From an app development standpoint, RIM (RIMM) needs all of the world's most popular smartphone apps its can get for its next-gen BlackBerry 10 platform. Beyond native Facebook (FB) and Twitter apps, it needs apps that have massive communities such as Instagram that are already outpacing Twitter in terms of daily active users in the United States. But now VentureBeat is reporting that Facebook will not give the green light for an Instagram app to be built for BB10. If Facebook doesn't even want to devote resources to helping BB10, why would any smaller developers want to?

In this case, VentureBeat says Facebook's decision could be based on the fact that BB10 will have its own built-in photo filters. RIM is hoping for BB10 to hit hard with the consumer market that Android and iOS already dominate, but the lack of Instagram support poses a major challenge, especially since Windows Phone 8 is also expected to get Instagram. A RIM spokesperson told BGR that the company doesn't comment on individual apps and that it is working with "top tier app developers to ensure BlackBerry 10 has the apps consumers want when it launches in Q1 2013."

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Did Global Warming Really Stop in 1997?

Claims global warming stopped 15 years ago are based on 'cherry-picked' data and don't account for natural fluctuations in climate, according to climate scientists responding to an article that appeared Saturday (Oct. 13) in the British newspaper, The Daily Mail.

The article cites combined global land and sea-temperature data compiled by British climate researchers, claiming that between August 1997 and August 2012, 'there was no discernable rise in aggregate global temperatures.'

The implication, writes the article's author David Rose, is that computer models, including those used by UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are flawed and have made overly dire predictions.

The article appears to be based on an update to a global temperature dataset called HadCRUT4, which is compiled by the U.K.'s national weather service, known as The Met Office, and the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit.

The Met Office has issued a response to the article. It does not dispute the trend Rose identifies, but says Rose's article contains 'some misleading information.'

Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, called the latest story 'just more dishonest cherry-picking and sleight of hand by Rose' and his go-to sources.

'This is just one in a continuing series of hit pieces by David Rose in The Daily Mail that completely misrepresents climate science and climate scientists. Global warming hasn't stopped by any objective measure; it is proceeding right on schedule. In many respects (e.g. the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice this summer), it is well ahead of schedule,' Mann told LiveScience in an email. [8 Ways Global Warming Is Already Changing the World]

In the Met's response to the article, they state the answers they provided to Rose's questions before he wrote the article.In them, The Met states that the data show an increase in global temperatures of 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit (0.05 degrees Celsius) between August 1997 and August 2012, adding that calculating the trend beginning in 1999 would show a more substantial warming.

In other words, the trend you see will vary depending on the start and end dates chosen.

'Climate change can only be detected from multi-decadal timescales due to the inherent variability in the climate system,' reads The Met's response.

At the core of the debate are natural fluctuations in climate and the role they play in climate change. Natural patterns - such as cycles in ocean surface temperatures - can play out over multiple decades, augmenting or counteracting the effects of man-made changes.

As a result, only over longer time periods do the effects of human-caused climate change become clear.

'Over the last 140 years global [sea] surface temperatures have risen by about 0.8 degrees C [1.44 degrees Fahrenheit],' responds The Met. 'However, within this record there have been several periods lasting a decade or more during which temperatures have risen very slowly or cooled. The current period of reduced warming is not unprecedented and 15 year long periods are not unusual.'

An earlier article Rose wrote for The Daily Mail invoked the global temperature plateau to question man-made global warming and pointed to cycles in the sun's activity as having an important influence in climate. Recent research suggests that while the sun's lulls and flare-ups may impact Earth's temperature, man-made greenhouse gases are the main drivers of global warming.

A spokesman for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declined to comment, but noted that NOAA's monthly climate report, released on Monday (Oct. 15) showed September 2012 as one of a long line of consecutive months with global temperatures above the 20th-century average. Last month tied with September 2005 for the warmest September on record globally, the report stated.

Follow LiveScienceon Twitter@livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

• The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted
• On Ice: Stunning Images of Canadian Arctic
• Image Gallery: One-of-a-Kind Places on Earth

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Deadly Tornado Outbreaks Linked to Climate Pattern

Some of the deadliest outbreaks of tornadoes in recent years have been linked to a particular type of climate pattern by a new study. The findings could help forecasters determine when twisters are most likely to strike.

The pattern is called Trans-Niño and is part of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the climate cycle influenced by surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, which affects global weather patterns. Trans-Niño occurs most notably when La Niña is winding down in the springtime, and creates conditions favorable for tornadoes in the central and eastern United States, according to the study, published recently in the Journal of Climate.

