| 16GB PAYG | 32GB PAYG | SIM Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| O2 | N/A | £549.99 | Free |
| Three | £399.99 | N/A | Free |
| Google Play | £299.99 | £339.99 | Free |
| Price Difference | £100 | £210 | N/A |
Buy the device from Google's Play Store and order a free pay-as-you-go SIM to go with it (or you can, of course, use your own).
Globe-trotting laptop workaholics and electronic media junkies will soon no longer fidget helplessly during the beginning and ending of their flights: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted the ban on use of personal electronics during the take-off and landing of airplanes, provided that the electronic devices are used in airplane mode.
Over the next few months, each airline will enact their own policies that will permit their passengers to use their own devices through an entire flight.
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Airplane passengers, in most cases, will be able to read electronic books and magazines, watch videos, play video games, listen to music and work on their computers throughout an entire flight.
Their devices must be in airplane mode, however, which will not allow them to be used voice communications or data transmission through mobile networks. The devices can, however, connect with an airplane's Wi-Fi service, if one is offered. Short-range, device-to-device communication, through Bluetooth for instance, is also permissible.
This change in policy has been long called for, at least by voracious users of electronic devices, who saw the ban as unnecessary.
Currently, airline passengers in the U.S. are required power down their smartphones, tablets, laptops and electronic readers when the airplane is taking off or landing.
Since people started bringing personal electronic communication devices on flights, the FAA assumed a cautious stance of limiting their use, fearing the devices would interfere with the airplane's radio frequency communications.
The FAA's Personal Electronic Device Aviation Rulemaking Committee concluded in a report earlier this year that most commercial airplanes can tolerate radio interference signals from portable devices. For the new ruling, the FAA also took feedback from airlines, aviation manufacturers, passengers, pilots, flight attendants and the mobile technology industry.
Mobile phone communications falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, which the FAA has urged to review its rules on in-flight use. Unlike other mobile electronic operations, cell phones send out relatively powerful signals that could interfere with in-flight radio communications.
Even devices that do not transmit signals can hamper a plane's communications, navigation, flight control and electronic equipment because they may emit radio energy at the same frequencies as the plane's equipment.
The airlines should determine how much radio interference their own communications systems can withstand. The airlines must then set their own conditions for usage and get FAA approval for these conditions.
The current FAA policy will remain in effect on an airline-by-airline basis until the FAA gives each airline approval to switch to the new policy.
Even after the new policy is adopted, an airline may also need to have their passengers shut down their devices during periods of low visibility to ensure adequate communications in such adverse conditions. The FAA expects that such conditions would apply to about one percent of all flights.
Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Charles Blue
cblue@nrao.edu
434-296-0314
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Doom may be averted for the Smith Cloud, a gigantic streamer of hydrogen gas that is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered a magnetic field deep in the cloud's interior, which may protect it during its meteoric plunge into the disk of our Galaxy.
This discovery could help explain how so-called high velocity clouds (HVCs) remain mostly intact during their mergers with the disks of galaxies, where they would provide fresh fuel for a new generation of stars.
Currently, the Smith Cloud is hurtling toward the Milky Way at more than 150 miles per second and is predicted to impact in approximately 30 million years. When it does, astronomers believe, it will set off a spectacular burst of star formation. But first, it has to survive careening through the halo, or atmosphere, of hot ionized gas surrounding the Milky Way.
"The million-degree upper atmosphere of the Galaxy ought to destroy these hydrogen clouds before they ever reach the disk, where most stars are formed," said Alex Hill, an astronomer at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "New observations reveal one of these clouds in the process of being shredded, but a protective magnetic field shields the cloud and may help it survive its plunge."
Many hundreds of HVCs zip around our Galaxy, but their obits seldom correspond to the rotation of the Milky Way. This leads astronomers to believe that HVCs are the left-over building blocks of galaxy formation or the splattered remains of a close galactic encounter billions of years ago.
Though massive, the gas that makes up HVCs is very tenuous, and computer simulations predict that they lack the necessary heft to survive plunging through the halo and into the disk of the Milky Way.
"We have long had trouble understanding how HVCs reach the Galactic disk," said Hill. "There's good reason to believe that magnetic fields can prevent their 'burning up' in the halo like a meteorite burning up in Earth's atmosphere."
Despite being the best evidence yet for a magnetic field inside an HVC, the origin of the Smith Cloud's field remains a mystery. "The field we observe now is too large to have existed in its current state when the cloud was formed," said Hill. "The field was probably magnified by the cloud's motion through the halo."
Earlier research indicates the Smith Cloud has already survived punching through the disk of our Galaxy once and -- at about 8,000 light-years from the disk -- is just beginning its re-entry now.
"The Smith Cloud is unique among high-velocity clouds because it is so clearly interacting with and merging with the Milky Way," said Felix J. Lockman, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va. "Its comet-like appearance indicates it's already feeling the Milky Way's influence."
Since the Smith Cloud appears to be devoid of stars, the only way to observe it is with exquisitely sensitive radio telescopes, like the GBT, which can detect the faint emission of neutral hydrogen. If it were visible with the naked eye, the Smith Cloud would cover almost as much sky as the constellation Orion.
