Penguin Poop Seen From Space, Reveals New Colonies

WASHINGTON — Scientists looking for lost penguins stumbled upon an effective method: Follow their poop from space.

In remote Antarctica, about one-and-a-half times bigger than the United States, researchers have been unable to figure out just where colonies of emperor penguins live and if their population is in peril.

It's harder still because emperor penguins, featured in the film "March of the Penguins," breed on sea ice, which scientists say will shrink significantly in the future because of global warming.

Because the large penguins stay on the same ice for months, their poop stains make them stand out from space.

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Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey found this out by accident when they were looking at satellite images of their bases. A reddish-brown streak on the colorless ice was right where they knew a colony was, said survey mapping scientist Peter Fretwell.

The stain was penguin poo — particularly smelly stuff — and it gave researchers an idea to search for brown stains to find penguins. They found the same telltale trail, usually dark enough to spot from space, all over the continent, said Fretwell by telephone from England.

Using satellite data, the scientists found 10 new colonies of penguins, six colonies that had moved from previously mapped positions to new spots and another six that seemed to have disappeared. Overall, 38 colonies were spotted from above, according to Fretwell's paper, "Penguins From Space" in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

"It's a very important result scientifically, even though it's a lighthearted method," Fretwell said Monday.

Even though Antarctic sea ice hasn't melted so far, scientists predict it to shrink by one-third by the end of the century, potentially threatening the birds, Fretwell said.

The research is "incredibly useful," because the only time to see emperors are during breeding in winter when weather makes it nearly impossible to get to the colonies, said longtime penguin researcher William Fraser, who wasn't involved in the study. Fraser noted that salty penguin guano "over time will corrode your boots," adding that he has lost nearly a dozen pairs to poop in 35 years of penguin research.

Microsoft's New Search Engine Puts Porn in Motion

Your kids may get a bang out of Bing — and that's not a good thing, Internet safety experts warned on Monday.

Bing, Microsoft's new search engine (www.bing.com), went live in the U.S. this weekend, aiming to challenge and possibly unseat industry titan Google.

But bloggers and Internet safety experts quickly discovered that one of Bing's "features" is that it takes only a few clicks for anyone — of any age — to view explicit pornographic videos without even leaving the search engine.

In its bid to beat Google, Microsoft has unveiled a slate of convenient features for Bing, including an "autoplay" tool that lets users preview videos simply by hovering a mouse over them.

That asset may become a liability, because users can get a taste of porn videos on Bing instead of having to go to a smutty Web site — an innovation other search engines have yet to offer.

Technology blogger Loic Le Meur noticed the issue early Monday after testing video search on Bing.

What he found was a cornucopia of pornography that he said transformed the search engine into its very own pornographic Web site.

"You are now on a porn site without leaving Bing. Amazing," Le Meur wrote on his blog.

Bing, like other major search engines, lets users set filtering preferences at one of three levels — strict, moderate or simply off.

Online safety advocates argue that search engines need to do much more to cut off underage access to pornography — because the filters can be circumvented easily with just one click.
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"It's a no-brainer for any kid," said Donna Rice Hughes, president and chairwoman of Enough Is Enough, a group that works to help parents protect children from online porn.

"From the standpoint of the new state-of-the-art search engine, [the video preview] is a really neat thing of course," Hughes said. "The flipside of that is that you've got an abundance of pornography out there."

Content-filtering companies have also been reviewing Bing — and have found the same gaping problems.

With adult-content filters turned off, "Bing.com does at this point allow users to watch pornographic videos without ever leaving the site," said Forrest Collier, CEO of InternetSafety.com.

Parental filtering software such as SafeEyes, which is produced by Collier's company, can block any explicit or unwanted search results, he said.

CyberPatrol, another major safe software manufacturer, confirmed to FOXNews.com that its early tests had successfully blocked all illicit media during searches with Bing.

Hughes, the director of Enough Is Enough, said Microsoft and other search engines "need to make their filtered searches much more prominent and have an option for password protection" that parents could use to prevent kids from switching the controls around.

Microsoft said in a statement that it was up to users to turn off the filters, and provided instructions on how to toggle the settings on its blog.

"By default, Bing filters out explicit image and video results. Consumers must take action to turn off the Safe Search filter in their settings in order for explicit image or video content to appear in Bing's results," the statement read.

Other major search engines like Yahoo and Google come up with similar video and image results when electronic filters are turned off — but don't provide automatic playing of videos within the search-results page.