Scientists looked at 10 of the worst years for tornadoes over the last 60 years, and found that in seven of these years, Trans-Niño conditions were in place, said co-author and University of Miami researcher Sang-Ki Lee. Historical data from several sources also allowed researchers to determine that Trans-Niño was active in the three deadliest years for tornadoes - 1925, 1936 and 1917 - before official counts of tornadoes were recorded, Lee told OurAmazingPlanet.

The Trans-Niño pattern was also in place during the record-breaking tornado season in the spring of 2011, Lee said.

Trans-Niño occurs in the spring and is marked by colder-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean and warmer-than-average temperatures in the eastern Pacific.

This pattern helps create winds that blow northward out of the Gulf of Mexico, which increases the likelihood of tornadoes in two ways. First, it increases the transport of moisture into the United States, which fuels the thunderstorms necessary for birthing tornadoes. Second, these low-level northerly winds interact with high-altitude winds blowing from the west, creating swirling vortices. These swirling masses of air can be flipped vertically during updrafts and downdrafts present in large thunderstorms, giving rise to twisters, Lee said.

While Trans-Niño helps create conditions favorable for tornadoes, Lee is quick to point out that it certainly can't explain all or even most tornadoes. 'It's dangerous to try to explain all the tornado outbreak events by the impact of climate,' he said. 'Much of it is due to normal atmospheric variability.'

This research could eventually help scientists predict the severity of tornado seasons, 'but it won't allow them to predict when and where individual tornadoes might form,' Lee said.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

• The Top 5 Deadliest Tornado Years in U.S. History
• Infographic: Tornado! How, When & Where Twisters Form
• The Tornado Damage Scale In Images

Copyright 2012 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Sumatran orangutan rescued in western Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A critically endangered Sumatran orangutan was rescued from an isolated forest area in western Indonesia where palm oil companies have been illegally destroying the environment, a conservation group said Monday.

The adult male orangutan, named Seuneam, had been trapped for several days in an area surrounded by palm oil plantations and was isolated from the rest of the surviving orangutan population in Tripa swamp in the Nagan Raya district. It was found and safely evacuated over the weekend, the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program said.

The Tripa swamp was home to around 3,000 orangutans in the 1990s but now has only about 200. Still, the population is the densest in the world with about eight per square kilometer (20 per square mile), the group said.

Tripa is a legally protected area, but several palm oil companies are under investigation for breaking the law, and the permit for one plantation has been canceled, it said.

'We are always happy to see a successful rescue take place, but these activities are expensive, logistically challenging and also dangerous, for both staff and the orangutans themselves,' Ian Singleton of the group said. 'It's not the orangutans that should be leaving this area, it is the palm oil companies who are breaking the law.'

There are an estimated 6,600 Sumatran orangutans remaining in the wild.



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Space shuttle Endeavour rolls into new L.A. home at museum

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The retired space shuttle Endeavour rolled into its retirement home at a museum early on Sunday, in the conclusion of a slow-motion parade through the narrow streets of Los Angeles.

Endeavour arrived at about 10:45 a.m. at Exposition Park, the site of the California Science Center where the shuttle will go on permanent display on October 30 inside a pavilion

'I'm so glad to be living to see this,' said Los Angeles native Shirley Green, 78, who was on hand, wearing an American flag scarf, to watch the shuttle arrive at its new home.

Endeavour nosed out of Los Angeles International Airport before dawn on Friday for the 12-mile (19-km) trip to its retirement home. Organizers had expected the shuttle to complete its journey by Saturday evening but it fell behind schedule as crews had to make late adjustments to clear room for it.

The shuttle, which prompted cheers and expressions of awe from spectators as it inched through the city's streets, will become a tourist attraction at the center. Endeavour was largely built in southern California and was a workhorse of the U.S. space program, flying 25 missions.

The trip was delayed in part due to maintenance needed for the massive, wheeled transporter that carried Endeavor and to trim some trees along the route, organizers said.

Endeavour flew from 1992 to 2011 and was built to replace the Challenger, which exploded seconds into a 1986 launch in a mishap that killed all seven crew members on board. Endeavour was taken out of service at the end of the shuttle program.

The shuttle is 122 feet long and 78 feet wide and stands 5 stories tall at the tail, which police said makes it the largest object ever to move through Los Angeles. Its combined weight with the transporter was 80 tons.