When the Smith Cloud eventually merges with the Milky Way, it could produce a bright ring of stars similar to the one relatively close to our Sun known as Gould's Belt.
"Our Galaxy is in an incredibly dynamic environment," concludes Hill, "and how it interacts with that environment determines whether stars like the Sun will continue to form."
###
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 31-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Charles Blue
cblue@nrao.edu
434-296-0314
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Doom may be averted for the Smith Cloud, a gigantic streamer of hydrogen gas that is on a collision course with the Milky Way Galaxy. Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) have discovered a magnetic field deep in the cloud's interior, which may protect it during its meteoric plunge into the disk of our Galaxy.
This discovery could help explain how so-called high velocity clouds (HVCs) remain mostly intact during their mergers with the disks of galaxies, where they would provide fresh fuel for a new generation of stars.
Currently, the Smith Cloud is hurtling toward the Milky Way at more than 150 miles per second and is predicted to impact in approximately 30 million years. When it does, astronomers believe, it will set off a spectacular burst of star formation. But first, it has to survive careening through the halo, or atmosphere, of hot ionized gas surrounding the Milky Way.
"The million-degree upper atmosphere of the Galaxy ought to destroy these hydrogen clouds before they ever reach the disk, where most stars are formed," said Alex Hill, an astronomer at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. "New observations reveal one of these clouds in the process of being shredded, but a protective magnetic field shields the cloud and may help it survive its plunge."
Many hundreds of HVCs zip around our Galaxy, but their obits seldom correspond to the rotation of the Milky Way. This leads astronomers to believe that HVCs are the left-over building blocks of galaxy formation or the splattered remains of a close galactic encounter billions of years ago.
Though massive, the gas that makes up HVCs is very tenuous, and computer simulations predict that they lack the necessary heft to survive plunging through the halo and into the disk of the Milky Way.
"We have long had trouble understanding how HVCs reach the Galactic disk," said Hill. "There's good reason to believe that magnetic fields can prevent their 'burning up' in the halo like a meteorite burning up in Earth's atmosphere."
Despite being the best evidence yet for a magnetic field inside an HVC, the origin of the Smith Cloud's field remains a mystery. "The field we observe now is too large to have existed in its current state when the cloud was formed," said Hill. "The field was probably magnified by the cloud's motion through the halo."
Earlier research indicates the Smith Cloud has already survived punching through the disk of our Galaxy once and -- at about 8,000 light-years from the disk -- is just beginning its re-entry now.
"The Smith Cloud is unique among high-velocity clouds because it is so clearly interacting with and merging with the Milky Way," said Felix J. Lockman, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, W.Va. "Its comet-like appearance indicates it's already feeling the Milky Way's influence."
Since the Smith Cloud appears to be devoid of stars, the only way to observe it is with exquisitely sensitive radio telescopes, like the GBT, which can detect the faint emission of neutral hydrogen. If it were visible with the naked eye, the Smith Cloud would cover almost as much sky as the constellation Orion.
When the Smith Cloud eventually merges with the Milky Way, it could produce a bright ring of stars similar to the one relatively close to our Sun known as Gould's Belt.
"Our Galaxy is in an incredibly dynamic environment," concludes Hill, "and how it interacts with that environment determines whether stars like the Sun will continue to form."
###
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Last summer, the Thompson-Shannon family, a.k.a. the stars of TLC's Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, filmed an episode of Family Feud. Honey Boo Boo (Alana Thompson), Mama (June Shannon), Pumpkin (Lauryn Shannon), Chickadee (Anna Shannon), Chubbs (Jessica Shannon) and Sugar Bear (Mike Thompson) competed against Cake Boss' Buddy Valastro and his wife and three sisters. The teams each played for a charity (Honey Boo Boo's was the gay and lesbian rights group, GLAAD), and the episode will air Nov. 11.
Hold on to your phones, guys and ghouls! Here is a shot of Kim Kardashian taking a selfie while screaming on a roller coaster.
PHOTOS: Famous celebrity families
The Kardashian/Jenner family rented out a theme park on Oct. 29 to celebrate Kendall Jenner's upcoming 18th birthday. The birthday girl -- flanked by amicably separated mom and dad Kris and Bruce Jenner, big sisters Kim and Khloe, birthday girls Kendall, plus brothers Rob Kardashian, Brody and Brandon Jenner -- enjoyed a goofy afternoon filled with crazy rides, games and pictures to document the fun at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif.
PHOTOS: The Kardashian family vacation album
Newly-engaged Kim, who like her family members posted social media updates from the bash, shared this Keek video while on a roller coaster. "Alright, I hope this isn't too scary," said the 33-year-old reality star as the caboose slowly inched its way up a steep incline. "We better not drop our phone." Like a true pro, even as the screaming commenced, the mom to 4-month-old North West managed to keep her phone and subsequently shared the experience on social media.
