of life. Through various treatment plans offered, the addict is given tools to deal wit...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 2:06 pm Press Release: Data Torque Data Torque establishes beachhead in Africa 9 February 2012 Wellington based Software Company Data Torque has completed the design and project planning to implement their Revenue Management System (RMS) for the Swaziland Revenue Authority. The first stage is due to go live at the end of February. “We signed the multi-million dollar contract with the Swaziland Revenue Author...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 1:53 pm Article: BusinessDesk LIC lifts 1H net profit 12.3% as dairy farmers test more Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) - Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC), the listed dairy farmer cooperative, said first-half net profit rose 12.3 percent on growing use by farmers of its herd testing products. Net profit rose to $28 million in the six months ended Nov. 31, compared with $24.9 million in...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 1:17 pm Press Release: Emirates Airlines 9 February 2012 Emirates Introduces ‘Change Your Booking’ Online Emirates is now offering enhanced website functionality to passengers who prefer to manage their own travel plans. Whether it is changing the time or date of travel, adding...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 1:09 pm Press Release: Jetstar 9 February 2012 Another world first for Jetstar with global wine award • Jetstar wins Best Business Class White Wine in Cellars in the Sky Awards • First low cost carrier in the world to win in the Award’s 27-year history • Reflects Jetstar’s commitment to giving customers more choice Jetstar has achieved another global first, becoming the first low ...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 1:04 pm Article: BusinessDesk Ports of Auckland wharfies flag 7-day strike By Hannah Lynch Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – The Maritime Union of New Zealand has issued Ports of Auckland with a new seven-day full strike notice. The...

Everybody lies — even doctors. A new study finds 11 percent of doctors say that they have told a patient or a child's guardian something that was not true in the past year, and about 20 percent say they have not fully disclosed a mistake to a patient because they were afraid of being sued. The results also show 34 percent of doctors surveyed did not "completely agree" that physicians should disclose all significant to affected patients. Inst...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Romanian man accused of hacking into NASA computers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles under the online moniker "Iceman" has been indicted on a federal charge, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Robert Butyka is charged with hacking into 25 NASA computers at JPL in December of 2010, causing $500,000 in damage and leaving researchers unable to use them for two months, U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thom Mrozek ...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- An increased risk for coronary artery disease can be passed genetically from father to son on the male Y chromosome, a new study says. The Y chromosome, a part of DNA present only in men, appears to play a role in the inheritance of coronary artery disease, according to researchers at the University of Leicester in England and their colleagues. They analyzed DNA from more than 3,000 biologically unrelate...

Stryker Corp. (SYK), a maker of artificial hips and knees, said Stephen MacMillan resigned as the company’s chairman, chief executive officer and president, effective immediately. MacMillan, 48, stepped down for family reasons, the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based device maker said today in a statement. Chief Financial Officer Curt Hartman will serve as interim CEO...

The challenges and opportunities presented by the digital revolution continue to disrupt journalism. In an age of information abundance, journalists and citizens alike all need better tools, whether we're curating the samizdat of the 21st century in the Middle East, like Andy Carvin, processing a late night data dump, or looking for the best way to visualize water quality for a nation of consumers. As we...

