Luck Was Key to Dinosaurs’ Survival, Study Suggests

You might say that the dinosaurs were extremely unlucky 65 million years ago. Things were going along swimmingly and then, poof! that nasty asteroid came along and wiped them out.

But before that, apparently, the dinosaurs led a charmed life. A study published in Science suggests the dinosaurs ruled the roost for some 135 million years not so much because they were superior to the competition, but because they were lucky.

Mike Benton of the University of Bristol in England, Stephen L. Brusatte, now at Columbia University, and colleagues studied dinosaurs in relation to a major competing group of reptiles, the crurotarsans, the ancestors of the crocodiles. Both groups survived an extinction about 225 million years ago, but few of the crurotarsans made it through another mass extinction at the end of the Triassic, 200 million years ago.

Scientists had long thought that the reason for this was that the dinosaurs were somehow superior — they were able to outcompete the crurotarsans when the going got tough. But the new study indicates this was not the case.

The researchers developed a database of hundreds of skeletal features of more than 60 dinosaurs and crurotarsans, as well as a new family tree of both groups, and used them to determine evolutionary patterns. They found much more disparity among crurotarsans’ morphological features — a much broader array of shapes and forms.

“The assumption is that the diversity or range of body forms is more or less proportional to the number of modes of life that they’d occupy,” Dr. Benton said. So the finding shows that the crurotarsans were more diverse in terms of their lifestyle, diet and habitat — they filled more ecological niches and were, if anything, the more successful of the two groups in the late Triassic. “The dinosaurs didn’t find a way to squeeze into the crurotarsans’ role,” he said.

But then at the end of the Triassic, for some unknown reason the dinosaurs survived while almost all the crurotarsans did not. “There was a certain amount of luck involved,” Dr. Benton said. “One group got pretty much wiped out and another group soldiered on and took off. The dinosaurs finally got their chance.”

YouTube bans terrorism training videos

WASHINGTON (AP) — The popular video-sharing site YouTube has moved to purge terrorists training films and other videos that extremist groups might use to attract new members, an imperfect process that will rely on users to report objectionable videos.

It's sort of like the post Sept. 11 advice — if you see something, say something. It's nearly impossible to vet every video when 13 hours of new video are uploaded every few minutes.

A quick search on Google-owned YouTube on Friday, one day after the new policies were posted, turned up several videos on how to make bombs using, for instance, such household items as toilet bowl cleaner and tin foil.

In addition to barring terror training videos, the new YouTube community guidelines include bans on videos that incite others to commit violent acts, videos on activities such as how to make bombs and footage of sniper attacks. Previously, it had policies in place against showing people "getting hurt, attacked or humiliated," banning even clips OK for TV news shows.

YouTube has not identified specific videos on its site that led to the change, nor said exactly how it will choose those that are purged. YouTube does not deny that extremist groups could have used the site.

The Internet has become a powerful tool for terrorism recruitment. What was once conducted at secret training camps in Afghanistan is now available to anyone, anywhere because of the Web. Chat rooms are potent recruitment tools, but counterterrorism officials have found terrorist-sponsored videos are also key parts of al-Qaida's propaganda machine.

YouTube, large as it is, represents a fraction of the video content available on the Web. Videos can also be transmitted by e-mail or other means without ever appearing in a public forum like YouTube.

Google did not include its popular e-mail service, gmail, under the new YouTube guidelines, nor address whether it would ever try to limit Google searches for the same kind of material on other sites.

Even so, backers of the latest change hope it will blunt al-Qaida's strong media online campaign.

"It's good news if there are less of these on the Web," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said. "But many of these jihadist videos appear on different Web sites around the world, and any time there is investigative or intelligence value we actively pursue it."

Researchers have found terror-training videos posted online in both English and Arabic. Videos of varying sophistication appear to show how to slit someone's throat or make suicide vests, said Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert and professor at Georgetown University. Others are violent anti-American speeches or montages of militants appearing to attack U.S. forces.

Hoffman said he does not know which of the worst videos appeared on YouTube.

"It's going to do nothing to take these videos off the Internet," said John Morris, an Internet free speech expert at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Morris noted the availability of other terror-tinged videos on other sites. "This change isn't going to make this any different."

A year ago, a Homeland Security Department intelligence assessment said "the availability of easily accessible messages with targeted language may speed the radicalization process ... for those already susceptible to violent extremism."

But experts in the field debate whether shutting down extremist sites is effective. Keeping them online allows analysts and investigators to monitor what is being said and in some cases who is saying it.

