The Korea Herald

Group slams sex advice website aimed at teens in U.K.

British family campaigners criticized a website that gives advice on sex acts to children as young as 13, local media reported Wednesday.The respectyourself.info website, provided by the “Respect Yourself” project, features explicit images of naked people as well as detailed information on sexual acts. The project was funded by Warwickshire Council and the EU and was designed by the National Health Service,“This is a grossly irresponsible website and a complete misuse of taxpayers’ hard-earned c

Oct. 24, 2012

Group slams sex advice website aimed at teens in U.K.

E-ink phone could go a week on a charge

A Chinese company says it is developing a smartphone with a display akin to those on e-readers to create an Android phone you only have to charge once a week.Chinese manufacturer Onyx International is working on the phone that would use the same kind of easy-on-the-eyes, long-lasting "e-ink" technology used in current e-readers, TG Daily reported.E-ink screens can be read in even the brightest conditions, but many consider their best feature to be extended battery life.Onyx is apparently looking

Oct. 24, 2012

Mars canyon star of dramatic cosmic image

A European spacecraft orbiting Mars has captured new images of one of the solar system's most dramatic geological features, scientists say.Valles Marineris on Mars is a chasm 125 miles wide, more than 6 miles deep and stretching for almost 2,500 miles, making it the largest canyon in the solar system.It is 10 times longer and five times deeper than Earth's Grand Canyon, a release from the Paris headquarters of the European Space Agency said Monday.The latest image of Valles Marineris, in near-t

Oct. 24, 2012

Mars canyon star of dramatic cosmic image

Facts and figures on the new iPad mini

These are the principal features, pricing and availability of the new iPad mini tablet computer unveiled by Apple on Tuesday:-- the iPad mini has a 7.9-inch (20.06-centimeter) touchscreen when measured diagonally, smaller than the 9.7-inch (24.6-cm) display on the original iPad-- the iPad mini weighs 0.68 pounds, 53 percent lighter than Apple's third generation iPad-- it is 7.2 millimeters (0.28 inches) thick, 23 percent thinner than the original iPad and thinner than a pencil-- the iPad mini ha

Oct. 24, 2012

Apple reveals iPad Mini starting at $329

Apple Inc.'s pencil-thin, smaller iPad will cost much more than its competitors, signaling the company isn't going to get into a mini-tablet price war.The company debuted the iPad Mini Tuesday, with a screen two-thirds smaller than the full model, and half the weight. Customers can begin ordering the new model on Friday. In a surprise, Apple also revamped its flagship, full-sized iPad just six months after the launch of the latest model.Apple's late founder Steve Jobs once ridiculed a small tabl

Oct. 24, 2012

Apple reveals iPad Mini starting at $329

Korea lags behind in spending for space development

Korea lags far behind other economies such as the U.S., Russia and Japan in space technology investment.The country is also behind China and India, which have made significant investments in the development of their lunar probe programs.The country hopes to conduct its first successful space rocket launch this week after two failed attempts in August 2009 and June 2010. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, also known as Naro-1, is the country’s first locally assembled space rocket.Its first-stage t

Oct. 23, 2012

Korea lags behind in spending for space development

Cholesterol drug may cut cancer risk

Statins, a cholesterol lowering drug may lower the risk of esophageal cancer, especially in those with Barrett‘s esophagus, U.S. researchers say. Study author Siddharth Singh, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, said squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma are two main types of esophageal cancer.Barrett’s esophagus, a complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease, raises the risk of adenocarcinoma, the more common type of esophageal cancer. Barrett‘s esophagus is a precancerous condition in w

Oct. 23, 2012

FDA: 5 died after drinking Monster Energy

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it found five people died in the past three years after downing the popular energy drink Monster Energy.The New York Times reported Monday the information does not prove a link between Monster Energy and the deaths or any health problems. The newspaper said the mother of a 14-year-old Maryland girl who died in December after drinking large cans of Monster Energy two days in a row obtained the FDA records recently under the Freedom of Information Act. Th

Oct. 23, 2012

Many Android apps said ‘leaking’ data

Millions of people using Android apps are at risk of having their personal data revealed, security researchers in Germany report. Researchers at the University of Leibniz and Philipps University of Marburg tested 13,500 popular apps in Google‘s Play store and found almost 8 percent failed to protect bank account and social media logins. The insecure apps failed to implement standard scrambling systems, researchers said, allowing “man-in-the-middle” attacks to spy on data passed along when

Oct. 23, 2012

Shy fish said to have better survival odds

Being shy or bold can be a matter of life or death for a trout, Canadian researchers say, with shyness being a better survival strategy.Fish respond to, and learn from threats, they said, and experiments show bold trout forget predator odor, and hence a potential predator threat, quicker than shy trout.As predators can be present in different locations and at different times, learning and retaining information about a predator threat, and being able to recall it at a later stage, is key to respo

