New iOS app shows NY subway arrival times

Now arriving...

(Credit:
New York MTA)

New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority finally joined the smartphone era today by releasing an iOS app showing train arrival times for seven subway lines.

Available for the iPhone, the
iPod Touch, and the
iPad, MTA Subway Time will display train arrival times for 156 stations on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 lines and the S shuttle line. Though officially in a test version for the time being, the app will use the same arrival times shown on station countdown clocks and on the MTA's Web site.

"The ability to get subway arrival time at street level is here," said MTA Chairman and CEO Joseph J. Lhota in a statement. "The days of rushing to a subway station only to find yourself waiting motionless in a state of uncertainty are coming to an end."

According to the statement, the app can handle up to 5,000 incoming requests per second. The information comes from a feed that can be accessed by developers for other mobile operating systems.

Though the MTA has existing apps for bus arrivals and the drive times on its bridges and tunnels, this is the first time that the country's busiest transit agency has developed an app for subway service.

Via AllThings D

Read More..

How to Banish That New Year's Eve Hangover

For those of us who enjoy the occasional cocktail, the holiday season would be incomplete without certain treats of the liquid variety. Some look forward to the creamy charms of rum-laced eggnog; others anticipate cupfuls of high-octane punch or mugs of warm, spiced wine.

No matter what's in your glass, raising one as the year winds down is tradition. What could be more festive? The problem is, one drink leads to two, then the party gets going and a third is generously poured. Soon, the music fades and the morning arrives—and with it, the dreaded hangover. (Explore a human-body interactive.)

Whether it's a pounding headache, a queasy stomach, sweating, or just general misery, the damage has been done. So now it's time to remedy the situation. What's the quickest way to banish the pain? It depends who you ask.

Doctors typically recommend water for hydration and ibuprofen to reduce inflammation. Taking B vitamins is also good, according to anesthesiologist Jason Burke, because they help the body metabolize alcohol and produce energy.

Burke should know a thing or two about veisalgia, the medical term for hangover. At his Las Vegas clinic Hangover Heaven, Burke treats thousands of people suffering from the effects of drinking to excess with hydrating fluids and medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"No two hangovers are the same," he said, adding that the unfavorable condition costs society billions of dollars-mostly from lost productivity and people taking sick days from work.

Hot Peppers for Hangovers?

So what's the advice from the nonmedical community? Suggestions range from greasy breakfasts to vanilla milkshakes to spending time in a steamy sauna. A friend insists hot peppers are the only way to combat a hangover's wrath. Another swears by the palliative effects of a bloody mary. In fact, many people just have another drink, following the old "hair of the dog that bit you" strategy.

Whether such "cures" actually get rid of a hangover is debatable, but one thing's for sure: the sorry state is universal. The only people immune to hangovers are the ones who avoid alcohol altogether.

So for those who do indulge, even if it's just once in awhile, see our interactive featuring cures from around the world (also above). As New Year's Eve looms with its attendant excuse to imbibe, perhaps it would be wise to stock your refrigerator with one of these antidotes. Pickled herring, anyone?

Read More..

Epic Journey: Did Moses' Exodus Really Happen?

In the Bible, he is called Moses. In the Koran, he is the prophet Musa.

Religious scholars have long questioned whether of the story of a prophet leading God's chosen people in a great exodus out of Egypt and the freedom it brought them afterwards was real, but the similarities between a pharaoh's ancient hymn and a psalm of David might hold the link to his existence.

Tune in to Part 2 of Christiane Amanpour's ABC News special, "Back to the Beginning," which explores the history of the Bible from Genesis to Jesus, on Friday, Dec. 28 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Christian scripture says Moses was content to grow old with his family in the vast deserted wilderness of Midian, and 40 years passed until the Bible says God spoke to him through the Burning Bush and told him to lead his people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. According to tradition, that miraculous bush can still be seen today enclosed within the ancient walls of St. Catherine's Monastery, located not far from Moses' hometown.

But there was another figure in the ancient world who gave up everything to answer the call from what he believed was the one and only true God.

Archaeologists discovered the remains of the ancient city of Amarna in the 1800s. Egyptologist Rawya Ismail, who has been studying the ruins for years, believes, as other archaeologists do, that Pharaoh Akhenaten built the city as a tribute to Aten, the sun.

G.Sioen/De Agostini/Getty Images

'Back to the Beginning': Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity Watch Video

Garden of Eden: What Do We Know About Adam and Eve? Watch Video

Abraham's Story: Foundation of Judaism, Islam and Christianity Watch Video

She said it was a bold and unusual step for the pharaoh to leave the luxurious trappings of palace life in Luxor for the inhospitable landscape of Amarna, but it might have been his only choice as the priests from the existing religious establishment gained power.

