Carrier Ting: Bring us your Sprint phones

The Motorola Photon 4G is one device you can bring to Ting's cell phone service.

(Credit:
Josh Miller/CNET)

Today Ting, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that resells Sprint's network, launched a private beta that lets prospective customers sign up for Ting's service using their previously-purchased Sprint phones.

For now, just seven devices make the cut:

Ting says that they have thoroughly tested these handsets to ensure that the hardware transitions smoothly to Ting's MVNO. More than just these smartphones work with Ting, though. Customers are also welcome to purchase compatible phones directly from the company's website.

BlackBerry, iPhone, LTE and push-to-talk devices don't make the cut, and handsets from Sprint's prepaid brands, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile, are also incompatible.

Ting first announced its intention to open the door to Sprint-bought devices back in August. The company's business model centers around a mix-and-match approach to buying buckets of texts, voice minutes, and data.

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McAfee Mystery Deepens With Possible Heart Attack

Software millionaire John McAfee has been taken to a Guatemala City hospital via ambulance after suffering a possible heart attack at the detention center where he is being held.

McAfee, 67 -- who may soon be deported back to Belize, where authorities want to question him about the shooting death of his neighbor -- was reportedly prostrate on the floor of his cell and unresponsive. He was wheeled into the hospital on a gurney, but when nurses began removing his suit, he became responsive and said, "Please, not in front of the press."

Earlier today, McAfee had complained of chest pains.

McAfee was scheduled to be deported to Belize later this morning, ABC News has learned. But a judge could stay the ruling if it is determined that McAfee's life is threatened by being in Belizean custody, as McAfee has claimed in the past several weeks.

Raphael Martinez, a spokesman for the Belize government, said that if McAfee is deported to Belize, he would immediately be handed over to police and detained for up to 48 hours unless charges are brought against him.

"There is more that we know about the investigation, but that remains part of the police work," he said, hinting at possible charges.

He added that a handover by Guatemala would be "the neighborly thing to do."

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Guatemala said that "due to privacy considerations," the embassy would "have no comment on the specifics of this situation," but that, "U.S. citizens are subject to the laws of the countries in which they are traveling or residing, and must work within the host countries' legal framework."

Just hours before McAfee's arrest, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview Wednesday he would be seeking asylum in Guatemala. McAfee was arrested by the Central American country's immigration police and not the national police, said his attorney, who was confident his client would be released within hours.

Guatemala's National Police/AP Photo

Software Founder Breaks Silence: McAfee Speaks on Murder Allegations Watch Video

John McAfee Interview: Software Mogul Leaves Belize Watch Video

"Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," said McAfee before his arrest. "I chose Guatemala carefully."

McAfee said that in Guatemala, the locals aren't surprised when he says the Belizean government is out to kill him.

"Instead of going, 'You're crazy,' they go, 'Yeah, of course they are,'" he said. "It's like, finally, I understand people who understand the system here."

But McAfee added he has not ruled out moving back to the United States, where he made his fortune as the inventor of anti-virus software, and that despite losing much of his fortune he still has more money than he could ever spend.

In his interview with ABC News, a jittery, animated but candid McAfee called the media's representation of him a "nightmare that is about to explode," and said he's prepared to prove his sanity.

McAfee has been on the run from police in Belize since the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull.

During his three-week journey, said McAfee, he disguised himself as handicapped, dyed his hair seven times and hid in many different places during his three-week journey.

He dismissed accounts of erratic behavior and reports that he had been using the synthetic drug bath salts. He said he had never used the drug, and said statements that he had were part of an elaborate prank.

Investigators said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of the former developer, who was found shot in the head in his house on the resort island of San Pedro, but that they wanted to question him.

McAfee told ABC News that the poisoning death of his dogs and the murder just hours later of Faull, who had complained about his dogs, was a coincidence.

McAfee has been hiding from police ever since Faull's death -- but Telesforo Guerra, McAfee's lawyer in Guatemala, said the tactic was born out of necessity, not guilt.

"You don't have to believe what the police say," Guerra told ABC News. "Even though they say he is not a suspect they were trying to capture him."

