Apple's iPad goes on sale in S.Korea

SEOUL: Apple's iPad went on sale Tuesday in South Korea, three weeks after the local giant Samsung Electronics launched its rival tablet computer the Galaxy Tab in its home market.

Red lips grab men's attention: Study

LONDON: Spend just five seconds in front of a mirror and you should grab men's attention, new research suggests. Men are most drawn to a woman's lips over any other facial features, the Daily Mail reported.

Baby named by Facebook users

TORONTO: We know that Facebook is a big deal nowadays and it can be influential, but amazingly a soon to be mother is giving Facebook users the chance to vote for the name she calls her baby.

Swiss motorbike champ killed after win

DUBAI: Swiss motorcyclist was killed after colliding with another rider only moments after winning a race, track officials said Saturday in a statement.

Chinese town hires only 'tall and attractive' security officers

BEIJING: A Chinese town attempting to improve the image of its municipal security force has attracted controversy by saying they will only hire "tall and attractive" women under the age of 23.

California couple become world tallest man, wife

CALIFORNIA: A California couple have become the world's tallest man and wife after a ceremony in Hollywood this week.

Guinness World Records bestowed the towering distinction on Wayne and Laurie Hallquist under the marquee at its Hollywood museum.

Indian elephant gets root canal for tusk ache

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Dentists in southern India have performed root canal surgery on a giant scale to rid a 27-year-old elephant of chronic tusk ache, officials said Friday.

Peru’s lost tribe found in jungle

LIMA: Bare to the waist and sporting rings in their upper lips, these are the extraordinary first pictures of a tribe lost in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

Attractiveness is all in tilt of head

NEW YORK: The secret of attractiveness is all in a tilt of the head, according to a new scientific study. The research shows that men and women can make themselves more appealing to the opposite sex by changing the way they angle their face.

Scientists identify new parrot species

SYDNEY: A type of West Australian parrot has been found to be a distinct species from its eastern counterpart and needs special protection as one of the world's rarest birds, scientists say.

Only about 110 of the western ground parrots are known to survive in the wild.

Marriage, a complex reality in US

NEW YORK: According to a TIME/Pew research poll released last week, 40 percent of Americans believe that marriage is becoming obsolete, up from just 28 percent in 1978.

Luxury holiday lure for energy savers

LONDON: People who take out loans to insulate their houses will be rewarded by being entered into competitions to win luxury holidays, the energy and climate change secretary said.

$5.2 m McLaren adorned with gold, rubies

BERLIN: Swiss auto designer Ueli Anliker has managed to make a very expensive dazzling car. To be presented at the Dortmund MY CAR tuning show, Germany is a stunningly bling McLaren SLR 999 which is done up wit h over 5kgs of gold plated on its body.

Thai monarch celebrates traditional Loy Krathong festival

BANGKOK, Nov 21 - His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn on Sunday celebrated the Loy Krathong festival at Siriraj Hospital pier and floated their krathongs on the Chao Phraya River.

'Unruly' passenger forces Aussie plane diversion

SYDNEY: A Virgin Blue flight from Indonesia to Melbourne had to make an unplanned stop in northwestern Australia after a passenger became "unruly," the airline said Sunday.

Cat fights off two alligators

NEW YORK: They are normally used to catching the odd mouse and avoiding the neighbours' dog.

But this cat doesn't seem to be at all bothered by his latest foes - two huge alligators.

Social media 'one part' of Google strategy: CFO

SYDNEY: Internet giant Google on Sunday said social media was "absolutely" part of its strategy and would be embedded in "many of our products" but played down its rivalry with networking icon Facebook.

Chief financial officer Patrick Pichette said Google was at the centre of an exploding digital economy where computer power was "relentlessly, dramatically increasing" and innovation was crucial to survival.

"Search is clearly the core product of Google but many of our other products are having phenomenal trajectories," Pichette told Australian public television.

"The first driving principle of Google is in fact not money -- the first driving principle of Google is understanding that the Internet is changing the world," he added.

