Time is an illusion – at least in a toy model of the universe made of two particles of light. The experiment shows that what we perceive as the passage of time might emerge from the strange property of quantum entanglementMovie Camera. The finding could assist in solving the long-standing problem of how to unify modern physics.

Physicists have two ways of describing reality, quantum mechanics for the small world of particles and general relativity for the larger world of planets and black holes. But the two theories do not get along: attempts to combine their equations into a unified theory produce seemingly nonsensical answers. One early attempt in the 1960s was the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, which managed to quantise general relativity – by leaving out time altogether.

"It means that the universe should not evolve. But of course we see evolution," says Marco Genovese at the National Institute of Metrological Research in Torino, Italy.

In 1983 theorists Don Page and William Wootters suggested that quantum entanglement might provide a solution to the Wheeler-DeWitt "problem of time"Movie Camera. When quantum objects are entangled, measuring the properties of one changes those of the other. Mathematically, they showed that a clock entangled with the rest of the universe would appear to tick when viewed by an observer within that universe. But if a hypothetical observer existed outside the universe, when they looked in, everything would appear stationary.
Photon clock

For the first time, Genovese and colleagues have demonstrated this effect in a physical system, albeit in a "universe" that contains only two photons. The team started by sending a pair of entangled photons along two separate paths. The photons start out polarised, or orientated, either horizontally or vertically, and the polarisation rotates as both photons pass though a quartz plate and on to a series of detectors.

The entangled photons exist in a superposition of both horizontal and vertical states simultaneously until they are observed. But the thicker the plate, the longer it takes the photons to pass through and the more their polarisation evolves, affecting the probability that either one will take a particular value.

In one mode of the experiment, one of the photons is treated like a clock with a tick that can alternate between horizontal and vertical polarisation. Because of entanglement, reading this clock will affect the polarisation value of the second photon. That means an observer that reads the clock influences the photons' universe and becomes part of it. The observer is then able to gauge the polarisation value of the other photon based on quantum probabilities.

Since photons passing through a thicker quartz plate experience a different degree of change, repeating the experiment with plates of different thicknesses confirms that the second photon's polarisation varies with time.

In another mode, the experimenter is a "super-observer" that exists outside of the universe, and so measures the quantum state of the system as a whole. From that vantage point, the state of both photons taken together is always the same, giving the appearance of a static universe.
Quantum cosmos?

"It's very nice these people have done an experiment to illustrate this effect and show how in practice it can occur," says Page, who is now at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

But not everyone thinks the Wheeler-DeWitt equation is the correct route to unification of the quantum and classical worlds, says Lee Smolin at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. "They have verified in the context of a laboratory system that quantum mechanics is working correctly," he says. But Smolin argues that any correct description of the universe must include time.

Genovese acknowledges that the result does not cinch the issue. Instead, he sees the work as a hint that quantum equations can in some ways mesh with general relativity, offering hope for a unified theory. The next step will be moving beyond the toy universe and seeing whether a similar effect scales up to explain what we see on a cosmic level.

"It's a visualisation of the phenomenon, it's not a proof," Genovese says of the experiment. "You should look to the universe itself for that."

 US and British intelligence agencies have successfully cracked much of the online encryption relied upon by hundreds of millions of people to protect the privacy of their personal data, online transactions and emails, according to top-secret documents revealed by former contractor Edward Snowden.
This story has been reported in partnership between the New York Times, the Guardian and ProPublica based on documents obtained by the Guardian.

For the Guardian: James Ball, Julian Borger, Glenn Greenwald

    For the New York Times: Nicole Perlroth, Scott Shane

    For ProPublica: Jeff Larson

    Read the New York Times story here

The files show that the National Security Agency and its UK counterpart GCHQ have broadly compromised the guarantees that internet companies have given consumers to reassure them that their communications, online banking and medical records would be indecipherable to criminals or governments.

The agencies, the documents reveal, have adopted a battery of methods in their systematic and ongoing assault on what they see as one of the biggest threats to their ability to access huge swathes of internet traffic – "the use of ubiquitous encryption across the internet".

Those methods include covert measures to ensure NSA control over setting of international encryption standards, the use of supercomputers to break encryption with "brute force", and – the most closely guarded secret of all – collaboration with technology companies and internet service providers themselves.

Through these covert partnerships, the agencies have inserted secret vulnerabilities – known as backdoors or trapdoors – into commercial encryption software.

The files, from both the NSA and GCHQ, were obtained by the Guardian, and the details are being published today in partnership with the New York Times and ProPublica. They reveal:

• A 10-year NSA program against encryption technologies made a breakthrough in 2010 which made "vast amounts" of data collected through internet cable taps newly "exploitable".

• The NSA spends $250m a year on a program which, among other goals, works with technology companies to "covertly influence" their product designs.

• The secrecy of their capabilities against encryption is closely guarded, with analysts warned: "Do not ask about or speculate on sources or methods."

• The NSA describes strong decryption programs as the "price of admission for the US to maintain unrestricted access to and use of cyberspace".

