Video games take off as a spectator sport

Editorial: "Give video games a sporting chance"

EVERY sport has its idols and superstars. Now video gaming is getting them too. Professional gaming, or e-sports, exploded in popularity in the US and Europe last year.

The scene has been big in Asia - particularly South Korea - for about a decade, with top players such as Lim Yo-Hwan earning six-figure salaries and competing for rock-star glory in Starcraft tournaments that attract audiences in the hundreds of thousands.

The phenomenon is taking off in the West partly because of improved video-streaming technology and large financial rewards. Video games are becoming a spectator sport, with certain players and commentators drawing massive online audiences.

And where people go, money follows. The second world championship of League of Legends - a team-based game in which players defend respective corners of a fantasy-themed battle arena - was held in Los Angeles in October. The tournament had a prize pool of $5 million for the season, with $1 million going to winning team Taipei Assassins, the largest cash prize in the history of e-sports.

League of Legends has also set records for spectator numbers. More than 8 million people watched the championship finals either online or on TV - a figure that dwarfs audience numbers for broadcasts of many traditional sports fixtures.

But gamers don't need to compete at the international level to earn money. Video-streaming software like Twitch makes it easy for players to send live footage to a website, where the more popular ones can attract upwards of 10,000 viewers - enough for some to make a living by having adverts in their video streams. Gamers can go pro without leaving their homes.

Currently, e-sports productions are handled by gaming leagues - but that could soon change. Last November saw two moves that will make it even easier to reach a global online audience. First, Twitch announced it would be integrating with Electronic Arts's Origin service, a widely used gaming platform. This would let gamers stream their play at the click of a button, making it easy for people around the world to watch.

Also in November came the latest release from one of gaming's biggest franchises, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which has the ability to live-stream via YouTube built into the game itself. Another feature allows the broadcast of in-game commentary for multiplayer matches.

"I think we will reach a point, maybe within five years, where spectator features are a necessity for all big game releases," says Corin Cole of e-sports publishing company Heaven Media in Huntingdon, UK.

David Ting founded the California-based IGN Pro League (IPL), which hosts professional tournaments. He puts the popularity of e-sports down to the demand for new forms of online entertainment. "After 18 months, IPL's viewer numbers are already comparable to college sports in the US when there's a live event," he says. "The traffic is doubling every six months."

Ting sees motion detection, virtual reality and mobile gaming coming together to make physical exertion a more common aspect of video games, blurring the line between traditional sport and e-sports. "Angry Birds could be this century's bowling," says Ting.

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100 youth leaders engage in national conversation dialogue

SINGAPORE: Some 100 youth leaders and members from nine youth uniformed organisations engaged in an Our Singapore Conversation dialogue on Saturday morning.

The event is part of the Inaugural Young Leaders' Forum organised by the Singapore Scout Association.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat was also present to listen in and have an open dialogue with the participants.

Some of the topics discussed include what values and ideals Singaporeans should have in 2030, and what attributes Singaporeans need in order to succeed.

Organisers hope the forum will help develop young leaders and also contribute to the development of Singapore.

- CNA/xq

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ZTE readies itself for U.S. expansion in 2013

Lixin Cheng, the CEO of ZTE USA, at CES 2013.

(Credit:
Lynn La/CNET)

LAS VEGAS--Lixin Cheng and the rest of his division are determined to make it in America.

Cheng is the CEO of ZTE's U.S. division, and in addition to strengthening the company's carrier relationships, Cheng also has big plans in the near future to increase ZTE's presence in the U.S.

"There are a lot of things already in the pipeline," he said, referring to the devices planned through U.S. carriers.

But other than just spending money on developing handsets (though Cheng does refer to it as ZTE's "bread and butter"), the company also plans on using the $30 million that it recently announced to expanding its U.S. infrastructure, warehousing, and local research and development.

Of course, there are serious obstacles to face. Last fall, the U.S. House Intelligence Committee held a hearing expressing security concerns over alleged ties Huawei and ZTE had with the Chinese government.

Though both companies tried to reassure the lawmakers and the American public that there was nothing to worry about, a veil of suspicion from U.S. consumers remains.

For Cheng, the entire issue was troubling, but there were a few silver linings. First, it helped ZTE increase its transparency with the FCC. Secondly, as the old saying goes - any press is good press.

"From a branding point of view, it increased out brand awareness and a lot of people know ZTE more," he said. "I can't believe there is a positive side, but that's one, I think."

And as for concerns about competing with the tech giants already dominating the U.S. market, Cheng said there isn't any really.

He continued, saying he has full respect for Samsung and Apple, but because ZTE provides such a wide range of inexpensive and prepaid handsets, the company fulfills a niche role in the market that the other two do not satisfy.

"Honestly, I'm not focused on competitors," he said. "That's just our strategy. We're focused on our customers."

For now, what's important are the things that have a more immediate impact, like bringing the ZTE Grand S, the company's new flagship handset, to the U.S. after its initial Chinese launch.

The ZTE Grand S.

(Credit:
Lynn La/CNET)

Cheng is determined to have it available on our shores because it would mark a notable departure from ZTE's usual line of mid-range handsets in the U.S. With this smartphone, along with carrier branding, the Grand S could the company be the boost it needs to make a more positive name for itself.

Especially when considering the money that's at stake. Even though ZTE increased its U.S. market share five to six percent in the last two years, the financial gains from last year weren't so high. Cheng, however, remains steadfast.

"Last year was a very challenging year for us," he said. "But despite that, ZTE is committed to the U.S. market."

For more of CNET's CES 2013 coverage, click here.

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Pictures: Civil War Shipwreck Revealed by Sonar

Photograph by Jesse Cancelmo

A fishing net, likely only decades old, drapes over machinery that once connected the Hatteras' pistons to its paddle wheels, said Delgado.

From archived documents, the NOAA archaeologist learned that Blake, the ship's commander, surrendered as his ship was sinking. "It was listing to port, [or the left]," Delgado said. The Alabama took the wounded and the rest of the crew and put them in irons.

The officers were allowed to keep their swords and wander the deck as long as they promised not to lead an uprising against the Alabama's crew, he added.

From there, the Alabama dropped off their captives in Jamaica, leaving them to make their own way back to the U.S.

Delgado wants to dig even further into the crew of the Hatteras. He'd like see if members of the public recognize any of the names on his list of crew members and can give him background on the men.

"That's why I do archaeology," he said.

(Read about other Civil War battlefields in National Geographic magazine.)

Published January 11, 2013

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Kin Were Suspicious

Urooj Khan had just brought home his $425,000 lottery check when he unexpectedly died the following day. Now, certain members of Khan's family are speaking publicly about the mystery -- and his nephew told ABC News they knew something was not right.

