Geo software aims to avoid ski resort eco-disasters

THE last thing on your mind as you zoom down the piste this winter will probably be, "Oh no, I'm damaging a fragile alpine environment!" But it's just one of the things developers will be able to consider when deciding where to site future resorts -thanks to some smart location analysis software that can predict the problems likely to befall winter sports resorts before they are built.

Mountain communities struggling to cope with the loss of industries such as copper mining can see winter sports as a potential lifeline, says Jordan Silberman, a geographer at the University of Delaware in Newark. But it doesn't always work out. Some prospective resorts have suffered severe soil erosion due to the mass felling of trees to create multiple ski runs. And the threat to wildlife habitats increases as holiday traffic begins snaking up slim mountain passes not designed to take such a volume of traffic. "Increased traffic volume in one [US] county wiped out a large herd of elk," reports Silberman.

Some prospective resorts have suffered severe soil erosion due to the mass felling of trees

Eager developers might also overlook the fact that snowfall alone is no guarantee of success. If local humidity is consistently too high, you get "wet, heavy snow rather than the dry, fluffy powder snow" so beloved of skiers and snow boarders, he says. Slope geometry can also affect the risk of avalanches.

In the January edition of Applied Geography, Silberman and colleague Peter Rees reveal software that identifies the best candidate locations for winter sports (DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2009.10.005). To use their geographical information system (GIS) you first enter the type of business model the developer is seeking: a small, exclusive resort, or a large, mass market venue.

The software then homes in on the preferred general region and seeks out those locations with the combinations of available land and humidity levels most likely to produce powder snow. Among many other factors, it also analyses accessibility by road, slope steepness - to work out the risk of avalanches - and the likely erosion from tree felling. A key factor is the ready availability of electricity to power the ski lifts.

"This lets us rank the locations for skiing, snowboarding, ice-climbing and snowmobiling," says Silberman.

In the recession, resort developers are focusing on small scale backcountry resorts, says Ryan Bidwell, director of environmental group Colorado Wild. "So this GIS model may be better suited to investigating what, if any, additional expansion of existing ski areas may be justified," he says.

CFS patients in UK show no signs of suspect virus

he theory that chronic fatigue syndrome could be caused by a virus that jumped from mice to people has been dealt a blow by a British study that has found no evidence of the virus in people diagnosed with CFS.

Scientists are also warning people with the condition of the dangers of dosing themselves with antiretroviral drugs.

CFS affects more than a million people in the US and a quarter of a million in the UK. Its symptoms include persistent, severe tiredness, but its cause remains mysterious and contentious.

The debate on its origins took a new twist in October, when DNA from xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus (XMRV) was found in the blood of about two-thirds of 101 people with CFS, compared with just 4 per cent of healthy people (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1179052). The researchers, led by Judy Mikovits of the Whittemore Peterson Institute in Reno, Nevada, suggested that XMRV might be causing CFS.

Missing virus

Now a second study, led by Myra McClure of Imperial College London, has failed to find XMRV in blood samples from 186 people in the UK with CFS. "We do not share the conviction that XMRV may be a contributory factor in the pathogenesis of CFS, at least in the UK," McClure's team says.

XMRV is a retrovirus, and viruses of this type have a history of claims linking them to diseases, which have later been questioned – about 25 at the last count.

Mikovits stands by the conclusions in her paper. She suggests that XMRV may be less common in Europe and so might not be causing cases of CFS there.

At least one US lab is offering to test people with CFS for XMRV, while websites are abuzz with reports from patients who say they have been tested and queries about how to obtain zidovudine (AZT), the antiretroviral drug used to combat HIV.

Health warnings

"These are folks who've just gone and had the test done in a private lab," says Charles Shepherd, medical adviser to the ME Association in the UK, which provides support to people with CFS.

In lab experiments reported last month, AZT was found to block replication of XMRV (Virology, DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2009.11.013). But Richard Baker, head of the group that wrote the official UK guidelines on CFS, warns patients against taking AZT, which can have side effects. "Anyone who uses it on themselves is taking a real risk with their health," he says. Mikovits says it is unlikely to be effective against CFS.