Russian scientists are planning to use robotic probes to reach water layers at the bottom of an ancient sub-glacial lake in Antarctica in 2013-2014, Russian astrobiologist Sergei Bulat said. The St. Petersburg Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute on Wednesday officially confirmed...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 12:33 pm Press Release: Fuji Xerox 9 February 2012 Fuji Xerox New Zealand strengthens executive team New senior management appointments signal a strong year for business Fuji Xerox New Zealand today announced the appointment of Gavin Pollard as General Manager of Sales Operations effective 1 April 2012. This announcement follows the recent appointment of Paul Prouse to General Manager of Services and Solutions ...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 12:27 pm Press Release: New Zealand Sport Fishing 9 February 2012 LegaSea looking to a bright future LegaSea is a new initiative with the vision of achieving more fish in the water and a healthy marine environment as a legacy for ourchildren. A well established organisation is taking the lead. The New Zealand Sport Fishing Council and...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 12:16 pm Press Release: Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre OPC Tongariro appoints passionate new Centre Manager A career outdoor instructor and UK champion in mountain-bike orienteering has been appointed Centre Manager at OPC’s Tongariro base. Janet Prier has immigrated to New Zealand to take up the appointment after a 26-year career in outdoor education in the UK, most recently as the manager of an...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 12:12 pm Article: BusinessDesk TelstraClear returns to 1H EBIT profit on cost-cutting measures By Paul McBeth Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – TelstraClear, the local subsidiary of Australian phone company Telstra, returned to profit on a pretax earnings basis as it recognised benefits from its cost-cutting programme. On a standalone basis, the Auckland-based company made earnings...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 12:05 pm Press Release: New Zealand Defence Force 9 February 2012 NZDF Welcomes Appointment of Court Martial Judges The New Zealand Defence Force welcomes the appointment of Judge Anne Gaskell and Judge Philip Hall as Judges of the Court Martial. The Court Martial of New Zealand has the...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 11:46 am Article: BusinessDesk NZ annual jobs growth ‘broadly positive’, jobless rate falls to 6.3% By Paul McBeth Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand’s annual jobs growth shows the economy is moving in the right direction, with the unemployment rate falling to a 21-month low on a sharp rise in the number of part-time workers. The unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 6.3 perce...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 11:43 am Article: BusinessDesk Staff from Office Assignee move to secure Dotcom assets By Hannah Lynch Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – The Official Assignee Office, responsible for insolvency and trustee services, is working to secure Kim Dotcom’s assets from his $4.3 million family...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 11:59 am Press Release: Victoria University of Wellington 9 February 2012 Log onto Facebook, contribute to scientific research Logging on to Facebook could soon be a way of contributing to important scientific research, as well as finding out what’s going on in your world. Researchers at Victoria University are developing a Facebook application that, once downloaded, enables people to donate the resources of...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A consumer watchdog group is suing the Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to prevent Google from making sweeping changes to its privacy...

Late Thursday night (Feb. 9), skywatchers who cast a glance toward the waning gibbous moon in the eastern sky will also notice the presence of a very bright, yellow-orange "star" shining with a steady glow hovering a bit above and to the moon's right. That's no star, though. It's the planet Mars. The apparent distance between will be rather large, amounting to about 9 degrees. That's roughly equal to the width of your fist held at arm's leng...

A small study shows that direct electrical stimulation of the entorhinal cortex enhances performance on a spatial memory task Direct electrical stimulation of a specific part of the brain can enhance spatial memory in conscious neurosurgical patients, according to a small new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research suggests that an experimental technique called deep brain stimulation could help patients with memo...

Tai chi, a Chinese martial art of precise, gentle movements, helps patients with mild-to-moderate Parkinson’s disease improve their balance, a study found. Patients who did tai chi twice a week for six months had improvement in steadiness that was 2.5 times greater than those who engaged in resistance training and 4 times greater than those who did only stretching exercise, according to research published today in the New England Journal of ...

Dear Julia: I'm a young professional who flies upward of eight times a month -- what the oldsters used to call a "road warrior." Unsurprisingly, I'm addicted to my "CrackBerry," my laptop andiPad are practically fused to my fingers, and I obsessively scroll through Twitter during the inevitable downtime while waiting in TSA security lines or being stuck on the tarmac. I used to fly whichever airline was cheapest, but now, I'm actively search...

My favorite quote from election season 2012 would have to be this one from O'Reilly Radar big data columnist Alistair Croll: "After Eisenhower, you couldn't win an election without radio. After JFK, you couldn't win an election without television. After Obama, you couldn't win an election without social networking. I predict that in 2012, you won't be able to win an election without big...