"He was a healthy guy, you know?" said the nephew, Minhaj Khan said. "He worked so hard. He was always going about his business and, the thing is: After he won the lottery and the next day later he passes away -- it's awkward. It raises some eyebrows."

The medical examiner initially ruled Urooj Khan, 46, an immigrant from India who owned dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, died July 20, 2012, of natural causes. But after a family member demanded more tests, authorities in November found a lethal amount of cyanide in his blood, turning the case into a homicide investigation.

"When we found out there was cyanide in his blood after the extensive toxicology reports, we had to believe that ... somebody had to kill him," Minhaj Khan said. "It had to happen, because where can you get cyanide?"

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Authorities could be one step closer to learning what happened to Urooj Khan. A judge Friday approved an order to exhume his body at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago as early as Thursday to perform further tests.

Moments after the court hearing, Urooj Khan's sister, Meraj Khan, remembered her brother as the kind of person who would've shared his jackpot with anyone. Speaking at the Cook County Courthouse, she hoped the exhumation would help the investigation.

"It's very hard because I wanted my brother to rest in peace, but then we have to have justice served," she said, according to ABC News station WLS in Chicago. "So if that's what it takes for him to bring justice and peace, then that's what needs to be done."

Khan reportedly did not have a will. With the investigation moving forward, his family is waging a legal fight against his widow, Shabana Ansari, 32, over more than $1 million, including Urooj Khan's lottery winnings, as well as his business and real estate holdings.

Khan's brother filed a petition Wednesday to a judge asking Citibank to release information about Khan's assets to "ultimately ensure" that [Khan's] minor daughter from a prior marriage "receives her proper share."

Ansari may have tried to cash the jackpot check after Khan's death, according to court documents, which also showed Urooj Khan's family is questioning if the couple was ever even legally married.

Ansari, Urooj Khan's second wife, who still works at the couple's dry cleaning business, has insisted they were married legally.

She has told reporters the night before her husband died, she cooked a traditional Indian meal for him and their family, including Khan's daughter and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the Chicago Sun-Times, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She said she called 911.

"It has been an incredibly hard time," she told ABC News earlier this week. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Ansari has not been named a suspect, but her attorney, Steven Kozicki, said investigators did question her for more than four hours.

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Life will find a way, even in the midst of a hurricane

LIFE ahoy! Every hurricane that sweeps through the Gulf of Mexico carries a unique mix of bacteria in its clouds.

Much of our precipitation is likely caused by microbes in clouds. Their surfaces act as "seeds" to attract water and form ice crystals that fall through the cloud as rain or snow. To find out the nature of the bacteria, in 2010 researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta flew a jetliner through hurricanes Earl and Karl, 10 kilometres above the Earth's surface.

Twenty per cent of the small particles they collected turned out to be bacteria that could grow in the lab. Many were genetically similar to bacteria the researchers had earlier found in clouds over the US land mass and along the California coast. The similar bacteria could withstand UV radiation at high altitude, and use simple carbon compounds as their sole energy source, suggesting that they had adapted to survive in clouds.

But the bacterial communities in the two hurricanes were very different from one another - probably because the hurricanes began in different places. The team believe that the storms swept up species from the soil and ocean as they moved inland. This mix of bacteria could have increased the amount of rain from the hurricane by providing better "seeds" for the water to form around. The group presented their work at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco in December.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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SIT hopes to make education system more robust

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) hopes it can help to make the education system more robust and relevant by offering an industry-ready college education with good career prospects.

The institute's incoming president Professor Tan Thiam Soon said this will be its true challenge.

He was speaking at SIT's inaugural graduation ceremony.

Nearly 470 students received their degrees on Friday afternoon, after completing a two-year programme with partnering universities from the US, UK and Germany.

They include graduates of engineering, physiotherapy, game design and culinary arts.

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said SIT, whose courses are designed with close links to the industry, has increased the diversity of programmes available in Singapore's university sector.

He said this is a mutually-beneficial model as its students are highly sought after, while the industry gains ready access to graduates with relevant skills.

Mr Heng said: "The industry support for this model is most evident in the 30 industry partners that currently offer scholarships across a range of areas, such as engineering and hospitality, with more than 10 per cent of the graduating cohort having won scholarships from the industry."

One of graduates studied IT at Ngee Ann Polytechnic but decided to pursue her interest in culinary arts at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).

Nurfarzanah Binte Mohamed Shariff said: "I actually sent out information regarding the CIA in Hyde Park (New York), so I was actually about to go there when SIT actually came up with this course.

"They have joint work with CIA, and I thought that SIT actually allowed me this opportunity to study here in Singapore while still having the courses I want to take in CIA Hyde Park."

- CNA/ms

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Nearly 1 million more Xbox 360s than Wii Us sold in December

What's up with the Wii U?

(Credit:
Nintendo)

Is the Wii U having some trouble getting off the ground?

Research firm NPD Group yesterday announced U.S. game sales for December. And although the research firm won't reveal hardware unit sales on its own, Microsoft reported that for the 24th month in a row, it has held the number one spot in the U.S. in console sales, with 1.4 million units sold. Nintendo, meanwhile, announced that its
Wii U could only muster 460,000 unit sales.

Historically, new consoles have generated massive demand, allowing them to beat out older competitors in unit sales. However, that's not proving to be the case this time around. The
Wii U -- despite being readily available both online and in many retail stores in December -- couldn't match the
Xbox 360, a device that's been on store shelves for several years.

Nintendo has been somewhat subdued in its assessment of Wii U sales. Earlier this week, Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata characterized Wii U sales are "not bad," adding that he believes the console is "selling steadily."

NPD compared the Wii U's sales figures in December to those of its wildly popular predecessor, the Wii. According to the research firm, "sales of the Wii U were lower on a unit basis when compared to the original Wii in December 2006." That's perhaps saying something major, considering the Wii was hard to come by in December 2006 due to massive demand, and the Wii U is readily available.

Still, Nintendo was armed with an answer to the doubters. The company said yesterday in an e-mailed statement to CNET that in just 41 days on the market, Wii U sales have hit 890,000 unit sales. Moreover, Nintendo said that Wii U hardware sales have exceeded $300 million in the U.S. -- up from the $270 million the Wii generated at the same point in its lifecycle.

"While the Wii launch established new benchmarks in the United States, Wii U has surpassed its predecessor in perhaps the most important category: revenue generation," Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of Sales & Marketing said yesterday in a statement. "The demand for the Deluxe SKU, which was essentially sold out at retail this holiday, and the strong attach rate of New Super Mario Bros. U, shows that we have the value and the games to drive momentum in 2013."

