2 Desember 2008
Barack Obama's coal conundrum
By David Shukman
Science & Environment Correspondent
BBC News, West Virginia
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More than 400 moutain peaks so far have had their tops blasted off for coal in America
As environment ministers from all over the world prepare for negotiations on climate change at Poznan in Poland this week, all eyes are on the future president of the United States.
Barack Obama has pledged to overturn George Bush's policies by pushing for deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
But he inherits an energy system dependent on a heavily polluting fuel - coal.
The first sight of the impact of US hunger for coal takes the breath away, here at Kayford in West Virginia, there's a yawning chasm where a mountain used to stand.
The coal is accessed by blasting the open cast site
And stretching a dozen barren miles to the horizon there's a series of hills with unnaturally flat tops - their peaks have been blasted off in a type of mining known as "mountaintop removal"
On a flight organised by the conservation charity SouthWings, pilot Susan Lapis tells me she's "horrified" to see how the quest for coal has devastated great tracts of landscape, some estimates suggest that more than 400 tops have been demolished so far.
The Appalachians are rich in black gold - they fuelled the US industrial revolution - and even now coal from mines like these helps generate no less than half the country's electricity.
And therein lies one of the toughest dilemmas facing Barack Obama: he promises action to save "a planet in peril" by introducing massive cuts in greenhouse gases, but the the US lights are kept on by burning one of the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.
Coal is seen as cheap and plentiful
Environmental campaigners like Matt Wasson of the group Appalachian Voices are cautiously optimistic that the "gut reaction" of the incoming president will be to turn against the most damaging forms of mining.
Climate scientists have long argued that at the very least no new coal-fired power stations should be built - and they're heartened by the Obama plans for tough new controls on emissions.
For the mining companies these are potentially unsettling times - billboards along the highway carry the assertive message, "Yes, Coal". But in reality they're quietly confident that the new administration will come to see the essential role of coal.
They point out that Barack Obama is himself from a coal mining state, Illinois, and that his campaign brought him to regions where thousands of people depend on coal for their livelihoods.
And, as Bill Raney of the West Virginia Mining Association puts it, why would anyone "overlook the geological blessing of coal?" It's American, indigenous, and plentiful at a time when energy independence is at a premium.
The Obama team's hope is that new technology will help find an answer to squaring the circle of how to harness such a polluting fuel without adding to global warming.
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Carbon capture - experiments to make coal a cleaner energy
Clean coal
In a remote wood, on West Virginia's border with Pennsylvania, I'm shown an example of the kind of research that many are banking on - an experiment being set up by the mining giant Consol Energy to pump carbon dioxide underground.
The company's vice-president for R&D, Steve Winberg, explains how over the next two years, the gas will be forced into a deep well and a network of monitors will measure where it goes and, crucially, whether it stays put and does not seep out again.
Barack Obama himself has talked up the importance of systems to trap and store carbon dioxide - to be able to burn coal without the climate drawbacks. And, as he put it in one rally, if America can put a man on the Moon in the space of ten years, surely the country can quickly find a way to use coal cleanly.
Wind power is not seen as a viable alternative to coal
According to Paul Bledsoe of the National Commission on Energy Policy, new coal technologies are likely to receive more funding than any other type of low-carbon research "It'll be a top priority", he says.
Back at Kayford, I watch the demolition teams fill lines of holes with liquid explosive. Another layer of mountain is set to be destroyed and the coal extracted.
In another part of the state, a vast power station, fed by coal, belches dense smoke into the evening sky while on a hilltop nearby a line of wind turbines spins steadily.
America is at a crossroads in its choices about future energy, and the rest of the world is watching.
27 November 2008
Barack Obama's coal conundrum
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By David Shukman
Science & Environment Correspondent BBC News, West Virginia |
More than 400 moutain peaks so far have had their tops blasted off for coal in America
Carbon capture - experiments to make coal a cleaner energy
27 November 2008
Apple made to drop iPhone advert
The advert compared the iPhone's 3G and 2G models
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An Apple iPhone advert has been banned by the advertising standards watchdog for exaggerating the phone's speed.
The advert boasted the new 3G model was "really fast" and showed it loading internet pages in under a second.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld complaints by 17 people who said the TV advert had misled them as to its speed.
Apple UK said it was comparing the 3G model with its 2G predecessor and its claims were "relative not absolute".
The advert repeatedly stated that the phone was "really fast" and showed news pages and the Google maps service taking just fractions of a second to appear.
Text on the screen said: "Network performance will vary by location."
