'If the Royal Institution is sold, that's the end'

We must find a way to save the Royal Institution from having to sell its historic London home, says Nobel laureate Harry Kroto

Why is it important to save the Royal Institution (Ri)?
It is of tremendous historical importance. It's an iconic building not just for the UK but for the world, a focal point for the public understanding of science and a laboratory where people like Lawrence Bragg and Michael Faraday did cutting-edge research. It should be a world heritage site.

Could the Ri continue to exist if the building was sold?
No. It's impossible to move it out. You can move the National Gallery or the British Library, but not the Royal Institution. The institution is the building, and the building is the institution. If the building is sold, that's the end.

How bad is the Ri's financial plight?
I don't think people fully appreciate the problems that the institution faces, partly because the financial details haven't been divulged. People are bandying about numbers that are probably significantly lower than what is needed. As far as I can see we don't have a lot of time; it looks as though the plug is being pulled.

How did it come to this?
The problem has arisen partly because the Ri got into significant debt. But it has had two years to find a strategy to convince credible sponsors and it hasn't done it.

How much money is required?
Just to keep the doors open will require at least £2 million a year, meaning an endowment of £60 million. That doesn't include paying off the debt.

In the grand scheme of things, that's not a huge amount of money.
That's correct, but the question is whether we can put together something credible to pull in that sort of funding. The only viable solution I can see is for the Royal Society to enter into some sort of partnership which would provide a level of credibility that potential funders might find acceptable.

You have started a campaign to save the Ri...
Yes. I'm doing it as a private individual, but one who knows pretty much everyone who was involved in the institution prior to 2000, when the strategy that led to this demise was put in place.

How has the response been so far?
Amazing. I've received messages from all over the world. People recognise that the institution has global significance. Many see it as a shrine to electricity, the lifeblood of the modern world. But we can't just rely on that.

What does the Ri need to do to reinvent itself?
The institution has not moved with the times as much as it could have done, by recognising it could have a global role to play rather than a provincial or UK one. Its position as a central point for UK public understanding of science is already pretty healthy, but it doesn't bring much money. So it must become the platform for 21st-century educational science outreach on a global scale, by exploiting the potential of the internet.

Profile

Harry Kroto is a professor of chemistry at Florida State University. He won the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1996. His campaign to save the Ri is at Save21AlbemarleStreet

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Keppel Corp's net profit falls 22% on-year in Q4

SINGAPORE: Falling margins from building oil rigs has hit the bottomline of Keppel Corp.

Net profit for the world's leading rig builder fell 22 per cent on-year to S$305 million in the fourth quarter last year.

Still, full year profit for the conglomerate came in 15 per cent to S$2.24 billion.

Despite lower net profit in the three months ended Dec 31, Keppel Corp still declared a final dividend of 27 cents per share.

As part of its 45th anniversary, Keppel Corp is handing out more goodies to its shareholders.

The company has proposed to distribute one Keppel REIT unit for every five Keppel Corp shares.

That is about 27.4 cents per share based on Keppel REIT's closing price of S$1.37 on Thursday.

Together with the interim dividend of 18 cents, total distribution for 2012 will be 72.4 cents per share.

Keppel Corp said the lower net profit was partly due to lower contributions from its offshore and marine unit.

Offshore and Marine's contribution was 12 per cent lower from a higher base in 2011 when margins were at record highs. It contributes to half of Keppel Corp's net profits.

"Keen rivalry from Chinese and Korean yards have suppressed prices and squeezed margins on newbuilds," said Choo Chiau Beng, chief executive officer at Keppel Corp. "In 2013, we will be completing a record of 22 newbuild units."

Analysts remained upbeat of Keppel's prospects going forward.

They say their financial results still outperformed market expectations.

Keppel Corp expects crude oil prices to stay above US$100 per barrel, supporting the need for more global exploration and production.

But global challenges like the slower US economy and the eurozone crisis from last year will continue to pose uncertainties for Keppel Corp's business.

Keppel Corp's property arm, led by the listed Keppel Land, boosted the group's earnings.

Net profit for the property division was 2.5 times higher than in 2011, offsetting the lower earnings from business in the offshore and marine, and infrastructure.

But Keppel Corp does not expect its property arm to perform better this year.

This is because recognition from sales of completed units at its development Reflections at Keppel Bay is expected to be lower this financial year.