• A GCHQ team has been working to develop ways into encrypted traffic on the "big four" service providers, named as Hotmail, Google, Yahoo and Facebook.

 New claims emerged last night over the extent that US intelligence agencies have been monitoring the mobile phone of Angela Merkel. The allegations were made after German secret service officials were already preparing to travel to Washington to seek explanations into the alleged surveillance of its chancellor.a

A report in Der Spiegel said Merkel's mobile number had been listed by the NSA's Special Collection Service (SCS) since 2002 and may have been monitored for more than 10 years. It was still on the list – marked as "GE Chancellor Merkel" – weeks before President Barack Obama visited Berlin in June.

In an SCS document cited by the magazine, the agency said it had a "not legally registered spying branch" in the US embassy in Berlin, the exposure of which would lead to "grave damage for the relations of the United States to another government".

From there, NSA and CIA staff were tapping communication in Berlin's government district with high-tech surveillance. Quoting a secret document from 2010, Der Spiegel said such branches existed in about 80 locations around the world, including Paris, Madrid, Rome, Prague, Geneva and Frankfurt. Merkel's spokesman and the White House declined to comment on the report.

The nature of the monitoring of Merkel's mobile phone is not clear from the files, Der Spiegel said. It might be that the chancellor's conversations were recorded, or that her contacts were simply assessed.

Ahead of the latest claims , the German government's deputy spokesman, Georg Streiter, said a high-level delegation was heading to the White House and National Security Agency to "push forward" investigations into earlier surveillance allegations.

Meanwhile several thousand people marched to the US Capitol in Washington yesterday to protest against the NSA's spying programme and to demand a limit to the surveillance. Some of them held banners in support of Edward Snowden, the former CIA contractor who revealed the extent of the NSA's activities.

The march attracted protesters from both ends of the political spectrum as liberal privacy advocates walked alongside members of the conservative Tea Party movement.

The delegation will include senior officials from the German secret service, according to German media reports.

Germany and Brazil are spearheading efforts at the UN to protect the privacy of electronic communications. Diplomats from the two countries, which have both been targeted by the NSA, are leading efforts by a coalition of nations to draft a UN general assembly resolution calling for the right to privacy on the internet. Although non-binding, the resolution would be one of the strongest condemnations of US snooping to date.

"This resolution will probably have enormous support in the GA [general assembly] since no one likes the NSA spying on them," a western diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, had previously cancelled a state visit to Washington over the revelation that the NSA was scooping up large amounts of Brazilian communications data, including from the state-run oil company Petrobras. The drafting of the UN resolution was confirmed by the country's foreign ministry.

The Associated Press quoted a diplomat who said the language of the resolution would not be "offensive" to any nation, particularly the US. He added that it would expand the right to privacy guaranteed by the international covenant on civil and political rights, which went into force in 1976.

The draft would be sent next week to the general assembly subcommittee on social, humanitarian, cultural and human rights issues, and be put to the full general assembly in late November.

Germany and France demanded on Thursday that the Americans agree to new transatlantic rules on intelligence and security service behaviour by the end of the year. Merkel added that she wanted action from Obama, not just apologetic words.

British and US civil liberties groups on Saturday added their voices to the criticism of snooping by both UK and US intelligence services after the Guardian revealed that the British intelligence agency GCHQ repeatedly said it feared a "damaging public debate" on the scale of its own activities.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, and Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, issued a joint statement, saying: "The Guardian's publication of information from Edward Snowden has uncovered a breach of trust by the US and UK governments on the grandest scale. The newspaper's principled and selective revelations demonstrate our rulers' contempt for personal rights, freedoms and the rule of law.

"Across the globe, these disclosures continue to raise fundamental questions about the lack of effective legal protection against the interception of all our communications. Yet in Britain that conversation is in danger of being lost beneath self-serving spin and scaremongering, with journalists who dare to question the secret state accused of aiding the enemy.

"A balance must of course be struck between security and transparency, but that cannot be achieved while the intelligence services and their political masters seek to avoid any scrutiny of, or debate about, their actions."

"The Guardian's decision to expose the extent to which our privacy is being violated should be applauded and not condemned."

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said the fact GCHQ had doubts about the legality of its surveillance "reinforces the public interest in the disclosures about what has taken place in America and closer to home

"Parliament never legislated to allow the scale of interception that has been exposed, with laws written long before widespread broadband internet access or Facebook existed. There is a clear and overwhelming need for a fundamental review of our legal framework."

"If companies are handing over customer data or access to their equipment when there is no legal authority, then those businesses may well have broken the law. This should be urgently investigated by the information commissioner."

Defending the NSA's actions, the US administration has insisted that it is necessary to intercept vast amounts of electronic data to effectively fight terrorism, but the White House has said it is examining countries' concerns as part of an ongoing review of how the US gathers intelligence.

Britain may recruit ex-hackers as reservists working in a UK cyber defence force. Photograph: Daniel
Convicted hackers could be recruited to the UK'S new cyber defence force, the defence secretary has said.

