How to Live to a Ripe Old Age

Cento di questi giorni. May you have a hundred birthdays, the Italians say, and some of them do.

So do other people in various spots around the world—in Blue Zones, so named by National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner for the blue ink that outlines these special areas on maps developed over more than a decade. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

In his second edition of his book The Blue Zones, Buettner writes about a newly identified Blue Zone: the Greek island of Ikaria (map). National Geographic magazine Editor at Large Cathy Newman interviewed him about the art of living long and well. (Watch Buettner talk about how to live to a hundred.)

Q. You've written about Blue Zones in Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; Nicoa, Costa Rica and Okinawa, Japan. How did you find your way to Ikaria?

A. Michel Poulain, a demographer on the project, and I are always on the lookout for new Blue Zones. This one popped up in 2008. We got a lead from a Greek foundation looking for biological markers in aging people. The census data showed clusters of villages there with a striking proportion of people 85 or older. (Also see blog: "Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth.")

In the course of your quest you've been introduced to remarkable individuals like 100-year-old Marge Jetton of Loma Linda, California, who starts the day with a mile-long [0.6-kilometer] walk, 6 to 8 miles [10 to 13 kilometers] on a stationary bike, and weight lifting. Who is the most memorable Blue Zoner you've met?

Without question it's Stamatis Moraitis, who lives in Ikaria. I believe he's 102. He's famous for partying. He makes 400 liters [100 gallons] of wine from his vineyards each year, which he drinks with his friends. His house is the social hot spot of the island. (See "Longevity Genes Found; Predict Chances of Reaching 100.")

He's also the Ikarian who emigrated to the United States, was diagnosed with lung cancer in his 60s, given less then a year to live, and who returned to Ikaria to die. Instead, he recovered.

Yes, he never went through chemotherapy or treatment. He just moved back to Ikaria.

Did anyone figure out how he survived?

Nope. He told me he returned to the U.S. ten years after he left to see if the American doctors could explain it. I asked him what happened. "My doctors were all dead," he said.

One of the common factors that seem to link all Blue Zone people you've spoken with is a life of hard work—and sometimes hardship. Your thoughts?

I think we live in a culture that relentlessly pursues comfort. Ease is related to disease. We shouldn't always be fleeing hardship. Hardship also brings people together. We should welcome it.

Sounds like another version of the fable of the grasshopper and the ant?

You rarely get satisfaction sitting in an easy chair. If you work in a garden on the other hand, and it yields beautiful tomatoes, that's a good feeling.

Can you talk about diet? Not all of us have access to goat milk, for example, which you say is typically part of an Ikarian breakfast.

There is nothing exotic about their diet, which is a version of a Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes vegetables, beans, fruit, olive oil, and moderate amounts of alcohol. (Read more about Buettner's work in Ikaria in National Geographic Adventure.)

All things in moderation?

Not all things. Socializing is something we should not do in moderation. The happiest Americans socialize six hours a day.

The people you hang out with help you hang on to life?

Yes, you have to pay attention to your friends. Health habits are contagious. Hanging out with unhappy people who drink and smoke is hazardous to your health.

So how has what you've learned influenced your own lifestyle?

One of the big things I've learned is that there's an advantage to regular low-intensity activity. My previous life was setting records on my bike. [Buettner holds three world records in distance cycling.] Now I use my bike to commute. I only eat meat once a week, and I always keep nuts in my office: Those who eat nuts live two to three more years than those who don't.

You also write about having a purpose in life.

Purpose is huge. I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.

The Japanese you met in Okinawa have a word for that?

Yes. Ikigai: "The reason for which I wake in the morning."

Do you have a non-longevity-enhancing guilty pleasure?

Tequila is my weakness.

And how long would you like to live?

I'd like to live to be 200.

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White House Says It Has No New Fiscal Cliff Plan

The White House said today it has no plans to offer new proposals to avoid the fiscal cliff which looms over the country's economy just five days from now, but will meet Friday with Congressional leaders in a last ditch effort to forge a deal.