"The very powerful Amun-Ra priests that he couldn't stand against gained control of the whole country," Ismail said. "The idea was to find a place that had never been used by any other gods -- to be virgin is what he called it -- so he chose this place."

All over the walls inside the city's beautiful tombs are examples of Akhanaten's radical message of monotheism. There is the Hymn to the Aten, which translates, in part, to: "The earth comes into being by your hand, as you made it. When you dawn, they live. When you set, they die. You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you."

PHOTOS: Christiane Amanpour's Journey 'Back to the Beginning'

Some attribute the writing of the hymn to Akhanaten himself, but it bears a striking resemblance to a passage that can be found in the Hebrew Bible: Psalm 104.

"If you compare the hymns from A to Z, you'll find mirror images to it in many of the holy books," Ismail said. "And if you compare certain parts of it, you'll find it almost exactly -- a typical translation for some of the [psalms] of David."

Psalm 104, written a few hundred years later, references a Lord that ruled over Israel and a passage compares him to the sun.

"You hide your face, they are troubled," part of it reads. "You take away your breath, they die, And return to dust. You send forth your breath, they are created, And you renew the face of the earth."

Like the psalm, the Hymn to Aten extols the virtues of the one true God.

"A lot of people think that [the Hymn to Aten] was the source of the [psalms] of David," Ismail said. "Putting Egypt on the trade route, a lot of people traveled from Egypt and came back to Egypt, it wasn't like a country living in isolation."

Ismail believes it is possible that the message from the heretic pharaoh has some connection to the story of Moses and the Exodus, as outlined in the Hebrew Bible.

Read More..

2012 review: The year in technology

Read more: "2013 Smart Guide: 10 ideas that will shape the year"

Controlling robots with thought alone could open up a new world for people with locked-in syndrome, while both health and education are heading in exciting new directions thanks to artificial intelligence and the web. And AI that can design video games from scratch might mean we will soon have to rethink what creativity really means. But it hasn't all been good news. Intriguing insights into the way the web works in both Iran and China – as well as demonstrations of how easy it is to disconnect a nation – show that unfettered, unobserved access to the internet should never be taken for granted.

Civilian drones to fill the skies after law shake-up
Law changes mean unmanned aerial vehicles aren't just for the military any more – civilian uses are taking off, too

AI designs its own video game
Video games designed almost entirely by a computer program herald a new wave of AI creativity

Face-reading software to judge the mood of the masses
Systems that can identify emotions in images of faces might soon collate millions of people's reactions to events and could even replace opinion polls

Robot avatar body controlled by thought alone
For the first time, a person lying in an fMRI machine has controlled a robot just by thinking about moving

Watson turns medic: Supercomputer to diagnose disease
More than a year after it won the quiz show Jeopardy!, IBM's supercomputer is learning how to help doctors diagnose patients

Future education: the explosion of online schooling in the US
Traditional schools are being replaced with internet-centric teaching methods that could change education forever

Robots move into the mining business
The dirty, back-breaking work of extracting minerals from the Earth is being taken over by machines

Kinect cameras watch for autism
An automated system that keeps watch over children could spot the telltale signs of autism and lead to earlier diagnoses

First evidence for Iran's parallel halal internet
The country's plan for a nationwide intranet separated from the World Wide Web looks to be approaching fruition – what are the implications?

Florida pet spa mystery link to China's great firewall
China's censors have innovative ways of stopping its citizens accessing banned websites, including poisoning internet servers

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.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.

Read More..

Temasek raises stake in Olam to 19%

SINGAPORE: Singapore-listed Olam International said its second-largest shareholder Temasek Holdings has further increased its stake to 19 per cent, from 18 per cent.

This is the third time in a month that the Singapore investment firm had boosted its shareholdings in the commodities group, which has been the target of short-seller Carson Block and his research firm Muddy Waters.

In a filing to the Singapore Exchange on Friday, Olam said Temasek had increased its holdings via two units in open-market purchases.

Earlier this month, Olam said Temasek is backing its rights issue of bonds and warrants to raise as much as US$1.2 billion.

Kewalram Chanrai Group, Olam's largest investor with nearly a 20 per cent stake, has also said it will back the issue.

- CNA/xq

Read More..

Twitter: The five biggest stories of 2012

Let's face it: Twitter is an integral part of everyday life. And while that's been true for some time, 2012 was the year the microblogging service became truly mainstream. It was a vital tool during catastrophes, it was the medium of choice for presidential candidates, and it was at the center of political turmoil around the world.

