Shuttle Atlantis makes final journey home

Atlantis, the last aircraft of its kind to launch into space before the U.S. ended its 30-year space shuttle program, is slowly making its historic journey to its final home on Friday.

The shuttle is being transported 16 kilometres, very slowly, aboard a 76-wheel flatbed vehicle from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Bay to a new visitor centre where it will be put on display for the public.

Atlantis was the last of NASA's three surviving shuttles to retire when it completed its final flight on July 21, 2011.

"Today marks the end of a phenomenal 30 year program for the space shuttle," said Robert Cabana, director of the Kennedy Space Centre during the retirement ceremony for Atlantis on Friday.

"It was very sad, but okay, this morning when we watched Atlantis roll out of the [Vehicle Assembly Building] for the very last time. Although this is the end of Atlantis flying in space, it's not the end....Atlantis now takes on a mission of inspriation to future generations."

Its predecessors, the Endeavour, Enterprise and Discovery, have all been transported to museums and a science centre in California, New York, and Virginia, respectively.

But Atlantis' final journey lays to rest the last relic of the space-shuttle era, as NASA makes way for the next generation of spacecraft.

Mood dampened by NASA layoffs

Atlantis emerged just before dawn from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, and about 200 workers gathered in the early morning chill to see the space shuttle out in the open for the final time.

They were joined by the four astronauts who closed out the shuttle program aboard Atlantis more than a year ago.

Portions of Atlantis' final launch countdown boomed over loudspeakers as the shuttle paused in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building before hitting the road.

Employees gathered in front of a long white banner that read, "We Made History," and below that the single word "Atlantis."

They followed the spaceship for a block or two, then scattered as the shuttle transporter revved up to its maximum 3.2 km/hr. The convoy following the shuttle includes a dozen trucks and vans, their lights blinking.

The shuttle is making its way down broad industrial avenues, most of them off-limits to the public.

The roundabout loop was to take the shuttle past Kennedy's headquarters building for a midmorning retirement ceremony and then to a still-under-design industrial park for a few hours of public viewing in the afternoon.

Tourist tickets ran as high as $90 apiece for a chance to see the spaceship up close.

Crews removed 120 light poles, 23 traffic signals and 56 traffic signs in order for Atlantis to squeeze by. One high-voltage power line also had to come down. Staff trimmed back some scrub pines, but there was none of the widespread tree-axing that occurred in when Endeavour rolled through downtown Los Angeles.

Atlantis had to traverse just one noticeable incline, a highway ramp. The rest of the course is sea-level flat.

The fact that several hundred shuttle workers are about to lose their jobs, now that Atlantis is being turned over to the visitor complex, dampened the mood. Thousands already have been laid off.

"The untold story of the last couple years, the last missions that we flew, is the workforce. I mean, the contractors knew that their numbers were going to go down ... and yet they kept doing their jobs," said NASA's Angie Brewer, who was once in charge of getting Atlantis ready for flight.

First shuttle to dock with Russian space station

Atlantis began its first mission on Oct. 3, 1985, where it spent four days in space delivering classified cargo, widely believed to be military communications satellites.

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on May 14, 2010. (Bruce Weaver/AFT/Getty)

Its key missions included carrying the Venus-bound Magellan probes and the Galileo probes into space in 1989. In 1995, Atlantis became the first shuttle to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

The shuttle has been in the Vehicle Assembly Building since last month. There, technicians had been preparing Atlantis to go on display to the public. This included removing components and chemical systems inside the shuttle that may be toxic, said Malone.

The shuttle paused en route to the new visitor centre this morning for a retirement ceremony with officials, staff as well as current and former astronauts from the final mission of Atlantis.

"Now, Atlantis will continue its life," said Chris Ferguson, the commander of the shuttle's final mission. "Its life of exploration is complete ... Its life of inspration will pick up from this day forward, and inspire young men and women for decades to come."

NASA administrator Charles Bolden said although the 30-year program had come to a close, "our best days are ahead of us, with the shuttle as our tail wind."

Space center workers carry a banner while walking behind the shuttle Atlantis as it makes its way to the Visitor Complex at the Kennedy Space Center, on Friday. (Terry Renna/Associated Press)

"The spirit that created the program and built [Atlantis] is very much alive, developing systems and technologies for private companies... but also to keep us on the road to asteroids, and Mars and places beyond," he said during the ceremony.