- CNA/xq

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Pebble smartwatch app clocks in for iOS, Android

Owners of the new Pebble smartwatch can now download an iOS or Android app to get even more out of the watch.

Available today, the iOS and Android versions offer a dashboard for your Pebble watch. You start by pairing your phone or
tablet with your watch via Bluetooth. Once they've been paired, the app offers several handy features.

You can install custom watch faces onto the Pebble. You can receive notices when new software updates are available for the Pebble. You can send test messages to your watch. You can also access how-to guides and contact Pebble tech support from your iOS device.

Of course, in order to use the app, you first need to buy the watch. So, what is the Pebble watch and how do you get one?

The $150 Pebble is a smartwatch, meaning it obviously does more than just tell the time.

The watch can sync with iPhones and
Android phones to notify you of incoming calls, e-mail, instant messages, and calendar appointments. The display uses e-paper technology, so you can more easily see it in direct sunlight. The watch also has the ability to run mobile apps, once such apps become available.

Like many innovative products, the Pebble kicked off through a Kickstarter campaign, which proved to be a true money maker. Last May, the watch easily hit its goal of $100,000 in funds, then went on to generate a total of $10.2 million from eager backers.

And now the watch is finally off the assembly line. The Pebble people announced yesterday that the first 500 units are being shipped to the earliest Kickstarter backers. But more are expected soon. The company said its factory is making 800 to 1,000 Pebbles per day and is striving to reach full capacity of 2,400 a day.

People who didn't get in on the Kickstarter action and want the watch can preorder one for $150 at Pebble's Web site. But you'll naturally have to wait until the backers get theirs.

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Deformed Dolphin Accepted Into New Family

In 2011, behavioral ecologists Alexander Wilson and Jens Krause of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany were surprised to discover that a group of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus)—animals not usually known for forging bonds with other species—had taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).

The researchers observed the group in the ocean surrounding the Azores (map)—about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal—for eight days as the dolphin traveled, foraged, and played with both the adult whales and their calves. When the dolphin rubbed its body against the whales, they would sometimes return the gesture.

Among terrestrial animals, cross-species interactions are not uncommon. These mostly temporary alliances are forged for foraging benefits and protection against predators, said Wilson.

They could also be satisfying a desire for the company of other animals, added marine biologist John Francis, vice president for research, conservation, and exploration at the National Geographic Society (the Society owns National Geographic news).

Photographs of dogs nursing tiger cubs, stories of a signing gorilla adopting a pet cat, and videos of a leopard caring for a baby baboon have long circulated the web and caught national attention.

A Rare Alliance

And although dolphins are known for being sociable animals, Wilson called the alliance between sperm whale and bottlenose dolphin rare, as it has never, to his knowledge, been witnessed before.

This association may have started with something called bow riding, a common behavior among dolphins during which they ride the pressure waves generated by the bow of a ship or, in this case, whales, suggested Francis.

"Hanging around slower creatures to catch a ride might have been the first advantage [of such behavior]," he said, adding that this may have also started out as simply a playful encounter.

Wilson suggested that the dolphin's peculiar spinal shape made it more likely to initiate an interaction with the large and slow-moving whales. "Perhaps it could not keep up with or was picked on by other members of its dolphin group," he said in an email.

Default

But the "million-dollar question," as Wilson puts it, is why the whales accepted the lone dolphin. Among several theories presented in an upcoming paper in Aquatic Mammals describing the scientists' observations, they propose that the dolphin may have been regarded as nonthreatening and that it was accepted by default because of the way adult sperm whales "babysit" their calves.

Sperm whales alternate their dives between group members, always leaving one adult near the surface to watch the juveniles. "What is likely is that the presence of the calves—which cannot dive very deep or for very long—allowed the dolphin to maintain contact with the group," Wilson said.

Wilson doesn't believe the dolphin approached the sperm whales for help in protecting itself from predators, since there aren't many dolphin predators in the waters surrounding the Azores.

But Francis was not so quick to discount the idea. "I don't buy that there is no predator in the lifelong experience of the whales and dolphins frequenting the Azores," he said.

He suggested that it could be just as possible that the sperm whales accepted the dolphin for added protection against their own predators, like the killer whale (Orcinus orca), while traveling. "They see killer whales off the Azores, and while they may not be around regularly, it does not take a lot of encounters to make [other] whales defensive," he said.