The abundance of pornography is something child health experts say is simply a fact of life.

"Kids can access pornography on the Internet no matter what the search engine is," Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, told FOXNews.com.

Walsh said it's particularly important that kids be protected from the worst excesses of pornography during their formative years.

"Because they're at the very age when they are developing their whole attitudes about sex and sexuality," he said, it's bad for them to be visiting porn sites, "where sex is basically a commodity to be bought and sold and where women are treated like objects. The attitudes that they're going to pick up there are not the attitudes we want them to have for life."

Protecting kids from pornography or other potentially harmful materials must ultimately rest with parents, Walsh added.

"I don't know that search engines can be programmed to do the job that parents need to," he said.

Microsoft's New Xbox Motion Sensor Blows Wii Away

OS ANGELES — Go ahead and look in the mirror. You're looking at the latest game controller for Microsoft's Xbox 360.

That's right, it's you! Microsoft took the idea of the Nintendo Wii motion controller five steps further by allowing us to control our games with our bodies — there's nothing you have to hold.

It's called "Project Natal," which sounds like a top-secret government operation, or a new energy drink. Microsoft is known for changing the name of its products before they launch, and I sure hope it does in this case.

But despite the funky name, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor after seeing the demo during the Microsoft press conference on Monday at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles.


When you consider the underwhelming reception given to Windows Vista, the Surface interactive table, the Zune portable media player and Windows Mobile, it's not a stretch to say that Natal could be Microsoft's home run of the decade.

Natal uses cameras and a microphone mounted to a Wii-style sensor bar to detect the user. It recognizes movements, talking, and can even tell the difference between me and my grandma, and not just because she's better looking.

The system has plenty of goodies, such as voice and face recognition, video chatting and speech commands. After scrolling through your movies with a mid-air hand wave, just call out "Play movie!" and "Steel Magnolias" will start rolling. Love racing games? Why not grip an imaginary steering wheel and burn rubber?

Don't worry about buying a whole new console — Natal is an add-on accessory for all existing Xbox 360s. That's great news for gamers who are tired of shelling out big bucks every five years for a whole new system.

Of course, everything looks great on stage at a well-produced Hollywood-style event. The real test will come in your living room when Uncle Chester has to catch an imaginary fish with his imaginary rod at the next family gathering.
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If it's done right, every family will want this. If it's done wrong, you'll be dusting off your Wii bowling shoes and it will be a big embarrassment for Microsoft. But it certainly seems like Natal's got tons of potential.

It may be fun to play virtual horseshoes or lawn darts with your 5-year-old, but what's in it for hardcore gamers?

Microsoft Corporate Vice President John Schappert, who led the keynote address, told me that he's excited to see what happens now that developers are able to get their hands on the development kit for Natal.

Will we see "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" and "Halo" using this new controller-free technology? Schappert says that's what Microsoft is hoping for.

So that means you could be diving behind your couch to avoid an incoming grenade attack. Or jumping off the coffee table to ambush a Nazi in "Saboteur."

I recommend stretching first and wearing sweatpants.

E3 2009 Day One Wrap-Up

Day one of GameSpot's E3 2009 coverage started off strong with tons of announcements at the Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft press conferences.

The first day of E3 2009 was chock full of press conferences as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft showed of their lineups. Check out these highlights for the biggest news stories, previews, and movies of June 1 at E3. And if you missed seeing any of the press conferences live, be sure to catch up with our video archives!

Press Conferences

* Microsoft E3 2009 Press Conference
* Electronic Arts E3 2009 Press Conference

News

* MGS Rising PS3, PC-bound, new PSP MGS revealed?
* Assassin's Creed 2 dated, Mizuguchi project revealed at Ubisoft E3 event
* Full game downloads, Avatar Marketplace coming to Xbox Live
* Crackdown 2 powers to 360
* APB, EA MMA top EA's E3 event, EA Sports Active sells 600,000
* Motion-sensing camera, MGS 360 debut at Microsoft E3 event
* Metal Gear Solid Rising on 360
* Halo Reach arrives 2010
* Forza 3 cruising in October
* Final Fantasy XIII arriving spring 2010
* Left 4 Dead 2 due November 17
* The Beatles: Rock Band first songs revealed; full downloadable albums available postlaunch

