Thursday, February 28, 2013

FOX News: US wins appeal in fight to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom

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US wins appeal in fight to extradite Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom
Mar 1st 2013, 05:39

WELLINGTON, New Zealand –  The United States on Friday won a court appeal in its battle to extradite Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his colleagues from New Zealand.

A New Zealand appeals court overturned an earlier ruling that would have allowed Dotcom and the others broad access to evidence in the case against them at the time of their extradition hearing, which is scheduled for August. The appeals court ruled that extensive disclosure would bog down the process and that a summary of the U.S. case would suffice.

Dotcom founded the file-sharing site Megaupload that the U.S. shuttered last year after accusing him of facilitating copyright fraud on a massive scale. Dotcom says he's innocent and can't be held responsible for those who chose to use the site to illegally download songs or movies.

U.S. prosecutors are also seeking the extraditions of Finn Batato, Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk, each of whom held senior positions at Megaupload.

Paul Davison, one of Dotcom's lawyers, said Friday he planned on appealing the case to New Zealand's Supreme Court. Dotcom's legal team must first submit an application to the court which will then decide whether an appeal has enough merit to proceed.

In its ruling, the appeals court found that full disclosure of evidence was not necessary at the extradition hearing because the hearing is not the venue to determine guilt or innocence. The court pointed out that the legal obligation on the U.S. is simply to prove it has a valid case to answer.

The court also found that extradition treaties are essentially agreements between governments: "even though courts play a vital part in the process, extradition is very much a government to government process," the court ruled.

Davison said he's "disappointed" in the ruling. He said it's vital that Dotcom get access to a wide range of documents including those which could be detrimental to the U.S. case. He said that would help prove there is no merit to the case.

The extradition hearing for the four colleagues has already been postponed from March to August due to the legal wrangling. It could be postponed further should the Supreme Court decide to hear the next planned appeal.

Dotcom remains free on bail pending the hearing. In January, on the anniversary of his arrest, he launched a new file-sharing site called Mega.

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FOX News: SpaceX readies for rocket launch to space station Friday

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SpaceX readies for rocket launch to space station Friday
Feb 28th 2013, 19:30

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. –  The weather looks promising for the planned Friday launch of a privately built robotic space capsule to the International Space Station, NASA says.

The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX of Hawthorne, Calif., is slated to launch toward the space station Friday (March 1) at 10:10 a.m. EST. Weather forecasts predict an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions for launch — near-perfect conditions.

"The mission is the second of 12 SpaceX flights contracted by NASA to resupply the International Space Station," NASA officials said in a mission update. "It will mark the third trip by a Dragon capsule to the orbiting laboratory, following a demonstration flight in May 2012 and the first resupply mission in October 2012."

SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to provide 12 unmanned cargo deliveries to the space station. Another company, Orbital Sciences Corp. based in Virginia, has a $1.9 billion contract for eight mission using its own Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft.

The Dragon spacecraft is expected to deliver 1,200 pounds worth of supplies to the six international crewmembers on board the station. The capsule is scheduled to return to Earth with 2,300 pounds of material from the space station when it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California on March 25.

SpaceX conducted a successful rocket engine test, known as a "static test fire" on Monday (Feb. 25). The rocket's 9 Merlin engines were fired for a few seconds while the rocket was held down on the launch pad.

NASA is relying on SpaceX, Orbital Sciences and other private companies to develop new private spacecraft to supply the International Space Station with cargo and ultimately ferry American astronauts into and from low-Earth orbit.

With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA has been dependent on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft to fly astronauts to the space station, and use unmanned cargo ships built by Russia, Japan and Europe to deliver supplies to the orbiting laboratory.

The space agency is also developing a new rocket and spacecraft, the Orion space capsule and its Space Launch System mega-rocket, for future deep-space exploration missions to the moon, asteroids and Mars.

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FOX News: Rats, thousands of miles apart, communicate through brain link

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Rats, thousands of miles apart, communicate through brain link
Feb 28th 2013, 15:53

Is telepathy just around the corner?

Researchers from Duke University have allowed rats to communicate with each through brain signals.

Placed in separate cages, the rats were able to solve puzzles with the aid of microelectrodes 1/100th the width of a hair implanted into their brains. One rat was able to interpret the other's actions and intentions even when they couldn't see or hear each other.

The same experiment worked when the rats were thousands of miles apart with one in Brazil and another in North Carolina.

'The animal realizes: Oops! The solution is in my head. It's coming to me and he gets it right.'

- Miguel Nicolelis, Neuroscientist

Scientists have so far been able to interpret a rat's thoughts and intentions by downloading those brain waves into a computer, but this is the first time another rat has been able to understand the signals directly.

"Until recently we used to record this brain activity and send it to a computer," said Miguel Nicolelis of Duke's Medical Center in North Carolina. Nicolelis, who led the study, told the BBC's Science in Action program how the the system works. "And the [computer] tells us what the animal is going to do."

"We basically created a computational unit out of two brains," Nicolelis said.

He believes the findings could help shed light on therapy for those dealing with brain injuries and paralysis, such as stroke victims. Any sort of treatment coming to market is still a long way off but that hasn't deterred Nicolelis, who heads one of the leading research teams in the brain space.

They're most well known for one particularly lofty goal: allowing a paralyzed person to kick a ball at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil by developing a brain-controlled robot exoskeleton. The team has already fooled monkey brains into artificially feeling touch and given rats the ability to detect infrared light.