Negative hints

Other researchers are trying to further establish whether there is a link between XMRV and CFS, but have not yet published the results. There are hints that these results may also be negative.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in Berlin, Germany, is also examining the link between XMRV and CFS. In November, its collaborators posted a short statement on the web saying that CFS patients had so far "rarely" tested positive for the virus. They later removed the statement.

According to Norbert Bannert, one of the virologists at the RKI, the statement was correct, but he adds: "It's not fair to give numbers when you're at the beginning of the investigation, and the first results have not yet been confirmed by an alternative test." He declines to give further details

McClure has also hinted that several studies due to be published soon have also found no link.

People with CFS who say they have been tested are less restrained. On one online message board, a handful of people have reported mixed results: none of 10 patients who used one company's test said they turned up positive for the virus, while six out of 12 people who took another set of tests offered by another lab said they were positive for XMRV.

If the virus link is not borne out, people with CFS are going to feel seriously disappointed, Shepherd warns. "I think people are going to feel very, very let down to put it mildly," he says.

गुगलको मोबाइल प्रतीक्षा सकिँदै

सान फ्रान्सिस्को, पुस २२ - मंगलबार साँझ गुगलले नयाँ व्यापारिक क्षेत्रमा कदम राख्दैछ, नेक्सस वानबाट। इन्टरनेट सर्च इन्जिनमा सबैलाई पछार्दै शीर्षस्थान कब्जा गरिरहेको कम्पनीले स्मार्टफोनमा कतिलाई धक्का दिने हो, सबैको नजर कम्पनीको हेर्डक्वाटतर एकत्रित भइरहेको छ। अहिलेसम्म मोबाइल प्रयोगकर्ताले गुगल एप्लिकेसन्स एप्पलको आइफोन, रिम व्ल्याकवे र केही अन्य मोबाइल सेटमा पाउँदै आएका छन्। कम्पनीको हेर्डक्वाटर सिलिकन भ्यालीले मंगलबार आफ्नै एप्लिकेसन्ससहितको सेट सार्वजनिक गर्दैछ। गुगलले यसलाई वायरलेस बजारको सम्भावनामात्र सुरु भएको,' बताएको छ। एन्ड्रोइड अपरेटिङ सिस्टम समावेश भएको नेक्सस वान इन्टरनेट ब्राउजिङका लागि अहिलेसम्मकै पछिल्लो प्रविधि हुनेछ। गुगलसँग नजिक रहेको एचटीसी कम्पनीसँग मिलेर गुगलका इन्जिनियरहरुले तयार पारेको यो बहुप्रतिक्षित मोबाइल ३ दशमलब ७ इन्च स्क्रिनको रहने बताइएको छ। ५ सय १२ मेगावाइट र्‍याम रहने स्मार्टफोन अहिलेसम्म बजारमा उपलव्धमध्ये सबैभन्दा छिटो चल्ने सेट हुनेछ।

विश्लेषकहरुले मोबाइल कम्प्युटिङको युग परिवर्तनकै रुपमा पनि यसलाई लिएका छन्। त्यसैले पनि ग्याजेट्सप्रेमीको ध्यान यतिखेर गुगलको कर्पोरेट हेर्डक्वाटतर खिचिएको छ। यहीबाटै मोबाइल सार्वजनिक हुने बताइएको छ। थोरै टेक्ट टाइप गरेर कम्प्युटरबाट अर्बौ डलर कमाइरहेको गुगलका लागि स्मार्टफोन अवसरमात्र होइन ठूलो चुनौति पनि हो। 'मोबाइलको भविष्य देखेर हामी धेरै नै उत्साही भएका छौं,' गुगलको इन्जिनियरिङ क्षेत्रका उपाध्यक्ष भिक गुनडोट्राले सोमबार न्युयोर्कटाइम्ससँगको अन्तर्वातामा भने, 'हामीले आवश्यकता अनुसार यसमा लगानी गरेका छौं। र, हामीले कम्प्युटिङ मोबाइलको अनुभव गर्दैछौं।'

4G mobile phone network comes to Scandinavia

At launch the network is only available on laptops

Swedish and Norwegian mobile users could be among the first to use a fourth-generation (4G) mobile network.