Oct. 23, 2012

Study: Male beluga whale mimics human speech

It could be the muffled sound of singing in the shower or that sing-songy indecipherable voice from the Muppets' Swedish Chef.Surprisingly, scientists said the audio they captured was a whale imitating people. In fact, the whale song sounded so eerily human that divers initially thought it was a human voice.Handlers at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego heard mumbling in 1984 coming from a tank containing whales and dolphins that sounded like two people chatting far away.In a mor

Oct. 23, 2012

Study: Male beluga whale mimics human speech

‘Double spy’ acquitted decades after execution

A Seoul court on Monday posthumously cleared a local man of espionage charges and apologized to his bereaved family a half century after he was executed for being a “double agent” for both Koreas.Shim Moon-kyu was sent to North Korea to carry out espionage activities in 1955, two years after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce. Shim, however, was detected by the North and trained for one year and seven months to become a North Korean spy. Upon returning home, Shim immediately turned himself

Oct. 22, 2012

S. Korea likely to launch space rocket as scheduled: minister

South Korea plans to go ahead with the scheduled launch of its space rocket this week, at least for now, though weather conditions and other factors may prompt last-minute changes, the science minister said Monday."We have confirmed after considerations of weather conditions and preparations for the launch that the launch will be possible on Oct. 26," Minister of Education, Science and Technology Lee Ju-ho told reporters.The space rocket, the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), is currently s

Oct. 22, 2012

Smoking linked to increased cataract risk

ZHEJIANG, China (UPI) -- Scientists in China say evidence shows smoking increases the risk of age-related cataracts, the leading cause of blindness and vision loss in the world.Dr. Juan Ye of the Institute of Ophthalmology at Zhejiang University in China and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis using numerous studies from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and North America to compare the prevalence of age-related cataracts in individuals who ever smoked cigarettes to those who have never smoked. “

Oct. 22, 2012

Boon for next-generation displays

New derivatives could be boost to local electronics industryKorean scientists have developed new organic materials that may help the electronics industry produce next-generation displays and maintain its global competitiveness.A team of scientists led by professor Choi Dong-hoon of Korea University said it has discovered extended conjugated molecules through compounds of porphyrin.The porphyrin derivatives may be used to boost the efficiency of semiconducting devices such as organic field-effect

Oct. 21, 2012

Mars rover gets a taste of Martian soil

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has swallowed its first solid sample into an analytical instrument inside the rolling laboratory, mission scientists said.The rover's Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument, or CheMin, is analyzing the sample to determine what minerals it contains, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported Thursday."We are crossing a significant threshold for this mission by using CheMin on its first sample," Curiosity's project scientist John Grotzinger said. "This

Oct. 21, 2012

Singles need more money when ill, elderly

Singles, especially those without children, will need to budget more money for healthcare in old age than those who are married, U.S. researchers say. The MetLife Mature Market Institute's monthly Market Trends report said the 2010 Census revealed married couples are 48 percent of U.S. households. Those with children age 18 and younger comprised just 20 percent of households and those with two children were 8 percent. From a planning perspective it is harder to control costs when injured

Oct. 19, 2012

Personality is revealed by the body’s position: research

A British news report said a new research found that more than half of people in the U.K. tend to curl up their bodies in a fetal position when they sleep in bed -- which indicates that they are worriers.About 58 percent of people researched sleep with their knees up and heads down, the report said.The second-most common position, 28 percent, was the “log,” which can be associated with people’s rigid personalities, according to body language expert Robert Phipps.Phipps categorized four sleeping

Oct. 19, 2012

Personality is revealed by the body’s position: research

Study: Dolphins are always half awake

Dolphins can remain alert for two weeks at a time with no sign of fatigue because only half of their brains sleep at a time, U.S. researchers say.Researchers at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego and colleagues found dolphins can use echolocation with near-perfect accuracy continuously for as long as 15 days, identifying targets and monitoring their environment.The researchers studied two dolphins, one male and one female, and found that they were capable of this task with no sig

Oct. 19, 2012

Translation app tops chart to mixed reviews

As the automatic translation application “GenieTalk” has taken the No. 1 spot on AppStore’s free popular app chart just one day after launching, early adopters across the nation and overseas are busy posting reviews on social network services ― on both the good and the bad. “GenieTalk,” a free Korean-English translation app developed by the Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institution with support from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, was introduced on Wednesday and jumped straight t

Oct. 18, 2012

Translation app tops chart to mixed reviews