Pichette said Amazon and Apple were "winning" in the new technology race and Microsoft was a "formidable" competitor, but played down as media hype suggestions that Facebook was Google's next big rival.

"The digital world is exploding and it has so many chapters -- it has cloud computing, it has mobile, it does have social, it has searches, it has so many elements. Within that... social (networking) is just one chapter," said Pichette.

"Yes, absolutely it will be part of our strategy, yes it will be embedded in many of our products. But at the same time remember it's one chapter of an entire book."

It follows Facebook's launch of a next-generation messaging service this month, seen as a major challenge to Google's Gmail and fellow web-based email providers Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Microsoft's Hotmail currently has the most users, 361.7 million as of September, according to online tracking firm comScore, followed by Yahoo! with 273.1 million and Gmail with 193.3 million.

Pichette said Google's Android platform for mobile devices was a "fantastic opportunity" for the company, powering 200,000 handsets every 24 hours.

Android users also performed searches 50 times more frequently than people using other mobile devices, with obvious benefits for Google, he added.

"Now that everybody has a smartphone everybody searches, so these few hundred engineers (who developed Android) have accelerated (a market that) would have taken 10 years to develop into a few years," he said.

"My payback is absolutely unreal."

Lead found in women’s handbags

LONDON: When it came to realization that the levels of lead being used in children’s toys was off the charts, everyone became very aware of the toys they were buying. High lead levels have been found in other household products including paint and blinds as well. A US-based news channel broke the story that researches found extremely alarming levels of lead in some handbags from top retailers. This means it is time to be conscious of the handbags we are buying for other reasons that just the price tag.

‘Luxury, Please’ fair draw crowds in Vienna

VIENNA: Amid sparkling jewels, gleaming cars and polished silver, the economic crisis seemed a distant memory at the fifth annual "Luxury, please" fair in Vienna this weekend.

Some global fish stocks may be lower than thought: study

PARIS: A yardstick for estimating ocean fish stocks, many of which are under intensifying pressure from industrial trawling, is badly flawed, a study released Wednesday said. As a result, global stocks of some commercially valuable top predators -- including certain species of tuna, sharks and halibut -- may be closer to collapse than thought, it warned. Since the late 1990s, scientists and regional management organisations have used catch data to measure changes in the balance of species across so-called "trophic levels." The trophic level is the species' rank in the food chain. Microscopic sea algae have a trophic level of one, while large predators such as sharks or tuna are at the highest level, four. Proportional changes within this ranking have been used as the indicator of how well a particular species is faring. If, for instance, a species of "Trophic Four" fish was in disproportionate decline compared with "Trophic Three" fish on which they feed, this would likely indicate overfishing. The method presumes that humans "fish down the food web" by over-harvesting fish at the highest levels and then sequentially going after fish further down the chain. But the new study says this technique is not smart enough. "Applied to individual ecosystems, it's like flipping a coin -- half the time you get the right answer and half the time you get the wrong answer," said Trevor Branch, a University of Washington professor. "This is important, because that measure is the most widely adopted indicator by which to determine the health of marine ecosystems." The method's shortcomings are illustrated by the case of the Gulf of Thailand, according to the paper, which appears in the journal Nature. The average trophic level of what is being caught is rising -- and this in principle should indicate improving ecosystem health. But it turns out that fish at all levels have declined by about tenfold since the 1950s because of overharvesting. This disastrous drop is masked because the "trophic level" system is based on looking at the top predators first, say the authors. But in the Gulf of Thailand, industry first targeted mussels and shrimps near the bottom of the food web before shifting to predators higher up, says the study. When the researchers compared the catch-based method with a more accurate one, based on trawling over a long period of study, the results differed sharply in 13 out of the 29 ecosystems they evaluated. Applying both methods to worldwide data, the scientists say industrial fishing over the past decades has not simply worked its way downwards from the top of the food chain -- it has gone upwards, too. "Globally we're catching more of just about everything," Branch said. Relying on changes in the average trophic level of fish being caught "won't tell us when fishing is sustainable or if it is leading to collapse." Scientists not involved in the study said the findings could revolutionise the way fish populations are measured. "This study makes clear that the most common indicator, average catch trophic level, is a woefully inadequate measure of the status of marine fisheries," said Henry Gholz, an environmental biologist at the US National Science Foundation.

