But if Microsoft can build up the sales of the Surface Pro in 2013 and reach four to five million unit sales a year, they will have a healthy income stream from their Surface range.

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This is the first view scientists have had of a fluvial system - one relating to a river or stream -- from the surface of Mars.

FORBES: Wall of Gale Crater

Aside from the crunch of crampons on ice, the only sound is meltwater running over the glacier surface in a perfect zigzag stream.

BBC: The perfect trip: Switzerland

Before they can make much progress in confirming that suggestion, climatologists need a stream of reliable data on worldwide temperature trends, both at the surface and in the atmosphere.

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In both instances, the Met Office failed to predict the movements of the jet stream - the high-level wind that races round the world 10km above the surface.

BBC: Met Office cools summer forecast

In this, the stream of video and audio data is recorded as a series of minuscule spots on the disc's surface that have been gently fried by a laser beam and turned from their normal crystalline condition to an amorphous state that has different reflective properties.

ECONOMIST: Digital video discs