A group of angered moms took their qualms with Facebook offline and into the real world on Monday, staging nurse-ins in front of the social network's headquarters around the world. The move was the latest in an ongoing fight between Facebook and nursing mothers, who are challenging the company's policy that says photos depicting breastfeeding are "inappropriate." Protest leader Emma Kwasnica is a breastfeeding advocate who has posted over 20...

We've seen plenty of nerdy engagements before, but this man's unique binary code proposal takes the cake. YouTube user doctorpappa took the message "Rachel, you are awesome. Will you marry me?" and translated it into binary code -- the language computers use to translate and process information. Binary code uses two digits, 0 and 1, to encode messages. But instead of passing the...

NEW YORK (AP) - Social-sharing app Path has come under fire for accessing and uploading users' phone address books without their permission. The information has...

NEW YORK (AP) - Cisco, the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, says its net income jumped 44 percent in the latest quarter as it continues...

FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2008 file photo, the Time Warner Center is shown... NEW YORK (AP) - Time Warner Inc. got a boost from its movie studio and cable TV networks in the last three months of the year, and the company expects growth to continue in 2012 even with the end of its lucrative Harry Potter franchise. Fourth-quarter net income grew slightly as revenue increased 5 percent. Adjusted earnings for the quarter and the growth forecast for...

Diet soda may seem to be a healthier alternative to calorie-laden regular soda, but a new study shows that people who regularly drink diet soft drinks may be putting their hearts at risk. Those who drank diet soda on a daily basis were at an increased risk of experiencing and death due to these conditions, according to the study. "Our results suggest a potential association between daily diet soft drink consumption and vascular outcomes," st...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 11:16 am Press Release: Statistics New Zealand Unemployment rate falls, but little growth in employment 9 February 2012 There were 7,000 fewer people unemployed in the December 2011 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. This saw the unemployment rate fall to 6.3 percent, from 6.6 percent in the September quarter. There was an increase of 3,000 in the number of...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 10:57 am Article: BusinessDesk NZ unemployment rate drops to 6.3% on jump in part-time work By Paul McBeth Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – New Zealand’s unemployment rate fell more than expected in the final three months of last year, reflecting a sharp rise in part-time employment and a decline in the number of people looking for work. The unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 6.3 percent in the th...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 10:52 am Press Release: 2degrees Mobile For Immediate Release 09 February 2012 New Zealanders keep making the move - 2degrees boosts customer numbers More New Zealanders are taking advantage of great value mobile, with 2degrees now serving 875,656 customers after two and a half years in the market. CEO Eric Hertz says the team at 2degrees has been humbled by the speed at which New...

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA) announced new research grants awarded to fund critical areas of research where gaps exist in the understanding and knowledge of lupus including: pediatric lupus, cutaneous (skin) lupus, mid-to-late stage translational research, adult stem cells, and neuropsychiatric lupus, which affects the brain and nervous system. The LFA’s National Research Program: Bringing Down th...

--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Date: Thursday, February 9, 2012 Time: 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Location: Chromocell Corporation 685 U.S. Highway One North Brunswick, NJ 08902 CLICK HERE...

BIO CEO & Investor Conference 2012 TARRYTOWN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Regulatory News: EpiCept Corporation (Nasdaq OMX Stockholm Exchange and OTCQX: EPCT) today announced that Jack Talley, President and Chief Executive Officer, will be presenting at the 14th Annual BIO CEO & Investor Conference on Monday, February 13, 2012 at 3:00 PM Eastern time at The Waldorf=Astoria in New York City. Mr. Talley will present a company overview. The webc...

San Francisco - Microsoft will release the test version of its new operating system Windows 8 on February 29 in Barcelona, the computer software giant announced Wednesday. The release will...

It’ll be a geological showdown for the ages, with North America, South America, Europe and Asia colliding head-on over the North Pole to create a supercontinent called Amasia. Unfortunately, nobody we know will be around to watch the collision, which won’t happen for another at 50 million years or more. But it’s still fun to imagine. “The snapshot that is the present is smack-dab in the middle of what we call the supe...

