"Promoting marriage & parenthood" central to keeping S'porean core

SINGAPORE: Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu has spoken about what it means by keeping the Singaporean core at the heart of the country's population policies.

She made the comments on day two of the parliamentary debate on the White Paper on Population and Land Use Plan.

Ms Fu said promoting marriage and parenthood is central to maintaining a strong Singaporean core.

And allowing immigration does not mean the government takes its marriage and parenthood objectives less seriously.

But authorities are realistic about how birth rates can improve. Hence the need to supplement the population with a calibrated pace of immigrants.

On concerns over the loss of the Singaporean identity with more foreigners in the midst, Ms Fu said integration efforts are a critical complement to the immigration policy and important in strengthening the Singaporean core.

Ms Fu added that integration efforts are being stepped up.

"In our deliberations on what is the best way forward for Singapore, Singaporeans were at the heart of our considerations, and a strong Singaporean core was our objective. What does this mean?

"In my view, a strong Singaporean core is one where Singaporeans have a sense of well-being and belonging in a place where we can all call 'home'.

"Well-being comes both from the tangibles - having fulfilling jobs and a good quality living environment - as well as the intangibles - strong supportive families, values that connect us and a collective hope for a brighter future."

- CNA/ir

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Twitter hack may have targeted elected officials, journalists

Although Twitter hasn't revealed who may have been victimized in last week's suspected massive account hack, an analysis suggests that accounts with high levels of influence may have been among those affected.

Within days of accusations that hackers in China were responsible for network breaches at The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, the microblogging site revealed Friday that about 250,000 accounts might have been compromised. In e-mails to affected users, Twitter said it reset passwords for accounts it suspected of being compromised after identifying unauthorized attempts to access Twitter user data.

"This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," Twitter said in a company blog post Friday explaining its action. "The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked."

Now it appears that key media outlets, high-level elected officials, and influential journalists and tech figures may have been affected, including the Twitter account of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Seventeen percent of the 100 most influential accounts in politics were possibly affected, including House Speaker John Boehner (@johnboehner), House Majority leader Eric Cantor (@EricCantor), and Republican tech strategist Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini), according to analysis by PeerReach.

Because of the hackers' attack -- which could have been intended to snare influential tech figures -- 70 percent of PeerReach's Webtech top 100 list, including @TechCrunch, Evan Williams (@ev), Tim O'Reilly (@timoreilly), Fred Wilson (@fredwilson), Om Malik (@om), and Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), were among those whose Twitter accounts had their passwords reset, the analyst reported, noting that the impacted accounts appeared to be early adopters who launched their accounts prior to 2007.

Meanwhile, 22 percent of the account linked to the analyst's list of 100 most influential media outlets may also have been breached, according to PeerReach, including @nytimes, @reuters, @cnn, and @foxnews.

Despite the password reset, PeerReach notes that because many users recycle their credentials on a variety of sites, the hack still poses a threat:

If the hackers have 250,000 encrypted passwords in their possession they have all time of the world to break these passwords. Although the compromised accounts are forced to change their passwords, many are likely to have re-used passwords for other applications such as email, domain names and other critical services. This gives the criminals great possibilities, in combination with Social Engineering, to continue their campaign against other media sources.

CNET has contacted Twitter for comment on PeerReach's conclusions and will update this report when we learn more.

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Space Pictures This Week: A Space Monkey, Printing a Moon Base

Illustration courtesy Foster and Partners/ESA

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced January 31 that it is looking into building a moon base (pictured in an artist's conception) using a technique called 3-D printing.

It probably won't be as easy as whipping out a printer, hooking it to a computer, and pressing "print," but using lunar soils as the basis for actual building blocks could be a possibility.

"Terrestrial 3-D printing technology has produced entire structures," said Laurent Pambaguian, head of the project for ESA, in a statement.

On Earth, 3-D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, produces a three-dimensional object from a digital file. The computer takes cross-sectional slices of the structure to be printed and sends it to the 3-D printer. The printer bonds liquid or powder materials in the shape of each slice, gradually building up the structure. (Watch how future astronauts could print tools in space.)

The ESA and its industrial partners have already manufactured a 1.7 ton (1.5 tonne) honeycombed building block to demonstrate what future construction materials would look like.

—Jane J. Lee

Published February 4, 2013

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Sarai Sierra's 2 Young Boys Don't Know Mom's Dead

The two young sons of slain New York mom Sarai Sierra are under the impression that their father has gone to Turkey to bring their mother home - alive.

