Arvidson, who has handled the day-to-day directing of Spirit’s science research, while Principal Investigator Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, directs Opportunity’s science meetings and oversees all rover science, is partial to his charge but not as optimistic as he was just last month. "Spirit's in a tough situation," he summed up.

“It's a very complex situation, very difficult situation for the rover,” assessed MER Project Manager John Callas, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where the ...

Willemijn Verkoren

Henk van Houtum, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

The box office chooses Avatar

In selecting “Hurt Locker” over “Avatar” as best picture, members of the Academy have earned a credibility rating equal to the U.S. Congress.

Apparently, it did not matter that moviegoers overwhelmingly chose to see James Cameron’s epic, and that popcorn sales to “Avatar” crowds most likely totaled more than was earned by Kathryn Bigelow’s film.

Buck Rutledge, Knoxville, Tenne...

The company announced two productions for the fall: “A Quiet Place” by Leonard Bernstein, which City Opera said had never been staged in New York City, and a revival of Strauss’s “Intermezzo.”

In the spring it will bring back a Jonathan Miller production of “L’Elisir d’Amore” by Donizetti, which was last at the house in 2006; a bill of three short operas by John Zorn, Arnold Schoenberg and Morton Feldman; and the first opera by Stephen Schwartz, veteran of Broadway musicals in...

Lord Lloyd-Webber’s last international smash was, in fact, the first “Phantom,” which went on to be a global industry at the heart of the British musical boom of the 1980s: a phenomenon that took a sharp U-turn until “Mamma Mia!” came along many years later. This renewed acquaintanceship with the man in the mask is a brave endeavor, not least because you would be hard pressed to find a stage musical that has spawned a successful sequel: “Annie Warbucks,” anyone? Or “Bring Back Birdie&#...

Google and No. 2 U.S. satellite TV operator Dish Network Corp are jointly testing a television programming search service, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The paper said the service runs on TV set-top boxes which use elements of Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android wireless operating system. It allows users to search content from Dish as well as Web sites such as YouTube, and to personalize the lineup of shows. More set-top boxes and TV sets with Internet access are becoming available to consum...

Sex.com, often DOM Partners' loan to Escom for the deal has been in default for over a year. "The loan was in default and DOM partners is foreclosing pursuant to its right under the security agreement," DOM's attorney Scott Matthews said. Attempts to reach Escom and sex.com for comment were not immediately successful. But Richard Maltz, an auctioneer at Maltz Auctions who is running the sale, said on Monday there was considerable interest in it. "We don't know who's serious and who's not, but prospective bidders need a $1 million certified ...

All of the major wireless carriers are racing to 4G networks. But the largest player in the space just put the rest on notice. Verizon Wireless has come forward with new details about trials in test markets with it 4G LTE network. Enterprise Mobile Today has the story. Will even iPhone users have smartphone envy? They might once they see the bandwidth test results from Verizon Wireless's 4G rollout tests. Unless Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) does a deal with Verizon Wireless, iPhone users on AT&T's network will have to wait some time before higher 4...

p>For Web site owners, security is a significant concern. Browsers can pose significant risks by exposing sensitive information collected during a session, such as cookies and passwords. In response to those security concerns, Quaresso is offering a new spin on the armored browser, thanks to some commercial support from Blue Coat. Enterprise Networking Planet takes a look. Most Web users today use their own installed browsers or VPN connections to secure their online activities. A new approach from startup Quaresso Software Technologies cou...

Separating hype from actuality in the cloud computing space can be daunting for even the most experienced and informed CIO. Whether it's a matter of security, standards or utilization of capacity, enterprise companies are using trial and error to figure which data workloads and applications make the most sense in the cloud and which must still be hosted on-site. Skeptics point out that from a security standpoint, it all starts with the quality of applications running in your datacenter. If a company is running poorly written applications in...

On the fence about virtualization? Rather than sitting by and waiting for enterprise customers to come to it, virtualization software developer VMware this week is rolling out something it calls VMware Express. The tricked-out 18-wheeler features a fully functioning datacenter, demo stations and large, flat-panel LCD screens to evangelize the benefits of virtualization and, particularly, the upside of desktop virtualization in the enterprise. The datacenter inside is a combination of EMC (NYSE: EMC) storage, Cisco's (NASDAQ: CSCO) Unified C...