Atlantis is expected to reach the visitor complex at about 6 p.m. It will then be covered and protected while construction of the complex is completed, said Kennedy Space Center spokeswoman Lisa Malone.

A grand opening of the new home for Atlantis, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, is planned for July 2013.

The $100-million US building will showcase Atlantis suspended in the air in the orbit position, with a massive digital projection of Earth that will rotate by the shuttle.

With files from the Associated Press

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Fall back: How to stay cheerful, alert with time change

For some Canadians, the daylight time switch this weekend is cause for celebration. With clocks turning back an hour at 2 a.m. on Nov. 4, how could the extra snooze time on a Sunday morning be anything other than a bonus?

But seasonal time changes always come with a trade-off.

Academic research shows that losing an hour of daylight can be linked to negative effects on both the mind and body, including disturbed sleep patterns, seasonal depression and obesity.

Both the amount and quality of sleep have been shown to be important for mental and physical health, says Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Sleep Disorders Center in Illinois. "Disturbed sleep is associated with depression, memory and learning impairments, cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk factors (diabetes and heart disease), obesity, and impaired ability to fight infections."

Even when clocks change backward or forward by just an hour, circadian misalignment — the difference between the timing of a person's natural internal clock and their required work or sleep/wake schedule — can occur, which Zee says "has been shown to increase risk for mood disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and breast cancer."

Less daylight, less activity

The reduced "accessible" daylight hours in the fall and winter can also lead to obesity and chronic illnesses through a lack of exercise, according to Mayer Hillman, a fellow from the U.K.-based Policy Studies Institute. "Although most people are aware of the benefits of taking up more physical activity — a lowered risk of coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and some cancers — this routine features in few people's everyday lives."

Daylight saving time can even result in a great risk of heart attack — but only in the spring, according to Dr. Martin Young, from the Division of Cardiovascular Disease at University of Alabama.

"The Monday and Tuesday after moving the clocks ahead one hour in March is associated with a 10 per cent increase in the risk of having a heart attack," he says. "The opposite is true when falling back [in the autumn]. This risk decreases by about 10 per cent."

Since winter is already a season notorious for weight gain, perhaps it's not surprising that some experts suggest that parents should be cautious of child obesity. In a BBC report last year, scientists found that children aged 8 to 11 were more likely to engage in exercise during daylight, regardless of wind, rain and overcast conditions.

Studies indicate that a person's mood generally tends to decline during the shorter and duller days of winter. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

"The fact that kids spend more time playing outdoors and are more physically active overall on these longer days could be important at a population level for promoting their fitness and in preventing child obesity," said Anna Goodman of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Anar Alidina, a Toronto-based dietitian, suggests that the best way to prepare for daylight saving time is to develop healthy habits.

"Exercise regularly, as it's been shown to help reduce stress, prevent weight gain and helps boosts your mood, which can ward off depression," she advises.

"Also, keep fresh healthy food on hand to help you feel energized during daylight saving. With long winter days ahead of us, it's so easy and convenient to turn to comfort foods that are often high in fat and sugar."

Mood changes

And if you feel as if dark, cold weather may be affecting your mood, you're right.

Health experts report that people generally feel happier, more energetic and have lower sickness rates in the longer and brighter days of summer, whereas their mood tends to decline during the shorter and duller days of winter.

Women in particular feel seasonal changes most. In an interview with ABC News earlier this year, Michael Terman, Ph.D., director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University Medical Center, said that some 15 million people (three-quarters of them women) suffer from a depressive condition called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), where symptoms include low energy, carb cravings, weight gain, and reduced sex drive.

To avoid feeling the winter blues, he suggests considering investing in superbright white fluorescent bulbs, which can elevate your serotonin levels. Positioning the gadget above your line of sight, angled downward toward your head, and flipping it on each morning for about 30 minutes while you eat breakfast or check your e-mail can reset your internal clock to a spring/summer schedule, Terman says.

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iPad mini hits store shelves, draws smaller lines

Apple's new iPad mini hit store shelves today, a product launch aimed directly at competition from Amazon's Kindle Fire and Google's Nexus tablets.

Fans began to line up outside the technology giant's retail stores worldwide, when the smaller iPad went on sale at 8 a.m. local time, but some reports say the queues were more diminutive than at Apple's other launches.

