NASA's Mars Rover Crashed Into A DMCA Takedown

NASA’s livestream coverage of the Curiosity rover’s landing on Mars was was practically as flawless as the landing itself, a refreshing alternative to all that troubled Olympics coverage. The broadcast – full of suspense, lucky peanut-eating, and ecstatic congratulations – was slow and hard to reach at times, but NASA servers never failed. Along with burnishing its online publicity credentials, NASA had prepared for a global audience of millions, But NASA couldn’t prepare for everything.

London 2012 Hurdles: Liu Xiang stumbles once again in men's 110 meter event

The London 2012 hurdles, at least from the men's side, will be missing one of its biggest faces as Liu Xiang once again fell on the biggest stage. He could only limp to the finish and kiss the final 10th hurdle.

Liu stumbled into the first hurdle Tuesday morning, fell to the track and stayed down for a few moments, clutching his lower right leg. He got up and tried to head to the nearest exit but was pointed back to the race area, so he managed to make his way the length of the race route the only way he could, using his one good leg.

 When that slow, awkward trek was complete, another hurdler, Balazs Baji of Hungary, went over and raised Liu's hand in the air, as if to signify he was the winner.

"I respect him. I like him," said Baji, fifth in their heat. "It must be really bad for him. I'm really sorry. I didn't say anything. I just couldn't say anything."

Liu's mistake could cost China dearly, which entered Tuesday with a narrow lead over the United States in the medal count.

Other competitors went over to offer handshakes of condolences, before Britain's Andrew Turner and Spain's Jackson Quinonez helped Liu into a waiting wheelchair so he could be taken away from the track.

"I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy," said Turner, who won their heat in 13.42 seconds. "I rate him as one of the best hurdlers we've had in the world ever. I don't like to see that kind of thing."

Four years ago in Beijing, Liu's Olympics ended after two full strides, when he withdrew from his preliminary heat with right foot and hamstring injuries, disappointing his country of more than 1 billion people.

At the 2004 Athens Games, Liu became the first man from China to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field. He backed that up with the 2007 world title, only increasing expectations for another triumph on home soil at Beijing in 2008, one of the main story lines in the lead-up to those Olympics.

He was — and, indeed, still is — China's only track and field superstar. But he's been more than that, too: One of China's most recognizable faces, endorsing shoes and cars and all manner of other products. But in front of a packed Bird's Nest, he never even made it to the first hurdle.

So since winning his Olympic title eight years ago, Liu has not successfully cleared a single Summer Games hurdle.

"For him to push himself and come back ... and for this to happen — it's really sad for any athlete," Usain Bolt said after slowing to a jog and still easily winning his 200-meter qualifying heat Tuesday.

Liu's rivalry with current world-record holder and 2008 Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba was supposed to be a highlight of the London track schedule. Robles advanced easily Tuesday, winning his heat in 13.33 seconds.

What will be remembered about Tuesday, of course, was Liu's exit.

"It was just terrible for that to happen to one of the best hurdlers of all time. It was just a tragedy. I hope he's OK," said U.S. hurdler Aries Merritt, who won his heat in 13.07 seconds, the best qualifying time.

"In the hurdles, if you hit a hurdle, to recover is almost impossible. Everyone here is so great — this is the Olympic Games. Everyone here is here to compete. It's just a shame that it had to happen to Liu. I was looking forward to competing against him."

Indian Treasures Gold Coins, valuable stones found in Kerala Temple

A treasure to be believed billions of rupees have been found inside a temple in Kerala, India; and still counting as the search continues. The Times of India reported on July 3, 2011, a committee selected by the country’s Supreme Court has been discovering the treasure found inside the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum for the past six days.

Several statues idol made of pure gold, with each weigh about 1 kg were found; along with bags of gold coins and valuable stones inside a vault called Chamber A. The discovered treasure also comprises 1,200 gold chains, Belgium diamonds, golden plates, rubies and emeralds; as well as an 18-foot-long jewelry weighing about 35 kg.

We are still to open one more secret room which has not been opened for nearly 140 years,” said by Kerala Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar in Khaleej Times on Saturday. There are six vaults inside the Kerala temple and were distincted A to F in the shrine, with Chambers A and B cellars were last opened in 1872. Meanwhile, Indian officials said that it would be really difficult now to put precise value on the treasures found but it is being predictable to reach over Rs750 billion or US$16 billion and still counting.

