Google: Put a rover on the moon, win $30 million

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Google Inc. is bankrolling a $30 million out-of-this-world prize to the first private company that can safely land a robotic rover on the moon and beam back a gigabyte of images and video to Earth, the Internet search leader said Thursday.

Google has had previous forays into space via the Internet by launching Google Mars and Google Earth.

If the competition produces a winner, it would prove a major boon to the emerging private spaceflight industry and mark the first time that a nongovernment entity has flown a lunar space probe.

Google partnered with the X Prize Foundation for the moon challenge, which is open to companies around the world. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit prize institute is best known for hosting the Ansari X Prize contest that led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004.

The race to the moon won't be easy or cheap. Teams have to raise money to build a roaming spacecraft that will be tough enough to survive a landing and have the smarts to complete a set of tasks. Each rover must also be equipped with high-definition video and still cameras to document the journey.

The rules call for a spacecraft to trek at least 1,312 feet across the lunar surface and return a package of data including self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real time videos. Participants are also responsible for securing a launch vehicle for the probe, either by building it themselves or contracting with an existing rocket company.

Whoever accomplishes the feat by the end of 2012 will receive $20 million. If there is no winner, the purse will drop to $15 million until the end of 2014 when the contest expires. There is also a $5 million second-place prize and $5 million in bonus money to teams that go beyond the minimum requirements.

Details of the Google X Prize are to be revealed at the WIRED Nextfest technology show in Los Angeles.

The competition comes at a time of revived interest in lunar exploration among foreign governments since the Cold War space race. Governments including the United States and those in Europe and Asia are gearing up to return to the moon.

Japan's space agency, JAXA, plans to launch its long-delayed orbiter SELENE from a remote Pacific Island on Friday. NASA next year will rocket a lunar orbiter and impactor, the first of several lunar robotic projects before astronauts are sent to the moon next decade.

Government lunar missions can cost upward of hundreds of millions of dollars, but the X Prize Foundation and Google hope the private sector can do it for considerably less.

The partnership between Google and the X Prize Foundation comes as no surprise. Earlier this year, Google co-founder Larry Page hosted a star-studded charity auction for the foundation at the company's Mountain View headquarters. Page is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation.

Google has had previous forays into space albeit via the Internet by launching Google Mars and Google Earth, Web browser-based mapping tools that give users an up-close, interactive view with the click of a mouse.

The X Prize Foundation is also holding competitions in rapid genetic decoding and creating super-efficient vehicles, but the moon prize is by far the largest in its history since it was founded in 1995. The Google X Prize is second richest space prize, next to the $50 million pot being dangled by hotel magnate Robert Bigelow to any American team that can rocket a manned spacecraft into orbit by 2010

Review: 'Tiger' adds a few sweet shots to golfing arsenal

Sports video games are like birthdays: You more or less know what to expect when they roll around each year, but some are simply better than others.

Hit a hole in one playing "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08."

Such is the case with EA Sports' "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08," the latest in the best-selling golf series now available for all major gaming platforms.

While the core game play is similar to last year's version, the game makers added a bunch of new features to justify the purchase.

Specifically, the two biggest additions are in the community and personalization departments.

All shots are now recorded -- from the opening drive splitting the fairway to the final putt on the 18th green -- so you can save and replay highlights. Called GamerNet, this feature also allows competitive players to upload these moments to the Internet for bragging rights, bonus points and as a challenge to others to best your performance. The online GamerNet menu is divided into four parts: channels, challenges, leaderboards and "browse my clips."

When it comes to customization, for the first time you can upload a front and side photograph of your face to create an in-game golfer that looks like you. While it takes a bit of skill to edit the imported photos using onscreen markers as a guide (as well as tweak features such as hair), the effect is worth the effort.

Photos can be uploaded to TigerWoods08.com using a regular digital camera or using a related console accessory such as the Microsoft Xbox Live Vision camera or Sony PlayStation EyeToy. You also can play as a PGA Tour pro, such as Woods, or top LPGA golfers, such as Annika Sorenstam.