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Exterminator Charged in Pa. Doctor's Murder

An exterminator named Joseph Smith was arrested and charged today in the strangling and burning death of Philadelphia pediatrician Melissa Ketunuti.

Smith, 36, had been sent to Ketunuti's home on a service call where the two got into "some kind of argument" in Ketunuti's basement on Monday, Capt. James Clark of the Philadelphia police department said this morning.

"At her home they got into an argument. It went terribly wrong. He struck her, and knocked her to the ground," Clark said. "Immediately he jumped on top of her, started strangling her. She passed out, and then he set her body on fire."

Clark said Smith burned the woman's body "to hide evidence like DNA." He said "at some point, he bound her up." The doctor was found with her hands and feet tied behind her back.

The captain said that before today's arrest Smith's record consisted of only "minor traffic offenses."

Pa. Doctor Killing: Person of Interest in Custody Watch Video

Philadelphia Doctor's Murder Leaves Police Baffled Watch Video

Police received a call from Ketunuti's dog-walker about the house fire around 12:30 p.m. Monday, and once inside found Ketunuti with her hands and feet bound. They believe Smith hit her and strangled her with a rope, causing her to pass out, and then bound her body and set fire to it in order to destroy evidence, including DNA evidence.

Ketunuti, 35, was fully clothed and police do not believe she was sexually assaulted.

She was a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and had lived alone in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood of the city for about three years.

Clark said that homicide detectives scoured the neighborhood for surveillance videos from nearby stores and businesses, and through the video identified the suspect.

Smith was spotted on video getting out of the vehicle and following Ketunuti to her home. The man left her home after an hour and was seen on video circling her home.

Detectives drove to Clark's home in Levittown, Pa., outside of Philadelphia where he lives with a girlfriend and her child, on Wednesday night and brought him back to the Philadelphia police station.

A silver Ford truck was towed from Smith's home, which was the same truck spotted on surveillance video Monday in Ketunuti's neighborhood, sources told ABC News affiliate WPVI.

There, he gave statements that led police to charge him with the murders, Clark said.

Smith will face charges of murder, arson, and abuse of a corpse.

Ketunuti's hospital issued a statement Tuesday that she was "a warm, caring, earnest, bright young woman with her whole future ahead of her," adding that she will be deeply missed.

"[She was] super pleasant, really nice," one neighbor said. "Just super friendly."

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Pure colour mixing gets laser power

Jeff Hecht, consultant

(Image: Alexander R. Albrecht, University of New Mexico)

The three coloured jets aren't what they seem. They look like fluids dyed different colours mixing to make a clear liquid. But all the water is clear: the colour comes from red, green and blue lasers. This photo won Alexander Albrecht of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque first prize in the 2012 After Image photo contest run by Optics & Photonics News.

The colours seem to be flowing through the jets because an effect called total internal reflection is confining the laser beams. Each laser is aimed along the centre of a jet. As the jet bends, the light hits the boundary between water and air at a glancing angle, so it is reflected back into the water and travels further along it. If the light is to travel all the way down the jet, the surface of the jet must be smooth and even to keep the light and the water from breaking up in turbulence. Some light passing through the water jet scatters out of it by bouncing off water molecules, an effect called Rayleigh scattering.

Physicist Daniel Colladon first demonstrated light guiding along a water jet in 1841. Another physicist, John Tyndall, later repeated the demonstration in his popular lectures at the Royal Institution in London. The effect is credited with inspiring concepts from illuminated fountains to fibre optics.

The red, green and blue laser beams mix together to make white light because they are the same intensity and match the human eye's three colour receptors. Combining different blends of these three primary colours can produce the whole range of colour visible to the human eye, including colours such as pink and brown which are not in the rainbow or solar spectrum. Video displays produce images in the same way, by modulating the brightness of tiny red, green and blue emitters across the whole screen.

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Japan presses Algeria for answers as toll hits nine

ALGIERS: A senior Japanese official met Algeria's prime minister on Wednesday to press for an explanation of the gas plant siege, as Tokyo confirmed the deaths of two more nationals, taking its toll to nine.

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Shunichi Suzuki arrived aboard a government jet that is to repatriate the bodies of those known to have been killed in the hostage crisis, along with the seven Japanese who survived.