Fish with Human Teeth Discovered In Lake 2012

Fish with Human Teeth Discovered in Lake 2012 and other pictures of fishes with caught previously. A different fish which has human teeth was evident in june 2012, in Lake Lou Yaeger, Litchfield, Illinois. A lot of people are freaked of this hazardous surprising strange fish, which first was labeled as a piranha, however when they grabbed it and viewed its teeth they were surprised: human like teeth! It appears that somebody dumped this intimidating odd fish in the lake, however no one understands the quantity of them are there.

Currently the individuals from Litchfield are too frightened to swim in the lake, however the biologists promise them which they must not worry, because this fish is not harmful to humans. The strange fish was recognized as the Pacu fish, which usually lives in the Amazon. It is not going to stay alive the winter in Illinois. Below you can observe the fish in the image, along with what the individual’s state about it. In 2009 so called ‘vampire’ fish was introduced by National Geographic, together with a fish which has human teeth, the Pacu fish. Here’s a picture of the Pacu fish:

Haemorrhoids (Piles)

Haemorrhoids are dilated veins in the anus the opening to the bowels, that may become inflaced and painful. They are caused by anything that increases blood volume in the abdomen, such as constipation or straining when opening the bowels, overweight and pregnancy. You do not get haemorrhoids from sitting on radiatiors. Symptoms of haemorrhoids are itching, bleeding, soreness and, often, intense pain on coughing, laughing or going to the lavatory. The best way of protecting against haemorrhoids is to make sure that you are getting enough fibre in your diet. This can also be an effective way of treating them in the early stages, when suppositories and hot baths tend only to offer temporary relief. More advanced cases, however, may require the application of elasticated bands to cut off circulation, injections as for varicose veins of surgery.

Chloasma (Melasma)

This is a blotchy darkening of the pigmentation in the skin that usually appears on the cheeks just below the eyes, above the lip, on the forehead, in the armpits, on the nipples and around the genital area. It occurs in as many as one third of all women on the pill and is not uncommon in the last three months of pregnancy. While it will fade in time, chloasma is aggravated and rendered more noticeably by exposure to bright sun light. Keep out of the sun as much as possible, avoid sun lamps and use an efficient sun block. You can sometimes counteract the darkening by bleaching the skin, but results are not always good and may even leave the skin looking botchier than before.

Aquarius, World's Only Undersea Lab, Endangered by Budget

Sixty feet down in the waters off Key Largo, Fla., the water around National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aquarius laboratory is clear and warm and blue. Marine scientists -- aquanauts -- have been coming to live in this underwater habitat since 1993.

But the future of Aquarius is, at the moment, dark and clouded. The lab, the only one of its kind in the world, has fallen victim to budget cuts from Washington. NOAA was under orders to tighten up, and the $3 million annual budget for Aquarius was eliminated.

"There were signals that the budget was tight, but we didn't think it would be zeroed out," said Thomas Potts, Aquarius' director at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, which has operated the lab for NOAA. "By the end of July we will have lost two permanent and three temporary staff members and will no longer be mission-ready."

"Mission-ready," as Potts put it, means keeping the lab in condition to be a safe habitat for up to six visitors at a time. The lab, a 48-foot-long cylinder, made it possible for ocean scientists to study coral reefs or other ocean life, typically on 10-day "missions."

The lab has basic amenities -- bunk beds, laptops, a mini-kitchen -- but its greatest advantage is that scientists do not have to dive from the surface, do their work and come back up repeatedly. That protects them from the bends, the debilitating condition that can happen if one surfaces too quickly and nitrogen bubbles form in one's muscles.

More than 100 groups of divers have gone to live in Aquarius in the last two decades, studying biology and the ocean environment. NASA used Aquarius for its own missions, called NEEMO -- a chance for astronauts and engineers to get practice at living in closed quarters like a spacecraft, with limited support from mission control.

But while the lab had an aura of adventure to it, and the scientists who used it said it was valuable, Washington is struggling with budget realities.

