Study links bee decline to cell phones

A new study has suggested that cell phone radiation may be contributing to declines in bee populations in some areas of the world.
Bee populations dropped 17 percent in the UK last year, according to the British Bee Association, and nearly 30 percent in the United States says the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Parasitic mites called varroa, agricultural pesticides and the effects of climate change have all been implicated in what has been dubbed "colony collapse disorder" (CCD).
But researchers in India believe cell phones could also be to blame for some of the losses.
In a study at Panjab University in Chandigarh, northern India, researchers fitted cell phones to a hive and powered them up for two fifteen-minute periods each day.
After three months, they found the bees stopped producing honey, egg production by the queen bee halved, and the size of the hive dramatically reduced.
It's not just the honey that will be lost if populations plummet further. Bees are estimated to pollinate 90 commercial crops worldwide. Their economic value in the UK is estimated to be $290 million per year and around $12 billion in the U.S.
Andrew Goldsworthy, a biologist from the UK's Imperial College, London, has studied the biological effects of electromagnetic fields. He thinks it's possible bees could be affected by cell phone radiation.
The reason, Goldsworthy says, could hinge on a pigment in bees called cryptochrome.
"Animals, including insects, use cryptochrome for navigation," Goldsworthy told CNN.
"They use it to sense the direction of the earth's magnetic field and their ability to do this is compromised by radiation from [cell] phones and their base stations. So basically bees do not find their way back to the hive."
Goldsworthy has written to the UK communications regulator OFCOM suggesting a change of phone frequencies would stop the bees being confused.
"It's possible to modify the signal coming from the [cell] phones and the base station in such a way that it doesn't produce the frequencies that disturb the cryptochrome molecules," Goldsworthy said.
"So they could do this without the signal losing its ability to transmit information."
But the UK's Mobile Operators Association -- which represents the UK's five mobile network operators -- told CNN: "Research scientists have already considered possible factors involved in CCD and have identified the areas for research into the causes of CCD which do not include exposure to radio waves."
Norman Carreck, Scientific director of the International Bee research Association at the UK's University of Sussex says it's still not clear how much radio waves affect bees.

"We know they are sensitive to magnetic fields. What we don't know is what use they actually make of them. And no one has yet demonstrated that honey bees use the earth's magnetic field when navigating," Carreck said.

Source: CNN

iPhone 4's gyroscope may redefine mobile gaming

One of the first devices to popularize touchscreens and motion controls as modern gaming staples, Apple's iPhone helped make interactive entertainment accessible to millions.
But by adding a gyroscope capable of tracking handset orientation, velocity and rotation, the new iPhone 4 may completely redefine the way we interact with downloadable apps.
And as a result, mobile play may soon benefit.
Earlier models such as the iPhone 3 and 3GS offered a built-in accelerometer that let you tilt to steer in racing or flight games, or tip the handset to shift between horizontal and vertical views.
The iPhone 4 promises greater precision and accuracy when recognizing pronounced turns, abrupt pitches or speedy hand movements, similar to the six-axis motion tracking offered by Sony's DualShock 3 controller or Nintendo's gesture-tracking Wii MotionPlus accessory.
The new iPhone can now tell when you move up, down, left, right, forward or backward, or when you speed or slow your momentum. This opens myriad new frontiers for developers to explore in terms of upcoming game apps.
Obvious immediate fits include aerial dogfighting or racing simulations, which you might control simply by mimicking the motions of manning the wheel of a plane or car. Also inevitable are simple, Jenga-like puzzle game diversions, where precise hand movements will be required to stack or remove blocks from a teetering tower.
Game publisher ngmoco has just released a new title, "Eliminate: Gun Range," which illustrates how subtle gestures readily translate to first-person shooters. The game lets you aim a weapon with striking accuracy just by tilting the device.
Dozens of developers undoubtedly already have pool-table simulators, golf and tennis games and titles that let you captain tanks and submarines in the works, as well.
What we're most excited about are the possibilities that the iPhone 4's gyroscope opens for richer, more immersive gaming experiences, such as fantasy dungeon crawls and sci-fi action-adventures.
Imagine being able to explore a dripping cavern's far reaches, barely visible in the flickering torchlight, just by tilting to peer around its lichen-covered interior. Or picture wandering a derelict spaceship's shadowed corridors and wheeling around to come face-to-face with a slavering mutant.
Using the gyroscope, it's possible to extend players' field of vision, eliminate cumbersome overlays that erode suspension of disbelief and offer more elegant controls for wielding a sword, machine gun or flashlight.
The iPhone 4's hardware provides for more spills, thrills and greater depth of in-game storytelling. The heightened levels of player engagement could benefit virtually every genre, from action and arcade to mystery and horror. From augmented reality apps that let you pilot R/C helicopters with a flick of the wrist to epic first-person shooters. The sky's the limit.