Email Print Order Reprint Share This Share Text tool name tool goes here By MALCOLM RITTER - AP Science Writer By MALCOLM RITTER NEW YORK -- People learned better when a key part of their brains got mild zaps of electricity, a finding that may someday help Alzheimer's patients keep more of their memories. In a small but tantalizing study, participants played a video game in which they learned the locations of stores in a virtual city. They r...

A March deadline for companies to start tests for six strains of potentially deadly E. coli bacteria has been pushed to June 4 so meatpackers can make sure their methods work, the U.S. Agriculture Department said. The new deadline will be announced today, the agency said in an e-mail. The USDA is planning to test raw ground beef for six strains of E. coli in...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles U.S. attorney's office says a federal grand jury has indicted a Romanian citizen on charges he hacked...

Melting glaciers and ice caps are perhaps the most striking illustrations of the effects of global climate change. Surprisingly, however, there is relatively little data on just how fast the ice is disappearing. Now, a new paper from researchers at the University of Colorado, Boulder offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive numbers on glacier and ice cap melt worldwide. The research, published in the journal Nature, calculates that from ...

Teen pregnancies reached their lowest level in the United States in nearly 40 years in 2008, a nonprofit institute said in a report released today (Feb. 8). The research showed that teenage birth and abortion rates were also down, although disparities persisted in the statistics for black, white and Hispanic teens. Sociologists Kathryn Kost and Stanley Henshaw of the Guttmacher Institute reached their conclusions by pooling and analyzing dat...

Teen pregnancies reached their lowest level in the United States in nearly 40 years in 2008, a nonprofit institute said in a report released today (Feb. 8). The research showed that teenage birth and abortion rates were also down, although disparities persisted in the statistics for black, white and Hispanic teens. Sociologists Kathryn Kost and Stanley Henshaw of the Guttmacher Institute reached their conclusions by pooling and analyzing dat...

When you distract yourself from pain, you actually hurt less, a new study suggests. Study participants who were subjected to slight pain on their forearms reported less discomfort when they were asked to perform a distracting mental test as the pain was delivered. Moreover, when participants were given a placebo "pain relief" cream, and distracted at the same time, their pain was even more reduced. "Both placebo and distraction are effective...

There are two interesting meet-ups in space for skywatchers this week: close encounters between the moon, several planets and stars. The movements of the sun, are all confined to a narrow band of sky known as to astronomers as the ecliptic and to astrologers as the zodiac. Almost all of the activities of the major solar system bodies play out among the 13 constellations that mark this band. You may have thought there are 12 zodiac constellat...

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- As a child, Tami Morehouse had vision problems. She struggled to read the blackboard at school, and homework took hours. Yet, she made it through high school and college, and became a social worker. Although she was never able to drive, she learned to ride a bike. But in her 30s, with three young children, her vision took a turn for the worse. "I'd be reading a book and the words faded away," she said. M...