Paris' nightlife dilemma with night owls, early birds

PARIS: When Paris banned smoking in bars and clubs three years ago, no one planned on a sneaky side-effect: legions of party-goers spilling onto the streets to smoke, chat -- and keep the neighbours awake.

Google Hotpot lets friends share hotspots

SAN FRANCISCO: Google launched a Hotpot recommendation engine that lets people tap into the tastes of trusted friends when it comes to local shops, restaurants, theaters and more.

Internet2 ready for a 100 GB thrust

NEW YORK: The high-speed network used by research and education organizations is moving to a much faster network.

Cats beat dogs in table manners

 NEW YORK: If you've ever wondered how cats lap their milk so elegantly (and who hasn't?) you're in luck.

A team of researchers has discovered the subtle balance of inertia and gravity required for felines to draw cream into their mouths without spilling a drop. 

Apparently, the key is to keep the back of the tongue dry. 

NASA's new space telescope costs shoot the moon

WASHINGTON: The cost of NASA's replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope is giving new meaning to the word astronomical, growing another $1.5 billion, according to a new internal NASA study released Wednesday. NASA's explanation: We're better rocket scientists than accountants. Management and others didn't notice that key costs for the James Webb Space Telescope weren't included during a major program review in July 2008, officials said. The study says in the best case scenario it will now cost about $6.5 billion to launch and run the powerful, new telescope. And that can happen only if NASA adds an extra $500 million in the next two years over current budget plans. If the agency can't get the extra money from Congress, it will ultimately cost even more and take longer to launch the telescope. Before now, the cost of the telescope had already ballooned from $3.5 billion to $5 billion. NASA officials said they had not done a good job of figuring out the confirmation cost for the massive telescope. The report said the budget in 2008 "understated the real requirements" and managers didn't realize how inadequate it was. "We were missing a certain fraction of what was going on," NASA associate administrator Chris Scolese said in a late Wednesday afternoon teleconference. The Webb telescope, "we hope is just an aberration," Scolese said, but suggested there may be other budget-busting projects. He said the agency is now reviewing all its projects, not just to find extra money for Webb but to see if there are similar cases of poor budgeting. The costs aren't because of problems with the technology, design or construction of the instrument. NASA said, technically, it is in good shape. It is designed to look deeper in the universe to the first galaxies. A collaboration with the European Space Agency, the telescope is being built by Northrop Grumman and will be run out of Baltimore, Md., like Hubble. The fault "lies with us, no question about it," Scolese said. The Webb telescope is already late. When first announced more than a dozen years ago, it was supposed to launch in 2007. That was eventually delayed until 2014. The new report, issued at the request of the Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., says the earliest launch date now would be September 2015. Scolese said technically the telescope was not confirmed as a project until 2008 — even though many millions of dollars had been spent on it and NASA had been promoting it since 1998. In 2008, NASA said it would cost $5 billion and that's the number to use for how overbudget it is, Scolese said. But previous numbers that NASA provided said it would cost $3.5 billion. This follows the well-worn path of the Hubble telescope. In current dollars, it cost NASA $4.7 billion to build and launch Hubble and then another $1.1 billion to fix it in orbit. Astronomer Garth Illingworth, a professor at University of California Santa Cruz and a member of the internal study team, said Webb will be worth the money. He said the Webb "is hugely more powerful than Hubble, 100 times more powerful at least."

Mexico uses robot to explore ancient tunnel

TEOTIHUACAN: The first robotic exploration of a pre-Hispanic ruin in Mexico has revealed that a 2,000-year-old tunnel under a temple at the famed Teotihuacan ruins has a perfectly carved arch roof and appears stable enough to enter, archaeologists announced Wednesday.

