Flocke is her name. That’s German for flake, as in snowflake. This 14-week-old cub resides at the Nuremberg Zoo, which has just released a video of her first steps outdoors. See it here.

Her half-hour romp around an empty tiger pen will prepare her for an eventual move to the polar bear enclosure. Flocke has been raised by zookeepers since her mother Vera was spotted tossing the cub around, creating concerns for the young one’s safety.

Flocke makes her official debut before zoo visitors on April 9, and her popularity is already rivaling that of another German zoo’s polar bear cub. Two years ago the Berlin zoo’s Knut, became a celebrity, and a big tourist draw for the zoo, reportedly bringing in millions in revenue. Knut was also hand-raised by keepers, after being rejected by his mother at birth. 

Read more about Flocke here.

Photo Credit: Nuremberg Zoo (from video)

The big concern in all of this is that the damage weakened the role the forests play in storing carbon from the atmosphere, leading to these forests releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Young growing forests play a vital role in removing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere by photosynthesis, and are thus important in slowing a warming climate. More importantly, all the dead wood will be consumed by decomposers, resulting in a large carbon dioxide release to the atmosphere as the ecosystem exhales it as forest waste product.

Image above: Damaged forests in the Pearl River Basin along the Louisiana-Mississippi border were photographed from the air in late 2005. Resistant cypress and tupelo trees surround downed and dead hardwood forest trees such as oak, sweetgum and maple.

Photo Credit: Louisiana State University Hurricane Katrina & Rita Cooperative Clearinghouse.

“The loss of so many trees will cause these forests to be a net source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere for years to come,” said the study’s lead author Jeffrey Chambers, a biologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, La. “If, as many believe, a warming climate causes a rise in the intensity of extreme events like Hurricane Katrina, we’re likely to see an increase in tree mortality, resulting in an elevated release of carbon by impacted forest ecosystems.”

Chambers and colleagues from the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., studied Landsat 5 satellite data captured before and after Hurricane Katrina to pull together a reliable field sampling of tree deaths across the entire range of forests affected by Katrina. They found that some forests were heavily damaged while others like the cypress-tupelo swamp forests fared remarkably well.

With a library of more than 2 million songs, 180,000 artists represented by 20,000 major and independent labels, Amazon MP3 is the latest attempt by Amazon to expand its existing selection of more than 1 million CDs to music lovers who prefer unfettered music downloads.

Following Apple’s recent lead in selling DRM-free music downloads, Amazon said that more than 2 million of its songs are priced from 89 cents to 99 cents.

While the top 100 best-selling songs are 89 cents, most albums are priced from $5.99 to $9.99, the top 100 best-selling albums are $8.99 or less, Amazon said.

Amazon MP3’s customers will be able to take pleasure in their music downloads using any hardware device, including PCs, Macs, iPods, Zunes, Zens, iPhones, RAZRs, and BlackBerrys, the online retailer said.

Amazon’s MP3 format music downloads are encoded at 256 Kps (kilobits per second), which promises its users higher audio quality, and fairly sized file download.

Like any other items sold on its website, Amazon MP3 allows customers to purchase their music using Amazon’s existing shopping cart.

The online retailer is also offering its customers a desktop tool, called “Amazon MP3 Downloader”, which lets its users add their MP3s to iTunes or Windows Media Player libraries.

The twist, in return for that copy protected free music to your ears, SpiralFrog says that in order to download its free music, registered users will have to wait for about 90 seconds to view its relevant, targeted advertising and answer few short surveys before downloading.

SpiralFrog’s service allows music lovers to download unlimited free music from its website, giving its users access to a library of 800,000 songs and 3,500 music video catalogs.

Oh, those sweet bytes of free music downloads, the company said that music lovers can easily access music by major acts like Beck, The Killers, Maroon 5, Amy Winehouse, U2, Black-Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, All-American Rejects and 50 Cent, and also discover up-and-coming acts like The Hold Steady, Kaiser Chiefs, Colbie Caillat, M.I.A., Snow Patrol, Klaxons, Marié Digby, Shiny Toy Guns, Art Brut, Aesop Rock, Feist and Sufjan Stevens.