The smaller version of its popular iPad has a 7.9 inch screen (measured diagonally) and retails at $329 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi model — much higher than forecast.

Apple has described the device as 23 per cent thinner and 53 per cent lighter than the third-generation iPad, with faster wireless performance and up to 10 hours of battery life.

Queues in Tokyo, Hong Kong, NYC

Fans in cities including Tokyo and Hong Kong lined up outside the Apple store to be the first to buy the company's latest release. Over 300 people camped outside the Apple store with some arriving as early as Wednesday with fold-up chairs, sleeping bags and food supplies.

Designer Park Ju-an had been waiting outside the store in Seoul, South Korea since 5:30am local time, and said Apple had given those in the queue hand-warmers due to the cold weather.

"The overall mood here is really good," he said. "I am wondering if we are going to do high-fives [with Apple staff] like in overseas countries."

But in other major cities, including Sydney and New York, crowds were much thinner than at previous Apple launches, such as the iPhone 5, Reuters reported.

About 50 people waited for the Apple store in Sydney, Australia, to open, where in the past the line had stretched for several blocks when the company debuted new iPhones, according to Reuters.

Still, Apple enthusiasts lined up at stores in New York and Washington, D.C., Reuters reported, just days after the cities were battered by Hurricane Sandy, one of the biggest storms to ever hit the United States.

Apple reprimanded by U.K. judges

The new product comes one day after the U.S. technology giant was reprimanded by British judges for not fully apologizing to competitor Samsung Electronics Co for falsely claiming the South Korean company copied its iPad.

Apple Inc. was ordered to print an apology on its website after the U.K. courts repeatedly rejected its claim that Samsung ripped off its designs when creating its own tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab.

Apple did post an apology, but judges at London's High Court ruled Thursday that it didn't go far enough and ordered a new one posted to its site within 48 hours.

Samsung and Apple are locked in a series of international lawsuits over alleged copyright violations, including a California case which saddled Samsung with a $1 billion fine for copying Apple's design.

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Fall back: How to stay cheerful, alert as we lose a daylight hour

For some Canadians, the daylight saving time switch this weekend is cause for celebration. With clocks turning back an hour at 2:00 a.m. on Nov. 4, how could the extra snooze time on a Sunday morning be anything other than a bonus?

But seasonal time changes always come with a trade-off.

Academic research shows that losing an hour of daylight can be linked to negative effects on both the mind and body, including disturbed sleep patterns, seasonal depression and obesity.

Both the amount and quality of sleep have been shown to be important for mental and physical health, says Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Sleep Disorders Center in Illinois. "Disturbed sleep is associated with depression, memory and learning impairments, cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk factors (diabetes and heart disease), obesity, and impaired ability to fight infections."

Even when clocks change backwards or forwards by just an hour, circadian misalignment — the difference between the timing of a person's natural internal clock and their required work or sleep/wake schedule — can occur, which Zee says "has been shown to increase risk for mood disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and breast cancer."

Less daylight, less activity

The reduced 'accessible' daylight hours in the fall and winter can also lead to obesity and chronic illnesses through a lack of exercise, according to Mayer Hillman, a fellow from the UK-based Policy Studies Institute. "Although most people are aware of the benefits of taking up more physical activity — a lowered risk of coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension and some cancers — this routine features in few people's everyday lives."

Daylight saving time can even result in a great risker of heart attack — but only in the spring, according to Dr Martin Young, from the Division of Cardiovascular Disease at University of Alabama.

"The Monday and Tuesday after moving the clocks ahead one hour in March is associated with a 10 per cent increase in the risk of having a heart attack," he says. "The opposite is true when falling back [in the autumn]. This risk decreases by about 10 per cent."

Since winter is already a season notorious for weight gain, perhaps it's not surprising that some experts suggest that parents should be cautious of child obesity. In a BBC report last year, scientists found that children aged 8 to 11 were more likely to engage in exercise during daylight, regardless of wind, rain and overcast conditions.

Studies indicate that a person's mood generally tends to decline during the shorter and duller days of winter. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

"The fact that kids spend more time playing outdoors and are more physically active overall on these longer days could be important at a population level for promoting their fitness and in preventing child obesity," said Anna Goodman of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Anar Alidina, a Toronto-based dietician, suggests that the best way to prepare for daylight saving time is to develop healthy habits.