Republicans and Democrats made no conciliatory gestures in public today, despite the urgency.

The White House said President Obama would meet Friday with Democratic and Republican leaders. But a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said the Republican "will continue to stress that the House has already passed legislation to avert the entire fiscal cliff and now the Senate must act."

The White House announced the meeting after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the budget situation "a mess" and urged the president to present a fresh proposal.

"I told the president I would be happy to look at whatever he proposes, but the truth is we're coming up against a hard deadline here, and as I said, this is a conversation we should have had months ago," McConnell said of his phone call with Obama Wednesday night.

McConnell added, "Republicans aren't about to write a blank check for anything Senate Democrats put forward just because we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff."

"That having been said, we'll see what the president has to propose," the Republican Senate leader said.

But a senior White House official told ABC News, "There is no White House bill."

That statement, however, may have wiggle room. Earlier today White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "I don't have any meetings to announce," but a short time later, Friday's meeting was made public.

It's unclear if the two sides are playing a game of political chicken or whether the administration is braced for the fiscal cliff.

Earlier today, fiscal cliff, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lashed out at Republicans in a scathing speech that targeted House Republicans and particularly Boehner.

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

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Reid, D-Nev., spoke on the floor of the Senate as the president returned to Washington early from an Hawaiian vacation in what appears to be a dwindling hope for a deal.

The House of Representatives will meet for legislative business Sunday evening, leaving the door cracked open ever so slightly to the possibility of a last-minute agreement.

But on a conference call with Republican House members Thursday afternoon, Boehner kept to the Republican hard line that if the Senate wants a deal it should amend bills already passed by the House.

That was the exact opposite of what Reid said in the morning, that Republicans should accept a bill passed by Democratic led Senate.

Related: What the average American should know about capital gains and the fiscal cliff.

"We are here in Washington working while the members of the House of Representatives are out watching movies and watching their kids play soccer and basketball and doing all kinds of things. They should be here," Reid said. "I can't imagine their consciences."

House Republicans have balked at a White House deal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 and even rejected Boehner's proposal that would limit the tax increases to people earning more than $1 million.

"It's obvious what's going on," Reid said while referring to Boehner. "He's waiting until Jan. 3 to get reelected to speaker because he has so many people over there that won't follow what he wants. John Boehner seems to care more about keeping his speakership than keeping the nation on a firm financial footing."

Related: Starbucks enters fiscal cliff fray.

Reid said the House is "being operated with a dictatorship of the speaker" and suggested today that the Republicans should agree to accept the original Senate bill pass in July. Reid's comments, however, made it clear he did not expect that to happen.

"It looks like" the nation will go over the fiscal cliff in just five days, he declared.

"It's not too late for the speaker to take up the Senate-passed bill, but that time is even winding down," Reid said. "So I say to the speaker, take the escape hatch that we've left you. Put the economic fate of the nation ahead of your own fate as Speaker of the House."

Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel reacted to Reid's tirade in an email, writing, "Senator Reid should talk less and legislate more. The House has already passed legislation to avoid the entire fiscal cliff. Senate Democrats have not."

Boehner has said it is now up to the Senate to come up with a deal.

Obama, who landed in Washington late this morning, made a round of calls over the last 24 hours to Reid, Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Related: Obama pushes fiscal cliff resolution.

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Photo puzzle: Can you make the connection?

Correctly match up 16 pairs of science-inspired images and enter a draw to win a state-of-the-art Olympus E-PL5 digital camera

MANY of the most fascinating sights in the universe are not evident to the naked eye. Happily, cutting-edge imaging - whether done with a microscope, telescope, MRI scanner or just a camera lens - means these sights are now ours for the seeing.

Can you link up 16 intriguing images with their more commonplace counterparts shown here?

Correctly match all 16 pairs and submit your answers by 4 January 2013 for a chance to win an Olympus E-PL5 digital camera worth £600.

A couple of hints: three of the images you'll be matching are not close-ups, and the links are not necessarily straightforward, so be sure to engage your imagination.