Sierra, whose battered body was found near a highway in Istanbul over the weekend, was the mother of two boys aged 9 and 11.

Steven Sierra, who went to Istanbul in search of his wife after she disappeared nearly two weeks ago, told his children that he was going to Turkey to bring their mom home.

"The father will be speaking to them and it's something that's going to be hard and he's going to be talking to them when he comes back," Betsy Jimenez, the mother of Sarai Sierra, said today during a family news conference.

State Representative Michael Grimm said Steven Sierra's biggest concern is telling his children that mom's not coming home.

"It's going to be the hardest thing he's ever going to have to do in his life," said Grimm, who added that the Staten Island family isn't sure when Steven Sierra will be able to bring home his wife's body.

An autopsy was completed Sunday on Sarai Sierra, 33, but results aren't expected for three months. Turkish officials however said she was killed by at least one fatal blow to her head.

A casket holding the Staten Island mother was carried through alleyways lined with spice and food stalls to a church, where the casket remained on Monday.

Turkish police hope DNA samples from 21 people being questioned in the case will be key to finding the perpetrators, the Associated Press reported, according to state run media.

Sarai Sierra's Body Found: Missing New York Mom Found in Turkey Watch Video

Body Found in Search for Missing Mother in Turkey Watch Video

Vanished Abroad: US Woman Missing in Turkey Watch Video

Earlier this week, it was also reported that Turkish police are speaking to a local man who was supposed to meet Sierra the day she disappeared, but he said she never showed.

After an intense search for Sierra that lasted nearly two weeks, her body was found Saturday near the ruins of some ancient city walls and a highway. Sierra was wearing the same outfit she was seen wearing on surveillance footage taken at a food court and on a street the day she vanished, Istanbul Police Chief Huseyin Capkin said.

Sierra's body was taken to a morgue, Capkin said, and was identified by her husband.

It did not appear she had been raped or was involved in any espionage or trafficking, Capkin said.

Betsy Jimenez said Monday that her family has many unanswered questions such as what happened to her daughter after she left her hotel room to go and take photographs of a famous bridge.

"They're still investigating so they might think it might be a robbery, but they're not sure," said Jimenez.

Sierra, who had traveled to Istanbul on Jan. 7 to practice her photography hobby, was last heard from on Jan. 21, the day she was due to board a flight home to New York City.

Dennis Jimenez, Sierra's father, told reporters Monday that he didn't want her to go on the trip.

"I didn't want her to go. But, she wanted to go because this was an opportunity for her to sightsee and pursue her photography hobby because Turkey was a land rich with culture and ancient history and she was fascinated with that," said Jimenez.

While in Istanbul, Sierra would Skype with her family and friends daily, telling them about how amazing the culture was.

Sierra's best friend Maggie Rodriguez told ABC News that she was forced to pull out of the trip at the last minute because she couldn't afford it. That's why Sierra traveled alone.

Her husband, Steven Sierra, and brother, David Jimenez, traveled to Istanbul last Sunday to meet with American and Turkish officials and push the search forward.

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Bug protects itself by turning its environment to gold

Mythical King Midas was ultimately doomed because everything he touched turned to gold. Now, the reverse has been found in bacteria that owe their survival to a natural Midas touch.

Delftia acidovorans lives in sticky biofilms that form on top of gold deposits, but exposure to dissolved gold ions can kill it. That's because although metallic gold is unreactive, the ions are toxic.

To protect itself, the bacterium has evolved a chemical that detoxifies gold ions by turning them into harmless gold nanoparticles. These accumulate safely outside the bacterial cells.

"This could have potential for gold extraction," says Nathan Magarvey of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, who led the team that uncovered the bugs' protective trick. "You could use the bug, or the molecules they secrete."

He says the discovery could be used to dissolve gold out of water carrying it, or to design sensors that would identify gold-rich streams and rivers.

The protective chemical is a protein dubbed delftibactin A. The bugs secrete it into the surroundings when they sense gold ions, and it chemically changes the ions into particles of gold 25 to 50 nanometres across. The particles accumulate wherever the bugs grow, creating patches of gold.

Deep purple gold

But don't go scanning streams for golden shimmers: the nanoparticle patches do not reflect light in the same way as bigger chunks of the metal – giving them a deep purple colour.

When Magarvey deliberately snipped out the gene that makes delftibactin A, the bacteria died or struggled to survive exposure to gold chloride. Adding the protein to the petri dish rescued them.