"Exercise regularly, as it's been shown to help reduce stress, prevent weight gain and helps boosts your mood, which can ward off depression," she advises.

"Also, keep fresh healthy food on hand to help you feel energized during daylight saving. With long winter days ahead of us, it's so easy and convenient to turn to comfort foods that are often high in fat and sugar."

Mood changes

And if you feel like dark, cold weather may actually be affecting your mood, you're right.

Health experts report that people generally feel happier, more energetic and have lower sickness rates in the longer and brighter days of summer, whereas their mood tends to decline during the shorter and duller days of winter.

Women in particular feel seasonal changes most. In an interview with ABC News earlier this year, Michael Terman, Ph.D., director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University Medical Center, said that some 15 million people (three-fourths of them women) suffer from a depressive condition called seasonal affective disorder (SAD), where symptoms include low energy, carb cravings, weight gain, and reduced sex drive.

To avoid feeling the winter blues, he suggests considering investing in superbright white fluorescent bulbs, which can elevate your serotonin levels. Positioning the gadget above your line of sight, angled downward toward your head, and flipping it on each morning for about 30 minutes while you eat breakfast or check your e-mail can reset your internal clock to a spring/summer schedule, Terman says.

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Shuttle Atlantis makes final journey home

Atlantis, the last aircraft of its kind to launch into space before the U.S. ended its 30-year space shuttle program, is slowly making its historic journey to its final home on Friday.

The shuttle is being transported 16 kilometres, very slowly, aboard a 76-wheel flatbed vehicle from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Bay to a new visitor centre where it will be put on display for the public.

Atlantis was the last of NASA's three surviving shuttles to retire when it completed its final flight on July 21, 2011.

Its predecessors, the Endeavour, Enterprise and Discovery, have all been transported to museums and a science centre in California, New York, and Virginia, respectively.

But Atlantis' final journey lays to rest the last relic of the space-shuttle era, as NASA makes way for the next generation of spacecraft.

"This Shuttle Atlantis is the final shuttle to go on display for museums … It's a very significant milestone that the shuttles will go on display," said Lisa Malone, spokeswoman for NASA's Kennedy Space Centre. "And this is the final move."

Mood dampened by NASA layoffs

Atlantis emerged just before dawn from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building, and about 200 workers gathered in the early morning chill to see the space shuttle out in the open for the final time.

They were joined by the four astronauts who closed out the shuttle program aboard Atlantis more than a year ago.

Portions of Atlantis' final launch countdown boomed over loudspeakers as the shuttle paused in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building before hitting the road.

Employees gathered in front of a long white banner that read, "We Made History," and below that the single word "Atlantis."

They followed the spaceship for a block or two, then scattered as the shuttle transporter revved up to its maximum 3.2 km/hr. The convoy following the shuttle includes a dozen trucks and vans, their lights blinking.

The shuttle is making its way down broad industrial avenues, most of them off-limits to the public.

The roundabout loop was to take the shuttle past Kennedy's headquarters building for a midmorning ceremony and then to a still-under-design industrial park for a few hours of public viewing in the afternoon. Tourist tickets ran as high as $90 apiece for a chance to see the spaceship up close. Crews removed 120 light poles, 23 traffic signals and 56 traffic signs in order for Atlantis to squeeze by. One high-voltage power line also had to come down. Staff trimmed back some scrub pines, but there was none of the widespread tree-axing that occurred in when Endeavour rolled through downtown Los Angeles. Atlantis had to traverse just one noticeable incline, a highway ramp. The rest of the course is sea-level flat.

The fact that several hundred shuttle workers are about to lose their jobs, now that Atlantis is being turned over to the visitor complex, dampened the mood. Thousands already have been laid off.

"The untold story of the last couple years, the last missions that we flew, is the workforce. I mean, the contractors knew that their numbers were going to go down ... and yet they kept doing their jobs," said NASA's Angie Brewer, who was once in charge of getting Atlantis ready for flight.

First shuttle to dock with Russian space station

Atlantis began its first mission on Oct. 3, 1985, where it spent four days in space delivering classified cargo, widely believed to be military communications satellites.