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Anacor Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq:ANAC), today announced the sale of 3.25 million shares of its common stock for gross proceeds of $21,450,000 pursuant to an underwriting agreement with Canaccord Genuity acting as the sole bookrunner. In addition, the Company has granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 487,500 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments, if any. The Compan...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 10:16 am Press Release: Mercury Energy Mercury Energy Announces Electricity Price Increase Electricity prices will rise by an average of 5.8% for Mercury Energy’s residential customers from 1 April 2012. The price change includes an increase in the charges passed through to customers by Mercury Energy from the local lines company, which account for around 40% of a customer’s bill and support the maint...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 10:04 am Article: BusinessDesk Mercury raises prices 5.8%, blames monopoly charges Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – Mercury Energy is raising its prices across the country by an average of 5.8 percent, blaming the bulk of the increase on the sharp lift in charges from the national grid...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 9:53 am Article: BusinessDesk Tenon to distribute Eastman’s long-life wooden decking in US By Hannah Lynch Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) –...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 9:50 am Press Release: Commerce Commission Commerce Commission releases final issue paper on high speed broadband demand-side study The Commerce Commission has today released the last of three issues papers relating to the uptake of high speed broadband ahead of The Future with High Speed Broadband: Opportunities for New Zealand conference to be held on 20 and 21 February 2012 in Auckland. This paper looks at the w...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 9:31 am Article: sticK Minister Joyce has the opportunity to redefine ‘failure’ By ( - 9 Feb. 2012 )...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 9:31 am Article: BusinessDesk 2degrees grabs bigger share of mobile phone market Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) – Two Degrees Mobile, the newest entrant in the mobile phone market, has grabbed more customers from bigger rivals Telecom and Vodafone New Zealand and boosted its market share. The Auckland-based company has 875,656 customers after two-and-a-half-years in the...

Thursday, 9 February 2012, 9:26 am Article: BusinessDesk F&P Healthcare extends US distribution deal with CareFusion by 3 years Feb. 9 (BusinessDesk) - Fisher & Paykel Healthcare said it has renewed an exclusive US distribution agreement with global medical...

In the midst of outcry over the changes in Google's privacy policy, the search giant has announced that it will start paying some users to share their search history as part of a new project dubbed Screenwise. Search Engine Land reports that people who sign up to be on the Screenwise panel will receive a $5 credit on Amazon for installing a browser extension that allows all of the data from their Chrome browsing to be collected. Participants...

The Facebook IPO that will turn its founders into billionaires and its code-scribbling cubicle dwellers into millionaires is the latest envy of Silicon Valley. But there is another kind of Facebook Envy that's percolating among many of its half-billon members. It's the dark side effect ironically triggered by Facebook's sunny social platform of sharing and connecting. Facebook Envy can be downright harmful to self esteem. A recent study at U...

Though Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg is one of the most outspoken advocates of increasing the number of female leaders in tech and , Facebook still doesn't have a single woman on its seven-person board. The matter isn't just a source of bad press: It has now drawn public criticism from a Facebook investor, the California State Teachers Retirement System, or CalSTRS. The country’s second-largest pension fund, meanwhile, i...

Valentine's Day is the day on which too many men shoot themselves in the foot, often with the guns that they've cluelessly bought their wives as gifts for Valentine's Day. For many men, buying a Valentine's Day present is an exercise in futility, one that often ends in disappointment, apologies, and promises to do better next time (Sounds like my wedding night! But seriously, folks...). Luckily, the Internet exists, and it is full of enterpr...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Google will pledge to license on fair and reasonable terms the patents it acquires through buying Motorola Mobility, said a person familiar with the matter, in a bid to allay regulatory and users' concerns. The world No.1 Internet search engine will send a letter to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and other global bodies with the promise, the person said. The non-profit ETSI, which has members ...

A man from the city of Ballarat in southwest Australia knew he was breaking the law last October when he reached into a car with its windows open and took two cellphones and a wallet. But when he browsed the cellphones and found what appeared to be pornographic images of children, he knew turning himself in was a small price to pay to help police catch the man responsible for taking the photos, the Ballarat Courier reports. The thief, whose ...

A new wonder fuel dubbed ‘fire ice’ could be buried under the Scottish coast, according to government ministers and experts. They suspect that massive quantities of methane hydrates reserves are locked of the coast of western Shetland, and that there is possibly enough to last 300 years. The sherbet-like substance, which consists of methane trapped in ice, has already been tipped by energy experts to be the next major energy reso...

Amazon announced Wednesday that it will expand the selection on its streaming service...