"NOAA's core mission is to conduct and support scientific research and exploration of the oceans," said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco -- herself a marine ecologist -- in a statement. "The Aquarius program has been a vital part of this research and we fully recognize its importance. Unfortunately, our budget environment is very, very challenging and we are unable to do all that we would like."

There is an Aquarius Foundation trying to raise private funds to keep the lab going, but Potts said its goal is $750,000 -- a fraction of what it would take to fund active work. One disadvantage the lab has always faced is that it's expensive to maintain; even when it's not being used, divers need to go down each week to keep its systems working in salt water. As it is, the lab's metal skin is encrusted in marine vegetation.

The lab's defenders say they hope a large donor will come forward. They say there are possibilities, but so far nothing solid to report.

"Unless we get some pretty good news," said Potts, "our staff is going to start to drift away. They're very talented people; they won't remain unemployed long."

Meanwhile, he said, a national asset waits on the sea floor.

"This is unique," he said. "This is one of a kind."

Google's Lightning-fast Fiber Network Now Live in Kansas City

Google is launching its ultra-fast 1Gb-per-second Google Fiber Internet and Fiber TV service today in Kansas City.

Google announced last week that the gigabit network was coming, and here it is. Lucky residents of Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, can pre-register now at the Google Fiber website and rally their neighbors to pre-register to get Google Fiber (Google is building the network by demand).

Google Fiber promises to be 100 times faster than the average American broadband speed. To put this into perspective, using Google Fiber is sort of like driving from New York City to San Francisco in under a half hour.

The Google Fiber network box that comes with the service has four 1Gb Ethernet ports, but you can also connect your computers over Wi-Fi at 360Mb per second. The network box also offers a gigabit firewall.

Google is offering three plans. The Gigabit + TV service is $120 a month, with a $300 construction fee waived if you sign a two-year contract. The Fiber TV service offers a large selection of network and some cable channels in HD, including Showtime and Starz. Along with the package, Google is throwing in a free Nexus 7 (which isn't easy to find) and a TV box that records up to 500 hours and eight shows at once on its two terabytes of storage.

If you only want the Internet service, that'll run you $70 a month, again with the waived $300 construction fee with contract.

A free plan is also offered, but limits you to 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds, and requires the $300 construction fee. This might work if you can't afford the gigabit service, since the average Internet speed is only 5.8Mbps anyway, but it's difficult to give up a service that's 100 times faster.

Imagine: instantaneous downloads, video uploading in the blink of an eye, and immediate file sharing.

Google also suggests Google Fiber customers pick up a Chromebook, such as the refreshed Samsung Chromebook Series 5. With an Internet connection that fast, the inexpensive web-centric laptop may make a lot more sense.

Google Fiber is expected to be installed to "fiberhoods" ranked in the top 50% of those pre-registered by mid-2013. I, for one, am hoping Google will soon roll out to more cities (New York, please!).

iPhone 5 front glass panel leaked

Parts supplier ETradeSupply has posted a video purporting to show the front glass panel of the much anticipated as of yet unannounced iPhone 5.

The screen area, measured diagonally, comes out at 4.065-inch, which seems to suggest that new new iPhone will indeed sport a 4-inch screen.

The new screen is 0.91 millimeters, about 0.1 millimeters thinner than the glass panel on the iPhone 4S. There are some other changes relating to the position of the receiver hole, camera hole and proximity sensor hole.

In a scratch test carried out by ETradeSupply, the new screen appears to be much more scratch resistant than the lens on the iPhone 4S. There is also evidence to suggest that the light transmittance of the new screen is much better than that of the existing screen.

Last month the same parts supplier posted a video which allegedly shows the metal chassis that Apple will use for the iPhone 5. This showed a number of interesting new features, including:

• Unibody metal chassis, which to me looks and sounds like it might be made from Liquidmetal alloy;
• Width appears unchanged;
• Longer body, suggesting a 4-inch screen;
• Substantially thinner design;
• Smaller SIM tray;
• Headphone jack moved to the bottom;
• Smaller dock connector;
• Larger speaker grill;
• The on/off switch, volume control and mute switch seem to be similar to those found on the iPhone 4 and 4S.