Read the full terms and conditions and submit your answers at newscientist.com/photopuzzle

Follow @CultureLabNS on Twitter

Like us on Facebook

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More cash payouts for Silver Housing Bonus and Lease Buyback Scheme

SINGAPORE: Authorities have announced plans to raise the cash bonuses of two housing monetisation schemes for the elderly in response to public feedback.

The latest changes to the Silver Housing Bonus (SHB) and Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) will see households having to put less of their flat's sale proceeds into their Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts - a national pension scheme. They will in return receive more cash.

Both schemes target the elderly poor that have little or no family support.

The elderly who opt for either the SHB or LBS can monetise their HDB flats by down-sizing or cutting their lease periods respectively.

The SHB offers a cash bonus for those who sell their flats and move to a 3-room or smaller unit.

With the announced changes, the CPF top-up requirement will be reduced to S$60,000. The S$20,000 bonus will also be given fully in cash.

Households were previously required to use all net sale proceeds from their flat to top up their CPF Retirement Accounts up to the prevailing minimum sum. This could add up to as much as S$278,000 per household.

The S$20,000 bonus was also given in the form of S$15,000 cash and a S$5,000 CPF top-up.

The LBS on the other hand helps lower-income elderly persons living in 3-room or smaller HDB flats by allowing them to sell the tail-end lease of their flat back to the government.

Under the changes, the LBS bonus will now be raised from S$10,000 to S$20,000, all in cash, for all households.

Eligibility criteria for the scheme have also been relaxed to include ex-private property owners and those who have enjoyed more than one housing subsidy, amongst others.

Beneficiaries will also now be able to withdraw any excess proceeds in cash after topping up their CPF Retirement Accounts to fixed amounts depending on their age.

Applications for both schemes will open on 1 February 2013.

Eligible households whose first housing transaction took place on or after 17 February 2012 can also apply for the SHB.

National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said: "We need to strike a balance between improving retirement adequacy by requiring a meaningful top-up to the CPF, and keeping the schemes attractive by allowing adequate cash proceeds. We received several good suggestions from the public on how such a balance could be better achieved."

- CNA/jc

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Mobile: 10 predictions for 2013

Verizon and HTC are just two companies that are expecting a busy 2013.

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

If nothing else, 2012 has shown that the mobile industry is a pretty tough business to be in.

Many handset manufacturers, wireless carriers, and component suppliers felt the pressures of mobile business sink in, and as a result, there were a lot of shake-ups this year.

The same pressures and competitive dynamics are expected to persist next year, so expect a lot more action. The following predictions are based on conversations with industry sources over the last few months, market trends, speculation, and a little wishful thinking.

One thing's for sure, the industry should keep us all on our toes in 2013.

Consolidation continues


The wireless industry has long talked about the need for fewer service providers, and 2013 should follow through on some of the groundwork laid this year. SoftBank's controlling stake in Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA's merger with MetroPCS may signal a long-anticipated industry consolidation.

Other regional carriers such as U.S. Cellular and prepaid provider Leap Wireless could be in someone's crosshairs. MetroPCS and Leap were long rumored to be dance partners, but that talk ceased when T-Mobile opted to form a new company with MetroPCS. But perhaps there's room for Leap on that bandwagon?

Sprint attempted to make a run at MetroPCS, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing made by MetroPCS. Sprint could make another run at MetroPCS, or perhaps go after Leap. The wireless business is a scale business, where bigger is better, so maybe Sprint looks elsewhere?

It's a safe bet that the big two, Verizon Wireless and AT&T, won't be making any major deals. Verizon just managed to get approval for its deal to acquire spectrum from the cable companies, while AT&T is likely still gun shy after regulators squashed its attempted takeover of T-Mobile last year. AT&T has been content to strike smaller deals and get those through the regulatory maze.

CEO Steve Ballmer and the Windows Phone 8X from HTC.

(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)

No clear third OS emerges


Next year sees a vicious battle for the so-called coveted No. 3 spot for mobile operating systems behind Google's
Android and Apple's iOS.