Guerra, who is a former attorney general of Guatemala, said it would take two to three weeks to secure asylum for his client.

According to McAfee, Guerra is also the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha. McAfee said the government raided his beachfront home and threatened Samantha's family.

"Fifteen armed soldiers come in and personally kidnap my housekeeper, threaten Sam's father with torture and haul away half a million dollars of my s***," claimed McAfee. "If they're not after me, then why all these raids? There've been eight raids!"

Before his arrest, McAfee said he would hold a press conference on Thursday in Guatemala City to announce his asylum bid. He has offered to answer questions from Belizean law enforcement over the phone, and denied any involvement in Faull's death.

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Chemical key to cell division revealed

In each of our cells, most of the genetic material is packaged safely within the nucleus, which is protected by a double membrane. The biochemistry behind how this membrane transforms when cells divide has finally been unravelled, offering insights that could provide new ways of fighting cancer and some rare genetic disorders.

During cell division, the membrane that surrounds the nucleus breaks down and reforms in the two daughter cells. Researchers have been split on the precise mechanisms that govern membrane reformation. One view is that proteins alone control the membrane's transformations. Another possibility is that changes in lipids – a vast group of fat-related compounds – are responsible.

Experiments had failed to show which of these two ideas was right, because it was difficult to alter lipid levels in specific compartments of cells without affecting other cellular processes.

Banafshe Larijani at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and her colleagues have now overcome that hurdle. They came up with a technique that transforms a type of lipid called a diacylglycerol (DAG) into another lipid, within the nuclear membrane.

Chemical cascade

The technique involves inserting two fragments of DNA into the nucleus of a cell. This causes the cell to make two proteins: the first attaches itself to the nuclear membrane, the second floats around the cell. Adding a drug – rapalogue – to the mix causes the second protein to stick to the first, which in turn causes a chemical cascade that transforms the DAG into a different kind of lipid.

Crucially, they targeted a form of DAG that does not bind to proteins, so converting it into a different lipid does not affect any processes involving proteins in the cell.

The team tested the effect of this lipid manipulation on cell division in monkey and human cancer cells. The lower the level of DAG present in the nuclear membrane, the greater the membrane malformation and chance of cell death.

This demonstrates that lipids play a role in nuclear membrane reformation that does not depend on proteins.

Larijani says it "opens the door to finding ways to kill cancerous cells" by focusing on lipids that are important to the nuclear membrane's development.

Sausage pieces

As the nucleus divides, sausage-shaped fragments of its membrane float around the cell. The fragments have curved ends, and Larijani says that changes in lipid composition generate these curves, without which the fragments cannot reassemble correctly into new membranes.

More than a dozen rare genetic conditions such as Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, which is characterised by premature ageing in children, have been linked to irregularities in cell division. A better understanding of the way the nuclear membrane forms when cells divide could be key to treating these disorders.

The research also offers a new focus for preventing the irregular cell division that underlies many cancers.

"As a result of this work we now know with confidence that DAG plays a structural role in membrane dynamics," says Vytas Bankaitis, at the Texas A&M Health Science Center in College Station, who was not involved in the study. "If we could find a molecule with suitable characteristics, this manipulation could be done [in humans], which is something that has not really been considered before."

Journal reference: PLoS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051150

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Football: Champions League holders Chelsea out despite rout

LONDON: Chelsea became the first Champions League holders to go out in the group phase despite a resounding 6-1 win at home to FC Nordsjaelland in their final Group E game on Wednesday.

The much-maligned Fernando Torres scored twice, with David Luiz, Gary Cahill, Juan Mata and Oscar also on target, but Juventus' 1-0 win at Shakhtar Donetsk in the other group game put the Italians in the last 16 at Chelsea's expense.

Chelsea finished their group campaign with 10 points -- level with Shakhtar, but below the Ukrainian champions by virtue of an inferior head-to-head record.

The result gave interim coach Rafael Benitez his first win in four games at the Stamford Bridge helm, but Chelsea's only hope of securing silverware in Europe for a second successive season now lies in the Europa League.