If these are genuine parts -- bear in mind that I'm not making any assertions that it is although the evidence is compelling -- then Apple has just made it much harder to get at the battery on the forthcoming iPhone. Replacing that would require removing the screen just as it did with the earlier models, but the thinner screens used today -- along with copious amounts of adhesive -- mean that it's a lot easier to break the screen.

Father's Day: which type of dad are you?

when dads everywhere take a break from the dusting – here is a list of dads, exemplary displayers of those many and varied virtues who have provided us all with a guide to life.

1. First Dad: Adam

The first dad had a particularly testing time. He was turfed out of paradise, he had a difficult relationship with his wife, and one of his sons killed the other one. Remember, too, that he had no best friend to complain to about them not understanding him.

2. Busy Dad: Genghis Khan

He fathered hundreds of children as he fought, rode, won and, how you say, relaxed his way across the vast plains of Asia in command of his fierce and fleet horsemen. Indeed, Russian scientists have estimated that he has no fewer than 16 million male descendants alive today, so keep a close eye on anyone you know who starts barking out orders, taking riding lessons and showing a disinclination to tolerate anyone sleeping in.

3. Relaxed Dad: Mr Bennet

The true hero of Pride and Prejudice, never happier than when he is in his library, alone, and not being bothered by anyone, especially Mrs Bennet and her marathon matchmaking mithering. Some of you will prefer Action Dad, showing you how to do this or that, with a lot of noise, and usually not doing it quite so well as he imagines. Others of us prefer Laidback Dad, ready, just about, if called upon, but much preferring to let you learn for yourself, which also means, conveniently, that he can get on with what he wants to do himself.

4. Good Dad: David Cameron

Some men forget all about their children, then unaccountably and suddenly remember them when they win the lottery. Poor David Cameron has only to make a minor slip and the world descends on his head. Consider, though, the complex dad-multi-tasking that must have led to this dad-blip. In there with two other families, deeply concerned about Europe's finances while at the same time trying to split the lunch bill three ways with appropriate reductions for extra chips: no wonder it all went horribly wrong. And, being a Good Dad, there's been no attempt to spin this one: no suggestion he had left her as a deposit or for work experience. No attempt, either, to subtly shift attention to Mrs Cameron: for this is the deal: every so often "Head of the Family" means more than those helpful tips on childcare to one's partner.

5. The Father of the Prodigal Son

The spendthrift of his inheritance who ended up broke and a swineherd before coming home and offering to work as a servant. And this dad, heroic in the way of dads, resisted the temptation to say, "Well, well, if it isn't Flash Boy," "What's that smell?", or, "Work as a servant? You're having a laugh!". No, he forgave him, told him he loved him and did the Israelite equivalent of sending out for pizzas all round, with extra toppings. Then the older brother, who'd stayed at home, working, started complaining about this reward for bad behaviour, in the way brothers do; and this dad said he still loved him, too, and that his inheritance was safe. All dads love this parable. They particularly admire the skill, economy and wisdom which led Jesus Christ to remain silent about what happened the next morning when it was time to get up and all that was evident of the both of them was the usual loud snoring and not a jot of the washing up had been done. And silent, too, about exactly what their mother said to the pair of them.

6. Most Unorthodox Dad: The father of a Boy Named Sue

7. Most Predictable Dad (often not in a good way): Homer Simpson

8. Most Awesome Dad: Darth Vader

(also gets Coolest Dressed Dad and Best Not Rubbed Up Wrong Way Dad Or He'll Chop Your Hand Off).

9. Most Interestingly Named Dad: Neville Neville

The father of Gary and Phil.

10. Best Dad who was also Pope: Alexander VI

Father of Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia (and at least six more).

Finally, Most Affecting Dad Story: After President Kennedy's assassination, his young son, John, asked a visitor to his home: "Are you a daddy?". The man said he was. "Then will you throw me up in the air?" asked John.

Daring Nik Wallenda walks across Niagara Falls on a tightrope

There was "wind coming from every which way," mist so powerful it clouded his vision and an unfamiliar wire beneath him, but daredevil Nik Wallenda didn't let that stop him from becoming the first person to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls. He took steady, measured steps Friday night for 1,800 feet on a wire across the widest part of the gorge of the roaring falls separating the US and Canada, accomplishing what he said was his childhood dream albeit wearing a tether. "I feel like I'm on cloud nine right now," an exuberant Wallenda told reporters after his feat. Associated Press. Images of his feat. 