After upholding the viewers' complaints, the ASA said the advert must not appear again in the same form.
It said the advert was likely to lead viewers to believe that the device actually operated at or near to the speeds shown in the advert.
The watchdog concluded: "Because we understood that it did not, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead."
Apple said its claims were "relative rather than absolute in nature" - implying the 3G iPhone was "really fast" in comparison to the previous generation - and therefore the advert was not misleading.
The company also said the average consumer would realise the phone's performance would vary - a point they said was made clear by the text stating "network performance will vary by location".
25 November 2008
IBM plans 'brain-like' computers
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By Jason Palmer
Science and technology reporter, BBC News |
Mimicking synapses like this one is crucial to the effort
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IBM has announced it will lead a US government-funded collaboration to make electronic circuits that mimic brains.
Part of a field called "cognitive computing", the research will bring together neurobiologists, computer and materials scientists and psychologists.
As a first step in its research the project has been granted $4.9m (£3.27m) from US defence agency Darpa.
The resulting technology could be used for large-scale data analysis, decision making or even image recognition.
"The mind has an amazing ability to integrate ambiguous information across the senses, and it can effortlessly create the categories of time, space, object, and interrelationship from the sensory data," says Dharmendra Modha, the IBM scientist who is heading the collaboration.
"There are no computers that can even remotely approach the remarkable feats the mind performs," he said.
"The key idea of cognitive computing is to engineer mind-like intelligent machines by reverse engineering the structure, dynamics, function and behaviour of the brain."
'Perfect storm'
IBM will join five US universities in an ambitious effort to integrate what is known from real biological systems with the results of supercomputer simulations of neurons. The team will then aim to produce for the first time an electronic system that behaves as the simulations do.
The longer-term goal is to create a system with the level of complexity of a cat's brain.
Dr Modha says that the time is right for such a cross-disciplinary project because three disparate pursuits are coming together in what he calls a "perfect storm".
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 We are going not just for a homerun, but for a homerun with the bases loaded  Dharmendra Modha
IBM Almaden Research Center |
Neuroscientists working with simple animals have learned much about the inner workings of neurons and the synapses that connect them, resulting in "wiring diagrams" for simple brains.
Supercomputing, in turn, can simulate brains up to the complexity of small mammals, using the knowledge from the biological research. Modha led a team that last year used the BlueGene supercomputer to simulate a mouse's brain, comprising 55m neurons and some half a trillion synapses.
"But the real challenge is then to manifest what will be learned from future simulations into real electronic devices - nanotechnology," Dr Modha said.
Technology has only recently reached a stage in which structures can be produced that match the density of neurons and synapses from real brains - around 10 billion in each square centimetre.
Networking
Researchers have been using bits of computer code called neural networks that seek to represent connections of neurons. They can be programmed to solve a particular problem - behaviour that appears to be the same as learning.
But this approach is fundamentally different.
"The issue with neural networks and artificial intelligence is that they seek to engineer limited cognitive functionalities one at a time. They start with an objective and devise an algorithm to achieve it," Dr Modha says.
The ultimate goal is to create a circuit with the complexity of a cat's brain
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"We are attempting a 180 degree shift in perspective: seeking an algorithm first, problems second. We are investigating core micro- and macro-circuits of the brain that can be used for a wide variety of functionalities."
The problem is not in the organisation of existing neuron-like circuitry, however; the adaptability of brains lies in their ability to tune synapses, the connections between the neurons.
Synaptic connections form, break, and are strengthened or weakened depending on the signals that pass through them. Making a nano-scale material that can fit that description is one of the major goals of the project.
"The brain is much less a neural network than a synaptic network," Modha says.
First thought
The fundamental shift toward putting the problem-solving before the problem makes the potential applications for such devices practically limitless.
Free from the constraints of explicitly programmed function, computers could gather together disparate information, weigh it based on experience, form memory independently and arguably begin to solve problems in a way that has so far been the preserve of what we call "thinking".
"It's an interesting effort, and modelling computers after the human brain is promising," says Christian Keysers, director of the neuroimaging centre at University Medical Centre Groningen. However, he warns that the funding so far is likely to be inadequate for such an large-scale project.
That the effort requires the expertise of such a variety of disciplines means that the project is unprecedented in its scope, and Dr Modha admits that the goals are more than ambitious.
"We are going not just for a homerun, but for a homerun with the bases loaded," he says.
23 November 2008
Hackers prepare supermarket sweep
Reformed hacker Jacques Erasmus of security firm Prevx explains the scam
Self-checkout systems in UK supermarkets are being targeted by hi-tech criminals with stolen credit card details.
