Game unit to guide Louvre visitors
PARIS, April 13 (UPI) -- Visitors to France's Louvre museum will soon be able to navigate the structure's labyrinthine halls using a portable Nintendo game console, officials said.
The arrangement with Japan's Nintendo games group will bring the museum, home to treasures such as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and the Greek sculpture of the Venus de Milo, into the 21st century, museum officials said.
A total of 700 recordings on selected celebrated works will be available in seven languages to the millions of visitors who flock to the Paris landmark annually, Sky News reported Friday.
The guides with accompanying headsets will cost $6 on top of the museum's $13 standard admission price.
Group slams nuclear plant design decision
SAN ONOFRE, Calif., April 13 (UPI) -- An environmental group is alleging unusual wear in steam generator tubes at California's San Onofre nuclear power plant is the result of a design decision.
A report by The Friends of the Earth says the problems stem from a decision to change the design to fit more tubes into each steam generator, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
The group's report was released a day after plant operator Southern California Edison acknowledged some tubes in the plant's reactor units are showing wear apparently caused by tubes vibrating and rubbing against each other.
Because the tube wear is considered a safety issue, San Onofre has been shut down since Jan. 31.
The Friends of the Earth said "cascading design changes" resulted from the decision to add 377 more tubes into each steam generator.
The group alleges Edison avoided a full U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission review of the changes by representing the new steam generators as being like the ones being replaced, but Edison and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have said the design changes were disclosed.
Scientists count penguins from space
MINNEAPOLIS, April 13 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists, working with British colleagues, say they have completed the first-ever emperor penguin count from space.
Using high-resolution satellite mapping technology, the researchers determined there are twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than previously thought, in what they said was the first-ever count of an entire species from space.
Scientists from the University of Minnesota Polar Geospatial Center, working with partners from the British Antarctic Survey, used the satellite imagery to differentiate between birds, ice, shadow and penguin guano.
They then used ground counts and aerial photography to confirm their analysis of the numbers of emperor penguins, which are difficult to count or study because they breed in areas that are very remote and often inaccessible with temperatures as low as -58 degrees Fahrenheit.
"The methods we used are an enormous step forward in antarctic ecology because we can conduct research safely and efficiently with little environmental impact, and determine estimates of an entire penguin population," Minnesota researcher Michelle LaRue said in a university release.
British Antarctic Survey biologist Phil Trathan said the research was important to monitor the affects of climate change.
"Current research suggests that emperor penguin colonies will be seriously affected by climate change," Trathan said. "An accurate continent-wide census that can be easily repeated on a regular basis will help us monitor more accurately the impacts of future change on this iconic species."
B&N announces Nook reader with light
NEW YORK, April 13 (UPI) -- Barnes & Noble says its Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight will be a boon to those wanting to read in bed without disturbing their partner.
The new Nook's "N" button at the bottom of the device activates its GlowLight, a series of LED lights embedded in the product's frame around the screen, to illuminate its 6.5-inch E-Ink screen for reading in low-light or dark environments, Fox News reported Friday.
The brightness of the GlowLight can be adjusted to suit the reader.
Costing $139, the new unit has faster page-turning and longer battery life than the original Nook Touch, Barnes & Noble said, with up to 60 hours of continuous reading with the GlowLight turned on at 18 percent.
The new Nook also weighs 5 percent less than its predecessor at 6.95 ounces.
Barnes & Noble said its research found two-thirds of U.S. adults say they read in bed and 42 percent get annoyed when a partner reads in bed with the light on.
