Google Glass: How to Get Your Hands On It, Kepler 37-b: Tiny Planet Discovered, and All the News You Need to Read

Impact

1. Google hits a home run. Google has started accepting applications for its hotly-anticipated product, Google Glass. Successful applicants will have the dubious honor of buying a pre-market version of the product for $1,500. See if this video convinces you to apply. They should look pretty cool: Google hopes to create a stylish product by teaming up with glasses designer Warby Parker.

Google is set to announce a new product today: A Chrome-powered touchscreen laptop. The move will put the internet giant in direct competition with Microsoft’s line of similar products. Look for Google’s new product to hit the market later this year.

And if that weren’t enough, police have started using Google to solve crime. Investigators are capturing art thieves by sorting through the Google search history for stolen works of art.

2. Major developments from NASA scientists. NASA’s Curiosity rover has successfully collected a data sample from inside a Martian rock. The rover will now sift the sample through its internal “martini mixer,” before performing analysis. This is NASA’s most advanced collection to date: “It’s a real big turning point for us,” exclaimed Caltech geologist John Grotzinger.

Today’s issue of Nature details the discovery of the planet Kepler-37b by NASA scientists. The planet is the smallest that scientists have detected outside our solar system. A UC Berkeley astronomer explained the finding’s significance: "This new discovery raises the specter that the universe is jampacked, like jelly beans in a jar, with planets even smaller than Earth.”

3. Obama considers intervening in same-sex marriage case. The President announced yesterday that he may file a “friend of the court” brief on behalf of opponents of California’s same-sex marriage ban. SCOTUS will rule on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 in late March. The White House must decide whether to weigh in on the case by next week.

4. Reporter comes clean on the Chuck Hagel “Friends of Hamas” rumor. Journalist Dan Friedman has published an article admitting that he is the source of untrue rumors that Chuck Hagel gave a paid speech to the non-existent group Friends of Hamas.

Friedman claims he jokingly asked a GOP congressional aide whether Hagel received a $25,000 speaking fee from Friends of Hamas. The aide misinterpreted the joke as breaking news. The next day, a reporter for Breitbart wrote an article using the false evidence to defame Hagel.

In a video released yesterday, Friedman defended his actions. He argues that the reporters who ran with the story could have avoided their error with a simple Google search.

5. North Korea releases fiery propaganda video. North Korea’s Uriminzokkiri website posted a new propaganda video on YouTube this week. The video shows President Obama and U.S. troops engulfed in flames, and credits American foreign policy for driving North Korea to become a nuclear power.

The video is the latest in series of propaganda pieces that North Korea has posted online. On February 12, the country conducted its third nuclear test in the last seven years. North Korea has threatened further measures in response to perceived hostilities from the U.S.