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MANY of the world's coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, could survive the coming decades if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, a study has found.

While past research had predicted large-scale destruction from global warming was inevitable, recent studies have shown some species were more capable of adapting than others.

But the capacity for these corals to adjust could be greatly reduced by human activities such as over-fishing, pollution and habitat destruction.

As part of the study, published in the journal Science, scientists reviewed the most recent research on the effect of climate change on coral reefs, as well as evidence from the fossil record.

A marine biologist and study leader, John Pandolfi, said the response to climate change varied dramatically between regions.

''We can't say everywhere is doomed in two decades because CO2 is this level and pH is that level; it's just not that black and white,'' said Professor Pandolfi, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University.

''Our expectation is that some regions are less likely to completely collapse in the next few decades than others.''

A marine biologist and co-author of the study, Sean Connolly, also from the centre, said there was good evidence to show that past global warming and ocean acidification had had devastating impacts on coral reefs.

There was also evidence that marine species coped differently to ocean warming and coral bleaching.

He warned that the findings did not mean coral reefs were out of danger.

"There is no doubt that unchecked global warming would have a devastating affect on the world’s reefs," he said.

"If we do nothing, by later this century then all bets are off," Professor Connolly said.

"There is a wide range of responses to climate change among different organisms; some are already suffering with the climate change that has happened already, while others aren’t doing so badly," he said.

There was also uncertainty around which species would be able to adapt to rising temperatures and ocean acidification in time, he said.

Ocean acidification occurs when excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is absorbed by the ocean. Too much carbon dioxide reduces the availability of calcium carbonate, the building block of coral skeletons.

The rate of adaptation for many species could be increased if human activities such as fishing and runoff were managed appropriately.

To increase the ability for a species to adapt to one stress, others needed to be reduced, Professor Connolly said.

"The organisms that have an unusually good ability to cope with high temperatures and ocean acidification have to be able to survive and reproduce offspring that also have those tolerances. But if there is also a lot stress from coastal development [and] runoff then they can die out," he said.

Authorities also needed to ensure populations of marine species did not decline dramatically.

"If you reduce a population size you reduce its ability to adapt rapidly to environmental change," he said.

Source http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/coral-reef-species-may-adjust-to-climate-change-20110721-1hr08.html

If there are aliens on other planets, Australia could play a key role in making contact, the nation's leading astronomer Fred Watson says.

But it may depend on an area of Western Australia being chosen as the site for the square kilometre array (SKA), the world's most powerful radio telescope that will also reveal more about the origins of the universe.

The Murchison region in the WA outback is vying with a site in southern Africa for the SKA with a group of international scientists expected to make a final decision in 2012.

If there are aliens on other planets, Australia could play a key role in making contact, the nation's leading astronomer Fred Watson says.

But it may depend on an area of Western Australia being chosen as the site for the square kilometre array (SKA), the world's most powerful radio telescope that will also reveal more about the origins of the universe.

The Murchison region in the WA outback is vying with a site in southern Africa for the SKA with a group of international scientists expected to make a final decision in 2012.
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Some clues as to the location may be revealed after a meeting in Canada this week involving what has been described as a steering group taking the project forward.

Australia is considered the best location for the SKA but there are suggestions other factors could come into play, including political considerations.

Professor Watson, astronomer in charge at the Australian Astronomical Observatory at Coonabarabran in NSW, said the SKA would be involved in "big picture" science.

"It's about asking the big questions," he told AAP.

"The SKA will be by far the most sensitive radio telescope ever built.

"It will have the potential to reveal all kinds of things ranging from the possibility of picking up signals from aliens, if they exist.

"More seriously, it will look at the early universe, trying to work out how galaxies were formed."

Professor Watson said the SKA would also investigate the "mysterious stuff" called dark matter, which permeates four-fifths of the universe, and possibly reveal how dark matter helped the formation of stars.

"Insights into that are of extreme value to scientists for all kinds of reasons," he said.

"One of which is to confirm the picture we have of the origin of the universe and its early evolution is correct.

"But more especially to tell us things we simply don't dream about at the moment.

"Always with these things the most exciting discoveries are the ones that are completely unexpected.

"So who knows what a facility like this might produce?"

Professor Watson was in Adelaide on Tuesday for the annual scientific meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

Source http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/new-telescope-may-link-us-to-alien-life-20110705-1h06o.html

The defence minister's warning came a day after charges were laid against a former ADF member over the setting up of a gay-hate Facebook page.

Mr Smith today announced an external consulting company would head a review into the use of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, in light of ADF values.

The social media review is part of a raft of studies looking at the defence force, including the use of alcohol and leadership opportunities available to women.

Mr Smith said the review would raise awareness among ADF employees that the information they share on social media often becomes public.

"That which people [post on social media], which becomes public, particularly if they are representing Australia or representing the ADF, potentially can have seriously adverse consequences," he said.

"It's very important that members of the ADF, whether they're onshore or offshore, understand that at all times they are representing the defence force and representing the nation.