Philip Hammond announced plans for the unit last month, declaring it would have the capability to mount cyber attacks against other countries as a means of deterring them from striking against Britain.

Hundreds of computer experts will be recruited as reservists, trained with the help of GCHQ's joint cyber unit at Cheltenham, and, asked if they could include convicted hackers among their ranks, Hammond said it was a possibility.

"As a matter of policy, the armed forces don't necessarily exclude people who have criminal convictions," he told BBC Newsnight. "Each individual case would be looked at on it's merits. The conviction would be examined in terms of how long ago it was, how serious it was, what sort of sentence had followed. So I can't rule it out."

Hammond was asked for his views after the head of the new unit, Lieutenant Colonel Michael White, had responded positively, when the same question was put to him.

"I think if they could get through the security process, then if they had that capability that we would like, then if the vetting authority was happy with that, why not?" he said.

With many of the belief that there is a deficit of cybersecurity experts in the UK, the hiring of hackers could help plug the gap. A survey of IT professionals last month found that 70% believed businesses should hire ex-hackers to safeguard and improve online security. In the US, it is already common practice, with many companies recruiting at hacker conventions.

Last year, the UK's cyber defences blocked around 400,000 "advanced, malicious cyber threats" to the government secure intranet alone, according to Hammond. British ministers have not publicly named the culprits partly because it is so difficult to prove who exactly are behind cyber attacks but privately officials point the finger at Russia and China.

The defence secretary has said the new £500m unit could disable enemy communications, nuclear and chemical weapons, planes, ships and other hardware. He told Newsnight that there would be flexibility around recruitment criteria, for example in areas such as fitness, as it would be unnecessary for someone employed in cyber security to show the same physical fitness standards as other members of the armed forces.

यसअघि पनि पृथ्वी ध्वस्त हुनै लागेका विभिन्न खाले भविष्यवाणी तथा समाचार आएपनि कसैले दाबी
प्रमाणित गर्न सकेनन् र पृथ्वी ध्वस्त भएन । त्यसैले पृथ्वी ध्वस्त हुने भन्ने भविष्यवाणीलाई मानिसहरुले हावादारी भन्न थालेका छन् । तर पछिल्लो पटक भने पृथ्वी ध्वस्त हुने बारेको वैज्ञानिक भविष्यवाणी नै र्सार्वजनिक भएको छ ।
अमेरिकी अन्तरीक्ष संस्था नासाका अनुसार सन् २८८० को मार्च १६ का दिन पृथ्वीमा ठूलो प्रलय हुने खतरा छ । उसका अनुसार उक्त दिन १९५० डीए नामको क्षुद्रग्रह पृथ्वीसँग ठोक्किने खतरा छ ।

झण्डै एक माइल ब्यास भएको उक्त क्षुद्रग्रह १५ किलोमिटर प्रति सेकेण्डको बेगमा पृथ्वीतर्फआइरहेको छ । सोही गति तथा दिशा कायम रहेमा यो क्षुद्रग्रह उक्त मितिमा पृथ्वीसँग ठोक्किनेछ र त्यस क्रममा ४४ हजार ८ सय मेगाटन टिएनटी नामक विस्फोटक पदार्थ विस्फोटन हुँदा जत्तिकै उर्जा उत्पन्न हुनेछ ।
नासका अनुसार यो क्षुद्रग्रह पृथ्वीसँग ठोक्किने र क्षति पूराउने खतरा ०.३ प्रतिशत मात्र छ । तथापि यसको यो खतराको अनुपात यसअघिका क्षुद्रग्रहको खतरा भन्दा ५० प्रतिशत बढि हो ।
स्मरण रहोस् यस्तै खाले क्षुद्रग्रह पृथ्वीसँग ठोक्किँदा ६ करोड ५० लाख वर्षपहिले पृथ्वीबाट डाइनोसर लोप भएको थियो ।
पृथ्वीमा भविष्यमा ठोक्किने खतरा रहेको भनिएको १९५० डिए क्षुद्रग्रह सन् १९५० मा पहिलोपल्ट देखा परेको थियो । त्यसबेला १७ दिन देखा परेर क्षुद्रग्रह हराएको थियो र आधा शताब्दीपछि सन् २००० को डिसेम्बर ३१ मा फेरि देखा परेको थियो ।
यो क्षुद्रग्रहको परिक्रमण दर २.१ घण्टा रहेको छ जुन क्षुद्रग्रहमा दोश्रो उच्च गति हो । वैज्ञानिकहरुका अनुसार अहिले ब्रम्हाण्डमा १४ सय वटा यस्ता जोखिमपर्ूण्ा क्षुद्रग्रह छन् जसले पृथ्वीमा असर पूराउने खतरा छ ।

Have you noticed that your computer runs slower than before? Or just slowly in general? Try these strategies to make your Windows or Mac computer run faster.