While revenue might be up, that's the direct result of the Wii U being more expensive than its predecessor. The Wii U Basic set is available for $299.99. A Deluxe set featuring extra gear, like a copy of game Nintendo Land, goes for $349.99. The Wii, meanwhile, shipped in the U.S. in 2006 for $249.99. So, each Wii U sale is generating an additional $50 to $100 for Nintendo compared to the Wii.

Speaking of the Wii, it actually had a better November than its successor. According to Nintendo, the console tallied 475,000 unit sales during the month.

Despite the Wii's staying power, it was hard to find much to be happy about in the gaming industry last month. Total game industry sales hit $3.2 billion, a 22 percent decline compared to December 2011. Software sales, meanwhile, fell 27 percent to $1.6 billion. Overall hardware sales were down 20 percent to land at $1.1 billion.

December's top-selling game was Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The Xbox 360 version proved most popular.

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Google and Twitter Help Track Influenza Outbreaks

This flu season could be the longest and worst in years. So far 18 children have died from flu-related symptoms, and 2,257 people have been hospitalized.

Yesterday Boston Mayor Thomas Menino declared a citywide public health emergency, with roughly 700 confirmed flu cases—ten times the number the city saw last year.

"It arrived five weeks early, and it's shaping up to be a pretty bad flu season," said Lyn Finelli, who heads the Influenza Outbreak Response Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Boston isn't alone. According to the CDC, 41 states have reported widespread influenza activity, and in the last week of 2012, 5.6 percent of doctor's office visits across the country were for influenza-like illnesses. The severity likely stems from this year's predominant virus: H3N2, a strain known to severely affect children and the elderly. Finelli notes that the 2003-2004 flu season, also dominated by H3N2, produced similar numbers. (See "Are You Prepped? The Influenza Roundup.")

In tracking the flu, physicians and public health officials have a host of new surveillance tools at their disposal thanks to crowdsourcing and social media. Such tools let them get a sense of the flu's reach in real time rather than wait weeks for doctor's offices and state health departments to report in.

Pulling data from online sources "is no different than getting information on over-the-counter medication or thermometer purchases [to track against an outbreak]," said Philip Polgreen, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa.

The most successful of these endeavors, Google Flu Trends, analyzes flu-related Internet search terms like "flu symptoms" or "flu medication" to estimate flu activity in different areas. It tracks flu outbreaks globally.

Another tool, HealthMap, which is sponsored by Boston Children's Hospital, mines online news reports to track outbreaks in real time. Sickweather draws from posts on Twitter and Facebook that mention the flu for its data.

People can be flu-hunters themselves with Flu Near You, a project that asks people to report their symptoms once a week. So far more than 38,000 people have signed up for this crowdsourced virus tracker. And of course, there's an app for that.

Both Finelli, a Flu Near You user, and Polgreen find the new tools exciting but agree that they have limits. "It's not as if we can replace traditional surveillance. It's really just a supplement, but it's timely," said Polgreen.

When people have timely warning that there's flu in the community, they can get vaccinated, and hospitals can plan ahead. According to a 2012 study in Clinical Infectious Diseases, Google Flu Trends has shown promise predicting emergency room flu traffic. Some researchers are even using a combination of the web database and weather data to predict when outbreaks will peak.

As for the current flu season, it's still impossible to predict week-to-week peaks and troughs. "We expect that it will last a few more weeks, but we can never tell how bad it's going to get," said Finelli.

Hospitals are already taking precautionary measures. One Pennsylvania hospital erected a separate emergency room tent for additional flu patients. This week, several Illinois hospitals went on "bypass," alerting local first responders that they're at capacity—due to an uptick in both flu and non-flu cases—so that patients will be taken to alternative facilities, if possible.

In the meantime, the CDC advises vaccination, first and foremost. On the bright side, the flu vaccine being used this year is a good match for the H3N2 strain. Though Finelli cautions, "Sometimes drifted strains pop up toward the end of the season."

It looks like there won't be shortages of seasonal flu vaccine like there have been in past years. HealthMap sports a Flu Vaccine Finder to make it a snap to find a dose nearby. And if the flu-shot line at the neighborhood pharmacy seems overwhelming, more health departments and clinics are offering drive-through options.

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Dreamliner Faces Scrutiny After More Mishaps

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner will face more scrutiny today as the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to order a comprehensive review of the plane's design, critical systems and manufacturing.

FAA officials have scheduled a news conference for today, during which they plan to announce the agency's intention to perform a special review of the carbon-fiber plane, according to sources.

The latest incident involving the 787 occurred overnight when a 3-foot-long crack appeared in the cockpit window of an All Nippon Airlines 787 flying in Japan.

In addition to that incident, another Dreamliner's electrical power system caught fire earlier this week at the gate at Boston's Logan airport on a Japan Airlines flight.

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"This is a newer type of a battery that hasn't been, basically, looked at in any terms of faults," Kevin Hiatt, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, said. "It's a very good battery, and we're not sure what happened there."

The 787 gets better fuel mileage than standard jetliners because it's made of carbon fiber instead of aluminum. Heavier hydraulic controls on the aircraft have also been replaced with light-weight electronics. It's more sophisticated, more powerful and more complicated.

While the Dreamliner has had other minor glitches, the electrical hitch in the auxiliary power unit, or APU, was serious enough to catch the attention of the National Transportation Safety Board, the FAA and aviation experts.

"I'm concerned about the aircraft when it comes to this APU fire and battery situation," Hiatt said. "The rest of the issues are normal teething pains."

The plane will not be grounded and will continue to fly during the review, sources said.

United, which flies the only six 787s among domestic carriers, says it has no plans to take its Dreamliners out of service.

Boeing says it has "extreme confidence in the 787," and it is 100 percent "safe to fly."

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Global banking rules won't stop next meltdown

IT IS like storm-proofing a building with a paper towel. From 2015, the world's banks will be forced to keep a proportion of their assets in reserve, to prevent a repeat of the 2008 banking crisis. But economists say the rules will make little difference.

Serafín Martínez Jaramillo of the Mexican Central Bank endorses the move but says it doesn't allow for the fact that bad debts can spread through the economy and take down many banks at once. This was at the heart of the 2008 crisis. "You have to incorporate contagion."

Simone Giansante of the University of Bath, UK, has modelled the effects of such rules and found they barely reduce this risk (Social Science Research Network, doi.org/j59).

Many economists say what's needed is a system that can also identify threats ahead of time.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Johor may review procedures for foreigners to buy houses

JOHOR BAHARU, Malaysia: Johor state will review procedures and conditions for foreigners to own houses due to spiralling house prices in the state, especially in Iskandar Malaysia.