The contenders are Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 and Research in Motion's BlackBerry 10. Both have expressed confidence that they have what it takes to be the third player in this increasingly crowded business. Windows Phone 8 benefits from an earlier launch and the coattails of the massive
Windows 8 campaign from Microsoft. RIM, meanwhile, already boasts a large base of customers and will get a launch window all its own early next year.

Our call on this: nobody wins. Both will scrape by with just enough sales to warrant continuing, but neither will see spectacular performance.

While Microsoft is selling its Windows Phone 8 platform as part of a family of Windows 8 products, Windows 8 itself isn't off to a scintillating start, and that might slow adoption of the mobile OS.

BlackBerry 10, meanwhile, may get some traction with hardcore BlackBerry users who want an upgrade, but it'll take a while for RIM to convince other consumers to take another chance on the platform. While RIM likes to boast of its 80-million-strong customer base (now 79 million after the fiscal third quarter), many of those customers are using the more affordable BlackBerry 7 devices.

In addition, the dominance of Android and Apple make it extremely difficult for any third player to make inroads on the market.

RIM in store for a shake up

If BlackBerry 10 isn't a success out of the gate, expect to see some agitation within the investment community -- or what's left of it -- which has patiently held out hope for a turnaround. Investors don't have unlimited patience, and an early stumble could mean pressure on the company to shake things up.

That could mean anything from another change on top, although CEO Thorsten Heins has led the company with relatively far fewer mistakes than his predecessors, to a potential sale of the company. The company could make good on its push to license its BlackBerry 10 operating system to different industries.

Last year, I called for RIM to get taken out, and I won't be burned by that prediction again. RIM does survive, but it either a drastically reduced or transformed way.

Spectrum grab

It's amazing what a few deals will do to the state of a crisis, right? All of the industry's biggest players, including AT&T and Verizon Wireless, all claimed a looming spectrum crisis in justifying their respective deals. After Verizon got its cable spectrum, and AT&T scooped up a number of smaller businesses, the rhetoric has changed greatly. Even Sprint and T-Mobile are sounding a lot more optimistic about things.

But the companies do insist that they need more spectrum, or the airwaves used to carry cellular traffic like voice and data, and they will likely pursue further deals next year. Sprint bought spectrum from U.S. Cellular, likely a prelude of future spectrum swaps. Verizon is also selling off a swath of its spectrum as a condition to acquiring an alternative patch of spectrum from the cable providers, something that'll likely entice all companies, including T-Mobile to other smaller regional companies.

Dish Network, meanwhile, is sitting on a wealth of spectrum. The most likely scenario is that it sells to AT&T, but the company is considering dabbling in mobile video.

A new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is expected to replace Julius Genachowski next year, but with President Obama back for a second term, the FCC's agenda and focus on spectrum shouldn't change too much.

Google gets more active in wireless service

Sound farfetched? Well, the recent rumors that Google met with Dish to talk about a new wireless service lends some credibility to this prediction.

And Google already has a wired business in Google Fiber. While the deployment is limited to one area, the fact that it exists shows the Internet search giant is willing to dabble in different projects.

Dish has slowly been amassing enough spectrum for a nationwide service of its own, and has made it clear it would like to build a network. But the business requires a lot of capital, and it's unclear whether Dish has the firepower to actually meet its goals. Enter Google, which has a lot of cash and technical resources.

This prediction is admittedly on a longer limb. It wouldn't be surprising if this never happened.

What does Sprint CEO Dan Hesse have in store for us next?

(Credit:
Lynn La/CNET)

Softbank kick-starts Sprint

The infusion of $8 billion in additional capital should do wonders for Sprint's prospects in the wireless market. The company has been criticized for its slow deployment of 4G LTE, which has managed to avoid major cities while covering "key markets" such as Rome, Ga., and Rockford, Ill.