Previews

* No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle Q&A - Suda51 Talks Travis Touchdown
* Homefront Exclusive Impressions - E3 First Look
* Splinter Cell: Conviction Updated Impressions
* Mass Effect 2 - EA Press Conference Impressions
* APB EA Press Conference Impressions
* The Beatles: Rock Band Microsoft Press Conference Impressions
* Star Wars: The Old Republic Exclusive Q&A - The Smuggler Profession and E3 2009
* Metal Gear Solid: Rising Trailer Impressions
* Alan Wake Microsoft Press Conference Impressions
* Halo 3: ODST Press Conference Demo Impressions
* Forza Motorsport 3 Microsoft Press Conference Impressions
* Shadow Complex Microsoft Press Conference Impressions
* Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Microsoft Press Conference Impressions
* Final Fantasy XIII Press Conference Impressions
* The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition First Look
* Dirt 2 Hands-On Impressions

Movies

* Assassin's Creed 2 Cinematic Trailer
* Left 4 Dead 2 Teaser Trailer
* Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction - Pushed to the Limits Trailer
* Dragon Age: Origins - Stage Demo Official Trailer
* APB - Taking Out the Bigger Guy Official Trailer
* Star Wars: The Old Republic - Deceived Cinematic Trailer
* Fight Night Round 4 Live Demo
* Brutal Legend Trailer: Cast
* Final Fantasy XIII Game Demo
* Halo 3: ODST Game Demo
* Alan Wake - E3 Stage Demo Gameplay Movie
* Forza Motorsport 3 Stage Demo
* Homefront Teaser Trailer
* Crysis 2 Teaser Trailer
* Modern Warfare 2 Press Conference Demo
* The Beatles: Rock Band Press Conference Trailer
* Halo Reach Multiplayer Beta Teaser Trailer

MGS Rising PS3, PC-bound, new PSP MGS revealed?

LOS ANGELES--Today at Microsoft's E3 Press Conference, one of the biggest news items was the announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Rising for the Xbox 360. As teased by designer Hideo Kojima at his Game Developers Conference keynote, the all-new title will star Raiden, the acrobatic supporting character of Metal Gear Solid 4 and star of Metal Gear Solid 2.

Coming to a PC and PS3 near you?

However, no sooner was the game revealed than confusion set in about what platforms it was being released for. It was revealed during the portion of the Microsoft press conference which corporate vice president John Schappert said was reserved for Xbox 360 console exclusives. However, the product page on Games Press--the UK-based press-release service relied upon by much of the games industry--is listing the game as coming to the PC and PlayStation 3 with a "TBA" launch date.

Unfortunately, Konami's ambiguously worded announcement of the game doesn't clarify the situation. It only describes MGS: Rising as "the first Metal Gear Solid game to launch on the Xbox 360." No mention is made of exclusivity of any kind, timed or not.

Adding to the Metal Gear Solid rumor gumbo is another Games Press listing for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PSP. Other than a wide-open 2010 release date, no other information is listed about the game, which could possibly be the subject of a second teaser site put up by Konami.

As of press time, Konami reps had not responded to requests for comment on either title. However, earlier today, Games Press was also the source of the premature announcement of Crysis 2 for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

Hands on With the Sims 3 for IPhone and IPod Touch

Become a kindly doctor. Or deck out your sweet apartment. Or become a reviled maniac who only talks to trees. All of these choices are yours when you play the Sims series of games. Easily the Electronic Arts' most anticipated title of this year, The Sims 3 will launch on June 2nd for not only the Mac and PC, but also the iPhone. iPhone owners can look forward to playing the mirth-filled, quirky, and addictive person simulator in a handy mobile version. The ambitious project aims to be the deepest, richest, and most graphically beautiful game released to the iPhone to date.

I sat down with Chris Dreyer, a product marketing manager at EA Mobile, and Sims 3 producer Justin Taber to preview what they claim is the "biggest game to date for EA Mobile."

At EA's Redwood Shores headquarters, I was lucky enough to get a personal preview of this exciting title. We started off by walking through the character design setup screen that defines the look of the player's avatar, the Sim. Despite the small platform, I was surprised by the high quality graphics and the level of depth for customizing your character. You can control weight, skin-color, facial features, clothing, hair, etc. After making my character, a mohawked dude with a nifty t-shirt, we walked him around his neighborhood.