You can hit the ball in one of two ways. The main control scheme is using the controller's dual analog sticks, where the left stick is pulled back and then pushed forward to hit the ball, while the right stick can be used to add a fade, draw, hook or slice to your shot. (In the Nintendo Wii version, you can hold the Wii Remote like a club and take a real swing.)

New to "Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08" is the option to go back to the classic three-click swing system by pressing the A or X button (for the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 2/3, respectively): once to start the swing, a second time to select the desired power and third time for accuracy.

Along with the multiple solo and multiplayer game modes -- ranging from Stroke and Match play to popular arcade modes, including Battle Golf and One Ball -- 10 minigames are accessible at any time, including T-I-G-E-R, modeled after the basketball game H-O-R-S-E, where you make a shot and your friend has to make it or they get a letter; the first person to spell the word loses the game. New to this year's game is Playoffs for the FedExCup, with courses such as TPC Boston, Cog Hill and Westchester Country Club.

Add gorgeous graphics and a meaty Tiger Challenge mode -- that lets you earn virtual cash and increase skills as you beat some of the world's top players --and you've got a golf game worth taking a swing at for both newbie and seasoned players

Million more UK homes go online

Million more UK homes go online

The report found that broadband usage was on the rise

The number of UK homes with internet access has gone up by nearly a million over the last year, figures suggest.

Some 15.2m UK households - 61% of homes - now have an internet connection, compared with 54% in 2006, research from National Statistics found.

London and south-west England had the highest percentage online at 69%, with Northern Ireland lowest at 52%.

In total, 84% of web-enabled households said they had a broadband connection, up from 69% in May 2006.

Internet shopping

The research found that age was a significant factor in determining whether individuals were likely to go online, National Statistics said.

"There was still a large difference between the number of young and older people accessing the internet," it said.

According to the report, 71% of those aged over 65 said they had never used it, while the figure for those aged 16 to 24 was just 4%.

It found that internet shopping is also on the increase, with 53% having bought goods online, compared with 44% last year.

But the research found evidence that users were not taking threats to their online security seriously enough.

A total of 46% of internet users said they had never or hardly ever made a back-up of files on their computer - and of those, 21% had had a computer virus in the last 12 months.

The figures were compiled from the National Statistics Omnibus Survey conducted each month with 1,200 adults aged over 16 in Great Britain, and with 400 adults in Northern Ireland in May 2007.

They echo a recent report by Ofcom which found older media such as TV, radio and DVDs are being abandoned in favour of more modern technology.

BT set to study internet novices

BT set to study internet novices

For many using the net is a very stressful experience

BT is setting up an initiative to find out why some people resist using the internet.

The project will employ psychologists to closely study a small group of people to reveal what stops them joining the net-using majority.

Early research done for the project suggests that, for some, using the net is as stressful as a bungee jump.

Official statistics on UK net use suggest that 39% of households do not have web access.

Net losses

Dr David Lewis, the lead psychologist employed on the project, said that for many people the biggest barrier to getting online was mental as many of those avoiding the net lived in homes with a dedicated connection.

He said: "More often the barriers are internal, stemming from a fear of the technology."

"It will be interesting to see whether the trial will be enough to build the participants' online confidence, or whether more needs to be done in terms of support and guidance to help them to become tech savvy," he said.

By contrast to novices, many seasoned net users find the experience of going online very relaxing, said Dr Lewis.

The psychologists on the project will take readings of physiological changes reluctant net users undergo when they go online.

BT has chosen four subjects who will be studied closely as they are coached to use the net to find out why they fear using it.

To acquaint them with online life, the four subjects have been given a broadband link, a laptop, webcam and a digital camera. A two-month training plan has also been developed that will introduce them to what they can do on the net.