"The other game was out of our hands, so we couldn't do anything about it," said Benitez.

"I said before that we just had to do our job. As a manager, you have to be really pleased with the performance of your team.

"Thirty-two attempts at goal, 18 on target, six goals, a lot of clear chances. You have to think about the positives, even though we're disappointed we can't progress in the Champions League.

"People ask about the Europa League. Every competition is important for us. We will try to challenge and win where we can."

Ashley Cole was making his 100th Champions League appearance and he crafted the game's first opportunity by teeing up Victor Moses for a volley that visiting goalkeeper Jesper Hansen blocked at his near post.

Hansen also saved from Torres, twice, and Eden Hazard, although the chants of 'Come on Shakhtar!' from the home support suggested Chelsea's fans were keeping half an eye on events 1,700 miles away in Ukraine.

Chelsea came within inches of taking the lead in the 26th minute, with Nicolai Stokholm slicing an attempted clearance against his own crossbar from Moses' low centre.

In reply, Kasper Lorentzen and Enoch Adu chanced their arm from range for Nordsjaelland, before a curious seven-minute spell that saw three penalties awarded for handball, but only one converted.

Chelsea were incensed when referee Bas Nijhuis awarded a penalty against them after Cahill appeared to handle Anders Christiansen's shot outside the area, but Stokholm's penalty was saved by Petr Cech.

Three minutes later, Hazard fluffed his lines from 12 yards after a handball by substitute Mikkel Beckmann, before Luiz showed him how it was done by confidently scoring from the spot following yet another handball by Joshua John.

Torres' previous goal, in the 3-2 home win over Shakhtar, owed much to a fortunate ricochet and there was a touch of luck about his first goal in first-half injury time.

After racing onto Moses' through ball, the Spaniard saw his shot blocked by Hansen but the ball rebounded against him and he steadied himself before finding the empty net.

Chelsea were on course to complete their side of the bargain in comfortable fashion but they allowed their opponents to pull a goal back within 21 seconds of kick-off in the second period.

Lorentzen picked out John's run with a lofted pass and the on-loan FC Twente forward held off Branislav Ivanovic before hoisting the ball past Cech.

It took barely five minutes for Chelsea to restore their two-goal cushion, however, as Cahill met Mata's deep free-kick with a strong header that looped over the despairing Hansen.

It was Chelsea's 200th European Cup goal, and Torres poked in Hazard's low cross in the 56th minute to make it 4-1, but by that stage Juve were ahead in Donetsk.

Mata added a fifth, following in after Hansen saved his first attempt, and the former Valencia man then teed up substitute Oscar to score Chelsea's sixth.

The celebrations, though, were subdued -- 200 days on from their historic triumph on penalties against Bayern Munich in last season's final, this was a very different kind of Chelsea victory.

UEFA Champions League results

Chelsea 6 Nordsjaelland 1
Shakhtar Donetsk 0 Juventus 1
Bayern Munich 4 BATE Borisov 1
Lille 0 Valencia 1
Barcelona 0 Benfica 0
Celtic 2 Spartak Moscow 1
Braga 1 Galatasaray 2
Manchester Utd 0 CFR Cluj 1

-AFP/ac

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Sneaker Speaker: Put on your dancing shoes

Good luck being sneaky in these sneakers.

(Credit:
Ray Kingston Inc.)

Despite the move to tiny portable music systems, some of us still long for the good old days of extremely noticeable boomboxes. You can indulge your nostalgia by dressing your iPhone up to look like one, or you could strap some wearable speakers to your feet.

The Sneaker Speaker from New York design group Ray Kingston Inc. wraps a set of speakers over the top of the shoe. Information about both the product and the designer is pretty sketchy so far.

Admittedly, the images of the Sneaker Speakers look a lot like renderings, so it's hard to say if these are in existence in the real world or just a concept at this point.

A diagram of the design's innards shows a 3.5mm stereo input, Bluetooth, an AC adapter port, and a 9-volt battery. I'm thinking Bluetooth makes the most sense, otherwise you'll have to try not to trip on the cord running from your MP3 player to your foot.