Bernama news agency quoted Local Government, Housing, Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee chairman Ahmad Zahri Jamil as saying that the state Economic Planning Unit (UPEN) was studying ways to tighten the rules on foreign ownership.

He said this was to control spiralling house prices since locals are finding it difficult to buy houses.

"The price of property is determined by the market force. However, the prices also reflect on demand and supply or just because of extreme speculation. So, we have to conduct a detailed study," he told reporters at Kota Iskandar, Nusajaya, on Thursday.

Foreigners are currently allowed to purchase houses priced at a minimum of RM500,000, according to specific quota.

For example, for double-storey houses, only 30 per cent of the units are allocated for foreigners and the move was to attract foreign investment.

Foreigners may only be allowed to purchase houses above RM1 million.

Mr Ahmad Zahri said Singaporeans accounted for 90 per cent of foreigners who bought houses in Johor state, followed by Britain, United States and China.

- Bernama/de

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Embryonic Sharks Freeze to Avoid Detection

Jane J. Lee

Although shark pups are born with all the equipment they'll ever need to defend themselves and hunt down food, developing embryos still stuck in their egg cases are vulnerable to predators. But a new study finds that even these baby sharks can detect a potential predator, and play possum to avoid being eaten.

Every living thing gives off a weak electrical field. Sharks can sense this with a series of pores—called the ampullae of Lorenzini—on their heads and around their eyes, and some species rely on this electrosensory ability to find food buried in the seafloor. (See pictures of electroreceptive fish.)

Two previous studies on the spotted catshark (Scyliorhinus canicula) and the clearnose skate (Raja eglanteria)—a relative of sharks—found similar freezing behavior in their young. But new research by shark biologist and doctoral student Ryan Kempster at the University of Western Australia has given scientists a more thorough understanding of this behavior.

It all started because Kempster wanted to build a better shark repellent. Since he needed to know how sharks respond to electrical fields, Kempster decided to use embryos. "It's very hard to test this in the field because you need to get repeated responses," he said. And you can't always get the same shark to cooperate multiple times. "But we could use embryos because they're contained within an egg case."

Cloaking Themselves

So Kempster got his hands on 11 brownbanded bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium punctatum) embryos and tested their reactions to the simulated weak electrical field of a predator. (Popular pictures: Bamboo shark swallowed whole—by another shark.)

In a study published today in the journal PLoS One, Kempster and his colleagues report that all of the embryonic bamboo sharks, once they reached later stages of development, reacted to the electrical field by ceasing gill movements (essentially, holding their breath), curling their tails around their bodies, and freezing.

A bamboo shark embryo normally beats its tail to move fresh seawater in and out of its egg case. But that generates odor cues and small water currents that can give away its position. The beating of its gills as it breathes also generates an electrical field that predators can use to find it.

"So it cloaks itself," said neuroecologist Joseph Sisneros, at the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. "[The embryo] shuts down any odor cues, water movement, and its own electrical signal."

Sisneros, who conducted the previous clearnose skate work, is delighted to see that this shark species also reacts to external electrical fields and said it would be great to see whether this is something all shark, skate, and ray embryos do.

Marine biologist Stephen Kajiura, at Florida Atlantic University, is curious to know how well the simulated electrical fields compare to the bamboo shark's natural predators—the experimental field was on the higher end of the range normally given off.

"[But] they did a good job with [the study]," Kajiura said. "They certainly did a more thorough study than anyone else has done."

Electrifying Protection?

In addition to the freezing behavior he recorded in the bamboo shark embryos, Kempster found that the shark pups remembered the electrical field signal when it was presented again within 40 minutes and that they wouldn't respond as strongly to subsequent exposures as they did initially.

This is important for developing shark repellents, he said, since some of them use electrical fields to ward off the animals. "So if you were using a shark repellent, you would need to change the current over a 20- to 30-minute period so the shark doesn't get used to that field."

Kempster envisions using electrical fields to not only keep humans safe but to protect sharks as well. Shark populations have been on the decline for decades, due partly to ending up as bycatch, or accidental catches, in the nets and on the longlines of fishers targeting other animals.

A 2006 study estimated that as much as 70 percent of landings, by weight, in the Spanish surface longline fleet were sharks, while a 2007 report found that eight million sharks are hooked each year off the coast of southern Africa. (Read about the global fisheries crisis in National Geographic magazine.)

"If we can produce something effective, it could be used in the fishing industry to reduce shark bycatch," Kempster said. "In [America] at the moment, they're doing quite a lot of work trying to produce electromagnetic fish hooks." The eventual hope is that if these hooks repel the sharks, they won't accidentally end up on longlines.

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Photos: 21 Stars Who've Never Been Nominated for an Oscar

Though Bradley Cooper may be best known for summer blockbusters like "The Hangover" and "The A Team," he's a classically trained actor who's been vying for an Oscar for years. With his role in this year's "Silver Linings Playbook," the 38-year-old could finally get his first shot at Hollywood's most coveted gold trophy. Click through to see 20 more stars who have never been nominated for an Oscar. (Gregg DeGuire/WireImage/Getty Images)

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Cardboard cockroach ranks among world's fastest robots

Sara Reardon, reporter

Don't stomp on this little robot - not yet, anyway. VELOCIRoACH, a small cardboard hexapod modelled on a cockroach, can run at 2.7 metres per second, placing it among the fastest robots in the world.

Boston Dynamics' LS3, which can trot at up to 3.2 m/s, still holds the speed record for a self-powered robot. VELOCIRoACH ties for second with the company's six-legged RHex. But VELOCIRoACH is by far the fastest for its size: in 1 second, it can skitter 26 times the length of its body.

Duncan Haldane at the University of California, Berkeley, presented VELOCIRoACH this week at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in San Francisco. To maximise the robot's speed, Haldane and colleagues studied the anatomy of a cockroach, which can run at 1.5 m/s, and scaled its body plan up to a workable size.

The secret to VELOCIRoACH's speed is its thin, C-shaped legs. They mimic a roach's legs by acting as springs as they hit the ground 15 times per second. To stay stable as it runs, the robot has three legs on the ground at all times, forming tripods. Its approach to obstacles mimics a roach's as well - rather than trying to avoid them, it runs into them head first, then pops up onto its end and goes over the top.

Elsewhere at the meeting, Nick Kohut, who works with Haldane, presented a similar robot with an added tail. By swinging its tail to the side, TAYLRoACH, which looks more like a lizard than a roach, can make a 90-degree turn in less than a quarter of a second without slowing down from a run.

