Scientists have found the soil in Mars to be similar to our own planet's. Examining it more closely, scientists discovered that it's rich in the compound perchlorate which could inhibit life. Some scientists now doubt if life could exist in the red planet, but NASA remains optimistic despite the odds. More in the full article.

To prove that the land of the rising sun has the technology to reach for the moon, Japan recently launched the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), the biggest lunar mission since the Apollo landings. An orbiter named after the moon princess in a fairy tale, Kaguya, which weighs three metric tons was sent from Tanegashima island to explore uncharted polar areas of the moon.

The princess stripped 45 minutes into the flight, separating from its rocket near Chile's airspace. Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) planned for two successful orbits around the Earth before Kaguya reaches the moon to release two satellites equipped with high-definition cameras.

It took quite an effort before SELENE successfully took off, after previous failed attempts of rocket H-2 and H-2A which lost its path in 2003. Around US$ 479 million went to making the mission possible, but the Japanese scientists are quite proud with what they achieved.

Other countries are expected to follow suit in what seems to be a space race. China will launch its own craft later this year to do their own exploration, while India plans to join the scene by launching another rocket into space. The US has ideas for its own ventures, with a launch expected to kick off in 2008.

Our civilization has always attributed abnormal developments here on Earth to the moon including visual physiological effects, atmospheric smearing of light like a prism, and turbulence in the atmosphere.

The more interesting among these are psychological effects like hysteria or planted suggestion. Scientifically speaking, what happens really is that some parts of the moon surface change in brightness and color otherwise known as Transient Lunar Phenomena.

To add to the above mentioned changes, scientist now claim that there's a strong correlation between TLP sightings and regions where lunar orbiting spacecraft have detected gas leaking out from beneath the lunar surface.

Scientists added that the said gas could mix with other gases of a more volcanic nature producing monoxide, carbon dioxide, and even water in the process. Columbia University researcher Arlin Crotts mentioned that if this turns out to be true, then it increases the possibility of us having lunar colonies.

Scientist are currently observing TLP sightings using a robotic camera located at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in northern Chile. "The camera will be more sensitive than the human eye/telescope combination, and more objective and persistent. Hopefully it will give a better map of the TLP geographical distribution, as well as their timing and internal structure," Crotts added.

It's been several months since we last heard from homebrew developer Christ (Christophe Andreani), and the ever-handy AMAP4DS homebrew he's released for our use.

In the event this is your first time reading up on this application, AMAP4DS is a DS-based map reader for viewing metro and bus maps in its ever-growing database.

Given that it's been a while, the site's just updated with several new maps for v3.1 (the latest version release), some of which were credited to contributors willing to help this app along:

• Chile (credits go to Rai Jin)
• AMAP4DS-Santiago-Metro v3.1: Santiago metro map.
• France:
• AMAP4DS-Paris-Noctilien v3.1: Paris Noctilien (night bus) map.
• Germany
• AMAP4DS-Hannover-Tram v3.1: Hannover Tram map.
• AMAP4DS-Kassel-KPlus-Schema v3.1: Kassel KPlus schematic map (Thanks to Georgios Sykomanis)
• AMAP4DS-Kassel-KPlus-Topo v3.1: Kassel KPlus topographic map. (Thanks to Georgios Sykomanis.)
• Greece (credits go to Georgios Sykomanis)
• AMAP4DS-Athena-Metro v3.1: Athena metro (Greek) map.
• AMAP4DS-Athens-Metro v3.1: Athens metro (English) map.
• AMAP4DS-Thessaloniki-OASTH v3.1: Thessaloniki-OASTH (Greek) map.

The maps should be available at Christ's site via the source link below. For the benefit of the DS owners who'd like to try this app out, we've also attached a download link below for AMAP4DS v3.1. Enjoy the application and its subsequent maps!

Download: AMAP4DS v3.1

If there was one thing that grabbed our attention regarding Microsoft's upcoming Xbox Live update for this spring, it would have to be the new region limits. As detailed by UK community manager AceyBongo, this new update will disable your Live account's ability from downloading Xbox Live Marketplace content that's not within your console's region.

We'll be taking a break from this rather morbid news for the moment, as we pick up a press wire detailing the other features that are expected to kick in for this latest update brings to our consoles. The list spans 125 noted tweaks, ranging from added interface to bug fixes:

• New Features:
• “Download manager” - Marketplace items now download in the background, queue up to six pieces of content
• DVD bookmark support will remember the film’s timing and location when resuming viewing
• Fast-forward and rewind now offered at 2x -16x for any videos saved to hard drive
• “Boot to Dashboard” setting will bypass the loading of any disc in the drive and open directly to Dashboard during power-on
• Begin slideshows from any photo
• Music player saves “shuffle” setting
• Much player save “repeat” setting
• Music player now displays which file is currently playing in the playlist
• Music volume level persists between game / reboots
• 8 new locales added (Chile, Brazil, India, South Africa, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia)
• Separate settings now offered for Game and User volume controls
• Themes can now be set from the “System” blade on the Dashboard
• User-selected music continues play when switching from Dashboard to game or game to Dashboard
• “All Arcade Games” added as a selection in the Xbox Live Arcade area
• Personal gamer pictures allowed as Gamertiles – displayed only to those on your Friends List
• Added support to disable sound effects when navigating Dashboard
• Instantaneous “Change Theme” option added upon downloading new Dashboard themes
• Preserve folder structure of source when viewing photos
• A/B labels now provided to identify memory units in Dashboard
• Online status set to “Away” when screensaver becomes active

The complete list is available in the Full Article!