I certainly want these speakers to be real. It's like a funky wearable boombox combined with retro "Tron" colors. The creator refers to them as "futuristic alternative urban audio devices" that will increase your "ghetto vibe."

I sent an email to Ray Kingston Inc. for more information. If I find out these are actually available, I'll let you know.

Here's what the design looks like.

(Credit:
Ray Kingston Inc.)

(Via Reddit)

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Obama Rejects GOP 'Doomsday' Plan

President Obama's lead negotiator in the "fiscal cliff" talks said the administration is "absolutely" willing to allow the package of deep automatic spending cuts and across-the-board tax hikes to take effect Jan. 1, unless Republicans drop their opposition to higher income tax rates on the wealthy.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview with CNBC that both sides are "making a little bit of progress" toward a deal to avert the "cliff" but remain stuck on Obama's desired rate increase for the top U.S. income-earners.

"There's no prospect for an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top two percent of the wealthiest," Geithner said.

Most House Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner, remain opposed to any increase in tax rates.

Obama and Boehner spoke by phone this afternoon, their first conversation in exactly one week, an administration official said. Their relations have grown frosty in recent days as both sides have dug in on the issue of higher rates.

In separate appearances earlier today, Obama and Boehner publicly sparred over who's to blame for the standoff and what to do if lawmakers can't reach a broad deficit-reduction agreement in 27 days.

Saul Loeb/AFP/GettyImages

Fiscal Cliff: What Republicans, Democrats Agree on So Far Watch Video

'Fiscal Cliff': John Boehner Makes Counteroffer Watch Video

Washington, D.C., Gridlocked as Fiscal Cliff Approaches Watch Video

Obama, speaking at a meeting of 100 CEOs, warned Republicans that he would not accept a so-called "doomsday" deal that extends tax cuts for middle-income earners before the end of the year but nothing more.

Such an approach, which has been under consideration by top Republicans as a likely scenario, would set the stage for a big battle over spending cuts and top tax rates in early 2013 – all tied to the nation's debt ceiling, which will need to be raised, which only Congress can do.

"That is a bad strategy for America, it's bad strategy for businesses," Obama said. "It's not a game I will play."

Brinksmanship over the a 2011 debt ceiling increase to avoid a U.S. default cost the country its AAA credit rating and rattled markets around the world.

While both sides say publicly that the U.S. will not default on its debt obligations, Republicans believe the issue could give them increased leverage for extracting cuts to entitlement programs and other spending.

Boehner said at a morning news conference that Obama has stifled the "fiscal cliff" negotiations by imposing the precondition that Republicans accept income tax hikes on the top 2 percent of U.S. earners.

"We're ready and eager to talk to the president and to work with him to make sure that the American people aren't disadvantaged by what's happening here in Washington," Boehner said at a morning news conference.

"We need a response from the White House," he said. "We can't sit here and negotiate with ourselves."

Earlier this week, House Republicans presented a $2.2 trillion deficit reduction package, including $800 billion in higher taxes through elimination of loopholes and deductions, slower annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security benefits and a higher eligibility age for Medicare.

The plan contrasts sharply with the White House proposal, which calls for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue -- largely from higher rates on upper-income earners -- modest unspecified savings from Medicare and a new burst of economic stimulus spending.

Both sides rejected the opposing plan as "unserious."

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Today on New Scientist: 4 December 2012

'Magnetic highway' found at solar system's edge

NASA's Voyager 1 has detected a zone where charged particles can race along magnetic field lines linking the solar system with interstellar space

Back-to-basics money shot shows a cent's battle scars

The euro has taken a bit of a battering of late - and not just in the financial markets. See how a 1-cent coin looks through a powerful microscope

Battling nature in your backyard

Your yard is the new frontier as wildlife returns to the suburbs. In Nature Wars, Jim Sterba calls for a shift from conservation to culling to win back territory

Why words are as painful as sticks and stones

Rejection and heartbreak can have effects every bit as physical as cuts and bruises, and understanding why could change your life