 

Review: Red Faction: Armageddon

There are few things more satisfying than planting explosive charges around the base of a massive structure and then stepping back a safe distance, before detonating them. The resulting chaos -- the crumbling of steel and concrete, bathed in a cloud of smoke and ash -- is nothing short of orgasmic.

Voliton's Geo-Mod technology, used in 2009's Red Faction: Guerrilla was kind of like the Kama Sutra of in-game destruction. A sprawling open-world playground of pure destruction, Volition provided gamers with the tools (and the sandbox) to cause bedlam that few games had before (or since) been able to deliver.

With Red Faction: Armageddon, Volition attempts to control that chaos, delivering a more linear experience that drives players through a story wrought with near-relentless action. While the result is in many ways a more refined experience, Armageddon's restrictive nature may leave many gamers wondering: "When do I get to blow s**t up again?"

Red Faction: Armageddon (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [Reviewed])
Developer: Volition, Inc.
Publisher: THQ
Release date: June 7, 2011
Price: $59.99 (PS3, Xbox 360), $49.99 (PC)
Set 50 years after the events of Guerrilla, Armageddon picks up the story of Darius Mason, who's been tricked into awakening an army of Martian monsters. The game's relatively short campaign follows Mason through a series of underground caverns, as he's relentlessly harassed by nightmarish creatures hell bent on mauling him to death.

Fortunately, he has an assortment of weapons at his disposal, which is easily Armageddon's biggest strength. We're talking about 14 different weapons, ranging from standard assault rifles to classic explosives to more colorful alien technology like plasma beams to a rifle that evaporates anything you hit it with.

The star of the show may very well be Mason's Magnet Gun, a weapon capable of snapping together most any two targets in the game's environment. Let your mind wander with the possibilities, and you'll get the idea. Snap your first shot onto one enemy, the second to another -- watch them slam into one another like some kind of science-fiction-themed Three Stooges act. Or more satisfying, snap your first magnet to a large structure and your second to an unfortunate target. Sit back then and delight as part of (or all) of a building comes crashing into the maw of a slobbering alien menace.

Mason also has a number of "Nanoforge" abilities at his disposal, special powers that have various uses, both in battle and in defense. The reconstruction ability is particularly fun to see in action, rebuilding any damaged man-made item, from staircases to entire buildings. Another, called "Impact," sends out a pulse that tears through anything in its path, from walls to enemies.


The game's third-person shooting feels good, and Volition's generous "lock on" targeting (by pressing and holding the controller's left trigger) makes killing effortless. Once you're snapped on an target, you can adjust your reticule for more precise shots (to the head, for example), but it's mostly not even necessary.
On the game's default difficulty, I found I could just snap onto targets -- one after the other -- taking them out with relative ease. With no real cover system to speak, I spent more time out in the open raining fire on enemies and rolling about to avoid fire than carefully thinking about my attack. Yes, you can duck behind structures (and the game repeatedly reminds you that you can repair destroyed objects to use as cover with the Nanoforge), but it's probably not necessary. That kind of unabating action isn't the worst thing you could get from Armageddon, however, especially if you go into it hoping to turn your brain off and to make a mess of alien guts.

Despite the wild alien-vs-Mason skirmishes, it's hard not to feel like you're on a guided tour of the Mars underground throughout the entire adventure. Volition holds your hand every step of the way, pushing you through tiny corridors and confined spaces; it simply doesn't lend itself to the environment devastation most players will be looking for.
I almost always felt like my back was up against a wall, a few feet from a building or cavernous obstacle. So many of the game's areas are uncomfortably claustrophobic, with a ceiling a few inches from Mason's head or walls on all sides, forcing you straight ahead. My gamer instinct in these small areas was always "don't use the rockets, don't use the explosives," because you're bound to take damage. The game does open up into some larger spaces, and there are a few areas where you hop into wild vehicles and aimlessly destroy everything in sight. Still, those areas are too few for a game that should be priding itself on and highlighting its destruction tech.