"The reality is by shutting it down, it is more or less a game of whack-a-mole — it pops up somewhere else," said Frank Cilluffo, homeland security director at George Washington University. However, he said, forcing extremists to find other ways to post videos could give officials a better opportunity to monitor them.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asked Google to ban videos from al-Qaida and other Islamist terrorist groups. Lieberman said the private sector has a role in protecting the United States from terrorism.

By banning these videos on YouTube, "Google will make a singularly important contribution to this important national effort," Lieberman wrote to Google Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt in May.

Lieberman spokeswoman Leslie Phillips said Lieberman hopes other host sites will institute similar policies. "This is an ongoing debate," she said.

YouTube spokesman Chris Dale would not respond to questions about Lieberman's appeal but instead said YouTube regularly updates its policies regarding content. Without announcement, YouTube included a link to the new restrictions at the bottom of administrative notices on its home page.

Google buys Korean blogging software company

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc has bought Korean blogging software developer Tatter and Company, the two companies said on Friday.

The companies did not disclose how much Google paid for the acquisition.

Tatter co-chief executive Chang-Won Kim announced the deal on his personal blog in an entry titled "We've been Googled!", saying that the acquisition would help Google increase its market share in the country.

Kim described Google's market share in Korea as "minor" and said Korean Web users mainly use portals such as Yahoo Inc's.

Korea has the ninth-highest number of Internet users in the world, according to Internet World Stats, a Web site that tracks such data.

Google said in an e-mailed statement the acquisition will "allow us to enhance our publishing tools in Korea."

Tatter owns a blogging platform called Textcube, which Kim said was popular among Korean bloggers. Blogs are Web journals where people typically write opinions and link to other material on the Internet.

As part of Google, the company will try to introduce Textcube to bloggers outside Korea, Kim added.

Google already owns a blogging software called Blogger, which it acquired in 2003.

First look: iPhone OS loses beta feel with 2.1 update

To our surprise, the iPhone OS 2.1 upgrade was fast, and after using Backup Disabler to switch on backups again, our first backup with 72 apps took "dramatically" less time than before, at just two minutes. Subsequent backups finish in mere seconds. Chalk that thorn in our side bug fix up as a win.

Overall, most of the things that Apple said should be faster are indeed faster. Installing apps is quicker than ever, and we don't see the traditional installation hang when the process is 95 percent completed. We haven't had a chance to put every one of our apps through extensive tests just yet, but games and other apps that frequently crashed before are performing much better so far.
iPod app rocks new features

Surprisingly, the iPod section of the iPhone has received the most attention from Apple, even though it wasn't really mentioned in the iPhone OS 2.1 release notes. Sure, Apple said the Genius had arrived, but the iPod app has received a number of other new features and tweaks.

One of the most appreciated iPod updates is the display of more information about each piece of media when browsing for music and videos. While browsing through a music playlist—or just about anything but an individual album's songs—the album and artist is displayed in smaller gray type below the name of each song.

This is a very unobtrusive way to make it much easier to know exactly what songs make up a playlist, and from which albums. In a Genius playlist, like the one shown above, a Genius icon is displayed alongside the first song used to create the playlist, as well as buttons for creating a different list, refreshing the current one, and saving it for keeps and syncing back to iTunes later.

To create a Genius playlist in the first place, simply tap on the album art when listening to any song to reveal a new Genius button. Just be sure to perform at least one sync with your main iTunes library, as iLounge reports that an initial sync is needed for some reason to get Genius up and running on the new software. To help differentiate them, Genius playlists are marked accordingly in a list of playlists on the iPhone with their staple atom icons.

After syncing Genius playlists to iTunes and making changes, such as extending the default length of 25 to 100, the change and its accompanying songs sync back to the iPhone.

Another nice touch in the iPod app is a subtle change to the blue dot indicator on new TV shows and podcast episodes. If a new episode has only partially been watched, the blue dot changes to being half full, indicating there's more to finish. We aren't sure how far into an episode one needs to get to wipe this icon entirely, but fast-forwarding a one-and-a-half hour podcast from 42 minutes to its last minute did the trick.

Oh yeah, the phone

Though we do actually use our iPhone to make calls from time to time, it's a little early to make a solid judgment either way on whether dropped calls and reliability have been improved. Limited testing of 3G signal strength and response time, however, shows that Apple has at least changed the signal strength display's interpretation of signal (the "improved accuracy" claim is something that is not easily testable without being an RF expert).