2012 was also a year of business battles for Twitter, with strife between it and Instagram ramping up slowly over the course of the year, and a standoff between Twitter and developers.

But in the end, Twitter's biggest moments of the year coincided with the world's biggest moments -- from an election victory to a successful Olympics and even to a lonely fire department dispatcher sitting in a room letting waterlogged New Yorkers know help was on the way.

1. War with Instagram

Twitter and Instagram used to be best friends. Instagram's CEO used to intern at Odeo, which spawned Twitter, and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey was an early investor. Instagram is even located in Twitter's old office space. You could make the argument that if it wasn't for the ease of sharing Instagram photos by tweeting them, Instagram wouldn't have grown as fast as it did.

But while Twitter had wanted to buy Instagram, Facebook got it -- for a princely fee. And ever since, relations between the two companies have been getting steadily more icy. In 2012, that enmity turned into a full-blown war. Twitter began putting out new tools that made it more like Instagram, and then its rival decided to move onto the Web.

It's only in the last few weeks, though, that the fighting has gotten particularly intense. First, Instagram took the major step of cutting off Twitter Card integration, meaning that Instagram photos would no longer show up embedded in tweets. And then, in a bid to out-Instagram Instagram, Twitter unveiled its own set of photo-filtering tools.

2. Cutting off developers

One could make the case that Twitter would never have become as large or as important as it is without the contributions made by third-party developers. Those outsiders readily adopted the microblogging platform and built new services that made using it easier and simple. They also invented some of the most important user conventions, things like hashtags and the @-reply.

But 2012 was the year that Twitter brought the hammer down on developers, in large part because the company worried that too much of the advertising revenue potential was being lost to developers of Twitter clients like HootSuite or Echofon. As a result, Twitter implemented API limits and controls over how many users third-party clients can have that made it very difficult to maintain a business as a Twitter client. It also pulled the plug on third-party photo-hosting services in its mobile apps. Developers quickly cried foul.

Instead, Twitter seems intent on getting developers to build new applications around Twitter's data, and around the idea of what CEO Dick Costolo calls creating "accretive value" for users," not around serving up tweets. It's been quite clear about this, and there's no question that developers know what the guidelines are now. But the question is whether third-party developers will forgive Twitter for imposing the various restrictions and continue to build the kinds of tools that users love, and that help grow the platform.

3. Big Bird and the presidential election

It was thanks to this year's first presidential debate between Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that Big Bird became one of the biggest stars of the 2012 election. But it was also clear that Twitter itself was an election star, becoming an indispensable tool for those who wanted to weigh in on the latest developments in the race for the White House.

Over the course of the four debates -- three presidential
face-offs and one vice-presidential showdown -- Twitter users posted 27.5 million tweets packed with their thoughts on whether President Obama had done better or if Gov. Romney had prevailed. There were also lots of tweets about binders full of women, and even about Jack Kennedy.

It also became clear in 2012 that Twitter is worth candidates' time, because appeals for action and money work better on Twitter than elsewhere.

And part of that has to do with the fact that it was evident Twitter users were really engaged in the election. That's one reason Twitter itself set up a special page for the presidential election and why there were 31 million election-related tweets sent on Election Day. Of course, one of those tweets became the most retweeted in history: President Obama's victory tweet, which has been retweeted more than 817,000 times.

4. Hurricane Sandy

It will probably never be clear if Hurricane Sandy had a material outcome on the 2012 presidential election, but what is clear is that one of the few winners during the horrible storm that devastated the Northeast was Twitter. During the disaster, there were more than 20 million storm-related tweets sent. A small, but not so insignificant number of them were sent by the woman running the Fire Department of New York's Twitter feed, @FDNY, who stayed online throughout the worst of the storm, tweeting out dispatch calls, and making it easy to see that the department was doing its best to help.

For one day, as Sandy smashed head-on into the East Coast, the Twittersphere got more serious, keeping snark to a minimum, and reflecting the attitude of the moment. And no snark could have been fairly directed at Newark, N.J., mayor Cory Booker, who turned to Twitter to give out crucial information and offer help to struggling residents.

5. Twitter goes fully mainstream

It's hard to argue with the notion that Twitter is now fully mainstream. It is seen by many as the quickest way to get information about breaking news, and it's where an increasing number of celebrities, politicians, athletes, and others interact with the public at large.

Singer Justin Bieber, for example, tweeted a heartfelt goodbye to a young fan that died of cancer, and his followers (31.4 million as of this writing) responded, retweeting it more than 220,000 times.