Archaeologists lowered the remote-controlled, camera-equipped vehicle into the 12-foot-wide (4-meter) corridor and sent wheeling through it to see if it was safe for researchers to enter. The one-foot (30-cm) wide robot was called "Tlaloque 1" after the Aztec rain god.

The grainy footage shot by the robot was presented Wednesday by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. It shows a narrow, open space left after the tunnel was intentionally closed off between A.D. 200 and 250 and filled with debris nearly to the roof.

Archaeologist Sergio Gomez says the footage showed the arched-roof tunnel was an example of sophisticated work by the ancient inhabitants of Teotihuacan, which is located just north of modern Mexico City.

"All of the passage, more than 100 meters (yards) long was excavated in the rock perfectly, and in some places you can even see the marks of the tools the people of Teotihuacan used to make it," said Gomez.

Well-worked blocks and a smoothly-arched ceiling showed the tunnel was not natural, but rather a man-made structure that researchers believe lead to possible burial chambers.

Researchers hope to clear the debris blocking the tunnel's mouth and enter passageway by late November or early December.

Robots have been used before in Egypt. In 2002, a robotic vehicle was used to discover a hidden door and chamber in the Great Pyramid built by the pharaoh Khufu more than 4,000 years ago.

But the INAH, as Mexico's archaeology agency is known, said it appeared to be the first robotic exploration in Mexico and probably in the Americas.

After excavating a vertical shaft that leads to the tunnel entrance, the mouth of the passageway was discovered in July. Ground-penetrating scanner images showed that the passageway lies 40 feet (12 meters) below the surface, and runs beneath the Temple of Quetzacoatl, in the central ceremonial area of the ruins.

The scanner images appear to show chambers that branch off the tunnel and archaeologists think they may hold the tombs of some of the ancient city's early rulers.

Experts say a tomb discovery would be significant because the social structure of Teotihuacan remains a mystery after nearly 100 years of archaeological exploration at the site, which is best known for the towering Pyramids of the Moon and the Sun.

No depiction of a ruler, or the tomb of a monarch, has ever been found, setting the metropolis apart from other pre-Hispanic cultures that deified their rulers.

Vertical excavations begun in 2009 to reach the mouth of the tunnel suggest it was a ruler's tomb, Gomez said. Rich offerings were tossed into the tunnel at the moment it was closed up, including almost 50,000 objects of jade, stone, shell and pottery, including ceramic beakers of a kind never found before at the site.

The complex of pyramids, plazas, temples and avenues was once the center of a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants and may have been the largest and most influential city in pre-Hispanic North America at the time.

But nearly 2,500 years after the city was founded — and about 2,100 years after the Teotihuacan culture began to flourish there — the identity of its rulers remains a mystery. The city was abandoned by the time the Aztecs arrived in the area in the 1300s and gave it the name "Teotihuacan," which means "the place where men become gods."

Europe map made from Lego blocks

LONDON: Lego is an easy and fantastic way for artists to express their thoughts and craftsmanship. Some found stadiums a catchy idea while others go after monuments, but Bruno Kurth and Tobias Reichling picked a different theme altogether and crafted a Euromap. This art piece is built on 3,84 m x 3,84 m area and consumed 53.500 Lego pieces. The Euromap project took six months to come in the present form. To make it more interesting, the artists embedded famous monuments of Europe over the map. There are 44 monuments on the map built by Vanessa Graf, Tanja Kusserow-Kurth, Torsten Scheer, Bruno Kurth and Tobias Reichling collectively.

MS’s Kinect in to revolutionise gaming

NEW YORK: New system which works with Xbox 360 console detects gestures and body movements via an infrared emitter

Kinect players Kinect's system uses an infrared emitter and camera to determine the movements of players.

Opera Mobile 10.1 Beta ready for Android

NEW YORK: It’s been but a few weeks since Opera’s announcement of Opera Mobile for Android at their Up North Web conference, and now the browser is out there navigating the maze of tubes that is the Internet. While they didn’t quite meet their "within the month (October)" promise, we can forgive them for wanting to polish things a little further.

