Auroras Alert: CME Impacts Earth July 14th

Coronal Mass Ejection (CME), hit as expected, Earth's magnetosphere, July 14th, about 2p Eastern/11 a Pacific Daylight Time as reported by Spaceweather.com.  "A geomagnetic storm is brewing in the wake of the impact. At the moment, conditions appear favorable for auroras over high-latitude places such as Canada, Scandinavia, Antarctica and Siberia. It is too early to say whether the storm will intensify and bring auroras to middle latitudes as well," forecasts space weather website.  The present geomagnetic storm activity, is result, of X1.4 flare that erupted from Sunspot 1520 on July 12th.

Retro Sci-Fi Weekend: 'It! The Terror From Beyond Space!'

The 1958 science fiction thriller, "It! The Terror From Beyond Space," is great entertainment! The present writer wants to thank  HYPNOBOBS for refreshing memory as always been on mind to watch, again - if only could recall the title!  "It!" considered to be an influence on 1979 Alien, since storyline involves similar highly predatory creature stowing away to eliminate crew one by one!  It's the storyline that makes movie, as wondering who will be next, provides for suspense!  The production values are also good.  Hynpobobs points out poor choice of devices movie employed such as military rifles and grenades.  You have to ask:  what makes for cheaper props than surplus war goods?  The rocket appears quite sturdy - more like pressurized sub with thick hull -  stronger than present materials.  The aluminum can had just come out the year before!  The ship interior appears it could withstand gun play and grenades!  Kids will possibly find it more entertaining as storyline is similar to children's game of hide and seek.  The crew are trapped at the end in top remaining level of ship, when solution to overcoming alien presents itself!  It's good stuff and still downloadable for free - here!

Incoming! CME On Its Way Toward Earth

Universe Today reports earthbound, "...a coronal mass ejection resulting from the X1.4-class flare that erupted from sunspot 1520 on July 12. The CME is expected to collide with Earth’s magnetic field on Saturday..." Casual observers wonder when will it be the Big One?

'9 Minutes Before Space' Video

"9 Minutes Before Space" is excellent Russian television production on preps made by first time cosmonaut at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan! The program captures cosmonaut's immediate experience in a powerful way. A cosmonaut describes experience of extra gravity, during ascent, as a warm blanket coming over you and after a while just can't seem to catch your breath. The video of zero gravity when it first kicks in - pretty interesting! Everyday events on the International Space Station are described much more intimately than ever seen by present viewer! It's easy to watch! Thanks goes to Spaceports for the link!

Google's 'Chairman' Predicts End Of China's Firewall

from pcmag.com: Following Google's high-profile spat with China over censorship in 2010, the company has been mostly candid about its disagreements with the country's Internet policies. However, those comments have usually been tempered by the silent understanding that China must be dealt with in some fashion. But in a new interview, Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt offers even more revealing insight into how the company views China and its future as a global technology player.

"I believe that ultimately censorship fails… I personally believe that you cannot build a modern knowledge society with that kind of behavior, that is my opinion," Schmidt told Foreign Policy magazine. "I think most people at Google would agree with that. The natural next question is when [will China change], and no one knows the answer to that question. [But] in a long enough time period, do I think that this kind of regime approach will end? I think absolutely."

Schmidt's comments were made last week offstage during the Aspen Ideas Festival, an annual gathering of global scholars, artists, experts and business leaders held in Aspen, Colorado. Schmidt's comments come amidst China's newfound popularity as Silicon Valley's hardware manufacturer of choice. China has also enjoyed new global influence as a technology hub as its local brands such as Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent rack up large chunks of market share in Asia versus Western competitors. But despite China's rise to tech prominence, Google's experience in the country has apparently changed the way it looks at the region.


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Telstar Sat Launched 50 Years Ago!

History is about to be made - as old newsreel begins, and possibly, played before the main feature at local movie theaters of era. Telstar launched July 10, 1962 - 50 years ago - from Cape Canaveral!  The first communications satellite to relay TV signals across the Atlantic ocean, President John F Kennedy comments on momentous event in video.  It's also humbling to note, how brief our wired, plugged-in adventure with satellite communications has been - just five decades!  There's a chance either solar flares or EMP attacks, could unplug our wired world in an instant!  Do you wonder whatever happened to Telstar?  You can learn satellite's short-lived fate here.  It was big news a long time ago - television transmissions relayed across the globe - but worth taking moment to remember!

Malware Arrives, Nuked on App Store For First Time

from tomsguide.com: Kaspersky has discovered the first-ever malicious app on Apple's App Store.

Kaspersky Lab is calling this a first-ever for Apple: an app offered on the App Store containing malware. The security firm confirmed its existence on Thursday, reporting that the malicious app was also available to download from Google Play. The app has since been removed from both markets as of this writing.

According to Kaspersky, the application was called "Find and Call." At first glance, it seemed to be an SMS worm spread via sending short messages to all contacts stored in the phone book with the URL to itself. But after careful study, the firm discovered it to be a Trojan that uploaded a user’s phonebook to remote server. 

 "If user launches this application, he will be asked to register in the app using his email address and cell phone number (both fields won’t be checked for validity). If the user wants to ‘find friends in a phone book,’ his phone book data will be secretly (no EULA/ terms of usage/notifications) uploaded to remote server," the security firm reports.

Both the iOS and Android Apps were also able to upload the users' GPS coordinates to the same server, the company said. Meanwhile, device owners were capable of using the application unaware of its malicious intent while it secretly stole data from the device (phone book, cell phone numbers), and uploaded the info to a remote server.

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