Organizers say only a few inches separated Endeavour's wings from structures along the route, and workers felled 400 trees along curbs to clear a path. The science center will plant more than 1,000 trees to make up for their loss.

MAKING ROOM

Some street lights, traffic signals, power poles and parking meters were temporarily removed.

The budget to move Endeavour was over $10 million, said Shell Amega, a science center spokeswoman. Charitable foundations and corporations have donated money and services for the move.

The delays and extra work added to the price tag of Endeavor's last journey, said William Harris, a senior vice president at the Science Center.

'This did cut into our costs,' Harris said. 'As we always said, safety and security are our main concern. It was very dark last night, there were times that we were literally inches of clearance, at times the thickness of a credit card.'

Endeavour has hop-scotched across the country from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the back of a modified Boeing 747. It had been parked at the airport in Los Angeles since arriving on September 21 after a ceremonial piggyback flight around California.

The shuttle will be displayed in a temporary hangar-style metal structure to protect it from the elements. In 2017, a 200-foot-tall (61-meter) structure will open in which Endeavour will stand vertically, said Ken Phillips, aerospace curator at the California Science Center.

The other remaining shuttles also have found homes.

The Smithsonian in Washington has Discovery at its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center museum in Virginia. New York City has the prototype shuttle Enterprise at its Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. And the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral has Atlantis, which the center will move to an on-site visitors complex next month.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by James B. Kelleher and Cynthia Osterman)



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Factbox: Greatest risks of high-altitude skydiving

(Reuters) - Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner faces a slew of dangers during his attempt to break the altitude record for a freefall jump on Sunday.

Here is a look at some of the risks:

Colliding shock waves, triggered by a human body moving faster than the speed of sound, could hit with the force of an explosion, though the risk of this is much less likely in the stratosphere, where the air is extremely thin.

The low-pressure environment could cause Baumgartner to go into a flat spin. If a spin lasts for too long, he could lose consciousness and injure his eyes, brain and cardiovascular system.

Exposure to vacuum, even for a short period of time, could cause Baumgartner's blood to literally boil. The condition, known as ebullism, causes fluids in the body to turn to gas.

Gas seeping into the body due to a relatively rapid exposure to low pressure can cause decompression sickness, or 'the bends.'

As pressure decreases, trapped gas in the body can cause ear blockages, dizziness and acute tooth, sinus and gastrointestinal pain. When decompression is sudden, lungs can over-inflate and collapse. A gas bubble in an artery could stop blood flow.

Extremely cold temperatures pose a threat to Baumgartner and his equipment. Excessive heat from the sun is also a risk.

Ultraviolet radiation is more than 100,000 times as strong at 120,000 feet, where Baumgartner plans to begin his jump, as it is at ground level, but Baumgartner should have a very short exposure time.

Wind shear could make Baumgartner nauseous and could destroy his balloon.

A breach in Baumgartner's protective spacesuit or the accidental deployment of a parachute are considered the biggest safety concerns.

(Source: Red Bull Stratos)

(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Todd Eastham)



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Plan to streamline solar development in West OK'd

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Federal officials on Friday approved a plan that sets aside 285,000 acres of public land for the development of large-scale solar power plants, cementing a new government approach to renewable energy development in the West after years of delays and false starts.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the new plan a 'roadmap ... that will lead to faster, smarter utility-scale solar development on public lands.'

The plan replaces the department's previous first-come, first-served system of approving solar projects, which let developers choose where they wanted to build utility-scale solar sites and allowed for land speculation.

The department will no longer decide projects on case-by-case basis, and instead will direct development to land it has identified as having fewer wildlife and natural-resource obstacles.

The government is establishing 17 new 'solar energy zones' on 285,000 acres in six states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Most of the land - 153,627 acres - is in Southern California.

The Obama administration has authorized 10,000 megawatts of solar, wind and geothermal projects that, when built, would provide enough energy to power more than 3.5 million homes, Salazar said.

Each of the new solar energy zones were chosen because they are near existing power lines, allowing for quick delivery to energy-hungry cities. Also, the chosen sites have fewer of the environmental concerns - such as endangered desert tortoise habitat - that have plagued other projects.

Environmental groups like the Nature Conservancy who had been critical of the federal government's previous approach to solar development in the desert applauded the new plan.

'We can develop the clean, renewable energy that is essential to our future while protecting our iconic desert landscapes by directing development to areas that are more degraded,' said Michael Powelson, the conservancy's North American director of energy programs.



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