"As a consequence, inappropriate behaviour, effectively, in uniform can lead to very serious reputational damage."

A former ADF member was charged yesterday over alleged threats to a senior army officer and creating a Facebook page which encouraged violence against homosexuals.

The review, to be led by Rob Hudson from George Patterson Y & R, is due to provide an interim report by the end of July.

Meanwhile, the Independent Advisory Panel on Alcohol will examine the impact of alcohol use at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and the adequacy of current policies and strategies.

"Often, inappropriate conduct and abuse of alcohol go hand in hand," he told reporters in Perth.

"The objective here is to advise ADFA on the current organisational arrangement so far as use of alcohol is concerned and whether there's anything more we can do or learn."

The panel, to be chaired by Professor Margaret Hamilton, will include drug and alcohol experts as well as the Commander Joint Health, Major General Paul Alexander, and is due to report back at the end of July.

Other reviews will examine ways to improve the leadership representation rates of women in defence and the management of complaints.

The independent Inspector General of the ADF, Geoff Earley, will head the review of how incidents and complaints are managed, focusing on the treatment of victims and the relationship between military disciplinary investigations and civil or criminal matters.

"Sometimes that inter-relationship has led to delays and lack of a timely response in those issues," Mr Smith said.

The reviews follow the Skype sex scandal, in which a male cadet allegedly use a live webcam to stream video of him having sex with a female cadet to his colleagues without her knowledge.

Police have since charged two other cadets with related offences.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick is heading a review into the treatment of women in the ADF and the ADFA following the scandal.

Source http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/defence-to-review-risk-of-social-media-20110506-1ebpp.html

A state of origin match is being played out in Sydney's drains, but unlike the real thing it is the Queenslanders being massacred.

It has been discovered that a colony of cane toads who hitched a ride from the sunshine state are being eaten by the local rodents.

Cane toads were discovered some time ago in an industrial area of Taren Point, in Sydney's south.

Since then the local council, State Government and scientists have been working to eradicate them.

University of Sydney biologist Rick Shine, a passionate toad buster, says toads have been fitted with radio transmitters to monitor their behaviour.

Professor Shine says one of the "entertaining" things to emerge from the monitoring is how rats are munching away on the toads and living to tell the tale.

"The toads quite frequently use drains as cover and the drains contain rats, which we don't normally think of as our best friends," Professor Shine said.

"But rats evolved in the northern hemisphere, in the same place that toads did, and they're capable of dealing with the toad's poison.

"So one of our telemetered toads got massacred and eaten by a rat.

"Unlike a native predator, which a toad would be a fatal meal for, for a rat a toad's just a pretty nice breakfast.

"So we may have some of the old invaders helping get rid of some of the new invaders.

Professor Shine says they have also discovered a Sydney breeding ground for the pests, a pond of tadpoles.

He says it is the "Achilles heel" of the breeding cycle.

"It's a big step in controlling the breeding of the toad as one female can produce as many as 30,000 eggs," Professor Shine.

The tadpoles are euthanised.

He says there are hundreds of the toads in the Shire and hundreds more arrive every year by hopping on trucks carrying things like building materials and mulch from Queensland.

Professor Shine says because the toads are such effective stowaways they will keep on coming.

A toad was found in Launceston in Tasmania's north last week after apparently hitching a ride in a container at Christmas time.

There are several records of toad sightings in other areas in Sydney, but Taren Point seems to be their favourite home.

Source http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/20/3196478.htm?site=sydney

The Telstra Elite Mobile Wi-Fi will allow up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices access to Telstra's Next G network, offering download speeds of up to 8Mbps.

Telstra's executive director of mobility products, Warwick Bray, said that the hotspots were ideal for customers who had lots of devices that needed internet connectivity.

"Our customers tell us they love the speed and reliability of Next G mobile broadband, but they've said they'd like an easier way to share it with a greater range of Wi-Fi-enabled devices including smartphones, tablets, cameras, laptops and portable games consoles," he said in a statement.

"The Telstra Elite Mobile Wi-Fi should ... prove popular with our business customers who increasingly use Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as tablets and cameras and require mobile connectivity to support fast file transfers and to work flexibly while away from the office," he added.

The device will be available from 12 April and costs $129 upfront with 5GB of data for regular prepaid mobile broadband customers, while business customers can sign up for a $29 per month plan with 1GB worth of data each month.

Source http://www.cnet.com.au/telstra-launches-elite-mobile-hotspots-339312742.htm

Australians are having a real love affair with smartphones, with IDC stats reporting over 1m sold per month last year.

With over 20 million people in Australia, that’s a new phone for half the population each year, all keen to upgrade to the latest and greatest smartphone experience, from a range of vendors.

In Q4 alone, IDC says that 4.25m smartphones shipped down under, with smartphones a stunning 62% of the mix. That compares with just 38% of handsets sold in Q4 2009 being smartphones.