AP Photo In this Sept. 10, 2007 photo released by the New England Aquarium, a right whale dives near a ship in Canada’s Bay of Fundy. A study published in London Feb. 8, 2012 shows that reduced ship traffic in the Bay of Fundy after Sept. 11, 2001 resulted in a significant decrease in underwater noise and a corresponding reduction of stress hormones in right whales. Email Print Order Reprint Share This Share Text tool name tool goes her...

A decrease in ship traffic in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks lowered the levels of stress hormones in the feces of endangered North Atlantic right whales in the Bay of Fundy, a new study shows. This is the first evidence that exposure to ship noise is associated with chronic...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A federal study shows municipalities nationwide need more than $300 billion worth of essential upgrades to long overlooked water and sewer systems over the next 20 years. The need is acute in Northeastern states with older systems like New York, which needs $29.7 billion worth of improvements, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Wednesday. But he said that price is a "just a drop in the bucket" compared to the higher cost of c...

US scientists on Wednesday reported a new advance in using gene therapy to restore eyesight in people with a rare, inherited form of blindness. The therapy, which had been previously tried in just one eye of 12 people, worked well when injected into the other eye of three of the patients, offering a sign that the treatment is safe, effective and will not be rejected by the body. "Our concern was that the first treatment might cause a vaccine...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Michael Phelps is the latest athlete to use a hyperbaric chamber to aid his recovery from training. The 16-time Olympic medalist said Wednesday he had been...

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) today announced that it will report its fourth quarter and 2011 full year financial results on February 14, 2012, after close of market. Fluidigm President and Chief Executive Officer Gajus Worthington, and Chief Financial Officer Vikram Jog, will host a conference call at 2:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. EST) on February 14, 2012, to discuss fourth quarter and 2011 ful...

From high atop an Antarctic ice sheet,...

A huge whale shark was...

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — Researchers say an ocean experiment that was accidentally conducted amid the shipping silence after Sept. 11 has shown the first link between underwater noise and stress in whales. The analysis was led by a New England Aquarium researcher. It showed a drop in the stress-related hormone in right whales following the attacks. The drop coincided with a period of significantly lower ocean nois...

Four years ago, an experimental gene therapy improved vision in blind patients treated in one eye. Now sight has been restored to the second eye of the previously treated individuals, researchers reported today. Three adults with a form of Leber congenital amaurosis, a rare inherited disease of the retina that appears at birth and can progress to total blindness, now have vision in dim light and can distinguish faces, researchers said. The r...

On the heels of Facebook's announcement that all profiles will be switched to the now mandatory timeline format, the social networking site has rolled out yet another change to all its users--this time with its photo viewer. The new design moves caption, comments and advertisements to the right-hand side of the picture. Previously, users could view captions and post comments directly below the photo. Similar to the old lightbox photo-viewing...

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Monica McManus, Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Lockheed Martin’s Information Systems and Global Solutions (IS&GS) business, will be the keynote speaker when The National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE) celebrates its 33rd year promoting equity in education and workforce development at its annual Professional Development Institute. “I hope other companies follow Lockheed Marti...

Including TargetCancer Cholangiocarcinoma Cell Line Bank At MGH And Expansion Into Esophageal Cancer Research NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TargetCancer, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the development of lifesaving treatment protocols for rare cancers, is proud to announce over $70,000 in new grants to fund rare cancer research. “We are enormously proud to announce these new grants today. Only two and a half years ago, o...

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hugh Simmons, regional director for Audubon’s Mid-Atlantic Region and Senior Administrator of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, has been named to the Board of Directors of the National Audubon Society. “I look forward to his guidance and perspective as we implement our bold new strategic plan.” Simmons serves as Vice President of the Chesapeake Audubon So...

OSLO, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DiaGenic ASA (OSL:DIAG): The initial findings from the DiaGenic sponsored prospective European multicenter Parkinson’s study have been reported today. The initial read out of the first subcohort of 79 PD patients and 75 matched healthy controls with no neurodegenerative disease, shows a diagnostic accuracy of 85% in early disease patients while overall accuracy was 88% across all stages. The preliminary results...