But getting rats to communicate with each other using only their brains was no easy feat. In the experiment, the "encoder" rat had to respond to a visual cue and press a lever to receive its reward. While it's doing this, its brain would send a signal to the "decoder" rat, who then has to interprets this information and also press the right lever to get its prize. If the decoder rat gets it right, the encoder gets an extra reward, creating a feedback loop that encourage cleaner brain signaling. 

It took a month and a half of training before the rats "got it."

"[It] takes about 45 days of training an hour a day," Prof Nicolelis said. "There is a moment in time when ... it clicks. Suddenly the [decoder] animal realizes: 'Oops! The solution is in my head. It's coming to me' and he gets it right."

The team is already developing a version of the experiment that would combine the thoughts of more than one animal. Eventually -- and Nicolelis admits this is many decades away -- we would be able to crowdsource our brainpower.

"You could actually have millions of brains tackling the same problem and sharing a solution" Nicolelis said.

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FOX News: EXCLUSIVE: Inside the last Manhattan Project facility in Manhattan

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EXCLUSIVE: Inside the last Manhattan Project facility in Manhattan
Feb 28th 2013, 16:36

The last remaining Manhattan Project facility still located in Manhattan was officially transformed into a modern new laboratory Wednesday -- part of an ongoing commitment to keep Americans safe from radiological threats.

The lab, which quietly goes about its business in a trendy, downtown section of the city, was part of the Medical Division of the Atomic Energy Commission, founded in 1947. That group was one part of the massive research and development effort that led to the development of the atomic bomb.

With fallout from nuclear tests a national concern, the Medical Division assessed radiation levels using a network of monitoring stations and taking measurements in food products. During the Cold War, this network expanded worldwide and included samples from soil, water and air filters on the ground and in the stratosphere.

In the aftermath of 9/11, the lab was transferred from the Energy Department to the Department of Homeland Security and its name changed to the National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL).

At this point, its mission changed as well, to preventing terrorist attacks and other hazards in American cities. Yet it continues to leverage its nuclear roots.

On Wednesday, NUSTL exclusively revealed to FoxNews.com its new state-of-the-art laboratory.

Chief Edward Kilduff, the city's highest ranking uniformed firefighter, and Richard Daddario, the deputy commissioner for counterterrorism at the New York Police Department, represented the FDNY and NYPD at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Also in attendance were Acting Director of the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office Huban Gwodia, S&T's Director of the Office of National Labs Jamie Johnson and Director of S&T's First Responder Group Bob Griffin, who joined NUSTL Director Adam Hutter and DHS S&T Under Secretary Dr. Daniel Gerstein.

Reading the City's Radiation
Opening day at the revamped center revealed a piece of recovered World Trade Center steel on display in the reception area. "It's a sobering reminder of the lives lost, and a motivation for why we come to work every day," Hutter told FoxNews.com.

In a massive departure from the lab of the past half a century, the modern lab was designed with collaboration in mind to bring together sponsors, developers and first responders who will use the technology.

The Gamma Room, Neutron Room, Health and Physics Room were just a few of the technical work areas and modern labs.

While scientists in the Gamma Room may not yet have produced an Incredible Hulk or Fantastic Four just yet, they have pioneered gamma detection, leading to the deployment of approximately 25 threat detection devices throughout the city.

In a new Training and Assessments Center, first-responder focus groups can evaluate technologies and report on the results. In a Health and Physics room, NUSTL studies natural radiological sources, which can be found in surprising places.

"Kitty litter," they explained, accounts for about 30 percent of radiological hits.

"We can better protect people by partnering with Feds and others … NUSTL is critical," Kilduff told FoxNews.com.

Mission: Securing Against Nuclear Threats
Since 2009, NUSTL's team has tested thousands of radiation detection systems to ensure they are functioning effectively. Every single piece of such equipment used by New York, New Jersey and Connecticut authorities is tested here prior to distribution to the law enforcement community.

"With even relatively low-technology consumer products, not everything works right out of the box," Hutter said. "The situation is more severe with highly complex technologies."

Developed, tested and transitioned by NUSTL, the Radiological Emergency Management System is a gamma radiation detection network that monitors radiation levels throughout the city.

Already fully deployed, it provides a single picture of the radiological threat for emergency managers within moments of  an incident.

Immediate knowledge of radiation levels is important because emergency management officials can then deploy resources effectively.

This sort of information is essential to provide correct advice on whether the public should shelter in place or evacuate. When used with meteorological data and plume modeling, REMS can predict the path of radioactive plumes and provide early warnings to areas that will become affected.

Tech Testing and Technical Advice
NUSTL ensures that first responders who must regularly face danger are covered by technology that is not only cutting-edge, but reliable.

The lab performs rigorous performance testing to make sure that the tools and technologies that are purchased actually work as designed. It also ensures that technologies will translate into operational capabilities.

"There is great need to apply tech tools in the field," the NYPD's Richard Daddario told FoxNews.com. "NUSTL provides an opportunity to bring us together on important tech issues."

Utilizing licensed radioactive sources, NUSTL supported training courses and exercises for more than 350 state and local first responders.

Its strategic location in New York City means the lab can support first responders in the area as well as the national homeland-security community.

New York City is an urban test bed, in other words, for the diverse technologies and systems being developed to prepare and protect the nation.

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

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FOX News: Smart watches gaining interest and popularity as a truly hands-free gadget

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Smart watches gaining interest and popularity as a truly hands-free gadget
Feb 28th 2013, 15:15

PALO ALTO, Calif. –  On a sunny day at a picnic table in Silicon Valley, Eric Migicovsky glanced down at his wristwatch. He wasn't checking the time, he was checking his email. Glancing up, he grinned. The message was from yet another journalist.

