India asks Google, Facebook to screen user content, [New York Times]:

“The Indian government has asked Internet companies and social media sites like Facebook to prescreen user content from India and to remove disparaging, inflammatory or defamatory content before it goes online, three executives in the information technology industry say.”

Edmonton’s GreyBox bursts out of beta, launches nationwide, [TechVibes]:

“Co-founded by Elvis Wong, Greybox emphases simple beauty. Articles are displayed by category in a clean feed, and individual pieces of content pop up in plain windows designed for consumption—no ads or busy colours. And there’s always a link to the original source should one wish to venture out of the grey box.”

Yahoo battles brain drain, [Wall Street Journal]:

“If you’re not growing, if you’re not giving people challenging things to work on, if you’re not holding out the promise of creating some personal wealth during one of the frothiest technology markets in modern history, and if your people don’t ultimately believe in your ability to deliver across that whole spectrum, you’re toast.”

Yahoo shuts down four entertainment blogs, [Mashable]:

“Yahoo has shut down The Projector, The Set, The Amplifier and The Famous, four blogs covering television, movie, music and celebrity topics, respectively.”

Econophysicists model tax evasion in a country-sized population, [Technology Review]:

“Manipulating social pressures could have a dramatic effect on the rates of tax avoidance, according to the new model.”

Kepler team confirms first Earth-like planet in a habitable zone, and finds 1,094 more worlds, [Popular Science]:

“Nestled in the Goldilocks zone of a small, sun-like star is a room-temperature world a little more than twice the size of Earth. Scientists do not yet know if it is rocky or gaseous and whether it has water or clouds, but they do know that it’s the right size, and in the right place, for liquid water to exist. If it does exist, it may be one of the best places to look for life outside of our solar system.”

Lookout releases free Carrier IQ detection app, [Computerworld]:

“Sniffs out controversial software on Android smartphones, but doesn’t delete it.”

Scientist have recently discovered a new planet about 20 light years away.  That is practically in our laps considering the vast scope of our galaxy!

Artist Rendering of of Gliese 581

The planets current name is Gliese 581g and it is located in an area called “The Goldilocks Zone” in the Libra constellation.  This area has temperatures that are sustainable for life, and it is extremely possible that liquid water exists there. Steven Vogt, the professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz made the announcement of the discovery on Wednesday; He says that he is “ 100% sure personally that there could be life on the planet.”

Steven S. Vogt exiting the Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton 

The large planet about three times the mass of earth was discovered using the W.M Keck Observatory in Hawaii after 11 years of research on the parent star it orbits.  The planet orbits its star in 37 days with only one side facing it the entire time.  The planet rotates so slowly that half of the planet is constantly in daylight and the other half remains pitch black making 365 earth days=1 day on this planet.

Artist Rendering of Gliese 581

Any form of life that may have evolved here has a wide range of stable climates to choose from.  Scientists believe that the planet is rocky and has enough gravitational pull to retain an atmosphere.  These current findings make life as we know it possible on Gliese 581g.