It seemed that every day, Twitter broke new records for number of users (140 million at last official count) or number of tweets per day (half a billion per day). But one probable new record -- Twitter couldn't confirm it -- is the number of followers that the pope got before he ever sent a single tweet. At last count by CNET prior to his first tweet, the pontiff (@pontifex) was at 638,000 followers. Now, just a day (and seven tweets) later, he's up to 965,000 followers.

Read More..

How to Live to a Ripe Old Age

Cento di questi giorni. May you have a hundred birthdays, the Italians say, and some of them do.

So do other people in various spots around the world—in Blue Zones, so named by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner for the blue ink that outlines these special areas on maps developed over more than a decade. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

In his second edition of his book The Blue Zones, Buettner writes about a newly identified Blue Zone: the Greek island of Ikaria (map). National Geographic magazine Editor at Large Cathy Newman interviewed him about the art of living long and well. (Watch Buettner talk about how to live to a hundred.)

Q. You've written about Blue Zones in Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoa, Costa Rica and Okinawa, Japan. How did you find your way to Ikaria?

A. Michel Poulain, a demographer on the project, and I are always on the lookout for new Blue Zones. This one popped up in 2008. We got a lead from a Greek foundation looking for biological markers in aging people. The census data showed clusters of villages there with a striking proportion of people 85 or older. (Also see blog: "Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth.")

In the course of your quest you've been introduced to remarkable individuals like 100-year-old Marge Jetton of Loma Linda, California, who starts the day with a mile-long [0.6-kilometer] walk, 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 kilometers] on a stationary bike, and weight lifting. Who is the most memorable Blue Zoner you've met?

Without question it's Stamatis Moraitis, who lives in Ikaria. I believe he's 102. He's famous for partying. He makes 400 liters [100 gallons] of wine from his vineyards each year, which he drinks with his friends. His house is the social hot spot of the island. (See "Longevity Genes Found; Predict Chances of Reaching 100.")

He's also the Ikarian who emigrated to the United States, was diagnosed with lung cancer in his 60s, given less then a year to live, and who returned to Ikaria to die. Instead, he recovered.

Yes, he never went through chemotherapy or treatment. He just moved back to Ikaria.

Did anyone figure out how he survived?

Nope. He told me he returned to the U.S. ten years after he left to see if the American doctors could explain it. I asked him what happened. "My doctors were all dead," he said.

One of the common factors that seem to link all Blue Zone people you've spoken with is a life of hard work—and sometimes hardship. Your thoughts?

I think we live in a culture that relentlessly pursues comfort. Ease is related to disease. We shouldn't always be fleeing hardship. Hardship also brings people together. We should welcome it.

Sounds like another version of the fable of the grasshopper and the ant?

You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling.

Can you talk about diet? Not all of us have access to goat milk, for example, which you say is typically part of an Ikarian breakfast.

There is nothing exotic about their diet, which is a version of a Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, beans, fruit, olive oil, and moderate amounts of alcohol. (Read more about Buettner's work in Ikaria in National Geographic Adventure.)

All things in moderation?

Not all things. Socializing is something we should not do in moderation. The happiest Americans socialize six hours a day.

The people you hang out with help you hang on to life?

Yes, you have to pay attention to your friends. Health habits are contagious. Hanging out with unhappy people who drink and smoke is hazardous to your health.

So how has what you've learned influenced your own lifestyle?

One of the big things I've learned is that there's an advantage to regular low-intensity activity. My previous life was setting records on my bike. [Buettner holds three world records in distance cycling.] Now I use my bike to commute. I only eat meat once a week, and I always keep nuts in my office: Those who eat nuts live two to three more years than those who don't.

You also write about having a purpose in life.

Purpose is huge. I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.

The Japanese you met in Okinawa have a word for that?

Yes. Ikigai: "The reason for which I wake in the morning."

Do you have a non-longevity-enhancing guilty pleasure?

Tequila is my weakness.

And how long would you like to live?

I'd like to live to be 200.

Read More..

White House Says It Has No New Fiscal Cliff Plan

The White House said today it has no plans to offer new proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff which looms over the country's economy just five days from now, but will meet Friday with Congressional leaders in a last ditch effort to forge a deal.

Republicans and Democrats made no conciliatory gestures in public today, despite the urgency.

The White House said President Obama would meet Friday with Democratic and Republican leaders. But a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the Republican "will continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act."

The White House announced the meeting after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the budget situation "a mess" and urged the president to present a fresh proposal.

"I told the president I would be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here, and as I said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago," McConnell said of his phone call with Obama Wednesday night.

McConnell added, "Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."