Dreyer and Taber are calling the Sim's town a "living neighborhood" where players can experience robust interactions with the different Sim personalities. Dreyer cites the game's Artificial Intelligence -- AI -- is something they especially focused on; EA Mobile wanted to ensure the Sim could fend for itself in "self-reliant" mode and the other Sims in the world go can about their own daily routines. Fans of the previous editions of the Sims often cited the focus on bodily functions as an annoying chore, but with the Sims 3 you won't have to constantly make sure your Sim goes to the bathroom or eats. On self-reliant mode, Sims will take care of themselves, or you can override the feature and guide them yourself.

It's easy to guide your Sim around the world by tapping on the iPhone's touchscreen. We watched as my Sim talked to a new acquaintance and tried to make friends. If you're too forward, the other Sim your character is interacting with will think you're creepy. On the other hand, if they think your Sim is acting silly, they'll show genuine expressions of mirth. Conversations are displayed with little icons in speech bubbles, but they're actually not indicative of the topic of conversations Dreyer explained that the icons displayed in the conversation bubbles are random, which explains why your character may discuss toilets or corn-on-the-cob during a fire.

Not only can you interact with other Sims, but you can get a job, explore the world, and fill the individual Sim's wishes and needs. During the demo, Mr. Dreyer showed me how to command my Sim to cook. There's a cooking mini-game that requires the player to pick up the pots in order to have them cool. If you leave a pot on for too long, your food will be burnt and inedible. The interface, though small, was nonetheless intuitive. The cooking mini-game isn't just a side distraction, as the game progresses, your Sim can invite others over for dinner. Better not burn the spaghetti then.

There are some differences between the iPhone version and the Mac version, of course. Unlike the Mac version of Sims 3, recently previewed by Macworld, you won't be able to completely overhaul a house and spend hours focusing on its every detail. Instead, you can upgrade it as your Sim levels up. You can acquire bigger and more rooms, better furniture, etc. The developers sought to "ensure the core user experience was strong," explained Taber. The graphics and file sizes are less than the computer version, but they're nonetheless impressive for the iPhone platform.

In fact, this may be the first 3-D iPhone game to depict actual facial expressions. Like anything in the Sims universe, there are lots of little details throughout that will give players reason to smile and in many cases, laugh. The morbid sense of humor that accompanies the Sim universe is intact as well.

My favorite element of the game was the different personalities that you can play with and their own goals. If you select the "maniac" persona, you'll have some unique wishes and opportunities. You can satisfy your social interaction requirement by talking to trees. Your life goals may include peeing in every toilet in town. Or watching three people sleep.

The skeptic in me wonders if an intricate game like the Sims can be converted to a mobile platform so seamlessly. While the spirit of the Sims 3 seems to have been ported to the iPhone, I wonder if their attempts to cut out the fat of the game they may have cut out much of what you can explore and do.

Still, EA claims it'll take the player around 12 hours to beat 70 goals in the game, and that proposed run time is nothing to sneeze at. There's also a high degree of replay value, not to mention more goals, if you replay the game with a different personality and steer the Sim's life differently. Instead of getting a kind, nature-loving all-around character, why not go for a shy, combative, maniac? Not only will your character have different wishes, but the other Sims will respond to them differently as well.

Look for the Sims 3 on the App Store on June 2nd.

On for Wreckage of Missing Air France Jet

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. and CHRISTINE NEGRONI

The disappearance of an Air France jet en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on Sunday evening left seasoned crash investigators with a mystery to plumb and very little data to work with.


Relatives and friends of Air France flight AF447 passengers were sent to Windsor Hotel in Rio de Janeiro on Monday to wait for more information.
The New York Times

The plane disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean near the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, Brazilian authorities said.
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The Airbus A330-200, carrying 228 passengers and crew members, is believed to have vanished in a towering thunderstorm with no word from its pilots that they were in crisis.

The plane had beamed out several signals that its electrical systems had malfunctioned and, according to one report, that it had lost cabin pressure. The signals were sent not as distress calls, however, but as automated reports to Air France’s maintenance system, and were not read for hours, until air traffic controllers realized that the plane’s crew had not radioed in on schedule.

As a search for wreckage began over a vast swath of ocean between Brazil and the African coast, experts struggled to offer plausible theories as to how a well-maintained modern jetliner, built to withstand electrical and physical buffeting far greater than nature usually offers, could have gone down so silently and mysteriously.

There were no suggestions on Monday that a bomb, a hijacking or sabotage was to blame. Whatever of the plane’s final minutes was recorded in its black box may never be known, because it is presumably at the bottom of the Atlantic. As is common with trans-ocean flights, it was too far out over the sea to be tracked on land-based radar from Brazil or Senegal. Whether its location was captured by satellite or other planes’ radar is not known yet.