In one Chicago room of the Ars Orbiting HQ surrounded by brick, our iPhone 3G typically showed between one and two bars of 3G connectivity with iPhone OS 2.0.2, and experienced a noticeable lag when performing tasks like refreshing feeds in Google Reader mobile or checking for new e-mail. With iPhone OS 2.1, however, our iPhone 3G typically wavers between four and five bars of 3G signal in the same room, and the web feels ever so slightly more responsive, though that could be the software update placebo talking.

Considering how much we pound on the web with our iPhone 3G, though, we're pretty confident with our early assessment. Note, however, that the iPhone's 3G and EDGE icons have changed from white text on a square blue background to simply text written in blue. We aren't sure what's behind the alteration, and we haven't seen an indication that the icon is designed to change under different qualities of coverage (especially 3G coverage), but the new text-only icon does have the advantage of feeling a bit less attention-grabbing.

With over 600 contacts in our Address Book, we are also happy to report that opening, browsing, and searching contacts is much, much faster as well. Previously, opening contacts would result in at least a three-to-five second wait, and now we can immediately zip through our contacts almost as soon as the app finishes loading.

As far as the "2x alert for incoming text messages," it appears that iPhone OS 2.1 is simply hardwired to play the same notification for a new message five minutes later if you haven't read it yet. The audible alert goes off, but the display does not turn on again to preview the message. We can't find a preference to adjust this behavior in the Settings app, and while a second alert is a welcome change, it would be nice to have the option of extending repeated alerts further, or just indefinitely.
Coming out of beta

There are probably a number of other changes and tweaks that we haven't caught yet, but so far, we're pretty happy with iPhone OS 2.1 and the many, many bugs it appears to have exterminated. We'll need to take some more time to finish testing the battery and phone call reliability, but after our early experience with the new software, we're confident enough to tentatively remove the beta badge and say that the iPhone OS 2.0 may have finally arrived.

Google Wants U.S. to Use 100 Percent Alternative Energy by 2030

Google says that alternative energy justification is simple math

Google has already made it clear that it wants to promote alternative energy in a big way as part of its "Don't be evil" philosophy. Its initial round of funding included grants to solar and a high-altitude wind power startup. In its second round, Google granted $10M USD more to a couple of geothermal startups, looking to harness Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) -- which involve injecting water deep into the ground to make steam.

Now Google has outlined a comprehensive plan to accomplish what the U.S. government and private business has thus far been unable to do -- eliminate U.S. dependence on foreign oil and non-renewable energy sources.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt outlined the new plan at the Corporate EcoForum which featured executives from Coca-Cola, Motorola, Clorox, Microsoft, and other top industry players. In order to back his plan, Mr. Schmidt used a great deal of calculations. He says that the justification for adopting alternative energy boils down to basic math, with the formula energy efficiency = savings (or E2=$) being the key. He stated, "It's just a math problem."

His plan is for the U.S. to by 2030 adopt renewable energy sources for 100 percent of the country's power generation. This would eliminate the coal-fired plants primarily used to provide electricity. Further, he says that in that time span half the cars need to be replaced with plug-in hybrids, like the Chevy Volt.

The math adds up, he says. The result will be to cut U.S. carbon emissions in half, which he says will help to avert man-made climate change. He says there are also great financial benefits to the adoption. He says the U.S. would save 97 percent of $2.17 trillion in energy spending over the next 22 years.

Alternative energy would add up to big in-sourcing of alternative energy design, production, and installation jobs as well, says Mr. Schmidt. According to his figures, there are currently 500,000 jobs in wind companies alone.

Google has invested in wind, solar, and geothermal thus far. Mr. Schmidt explained it is currently avoiding nuclear as it is unsatisfied with current response to security concerns, including physical terrorism or remote online attacks from foreign nationalists. Mr. Schmidt explains that once these concerns are properly addressed it will start investing in nuclear. Google is considering tidal and wave power as fourth or fifth investment plan.

While Google has recently filed patents for a floating barge, powered by the ocean's mechanical energy, which could serve as a floating data center, it says it has no current plans to construct it yet. But, Mr. Schmidt adds, "You never know at Google."

A key question in the alternative energy debate, according to Mr. Schmidt, is how the long it takes to return the investment. He states, "The model you have is...one of a distributed renewable power structure. It's a matter of how long is the payback?"

He says that it only cost $5M USD for Google to restructure its buildings to cut carbon emissions, and it is reaping the benefits after only 2.5 years. Furthermore, Schmidt says Google has installed solar and power monitoring equipment, which are currently saving Google money each year. He adds, "The question is: can any one of you make a difference...Of course we can. But we must have a policy."