The bacterium Magarvey investigated is one of two species that thrive on gold, both identified a decade or so ago by Frank Reith of the University of Adelaide in Australia. In 2009 Reith discovered that the other species, Cupriavidus metallidurans, survives using the slightly riskier strategy of changing gold ions into gold inside its cells.

"If delftibactin is selective for gold, it might be useful for gold recovery or as a biosensor," says Reith. "But how much dissolved gold is out there is difficult to say."

Journal reference: Nature Chemical Biology, DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.1179

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Population White Paper for benefit of all Singaporeans: DPM Teo

SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean has presented in Parliament the White Paper on Population, a roadmap to address Singapore's demographic challenges.

The Land Use Plan was presented along with the White Paper.

The White Paper comes on the back of a shrinking and greying population in Singapore.

The minister's speech delved straight into addressing the concerns Singaporens have raised over the past week following the White Paper's release.

First, the projected population of 6.9 million by 2030.

Mr Teo said the White Paper in fact is proposing a major shift - a significant slowdown in Singapore's rate of workforce and population growth.

For example, population growth rate is in fact projected to drop to about half the historical growth rate.

He added the government is not deciding on a population of 6.9 million by 2030.

The figure, he stressed, is only to prepare infrastructure plans.

What the population will be like in 2030, he said, will depend on the needs of Singaporeans.

"It is the ability to meet the needs of Singaporeans and provide a good quality of life that is the drive, that's our objective. It's not the numbers per se. If we are able to achieve all that with a smaller population, whether 6.5 million or lower, there is no reason to go higher, but it's prudent to plan our infrastructure at the upper end of the range so we don't get caught up," said Mr Teo.

- CNA/ir

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How Oreo created the tweet that won the Super Bowl

This ad, included in a tweet from Oreo, won the Super Bowl Sunday night.

(Credit:
Oreo)

Anyone watching the Super Bowl this evening saw a great game -- and one of the greatest embarrassments in pro sports history: a power outage that halted play for a full half hour.

As the eventual champion Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers -- and tens of thousands inside New Orleans' Superdome and millions watching on TV -- waited, Oreo came up with an idea so brilliant and bold that it out and out won the night.

"Power out? No problem," the tweet read, along with a hastily-put together image of an ad showing an Oreo and the brilliant tag line, "You can still dunk in the dark."

The tweet caught fire, and as of this writing had been retweeted 13,734 times.

So how did the cookie company act so fast, and get so many talking -- all with minimal time available, and negligible expense?

While CNET reached out to Oreo in search of the answer, it was Buzzfeed that got the scoop. Apparently, it was the very quick thinking of the company's agency, 360i:

"We had a mission control set up at our office with the brand and 360i, and when the blackout happened, the team looked at it as an opportunity," agency president Sarah Hofstetter told BuzzFeed. "Because the brand team was there, it was easy to get approvals and get it up in minutes."

Oreo had already aired a solid TV ad with their "Cookie or Creme" spot. But they were ready to capitalize on social media as well when the lights went out.

"The big question is, what happens when everything changes, when you go off script?," Hofstetter said. "That was where it got fun."

The key? Having OREO executives in the room, and ready to pull the trigger.

Other brands, of course, took to Twitter -- and Twitter's video service, Vine -- during the blackout.

Some examples:

Calvin Klein used Vine to tempt some fans with a buff male model working out:

And Tide tried to convince people it could help them with their laundry:

All told, the Super Bowl was yet another big win for Twitter. According to the official Twitter blog, there were more than 24.1 million tweets about the game, the ads, and the halftime show. But no matter how good the game itself was, the peak of interest on Twitter came during the blackout, when there were 231,500 tweets per minute, and during Beyonce's halftime show, when 268,000 tweets per minute marked the end of her show.

As for actual football? The top moment was the kickoff for a touchdown by the Ravens' Jacoby Jones, which compelled 185,000 tweets per minute, a tad more than the 183,000 tweets per minute that came when the Ravens sealed the deal.

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. With the help of a prosthetic leg, Exantus is able to dance again. (Read about his comeback.)