In this corner of a world obsessed with the latest tech gadget, Migicovsky is this week's hotshot as his start-up company rolls out its new, high-tech Pebble smart watches. The $150, postage stamp-sized computer on a band is tethered wirelessly to a wearer's Android or iPhone.

With hands truly free, wearers can also read texts, see who is calling them, scan Twitter or Facebook feeds and yes, check the time, while digging in their garden, barbequing a steak or -- as he was doing when he conceived of the idea -- riding a bike when his phone began to ring.

And that's just the first version. Apps are being developed that could eventually bring everything from Angry Birds to eBay bidding onto our wrists.

"I like it when I'm running," says Migicovsky, "I like it on the subway, on an airplane, anytime I want to see what's on my phone without pulling it out of my pocket."

Pebble, which began shipping in January, is not the first to make a play for the watch market, which dwindled when consumers added smartphones to their purses and pockets. But this little firm of 11 is the most popular in the smart watch sector today, bubbling up amid rampant rumors that Apple has its own iWatch in the works.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison declined to comment, but it wasn't the first time she'd been asked. Apple has several patents for high-tech watches.

Tim Bajarin, a Creative Strategies analyst who's followed Apple for more than three decades, said he's been waiting for an iWatch ever since the company introduced a tiny Nano in 2010 and consumers began strapping them to their wrists.

"I do believe that Apple could potentially disrupt the watch market if they took their innovative design and tied it to their smartphones and ecosystems," he said. "We have no knowledge that they are doing this, but the area is ripe for innovation."

Meanwhile, Bajarin has one of the first 6,000 Pebbles shipped out so far, and he was gushing over it.

"I love it," he said. "I have four or five people who message me consistently, mostly my wife. In the past, I was always being forced to look at the face of my smartphone to see who it was, now I just glance at my wrist."

The next step? He wants a "Dick Tracy watch" that he could verbally order around, instead of pushing buttons.

Even without Apple, Pebble already faces serious competition with a handful of other smart watches.

The Cookoo, selling for $130, has a battery that lasts a year, compared to Pebble's once-a-week charge. The Sony SmartWatch, at $129.98, has a touchscreen, Motorola's $149 MOTOACTV includes a heart rate monitor and MetaWatch's $299 STRATA has a more feminine design.

These newly emerging devices are innovative not only for what they do, but also for how they were funded.

Last April, after failing to convince venture capitalists to fund Pebble, Migicovsky pitched it on Kickstarter, a website where any Internet user can support a project. He asked for $100,000. He got $10.3 million before capping his request. Supporters who spent $115 were promised a watch, which means Pebble has already sold about 85,000 watches. Cookoo and STRATA also turned to Kickstarter for start-up funding.

Michael Gartenberg, research director for technology research firm Gartner Inc., warned all of these start-ups face major challenges.

"There's been a lot of failed efforts to create smart watches and the key will be for vendors to understand the watch isn't just another digital device," he said. "Consumers wear watches for many reasons that have nothing to do with telling time, as evidenced by watch companies such as Rolex."

Gartenberg said that so far, none of the smart watches are really designed for the mass market. "The real question is will Apple or Google get into this space?" he asked, noting that Microsoft tried some years ago with their failed SPOT watches.

Any new device, even a watch, also raises regulatory questions. Are they safe to use on airplanes? Could they interfere with other devices? California Highway Patrol spokeswoman Erin Komatsubara said drivers are allowed to glance at a smart watch but it's not recommended to try to read anything at all while driving.

"It's considered a distraction," she said. "Two eyes on the road, two hands on the wheel, that's what we really, really want."

Manuel Yazijian, president of The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute, said mechanical watches have a mystique of their own. But he said watchmakers may eventually turn their focus, attention to detail and ability to work on small items to smart watches.

"It's a different ballgame. I just don't know if they'll need maintenance and repair yet," he said. "Time will tell, no pun intended."

And the app Yazijian would like to see? "Our industry likes the old school mechanical stuff that ticks, like a heartbeat, like a live animal on your wrist," he said. "It would be so cool if the smart watch could make a ticking sound, right?"

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FOX News: How King Richard's heart was preserved

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How King Richard's heart was preserved
Feb 28th 2013, 15:30

The heart of Richard the Lionheart was preserved with mercury, mint and frankincense, among other sweet-smelling plants, a new study finds.

The study is the first biochemical look at the heart of Richard I, who died in 1199. As was common practice at the time, the king's heart was removed and mummified separately from the rest of his body. It rested in a reliquary at Notre Dame in Rouen for centuries before its rediscovery in 1838.

Now, for the first time, the chemical composition of the substances used to preserve the heart has been revealed. These substances were directly inspired by Biblical texts, said study leader Philippe Charlier of University Hospital R. Poincaré.

"The aim was to approach the odor of sanctity."

- Philippe Charlier of University Hospital R. Poincaré

"The aim was to approach the odor of sanctity," Charlier told LiveScience.

The life and death of Richard I

Richard I of England began his rule in 1189. He spent two years in captivity in Europe, much of that time being held for ransom by the Holy Roman Emperor. Later, the tale of Richard I's ransom would be folded into folk tales about Robin Hood, casting Richard I as a benevolent absent monarch and his brother John as a tax-happy usurper.

(Richard I came centuries before Richard III, the English monarch whose bones were discovered in a Leicester parking lot in September 2012. Richard III died in 1485.)