How to create stunning paintings using physics alone

Attention, Pollock wannabes - watch different colours of paint interact to produce abstract images thanks to fluid dynamics

2012 Flash Fiction shortlist: S3xD0ll

From scores of science-inspired stories, our judge has narrowed down a fantastic shortlist. Story two of five: S3xD0ll by Kevlin Henney

Green shoots are growing in oil-rich Texas

Texas has a reputation as the fossil fuel and climate change denial capital of the US, but George Marshall found that things are quietly changing

Heavy hydrogen excess hints at Martian vapour loss

NASA's Curiosity rover has found an unusually high proportion of heavy hydrogen in the Martian soil that may help pin down how Mars lost its atmosphere

Curiosity finds carbon - but is it from Mars?

The NASA rover's first chemical analysis of Martian soil has revealed a carbon compound of uncertain origins

Leech cocoon preserves 200-million-year-old fossil

Move over amber. When it comes to preserving soft-bodied animals through the ages, there's a newcomer in town: fossilised leech "cocoons"

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Football: Real Madrid hit four as Ajax crumble

MADRID: Real Madrid made light work of Ajax with an emphatic 4-1 win on Tuesday, but still had to settle for second place in Champions League Group D.

Goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and a Jose Callejon double in the Santiago Bernabeu sealed the Spanish champions' victory, but top spot in the group went to Borussia Dortmund who beat Manchester City 1-0.

Derk Boerrigter got the consolation for the Dutch who gave a good account of themselves and their reward is a place in the Europa League after finishing third ahead of Manchester City, who came a miserable last.

Afterwards Madrid coach Jose Mourinho was full of praise for the performance of ex-Tottenham player Luka Modric, who gave two wonderful assists for his side's first goals of the evening.

"Modric has already performed well for us in a number of games, he is a great player who can play at the highest level, nobody can deny he is going to be an important signing for the future of this club," he said.

Mourinho had earlier took advantage of having already qualified to rest a number of first team players, mixing youth with experience, a tactic for which he has recently come under fire in the Spanish press for rarely doing.

Reserve goalkeeper Adan started and a Champions League debut was handed to full-back Nacho Fernandez.

Mourinho also introduced 17-year-old Jose Rodriguez and Alvaro Morata, a year his elder, late on while the experienced Ricardo Carvalho started his first Champions League game of the season.

Fabio Coentrao limping off early, with what looked like a hamstring injury, was the only negative on the night for Mourinho.

Ajax coach Frank de Boer, with a Europa League place still to fight for, named the same side that began Saturday's encouraging 3-1 win over PSV Eindhoven.

However, the weakened Madrid side did not appear to be worried as they dominated possession and it was not long before the chances began arriving thick and fast.

Karim Benzema had the ball in the net as early as the seventh minute but the French striker was ruled offside.

By the time Cristiano Ronaldo hit Madrid's first of the night on 13 minutes, a post had already come between Fabio Coentrao and the opening goal.

Modric won the ball in his own half before finding Benzema with a long raking pass that allowed the Frenchman to check back and square the ball into the path of Ronaldo for an easy finish.

Kenneth Vermeer in the Ajax goal had to make good saves from Benzema and Ronaldo before Callejon doubled Real's lead on 28 minutes.

Modric was again involved, turning under pressure on halfway before digging out a fantastic pass for Callejon to race onto and finish with aplomb.

A Sami Khedira shot on 39 minutes had to be dealt with by Vermeer, and it was his performance that kept Madrid's lead down to two at the break.

For Ajax, 18-year-old Dane Viktor Fischer was lively all evening on the left wing and he brought the first save of the night from Adan just before the interval.

Kaka hit Madrid's third, exquisitely curling a left-footed shot home off the post from just outside the area just after the break.

Ajax then enjoyed a good period of pressure and much needed relief.

Fischer went close with a curling shot before Derk Boerrigter pounced on a punched clearance from Adan to grab a consolation for the Dutch on the hour mark.

