Archive for February, 2010

Pacific under tsunami threat after massive 8.8 quake strikes Chile

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Chile jolted by quake

(CNN) — A massive magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday, killing at least 78 people and triggering tsunami warnings for the entire Pacific basin.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she expected the death toll to rise.

“We are taking all the necessary measures at this time,” she told reporters.

The full extent of the damage was not yet known, although there were reports of collapsed buildings and hundreds of people in the streets.

The capital of Santiago lost electricity and basic services including water and telephones. Bachelet said regional hospitals had suffered damage; some were evacuated. A major bridge connecting northern and southern Chile was rendered inoperable, and the Santiago airport was shut down for at least the next 24 hours.

Chilean television showed buildings in tatters in Concepcion, with whole sides torn off. Roads in the city were broken up.

Television Nacional de Chile reported that only three stories of a 15-story building remained standing.

Numerous aftershocks — including one of magnitude 6.9 — were felt within hours of the initial quake, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

“There are really aftershocks like every hour,” said Felipe Baytelman, speaking to CNN from Santiago.

The quake’s epicenter was located off the coast of Maule, about 200 miles southwest of Santiago. It struck at 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. ET), when most people were sleeping.Full story

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/27/chile.quake/index.html

7.0 quake strikes off Okinawa

7.0 quake strikes off Okinawa

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Tsunami not likely for Japan

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Tsunami advisory issued for Okinawa and nearby islands
  • Earthquake struck at 5:31 a.m.
  • It was centered about 6 miles deep and 53 miles east of Okinawa

(CNN) — A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Ryukyu Islands early Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.

Soon after the 5:31 a.m. (3:31 p.m. Friday ET) quake, Japan’s Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory, recommending that people on the Okinawa Islands evacuate from the seashore. The advisory also affected the Amami Islands and Tokara Islands.

The agency said the expected tsunami height was about 0.5 meters, or 20 inches.

The quake was centered about 6 miles (10 km) deep, about 53 miles (85 km) from Okinawa.

The quake was felt on Okinawa, with shaking that lasted about 15 seconds, said Lt. Col. Daniel King of the U.S. Pacific Command.

He told CNN that commanders in Japan and Hawaii were trying to get damage and casualty reports from U.S. military stations on Okinawa but had heard nothing in the immediate aftermath.

Source :

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/26/japan.okinawa.earthquake/index.html?hpt=T1

Bursting at the Seams

Plumes shoot from Enceladus

› Full resolution jpeg (369 Kb)
Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice out from many locations along the famed “tiger stripes” near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The tiger stripes are fissures that spray icy particles, water vapor and organic compounds.

More than 30 individual jets of different sizes can be seen in this image and more than 20 of them had not been identified before. At least one jet spouting prominently in previous images now appears less powerful.

This mosaic was created from two high-resolution images that were captured by the narrow-angle camera when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flew past Enceladus and through the jets on Nov. 21, 2009. (For other images captured during the same flyby, see PIA11686 and PIA11687). Imaging the jets over time will allow Cassini scientists to study the consistency of their activity.

The south pole of the moon lies near the limb in the top left quadrant of the mosaic, near the large jet that is second from left. Lit terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Enceladus (504 kilometers, 313 miles across).

Cassini scientists continue to study the question of whether reservoirs of liquid water exist beneath the surface of the moon. See PIA11114 and PIA08386 to learn more.

The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 14,000 kilometers (9,000 miles) from Enceladus and at a sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 145 degrees. Image scale is 81 meters (267 feet) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI

› Full resolution jpeg (369 Kb)

Source :

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia11688.html

Google revamps DoubleClick ad management tech

This is what Google had in mind when it acquired DoubleClick.

Google unveiled its rebranded display ad serving technology Monday, bringing together the DoubleClick DART for Publishers and Google Ad Manager products under a new name: DoubleClick for Publishers. The new ad-management software has a redesigned user interface, links to the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, and APIs for company developers to build applications on top of the technology.

The idea is to give Web publishers that run “Ads By Google” a better way to control where their clients’ ads appear. Similar work on search ads has made many a millionaire at Google, and the company believes it can give display advertisers the same amount of precision and analytical tools that are available for text advertisers.

Hence the $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick in 2008. Last year Google unveiled the new DoubleClick Ad Exchange, which matches ad buyers looking for a discount with ad sellers hoping to fill excess inventory.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10457609-265.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Is Google preparing to challenge iTunes in the cloud?

As the four biggest record companies wait to hear more about a proposed iTunes cloud music service, word comes now that Google has kicked the tires on a start-up specializing in cloud media.

Google has showed interest in possibly acquiring Los Angeles-based Catch Media, a company that intends to help make it simple for consumers to enjoy their digital movies, music, and books across numerous different hardware and service platforms, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations. It’s unclear whether talks between Google and Catch have gone beyond informal discussions.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt (left) and Universal Music Group CEO Doug Morris prepare to shake hands at the Vevo launch party two months ago.

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)

If Google did acquire the company, it could help the search giant keep pace with Apple’s expected efforts to take iTunes to cloud computing. Last month, CNET reported that Apple has spoken to the top labels about plans to offer a streaming music service free of charge to consumers. Before agreeing to any new licensing deals, the labels are waiting for Apple to supply more information.

A Google spokesman responded to a request for comment by writing: “While we’re always talking to various people about various things, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation.” A representative from Catch declined to comment.

Catch doesn’t offer or store content. The company wants to be to digital media what Plus, Cirrus, and ATM networks are to the banking industry. Catch has developed a technology that helps hardware companies and service providers register, track, route and clear digital media as it moves across different platforms.

If Catch has its way, consumers will one day access media from different vendors and devices as easily as people withdraw money from any available ATM.

Founded in 2003 by brothers Boaz Ben-Yaacov and Yaacov Ben-Yaacov, Catch is focused on cloud-based music at this early stage in its development, sources said. In order to enable the cross-platform accessing of songs, Catch has licensed music from all four major record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Music.

Conceivably, Catch is one way Google could equip Android cellphone owners with a means to access their iTunes music libraries.

Google’s interest in a start-up focused on cloud music has sparked speculation within the recording industry about the search engine’s music plans.

According to a December story in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Google was attempting to buy Lala, but Apple won out.

In December, Apple paid more than $80 million to acquire the company, which enables users to store a copy of their music libraries on the its servers and then access those songs from anywhere they can connect to the Web.

Barely two months prior to Lala’s acquisition, Google made news by partnering with the streaming service on a music-search deal. One music industry source said Google began circling Catch soon after losing Lala.

Because Google was pursuing an acquisition of Lala, some in the music industry see the search engine’s interest in Catch as part of a larger effort by Google to go deeper into digital music.

According to music sources, the industry would welcome a new music venture from Google CEO Eric Schmidt with open arms, sort of like how the chiefs of three of the largest labels literally welcomed Schmidt to the Vevo launch party in December.

Google’s YouTube has already become one of the Web’s biggest music outlets. Music videos at YouTube and Vevo, a site created by three top labels with YouTube’s help, attract millions of viewers each day.

The music industry has said for years that it would prefer an iTunes rival to emerge. As Apple and Google’s businesses increasingly begin to collide, who better than to face down Jobs and Apple than Schmidt and Google?

Source :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-10455535-261.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

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