On March 25, 1199, years after the kidnapping, Richard sustained a crossbow wound in Chalus, France, and died 12 days later of gangrene. His abdominal organs were removed and interred in Chalus, while his body went to rest at Fontevraud Abbey in France. His heart was embalmed and placed in its own casket and taken to Notre Dame in Rouen. [The 10 Weirdest Ways We Deal With the Dead]

This division of the body was used to symbolize and mark Richard I's territory, Charlier said. However, no ancient texts remain to record how the embalming process was done.

The heart rested in Rouen until July 1838, when a local historian discovered a lead box inscribed, "Here is the heart of Richard, King of England." The heart itself had been reduced to dust in the preceding centuries; all that the box contained was a brownish-white powder.

Spiritual and practical

It was this powder that Charlier and his colleagues tested. They found a variety of compounds, including traces of the proteins found in human heart muscle. They also observed tiny fragments of linen, suggesting that the heart was wrapped before placement in the box.

Some metal compounds, including lead and tin, likely seeped into the powder from the lead box. Others were probably used in the embalming process. In particular, the researchers detected mercury, which has been found in other medieval burials and was probably used as an embalming agent.

The analysis also turned up pollen from a variety of plants: myrtle, daisy, mint, pine, oak, poplar, plantain and bellflower. Some of these, including poplar and bellflower, would have been blooming in April when Richard the Lionheart died; their pollen may have simply settled out of the air into the casket.

Other plants were probably used to preserve the heart. Myrtle, daisy and mint would not have been in bloom at the time, the researchers found, and probably would have been part of the embalming process. Frankincense, a tree resin, would also have been useful for both its preservation and its symbolic properties.

"This symbolic substance appeared at both extremities of the Christ life," the researchers write online today (Feb. 28) in the journal Scientific Reports. "Presented by the Biblical Magi at His birth, and used during His external embalming after the Passion."

Preserving the heart would have been important, because the journey to Rouen from Chalus was about 330 miles (530 kilometers), the researchers wrote. But Richard I's contemporaries may have also seen the process as one of "theological transformation," Charlier said.

Indeed, contemporary wisdom seems to have held that Richard I needed all the spiritual help he could get. In the 1200s, the bishop of Rochester announced that the king had only made it to heaven in 1232, having spent the intervening 33 years in purgatory, repenting his Earthly sins.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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FOX News: Growing number of universities want to fly drones over campus, report shows

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Growing number of universities want to fly drones over campus, report shows
Feb 28th 2013, 15:30

As college students are finding themselves, are schools using drones to find them?

Thirty-four colleges and universities applied for permission to fly unmanned surveillance drones over campuses across the country in 2012, according to records obtained by a privacy watchdog group. The schools cite plans for a wide array of scientific research, yet activists and privacy experts are nevertheless concerned about the high-flying spies.

"I find it troubling that this is the first most students have heard of secret plans to fly military-grade spy machines high above their dorms, classrooms and quads," Josiah Ryan, editor-in-chief of conservative education blog Campus Reform, told FoxNews.com.

"The constitutional right to privacy does not end on campus. The presidents of each of these 34 institutions owe their students, donors and taxpayers an explanation."

'We were concerned about the domestic use of drones.'

- Jennifer Lynch, staff attorney for watchdog group EFF

The use of unmanned drones has soared in the U.S. military, which has come to rely on the robotic planes for targeted attacks and covert spying worldwide. Domestically, drone use has skyrocketed as well: More than 80 applications for drone-flying permits were filed with the Federal Aviation Administration in 2012, including more than thirty universities, according to records obtained by watchdog group the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"We were concerned about the domestic use of drones. Especially about who would be using them," Jennifer Lynch, staff attorney for the EFF, told FoxNews.com. "It's been good to get the information because people can go informed with questions to their local officials."

The lists of higher-learning institutions that have applied for the drone permits include:

  • Cornell University, which applied for a permit to use a university-built unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to collect atmosphere and weather data as well as to track airborne spores in a study drafted to combat potato blight. The study was done in 2012 and the permit has since expired, and school officials say they have no other active permits.
  • the University of Michigan for use on Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay for "persistent surveillance on open water by gathering data as a drifting surface buoy that repositions via flight."
  • the University of Florida, which applied for a permit to fly a NOVA "in support of ongoing aerospace, geomatics, ecological and aquatic research."
  • the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the purpose of attaching a camera to a remotely controlled plane to take "low-altitude pictures" for a river restoration project.

One campus public safety organization even applied to use drones to assist in monitoring the school grounds.

The Georgia Institute of Technology's police department applied for a permit to use two small helicopter drones during special events, as well as day-to-day operations, "to respond to areas before a police officer would quickly place 'eyes on the target or crisis area'."

The school's PD first applied in 2009, but was denied. Some experts say that using the drones in daily operations would likely have been ineffective.

"The majority of crimes on a college campus happen behind closed doors," Steven J. Healy, managing partner of Margolis Healy, a Vermont-based campus security consulting firm, told FoxNews.com. "Drones wouldn't do much good in helping to spot anything as it's occurring."

Officials at Georgia Tech may have agreed, having dropped their bid for a permit after being denied.

"The [drone] initiative was just in the concept phase. When the FAA denied the application, our police department decided to allocate its resources elsewhere," Georgia Tech spokesman Matt Negel said in a written statement to FoxNews.com.

Detractors say there is little to stop drones moving from the research department to the public safety branches of universities that have applied. That scenario is highly unlikely, Healy's business partner said.