Classical music can reduce crime

CHRIST CHURCH: To classical music enthusiasts, the genre needs no help in extolling its virtues, but researchers have come across some rather surprising benefits of classical music anyway. Among them is the finding that classical music has a penchant for deterring crime.

Tree-lit streets closer to reality

TAIPEI: A postdoctoral research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Research Center for Applied Sciences recently discovered a method of inducing luminescence in leaves utilizing gold nanoparticles that could one day be used to create more environmentally friendly natural street lighting.

Royals join Facebook, but poking not allowed

LONDON: They are already regular users of Twitter and YouTube -- but now Britain's royal family is setting up its own page on Internet social networking site Facebook.

The British Monarchy page features pictures, videos, news and speeches from Queen Elizabeth II and heir to the throne Prince Charles, plus his two sons Princes William and Harry, among others.

Eco-friendly cars in fuel challenge

LONDON: The first ever RAC Brighton to London Future Car Challenge was held on Saturday, with 64 low-energy vehicles making their way through North Lambeth on their 57-mile journey from the South Coast to the West End.

The RAC Brighton to London Future Car Challenge was open to the latest electric, hybrid and low-emission passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

Child internet alerts on increase

LONDON: The UK's online child protection agency has received more than 6,000 reports from concerned internet users over the last year, according to new figures.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) Centre said it had logged 6,291 reports, up 16% on the previous 12-month period.

Bid to create 'invisibility cloak'

NEW YORK: A new material that could be used to create a real-life Harry Potter-style "invisibility cloak" has been designed by British scientists.

The material, called "Metaflex" may in future provide a way of manufacturing fabrics that manipulate light.

Secret underground art show thrills New York

NEW YORK: It's the hottest, most talked about art show in New York -- and almost no one even knows where it is. With a huge space and 103 of the hippest contemporary artists participating, "The Underbelly Project" sounds like a powerhouse production at the Met or MoMA.

Taiwan woman 'marries' herself

TAIPEI: A Taiwanese woman said Sunday she had "married" herself by throwing a wedding banquet.

The 30-year-old Chen Wei-yi, who has been an Internet sensation since announcing her "wedding" plans last month, held the ceremony in a Taipei hotel Saturday witnessed by 30 relatives and friends.

Family says oldest woman is 115

JACKSONVILLE: The family of the newly designated world's oldest person, American Eunice Sanborn, says she is in fact 115 -- a year older than official records indicate.

When do babies start sleeping through the night?

NEW YORK: Sleep-deprived new moms and dads can't wait to have their baby sleep through the night. A new study suggests that about half of babies will be sleeping through the night after about two or three months.

Octopus Paul replaced by Paul II

BERLIN: Paul the oracle octopus has been replaced in his Oberhausen tank by a successor, who is yet to have his psychic powers tested.

Real monitoring urged for ailing oceans by 2015

OSLO: Ocean scientists urged governments to invest billions of dollars by 2015 in a new system to monitor the seas and give alerts of everything from tsunamis to acidification linked to climate change.

Diamond studded pen sold for Rs2.3m

VISAKHAPATNAM: A pen studded with thousands of dazzling diamonds was sold for 2.3 million rupees at an ongoing jewellery exhibition here over the weekend.

The expensive pen is certified by the International Gemological Institute (IGI).

Americans not hitting their walking stride

NEW YORK: Americans have got some walking to do if they want to catch up with the rest of the world. They are far outpaced by Australians, Asians and Europeans who walk much more, according to a new study.

Immigrants in US gain jobs, native-born lose: study

WASHINGTON: Immigrant workers have gained more than half a million jobs in the United States since the end of the Great Recession last year, while US-born workers continued to lose jobs in the same period, a study shows.

Facebook tightens grip on user ID data

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook took more steps to stop third-party applications from sharing identifying information about users with advertising and Internet tracking companies.

Shuttle Discovery launch delayed to Wednesday: NASA

WASHINGTON: The final scheduled mission of space shuttle Discovery was delayed another 24 hours to next Wednesday as technicians struggled to repair leaks in a pressurization system, NASA said.