Its key missions included carrying the Venus-bound Magellan probes and the Galileo probes into space in 1989. In 1995, Atlantis became the first shuttle to dock with the Russian space station Mir.

The shuttle has been in the Vehicle Assembly Building since last month. There, technicians had been preparing Atlantis to go on display to the public. This included removing components and chemical systems inside the shuttle that may be toxic, said Malone.

Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on May 14, 2010. (Bruce Weaver/AFT/Getty)

The shuttle will pause en route to the new visitor centre at roughly 10 a.m. for a retirement ceremony with officials including NASA administrator Charles Bolden, as well as current and former astronauts from the final mission of Atlantis.

It is expected to reach the visitor complex at about 6 p.m. It will then be covered and protected while construction of the complex is completed, said Malone.

A grand opening of the new home for Atlantis, at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, is planned for July 2013.

The $100-million US building will showcase Atlantis suspended in the air in the orbit position, with a massive digital projection of Earth that will rotate by the shuttle.

With files from the Associated Press

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Gamercamp video game festival all about diversity, creativity

When Toronto residents Jaime Woo and Mark Rabo sat down over coffee, their shared love for video games would always come up. They talked about their favourite games when they were young, which ones they liked or didn't like, and what they could do to change the things they didn't like in the future.

Out of those conversations, the pair agreed that there weren't enough places in the industry where people could talk freely about games without worrying about marketing and competitive pressures. So they founded Gamercamp, a Toronto festival that in four short years has grown tenfold and now includes speakers and exhibitions from around the world.

"We thought that there must be other people like this who want to talk this intricately about games the same way that people who love film can talk about film," says Woo, the director of Gamercamp 2012.

"We've got to continue changing the way that game players relate to the industry," he explains. "And I think coming to Gamercamp, it's not just that you get to play games, but that you get to think about the entire creation of games as a whole and realize that the consumers, in the end, hold the power."

Gamercamp started in 2009 as a one-day event at the now-defunct Toronto Underground Cinema. Five speakers from the local game development community talked about their projects, and arcade games provided some communal fun afterwards. Woo and Rabo hoped for a modest showing of about 50 people; more than 125 showed up.

"I think it demonstrated that there was a desire for this kind of conversation," said Woo.

Since its inaugural year, Gamercamp has grown faster than anyone in the local games community could have predicted. In 2010 the number of attendees swelled to 900, and the festival expanded from one day to two of presentations and workshops inside a packed venue at George Brown College.

Woo expects attendance of roughly 1,200 for the 2012 event this weekend. The Isabel Bader Theatre and Victoria College at the University of Toronto will host 14 speakers, game development workshops, and showcases where anyone can play new, upcoming and offbeat video games.

And Gamercamp is branching out beyond the annual festival. Organizers have launched a print magazine with articles about featured guests, their games and the burgeoning games industry in Canada. And Rabo is currently directing Gamercamp Jr., a kid-centric festival in the spring.

Growing Canadian presence

While the organizers weren't expecting it, Gamercamp's exponential growth isn't surprising if you look at how quickly the videogame industry has expanded in Canada over the past decade.

According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 58 per cent of Canadians now say they play videogames on a regular basis. Among kids and teenagers, the number is 90 per cent.

The games industry itself is a big player in Canada, too, employing about 16,000 people and contributing $1.7 billion to the Canadian economy.

As Gamercamp's audience has grown, more and more studios have been paying attention to it. This year's roster of speakers features a diverse collection of developers on the industry's cutting edge:

• Montreal's Vander Caballero created Papo & Yo, which was hailed as an innovative puzzle game that also served as a deeply personal memoir, delving into his young life growing up with an abusive and alcoholic father (listen to an interview with Caballero on CBC radio's Q).
• Toronto indie developer Jonathan Mak's music-based game Sound Shapes was released worldwide on Sony's PlayStation Network, and earned near universal praise by critics.
• Ubisoft Toronto's Patrick Redding is game director for the upcoming big-budget spy thriller Splinter Cell: Blacklist.
• Mary DeMarle is narrative director for the 2011 Eidos Montreal hit Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

The eccentric side of games

Another of this year's speakers, Charles J. Pratt, is an instructor and researcher at New York City's Game Center, and the curator for its No Quarter Arcade exhibition. Many of the games Pratt will bring to showcase at Gamercamp are more experimental than the big-budget blockbusters you'd find at your electronics store.