"It would be surprising if a research drone obtained by a university was put on loan to the campus police department for surveillance," said Gary Margolis, managing partner of Margolis Healy who served as the chief of police at the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College for over a decade. "It is possible, but it would have to go through an internal bureau and it would be an unreasonable expense."

In recent years, the federal government has ramped up efforts to issue private licenses for drone use with nearly 1,500 issued since 2007, according to statistics released this month. While only 327 of those permits are still active, the findings have done little to quell the public's paranoia that big brother may be watching.

"What's often missed in this debate is that there are many, many applications [for drone use]," Steve Giten, a spokesman for drone manufacturer AeroVironment, told FoxNews.com. "Many of them are important and valuable and non-controversial."

"We are certain that people will gain understanding as time goes on," he said.

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FOX News: Lost and found: Ancient shoes turn up in Egypt temple

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Lost and found: Ancient shoes turn up in Egypt temple
Feb 28th 2013, 15:00

More than 2,000 years ago, at a time when Egypt was ruled by a dynasty of kings of Greek descent, someone, perhaps a group of people, hid away some of the most valuable possessions they had — their shoes.

Seven shoes were deposited in a jar in an Egyptian temple in Luxor, three pairs and a single one. Two pairs were originally worn by children and were only about 7 inches long. Using palm fiber string, the child shoes were tied together within the single shoe (it was larger and meant for an adult) and put in the jar. Another pair of shoes, more than 9 inches long that had been worn by a limping adult, was also inserted in the jar.

The shoe-filled jar, along with two other jars, had been "deliberately placed in a small space between two mudbrick walls," writes archaeologist Angelo Sesana in a report published in the journal Memnonia.

Whoever deposited the shoes never returned to collect them, and they were forgotten, until now. [See Photos of the Ancient Egyptian Shoes]

'The shoes were in pristine condition and still supple upon discovery.'

- André Veldmeijer, an expert in ancient Egyptian footwear

In 2004, an Italian archaeological expedition team, led by Sesana, rediscovered the shoes. The archaeologists gave André Veldmeijer, an expert in ancient Egyptian footwear, access to photographs that show the finds.

"The find is extraordinary as the shoes were in pristine condition and still supple upon discovery," writes Veldmeijer in the most recent edition of the Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. Unfortunately after being unearthed the shoes became brittle and "extremely fragile," he added.

Pricey shoes
Veldmeijer's analysis suggests the shoes may have been foreign-made and were "relatively expensive." Sandals were the more common footwear in Egypt and that the style and quality of these seven shoes was such that "everybody would look at you," and "it would give you much more status because you had these expensive pair of shoes," said Veldmeijer, assistant director for Egyptology of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo.

The date of the shoes is based on the jar they were found in and the other two jars, as well as the stratigraphy, or layering of sediments, of the area. It may be possible in the future to carbon date the shoes to confirm their age.

Why they were left in the temple in antiquity and not retrieved is a mystery. "There's no reason to store them without having the intention of getting them back at some point," Veldmeijer said in an interview with LiveScience, adding that there could have been some kind of unrest that forced the owners of the shoes to deposit them and flee hastily. The temple itself predates the shoes by more than 1,000 years and was originally built for pharaoh Amenhotep II (1424-1398 B.C.).

Design discoveries
Veldmeijer made a number of shoe design discoveries. He found that the people who wore the seven shoes would have tied them using what researchers call "tailed toggles." Leather strips at the top of the shoes would form knots that would be passed through openings to close the shoes. After they were closed a long strip of leather would have hung down, decoratively, at either side. The shoes are made out of leather, which is likely bovine.

Most surprising was that the isolated shoe had what shoemakers call a "rand," a device that until now was thought to have been first used in medieval Europe. A rand is a folded leather strip that would go between the sole of the shoe and the upper part, reinforcing the stitching as the "the upper is very prone to tear apart at the stitch holes," he explained. The device would've been useful in muddy weather when shoes are under pressure, as it makes the seam much more resistant to water.

In the dry (and generally not muddy) climate of ancient Egypt, he said that it's a surprising innovation and seems to indicate the seven shoes were constructed somewhere abroad.

Health discoveries
The shoes also provided insight into the health of the people wearing them. In the case of the isolated shoe, he found a "semi-circular protruding area" that could be a sign of a condition called Hallux Valgus, more popularly known as a bunion. [The 9 Most Bizarre Medical Conditions]

"In this condition, the big toe starts to deviate inward towards the other toes," Veldmeijer writes in the journal article. "Although hereditary, it can also develop as a result of close fitting shoes, although other scholars dispute this ...."

Another curious find came from the pair of adult shoes. He found that the left shoe had more patches and evidence of repair than the shoe on the right. "The shoe was exposed to unequal pressure," he said, showing that the person who wore it "walked with a limp, otherwise the wear would have been far more equal."

Still, despite their medical problems, and the wear and tear on the shoes, the people who wore them were careful to keep up with repairs, Veldmeijer said. They did not throw them away like modern-day Westerners tend to do with old running shoes.

"These shoes were highly prized commodities."

Veldmeijer hopes to have the opportunity to examine the shoes, now under the care of the Ministry of State for Antiquities, firsthand.

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FOX News: For Pandora users, the party's over: Company to limit free mobile listening

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For Pandora users, the party's over: Company to limit free mobile listening
Feb 28th 2013, 14:43

Feeling the sting from rising royalty costs, Pandora has decided to limit the amount of time listeners can stream tracks before paying the piper.

If you're using the Pandora app on a phone or tablet, you'll hit the wall at the 40-hour mark, at which time you'll be asked to fork over 99 cents for the rest of the month.