Cheap Android handsets have also been part of the reason why smartphone sales have surged, what with capable Android handsets selling for less than AUD $300, and even Telstra introducing a $99 Android phone that won’t win any awards for anything except being super cheap.

Thus, predicts IDC, ye olde fashioned “feature phones” are slowly but surely on their way out, even as vendors slash prices to keep feature phone sales going to an ever smaller audience, clearer after the smarter features smartphones deliver, and not just regular the ol’ features of kinda-bland feature phones.

Although Nokia did well last in both phone categories, fall prices helped Nokia’s Symbian sales, while Microsoft’s Q4 sales of Windows Phone 7 devices equalled “all Windows Mobile devices shipped in the prior 12 months”, according to IDC’s Mark Novosel, its teclo market analyst.

Smartphone penetration should grow to more than 92% by 2015.

However over the “next few months”, IDC thinks Android will overtake Symbian to “become the number one smartphone OS in Australia” with a market share of around 40%.

Apple’s share will be close to 30%, with IDC predicting a 20% market share for Windows Phone 7 (or its successors) by… wait for it… 2015.

IDC also listed concerns that the natural disasters in Japan could see component and supply shortages that could actually push prices up in the not too distant future.

Hmm... if you want to save some smart money on a smartphone, now might well be the time to buy before prices potentially rise!

Source http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/mobility/46062-thatll-be-the-phone-reg-1m-smartphones-per-month-sold-in-oz

Bloomberg reported yesterday that Microsoft will end up paying Nokia more than $1 billion to promote and develop Windows Phone 7 handsets, citing two unnamed sources said to be knowledgable of the terms of the agreement. Nokia's commitment to the platform is also long-term: the agreement lasts more than five years, according to the sources. The people also confirmed that the final contract between the two companies still hasn't been signed. For this reason many of the details and specifics are still not public.

Microsoft will be paying some money up-front, and giving Nokia a share of advertising revenue. It will also be paying for its use of Nokia's Navteq mapping services. Offsetting this, Nokia will in turn pay Microsoft for each license it ships.

On the face of it, this sounds like a lot of money. A billion dollars just to stop Nokia plumping for Android, in a deal that isn't even exclusive—Nokia will continue to sell Symbian handsets, and even the MeeGo-powered N950 will ship later this year. Nor is a this deal going to be a quick win for Microsoft, as Nokia's Windows Phone 7 handsets aren't likely to ship in volume—or possibly even at all—until 2012.

In the short term, this deal certainly favors Nokia. The company will still be spending money on Symbian development—the company is expecting to ship 150 million of the handsets in the next couple of years—but will be able to scale back this expenditure, as its operating system development costs are increasingly pushed onto Redmond. This, plus the cash infusion, gives the company instant savings.

But longer term, this deal should prove to be a big win for Microsoft. With each license estimated to cost around $15, recouping the $1 billion will require about 60 million licenses—Nokia handsets—to be sold. And this is a five year deal: it doesn't have to be an overnight success to earn back the money. Unless Nokia implodes and the entire venture is disastrous, that level of sales should be easily achieved.

Strategically, it's even more valuable for Redmond. The Nokia deal gives Microsoft access to a brand with significant market presence around the world (except the US), valuable mapping services, and strong hardware skills. Perhaps even more importantly, the deal has ensured that the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world has gone with Microsoft's operating system, and not Android.

The sources speaking to Bloomberg said that two features were influential in swinging the deal. As already disclosed when the companies announced the agreement, Nokia felt that Windows Phone 7 offered a greater chance to stand out in the market—something that would be rather harder in the already crowded Android market. But the investment that Microsoft could make was also key, with the implication that Google was unable or unwilling to offer a simliar incentive.

For users of the platform, the length of the deal is also encouraging. Windows Phone 7's future is far from assured. Microsoft's mobile ambitions—for Windows, for tablets, and for ARM processors—are currently something of a mystery. The company brutally killed off the KIN when it was clear that it had failed to meet expectations, and there were concerns that the company would give Windows Phone 7 the same treatment if it failed to take off. But in signing up to a five year deal, it's clear that Microsoft is in this for the long haul, and will stick with the platform to ensure its success.

There are still risks to the deal. The platform could still bomb, Nokia's handsets may all flop, or Nokia may decide that MeeGo has more to offer after all. Microsoft may have made concessions to the Finns that will undermine Windows Phone 7 as a platform. And alienation of the other Windows Phone 7 partners remains a possibility.

How these risks will play out is at the moment anyone's guess: Nokia has said that they don't intend to jeopardize the platform (though they could) and devalue the other Windows Phone 7 manufacturers, so they're saying the right things—we now have to wait to see if they follow through.

A billion dollars sounds like a lot. But to solidify Windows Phone 7's position for just a billion dollars—a billion dollars that should be earned back over the life of the deal—and to prevent Nokia from going with Android, it's an absolute bargain.

Source http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/03/microsoft-paying-nokia-1-billion-to-use-wp7-cheap-at-twice-the-price.ars