The plane, Flight AF 447, was scheduled to arrive at Charles de Gaulle airport at 11:10 a.m. local time. Stricken relatives descended on Terminal 2D, where the airline established a crisis center. A black-robed priest was making his way past hordes of police officers and journalists to comfort relatives of those on the flight.

“Air France is extremely distraught, and the whole team of Air France is suffering,” Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the chief executive of Air France-KLM, told reporters in Paris. “We would like to say to the relatives of the victims that we are totally with them and will make every effort to help them.”

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said: “It’s a tragic accident. The chances of finding survivors are tiny.”

There were people of 32 nationalities aboard, including 58 Brazilians, 61 French and 2 Americans, Air France said in a statement based on information from Brazilian authorities.

The flight took off from Rio de Janeiro at 7:30 p.m. local time (6:30 p.m. Eastern time), and its last verbal communication with air traffic control was three hours later, at 10:33, according to a statement from Brazil’s civil aviation agency. At that time, the flight was at 35,000 feet and traveling at 520 miles per hour.

About a half-hour later, it apparently encountered an electrical storm with “very heavy turbulence,” Air France said. The last communication from it came at 11:14 — a series of automatic messages indicating it had suffered an electrical-system malfunction. The Associated Press reported that it also suffered a loss of cabin pressure.

Brazilian officials said the plane disappeared over the Atlantic somewhere between a point 186 miles northeast of their coastal city Natal and the Cape Verde islands off Africa. The area is known as the “horse latitudes,” where the tropics of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres mix, sometimes creating violent and unpredictable thunderstorms that can rise to 55,000 feet, higher than commercial jetliners can go.

Experts were at a loss to explain fatal damage from lightning or a tropical storm, both of which jetliners face routinely, despite efforts to avoid them — as much out of concern for passengers’ nerves as for the planes’ safety.

Pilots are trained to go over or around thunderstorms rather than through them. Brigitte Barrand, an Air France spokeswoman, said the highly experienced pilot had clocked 11,000 flying hours, including 1,100 hours on Airbus 330 jets.

“A completely unexpected situation occurred on board the aircraft,” Mr. Gourgeon told France’s LCI television.

“Lightning alone is not enough to explain the loss of this plane, and turbulence alone is not enough,” he said. “It is always a combination of factors.” By some estimates, jetliners are typically hit by lightning at least once a year. But the strike normally travels across the plane’s aluminum skin and out the tail or a wingtip. Passengers are insulated in the nonconductive, largely plastic interior, and vital equipment is shielded.

A loss of cabin pressure could suggest a break in the fuselage, but planes are built to withstand buffeting from a storm’s updrafts and downdrafts. It could also be a consequence of an electrical failure, if the plane’s air compressors stop working.

Large hailstones created by some thunderstorms have been known to break windshields or turbine blades, though pilots would be likely to rapidly report something like that.

The missing aircraft was relatively new, having gone into service in April 2005. Its last hangar maintenance check was on April 16, Air France said. No Airbus A330-200 passenger flight ever had a fatal crash, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

Hans Weber, head of the Tecop aviation consulting firm in San Diego, offered a hypothesis about the episode, based on his knowledge of severe losses of altitude by two Qantas jets last year.

The new Airbus 330 was a “fly-by-wire” plane, in which signals to move the flaps are sent through electric wires to small motors in the wings rather than through cables or hydraulic tubing. Fly-by-wire systems can automatically conduct maneuvers to prevent an impending crash, but some Airbus jets will not allow a pilot to override the self-protection mechanism.

On both Qantas flights, the planes’ inertia sensors sent faulty information into the flight computers, making them take emergency measures to correct problems that did not exist, sending the planes into sudden dives.

If the inertia sensor told a computer that a plane was stalling, forcing it to drop the nose and dive to pick up airspeed, and there was simultaneously a severe downdraft in the storm turbulence, “that would be hard to recover from,” Mr. Weber said.

Donald G. McNeil Jr. reported from New York, and Christine Negroni from Greenwich, Conn. Reporting was contributed by Sharon Otterman and Micheline Maynard from New York, Caroline Brothers from Paris, Alexei Barrionuevo from Buenos Aires, Brian Knowlton from Washington, and Andrew Downie from São Paulo, Brazil.