Tokyo announced late Wednesday that it knew for sure that nine Japanese were killed after Islamist gunmen overran the desert facility. One Japanese citizen remains unaccounted for.

"Unfortunately, we have been able to confirm two more deaths," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. "The Japanese government expresses sincere condolences to the families and people concerned."

"The use of violence cannot be tolerated for any reason. We firmly condemn acts of terror," he said adding the government would do its utmost to confirm the fate of the final missing person.

Seventeen Japanese were at the facility in In Amenas when jihadists struck last Wednesday at the start of a four-day siege that left dozens of foreigners dead. Seven of them made it to safety.

Suzuki carried a letter to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika from Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Suga told reporters in Tokyo earlier.

As well as Prime Minister Abdelmalek Saleki, Suzuki also met Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci, Japan's Kyodo News reported, citing Tokyo's foreign ministry.

Japan has asked Algeria to fully investigate events at the gas plant and exactly how individuals died, Suga said in Tokyo.

"Algeria has promised to cooperate as much as possible," he said.

Algeria has said 37 foreigners of eight different nationalities and an Algerian were killed in the siege, which ended on Saturday.

Several people are still missing and the bodies of others are so badly charred that they have not been identified.

Wednesday's visit came as it emerged that Britain, Japan, the United States and other countries whose nationals were caught up in the events at the In Amenas plant issued a joint demarche to Algeria last Friday.

A demarche is a formal diplomatic move in which a country's stance is conveyed in person -- rather than by note -- to another government.

In a conference telephone call, vice foreign minister Minoru Kiuchi told foreign minister Medelci that Tokyo wanted Algiers to do all it could to protect captives.

"Japan is strongly concerned about acts that put the lives of the hostages at risk, and it is regrettable that the Algerian government pressed military rescue operations," he said, according to the foreign ministry.

Japan was among the more forthright of nations as the hostage crisis unfolded, summoning Algiers' ambassador to demand answers and to push for military restraint as armed forces surrounded the plant.

The Japanese plane's arrival in Algiers came as Tokyo announced it was shutting its embassy in neighbouring Mali, evacuating staff and urging its nationals there to leave because of the deteriorating security situation.

The kidnappers claimed they launched their attack in protest at Algeria's complicity in a French military campaign against Islamists in Mali.

The Japanese death toll in Algeria -- the highest in a terror attack since Al-Qaeda crashed airliners into New York's Twin Towers when 24 Japanese died -- has shaken a country not accustomed to its citizens being made targets abroad.

There has been blanket media coverage of events half a world away and anguished demands for more to be done to protect Japanese working in trouble spots, including beefing up spy networks.

Kyodo on Wednesday said Suga indicated Tokyo's willingness to consider increasing the number of defence attaches at Japanese embassies to strengthen the country's ability to gather information.

"I am aware of the need. We need to think about the most effective (crisis-response) measures," Suga said.

-AFP/ac

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Apple, Google, others agreed not to poach workers, reveal e-mails

Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe, and other companies had agreements in place during the mid-2000s not to steal employees from each other and other technology players.

A series of e-mails posted today by The Verge point to a paper trail of non-poaching agreements among a variety of companies.

The revelation follows a civil lawsuit filed in 2011 by five workers against Apple, Google, and others alleging that the companies purposely tried to keep down wages through non-poaching agreements.

In one case made public yesterday, then Palm CEO Edward Colligan said he received a call from Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2007 suggesting a non-poaching agreement between the two companies. After pointing out that such an arrangement was "likely illegal," Colligan said Jobs suggested that if Palm didn't agree, Palm could face patent infringement lawsuits from Apple.

But the reported exchange between Jobs and Colligan seems to be the tip of the iceberg.

In one e-mail displayed by the Verge, Jobs asked Google CEO Eric Schmidt to stop recruting people from
Apple's iPod group.

In another message, a senior staffing stategist at Google told Schmidt that a recruiter who tried to hire an Apple employee was to be fired. Schmidt's response? "I would prefer that Omid do it verbally since I don't want to create a paper trail over which we can be sued later? Not sure about this."

Other e-mails traveled throughout Silicon Valley. A message from Intel CEO Paul Otellini points to an agreement with Google but cautions that "we have nothing signed. We have a handshake 'no-recruit' between eric and myself. I would not like this broadly known."