Robert "Joe" Halderman, left, appears briefly outside court Tuesday in New York with his attorney, Gerald Shargel.

New York (CNN) -- The man accused of trying to blackmail comedian David Letterman pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny at a hearing Tuesday afternoon.

Under the deal, Robert "Joe" Halderman, a CBS news producer, will get six months in jail, five years' probation and 1,000 hours of community service.

In a statement Tuesday, Letterman expressed gratitude to prosecutors and police.

"I wou...

WASHINGTON - One bride wore a knee-length lace dress and pearls. The other bride wore a yellow shirt and white suit. And when a pastor pronounced them "partners in life this day and for always" Tuesday they hugged and smiled as wedding guests and nearly a dozen TV cameras and reporters looked on.

Tuesday was the first day same-sex couples could marry in Washington.

Brides Angelisa Young and Sinjoyla Townsend were the first of three couples taking the plunge in morning ceremonies at the offices of the Human Rights Campaign, which does ...

Nationwide reports increasing number of savers

Nationwide Building Society has reported that the total number of savers is now at its highest level since May 2008.

In February eight out of 10 consumers described themselves as either regular or occasional savers, a rise that may be due to the corresponding increase in consumer confidence.

The last Nationwide Consumer Confidence Index saw a six point rise in confidence to 80, the highest since January 2008.

Head of Savings Andy Hutchinson has forecast that the building society wil...

IDG News Service - The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has awarded the 2009 A.M. Turing Award to Charles P. Thacker, for his work in pioneering the networked personal computer.

In 1974, while at the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), Thacker built a prototype of a desktop computer, called the Alto. It featured a number of innovations that have since become commonplace on PCs, including a television-like screen, a graphical user interface and a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) text editor.

The award also recognizes...

NEW YORK - A TV producer has pleaded guilty to trying to shake down David Letterman over the comic’s sexual affairs.

Robert “Joe” Halderman entered his guilty plea to attempted grand larceny Tuesday in a Manhattan court in exchange for a six-month jail term and 1,000 hours of community service, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He was charged last fall with demanding $2 million to keep quiet about Letterman’s love life. The case spurred the late-night TV icon to tell viewers he’d had affairs with women on his staff.

T...

Ms. Batuman says her self-deprecating rant on her blog is mostly tongue-and-cheek, inspired by comedian Kathy Griffin's TV show, "My Life on the D-List."

"That was the narrative I thought I would choose because the world of D-list writers, it's fun," says Ms. Batuman, a graduate of Harvard who teaches an academic writing workshop at Stanford. "The same way Kathy Griffin would be like, 'Nicole Kidman would never do this,' I would be like, 'Ian McEwan would never bartend at his own reading,' or 'Philip Roth would never have to hustl...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. government is preparing a safety warning about baby slings — those popular and fashionable infant carriers that parents can sling around their chests to carry their baby.

The concern is that infants can suffocate, and a few have.

Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairman Inez Tenenbaum says her agency is getting ready to issue a general warning to the public, likely to go out this week, about the baby carriers.

She did not single out any specific slings or discuss at least seven reported deaths linked to them.<...

LONDON - British dog owners may be forced to microchip their pets and take out insurance, part of a proposed crackdown on the country's dangerous canines.

Postmen are delighted, but civil libertarians grumble that Britain's sprawling surveillance state now wants to track the nation's estimated 8 million dogs. Others complain that the insurance plan would impose a financial penalty on innocent pet owners — while criminals who own violent animals will simply shirk the law.

"This is yet more surveillance and continuous data-grabbing by gov...

Computerworld - Microsoft Corp. today warned of a critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer that is already being exploited by hackers; it was the company's second such admission in the past two months.

Internet Explorer 6 and its 2006 successor, IE7, contain a vulnerability that can be used by attackers to inject malicious code into a Windows PC. The oldest and newest of Microsoft's supported browsers, IE 5.01 and IE8, respectively, are not vulnerable to such attacks.

"At this time, we are aware of targeted attacks attempting to us...