The participants will also be encouraged to record their experiences on video or in still images and comment on what they discover. Their videos and images will be shown on the "Journey to Inclusion" website documenting the project.

Gavin Patterson, a spokesman for BT said: "The gap between the competent internet user and those who have never been online has never been greater."

Ten 'most polluted places' named

Ten 'most polluted places' named

China's economic boom has caused pollution to soar

A list of the world's most polluted places has been published by a US-based independent environmental group.

The Blacksmith Institute's top 10 towns and cities included sites in ex-Soviet republics, Russia, China and India. Peru and Zambia were also listed.

The report said an estimated 12 million people were affected by the severe pollution, which was mainly caused by chemical, metal and mining industries.

Chronic illness and premature deaths were listed as possible side-effects.

The annual review, which debuted in 2006, is listed alphabetically, and the sites are unranked "given the wide range of location sizes, populations and pollution dynamics".

WORST POLLUTED Sumgayit, Azerbaijan; Potentially 275,000 affected Linfen, China; Potentially 3m affected Tianying, China; Potentially 140,000 affected Sukinda, India; Potentially 2.6m affected Vapi, India; Potentially 71,000 affected La Oroya, Peru; Potentially 35,000 affected Dzerzhinsk, Russia; Potentially 300,000 affected Norilsk, Russia; Potentially 134,000 affected Chernobyl, Ukraine; Potentially 5.5m affected Kabwe, Zambia; Potentially 255,000 affected Data: Blacksmith Institute

Among the new sites listed in 2007 were Tianying in China, where potentially 140,000 people were at risk from lead poisoning from a massive lead production base there.

The report also said that in the Indian town of Sukinda there were 12 mines operating without environmental controls, leaching dangerous chemicals into water supplies.

Sumgayit in Azerbaijan was also included in the report, which said the former Soviet industrial base was polluting the area with industrial chemicals and heavy metals.

According to the report, cancer rates in Sumgayit were as much as 51% higher than the national average and that genetic mutations and birth defects were commonplace.

The Blacksmith Institute's director, Richard Fuller, said: "The fact of the matter is that children are sick and dying in these polluted places, and it's not rocket science to fix them.

"This year, there has been more focus on pollution in the media, but there has been little action in terms of new funding or programmes. We all need to step up to the plate and get moving," he said.

Google calls for web privacy laws

Without global standards the health of the internet was at risk, the firm's privacy chief Peter Fleischer told a UN agency conference in Strasbourg.

He said that the rise of the net meant vast amounts of personal data was now regularly shipped around the globe.

That information often passed through countries with insufficient or no data protection laws, he said.

"Every time a person uses a credit card their information may cross six or seven national boundaries," Mr Fleischer said before the event.

Hostile past

Three quarters of countries have no privacy rules at all and among those that do, many were largely adopted before the rise of the internet, he said.

Europe, for example, has strict privacy regulations, but these rules were set out in 1995, largely before the rise of the commercial internet, he said.

In contrast, the United States has no country-wide privacy laws, instead leaving them to individual states or even industries to set up.

"The minority of the world's countries that have privacy regimes follow divergent models," a copy of his speech said. "Citizens lose out because they are unsure about what rights they have given the patchwork of competing regimes."

Google has previously come under repeated fire about its own privacy policies.

In June, rights group Privacy International rated the search giant as "hostile" to privacy in a report ranking web firms by how they handle personal data.

A month later, the firm said it would change its policies so that its cookies, tiny files stored on a computer when a user visits a website, would auto-delete two years after a user's last visit to its site. Previously they were set to delete in 2038.

Speaking at the Strasbourg Unesco conference, Mr Fleischer called for countries to adopt principles agreed by some Asia-Pacific nations.

The APEC guidelines have nine principles that aim to protect the individual and safeguard data collection.

They have been accepted by countries ranging from Australia to Vietnam.

"If privacy principles can be agreed in such divergent countries, then we think that is a model for the rest of the world," Mr Fleischer said before the speech.