Haldane says he's now working to improve VELOCIRoACH's body plan so it can withstand an indoor insect's most deadly nemesis: the human foot. The robot can already carry four times its body weight, but Haldane plans to design its materials to pop back up after being flattened. But despite being faster and stronger than a real roach, Haldane says it's unlikely that the robot would outdo its namesake by surviving a nuclear blast.

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Football: Teenage defender Wisdom signs new Liverpool deal

LONDON: Liverpool defender Andre Wisdom has cemented his emergence as a member of the first-team squad by signing a new long-term contract, the Premier League club announced on Wednesday.

The 19-year-old made his debut in the Europa League earlier this season and an injury to left-back Jose Enrique has enabled him to make 14 appearances so far in the current campaign.

Liverpool did not reveal the length of the contract.

"It was an easy decision to make - as soon as they offered it to me, I grabbed the opportunity with both hands because it's a great club and I just want to continue to play for Liverpool," Wisdom said.

"I am happy with the progress I've made so far and hopefully I can progress more in the second half of the season and continue to keep playing."

In extending his commitment to the club, Wisdom joins Raheem Sterling, Suso, Luis Suarez, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger, Brad Jones and Jonjo Shelvey, who have all agreed new deals since the end of last season.

"It's another great example of a player committing to the club and what we're trying to achieve under (manager) Brendan (Rodgers)," managing director Ian Ayre told the Liverpool website.

"He's a great young player, shown a fantastic improvement, broken into the first team and made a huge contribution and, rightly so, we've provided him with a new contract and a long-term one."

- AFP/de

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Microsoft beefs up SkyDrive with more features

You can now drag and drop files within SkyDrive to move them.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

Microsoft has kicked off 2013 with a few helpful additions to your SkyDrive Web site.

As detailed in yesterday's Inside SkyDrive blog, you can now move files within SkyDrive to other folders by dragging and dropping them to a specific location on the breadcrumb bar.

For example, to move a file from your Documents subfolder to the root of your SkyDrive storage, simply drag the file onto the SkyDrive breadcrumb with your name. Previously, you'd have to right-click on a file, select the Move to command, and then choose a target folder in order to move it.

Those of you with touch-screen devices can now select a single file by tapping it or multiple files by swiping them to the left or right. Tapping the file or swiping the files again will then unselect them.

Finally, Microsoft has made it easier to share your SkyDrive files.

Select a file and click the Sharing option from the command bar or the right-click popup menu. You'll now see all the various ways in which you can share that file, including e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and as a specific URL. You can then set the access so that other people can edit your file or just read it.

Microsoft also made improvements "under the hood" to enhance the speed and reliability of SkyDrive. The alterations made yesterday should be available on your SkyDrive storage site by now.

These changes may not be earthshaking. But it's good to see Microsoft continually tweaking SkyDrive to make the service ever more user friendly.

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Pictures: Wildfires Scorch Australia Amid Record Heat

Photograph by Jo Giuliani, European Pressphoto Agency

Smoke from a wildfire mushrooms over a beach in Forcett, Tasmania, on January 4. (See more wildfire pictures.)

Wildfires have engulfed southeastern Australia, including the island state of Tasmania, in recent days, fueled by dry conditions and temperatures as high as 113ºF (45ºC), the Associated Press reported. (Read "Australia's Dry Run" inNational Geographic magazine.)

No deaths have been reported, though a hundred people are unaccounted for in the town of Dunalley, where the blazes destroyed 90 homes.

"You don't get conditions worse than this," New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told the AP.

"We are at the catastrophic level, and clearly in those areas leaving early is your safest option."

Published January 8, 2013

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Poisoned Lottery Winner's Wife Seeks 'Truth'

The wife of a $1 million Chicago lottery winner who died of cyanide poisoning told ABC News that she was shocked to learn the true cause of his death and is cooperating with an ongoing homicide investigation.

"I want the truth to come out in the investigation, the sooner the better," said Shabana Ansari, 32, the wife of Urooj Khan, 46. "Who could be that person who hurt him?

"It has been incredibly hard time," she added. "We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I've had. And then the next day, everything was gone."

Ansari, Khan's second wife, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she prepared what would be her husband's last meal the night before Khan died unexpectedly on July 20. It was a traditional beef-curry dinner attended by the married couple and their family, including Khan's 17-year-old daughter from a prior marriage, Jasmeen, and Ansari's father. Not feeling well, Khan retired early, Ansari told the paper, falling asleep in a chair, waking up in agony, then collapsing in the middle of the night. She called 911.

Khan, an immigrant from India who owned three dry-cleaning businesses in Chicago, won $1 million in a scratch-off Illinois Lottery game in June and said he planned to use the money to pay off his bills and mortgage, and make a contribution to St. Jude Children's Research Center.

"Him winning the lottery was just his luck," Ansari told ABC News. "He had already worked hard to be a millionaire before it."

Illinois Lottery/AP Photo

Chicago Lottery Winner Died From Cyanide Poisoning Watch Video

Lottery Murder Suspect Dee Dee Moore Found Guilty Watch Video

Lottery Winner Murder Trial: Opening Statements Begin Watch Video

Jimmy Goreel, who worked at the 7-Eleven store where Khan bought the winning ticket, described him to The Associated Press as a "regular customer ... very friendly, good sense of humor, working type of guy."

In Photos: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners

Khan's unexpected death the month after his lottery win raised the suspicions of the Cook County medical examiner. There were no signs of foul play or trauma so the death initially was attributed to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which covers heart attacks, stroke or ruptured aneurysms. The medical examiner based the conclusion on an external exam -- not an autopsy -- and toxicology reports that indicated no presence of drugs or carbon monoxide.

Khan was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.

However, several days after a death certificate was issued, a family member requested that the medical examiner's office look further into Khan's death, Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina said. The office did so by retesting fluid samples that had been taken from Khan's body, including tests for cyanide and strychnine.

When the final toxicology results came back in late November, they showed a lethal level of cyanide, which led to the homicide investigation, Cina said. His office planned to exhume Khan's body within the next two weeks as part of the investigation.

Melissa Stratton, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Police Department, confirmed it has been working closely with the medical examiner's office. The police have not said whether or not they believe Khan's lottery winnings played a part in the homicide.

Khan had elected to receive the lump sum payout of $425,000, but had not yet received it when he died, Ansari told the AP, adding that the winnings now are tied up as a probate matter.

"I am cooperating with the investigation," Ansari told ABC News. "I want the truth to come out."

Authorities also have not revealed the identity of the relative who suggested the deeper look into Khan's death. Ansari said it was not her, though she told the AP she has subsequently spoken with investigators.

"This is been a shock for me," she told ABC News. "This has been an utter shock for me, and my husband was such a goodhearted person who would do anything for anyone. Who would do something like this to him?