 1    Check your hard disk space. As a rule, you want to keep at least 15% of the hard disk space free to keep the computer running smoothly. Simply go to My Computer, right-click on Hard Drive, and go to Properties. There you'll see a pie chart of your free versus used space. If it’s mostly full, you'll want to start by removing unnecessary programs and files; if it’s not, you probably want to tackle the actual way your computer operates.
    2    Remove any programs you do not use. Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (or Uninstall a Program, depending on your operating system) to find a master list of programs installed on your computer. Some things will strike you as useless immediately, in which case you can remove them right away. Others won’t look familiar to you and may require you some research.
        It may help to see how often you use the program. If you right-click one of the column titles above your program list (ex. Name, Publisher, Size, Installed On, etc.), you should be able to add additional characteristics by which to judge your programs. For example, find Last Used On on the list of options and check it; a column displaying the last time you used each program will now appear and can also be used to sort your programs. Some programs will not have been used in years and may be candidates for deletion.
        When in doubt, don't remove anything you don’t recognize; it may be critical to the function of your computer – and if you delete twelve different things only to discover that your computer no longer works properly, it will be very difficult to determine where exactly you went wrong.
        Don't forget to empty your recycling bin.
    3    Prevent unnecessary programs from starting when the computer boots. The more programs try to run while your computer initializes, the slower everything will be. Revise your startup programs by altering your system configuration via MSConfig.
    4    Install an anti-virus program, spyware scanner, and an anti-malware. The fewer bugs, viruses, and bits of adware your computer has to manage, the more time it will have to devote to other processes. While you're at it, make a point of keeping Windows up-to-date; not only will this keep Windows itself in better shape, but some viruses ride in on Windows updates that are downloaded way after the fact (and therefore not monitored as closely).
    5    Run a Disk Cleanup. This can clean up hundreds of megabytes of temporary files – sometimes even gigabytes (if you have Windows XP, Vista, or 7). It will also open a window in which you can chose what to delete. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, and then click Disc Cleanup (within the General tab). Check all the boxes except for the game files and setup files.
    6    Run a Disk Defragment. This will reconfigure the way the hard drive stores information for maximum efficiency. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then go to the Tools tab and click Defragment Now.
    7    Check for any disk errors. These will also slow your computer down. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then go to the Tools tab and click Check Now under the Error-Checking area. When the dialogue box opens, check both boxes.
        If you get a window saying that Windows can't check the disk while it's in use, click on Schedule Disk Check and then OK. It will run on your next reboot.
    8    Turn off indexing. Go to My Computer, right-click the Hard Drive and select Properties, then unclick the box indicating that the drive should be indexed. Don't do this if you actually use any of the Windows Search functionality. The background indexing is what makes those searches fast and Windows is already very good about not getting in your way to do indexing while you're trying to do something else.
    9    Clear your Prefetch folder. Windows saves a file of the program you are using to make it start up faster. After years of use, this folder gets stuffed with irrelevant programs.
        Open Notepad and type:
        del C:\Windows\Prefetch\*.* /Q
        Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
        (Copy and paste this text to ensure you don’t make any mistakes.)
        Save as faster.bat (the .bat extension will run it as a batch file).
        Run it! Simply double-click the file to initialize. In a few moments, the command prompt will disappear and your programs should run more smoothly.
    10    Change Prefetch Parameters. This a dangerous task to complete unless you follow these steps exactly. If you're not sure about anything, don’t continue.
        Go to Start > Run and type regedit to initialize the registry editor.
        Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SYSTEM>CurrentControlSet>Control>Session Manager>Memory Management>Prefetch Parameters to access the parameters.
        Double-click EnablePrefetcher. Once the new window pops up, there should be a small, editable text box with the number 3 in it. (Windows allows 4 options: 0, 1, 2 and 3.) 3, the default, fetches everything.
        Change this to 2. Your PC will boot a lot faster and your PC performance shouldn't be affected.
        Click OK and then close regedit.
    11    Add RAM to your computer. To see if you need more RAM, initialize the Windows Task Manager by pressing CTRL+ALT+DELETE. Under the Performance tab, find the area devoted to Physical Memory. If the Free amount hovers around zero but the computer is still slow, you may need to take your computer in to add RAM or even add more RAM yourself.
    12    Restart your computer. The computer usually needs to reboot to implement changes.
    13    Remove gadgets you don't use. All gadgets that are running slow down your computer.
    14    Log off the users who do not want the computer. Switch user your account then if you see that many users are logged in, log them off.

 Scientists in Austria have found 19 living descendants of a prehistoric iceman whose 5,300-year-old body was found frozen in the Alps.

Researchers from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University took DNA samples from blood donors in Tyrol in the west of the country.

They managed to match a particular genetic mutation with that of Ötzi, whose body was discovered back in 1991.
Descendants: Scientists have found 19 living relatives of Ötzi the Iceman who was found frozen in the Alps

Descendants: Scientists have found 19 living relatives of Ötzi the Iceman who was found frozen in the Alps
It's all relative: The prehistoric iceman had a genetic mutation which matches those whose DNA was sampled in Austria

It's all relative: The prehistoric iceman had a genetic mutation which matches those whose DNA was sampled in Austria

Experts now believe that the same mutation might also be found in the nearby rgions of Engadine in Switzerland and the South Tyrol region of Italy.