Well, the extra cash should get CEO Dan Hesse moving a lot quicker when it comes to its 4G LTE rollout, which lags behind AT&T and Verizon. Unlike AT&T, which at least has a relatively quick HSPA+ network for its phones, Sprint customers using the most high-end devices are stuck on the painfully slow 3G CDMA technology, since it dropped using its variant of 4G, WiMax, in favor of LTE.

Sprint should get a wider selection of smartphones thank to its relationship with SoftBank. If SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is to be believed, Sprint will get even more competitive with pricing as it takes on its bigger rivals.

Higher focus on prepaid

Every carrier is going to rededicate itself to attacking the prepaid market, particularly with growth in the contract subscriber market quickly evaporating.

T-Mobile, which already has a sizable prepaid business, should only see its presence grow there once it joins up with MetroPCS, which only offers no-contract plans. CEO John Legere's hints at a "different experience" for its iPhone could mean an affordable prepaid option for Apple's marquee device.

Even larger carriers such as Verizon can't ignore prepaid, given the need to keep customer growth humming. Sprint, which has been aggressive in prepaid with its Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile lines, was seen as the biggest potential loser of the T-Mobile-MetroPCS marriage.

Using Google Wallet to pay for a cab ride was complicated and awkward.

(Credit:
Roger Cheng/CNET)

Mobile payments whiff again

Next year is the year for mobile payments, really! Yeah, that line has only been uttered a few times over the past several years, and so far, we've got a few limited launches.

Google continues to have the most visible initiative out there, and it hasn't really taken too many people by storm, despite seeding the capability and Google Wallet out to its Nexus smartphones. Isis, the joint venture between AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile, just started its trials last month, and there are no signs when it'll move beyond that. The deal between Starbucks and Square seems interesting, but for now, it's largely Square processing Starbucks payments and not fully utilizing the advantages of full mobile payments.

Mobile payments continue to be hampered by rival groups all with their own agendas, and some don't even feel it really addresses any real problems.

Apple, meanwhile, hasn't committed to the Near-Field Communication technology used by many of the mobile payment parties, and offers its PassBook as its take on a mobile wallet. Even then, the implementation has been limited and disappointing.

Apple, Samsung will dominate, but new entrants could mix things up

With the iPhone and, increasingly, the Galaxy S, brands coming with their own built-in hype machines, expect the two companies continue reaping in a majority of the profits. Companies such as HTC, LG, and Sony have struggled this year, and those struggles are expected to continue with few of them bringing out a product that really changes their circumstance.

HTC has the best shot with its
Droid DNA, but it too lacks the resources to effectively compete against Apple and Samsung. Sony, LG, and a myriad of other companies are still looking for the right answers.

Next year could see some interesting new smartphones from Microsoft and Amazon, both long rumored to be building their own handsets. Google's Motorola Mobility unit is reportedly building an "X" flagship phone that will better compete with the iPhone and Galaxy S III.

Samsung and Apple reach a settlement


Let's file this one under the wishful thinking category. But I can't be the only one sick of writing and reading about patent lawsuits, right?

This one is (sadly) not looking so good, especially if Samsung is saying this.

Let's hope that the goodwill from the holidays carries through to Apple and Samsung's lawyers. But most likely, the hostilities will continue as both try to one-up each other in courts around the world.

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Space Pictures This Week: Green Lantern, Supersonic Star

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  Green Lantern

  Image courtesy Caltech/SSI/NASA

  Another glorious, backlit view of the planet Saturn and its rings has been captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, as seen in a picture released December 18.

  On October 17, during its 174th orbit around the gas giant, Cassini was deliberately positioned within Saturn's shadow, "a perfect location from which to look in the direction of the sun and take a backlit view of the rings and the dark side of the planet," according to NASA.

  (Related: "Ten Best Pictures From NASA's Cassini Probe—Saturn, More.")

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  











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  Starry Night

  Photograph by Wally Pacholka, TWAN

  The Milky Way glitters over Yosemite, California, in a picture taken December 14 and submitted to the astronomy-education project The World at Night (TWAN).