With a laser focus on moment-to-moment action and linearity, Volition was also able to more tightly guide Armageddon's narrative. Unfortunately, it never elevates itself above the level of a low-budget science-fiction/action picture. Sure, the game's characters are well-acted and the cut-scenes (of which there are many) are mostly entertaining on a base level. But some of the game's dialogue will have you raising an eyebrow, with humor that falls flat or feels out of place.
There's also at least one key plot element (one that I can't mention without ruining the game's story) that's such nonsense that it nearly pulls the rug right out from under the entire production. But like the gameplay, it's just entertaining enough that it never really becomes offensive.


Folks banking on having a long relationship with the single-player campaign will be disappointed to hear that I completed it in just under six hours on normal difficulty (this according to an in-game timer). Finishing the game will unlock a "New Game+", though, and gaming's most ridiculous and powerful weapons: a unicorn that farts rainbows. While that alone may make the experience worth it, Volition has included a ton of unlockable cheats, as well.

There's also an extensive upgrade system for your in-game abilities that can be carried over into the game's multiplayer mode, of which there is one, called "Infestation." Volition has ditched the competitive action for a cooperative wave-based experience, leaving this in its place, which comes as a bit of a disappointment. To this mode's credit, there's a ton of content here, with eight missions featuring 30 waves a piece. Some have objectives that are simply surviving waves of enemies; others have you defending a critical area.

In all cases, what it really boils down to is killing aliens as they hop around a map. Fortunately, what this affords you is time (and in some cases, room) to really experiment with the game's expansive weapon set. The magnet gun, for instance, saw almost no use for me in the single-player campaign. While playing "Infestation," I was more comfortable using it, and had a blast screwing around. This also means opening up my arsenal to explosives, and using the Nanoforge more frequently to rebuild cover from rubble to survive waves of baddies.


Armageddon also features a destruction mode called "Ruin." These timed and scored challenges are literally all about causing as much destruction as possible in a given time frame. It's easily the best demonstration of what makes Red Faction and Volition's Geo-Mod tech so great. These one-off challenges are fun and a great way to blow off steam, it's just unfortunate Volition couldn't have woven this kind of chaos into the single-player campaign where it really belongs.

In many basic ways, Armageddon is a superior game to Guerrilla. It makes strides in a number of key areas that are hard to ignore, including more polished visuals and a broader range of spectacular weapons and abilities. But ultimately, it manages to miss the mark when it comes to the core elements that made the open world game so great: freedom and ample opportunities to simply trash the game's world. Armageddon isn't a terrible game by any stretch, it simply falls short of its potential.

Russellville to celebrate its own Ray Charles Singer

On June 6, at 12 Noon, the West Kentucky African American Heritage Museum in Russellville will kick off the Mary Ann Fisher Summer Concert Series and celebrate the acquisition of artifacts from friends of Miss Fisher.
Fisher, a blues singer, who recorded with such legends as Ray Charles and Marvin Gaye lived in Russellville, Kentucky for several years. In her memory, the West Kentucky African American
Heritage Museum created a series of summer blues concerts. This year’s festival will begin Saturday, June 11, 2011 with a performance by South Carolina blues singer, Miss Wanda Johnson, along with a band featuring harmonica legend, William Howse of Nashville.
Close associates of Miss Fisher will present evening gowns and jewelry to the museum for an exhibit which will open during the August 8th African American Emancipation Celebration.

Nutrition Plate Unveiled to Replace the Food Pyramid

First lady Michelle Obama on Thursday relegated the government’s well-known food pyramid to the sands of history, unveiling a new, simpler image of a plate divided into basic food groups.

The new design was conceived as a crucial part of Mrs. Obama’s campaign against obesity, by reminding consumers about the basics of a healthy diet.

The plate is split into four sections, for fruit, vegetables, grains and protein. A smaller circle sits beside it for dairy.

Mrs. Obama, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin unveiled the new healthy eating icon at a press conference in Washington.

Officials said they planned to use the plate in a campaign to communicate essential dietary guidelines to consumers, emphasizing one message at a time for best effect.

The first part of the campaign will encourage people to make half their plate fruit and vegetables. Later phases of the campaign will instruct consumers to avoid oversize portions, enjoy their food but eat less of it and to drink water instead of sugary drinks.