Deep Sea, for example, is played with a rubber mask that obscures the player's vision, tasking them to navigate challenges using only their sense of hearing.

Jaime Woo, Gamercamp co-founder.

The discussion of eccentric approaches to video games is one of the things Woo has encouraged at Gamercamp. When Woo was a boy, he gravitated towards videogames with unusual protagonists or settings.

One of his favourites, he says, is Toejam and Earl for the Sega Genesis, which features a pair of alien rappers and a jumble of mismatched clichés from the 1990s. Another, Ecco the Dolphin, featured an abstract storyline involving aliens, time travel and the lost city of Atlantis.

Woo says he enjoys showcasing the innovative and sometimes bizarre new ideas in gaming. He sees Gamercamp as an inclusive space for video games, one that doesn't cater only to hardcore gamers who spend 30 to 40 hours a week playing the latest Call of Duty military shooter.

"We really want to just provide a space for people who love games to come together and do whatever they want to do," says Woo, comparing it to similar festivals in the city such as Luminato, Nuit Blanche or – though not to the same scale – the Toronto International Film Festival.

'For any scene to thrive it needs to be exposed to ideas from different people and places.'—Charles J. Pratt

"We don't ask that people who go to TIFF must have industry experience, or they must be film aficionados. Similarly, Nuit Blanche is this one night where everyone can dive into some really modern contemporary art, and they don't have to worry that they aren't knowledgeable about every single thing that's out there. Just an interest or passion for it suffices, and we're trying to do the same thing."

It's an approach that has resonated with players and developers alike.

"What I particularly like about Gamercamp is that it's a show open to the public that's not focused on selling or advertising specific games," says Chris Harvey, co-founder of Toronto-based DrinkBox Studios.

No Quarter and Gamercamp "ultimately have the same goals," according to Pratt: "To help the independent game scene thrive, to showcase incredible games in an accessible space, and finally to foster the exchange of talent and knowledge."

For Pratt, speaking at Gamercamp is a logical next step for both himself and the festival. "For any scene to thrive it needs to be exposed to ideas from different people and places."

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Climate change may boost bananas over potatoes

Bananas could be set to become the new potatoes, as global warming affects growing patterns around the world, a new report on world agriculture suggests.

Rising temperatures in some places may improve the productivity of bananas, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research says. At the same time, climate change could be bad news for potatoes in many areas, because they prosper in cooler climates.

"Warmer winters, especially, may provide an opening for bananas in places that currently grow potatoes," the report says. "Warmer weather can also reduce the time between planting and harvest for bananas, further increasing production."

While potatoes are the planet's fourth-largest food crop and are suited to cooler climates, more than half of them are grown in countries such as India and China.

Not a silver bullet

With warmer temperatures, the report suggests, there could be an opening for more banana production at higher altitudes, providing there is sufficient rainfall.

"It's not necessarily a silver bullet, but there may be places where as temperatures increase, bananas might be one option that small-holders could start to look at," Philip Thornton, one of the people behind the report, told BBC News.

Still, a lot will depend on the availability of water, and "extensive research needs to formulate targeted, region-by-region approaches that recalibrate agricultural production according to the effects of climate change," the report says.

Crop yields of grains such as corn and wheat may suffer as the world warms, sending prices higher and making warmer-climate crops more attractive.

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Better battery: crushed silicon would boost capacity

Lithium-ion batteries have shown huge increases in their capacity when silicon crushed into powder is used in them, researchers at Rice University in Houston say.

The result could lead to longer-lasting, cheaper rechargeable batteries, aimed especially at electric cars.

The report from researchers Sibani Lisa Biswal and research scientist Madhuri Thakur was published today in Nature.com's journal Scientific Reports.

Their methods have achieved 600 charge-discharge cycles at 1,000 milliamp hours per gram (mAh/g) using silicon anodes — a jump from the current 350 mAh/g capacity of existing graphite anodes.

"That puts it squarely in the realm of next-generation battery technology competing to lower the cost and extend the range of electric vehicles," said a release from the university.

Capacities are in the realm of next-generation battery technology competing to lower the cost and extend the range of electric vehicles. (Reuters)

10 times more ions

Strategies to make silicon more suitable for use in batteries have had mixed successes in the past.