In addition to the free music downloads, users will be able to view millions of artist bios, reviews, discographies and album art, among other content features. SpiralFrog’s registered users will also be able to download its free application to keep track of their downloaded songs on their Facebook profile page.

Like other subscription-based music download website, SpiralFrog requires that registered users must renew their free subscription every 30 days to keep downloading music, and every 60 days to keep listening to files. However, the audio and video files downloaded from SpiralFrog never expire.

While the music downloads from its website doesn’t allow for CD burning or be played on Apple’s operating system, and iPod, SpiralFrog’s songs and videos downloads will only play on Windows PCs running XP and Vista. Users can also download to their PCs and synchronize their music with up to two portable music players or music-enabled phones that support Windows Media DRM.

The new music player lineup promises to bring video playback, an enhanced user interface featuring Cover Flow, and an incredible new design to the world’s most popular music player.

Like the iPhone, the new iPod touch is a touch-screen user interface, which enables users to control, and sort through their music library on a widescreen display with just the touch of a finger.

The iPod touch also includes a Wi-Fi wireless networking feature, the first on any iPod, pre-loaded with Apple’s latest mobile applications, which utilizes its Wi-Fi capability.

Starting with Safari, a mobile browser which works on any mobile device,  users wirelessly view web pages just as they look on their computer, and it features Google Search or Yahoo! oneSearch.

Moreover, Apple’s YouTube application lets iPod touch or iPhone users wirelessly watch over 10 million free videos from the Internet’s most popular video website.

To conclude, the new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store application lets both iPod touch and iPhone users wirelessly browse, preview and buy songs and albums from Apple’s online music store.

The iPod touch is 8 mm thin, and is scheduled to be available later this month. The 8GB iPod touch model is $299 (US) and the 16GB model is $399 (US).

Meanwhile, the new iPod nano features a larger two-inch display with 204 pixels per inch, which lets users watch their favorite movies, TV shows and music videos in the same resolution they currently enjoy on the video iPod. iPod nano also includes three fun games, and additional games can be purchased from the online iTunes Store.

The new iPod nano also delivers up to 24 hours of audio playback or five hours of video playback on a single charge, and is encased in a beautiful new all-metal design made with anodized aluminum and polished stainless steel and comes in five new colors—silver, black, blue, green and a RED special edition.

The all new iPod nano also features a 204 pixel per inch display that is 65 percent brighter than the previous generation and delivers 320×240 resolution that is perfect for watching your favorite movies and TV shows on the go.

iPod nano also features an enhanced user interface that shows off album artwork and photos like never before, and now includes Cover Flow, so you can scroll through your entire music collection by album cover artwork using the Click Wheel. It also comes pre-loaded with iQuiz, the entertainment trivia game; Vortex, a fast-paced 360 degree brick-bashing game; and Klondike, the popular solitaire card game.

Additional games will be available for iPod nano later this month from the iTunes Store, including Sudoku and Tetris from Electronic Arts and Ms. PAC-MAN from NAMCO, Apple said.

Also today, Apple released its new entry level lineup, the iPod shuffle in five new colors, and its higher model, the iPod classic,featuring 80GB or 160GB of storage models.

Both iPod classic models are available now worldwide in silver and black. The 80GB iPod classic model is $249 (US) and the 160GB iPod classic is $349 (US).

Brimming with excitement, the iPod maker also announced today an exclusive agreement with Starbucks that allows you to access the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store for free in participating U. S. Starbucks stores starting next month.

When you enter a participating Starbucks location, your iPod touch, iPhone, or PC or Mac running iTunes will automatically recognize the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store. You can see what song is currently playing or has recently played in the store, and immediately preview, buy and download it over Wi-Fi.

The 4GB iPod nano comes in silver for just $149 (US) and the 8GB model is available in silver, black, blue, green and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition for just $199 (US).

Both the 4GB and 8GB iPod nano for Windows or Mac are available worldwide now through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Coupled with its latest new product lineup announcements, Apple also released the next generation of the world’s most popular music and video jukebox, iTunes 7.4, now available as a free download on its iTunes.com website.

The new version, iTunes 7.4 includes a larger viewing area for movies and TV, filling the entire iTunes window for a richer, seamless video playback experience that looks better than ever, according to Apple.