Google's chief blames the country's energy woes on a "total failure of political leadership". He declined to endorse a specific candidate, but merely stated that the government was being shortsighted on the financial, political, and climate impacts of continued reliance on fossil fuels.

He argues that one key is for the government to provide tax breaks to energy efficient businesses. For consumers, he suggests utilities provide consumers with real-time power meters, so they can see their use and then see the savings of items such as home solar installations. Google is also incorporating climate change projections into Google Earth to help users visualize the future with warming. For example, it shows the predicted iceless North Pole in the year 2050 if projections of 40 deg. C temperatures hold true.

Google is also focusing its efforts on the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. The goal of this organization is to work with companies such as AMD and Intel to cut computer power requirements in half by 2010. This would be equivalent of taking 11 million cars off the road in terms of carbon emission cuts.

Mr. Schmidt also says there's a need for power grid innovation. He says the decrepit power grid currently has 9 percent efficiency loss, by his calculations. This could be eliminated by restructuring the grid and adopting more technologies where customers can feed power back into the grid at times of peak use. He suggests plug-ins charge at night, then by day put their power back into the grid when unused, forming a sort of battery network.

He describes, "I could imagine a smart garage where I would plug in my car and the computer handles it. I could even make money by cost shifting. It sure sounds to me like a problem for the Internet...and personal computers. It's the largest opportunity I could possibly imagine. It solves energy security, energy prices and job creation...and by the way, climate change."

HP Claims 24-Hour Battery Life On Notebook PC

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) on Monday launched a notebook configuration that the company claimed would provide 24 hours of battery runtime, beating claims by rivalDell ( Dell) by about five hours.

To achieve the extended battery life, HP outfitted an EliteBook 6930p with an Intel (NSDQ: INTC) solid-state drive, a 14.1-inch LED display, which consumers less power than the usual LCD screens in notebooks; and a 12-cell "ultra-capacity battery." The battery weighs 1.77 pounds and costs an additional $189. The SSDs, which are also optional, are scheduled for availability in October.

Pricing for the SSDs has not been released, but the drives, which come with 80 GB or 160 GB of storage, are sure to be expensive. Intel on Monday said the smaller model would cost $595 in quantities of 1,000. Pricing for the 160 GB version, which would ship to computer makers in the fourth quarter, was not released.

The basic EliteBook 6930p with a standard battery and 160 GB hard disk drive is $1,775. Other standard features include 2 GB of memory, a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, integrated Webcam and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless support. Without the ultra-capacity battery, the notebook weighs 4.77 pounds.

HP announced its low-power EliteBook configuration nearly a month after Dell promised 19 hours of battery life on the 14.1-inch Latitude E6400. To achieve the extended runtime, Dell is offering buyers an optional nine-hour battery that can be added to the notebook and an optional solid-state drive. In general, SSDs use less power than hard-disk drives.

In addition, Dell has added to the system a low-power mode that automatically triggers a number of battery-saving mechanisms, such as a reduction in the display's refresh cycle. Base price for the E6400 is $1,139.

Vendors often make exaggerated claims on battery life, but if the Dell and HP machines come close to the runtime claims, then the systems could be attractive to buyers who regularly take their notebooks on the road and who can afford the added cost.

GM says Volt photos inadvertently posted on Web

DETROIT (AP) — They were posted on the Internet for only 12 minutes, but General Motors Corp. says that was long enough for secret photos of the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable car to be distributed worldwide.

Photos of GM executives with a prototype of the car were inadvertently posted Monday on a site run by Dallas-based Wieck Media, which stores and posts electronic photos for GM, said Chevrolet spokesman Terry Rhadigan.

Several automotive Web sites grabbed the photos and posted them for all to see, even though GM quickly removed them, Rhadigan said.

"Even minutes later, you can't pull it back," he said. "That's not quick enough in this Internet age."

The photos, and perhaps the prototype itself, likely were slated for official release when GM celebrates its 100th anniversary Sept. 16.

"The plan was to release the photos when we unveil the car, and stay tuned on when that might be," Rhadigan said.

Marty Padgett, editor of thecarconnection.com, was watching for the photos to appear in advance of GM's centennial. When they appeared on a Wieck site, he grabbed them and reposted them.

"I downloaded them as quickly as I could and posted them since they appeared only with the 'production vehicle' tag and nothing else," Padgett said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

He said it's possible GM intended to post the photos, or someone made a mistake.