A BBC investigation has unearthed a plan hatching online to loot US bank accounts via the checkout systems.
Fake credit cards loaded with details from the accounts will be used to get cash or buy high value goods.
The supermarkets targeted said there was little chance the fraudsters would make significant gains with their plan.
With the help of computer security experts the BBC found a discussion on a card fraud website in which hi-tech thieves debated the best way to strip money from the US accounts.
The thieves claim to have comprehensive details of US credit and debit cards passed to them from an American gang who tapped phone lines between cash machines and banks.
'Cashing out'
The funds being laundered have been pilfered from US bank accounts
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The gang plans to copy card details onto the magnetic stripes of fake cards and then use them in UK stores. In the discussion on the card site those co-ordinating the fraud say they are seeking places to "cash out", meaning strip funds from the bank accounts using fake cards.
In the forum they are asking for information about Asda and Tesco stores in which it is possible to use self-service systems that mules could visit with the fake cards to get at the cash.
The fraudsters are looking for self-service systems to avoid contact with store staff who may spot the fake cards.
Over the period of a month from mid-August the ringleader claims he will have details from 2300 cards to handle.
In the forum he declares: "Its (sic) shopping spree guys help me out and I will take care of you."
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It's not difficult to take compromised cards from one country and exploit them in another Andrew Moloney
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The information found by the BBC has been passed to the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit so it can investigate the ongoing fraud.
Andrew Moloney, security evangelist at RSA, said the gang were involved in "classic" card fraud by cloning details on to magnetic stripes.
He said it was an example of a long observed trend in fraud.
"We've seen a shift from card-present fraud to card-not-present to fraud abroad," he said.
"The internet is the global marketplace," he said. "It's not difficult to take compromised cards from one country and exploit them in another. It's a simple and routine procedure for these guys these days."
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The discussion on the crooks' forum is a bit of a wake-up call for all those who think that the introduction of chip-and-pin in the UK has wiped out card fraud Rory Cellan-Jones
BBC technology correspondent  |
He said many criminal gangs even offer their fraudulent services via the web.
"They will do it for you in India and China," he said.
Sweeping up
Armed with fake cards and a list of shops and supermarkets that can be hit the fraudsters could make £5-8000 per day, according to Mr Erasmus.
The funds would be split between the mules who actually carry out the transactions, those organising the mules and the hi-tech thieves who stole the original card numbers.
Representatives from both Tesco and Asda argue that payment systems automatically contact the banks when a card is swiped instead of using chip-and-pin. The banks must authorise the acceptance of a signature.
"If the card has not been reported as having been cloned, yes, it can go through," said a spokeswoman for Tesco. However, she pointed out that swipe and sign transactions represent a tiny fraction of the supermarket chain's trade.
"We would hope this will bring further pressure on the States to introduce chip-and-pin," said Jemma Smith of the UK payments organisation Apacs. "Until that happens we will still see fraud on US cards happening in our shops and our cash-machines and also fraud on our cards happening in the US."
21 November 2008
Alarm raised on teenage hackers
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By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News |
Increasing numbers of teenagers are starting to dabble in hi-tech crime, say experts.
Computer security professionals say many net forums are populated by teenagers swapping credit card numbers, phishing kits and hacking tips.
The poor technical skills of many young hackers means they are very likely to get caught and arrested, they say.
Youth workers added that any teenager getting a criminal record would be putting their future at risk.
Slippery slope
"I see kids of 11 and 12 sharing credit card details and asking for hacks," said Chris Boyd, director of malware research at FaceTime Security.
Many teenagers got into low level crime by looking for exploits and cracks for their favourite computer games.
Communities and forums spring up where people start to swap malicious programs, knowledge and sometimes stolen data.
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For a kid, getting a criminal record is the worst possible move Graham Robb, Youth Justice Board
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Some also look for exploits and virus code that can be run against the social networking sites popular with many young people. Some then try to peddle or use the details or accounts they net in this way.
Mr Boyd said he spent a lot of time tracking down the creators of many of the nuisance programs written to exploit users of social networking sites and the culprit was often a teenager.
From such virus and nuisance programs, he said, many progress to outright criminal practices such as using phishing kits to create and run their own scams.
"Some are quite crude, some are clever and some are stupid," he said.
The teenagers' attempts to make money from their life of cyber crime usually came unstuck because of their poor technical skills.