According to the BBC, Walther Parson from the university, said: 'We have already found Swiss and Italian partners so that we can pursue our research.'

DNA from around 3,700 blood donors were analysed and the men were also asked to provide information on their ancestry.

None of the donors have been informed that they are distantly related to Ötzi.

Since the body was found frozen under the Alps two decades ago, scientists have conducted experiments to learn how he came to be buried between the Austrian and Italian borders more than 5,300 years ago.
Preserved: Ötzi is kept in a specially built museum in Bolzano, Italy. Visitors view the mummy through portholes into a specially refrigerated room

Preserved: Ötzi is kept in a specially built museum in Bolzano, Italy. Visitors view the mummy through portholes into a specially refrigerated room

A hole in his collarbone suggested he was killed by an arrow, then a brain scan concluded he died from a fall.

But research earlier this year, from the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen (EURAC) in Germany, discovered he suffered brain damage likely caused by a blow to the head.

In 2001, scientists from Austria's Innsbruck University scanned Ötzi using a CAT scan.

They found dark spots at the back of the iceman mummy's cerebrum and concluded he may have died from a head injury.

It was suggested that falling, after being hit by the arrow, or while climbing, may have caused this head injury.
History: The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy

History: The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy

The mummy was found in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, hence the name Ötzi, near the Similaun mountain and Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy.

Scientists estimate he was aged around 45, was 5ft 5" tall and weighed about 7.9st when he died.

Ötzi is kept in a specially built museum in Bolzano, Italy. Visitors view the mummy through portholes into a specially refrigerated room.

The hunter was frozen with all his possessions including a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe. He was wearing warm clothing including a cloak made of woven grass, a coat and leggings made from goatskin and a bearskin cap with a leather chin strap.

“This is our best iPhone launch yet―more than nine million new iPhones sold―a new record for first weekend sales,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly. We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough new iPhones for everyone.”

iPhone 5s redefines the best smartphone experience in the world with amazing new features all packed into a remarkable thin and light design, including the Apple-designed A7 64-bit chip, all-new 8 megapixel iSight® camera with True Tone flash and introducing Touch ID™, an innovative way to simply and securely unlock your phone with just the touch of a finger. iPhone 5c features an all-new design, packed with features users know and love like the beautiful 4-inch Retina® display, blazing fast performance of the A6 chip, and the 8 megapixel iSight camera—all while delivering great battery life.¹ iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c both offer more LTE bands² than any other smartphone in the world and include all-new FaceTime® HD cameras.

iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c feature iOS 7, the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone, featuring a stunning new user interface, completely redesigned with an elegant color palette, distinct, functional layers and subtle motion that make it feel more alive. iOS 7 has hundreds of great new features, including Control Center, Notification Center, improved Multitasking, AirDrop®, enhanced Photos, Safari®, Siri® and introduces iTunes Radio℠, a free Internet radio service based on the music you listen to on iTunes®.³ Over 11 million unique listeners have already tuned in to iTunes Radio since launch with the most listened to song being “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake.

Every customer who buys an iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c at an Apple retail store will be offered free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their iPhone by setting up email, showing them new apps from the App Store℠ and more, so they’ll be up and running with their new iPhone before they leave the store. Customers can learn more about iOS 7 and their new device through new free workshops at all Apple retail stores worldwide. In the US, the new iPhones are available through AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, select Best Buy, RadioShack, Target and Walmart stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Pricing & Availability
iPhone 5s comes in gold, silver or space gray, and is available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model.⁴ iPhone 5c comes in blue, green, pink, yellow and white and is available in the US for a suggested retail price of $99 (US) for the 16GB model and $199 (US) for the 32GB model.⁴ iPhone 5s cases are available in beige, black, blue, brown, yellow and (RED) for a suggested retail price of $39 (US) through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers. iPhone 5c cases are available in blue, green, pink, yellow, black and white for a suggested retail price of $29 (US) through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Authorized Apple Resellers. iPhone 4s is also available for free (US) with a two-year contract.⁴

¹ Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.
² LTE is available through select carriers. Network speeds are dependent on carrier networks, check with your carrier for details.
³ iTunes Radio is available with iOS 7 in the US.
⁴ For qualified customers.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

 The larger of the two moons of Mars, Phobos, passes directly in front of the other, Deimos, in a new series of sky-watching images from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity.

A video clip assembled from the images is at http://youtu.be/DaVSCmuOJwI .

Large craters on Phobos are clearly visible in these images from the surface of Mars. No previous images from missions on the surface caught one moon eclipsing the other.

The telephoto-lens camera of Curiosity's two-camera Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument recorded the images on Aug. 1.  Some of the full-resolution frames were not downlinked until more than a week later, in the data-transmission queue behind higher-priority images being used for planning the rover's drives.

These observations of Phobos and Deimos help researchers make knowledge of the moons' orbits even more precise.