"I know some sites that believe posting images to an internal firewalled server is enough. It's not. When a human touches anything, the possibility of launching photos will be there," Padgett wrote.

Rhadigan denied assertions that the company leaked the photos to generate more publicity for the Volt.

A message seeking comment was left at Wieck Media.

The photos show the Volt looking more like a conventional car than the low-slung, sleek concept car unveiled at the 2007 Detroit auto show.

The Volt is designed designed to run on an electric motor powered by a battery pack. Drivers will recharge it from a standard home wall outlet.

GM is testing new lithium-ion battery packs that will enable to Volt to travel 40 miles when fully charged. After that, a small gasoline engine will recharge the batteries to keep the car rolling at an equivalent of 150 miles per gallon.

The company says it will bring the car to market late in 2010. It's expected to cost $30,000 to $40,000.

'Spore' turns evolution into an adventure

Will Wright is one of just a handful of celebrities in the world of computer game design. Like his contemporaries Shigeru Miyamoto (the Mario series) and Sid Meier ("Civilization"), he has a level of prestige similar to, say, Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese in Hollywood.

His last creation, "The Sims," hit the Spielbergian sweet spot, appealing to a broad range of people who usually don't spend a lot of time playing computer games. It's the best-selling computer game of all time, spawning two sequels ("The Sims 3" is due in February) and countless expansion packs.

So, of course, "Sims" publisher Electronic Arts has been eagerly awaiting the next production from Wright and his studio, Maxis. And ever since "Spore" (for PC and Mac, $49.95) was announced in 2005, EA has been steadily ratcheting up the publicity, but nothing like the three-year-long buildup to "Spore."

Could anything live up to such hype? In this case, at least: No.

"Spore" is certainly ambitious, simulating nothing less than the entire evolution of a species, from single-celled microorganisms to interstellar explorers. Yet it doesn't inspire the sense of awe you'd get from, say, "2001: A Space Odyssey," just to name one pop-culture artifact covering similar territory.

Don't get me wrong: "Spore" is a solid, entertaining game — or, rather, a collection of five well-executed games, each representing a phase in your species' evolution.

You begin in the Cell phase, swimming in the ocean and eating plants or other cells. You'll also discover meteor fragments that contain parts you can add to your cell, like spikes or flippers. Eating enough food earns you DNA points, which you need to move to the next phase. (No one promised that "Spore" would be realistic.)

Once you've grown some legs and emerged onto dry land, the Creature phase begins. Again, the primary activity is eating, and if you've chosen to live as a carnivore, that means killing a lot of other animals. You can also try to make friends with other species by showing off your singing and dancing, and you can mate with animals of your own species to create stronger, smarter offspring.

Eventually your team will discover fire, moving into the Tribal phase. You begin with a hut, some clothing and a small assortment of tools. Instead of just controlling one creature, you can assign different tasks to different tribe members: Some may go fishing and hunting, while others guard your tiny village. Soon, you'll stumble across other tribes that you can try to befriend or conquer.

Once you've dominated your small part of the world, the Civilization phase begins. Starting with a small city, you can add buildings and create vehicles. You'll need those vehicles to venture beyond city limits and search for "spice geysers," which produce the substance that drives your economy. Again, you can either conquer or form alliances with other cities, using military power, economic might or religious propaganda.

Finally, you'll escape your planetary confines in the Space phase. You can terraform and colonize neighboring planets, and eventually you'll want to stretch out into other star systems and galaxies. Naturally, there are other galactic civilizations out there in the void; some will need your help while others will want to blast you into space dust. This phase is, by far, the most complex and satisfying part of "Spore."

No single element of "Spore" is revolutionary in and of itself. Each of the levels feels like a simplified version of a game you've played before. For example, the Cell phase is a fairly basic, 2D arcade game in which the goals are to eat and not be eaten, kind of like "Pac-Man" without the maze. The Tribal phase is an introduction to real-time strategy games like "Warcraft." And the Civilization phase owes a debt to, well, "Civilization" (not to mention Wright's own "SimCity").

To be fair, "Spore" isn't aimed at hardcore gamers who have spent months or years mastering more sophisticated simulations. It's designed for more laid-back players, the kind who love tinkering with "The Sims" but may never play any other computer or video games.

I am not one of those people. While I admire the craft that has gone into "The Sims" over the years, I've never felt compelled to play it for very long.

I feel the same way about "Spore." It's impressive, but I can't imagine I'll still be playing it a few weeks from now. Three stars out of four.