"We were married 12 years [and] he treated me like a princess," she said. "He showered his love on me and now it's gone."

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Into thin air: Storage salvation for green energy

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Asian startups tap on crowd funding for capital

SINGAPORE: Asia-focused private equity raised roughly US$30 billion in 2011 according to a report last year by Private Equity International.

However, with more than half of that goes into China and India, startups in the rest of Asia are left with fewer funding options.

According to experts, most Asian startups rely on traditional funding sources like government grants and loans from family and friends.

But some said crowd funding, or sourcing for investment through the internet, could be a solution.

Three-year-old tech startup Gametize helps businesses reach out to consumers through interactive game concepts.

These games can be as simple as a fun pop quiz or one that requires the consumer to complete tasks and upload pictures.

Based in Singapore, the firm includes MySpace founder Brad Greenspan's Social Slingshot Fund among its investors.

And although it is not actively raising funds, it is looking to tap on crowd funding in the next few months.

"Instead of relying on just one investor, one or two, you're relying on maybe, 10,000 less wealthy individuals - the amount raised will still be pretty much the same," said Keith Ng, co-founder & CEO of Gametize.

He added: "And as far as I understand, crowd funding (investors) don't take equity into the company, so that might be more preferable to the company."

Still, some experts are skeptical about crowd funding sites such as China's Dreamore, FundersClub in the US and Cliquefund in Singapore.

They said the collective wisdom of the crowd may not necessarily help to select the best startups to fund.

Bernard Lee, CEO of HedgeSPA, said: "Some of these websites - the things that they end up identifying would be what we call easy revenue ideas, things that has to do with retail, like fashion, because they tend to be a lot more comprehensible, versus if it is a very specialised medical innovation."

And if all else fails, Gametize said the startup will just have seize on every opportunity to sell itself.

And one way it drummed up publicity was by appearing in a reality TV programme Angel's Gate, which was produced by Channel News Asia, with support from Singapore's Media Development Authority.

The TV show featured entrepreneurs who had to pitch and be grilled by a panel of investors.

- CNA/fa

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New 27-inch iMacs won't ship until next month

Those of you who order one of Apple's new 27-inch iMacs will have to wait until next month before it arrives at your door.

The latest forecast calls for a ship time of three to four weeks from now, zeroing in around early/mid February. In early December, the estimate provided a vague timeframe of January. So buyers who ordered at that time hopefully will receive their computers by the end of the month.

The new 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs popped up for sale at Apple's Web site on November 30. The 27 incher offered an initial ship time of two to three weeks, but that jumped to three to four weeks after just a few hours.

At Apple's fourth-quarter earnings call on October 25, CEO Tim Cook cautioned that supplies of the iMac would be "constrained" the rest of 2012, leading to a "signficant shortage."

Consumers eyeing the the 21.5-inch model face a wait time of only 7 to 10 business Apple
iMac (27in, 2.9GHz, fall 2012)days.

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Primitive and Peculiar Mammal May Be Hiding Out in Australia

It’d be hard to think of a mammal that’s weirder than the long-beaked, egg-laying echidna. Or harder to find.

Scientists long thought the animal, which has a spine-covered body, a four-headed penis, and a single hole for reproducing, laying eggs, and excreting waste, lived only in New Guinea. The population of about 10,000 is critically endangered. Now there is tantalizing evidence that the echidna, thought to have gone extinct in Australia some 10,000 years ago, lived and reproduced there as recently as the early 1900s and may still be alive on Aussie soil.

The new echidna information comes from zoologist Kristofer Helgen, a National Geographic emerging explorer and curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution. Helgen has published a key finding in ZooKeys confirming that a skin and skull collected in 1901 by naturalist John T. Tunney in Australia is in fact the western long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus bruijnii. The specimen, found in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, was misidentified for many years.

(More about echidnas: Get to know this living link between mammals and reptiles.)

Helgen has long been fascinated by echidnas. He has seen only three in the wild. “Long-beaked echidnas are hard to get your hands on, period,” he said. “They are shy and secretive by nature. You’re lucky if you can find one. And if you do, it will be by chance.” Indeed, chance played a role in his identification of the Australian specimen. In 2009, he visited the Natural History Museum of London, where he wanted to see all of the echidnas he could. He took a good look in the bottom drawer of the echidna cabinet, where the specimens with less identifying information are often stored. From among about a dozen specimens squeezed into the drawer, he grabbed the one at the very bottom.

(Related from National Geographic magazine: “Discovery in the Foja Mountains.”)

“As I pulled it out, I saw a tag that I had seen before,” Helgen said. “I was immediately excited about this label. As a zoologist working in museums you get used to certain tags: It’s a collector’s calling card. I instantly recognized John Tunney’s tag and his handwriting.”

John Tunney was a well-known naturalist in the early 20th century who went on collecting expeditions for museums. During an Australian expedition in 1901 for Lord L. Walter Rothschild’s private museum collection, he found the long-beaked echidna specimen. Though he reported the locality on his tag as “Mt Anderson (W Kimberley)” and marked it as “Rare,” Tunney left the species identification field blank. When he returned home, the specimen was sent to the museum in Perth for identification. It came back to Rothschild’s museum identified as a short-beaked echidna.

With the specimen’s long snout, large size, and three-clawed feet, Helgen knew that it must be a long-beaked echidna. The short-beaked echidna, still alive and thriving in Australia today, has five claws, a smaller beak, and is half the size of the long-beaked echidna, which can weigh up to 36 pounds (16 kilograms).

As Helgen began tracing the history and journey of the specimen over the last century, he crossed the path of another fascinating mind who had also encountered the specimen. Oldfield Thomas was arguably the most brilliant mammalogical taxonomist ever. He named approximately one out of every six mammals known today.

Thomas was working at the Natural History Museum in London when the Tunney echidna specimen arrived, still misidentified as a short-beaked echidna. Thomas realized the specimen was actually a long-beaked echidna and removed the skull and some of the leg bones from the skin to prove that it was an Australian record of a long-beaked echidna, something just as unexpected then as it is now.

No one knows why Thomas did not publish that information. And the echidna went back into the drawer until Helgen came along 80 years later.

As Helgen became convinced that Tunney’s long-beaked echidna specimen indeed came from Australia, he confided in fellow scientist Mark Eldridge of the Australian Museum about the possibility. Eldridge replied, “You’re not the first person who’s told me that there might be long-beaked echidnas in the Kimberley.” (That’s the Kimberley region of northern Australia.) Scientist James Kohen, a co-author on Helgen’s ZooKeys paper, had been conducting fieldwork in the area in 2001 and spoke to an Aboriginal woman who told him how “her grandmothers used to hunt” large echidnas.