Nutritionists often criticized the food pyramid, which was first released in 1992, for being either misleading or hard to understand. They gave the plate cautious praise.

“It’s better than the pyramid but that’s not saying a lot,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University.

She praised the plate for being generally easy to understand, But she said that labeling a large section of the plate “protein” was confusing and unneccesary, since grains and dairy also are important sources of protein and most Americans get far more protein than they need.

But she said the emphasis on fruits and vegetables was a significant step.

“Americans aren’t used to eating this way so this is a big change,” Ms. Nestle said.

The plate was created by the Department of Agriculture with input from the first lady’s anti-obesity team and federal health officials. The agriculture department said that it conducted focus groups with about 4,500 people, including children, as they developed the new icon. Developing the icon and creating a website and other educational materials to go along with it cost about $2 million. That money will also help pay for an educational campaign centered on the plate icon over the next year, officials said.

10 Hidden Features in Windows 8

Editor's Note: Microsoft's Windows President, Steven Sinofsky, is speaking this week at the D9 Conference. It is rumored that he will show off the new tablet UI and the long-awaited cloud integration of Windows 8. We will update this article accordingly.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer finally confirmed what tech pundits knew all along: the next generation of Windows will be out in 2012. In the meantime, Microsoft is half-way done with Windows 8 -- it's in the Milestone 3 stage right now -- and is prepping up the first beta for this September's "Windows Developer Conference" in Anaheim, California.

But you don't have to wait until then to get a look at some of Windows 8's best new features. I've closely examined a pre-beta leak and dug up 10 great features and improvements you can look forward to. While these pre-beta builds have been covered left and right, I've chosen to focus on the lesser-known, but noteworthy improvements.

Windows 8 facial recognition moves closer to reality
Windows 8 portable workspace lets you take it with you
Looks pretty much like Windows 7: This early Windows 8 prototype hides many of its features. Some hidden gems are already accessible (via some registry tweaks and DLL hacks), others require a yet to be unearthed "Red Pill" from Microsoft. (Click here for a full-size image.)

1. Windows Store

Microsoft enters the lucrative app market, no surprise here. While "Windows Store" (which is the company's name for the online app shop) obviously doesn't work in this early build, the related DLLs and XML resources are already in place and ready to be examined by a variety of tools, such as PE Explorer or Resource Hacker.

Windows Store file details reveal feature set. (Click here for a full-size image.)

All the basic features of any app store are also present in Windows Store -- such as the ability to browse through categories, make in-app purchases, rate apps, download trials and so forth. New, however, is the ability to "stream" apps to your PC, which could lead to a couple of scenarios: 1) an app could be launched instantly after the purchase -- no need to wait until it is fully downloaded; 2) apps could be hosted in the cloud so that users stream only the part of the app they need at any given moment. That would be convenient for someone who'd like a larger product, say an Office suite, on a tablet with limited disk space, or who'd like to access the app from another machine.

Windows 8 collects all apps in its own "Application Explorer" and categorizes each app as either an "Immersive" or a traditional "Desktop" application (see below for more on that):

This ribbonized "Application Explorer" is a gathering place for all traditional applications and tablet apps. (Click here for a full-size image.)

2. Two-class society

Windows 8 will come in two separate interfaces flavors -- one traditional UI that resembles Windows 7's Aero and one touch-friendly UI specifically tailored to tablets dubbed "Immersive UI". The latter isn't fully implemented (or is too well hidden) in the early Milestone build, yet some specific tablet applications have already been unlocked:

Internet Explorer Immersive: A touch-centric version of Microsoft's IE browser that includes just an address bar (which auto-hides), a browser history and a tabbed view.

Modern Reader: Microsoft's own implementation of a (basic) PDF viewer that has only bare navigation and bookmarking support. (Still, Adobe likely won't be too happy about this.)

System Settings: A touch-optimized "Control Panel" that caters to mobile needs, such as connectivity, time zone settings or device management.

These few tablet apps are literally the tip of the iceberg -- the entire UI has yet to be revealed. While digging through Windows 8's various files, I found hints suggesting that users will be able to switch between the traditional Windows 8 UI and the tablet UI, through what's codenamed the "UIPicker". Also, we've found traces of a "Dock" that is supposed to hold built-in Windows features (such as a search box) and 3rd party apps.