Why We Love It

"This is an intimate photo, taken in the subject's most personal space as he lies asleep and vulnerable, perhaps unaware of the photographer. The dancer's prosthetic leg lies in the foreground as an unavoidable reminder of the hardships he faced in the 2010 earthquake. This image makes me want to hear more of Georges' story."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

"This image uses aesthetics and the beauty of suggestion to tell a story. We are not given all the details in the image, but it is enough to make us question and wonder."—Janna Dotschkal, associate photo editor

Published February 1, 2013

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Ravens Defeat 49ers in Historic, Unusual Super Bowl

The Baltimore Ravens emerged Super Bowl champions after one of the strangest and most incredible Super Bowl games in recent memory.

It's the second championship for the Ravens, who pulled out a 34-31 win over the San Francisco 49ers at the Superdome in New Orleans.

The Super Bowl is the biggest spectacle in American sports, and each year becomes the most watched television event in history. This year, Jennifer Hudson kicked things off with a touching performance of "America the Beautiful" with a choir of students from Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Alicia Keys accompanied herself on the piano for a long, jazzy rendition of the national anthem, before the coin toss which resulted in San Francisco receiving to start the first half.

Although the game looked at one point like it was going to be a completely unexpected blow-out, with the Ravens leading 28-6 at the beginning of the 3rd quarter, the 49ers got some unusual help that turned the showdown into a much more exciting battle.

About a third of the way into the 3rd quarter, right after a record-tying Ravens rushing touchdown, the power went out at the Superdome, knocking the lights and air conditioning out in the indoor stadium. The crowd of more than 71,000 strong, along with a lot of antsy players, coaches, and staff waited for 34 minutes for the power to fully come back on and the game to resume.

Chris Graythen/Getty Images

Super Bowl 2013: Beyonce Rocks the Halftime Show Watch Video

Super Bowl 2013: Alicia Keys Sings 'The Star-Spangled Banner' Watch Video

Super Bowl 2013: Jennifer Hudson, Sandy Hook Students Perform Watch Video

In a statement, the NFL said authorities were "investigating the cause of the power outage," and law enforcement sources told ABC News it was just an issue with the building.

That didn't stop many people on Twitter from jokingly blaming Beyonce, the energetic halftime performer who surprisingly reunited shortly with her former band Destiny's Child, for shutting down the power. After her performance, even her husband Jay-Z got in on it, tweeting "Lights out!!! Any questions??"

VIDEO: Super Bowl 2013: Beyonce Rocks the Halftime Show

The 49ers quickly followed the long delay with a touchdown, getting themselves right back into the game. Then just a few minutes later, they found themselves in the end zone again, and it appeared the power outage had flipped the momentum towards the 49ers.

With a score of 31-29 with more than 7 minutes left in the game, San Francisco looked poised to make the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history, but the team, trying for its 6th title, wasn't able to overcome the Ravens lead.

Baltimore was able to run out the clock, and the game ended with a final score of 34-31. Purple and gold confetti fell as the Ravens rushed onto the field and celebrated -- with some colorful language from quarterback Joe Flacco audible on the live broadcast, who was caught saying, "f***ing awesome" on CBS' cameras.

The game was already historic thanks to the match-up for John and Jim Harbaugh, the first head coach brothers to ever face each other on football's biggest stage. It was also the final game for the future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis, who is, as of the conclusion of the game retired from football.

This is the fifth season in a row that the Ravens have made it to the playoffs, led by Coach John Harbaugh, and SB XLVII MVP Quarterback Joe Flacco. It's the team's first Lombardi trophy since 2000. Their victor tonight made them the only team left in the NFL to have never lost a Super Bowl in multiple appearances.

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Sneaky ninja robot silently stalks its prey

MOVE over David Attenborough. A robot that moves only when it won't be seen or heard might make it easier to sneak up on animals and film them in the wild.

Defence labs have built robots that track people through cities, avoiding well-lit areas. But cities are noisy, so if a robot keeps a certain distance it's unlikely to be heard. Tracking and filming animals in the wild is tougher because they often have keen hearing and the environment is usually quieter. Matthew Dunbabin and his collaborator Ashley Tewes at the CSIRO Autonomous Systems Laboratory in Brisbane, Australia, are teaching a four-wheeled robot to move only when intermittent sounds - like bird or frog calls - will mask its movements.

In tests, the robot picked up the sounds of things like fork-lifts, cellphones and birds, and was able to predict whether they were likely to persist long enough to cover its movement. The robot can also identify its own noise, and guess how it will vary at different speeds and turning angles - calculating what this will sound like to a target up to 50 metres away.

With the help of a camera, laser scanner and the right algorithm, the robot can figure out which vantage points will provide the best cover so it can skulk in the shadows.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Sneaky ninja robot silently films its prey"

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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