Will this move pull the plug on the soundtrack to your life? For the vast majority of Pandora's 65.6 million users, Pandora doesn't believe so. In a company blog post the company claims that the average user listens for 20 hours per month on the go, and that overall this move will impact less than 4 percent customers. Still, that's over 2.5 million people.

The reason Pandora is putting up a paywall now is because the company is being forking over more money for the music it streams to mobile devices. Per-track royalty rates increased 25 percent over the last three years, and they're expected to jump another 16 percent over the next two years.

Pandora listeners who don't want to put up with ads or worry about hitting that cap could always upgrade to the premium Pandora One service, which costs $3.99 per month for $36 per year. What remains to be seen is if this limit will cause more music lovers to defect to alternatives like Spotify or the newly redesigned Slacker.

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FOX News: Apple CEO reassures shareholders about sagging stock, says board exploring cash options

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Apple CEO reassures shareholders about sagging stock, says board exploring cash options
Feb 28th 2013, 12:45

CUPERTINO, Calif. –  Apple CEO Tim Cook sought to assure shareholders Wednesday that the company is working on some "great stuff" that may help reverse a sharp decline in its stock price.

True to Apple's secretive nature, Cook didn't provide any further product details during the company's annual shareholders meeting Wednesday. There has been speculation that Apple is working on an Internet-connected watch or TV, while one shareholder recommended that Apple develop a computerized bicycle. Cook, an avid bicyclist, chuckled at the suggestion, along with the rest of the audience.

Apple's stock fell $5.20, or 1.2 percent, to $443.77 in afternoon trading Wednesday.

Wednesday's meeting at Apple's Cupertino headquarters was less celebratory than the events in past years, when Apple's stock price was soaring to the delight and enrichment of its shareholders.

Since hitting an all-time high of $705.07 five months ago, Apple's stock has plunged by 36 percent. The decline has wiped out collective shareholder wealth totaling $240 billion -- an amount that exceeds the total market value of Microsoft Corp., which reigned as the most influential company in personal computing until Apple ushered in an era of more mobile devices with the 2007 release of the iPhone and the 2010 introduction of the iPad.

The agenda for this year's meeting had been revised because of shareholder unrest. Influential investor David Einhorn, who runs the Greenlight Capital hedge fund, won a court ruling last week that prompted Apple to withdraw a proposal that would have required Apple to gain shareholder approval before issuing preferred stock that could distribute more cash to its stockholders. Einhorn's fund owns 1.3 million Apple shares.

Cook told shareholders Wednesday that Apple's board is still exploring what to do with the money, but continued to play down Einhorn's lawsuit.

"I strongly believe it was a silly sideshow, regardless of how the judge ruled on it," Cook said.

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FOX News: 500-million-year-old sea creature found

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500-million-year-old sea creature found
Feb 28th 2013, 13:30

Scientists have unearthed extraordinarily preserved fossils of a 520-million-year-old sea creature, one of the earliest animal fossils ever found, according to a new study.

The fossilized animal, an arthropod called a fuxhianhuiid, has primitive limbs under its head, as well as the earliest example of a nervous system that extended past the head. The primitive creature may have used the limbs to push food into its mouth as it crept across the seafloor. The limbs may shed light on the evolutionary history of arthropods, which include crustaceans and insects.

'This is as early as we can currently see into arthropod limb development.'

- Javier Ortega-Hernández, an earth scientist at the University of Cambridge

"Since biologists rely heavily on organization of head appendages to classify arthropod groups, such as insects and spiders, our study provides a crucial reference point for reconstructing the evolutionary history and relationships of the most diverse and abundant animals on Earth," said study co-author Javier Ortega-Hernández, an earth scientist at the University of Cambridge, in a statement. "This is as early as we can currently see into arthropod limb development."

The findings were published Wednesday, Feb. 27, in the journal Nature.

Primordial animal

The fuxhianhuiid lived nearly 50 million years before animals first emerged from the sea onto land, during the early part of the Cambrian explosion, when simple multicellular organisms rapidly evolved into complex sea life. [See Images of the Wacky Cambrian Creatures ]

While paleontologists have unearthed previous examples of a fuxhianhuiid before, the fossils were all found in the head-down position, with their delicate internal organs obscured by a large carapace or shell.

However, when Ortega-Hernández and his colleagues began excavating in a fossil-rich region of southwest China around Kunming called Xiaoshiba, they unearthed several specimens of fuxhianhuiid where the bodies had been flipped before fossilization. All told, the team unearthed an amazingly preserved arthropod, as well as eight additional specimens.

These primeval creatures probably spent most of their days crawling across the seabed trawling for food and may have also been able to swim short distances. The sea creatures, some of the earliest arthropods or jointed animals, probably evolved from worms with legs.

The discovery sheds light on how some of the earliest ancestors of today's animals may have evolved.

"These fossils are our best window to see the most primitive state of animals as we know them – including us," Ortega-Hernández said in a statement. "Before that there is no clear indication in the fossil record of whether something was an animal or a plant – but we are still filling in the details, of which this is an important one."

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FOX News: Crocodiles once battled dinosaurs, scientists say

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Crocodiles once battled dinosaurs, scientists say
Feb 28th 2013, 12:45

Crocodile-like beasts may have nibbled on young dinosaurs some 75 million years ago, according to scientists who analyzed bite marks on dinosaur bones.

The findings suggest the rivalry between the reptiles started early in life, the researchers say.