"That having been said, we'll see what the president has to propose," the Republican Senate leader said.

But a senior White House official told ABC News, "There is no White House bill."

That statement, however, may have wiggle room. Earlier today White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "I don't have any meetings to announce," but a short time later, Friday's meeting was made public.

It's unclear if the two sides are playing a game of political chicken or whether the administration is braced for the fiscal cliff.

Earlier today, fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lashed out at Republicans in a scathing speech that targeted House Republicans and particularly Boehner.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf to Saddam Hussein: 'Get Outta Town' Watch Video

Gen. Schwarzkopf's '5 Minutes of Unimportant Questions' Watch Video

Reid, D-Nev., spoke on the floor of the Senate as the president returned to Washington early from an Hawaiian vacation in what appears to be a dwindling hope for a deal.

The House of Representatives will meet for legislative business Sunday evening, leaving the door cracked open ever so slightly to the possibility of a last-minute agreement.

But on a conference call with Republican House members Thursday afternoon, Boehner kept to the Republican hard line that if the Senate wants a deal it should amend bills already passed by the House.

That was the exact opposite of what Reid said in the morning, that Republicans should accept a bill passed by Democratic led Senate.

Related: What the average American should know about capital gains and the fiscal cliff.

"We are here in Washington working while the members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here," Reid said. "I can't imagine their consciences."

House Republicans have balked at a White House deal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 and even rejected Boehner's proposal that would limit the tax increases to people earning more than $1 million.

"It's obvious what's going on," Reid said while referring to Boehner. "He's waiting until Jan. 3 to get reelected to speaker because he has so many people over there that won't follow what he wants. John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on a firm financial footing."

Related: Starbucks enters fiscal cliff fray.

Reid said the House is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker" and suggested today that the Republicans should agree to accept the original Senate bill pass in July. Reid's comments, however, made it clear he did not expect that to happen.

"It looks like" the nation will go over the fiscal cliff in just five days, he declared.

"It's not too late for the speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but that time is even winding down," Reid said. "So I say to the speaker, take the escape hatch that we've left you. Put the economic fate of the nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the House."

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel reacted to Reid's tirade in an email, writing, "Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not."

Boehner has said it is now up to the Senate to come up with a deal.

Obama, who landed in Washington late this morning, made a round of calls over the last 24 hours to Reid, Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Related: Obama pushes fiscal cliff resolution.

Read More..

Shiver me timbers: the coolest warship ever made

* Required fields

* First name

* Last name

* Country

* Email address

* Password
Password must contain only letters and numbers, and be at least 8 characters

* Confirm password

Read More..

Duke-NUS governing board chairman to step down

SINGAPORE: Mr Tony Chew Leong-Chee is to step down as Chairman of the Duke-NUS' governing board on Monday.

The business leader has been at the helm for seven years.

He remains on the Duke-NUS Board till the end of February 2013.

Ex-banker Mr Kai Nargolwala, who joined the Duke-NUS Board in January this year, will assume the appointment of Chairman from 1 January 2013.

Mr Nargolwala is the Chairman of Clifford Capital, a company supported by the Singapore Government to facilitate the financing of long-term cross border projects by Singapore-based companies.

National University of Singapore (NUS) president Tan Chorh Chuan said the university is grateful to Mr Chew for his outstanding leadership and immense contributions.

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, President, National University of Singapore (NUS) said: "It has really been a great pleasure and privilege to work closely with Mr Tony Chew. His vision, passion, extraordinary commitment and meticulous attention to details created among the stakeholders, the strong sense of common purpose that has underpinned the remarkable progress that the school has made in a very short time.

"We are all very proud of the many achievements which Duke-NUS has made in Singapore and internationally. We are indeed grateful to Tony for his outstanding leadership and immense contributions."

Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University, Dr Victor Dzau said Mr Chew's visionary leadership and remarkable commitment has been absolutely critical and has made an incredible difference to the school.

Dr Dzau said: "The success of Duke-NUS has been integral to the success of Duke Medicine's mission of transforming medicine and health to improve peoples' lives around the world through service, research and education.

"Mr Tony Chew's visionary leadership and remarkable commitment as the inaugural Chairman of Duke-NUS has been absolutely critical and has made an incredible difference to the School. We are deeply indebted to him for his support and contributions."

Established in 2005, Duke-NUS is a landmark collaboration between Duke University in the United States and NUS.

It is Singapore's first American-styled, research-oriented, graduate entry medical school.

The School's governing board provides strategic direction and oversight on the development and management of the School to advance its objectives in education and research.

There are 16 members on the Board, who each serve a renewable three-year term.

- CNA/xq

Read More..