At the Carnegie Institution of Washington, several teams of astronomers competed in the hunt for the most Earth-like planet in the universe. Guess what? University of Geneva astronomers has already found one.

The planet was found just outside the solar system by the 11 European scientists with the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile. The planet is circling the red dwarf star Gliese 581 which is around 120 trillion miles away.

That's quite far but when you're talking about things on this level, that's practically considered a neighbor. Anyway, the new planet is around five times heavier than Earth and its gravity is 1.6 times stronger.

"Liquid water is critical to life as we know it. Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life. On the treasure map of the Universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," commented Xavier Delfosse of Grenoble University in France, also part of the magic 11.

It is still uncertain whether the planet rotates or not, so it is possible that one side of it is in day light perpetually while the other is covered in darkness. Speaking of which, if one is to live in that planet, the star Gliese 581 would hang from the sky looking five times larger than our moon.

Recently, more than a thousand aficionados and experts gathered in Viña del Mar for the Tenth International Ufology Conference, organized by Chile's Ufology Investigation Group. The highlight of the meeting was the display of photos and videos allegedly taken by the members of Chile's Armed forces.

The military video and photos included a photo of a spherical metallic object captured flying over Antarctica and a video of Navy ships being pursued by a luminous object. Aside from that, Rodrigo Bravo, Captain of the army's Fifth Division also talked about his thesis entitled "Observations of unidentified aerial phenomena identified by the Civil Air Force."

Although the captain's words do not represent the Chilean Armed Force's position on UFOs, he had been given the authorization by his superiors to participate in the conference.

Also present in the conference is retired official Armando Valdés who is involved in one of Chile's first documented UFO abductions, known as the Valdés case. This happened on April 1977 when Armando and five members of an army patrol, saw two bright objects descending from the sky.

He checked it out by himself and according to his colleagues, he just vanished. 15 minutes later, he re-appeared and passed out. It was reported that the date on his watch had been advanced by five days and he had about a week's growth of beard. His colleagues also mentioned that when Valdés regained consciousness, he uttered these words: "You do not know who we are, nor where we come from. But I tell you that we will soon return."

Fact or pure fiction? Your guesses are as good as ours.

The internet giant, Google, has set its visions beyond the matrix and wants to head out to space. They made a new partnership with a group of scientists to create a huge sky-scanning telescope, it is Google's quest to be able to provide the public with access to digital footage of the skies beyond.

From asteroids to supernovas to distant galaxies, the telescope under construction is geared to put these celestial bodies in view all the way from a mountaintop in Chile. With the latest technology, the telescope should be able to take a series of 15-second exposures that will allow it to cover the sky every three nights.

According to the manager of the yet-unnamed telescope company, he could already envision the day when Google would be "our sort of window to the general public." Not that they aren't already. Let's just say, that window only gets bigger.

As promised, Microsoft threw a launch party last night to start its X360 conquest of Brazil. It seems it turned out quite well, judging from the news pouring about it at least. Director of Microsoft's Latin America Games and Entertainment Division Daniel Cervantes just predicted that X360 will be the next biggest thing in Brazil; a bold assertion as the said region is the biggest market in the Latin America list.

"We'll be the first major manufacturer to sell a game console in Brazil's market directly. We believe consumers will respond well to that," reflected Cervantes. Accordingly, around 600,000 units of videogame consoles are sold annually in Brazil, though they are provided by third party vendors. With a potential of 11 million base of gamers, the country is actually 15th overall in the world in terms of console sales.

On to details, it is rather curious to note that Microsoft will be selling its next-gen console there for 2,999 reais or roughly US$ 1,400. The package will contain the console itself, which by the way has Portuguese software, a 20-gigabyte hard disk, wireless controller, remote control and three games. Speaking of titles, those which would be available at once are Gears of Wars and Perfect Dark Zero among others; games will cost around 159 reais (US$ 74) each.

We have learned in Mexico and Colombia that when we come ahead of our competitors, our market share can double just by being the first. If we get a critical mass, it's very difficult for us lose our lead," explained Cervantes. Microsoft began selling the console in Mexico, Chile and Colombia at the early part of this year.

The term "eco-tourism", much like the "organic" label which has been used as a marketing tool to capitalize on the growing demand for organic food, has spurned a lot of fake green destinations. Dishonest tourism operators, now known as "greenwashers" have resorted to using eco-tourism solely for money-making.

There is no universal definition for it but the International Eco-tourism Society says eco-tourism is "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people".

To help sort  the true-blue green destinations from the greenwash, Lonely Planet, the world's leading publisher of guidebooks, has published Code Green (US$19.99). Code Green is a collection of green ideas defined by three principles:

• Tread lightly on the environment
• Immerse yourself in the culture
• Have a positive economic benefit for the local community

The book is filled with ideas for travelling across the planet. These include walking the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia, whitewater rafting in Chile, whale watching in New Zealand, hiking in the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan and learning bush survival skills in the Kalahari Desert. Each featured destination comes with a narrative that captures the essence of the place as well as a list of responsible travel credentials.