This is “the first evidence of the survival into modern times of any long-beaked echidna in Australia,” said Tim Flannery, professor at Macquarie University in Sydney. “This is a truly significant finding that should spark a re-evaluation of echidna identifications from across northern Australia.”

Helgen has “a small optimism” about finding a long-beaked echidna in the wild in Australia and hopes to undertake an expedition and to interview Aboriginal communities, with their intimate knowledge of the Australian bush.

Though the chances may be small, Helgen says, finding one in the wild “would be the beautiful end to the story.”

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Giffords, Kelly Launch Initiative to Curb Gun Violence

After she was gravely wounded by gunfire two years ago in Tucson, Ariz., former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, imagined a life out of the public eye, where she would continue therapy surrounded by the friends, family and the Arizona desert she loves so much.

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly Speak Exclusively to Diane Sawyer

But after the slaughter of 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last month, Giffords and Kelly knew they couldn't stay silent.

"Enough," Giffords said.

The couple marked the second anniversary of the Tucson shooting by sitting down with Diane Sawyer to discuss their recent visit to Newtown and their new initiative to curb gun violence, "Americans for Responsible Solutions."

"After the shooting in Tucson, there was talk about addressing some of these issues, [and] again after [a movie theater massacre in] Aurora," Colo., Kelly said. "I'm hopeful that this time is different, and I think it is. Twenty first-graders' being murdered in their classrooms is a very personal thing for everybody."

Rep. Gabby Giffords on Meeting Newtown, Conn. Shooting Victims Watch Video

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly Speak Exclusively to Diane Sawyer Watch Video

Gabrielle Giffords: Pledge of Allegiance at DNC Watch Video

Full Coverage: Gabrielle Giffords

During their trip to Newtown, Giffords and Kelly met with families directly affected by the tragedy.

"[The] first couple that we spoke to, the dad took out his cell phone and showed us a picture of his daughter and I just about lost it, just by looking at the picture," Kelly said. "It was just very tough and it brought back a lot of memories about what that was like for us some two years ago."

Full Coverage: Tragedy in Newtown

"Strength," Giffords said she told the families in Newtown.

"Gabby often told them, 'You got to have strength. You got to fight for something,'" Kelly said.

The innocent faces of the children whose lives were abruptly taken reminded the couple, they said, of 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, the youngest victim to die in the Tucson shooting at a Giffords constituent event.

"I think we all need to try to do something about [gun violence]," Kelly said. "It's obvious to everybody we have a problem. And problems can be solved."

Giffords, Kelly Call for 'Common Sense' Solutions

Giffords, 42, and Kelly, 48, are both gun owners and supporters of the 2nd Amendment, but Kelly had strong words for the National Rifle Association after the group suggested the only way to stop gun violence is to have a "good guy with a gun."

There was a good guy with a gun, Kelly said, the day Jared Loughner shot Giffords and 18 other people, six fatally, at her "Congress on Your Corner" event.

"[A man came out] of the store next door and nearly shot the man who took down Jared Loughner," Kelly said. "The one who eventually wrestled [Loughner] to the ground was almost killed himself by a good guy with a gun, so I don't really buy that argument."

Instead, Giffords and Kelly are proposing "common sense" changes through "Americans for Responsible Solutions."

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Chad's 'mountains of hunger' as rendered by Turner

Joanna Carver, reporter

(Image: ESA/Envisat)

IT LOOKS like brushstrokes - it could almost be a Turner - but this is actually nature at its most dramatic. This snapshot from the European Space Agency's MERIS satellite shows the Tibesti mountains that straddle northern Chad and southern Libya - though a picture like this makes it easy to forget that borders exist.

The mountains, in blue and black at the centre, are a range of volcanoes. The grey and black peak in the bottom right is Emi Koussi, the tallest mountain in Chad at 3415 metres high. There aren't any recorded instances of any of the Tibesti volcanoes erupting, though Toussid‚, the black spot on the far left, does have a reputation for spewing gases and creating hot springs in its crater floor. The white regions are accumulations of carbonate salts, while the orange is desert.

For all their beauty from overhead, plant life is sparse on these mountains, known locally as the "Mountains of Hunger" because they feed so few people. The semi-nomadic Toubou people inhabit the region as salt miners and date and grain farmers, while some cheetahs, gazelles and sheep do roam the region.

Life expectancy in Chad is the lowest in the world at 48 years. An estimated 210,000 people are living with HIV and AIDS - 3.4 per cent of the population - while malaria, typhoid fever and hepatitis A are all major health problems. Thirty-four per cent of under-5s are underweight, and it has the worst maternal mortality rate of any nation. It's also home to 280,000 refugees from the Darfur conflict across the border in Sudan.

Rebellions frequently flare up in Chad, the most recent resulting in a four-year civil war that ended in 2010. Violent conflicts with Libya and Sudan have also plagued an already crippled country. Only from orbit do the borders not seem to matter.

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Football: Sturridge hopes Mansfield goal is just the start

LIVERPOOL: Daniel Sturridge has insisted Liverpool fans have still to see the best of him despite taking only seven minutes to score on debut in Sunday's 2-1 FA Cup third round win at Mansfield.

The 23-year-old, signed from European champions and FA Cup holders Chelsea last week, got on the end of fellow England international Jonjo Shelvey's through-ball to give Liverpool an early lead at Field Mill.

But Sturridge - who last played a senior match in November - missed further chances before he was replaced by Luis Suarez, with the Uruguay forward making it 2-0 thanks to a controversial 59th minute goal that saw the ball hit his arm in the build-up.

Mansfield's Matt Green pulled a goal back 11 minutes from time to ensure a nervous finish for Premier League Liverpool.

"I haven't had much training," Sturridge told Monday's Liverpool Echo.

"I've only had three sessions with the lads and then a light session on Saturday before the game.

"I am lacking sharpness in front of goal. I missed a few chances but hopefully once I get my fitness those ones that I missed will go in.

"It was a great pass from Jonjo - the vision and the weight of the pass for the goal was perfect. He made it quite easy for me to take the shot first time.

"We haven't had much time to work on stuff but we were both on the same wavelength. We get on well on and off the field.

"All the lads have been great with me and they've made it easy for me to settle in over the past few days.

"I want to say thank you to them for making me feel so welcome. I look forward to playing with them for many years to come."

- AFP/de

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Ideo's David Kelley talks design, Steve Jobs

Design guru David Kelley tells Charlie Rose about one of Ideo's bright ideas: An iPhone application that allows children to receive calls from Sesame Street character Elmo about topics their parents select.

(Credit:
CBS)

Meet one of the most innovative thinkers of our time. He is a man who has had an enormous impact on our everyday lives.