Mobile phone firm TeliaSonera has completed work on two 4G networks in Oslo and Stockholm. The company said that the first customers will be able to start using the networks in early 2010. Despite the launch of the network, no handsets can yet use 4G. Initially customers will connect via a dongle and a laptop.

Fourth-generation, 4G, networks are based around the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and downlink data speeds can hit 100 megabits per second - about ten times quicker than the fastest 3G networks. The technology has been designed to overlay existing 3G networks and most operators have committed to upgrading to the faster system. TeliaSonera said it was recruiting customers to pilot the network during the first quarter of 2010. It has released no information about the cost of connecting to the high-speed network. The dongles for connecting to the LTE network are made by Samsung.

Phone equipment maker Ericsson has put together the network in Stockholm, Sweden and Chinese firm Huawei is behind the one in Oslo, Norway. Both networks cover the central regions of both cities. TeliaSonera said it expected the boost in speed to drive many novel applications including gaming on the move and much greater viewing of video on laptops. Handsets that can use LTE are expected in mid-late 2010.

Nasa sky survey probe blasts off

A Nasa satellite designed to uncover hidden cosmic objects has blasted off from California.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (Wise) blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Delta II rocket just after 1409 GMT. It will pick up the glow of hundreds of millions of astronomical bodies. The probe is expected to uncover objects that have never seen before, including some of the coolest stars and the most luminous galaxies.

The $320m mission will do this by scanning the entire sky in infrared light with a sensitivity hundreds of times greater than ever before. Viewing the sky with "infrared glasses" can lift a veil on many objects that are not visible to the naked eye.

"All systems are looking good, and we are on our way to seeing the entire infrared sky better than ever before," said William Irace, the mission's project manager at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California.

The satellite will also have a role in planetary protection: Wise will be able to detect some of the darkest near-Earth asteroids and comets.

This would help efforts to determine whether any of these objects could strike Earth in the near future.

Engineers acquired a signal from the spacecraft just 10 seconds after the spacecraft separated from the rocket.

Approximately three minutes later, Wise re-oriented itself with its solar panels facing the Sun to generate its own power.

Super cool

Wise is cooled by a chamber of super-cold hydrogen. Because the instrument sees the infrared, or heat, signatures of objects, it must be kept at chilly temperatures. Its coldest detectors operate below -266C.

"Wise needs to be colder than the objects it's observing," said Ned Wright of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the mission's principal investigator. "Now we're ready to see the infrared glow from hundreds of thousands of asteroids, and hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies."

Wise will cast a wide net for astronomical objects of interest

With the spacecraft stable, cold and communicating with mission controllers, a month-long process of check-out and calibration is underway. Wise joins two other infrared missions in space: Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory. This mission is different from those others in that it will survey the entire sky. It is designed to cast a wide net to catch a variety of objects of interest. Wise will target dim objects called brown dwarfs. These are effectively failed stars, which have not gathered up enough mass to ignite.

Brown dwarfs are cool and faint, and nearly impossible to see in visible light. Mission scientists expect the spacecraft to uncover many hundreds. This could double or triple the number of star-like objects known within 25 light-years of Earth.