PHOTOS: KimYe's sweetest moments
Although her fiance Kanye West was unable to join the somewhat-private affair, Kardashian reciprocated the rapper's lovey-dovey, recent interview with Ryan Seacrest in her Oct. 30 appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. "I'm very happy right now," she shared. The star also confessed to Leno how the fat-shaming she endured while pregnant with her first baby was damaging to her soul.
"It changed how I am in public," said the bombshell. "I've tried to live more of a private life."
PHOTOS: Kim's post-baby body style
FILE - This July 28, 2013 file photo shows singer Katy Perry at the world premiere of "The Smurfs 2" in Los Angeles. Perry says though she’s “older and wiser,” she still plans to have fun on her new album. During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Mick Jagger’s 2004 song, “Old Habits Die Hard.” Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that “he hit on me when I was 18.” In a statement Thursday, Oct. 31, a representative for Jagger says he “categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry.” (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — In her teenage dream? Mick Jagger says he never hit on Katy Perry when she was 18.
During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Jagger's 2004 song "Old Habits Die Hard." Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that "he hit on me when I was 18."
In a statement Thursday, a representative for Jagger says he "categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry." The rep adds: "Perhaps she is confusing him with someone else."
Perry was one of the singers to make a guest appearance on the Rolling Stones' tour this year. The 29-year-old singer also said in the interview that the 70-year-old Jagger has been "very kind" to her.
NEW YORK (AP) — The secretive street artist Banksy ended his self-announced month-long residency in New York City with a final piece of graffiti, a $615,000 painting donated to charity and a debate: Is he a jerk or a genius?
Banksy, who created a new picture, video or prank every day of October somewhere in the city, spent his last day like thousands of graffiti artists before him: He tagged a building near a highway with his name in giant bubble letters. The twist was that these letters were actual bubbles: balloon-like inflatables stuck to a wall near the Long Island Expressway in Queens.
As if to underscore his dual identity as both a street punk and an art-world darling, he also donated a painting that was auctioned off Thursday night for $615,000. The original painting first sold for $50 at a Manhattan thrift shop that benefits Housing Works, an organization that fights homelessness and AIDS. Banksy added a Nazi soldier to the landscape scene and Housing Works sold it in an online auction.
Throughout his 31 days here, Banksy put pictures of his work on BanksyNY.com, with clues as to locations but nothing precise. That spawned a treasure hunt by fans who hunted the works down, shared locations via social media, then swarmed to see them.
But by the time Banksy was done, New Yorkers were divided in their opinions. Some tweeted "Go home, Banksy!" Others declared their admiration.
The turning point for many was an essay he wrote criticizing the building replacing the World Trade Center. Banksy called the new design "vanilla ... something they would build in Canada," and added, "It so clearly proclaims the terrorists won." He offered the essay to The New York Times. The paper wouldn't print it, so he posted it on his website.
"The terrorists won" comment upset many New Yorkers, including Brian Major, 51, of Brooklyn. "Enough!" Major said. "Who is this guy? Everybody's got a right to an opinion but what gives him any kind of credibility in New York? Shut up, Banksy! Go home!"
A lifelong New Yorker, Major says he understands graffiti culture, and he also appreciates fine art. But he doesn't think Banksy's art is all that good — "though I'll give him credit, he's a good marketer."
But Sean Lynch, 25, of Staten Island thinks Banksy is "one of the more captivating artists of our generation." Lynch said it was magical visiting Banksy sites around the city and hearing conversations about art that the works inspired, with "people of all different walks and cultures sharing opinions, sharing stories. ... The walls started to talk to them, in a way."
Banksy, who refuses to reveal his full identity, began his career spray-painting buildings in Bristol, England. In New York, many of his images were silhouetted figures or spray-painted messages. The art ranged from a stencil of a dog lifting his leg on a hydrant to a video of a "slaughterhouse delivery truck" filled with stuffed animals. Some works were defaced by other graffiti artists. But interest grew with each piece, and at least one Banksy street work was covered with plexiglass to preserve it. He also sold some pieces, unadvertised, for $60 on the street.
Radhika Subramaniam, a professor at Parsons The New School for Design in Manhattan, says Banksy is part of a long tradition of graffiti artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat whose work ultimately earned recognition from the art establishment. But he also fits into a contemporary trend of opening up public spaces to conversations about who owns them and what can happen there — especially in today's cleaned-up New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg, when asked about Banksy, called graffiti "a sign of decay and loss of control."
OK, but is Banksy any good? "There's plenty of wit in what he does, as well as some thoroughly ordinary, sometimes pleasant, sometimes banal, but sometimes sweet things," Subramaniam said. But he's also "not a naïf in the art world. After all, who would care if you or I were to set up a blog and enact a residency like this? It's only because he's able to marshal this kind of PR and marketing that ... catapults his residency to another level and elicits these polarized points of view."
In a final gesture that was simultaneously serious and self-mocking, audio commentary posted Thursday on Banksy's website called his final piece— his name in bubble letters by the road — "an homage ... to the most prevalent form of graffiti in the city that invented it for the modern era. Or it's another Banksy piece that's full of hot air."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jerk-genius-debate-over-banksys-month-art-050216837.html