David Kelley is the founder of the Silicon Valley global design firm Ideo. His company has created thousands of breakthrough inventions, including the first computer mouse for Apple, the standup toothpaste tube, and a better Pringle for Procter & Gamble. Ideo may be the most influential product design company in the world.

Kelley was a longtime friend and colleague of Steve Jobs -- "He made Ideo," Kelley tells Rose -- and he is a pioneer in something known as "design thinking," an innovative approach that incorporates human behavior into design.

David Kelley: "The big thing about design thinking is it allows people to build on the ideas of others. Instead of just having that one thread, you think about it, I come up with an idea, and then somebody from somewhere else says, 'Oh that makes me think we should do this,' and then we could do that. And then you get to a place that you just can't get to in one mind."

If you follow David Kelley around Ideo, you can see how he has infused that thinking into the legendary Palo Alto firm he founded more than 20 years ago. Breakthrough ideas happen every day here.

Read more
of "How to design breakthrough inventions" at CBSNews.com.

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: Places

  Photograph by Nenad Saljic

  A full moon illuminates the Matterhorn peak near Zermatt, Switzerland, in the winning image in the contest's Places category.

  Full moons occur every 29.5 days or so as the moon moves to the side of Earth directly opposite the sun, reflecting the sun's rays off its full face and appearing as a brilliant, perfectly circular disk.

  (Read more about full moons.)

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Winner: People

  Photograph by Micah Albert

  A picture of women scavenging refuse from a landfill in Dandora, Kenya, is the winning image in the People category of the National Geographic Photo Contest.

  The Dandora landfill, located in eastern Nairobi, is one of the largest in Africa.

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Photograph by Jason Ching

  Published January 4, 2013

  
  

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Hagel Nomination Stirs Bipartisan Opposition

Two weeks before his inauguration, and with more "fiscal cliffs" on the horizon, President Obama is embracing a showdown with Congress over his pick to lead the Pentagon in his second term.

Obama will nominate former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense at a formal White House announcement later today, administration officials said.

The president will name counterterrorism advisor John Brennan as the new CIA director to replace David Petraeus, rounding out an overhaul of his national security team.

Obama tapped Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts last month to become the next Secretary of State.

Hagel is in many ways an ideal pick for Obama, giving nod to bipartisanship while appointing someone with a demonstrated commitment to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and to retooling and economizing the Pentagon bureaucracy for the future.

But the nomination of Hagel to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is also politically charged, expected to trigger a brutal confirmation fight in the Senate, where a bipartisan group of critics has already lined up against the pick.

"This is an in your face nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told CNN on Sunday. "I don't know what his management experience is regarding the Pentagon -- little, if any, so I think it's an incredibly controversial choice."

The criticism stems from Hagel's controversial past statements on foreign policy, including a 2008 reference to Israel's U.S. supporters as "the Jewish lobby" and public encouragement of negotiations between the United States, Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian group the State Department classifies as terrorists.

"Hagel has consistently been against economic sanctions to try to change the behavior of the Islamist regime, the radical regime in Tehran, which is the only way to do it, short of war," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said last month.

The Nebraska Republican has also drawn fire for his outspoken opposition to the 2003 U.S.-led war in Iraq and the subsequent troop "surge" ordered by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, which has been credited with helping bring the war to a close.

On the left, gay rights groups have protested Hagel for comments he made in 1998 disparaging then-President Bill Clinton's nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg James Hormel as "openly, aggressively gay." Hagel has since apologized for the remark as "insensitive."

Top Senate Democrats tell ABC News there is no guarantee Hagel will win confirmation and that, as of right now, there are enough Democratic Senators with serious concerns about Hagel to put him below 50 votes.

But that could change, with many top lawmakers publicly vowing to withhold final judgment until Hagel has an opportunity to answer his critics during confirmation hearings. No senator has yet publicly vowed to filibuster the Hagel nomination.

Hagel is a decorated Vietnam veteran and businessman who served in the senate from 1997 to 2009. After having sat on that chamber's Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, he has in recent years gathered praise from current and former diplomats for his work on Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board as well as the policy board of current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

"Chuck Hagel is a tremendous patriot and statesman, served incredibly in Vietnam, served this country as a United States senator. He hasn't had a chance to speak for himself. And so why all the prejudging?" said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., on "This Week."

"In America, you give everybody a chance to speak for themselves and then we'll decide," she said.

The top Senate Republican echoed that sentiment. "I'm going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck's views square with the job he would be nominated to do," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.

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Silent Skype calls can hide secret messages

Got a secret message to send? Say it with silence. A new technique can embed secret data during a phone call on Skype. "There are concerns that Skype calls can be intercepted and analysed," says Wojciech Mazurczyk at the Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, Poland. So his team's SkypeHide system lets users hide extra, non-chat messages during a call.

Mazurczyk and his colleagues Maciej Karaś and Krysztof Szczypiorski analysed Skype data traffic during calls and discovered an opportunity in the way Skype "transmits" silence. Rather than send no data between spoken words, Skype sends 70-bit-long data packets instead of the 130-bit ones that carry speech.

The team hijacks these silence packets, injecting encrypted message data into some of them. The Skype receiver simply ignores the secret-message data, but it can nevertheless be decoded at the other end, the team has found. "The secret data is indistinguishable from silence-period traffic, so detection of SkypeHide is very difficult," says Mazurczyk. They found they could transmit secret text, audio or video during Skype calls at a rate of almost 1 kilobit per second alongside phone calls.

The team aims to present SkypeHide at a steganography conference in Montpellier, France, in June.

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Obama considers arms sales restrictions: report

WASHINGTON: The administration of President Barack Obama is considering a broad array of measures to curb the nation's gun violence, including more than just a reinstatement of a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.

Citing multiple people involved in the administration's discussions, the newspaper said a working group led by Vice President Joe Biden is seriously considering several measures: universal background checks for firearm buyers, tracking the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthening mental health checks, and stiffening penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors.

To push these measures through Congress, the White House is developing strategies to work around the National Rifle Association (NRA), the report said.

According to the paper, they could include rallying support from Wal-Mart and other gun retailers as well as regular contact with advisers to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken gun-control advocate.

The proposals are a response to last month's tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, the site of one of the worst school shootings in US history.

On December 14, 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother in their Newtown home before embarking on a shooting spree at a local elementary school.

He blasted his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School and shot dead 20 six- and seven-year-old children and six adults with a military-style assault rifle before taking his own life with a handgun as police closed in.

However, the NRA, the most powerful gun lobby in the United States, stands firm against any additional restraints on firearms and ammunition sales -- despite a national outcry in the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre.

- AFP/xq

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