Who needs to wait for cutting-edge user interfaces like Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's PlayStation Move to arrive this fall? The future of motion controls may already be resting snugly in your pocket.

Source: CNN

Apple on iPhone complaints: You're holding it wrong

 

Hours after its iPhone 4 went on sale to excited crowds Thursday, Apple found itself responding to complaints that holding the phone by its metal edge causes mobile reception to suffer.

The company's response, in a nutshell? You're holding it wrong.
"Just avoid holding it in that way," Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an e-mail that was making the rounds on the Web on Friday morning.
An official statement from Apple expanded in less pointed language than Jobs, who is known to occasionally answer e-mails from customers himself.
"Gripping any mobile phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance, with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas," Apple said in a written statement.
One of the new phone's vaunted features is its sleek design -- nearly 25 percent thinner than its most recent predecessor. That's achieved, in part, by snaking the antenna through a metal band around the edges of the phone.
The Apple statement, like early user reviews, said that putting a cover on the phone also reduces interference.

"If you ever experience this on your iPhone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases," the company says.
The iPhone 4 -- with its dual cameras, high-resolution display and glass-backed design -- has received mostly positive reviews since its release. But by late Thursday, tech blogs and other websites were filling up with complaints about the reception issue.
On CNN's iReport, several contributors noted the problem.
Keith Taylor of Sarasota, Florida, submitted a video review that initially said gripping the metal band made reception slightly worse than that of the iPhone 3GS.
Hours later, he wrote a follow-up saying that "the reception problem is very real" and that it improved when he bought a protective cover for the phone.
Share your thoughts on the new iPhone 4 with iReport.
The reception issue is chief among complaints that surfaced in the day since the iPhone 4 went on sale in Apple stores and other outlets.
There have been some reports of the phone's glass casing cracking easily and of its "retina display" screen, billed as one of the sharpest in the industry, scratching even after only a few days of wear and tear.
iReporters share iPhone mania

Other owners of the new iPhone have reported that the display has an annoying yellow tint, although most have not noticed that.

Source: CNN

More than 200 dead in China flooding

Beijing, China - Hundreds of workers tried Friday to shore up two dikes on a river in eastern China as the area dealt with continued deadly flooding, state-run media reported.
The death toll from the flooding over the past 11 days in China was 211, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Dozens more were missing.
More than 300 workers were at the Fu River trying to fix the dikes, which officials predicted woiuld be repaired in six days, Xinhua reported.
In Fuzhou City, the Fuhe River flooded for a second time Wednesday, two days after a dike burst elsewhere on the river, causing 100,000 people to evacuate, the provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said.
They were relocated to downtown Fuzhou -- 30,000 people were staying in shelters; 70,000 were bunking with friends and relatives.
The flooding has affected 10 provinces in China.
So far this year, floods in China have killed 377 people and left 142 others missing, the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said in a statement on its website.
This year, flooding has affected 64.57 million people in China's 22 provinces, municipalities and regions and has inundated 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of crops, the statement said.

In all, 4.35 million people were evacuated due to the flood waters, which destroyed 368,000 homes and caused economic losses that exceeded $11.13 billion, it said.

Source: CNN

Garuda Indonesia enters into new partnership with MCAP

Indonesia’s national airline, Garuda Indonesia, took deliveries of three Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft under a sale and leaseback agreement with MC Aviation Partners (MCAP), the aircraft leasing and trading arm of Mitsubishi Corporation.

Garuda Indonesia currently has on order a total of 50 Boeing 737-800NGs. To support its network expansion, Garuda Indonesia will be receiving 24 aircraft this year including 23 Boeing 737-800NG and one A330-200.

“The new aircraft will be used on our domestic and regional routes and supports our five-year ‘Quantum Leap’ expansion strategy. We plan to increase the number of domestic departures by double to 2,072 per week and international departures more than threefold to 1,222 a week by 2014,” said Emirsyah Satar, President & CEO, Garuda Indonesia.

Garuda Indonesia also plans to almost double its current fleet of 71 aircraft to 116 aircraft by 2014, based mainly on Boeing 737-800NGs and Airbus A330-300/200s, which are operated on medium and long haul routes.

"We are pleased to announce this important transaction and to expand our relationship with Garuda Indonesia, our valued customer," said Tatsuo Sato, MCAP's Group CEO

The new Boeing 737 800NGs feature Garuda Indonesia’s new signature interior, with individual touch-screen LCD TVs throughout Executive and Economy Classes with Video on Demand (VOD) entertainment systems offering 25 feature films and 25 audio tracks.

The airline also has on order 10 Boeing 777-300ERs which will be used on new ultra long-range flights starting 2011 as it expands its international network.

Source: wn