3. Boot in under 20 seconds?

Windows 8 sports a new Hybrid Boot mode which drastically reduces (cold) boot time and will most likely be the default boot option going forward. In essence, it's a combination of "Log Off" and "Hibernate" -- the moment users click on the shutdown button, Windows closes all running applications, logs off and then goes into hibernation mode. Instead of booting up regularly, which usually involves loading hundreds of files and initializing services, drivers and so forth, Windows 8 simply loads the single hibernation file into memory and presents you with the log on screen. I've benchmarked the results on two machines and came away impressed:

On two of my test rigs, Hybrid Boot cut boot time in half

However, Hybrid Boot works only if users actually shut down their machines. If a user restarts his or her machine, it boots up cold.

4. Automatic Maintenance

Microsoft puts a heavy emphasis on optimizing and increasing overall stability of Windows 8: A new "Automatic Maintenance" regularly checks for solutions to problems (via Windows Error Report), runs the .NET Optimization Service and defrags all hard disks automatically -- all of this happens while the PC is on idle, of course.

Automatic Maintenance tries to fix Windows problems, runs a disk defrag and an optimization service for .NET applications.

5. Disk Defragmenter

Speaking of defragmentation, the new Disk Defragmenter is finally capable of handling SSD drives and allows users to perform the TRIM command much easier than in Windows 7.

Disk Defragmenter with SSD ("Trim") support

In addition, I've found a new Windows service called "Spot Verifier". According to its descriptions and its related DLL files, it checks for bad sectors in real-time and marks them as "bad" in order to avoid data loss or damage. I've also dug up traces of some underlying file system changes that I couldn't quite make sense of, such as an entirely new file system driver called "NT Protogon FS driver", which looks like a kernel mode driver for some sort of (yet unknown) file system called Protogon. It's unclear, whether this is a major new file system or just some minor subsystem.

6. Performance boost

In the performance department, Microsoft has also made some serious improvements: After four weeks of productive use (and even putting it under the load of dozens of applications), Windows 8 somehow manages to perform snappier than an identically configured Windows 7 installation. The log on/off process, launching applications, doing heavy multitasking and performing day-to-day tasks is just a tad quicker -- Microsoft managed to reduce any delay there was and improve responsiveness.

7. Usability goal: Click reduction

Neither the traditional nor the classic Windows UI are anywhere near finished. Yet, Microsoft's usability department is busy simplifying the user interface and reducing overall complexity.

For example, once you connect to a public Wi-Fi, Windows 8 offers a new dialog to enter the user name and password to get online access:

Windows 7 users would need to connect to the Wi-Fi, open up a browser and then wait for the online provider's landing page to pop up.

8. Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer is the next tool that received (quite) a UI overhaul and a perfect example of where Microsoft reduces the steps necessary to perform tasks: Like it or not, Windows 8 is likely to come with a ribbonized version of Windows Explorer, as first revealed by Windows experts Paul Thurott and Rafael Rivera. While actually working with this explorer for a couple of weeks we have to admit that, despite its hideous look, it's absolutely wonderful to work with. Day-to-day file tasks are simpler and the ribbon adapts to the file contents (for example, "Music Tools" below. Click here for a full-size image).

9. ISO mounting

Additionally, Windows 8 sports its own ISO mounting tool, thus eliminating the need to go and download 3rd party tools, which are often riddled with annoying toolbars and ads.

10: Windows Time Machine

Last but not least, Microsoft finally managed to give its "Restore Previous Versions" (Volume Shadow Copy) feature a usable and intuitive interface: History Vault lets you go back in time and restore earlier versions of a folder - just in case you accidentally made some unwanted changes or deleted some of its contents, which is pretty similar to Apples Time Machine in Mac OS X. Click here for a full-size image

This is the kind of stuff that'll make all the usability fanatics go wild: Technology that has been there before, but which is (for the first time ever) actually easy to use and accessible to beginners.

More to come?

Windows 8 won't be available next year, but even this early build looks promising and we believe there is still tons of hidden stuff to be discovered. We'll keep you posted on our findings and Sinofsky's predictions.