Bites from living crocodylians such as alligators and crocodiles are often seen on the bones of their prey and scavenged bodies. Scientists can use these to identify bite marks on fossils from crocodyliforms, the reptiles to which modern crocodylians belong.

Research investigating crocodyliforms from the age of dinosaurs has often focused on the largest such reptiles feeding on equally giant dinosaurs. Now, paleontologists have direct evidence of a small crocodyliform biting juvenile dinosaurs.

Scientists unearthed these fossils in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.

"This area is very hot and arid in the summer and cold in the winter," said researcher Clint Boyd, a vertebrate paleontologist at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. "Most of the area is dominated by massive, cliff-forming rock outcrops."

Back when the reptiles were alive, their environment was warm and wet, dominated by rivers and floodplains and lush with bushes and trees. Dinosaurs in the area included duck-billed hadrosaurs, horned ceratopsians such as Triceratops and predatory relatives of T. rex. The area also holds an especially diverse assembly of crocodyliforms, including the gigantic alligatoroid Deinosuchus riograndensis. [Paleo-Art: Stunning Illustrations of Dinosaurs]

The researchers unearthed 75-million-year-old fossils of at least three members of a kind of small, two-legged herbivorous dinosaur known as a hypsilophodontid. On the right thighbone of one, the researchers found a conical tooth embedded that was just 2.5 millimeters wide (a little less than one-tenth of an inch), and similarly tiny puncture marks were seen on a left shoulder bone.

"I was very surprised to find such clear feeding traces on such small bones," Boyd told LiveScience. "It shows the importance of carefully evaluating all the fossils collected from an area, and not assuming that some fossils won't be important just because they are very small or not completely preserved."

It remains uncertain how large the crocodyliform that made the marks was. However, the dinosaurs in question probably weighed about 28 to 46 pounds (13 to 21 kilograms); and living crocodylians 3 to 6 feet (1 to 1.8 meters) long are known to take down prey that big.

"Usually people tend to focus on the dangers that big, adult dinosaurs were having to deal with, but this study shows that even though dinosaurs were the dominant animals during the Cretaceous, they still had to worry about predators as soon as they were born," Boyd said.

The researchers will continue to study fossils from many time periods to look for additional traces of crocodyliform feeding, such as at an approximately 33-million-year-old locality in Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

Boyd and his colleagues Stephanie Drumheller and Terry Gates detailed their findings online today (Feb. 27) in the journal PLOS ONE.

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FOX News: Review: Lara Croft refreshed in new 'Tomb Raider'

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Review: Lara Croft refreshed in new 'Tomb Raider'
Feb 28th 2013, 13:16

It's been four years -- almost a generation in video game years -- since Lara Croft embarked on a "Tomb Raider" expedition. The unenviable task of rebooting the well-known and well-worn series seemed impossible, but with a gritty and focused approach, it's one developer Crystal Dynamics got almost completely right with Croft's latest adventure.

"Tomb Raider" (for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, $59.99) finds an inexperienced young Croft shipwrecked and separated from her crew on a mysterious island in Japan's brutal Devil's Triangle. This isn't the savvy, sexy and sassy Croft that hunted down relics in the previous eight games and two films starring Angelina Jolie.

This is a vulnerable Croft, one who's never had to resort to killing another person. Over the course of the lengthy single-player experience, this Croft must survive the elements, amass an arsenal, rescue her friends and battle a cult of castaways. It's the tale of her transformation from thrill-seeker to superheroine. It's "Batman Begins" for Lara Croft.

"Tomb Raider" is mostly a story about survival, so Croft begins with almost nothing, eventually accumulating some firearms, as well as climbing tools like an ax and rope. It's the first weapon Croft finds, a silent but deadly bow and arrow, that's the most satisfying to employ. This "Tomb Raider" does for the bow what "GoldenEye" did for the sniper rifle.

The game's winding trails, claustrophobic caves and perilous cliffside formations created by lead level designer Jason Botta and his team are some of the most imaginative and thrilling platforming elements crafted in recent years. Some tombs that Croft comes across are optional excursions, but they're all so well done, it shouldn't be a choice to skip 'em.

"Tomb Raider" also sounds as good as it feels. Jason Graves' powerfully tense score and Camilla Luddington's performance as Croft hit the right tone, and the conversations Croft overhears between many of the island's all-male goons are so enlightening and humorous, players will want to let the reticle linger a bit longer to eavesdrop on all the chatter.

"Tomb Raider" isn't perfect though. Sometimes it's sloppy. Croft falls -- off cliffs, through roofs, into the ocean -- more than those dwarfs in "The Hobbit," and that's not even including the moments when the X button isn't mashed quickly enough. Surely there must be more creative ways for Croft to go from Point A to Point B on the mythical Yamatai island.

The weakest link is Croft's laughably underdeveloped shipmates. Each is a cliche: bespectacled geek, gentle giant, angry black woman, wise old man. It's difficult to sympathize with Croft for putting herself through hell to save them, or understand why the writers couldn't create multidimensional supporting characters like in the "Uncharted" games.

Speaking of that epic treasure-hunting franchise, while the developers have clearly borrowed some of Nathan Drake's moves, they've created more than an "Uncharted" clone. The tone is darker, and the levels are less linear. This is not just "Uncharted" or "Assassin's Creed" with Lara Croft, it's "Tomb Raider" for a new era. Three-and-a-half out of four stars.

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FOX News: China says US-based hackers are targeting its government websites

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China says US-based hackers are targeting its government websites
Feb 28th 2013, 11:04

Published February 28, 2013

Associated Press

BEIJING –  China's military says overseas computer hackers targeted two of its websites an average of 144,000 times per month last year, with almost two thirds of the attacks originating in the United States.