"The ultimate goal is to improve orbit knowledge enough that we can improve the measurement of the tides Phobos raises on the Martian solid surface, giving knowledge of the Martian interior," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station.  He is a co-investigator for use of Curiosity's Mastcam.  "We may also get data good enough to detect density variations within Phobos and to determine if Deimos' orbit is systematically changing."

The orbit of Phobos is very slowly getting closer to Mars. The orbit of Deimos may be slowly getting farther from the planet.

Lemmon and colleagues determined that the two moons would be visible crossing paths at a time shortly after Curiosity would be awake for transmitting data to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for relay to Earth. That made the moon observations feasible with minimal impact on the rover's energy budget.

Although Phobos has a diameter less than one percent the diameter of Earth's moon, Phobos also orbits much closer to Mars than our moon's distance from Earth. As seen from the surface of Mars, Phobos looks about half as wide as what Earth's moon looks like to viewers on Earth.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory project is using Curiosity and the rover's 10 science instruments to investigate the environmental history within Gale Crater, a location where the project has found that conditions were long ago favorable for microbial life.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Curiosity's Mastcam.  JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington and built the Navigation Camera and the rover.

Getting traffic to your blogs is not a rocket science. When you done few things right you can bring lots of organic traffic to your sites within less time (having targeted keywords in mind, proper SEO blog structure, internal linking etc.

If you want to keep your audience coming back for more, here are few things to do.

How to Keep Your Audience Coming Back for More? 3 Ways
Capture email addresses by giving more

One of the best ways to bring people again and again to your blogs is by capturing their emails. Whenever you publish a new article on your blog, you can use newsletters to send them to your subscribers to keep them coming back for more.

Having a great email list will not only increase website traffic, it also improves your product sales. But you must provide value to your email subscribers often to make money from your email marketing campaign.

Be active on social media

Social media has become a vital place for most bloggers to spread their ideas and brand.

Social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, Google+ etc will not only bring more online visibility for your blogs, but they will also have the tendency to make your blog go viral.

If you have more followers and fans on social media sites, you can bring drastic changes on your blogging journey. It’s very important for anyone who is blogging for a while to improve their social media interaction to boost their online presence.

If you are always posting useful stuff on your social media profiles, you will definitely be creating curiosity on your fans to read your links whenever you post something on your profiles. So always spend time on social media sites to share others stuff and to boost your online brand to keep your audience coming back for more stuff.
Create series posts

Series posts are attention pullers, most online readers visit your blogs again and again when you have right combination of series posts.

You can start writing series posts on any topic that your readers might be interested in. Few examples are, if you are running a bike advice blog, you could come up with “bike cleaning tips”, “bike maintenance service tips for busy people” etc. This way you will be able to grab the people’s attention who is interested in reading your stuff.

Moreover you can grab their email address by asking them to subscribe at the end of your each post. If they find your series posts interesting, they will certainly do whatever you ask them to do.

Pro tip: Don’t write too many posts in your series posts, limit your posts to 5 to 7 articles and you can complete them by posting everyday on your blogs, thus finishing your series within a week.

Have an appealing blog design, your blog should be designed to get the reader to do something. It could be anything from getting a blog comment to buying your affiliate products. Invest money to buy a premium theme or hire a professional to get a unique design for your blog, after all, first impression is the best impression in blogging.

आपराधिक क्रियाकलापको अनुसन्धानका लागि तालिम प्राप्त कुकुरको प्रयोग गरिएको हुन्छ । तर अब यस्ता तालिम प्राप्त कुकुरको विकल्प खडा भएको छ । वास्तवमा यी कुकुरलाई अब मुसाले विस्थापन गर्नेछन् ।

नेदरल्याण्डका वैज्ञानिकहरुले यस्ता तालिमप्राप्त मुसाको जमात तयार गरेका छन् जसले अपराध अनुसन्धानमा सहयोग पूराउन सक्छन् ।

यी मुसाहरुले गन्ध सुँघेर सम्बन्धित घटनाको विषयमा दशी फेला पार्न मद्दत गर्नेछन् जसका कारण अनुसन्धान अधिकारीहरु अपराधीको नजिक पुग्न सकून । यी पाँच थान जासूस मुसाको नाम म्याग्नम राखिएको छ । यी मुसाले एक प्रयोगशालामा आफ्नो क्षमता प्रदर्शन गरिरहेका छन् । गोलाबारी भएको स्थानमा यी मुसालाई छाडेपछि यी मुसाले यो कुरा पत्ता लगाउनेछन् की आखिर बन्दुक कसले पड्काएको थियो र अहिले को सँग बन्दुक छ ?