Boerrigter forced a save from Adan with a free-kick five minutes later and Ajax went on to play bright attacking football for much of the second half.

Mourinho shuffled his pack and introduced youth and Morata responded with a great run on the right and cross for Callejon to head home his second and his side's fourth with two minutes remaining.

- AFP/fa

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Oldest Giant Panda Relative Found in Spain

The oldest relative of the giant panda has been discovered in Spain—suggesting that the animals' ancestors originated in Europe, a new study says.

Dubbed Kretzoiarctos beatrix, the 11-million-year-old species was previously named Agriarctos beatrix based on a few fossil teeth found at a paleontological site near Zaragoza, Spain (map). Agriarctos is an extinct genus of European bear and a possible panda ancestor that lived eight to nine million years ago. (Read about the previous research.)

Earlier this year, scientists found a piece of A. beatrix's jaw, allowing them to compare it with that of another ancient Agriarctos bear from Hungary. In doing so, the team determined that A. beatrix is actually its own genus, which they called Kretzoiarctos.

The newly named K. beatrix pushes back the origin of giant pandas by a few million years, making it the oldest recorded giant panda relative, said study leader Juan Abella, a paleobiologist at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, Spain.

"Therefore, the origin of this group is not located in China, where the [giant panda] species lives, but in the warm and humid regions of [southwestern] Europe," Abella said in May.

(See: "Ancient Bear DNA Mapped—A First for Extinct Species.")

New Bear Was Panda-Like?

K. beatrix likely shared some similarities with today's giant panda.

For one, says Abella, the newfound jaw fragment shows the animal was likely an omnivore that fed on tough plants, like modern-day pandas. Also like them, and like most existing species of small bears, K. beatrix was probably a great climber. According to Abella, it would have had to scramble up trees to escape big predators of the day—such as extinct, doglike carnivores called bear-dogs—in the forests of what's now Spain.

But at 130 pounds (60 kilograms), K. beatrix was smaller than modern pandas and even more petite than the modern-day sun bear or spectacled bear.

(See "Biggest Bear Ever Found-'It Blew My Mind,' Expert Says.")

An Epic Trek?

It's still unclear how panda ancestors made the epic trek from Europe to China.

Previous research suggests bears generally can migrate easily if the climate is mild enough, Abella said. Eleven million years ago, southwestern Europe was warm and humid-good conditions for starting out, he said.

The bears likely migrated mostly on land. One potential barrier—an ancient European sea called Parathetys—was already shrinking during the Middle Miocene, when K. beatrix lived, said Abella.

As for whether K. beatrix made it to China, "We don't really know, but no fossil remains of this species have been found outside Spain."

Whatever its history, the new research shows that K. beatrix was not your average bear.

The oldest panda relative study was published November 14 in the journal PLoS ONE.

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Train for chocolate: Custom apps for Suunto GPS watch

It's a beer calculator.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

These days, I expect to find an app for just about anything. There's an app that tells you the best time to hit the restroom during a movie. There's an app that tells you how long your jumping hangtime is. Now we just need an app that tells you how much chocolate you can pig out on after a workout without feeling guilty. Oh wait, that app already exists.

Train for Chocolate is one of hundreds of apps in the Suunto-sponsored Movescount App Zone. The sports community site offers a large collection of apps that work with the Suunto Ambit GPS watch.

Users have come up with creative apps like the aforementioned chocolate calculator. There is also an app for beers burned off. It counts the calories you've burned and reports back on how many beers it equals. Burned 431 calories? Great, help yourself to 2.87 beers.

The Suunto apps are taking off partly because of the ease of creating them. Users can play with variables and customize their own apps using the online Suunto App Designer. The biggest barrier to entry is the cost of the $500 watch itself.

The apps range from the silly to the serious. There are apps for estimating marathon times. There's an app that gives you real-time data on hill inclines. There's an app that compares your speed with Usain Bolt's fastest 100-meter time. Maybe you should stick with the chocolate calculator if you don't want to get discouraged.

The apps are compatible with the Ambit watch.

(Credit:
Suunto)

(Via The GearCaster)

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