The comments by Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng on Thursday followed accusations last week by an American cybersecurity company that Chinese military-backed cyberspies infiltrated and stole massive amounts of data from U.S. companies and other entities. China denied the allegations and its military said it has never supported any hacking activity.

Geng told reporters at a monthly news conference that an average of 62.9 percent of the attacks on the Defense Ministry's official website and that of its newspaper, the People's Liberation Army Daily, came from the U.S.

China says its military cyberforce is purely for defense.

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

FOX News: Millionaire Dennis Tito sets date for manned mission to Mars: Jan. 5, 2018

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Millionaire Dennis Tito sets date for manned mission to Mars: Jan. 5, 2018
Feb 27th 2013, 19:15

A maverick millionaire obsessed with space travel vowed to send a manned mission to Mars, even announcing the date the rocket carrying one man and one woman would set off for the Red Planet: Jan. 5, 2018.

On that date, a yet unchosen man and woman will enter a tiny space capsule and rocket into the heavens and into the history books, promised Dennis Tito, the brains behind The Inspiration Mars Foundation and the American businessman who paid about $20 million to visit the International Space Station in 2001 aboard a Russian spacecraft.

After a trip of about 140 million miles, the brave crew will be the first humans ever to peer out a window at Mars -- but not set foot there.

Their spacecraft will not stop on the surface of the planet, instead orbiting around the Red Planet at a distance of 100 miles out before using the planet's gravity to slingshot back to the Earth, he said.

'This will be a Lewis and Clark mission to Mars.'

- Taber MacCallum chief technology officer for space development company Paragon

"This will be a Lewis and Clark mission to Mars," explained Taber MacCallum, chief executive officer and chief technology officer for space development company Paragon and one of the scientists working on the Inspiration Mars.

Why 2018?
Our neighboring planet has always captivated and inspired us, the group explained at a press event Wednesday. But if we don't seize the moment, we may miss the opportunity to explore it and become a multi-planet species.

That's because the Jan. 2018 deadline is a hard one: According to a 1996 paper that inspired the private project, the planets only come together perfectly for a mission like this once every 15 years. And while the next window is just five short years away, the follow up won't be until 2031.

"The planets realign every 15 years, and who wants to wait for 2031," Tito said. "By that time, we might have company."

Tito himself won't be flying on this mission; rather, it will be an unnamed, middle-aged crew consisting of a man and a woman.

"I will not be one of the crew members. And if I were 30 years younger, I still would not be," Tito told members of the press at a Wednesday event to announce the mission. Instead well trained and likely much younger astronauts will pilot the craft on its mission.

The trip is relatively straightforward, according to the various presenters at the event, akin to a low-earth orbit trip in complexity. But due to the distances involved, there are obvious, glaring risks to the 501-day mission.

"It's 1.4 years, no chance for abort. If something goes wrong, there's no chance of coming back … and we're going to reenter at record speeds, 14.2 kilometers per second," explained MacCallum. The trip is conceptually feasible, he said, but the technical details to make it happen have yet to be completed. There are a wealth of spacecraft being developed at present, giving them a wealth of options, however.

He called it a demonstration that could lead to further exploration of Mars.

"We're trying to be a stepping stone toward that" he said. But "a program of record is really needed to make that happen."

How will astronauts make it to Mars?
Technology aside, will people be able to survive such a mission however, trapped in a tiny capsule and breathing the same air day in and day out, month after month, all the way to Mars and back?

Absolutely, explained Jonathan Clark , chief medical officer for Inspiration Mars -- and the medical officer for Felix Baumgartner's recent dramatic plunge from space.

"This is going to be the Apollo 8 moment for the next generation," he said. "It's about inspiring our children, particularly my son. To me this really strikes a deep personal note."

To keep the crew alive in deep space, where we have limited experience, he would rely on past experience working in micro gravity. Radiation may be an issue, he said. Clark said individual genomic analysis of the astronauts would allow them to tailor protection to the mission. And other advanced studies and research would be necessary to protect the astronauts, whom he said would be "middle aged."

"Do we have our work cut out for us? Yes, absolutely," he said. Beyond merely sustaining the crew, the team will be challenged by the psychological stress of such a mission.

"It's a really long road trip, you're jammed into an RV that goes the equivalent of 32,000 times around the Earth…and they'll have about 3,000 pounds of dehydrated food that they'll get to rehydrate with the same water they drank two days ago," explained Jane Poynter, also of Paragon and also a member of the project.

A system that provides all of the basic needs of the crew already exists, she said, based on the system in place on the International Space Station, though it is simpler and more robust.

It's important that we have a man and woman on the mission, she said, because they reflect humanity. And having both genders reflect should serve further to inspire the next generation to look to the stars -- and open their science text books.

"getting a Tweet from a female astronaut, from Mars, and looking down at what she's seeing and describe it for us? And then turning around and looking back at Earth and describing that tiny dot that she's seeing? These two astronauts will take all of us along on the ride," Poynter said.

The cost of the mission is still not determined, Tito explained, but it will clearly be a money loser for the former NASA scientist, who founded the investment firm Wilshire Associates, which eventually made him a millionaire.

"This is not a commercial mission," he said. "Let me guarantee, I will come out a lot poorer as a result of this mission. But my grandchildren will come out a lot wealthier because of the inspiration they will get from this mission."

The team already has a signed space act agreement with NASA, and says they will launch the craft from Moffitt Field at NASA's Ames facility in California.

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