यी तालिम प्राप्त मुसाले निकै राम्रोसँग यस्ता बन्दुकधारीलाई फेला पार्न सफल भएको र मुसाको त्यो तागत तालीमप्राप्त कुकुरको भन्दा बढि रहेको मुसाका प्रशिक्षक मनिक ह्यामसलेग बताउँछन् । मुसालाई कुकुरलाई जति तालिम दिनु नपर्ने र १० दिनमै पोख्त बनाउन सकिने उनको भनाइ छ । मुसाको त्यो क्षमता देखेर प्रहरी अधिकारीहरु पनि आश्चर्यमा परेका छन् ।

अब किसानहरुले गाइले दुध दिएन भनेर चिन्ता मान्नुपर्ने छैन । गाइको दुध कल्चौँडाबाट कसरी झार्ने होला भनेर टाउको दुखाउनुपर्ने पनि छैन । अब गाइको थुनबाट दुध आफै झर्नेछ र गाइले दुध दिन कुनै आनाकानी गर्नेछैन ।

हो, नेदरल्याण्डको एक कम्पनीले यस्तो रोबोटको विकाश गरेको छ जसले गाइको थुनबाट सजिलै दुध झार्नेछ । तर मान्छेले लगाएर रोबोटले दुध दुहुने भने हैन, गाइको थुनबाट आफै दुध झर्नेछ । अनि रोबोट प्रयोग गरेर कसरी दुध झार्ने भन्ने कुरा मान्छेले भन्दा गाइले छिटो सिक्ने दाबी कम्पनीको रहेको छ ।

एस्ट्रोनट फोर नामको उक्त क्रान्तिकारी रोबोटको निर्माण कृषि र्फम लेलीले गरेको हो । यो रोबोट सामान्य किसानले पनि प्रयोग गर्न सक्ने निर्माताको दाबी रहेको छ ।

यो रोबोटले यस्तो सिद्धान्तमा काम गर्नेछ की गाइको दुध थुनबाट झार्ने कुरा मानिस वा रोबोट नियन्त्रण गर्ने नभै गाइ आफैले गर्नेछ । यो रोबोट प्रणालीलाई गाइले सजिलैसँग प्रयोग गर्नेछ । आइ फ्लो नामक पद्धति यसमा प्रयोग गरिएको छ । यस अन्तरगत गाइ सिधा भित्र र बाहिर हिड्नेछ, न की यताउति तथा पछाडि फर्किने । यो पद्धतिले उक्त रोबोटको प्रयोग कसरी गर्ने भन्ने कुरा गाइलाई सिकाउँछ साथै गाइमा तनाव घटाउँछ ।

यो प्रणाली अन्तरगत गाइ आफै स्वचालित दुध दुहिने स्टेशनमा जान्छ, उक्त रोबोटिक मिल्क स्टेशनमा गाइको दुध आफै दुहिन्छ र गाइले मन लागेको खानेकुरा खान पनि पाउँछ । हुनत गाइको थुनबाट आफै दुध झर्ने भने होइन । दुध दुहिनका लागि रोबोटिक मेसिन प्रयोग गरिएको हुन्छ । त्यसबाट गाइको थुनमा नलीसँग जोडिएका कप स्वचालित रुपमा जडान हुन्छन् । त्यसपछि गाइको थुनबाट झरेको दुध भाँडोमा संकलन हुन्छ । गाइको कल्चौँडामा दुध सकिएपछि ती कप आफै फुस्किन्छन् अनि गाइ पनि आफै त्यहाँबाट निस्केर बाहिर आउँछ ।

Technology is often double-edged. On the one hand, innovations in communication technologies have increased the possibilities for individuals to share information and ideas beyond borders, access educational material and discover other cultures. On the other hand, the very same tools have also generated opportunities for State surveillance of users' personal exchanges. Such actions not only threaten privacy and the free flow of information, but they can also generate chilling effects on the Internet architecture and undermine the trust that users have in the network as a global, interoperable and resilient platform of communication

In recent weeks we have seen an emerging debate on government surveillance activities and their impact on users' fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of expression. Part of this global debate focused on principles and guidelines that should govern these activities. Whether new principles and guidelines emerge or whether existing ones are being seen with fresh eyes, we observe an increasing interest in exploring ways to provide additional safeguards when it comes to the surveillance of online activities.
 Last week, the Internet Society Board of Trustees took the opportunity at its meeting on the margins of the IETF meeting, in Berlin, to release a statement calling for "the global Internet community to stand together to support open Internet access, freedom and privacy". This statement re-emphasises the concerns of the Internet Society regarding the recently exposed information about government Internet surveillance programs, which risk threatening both the fundamental freedoms of Internet users, as well as the openness of the Internet as a whole.

In the past few weeks, many voices in the Internet community have made the point that security should not be sought at the expense of individual rights, challenging the notion that achieving security by necessity has to be the product of a trade-off with freedom of expression, privacy or social development.

Robert Hinden, Chair of the Board of Trustees, used the setting of Berlin to remind us that human progress and technological innovation are not based on building walls, and that such surveillance activities, including those carried by countries who have traditionally advocated for an open Internet, threaten the trust and confidence that are so important for the Internet ecosystem and the relation between different stakeholders.

The ISOC Board of Trustees endorsed in its statement the initiative by some civil society organizations to promote "International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance." These principles, developed over the past year by a set of civil society organisations, are intended to explain how existing human rights standards, international law, and jurisprudence should apply in the context of new capabilities and risks of digital surveillance.

