Logging The Cyber World

Tags: cosmo, god, physics, religion, stephen hawking, universe

God did not create the universe and the “Big Bang” was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book.

In “The Grand Design,” co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.

“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

More on Yahoo News

Tags: 3PAR, antivirus, chip-maker, intel, mcaffe, software deal

Intel Corp will acquire security software company McAfee Inc. in an all-cash deal worth USD 7.68 billion that will bolster the world’s largest chip-maker’s computing portfolio, especially in wireless mobility offerings.

The chip-maker will purchase all the common shares of McAfee at a price of USD 48 per piece, valuing the deal at USD 7.68 billion, Intel said in a statement today.

Both the companies have a good presence in India.

In the backdrop of improving economic conditions, there have been a slew of deals worldwide in recent months. Earlier this week, computer-maker Dell on Monday had announced that it would acquire data storage company 3PAR Inc. for USD 1.15 billion.

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Tags: alien civilization, aliens, allen telescope, drake equation, et, extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI, UFO

Proof of extraterrestrial intelligence could come within 25 years, an astronomer who works on the search said Sunday.

“I actually think the chances that we’ll find ET are pretty good,” said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, Calif., here at the SETIcon convention. “Young people in the audience, I think there’s a really good chance you’re going to see this happen.”

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Tags: geneva auto show, hybrid cars, porsche 918, spyder hybrid, v-8

Porsche brought its 918 Spyder supercar to America last night, showing off the amazing car under the glare of bright lights in a hanger at the airport in Monterey, Calif. Today, the 918 is going to run up and down roads around here just to show off its performance, and an amazing throaty purr from its V-8 engine with those side-pipe exhaust tips.

More on USAToday

Tags: alien, astronomer, Earth-like, planets, space telescope, stargazer, WFIRST

A $1.6 billion space telescope that could reveal the nature of dark energy and identify Earth-like planets should be the top priority for astronomers and astrophysicists, according to a long-awaited report that lays out the pressing needs for the next 10 years of space science.

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) would launch in 2020 as one of the next generation of telescopes that should target the early universe, search for nearby habitable planets and test the boundaries of fundamental physics, according to the Astro2010 Decadal Survey by the National Academy of Sciences.

“During the last Decadal Survey, exoplanets weren’t a big element, and dark energy wasn’t really a big deal,” said Claire Max, an astronomer at the University of California in Santa Cruz and member of the Decadal Survey committee. “There are a whole lot of things that are really new.”

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Tags: Archaeologist, Arsinoe, gold coins, Ptolemy II, Queen Arsinoe II Philadelphus, Tel Kedesh

A rare gold coin dating back 2,200 years was discovered by a combined university research team in Israel, a top Israeli antiquities official said Thursday.

Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said the coin ranked in the top five of the rarest finds in that country’s history.

“Intrinsically, for coin research, it’s a very exciting find,” Ariel told CNN. “This is an amazing numismatic find. The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel.”

Ariel said the coin weighs almost one ounce (27.71 grams), while most ancient gold coins weighed about 4.5 grams. It was minted in Alexandria, Egypt, by Ptolemy V and dates to 191 BCE. It is only the second gold Ptolemaic coin ever found in Israel.

More on CNN

Tags: microsoft critical updates, microsoft patch, microsoft updates, ms office updates, security holes, tuesday patch

Microsoft plugs 34 security holes in a Patch Tuesday update with 14 security bulletins. Of the eight critical bulletins, Microsoft rates four as the highest priority for enterprises.

Microsoft released 14 new security bulletins in Aug. 10′s Patch Tuesday update to cover nearly three dozen vulnerabilities.

Fourteen is the largest number of security bulletins ever released by Microsoft on Patch Tuesday. Eight of the bulletins are rated critical. Of the eight, four are considered by Microsoft to be high priority: MS10-052, which resolves a vulnerability in Microsoft’s MPEG Layer-3 audio codecs; MS10-055, which addresses a vulnerability in the Cinepak Codec used by Windows Media Player to support the AVI audiovisual format; MS10-056, which deals with four vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office; and MS10-060, which resolves two vulnerabilities in Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Silverlight.

Another bulletin that may require particular attention is MS10-054.

“The SMB [protocol] pool overflow vulnerability [covered in MS10-054] should be a real concern for enterprises,” said Joshua Talbot, security intelligence manager of Symantec Security Response. “Not only does it give an attacker system-level access to a compromised SMB server, but the vulnerability occurs before authentication is required from computers contacting the server. This means any system allowing remote access and not protected by a firewall is at risk.

Read more at eweek.com

Tags: heat wave, NASA, solar flare, solar storm, solar tsunami, space weather, sun fireworks

The solar fireworks at the weekend were recorded by several satellites, including Nasa’s new Solar Dynamics Observatory which watched its shock wave rippling outwards.

Astronomers from all over the world witnessed the huge flare above a giant sunspot the size of the Earth, which they linked to an even larger eruption across the surface of Sun.
The explosion, called a coronal mass ejection, was aimed directly towards Earth, which then sent a “solar tsunami” racing 93 million miles across space.

Images from the SDO hint at a shock wave travelling from the flare into space, the New Scientist reported.

Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth.

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Tags: heat wave, lack of rain, moscow hottest day, mowcow smogs, wheat crops

A month-long record-breaking heatwave has sparked nearly 50 fires in the Moscow region and the capital is sweltering under a thick layer of smog.
Health experts say pollution levels in parts of the city are 10 times higher than normal safety limits and advise locals to stay indoors or wear masks. A state of emergency has been declared in more than 20 drought-hit regions.

It is estimated a fifth of the country’s wheat crop has now died due to the lack of rain in what is thought to be the country’s worst drought for more than a century. Scores have died in the heatwave, some drowning having taken a swim after drinking too much vodka.

More on BBC News

Tags: beta release, cs 5, new photoshop version, photo editing, photoshop

Whenever a new version of an important program comes out, the need for it, depending on the changes, can run the spectrum–from it’s-revolutionary, got-to-have-it-now to ho-hum, I-can-wait-for-the-next-revision. Adobe Photoshop CS5, the latest version that’s sold both individually and as part of Adobe Creative Suite 5, falls between those two extremes ($699 for Standard stand-alone, $1299 for Creative Suite 5 Design Standard; upgrade pricing available).We reviewed a beta.

Photoshop is a mature program that is already an indispensable component of everyday business for photographers and graphics professionals. What sets Photoshop CS5 apart isn’t any one killer app but dozens of refinements that will make users’ lives easier, more efficient, and, potentially, more creative.

Read More at BusinessWeek