  Our galaxy is far larger, brighter, and more massive than most other galaxies. From end to end, the Milky Way's starry disk, observable with the naked eye and through optical telescopes, spans 120,000 light-years.

  (See Milky Way pictures inNational Geographic magazine.)

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  











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  Celestial Ornament

  Image courtesy G. Bacon, STScI/ESA/NASA

  The Hubble Space Telescope has spied a nearby planetary nebula that resembles a holiday ornament wrapped in a ribbon, as seen in a picture released December 18.

  Planetary nebulae such as NGC 5189 represent the final brief stage in the life of a medium-size star like our sun.

  (See more nebula pictures.)

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  











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  It's a Bird, It's a Plane

  Photograph by Shamil Zhumatov, Reuters

  A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carries U.S. astronaut Thomas Marshburn, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield to the International Space Station on December 19.

  While floating some 240 miles (390 kilometers) above Earth's surface, the space station has hosted a rotating international crew since November 2000.

  (See our space-exploration timeline.)

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  











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  Martian Hazard

  Image courtesy Caltech/NASA

  Still not home for the holidays, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity keeps plugging away on the red planet's surface.

  Here, the rover's hazard camera scans a target called Onaping at the base of Copper Cliff in the Endeavor crater. At least Opportunity calls home.

  (See "Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds.")

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  











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  Jewel Box

  Photograph by Rolf Olsen, Your Shot

  A star cluster named Jewel Box sparkles in a picture submitted to the Your Shot photo community on December 18.

  Visible as a faint smudge with the naked eye under dark skies, the Jewel Box is located 6,440 light-years away towards the constellation Crux, or the Southern Cross. The bright orange star in the centre of the cluster is known as Kappa Crucis.

  (See another picture of Jewel Box.)

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  











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  Supersonic Star

  Image courtesy Caltech/NASA

  The giant star Zeta Ophiuchi is having a "shocking" effect on surrounding dust clouds in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, released on December 18.

  Stellar winds flowing out from this fast-moving star are making ripples in the dust, creating a bow shock seen as glowing gossamer threads only visible in infrared.

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  











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  Image courtesy Jesse Allen, EO-1/USGS/NASA

  Published December 26, 2012

  
  

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Okla. Senator Could Prevent Gun Control Changes

If there's one person most likely to keep new gun-control measures from passing Congress swiftly, it's Sen. Tom Coburn.

Conservatives revere the Oklahoma Republican for his fiscal hawkishness and regular reports on government waste. But he's also a staunch gun-rights advocate, and he's shown a willingness to obstruct even popular legislation, something in the Senate that a single member can easily accomplish.

That mixture could make Coburn the biggest threat to quick passage of new gun-control laws in the aftermath of the Newtown, Conn., shooting that has prompted even pro-gun NRA-member lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to endorse a new look at how access to the most powerful weapons can be limited.

Coburn's office did not respond to multiple requests to discuss the current push for gun legislation. But given his record, it's hard to imagine Coburn agreeing to a major, new proposal without some fuss.

The last time Congress considered a major gun law -- one with broad support -- Coburn held it up, proving that the details of gun control are sticky when a conservative senator raises unpopular objections, especially a senator who's joked that it's too bad he can't carry a gun on the Senate floor.

After the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, Congress heard similar pleadings for new gun limits, some of them similarly to those being heard now. When it came to light that Seung-Hui Cho, the mentally disturbed 23-year-old who opened fire on campus, passed a background check despite mental-health records indicating he was a suicide threat, a push began to include such records in determining whether a person should be able to buy a gun.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a longtime gun-control advocate whose husband was killed in a mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road in 1996, introduced a widely supported bill to do just that. The NRA backed her National Instant Check System Improvement Amendments Act of 2007.

But Coburn didn't. The senator blocked action on the bill, citing concerns over patient privacy, limited gun access for veterans, and the cost of updating the background-check system,

In blocking that bill, Coburn pointed to a government study noting that 140,000 veterans had been referred to the background-check registry since 1998 without their knowledge.