A memo from Intel says that people from Pixar cannot be recruited, adding that if someone from Pixar applies for a job, the CEO of Pixar needs to be contacted for approval.

Some companies actually maintained lists of firms that were off limits for talent acquisition.

A document from Adobe warned staffers not to recruit workers from Apple, Bell Canada, EMC, SAP, and others. An Apple document placed Microsoft, Google, Intel, Pixar, and a host of others on the do-not-call list. A Google document cautioned against contacting potential hires from Intel, Apple, PayPal, Comcast, and Genentech, saying that Google has "special agreements" with these companies.

The civil suit is being weighed by Judge Lucy Koh to determine if it can move forward as a class-action suit, says Reuters. If so, that could pave the wave for a bigger settlement.

Attorneys for the plantiffs claim damages could reach hundreds of millions of dollars. But Koh said that analysis had "holes," Reuters added.

In 2010, Apple, Adobe, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar settled with the Justice Department by promising to end non-poaching agreements.

CNET contacted Apple, Intel, and Google for comment and will update the story if we receive any information.

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Pictures: Trout vs. Trout in Yellowstone Lake

Photograph by Jay Fleming

Without aggressive management, the population of Yellowstone cutthroats could be decimated. To suppress the population of lake trout, the National Park Service engaged a contract fishing company to net them. Cutthroats are removed carefully from the traps and thrown back. Lake trout are removed and killed. Last year about 300,000 of the non-native intruders were taken from the lake.

Published January 22, 2013

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Clinton Says Budget Cuts Undermine Security

An energized Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood her ground today, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she has overseen plans to secure diplomatic outposts around the world while cuts in State Department funding undermine those efforts.

Citing a report by the department's Accountability Review Board on the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, during an attack last year, Clinton said the board is pushing for an increase in funding to facilities of more than $2 billion per year.

"Consistent shortfalls have required the department to prioritize available funding out of security accounts," Clinton told the Senate this morning, while again taking responsibility for the Benghazi attack. "And I will be the first to say that the prioritization process was at times imperfect, but as the ARB said, the funds provided were inadequate. So we need to work together to overcome that."

Clinton, showing little effect from her recent illnesses, choked up earlier in discussing the Benghazi attack.

"I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews," Clinton said this morning, her voice growing hoarse with emotion. "I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters."

The outgoing secretary of state was the only witness to giving long-awaited testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee this morning, and will appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 2 p.m.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

Hillary Clinton's Fiery Moment at Benghazi Hearing Watch Video

Hillary Clinton to Testify on Benghazi Consulate Attack Watch Video

Hillary Clinton Suffers Concussion After Fainting Watch Video

The secretary, who postponed her testimony in December, started today by giving context to the terrorist attack.

"Any clear-eyed examination of this matter must begin with this sobering fact," Clinton began. "Since 1988, there have been 19 Accountability Review Boards investigating attacks on American diplomats and their facilities."

But the secretary did not deny her role in the failures, saying that as secretary of state, she has "no higher priority and no greater responsibility" than protecting American diplomats abroad like those killed in Benghazi.

"As I have said many times, I take responsibility, and nobody is more committed to getting this right," Clinton said. "I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and more secure."

Among the steps Clinton has taken, she said, is to "elevate the discussion and the decision-making to make sure there's not any" suggestions that get missed, as there were in this case.

Clinton testified that the United States needs to be able to "chew gum and walk at the same time," working to shore up its fiscal situation while also strengthening security, and she refuted the idea that across-the-board cuts slated to take place in March, commonly referred to as sequestration, were the way to do that.

"Now sequestration will be very damaging to the State Department and USAID if it does come to pass, because it throws the baby out with the bath," Clinton said, referring to the United States Agency for International Development, which administers civilian foreign aid.

While the State Department does need to make cuts in certain areas, "there are also a lot of very essential programs … that we can't afford to cut more of," she added.

More than four months have passed since the attack killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya. These meetings, during which Clinton discussed the report on State Department security failures by the Accountability Review Board, were postponed because of her recent illness.

Clinton told the Senate that the State Department is on track to have 85 percent of action items based on the recommendations in the Accountability Review Board report accomplished by March, with some already implemented.

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