In societies marked by increasing cross-border interactions, adapting the application of existing laws and rights to the online environment, while preserving the Internet's sustainability and openness, seems to be a key challenge. These international principles on communication surveillance offer guidelines and safeguards so that laws are applied to the online environment in a way that is respectful of individual rights.

Released at the April 2013 session of the Human Rights Council - before the revelations about sweeping surveillance by security services made the news worldwide - the latest report of the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression also offers a timely focus on the implications of States’ surveillance of communications on the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression.

The report underlines the need to further study new modalities of surveillance and calls for a revision of national laws regulating these practices in line with human rights standards.
"Generally, legislation has not kept pace with the changes in technology. In most States, legal standards are either non-existent or inadequate to deal with the modern communications surveillance environment. As a result, States are increasingly seeking to justify the use of new technologies within the ambits of old legal frameworks, without recognizing that the expanded capabilities they now possess go far beyond what such frameworks envisaged"
The report also contends that changes in technology have been paralleled by changes in attitudes towards communications surveillance. The example that is given is the practice of official wiretapping in the U.S., which was first conducted on a restricted basis and only reluctantly sanctioned by the courts given its serious impact on privacy. The report goes on to argue that declining costs of technology and data storage have now eradicated financial or practical disincentives to conducting surveillance, which as a result is more invasive and on a greater scale than ever before. Hence, the report's call for additional safeguards.

While government plays an important role in protecting its citizens, and acknowledging the fact that national security sometimes involves secretive actions, real security can only be realized within a broader context of trust and the respect of fundamental rights, such as privacy
As the Internet Society stated before, large scale surveillance activities underscore the importance of an open and inclusive global dialogue regarding online privacy in the realm of national security and the need for all stakeholders to abide by the norms and principles outlined in international agreements on data protection and other fundamental rights. Cooperation among stakeholders is indeed essential to reach efficient and legitimate solutions in an ecosystem marked by cross-border interactions and dependencies.

A trust-enabled infrastructure, fostering trusted interactions in cyberspace, is critical not only for the future of the global interoperability and openness of the Internet, but also for continued innovation, economic and political progress and a vibrant global community.

The U.S.-based Mars Society called on university students around the world to help advance plans for a manned mission to the planet during the 16th Annual International Mars Society Convention in the U.S. state of Colorado.

It has been about six months since the non-profit Inspiration Mars Foundation, founded by space tourist and multi-millionaire Dennis Tito, proposed launching a manned mission toward Mars in five years. The plan calls for one man and one woman to fly within 160 kilometers of Mars and return to Earth.   

While the crew is slated to be American, the process of getting to Mars is an international endeavor.

The president of the Mars Society, Robert Zubrin, announced a competition that calls on teams of students around the world to design a two-person Mars flyby mission that could be launched in 2018.

Designs will be judged on their cost, quality, simplicity and ability to launch in five years. The U.S. space agency, NASA, the Mars Society and Inspiration Mars will choose the judges.

Zubrin said both the contest and a Mars flyby have the power to spur innovation.

"We need to mobilize the talent of the world in support of this mission," said Zubrin. "Inspiration Mars, in part, was set up to inspire people and show how the challenge of humans to Mars could inspire a new generation to want to develop their minds to become scientists, engineers, technological entrepreneurs and researchers."

A Mars Society press release says the design competition is open to university engineering students worldwide. While teams can include alumni, professors and others, the bulk of the teams must be made up of students. Finalists would present their ideas at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.

Zubrin notes that he is not part of Inspiration Mars, but he considers its mission to be "bold yet realistic," with enough resources to succeed.

The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) is nearing the end of its 120-day mission on the northern slope of Mauna Loa.

Since mid-April, six people have been living in a space habitat located 8,000 feet (2,440 meters) above sea level, on a barren lava field that is as Mars-like an environment as you can find on Earth. They've acted as though they were the first human explorers on Mars, not only conducting various science experiments and going out into the field dressed in simulated spacesuits, but also making meals with food that could survive the long voyage to the Red Planet.

 As the clock ticks toward a 2018 launch, the millionaire who's funding the Inspiration Mars effort to send a man and woman around the Red Planet is reaching out for support from students, from rocket companies — and from NASA.

"We're going to have to do it with NASA, and probably a certain amount of government funding," said Dennis Tito, the investment guru and one-time space passenger who kicked off the Mars flyby project earlier this year. "But probably within the scope of the current budget."

Tito and other leaders of Inspiration Mars provided an update on their plans on Friday at the Mars Society's annual convention at the University of Colorado in Boulder. In cooperation with the Mars Society and NASA's Ames Research Center, they also announced an engineering design contest that gives student-led teams a chance to lay out proposed mission architectures for the 501-day flyby.

The top-rated team gets $10,000, plus an expense-paid trip to next year's Mars Society meeting. There'll also be cash prizes for four runner-up teams. Check out the Mars Society website for deadlines and details.