"They do not even know enough to get a simple phishing or attack tool right," said Kevin Hogan, a senior manager Symantec Security Response.
"We have seen phishing sites that have broken images because the link, rather than reference the original webpage, is referencing a file on the C: drive that is not there," he said.
Symantec researchers have collected many examples of teenagers who have managed to cripple their own PCs by infecting them with viruses they have written.
Video choice
Chris Boyd from FaceTime said many of the young criminal hackers were undermined by their desire to win recognition for their exploits.
Many teenage hackers publicise their exploits on YouTube
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"They are obsessed with making videos of what they are doing," he said.
Many post videos of what they have done to sites such as YouTube and sign on with the same alias used to hack a site, run a phishing attack or write a web exploit.
Many share photos or other details of their life on other sites making it easy for computer security experts to track them down and get them shut down.
Mr Boyd's action to shut down one wannabe hacker, using the name YoGangsta50, was so comprehensive that it wrung a pledge from the teenager in question to never to get involved in petty hi-tech crime again.
Mathew Bevan, a reformed hacker who was arrested as a teenager and then acquitted for his online exploits, said it was no surprise that young people were indulging in online crime.
"It's about the thrill and power to prove they are somebody," he said. That also explains why they stuck with an alias or online identity even though it was compromised, he added.
"The aim of what they are doing is to get the fame within their peer group," he said. "They spend months or years developing who they are and their status. They do not want to give that up freely."
Graham Robb, a board member of the Youth Justice Board, said teenagers needed to appreciate the risks they took by falling into hi-tech crime.
"If they get a criminal record it stays with them," he said. "A Criminal Record Bureau check will throw that up and it could prevent access to jobs."
Anyone arrested and charged for the most serious crimes would carry their criminal record with them throughout their life.
Also, he added, young people needed to appreciate the impact of actions carried out via the net and a computer.
"Are they going to be able to live with the fact that they caused harm to other people?" he said. "They do not think there is someone losing their money or their savings from what they are doing.
20 November 2008
Recession Fears Hit Stock Markets
Concerns are increasing over the scale of the slowdown
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European and Asian markets have fallen sharply on fears that the world economy will enter a protracted downturn.
London's FTSE 100 index was down 1.7% around midday, with mining shares hardest hit. French and German markets also lost ground.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei index ended 6.8% lower and Hong Kong's main index fell more than 4%.
The slide comes after the Dow Jones share index in New York fell to its lowest level in five years.
The FTSE 100 was down 66 points at 3,939.69 points after falling almost 5% on Wednesday. Germany's Dax index lost 1.2% and France's Cac 40 shed around 2.1%.
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People are looking for any kind of positive and there are just no positives out there Miles Remington, BNP Paribas Securities
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On Wednesday, the Dow Jones index fell 5% to below 8000 points after the US central bank slashed its economic growth forecasts for 2009.
The deepening global recession is being felt in a number of ways:
- Mining shares have been hit hard on fears that demand for steel and other raw materials will be hit as the economy slows. Steel giant Arcelor-Mittal lost 8% and Vedanta Resources lost 8.5%
- Oil prices fell for a fifth straight day to approach $50 a barrel
- Japan's exports to Asia dropped in October for the first time in six years
- Job losses are mounting worldwide, with aerospace firm Rolls Royce, AstraZeneca and French carmaker Peugeot Citroen announcing a total of 6,100 cuts
- China has warned its employment outlook is "grim", amid worries that economic problems could lead to social unrest
- Switzerland has cut its key interest rate to 1% in a surprise move.
- The IMF has approved a $2.1bn (£1.4bn) loan for Iceland. Turkey is set to agree to a precautionary stand-by deal with the IMF soon
- Retail sales fell and public sector borrowing rose in the UK.
Depressed outlook
The BBC's Duncan Bartlett in Tokyo says several East Asian countries - including Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong - are already in recession, and the thought that the US may be about to join them has been enough to send shares tumbling across the region.
Bad news from the US has worried Japanese firms like Toyota and Nintendo which usually depend on American consumers for much of their profit, our correspondent adds.
"We've gone past the poor sentiment stage," Miles Remington, head of Asian sales trading at BNP Paribas Securities in Hong Kong, told the Associated Press news agency.
"People are looking for any kind of positive and there are just no positives out there. Everyone seems to be united in the depressed global outlook. Whether it's commodities or equities, everything seems to be on a downturn."
US slowdown
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve said the country's gross domestic product - the value of all goods and services - could be flat or grow only marginally this year, and might shrink in 2009.