Apple’s iPod is the world’s most popular family of digital music players with over 100 million sold, according to the company’s recently released June figures.

When Apple contested NBC’s decision to more than double the wholesale price for each episode, NBC decided not to renew its agreement with iTunes. The agreement renewal would have resulted in an increase from its current retail price tag of $1.99 to $4.99 per episode, Apple said.

Meanwhile, ABC, CBS, FOX and CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, have already signed up to sell their upcoming season TV shows on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.

“We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes.

“We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.” Cue added.

With Apple’s refusal to renew its agreement with NBC under new pricing model, the U.S. TV network planned to withdraw its shows in the middle of the television season from iTunes beginning in September. While Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season.

NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.

Not yet available to Windows Update users, and in two separate downloads, the release includes “Performance” and “Compatibility” updates. Both can now be downloaded and installed separately. Directly from Microsoft, the Performance update can be found here and the Compatibility update here.

The first patch labeled “Performance and Reliability” update promises to fix issues reported by Windows Vista users, including issues such as:

-You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.

-A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.

-When you copy or move a large file, the “estimated time remaining” takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.

-After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.

While the second patch labled “Compatibility and Reliability” update allows for better reliability and hardware compatibility, it includes fixes to issues such as:

-The computer stops responding, and you receive a “Display driver stopped responding and has recovered” error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer’s power button.

-The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.

Last week, a leaked beta version of the two Windows Vista SP1 patches surfaced on many download websites. Though slow to react, the leak has conceivably prompted Microsoft to make it available to the public this week.

According to its survey results conducted from Monday, July 2 to Sunday, July 8, 2007, Firefox’s usage share in Europe has risen to 28% for the week of July 2 to 8, 2007 vs. 25% from March 5 to 11, 2007 and 22% from July 3 to 9, 2006.

On top of 29 European countries and in pole position, Slovenia and Finland Firefox usage had surpassed 48%, 46% respectively, followed by Slovakia in third place with 41%.

With Internet Explorer popularity and usage, which still remains ahead in Europe, XiTi Monitor reported that ”Between July 2 and 8, 2007, the average visit share of a European country for Internet Explorer is in fact 67% whereas it was 74% one year earlier, from July 3 to 9, 2006. Opera arrives in 3rd, far behind Firefox, with a visit share of 3.5%”.

XiTi Monitor also highlighted worldwide trends in its Firefox usage survey, which confirms that the Oceanian continent still holds its position, being the largest Firefox user base with a rate of 29% from July 2 to 8, 2007, ahead of Europe at 27.8%.

Furthermore, the web survey firm also reported that Firefox is gaining ground in the other continents; however they are still below the threshold of 20%.

Surprisingly, XiTi Monitor also reported a very strong conversion rate to Firefox in South America, which has risen by 30% in just few months. Currently ahead of Africa at 15%, South America now stands at 16%.

Full report of Firefox’s new trend can be found here.

Despite the pleas of Palestinian President Madmud Abbas, to end the rocket attacks, the heavily-armed Hamas faction is demanding that Israel stop shooting first.

Since the air strikes began on Gaza, at least 45 Palestinians have been killed. Israel says the strikes are its answer to the firing of rockets into the country by the militants. The rockets have killed one Israeli and left 19 more injured.

This follows a similar announcement made earlier last month by Apple and EMI, which also allowed the iPod maker to sell EMI Music’s entire digital catalog on its online music store, iTunes, DRM-free(without copy protection).

The online retailer however, Amazon begs to differ with its upcoming digital music store, the EMI Music’s digital catalog will be available exclusively in the MP3 format instead of Apple’s AAC format, also without digital rights management (DRM) or copy protection.

Digital Rights Management or (DRM) is a software plug-in technology that prevents users from playing songs in more than one computer or to be shared over the internet.

Amazon’s DRM-free MP3s will free customers to play their music on virtually any of their personal devices — including PCs, Macs, iPods, Zunes, Zens — and to burn songs to CDs for personal use, says the online retailer.

“Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO.

“We’re excited to have EMI joining us in this effort and look forward to offering our customers MP3s from amazing artists like Coldplay, Norah Jones and Joss Stone.” Bezos added.