"I am certainly understanding of the fact that some veterans could be debilitated to the point that such cataloguing is necessary, but we should ensure this process does not entangle the vast majority of our combat veterans who simply seek to readjust to normal life at the conclusion of their tours. I am troubled by the prospect of veterans refusing necessary treatment and the benefits they are entitled to. As I'm sure you would agree we cannot allow any stigma to be associated with mental healthcare or treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury," Coburn wrote to acting Veterans Secretary Gordon Mansfield.

Coburn succeeded in changing the legislation, negotiating a set of tweaks that shaved $100 million over five years, made it easier for prohibited gun owners to restore their gun rights by petitioning the government, and notifying veterans that if they abdicated control of their finances they would be added to the gun database. The bill passed and President Bush signed it in January 2008.

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2013 Smart Guide: Hot computing for a cool billion

Read more: "2013 Smart Guide: 10 ideas that will shape the year"

It has been called science's X Factor: six mega-projects vying for two prizes, each worth a cool €1 billion.

In 2010, the European Commission put out a call for visionary computing initiatives comparable to the moon landing or the mapping of the human genome. Such ultra-ambitious projects would change the way we think about the world and ideally solve some of its problems, too.

Of 21 ideas submitted, six were shortlisted for further development. These include the Human Brain Project - an attempt to simulate the brain using a supercomputer - and a scheme to create a new generation of electronic devices based not on silicon but graphene.

The winners will be announced at the end of January. The prize money, from European countries and private firms as well as the European Union, will be spread over 10 years.

Our money is on FuturICT, a real-life SimCity on a global scale. It will give individuals, companies and governments real-time information about the planet, and run simulations to find the best strategies for dealing with issues such as climate change.

FuturICT was conceived after the 2008 financial crash drove home our lack of understanding about today's hyperconnected world. The civilisation simulator will be an open platform, accepting data on anything from social media and the stock exchange to climate models and political preferences. Stay tuned for the start of something big.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.

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Football: Liverpool's Sterling commits himself to England

LONDON: Liverpool's teenage winger Raheem Sterling has pledged his international future to England, thereby calming fears he was considering a switch of allegiance to Jamaica.

The 18-year-old holds dual-nationality as he was born in Jamaica to Jamaican parents, but he has represented England at every level from under-16 upwards and made his senior debut in the 4-2 friendly loss to Sweden in November.

The fact that the game in Stockholm was non-competitive means that Sterling could still opt to play for Jamaica, but he told several British newspapers on Wednesday that he was committed to playing for England.

"It was a dream come true (to play against Sweden)," he said.

"As a 15-year-old, I can remember sitting at home and praying to get an under-16 call-up, so to be getting a senior call-up a few years later was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

"I want to keep driving on and do a bit more. Obviously I've got Jamaican roots, but no-one tried to put any pressure on me, which was the good thing.

"But I couldn't turn my back on England because I've grown up through the English youth system and progressed from there.

"I couldn't just switch over. So it was a good thing for me to be called up and make my debut. It's 100 percent going to be England from now on."

Liverpool announced on Friday that Sterling had signed a new long-term contract with the club.

The former Queens Park Rangers player only made his Liverpool debut in March, but he has quickly become an integral component of manager Brendan Rodgers' side.

- AFP/de

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Stuxnet attacks Iran again, reports say

An Iranian news agency says the country successfully fended off yet another attack by the Stuxnet worm, according to reports.

The cyberattack targeted a power plant and other sites in southern Iran over the fall, the BBC and the Associated Press reported today.

Discovered in June 2010, Stuxnet is believed to be the first malware targeted specifically at critical infrastructure systems. It's thought to have been designed to shut down centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment plant, where stoppages and other problems reportedly occurred around that time. The sophisticated worm spreads via USB drives and through four previously unknown holes, known as zero-day vulnerabilities, in Windows.

Stuxnet is just one of several versions of malware aimed at Middle Eastern countries in the past two and a half years. Along Stuxnet, there have arisen Duqu, Gauss, Mahdi, Flame, Wiper, and Shamoon.

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