Silicon can hold 10 times more lithium ions than the graphite anodes currently in use, but because it more than triples its volume during the charging phase, the swelling and shrinking causes silicon to quickly break down.

"We previously reported on making porous silicon films," said Biswal, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.

"We have been looking to move away from the film geometry to something that can be easily transferred into the current battery manufacturing process."

Far more surface

This time, she said, "Madhuri crushed the porous silicon film to form porous silicon particulates, a powder that can be easily adopted by battery manufacturers."

By crushing the sponges into porous grains, the researchers were able to create far more surface area to soak up lithium ions.

The research was partly funded by Lockheed Martin. Co-authors were Steven Sinsabaugh, a Lockheed Martin Fellow, and Lockheed Martin researcher Mark Isaacson.

"We're truly excited about this breakthrough and are looking forward to transitioning this technology to the commercial marketplace," Sinsabaugh said in a release.

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RIM starts new BlackBerry tests with carriers

Research In Motion says its new BlackBerry smartphones are being tested by 50 phone carriers around the world, another step towards their release next year.

The carriers, which RIM did not name, are checking to ensure the new devices are compatible with their systems, the Waterloo, Ont.,-based company said Wednesday.

President and CEO Thorsten Heins issued a statement calling the move a "key step" for the BlackBerry phones and BlackBerry 10 operating system.

"This process will continue in the coming months as more carriers around the world formally evaluate the devices and our brand new software," Heins said.

"Our respective teams are now engaged on the technical and commercial preparation of the launch of BlackBerry 10 and the lab entry is an important milestone in that context."

No specific release date set

RIM aims to have the new devices on store shelves in the first quarter of 2013, but hasn't announced a specific date for the release. A touch screen version of the smartphone is expected to debut first, followed by a keypad variation.

Earlier this month, the company sent out an invitation to some of Ottawa's key government officials for a sneak peek at the new BlackBerry operating system. The event is designed to drum up excitement on Parliament Hill where the BlackBerry remains the dominant phone.

RIM has been in a rescue mode as sales of its BlackBerry smartphones continue to decline in North America and Europe, two of its key markets.

The newest line of BlackBerry phones has faced numerous setbacks since their initial announcement, including two major delays in their release.

The company has shifted its focus to other countries, where smartphones are still growing in popularity, to help keep sales momentum more steady in the meantime.

RIM shares closed up 3.68 per cent, or 28 cents, at $7.88 Wednesday.

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Facebook profile pictures wanted for display at the Louvre

One of the Facebook profile pictures that could soon be featured in an exhibition at the Louvre, the Met or London's National Portrait Gallery.) (YouTube.com/ProfilePictureExhib)Has anybody ever you that your Facebook profile picture is a work of art?

If a new collaborative arts project spearheaded by a team of Londoners proves successful, it could actually become one.

The creators of The Profile Picture Exhibition are working to get portraits of today's world citizens hanging alongside those of historical figures at The Louvre in Paris, The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and London's National Portrait gallery.

"Museums need to know that the world has changed, along with its portraits, and ours are frankly way better," says the narrator of the project's video as photographs of people dressed in costumes posing outrageously and making duck-faces flash across the screen.

"Each one of our profile pics is a statement about who we are," he continues. "It's finally time we claimed our space in art history."

All three institutions have accepted the proposition, according to CNET -- under one condition: The project's Facebook group must first reach one million members.

Once it does, "every single person" who joined the group will have their mug on display at one of thee museums, promise the creators Ben Beale and Rory Forrest in their video.

As a gesture of appreciation, when the group hit 1000 members the duo hosted an exhibition to display each member's profile photo at The Department of Coffee and Social Affairs in London.

Ben Beale and Rory Forrest with portraits of the first 1000 members of their Profile Picture Exhibition Facebook group, on display at a coffee shop in London. (The Profile Picture Exhibition / Facebook)

"If our profile pics can be considered art, the profile picture phenomenon has to be the biggest art movement of all time," Beale told CNET. "A truly humbling thought." Ben Beale and Rory Forrest, the duo behind the initiative, guarantee in the video that when they reach their total "

The group has approximately 2,300 members.

What are your thoughts? Are Facebook profile photos suitable for display in a national gallery or museum? Would you be excited to have your face on display at the Louvre?

Are Facebook profile photos suitable for display in a national gallery?

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More