NASA's strike on moon worked, mission official says

NASA said Friday's rocket and satellite strike on the moon was a success, kicking up enough dust for scientists to determine whether or not there is water on the moon. An artist's rendering shows the LCROSS spacecraft, left, separating from its Centaur rocket. "We have the data we need to actually address the questions we set out to address," said Anthony Colaprete, principal investigator for the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, mission. It will be awhile before all the data from the satellite can be analyzed to determine if there is water on the moon, according to LCROSS project manager Dan Andrews. Andrews said that "the spacecraft performed beautifully."NASA crashed the rocket and a satellite into the moon's surface on Friday morning in a $79 million mission. NASA televised live images of the LCROSS as it crashed into a crater near the moon's south pole. Watch as NASA reacts to "successful" crash »

Minutes before its impact, the satellite guided a rocket into the Cabeus crater in an effort to kick up enough dust to help the LCROSS find whether there is any water in the moon's soil. Don't Miss The Centaur upper-stage rocket impacted the moon shortly after 7:30 a.m. ET, and the satellite followed it four minutes later. The LCROSS carried spectrometers, near-infrared cameras, a visible camera and a visible radiometer to help NASA scientists analyze the resulting plumes of dust -- more than 250 metric tons' worth -- for water vapor. But immediate NASA images of the crash produced no sign of the plumes, which were expected to rise six kilometers from the moon's surface, said John Marmie, LCROSS deputy project manager. "Everyone was like, 'What's happening here?' " Marmie said. "But that doesn't mean we don't have good data there." Observatories on Earth did confirm they saw plumes after the crashes, Marmie said. Watch as a mission official explains the importance of finding water »

The orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed the impacts. Meanwhile, hundreds of telescopes on Earth focused on the moon, hoping to catch a glimpse of two plumes. The Cabeus crater lies in permanent shadow, making observations inside the crater difficult. NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, who watched at a public event at the Newseum in Washington, noted the great interest in the NASA mission. "We had families ... literally coming in off the street" to watch, Garver said on NASA TV. NASA had encouraged amateur astronomers to join the watch parties.

"We expect the debris plumes to be visible through midsized backyard telescopes -- 10 inches and larger," said Brian Day at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, before the strike. Day is an amateur astronomer who is leading education and public outreach for the LCROSS mission. Ames -- which led the mission -- hosted an all-night event featuring music and food before the broadcast of NASA's live transmission of the lunar impact. Other science observatories and amateur astronomy clubs across the country hosted similar events. Watch CNN's Jeanne Moos ask if lunacy is behind the moon "bombing" »

"The initial explosions will probably be hidden behind crater walls, but the plumes will rise high enough above the crater's rim to be seen from Earth," Day said. Data from previous space missions have revealed trace amounts of water in lunar soil. The LCROSS mission seeks a definitive answer to the question of how much water is present. NASA has said it believes water on the moon could be a valuable resource in the agency's quest to explore the solar system. LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on June 18.

Phishing attack targets Hotmail

Reports suggest Windows Live Hotmail accounts have been hacked

Thousands of accounts on web-based e-mail system Hotmail have been compromised in a phishing attack, software giant Microsoft has confirmed.

BBC News has seen a list of more than 10,000 e-mail accounts, predominantly originating from Europe, and passwords which were posted online. Microsoft said it had launched an investigation. Phishing involves using fake websites to lure people into revealing details such as bank accounts or login names. "We are aware that some Windows Live Hotmail customers' credentials were acquired illegally and exposed on a website," said a Microsoft spokesperson.

"Upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation to determine the impact to customers."

Quick change

Graham Cluley, consultant at security firm Sophos, told BBC News the published list may just be a subset of a longer list of compromised accounts. "We still don't know the scale of the problem," he told BBC News. Technology blog neowin.net was the first to publish details of the attack. It said the accounts were posted on 1 October to pastebin.com, a website commonly used by developers to share code. Although the details have since been removed, BBC News and Neowin has seen a list of 10,028 names beginning with the letters A and B. BBC News has confirmed that the accounts are genuine and predominantly originate in Europe. The list included details of Microsoft's Windows Live Hotmail accounts with email addresses ending hotmail.com, msn.com and live.com. Mr Cluley advised Hotmail users to change their password as soon as possible.

"I'd also recommend that people change the password on any other site where they use it," he said. Around 40% of people use the same password for every website they use, he added. Hotmail is currently the largest web-based e-mail service.