It said positive economic growth was only likely to return in 2010 and predicted further interest rate cuts might be necessary.
Month-on-month US consumer prices fell by 1% in October - the biggest drop in 60 years - which has reinforced fears of rapid slowdown.
18 November 2008
Oldest Nuclear Family 'Murdered'
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By Julian Siddle
Science Reporter, BBC News |
The graves contained mainly women and children
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The oldest genetically identifiable nuclear family met a violent death, according to analysis of remains from 4,600-year-old burials in Germany.
Writing in the journal PNAS, researchers say the broken bones of these stone age people show they were killed in a struggle.
Comparisons of DNA from one grave confirm it contained a mother, father, and their two children.
The son and daughter were buried in the arms of their parents.
Dr Wolfgang Haak, from The Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, in Adelaide, conducted the DNA analysis. He says the scientific evidence supports the idea that they were indeed a family.
"We're really sure, based on hard biological facts not just supposing or assuming."
In total, the four graves contain 13 bodies, eight children aged six months to nine years and five adults aged 25 to 60.
In two graves, DNA was well preserved, which allowed comparisons between the occupants. One of these contained the nuclear family, while the other grave contained three related children and an unrelated woman. The researchers suggest she may have been an aunt or stepmother.
Corded Ware
These stone age people are thought to belong to a group known as the Corded Ware Culture, signified by their pots decorated with impressions from twisted cords. In their burial culture all bodies usually face south.
In the family grave the adults did face south, but the children they hold in their arms face towards them. The researchers say an exception to the cultural norm was made so as to express the biological relationship.
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We don't know how hard daily life was back there and if there was any space for love Dr Wolfgang Haak
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The care with which the bodies were laid out shows that whoever buried them must have known who they were says Dr Haak. He adds he was moved the first time he saw the grave.
"You feel some kind of sympathy for them, it's a human thing, somebody must have really cared for them. Normally you should be careful in archaeological research not to allow feelings in that make us base judgements on modern ideas, we don't know how hard daily life was back there and if there was any space for love."
Teeth hold clue
As well as looking at the DNA of each individual the researchers examined deposits of the element strontium in their teeth.
Found in rocks and soils, strontium is taken in from food as teeth grow in childhood. It can act as an indicator of where people came from.
Life in central Europe could be violent in the stone age
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Dr Alistair Pike from Bristol University, who carried out the strontium analysis, says this indicates a culture of exogamy or marrying out.
"It's a bit like kings and queens in Europe in the past, creating an alliance by marrying out sons and daughters. This creates a bond between communities - useful if your harvest fails or if you need help fighting a war."
Broken bones
The most grisly aspect of the find is the manner of their death. Dr Pike says it was violent.
"They were definitely murdered , there are big holes in their heads, fingers and wrists are broken."
They suffered a violent death
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Wolfgang Haak says that as most of the people in the graves were women and children it is probable that most of the adults were elsewhere at the time of the attack, perhaps out fighting or working in their fields.
"They returned home to the village and found their loved ones dead. It's an assumption, but the most plausible explanation."
Researchers say such violence fits with what we know about life in central Europe at the time - the area had fertile soils, a stable climate and natural access routes. This made it a desirable place to live, but also created competition amongst its inhabitants, leading to violent confrontations when one community tried to displace another.
17 November 2008
Japanese Economy Now in Recession
This is Japan's first recession since 2001
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Japan's economy has entered its first recession since 2001 after shrinking by 0.1% in the third quarter.
The world's second-biggest economy had previous shrunk by 0.9% in the April to June quarter.
"The downtrend in the economy will continue for the time being as global growth slows," said Japanese Economy Minister Kaoru Yosano.
The eurozone officially slipped into recession last week, and the US is expected to follow.
"We need to bear in mind that economic conditions could worsen further as the US and European financial crisis deepens, worries of economic downturn heighten and stock and foreign exchange markets make big swings," Mr Yosano added.
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In Osaka, Japan's second biggest city, some companies are looking to the heavens for help Duncan Bartlett, BBC correspondent
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The benchmark Nikkei share index fell on opening after the growth data was released, but it later rebounded and closed up 0.7%. The Nikkei has lost a quarter of its value since the beginning of October.
Growth in Japan has been hit by the global economic slowdown which has curbed demand for Japanese exports.
"The risk of Japan posting a third or fourth straight quarterly contraction is growing, given the fact that we can no longer rely on exports," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.
Headlines from new.bbc.co.uk
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©2008, AcheTive, Syawal 1429 H October 2008 M. |
