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Science and Technology

Evolution whispers some secrets Wrap-up of the great science moments in 2005, from evolution to space exploration, genetics to nuclear fusion

Google Zeitgeist 2005's Most popular searches (How very boring, Janet Jackson the top News search? - Ed)

Scientists see 'birth of ocean' Researchers have observed a fissure in a desert in Ethiopia that could be the 'birth of a new ocean basin'. The Afar desert is being torn off the African continent by about two centimetres each year

The 100 Best Products of 2005 PC World. The usual suspects: Firefox, Google mail, Apple Mac OS X, ...

Microsoft's vision of the future Everyone has a different idea of what fun gadgets they would like to see in the future

Total share: 30 years of personal computer market share figures (Very good read - Ed)

Wikipedia survives research test Free online resource Wikipedia is about as accurate on science as the Encyclopedia Britannica, a study shows. Only eight serious errors, such as misinterpretations of important concepts, were detected in the pairs of articles reviewed, four from each encyclopedia

Why this brain flies on rat cunning It sounds like science fiction: a brain nurtured in a Petri dish learns to pilot a fighter plane as scientists develop a new breed of 'living' computer. But in groundbreaking experiments that is exactly what is happening

Butterfly wings work like LEDs Fluorescent patches on the wings of African swallowtail butterflies work in a very similar way to high emission light emitting diodes

Does Google know what it's doing ? Probably not. And therein may lie its genius. Google-Mart Sam Walton taught Google more about how to dominate the internet than Microsoft ever did. Robert X. Cringely

Flea's giant leap for mankind Scientists have achieved copying resilin, the "rubber" insects employ to accomplish athletic feats - Dragonflies and bees use resilin to beat their wings all day long. 'Nature had a couple of hundred million years of evolution do it. All insects have it. It gives them almost frictionless movement'

Remembering Netscape: The Birth of the Web 10 years on

Net Pioneer Wants New Internet David Clark, who led the development of the internet in the 1970s, is working on a plan for a new infrastructure to replace today's global network. A new architecture could allow for embedded wireless communications devices and sensors. It could also provide for more secure and convenient forms of commerce. A super-high-speed internet could even allow people to collaborate inside elaborate 3-D virtual arenas, a process called tele-immersion

Man's static jacket sparks alert An Australian man built up so much static electricity in his clothes as he walked that he burned carpets, melted plastic and sparked a mass evacuation

Paper view technology Cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been unveiled. Low production costs could see the magazine shelves in newsagents come alive with moving images vying for the customers' attention as they move along the aisle

The Browser Wars are Back To anyone that has been following the Window's browser news lately, it is apparent that the stage is set for another browser war. Last experienced during the nineties, companies are fighting over which program consumers use to view the internet. For the average computer user this is a very good thing as it should improve browser performance in a short period of time. Also see spreadfirefox.com and IE vs. the world: six Web browsers compared

Birth of Black Hole Detected Today

Wormhole 'no use' for time travel The idea of building traversable wormholes is looking increasingly shaky, according to two new scientific analyses. "We aren't saying you can't build a wormhole. But the ones you would like to build - the predictable ones where you can say Mr Spock will land in New York at 2pm on this day - those look like they will fall apart"

Machines' way with words Voice recognition systems are becoming more prevalent... and scarily efficient. The fascinating Laboratory for Communication Between Humans and Interactive Media, studies how people and machines get on, particularly when the machines talk to the people. Machines, you see, have personalities

Brain-controlled robo-arm hope

Steam engines could be eco hope Glynne Bowsher and his team are building a super-fast vehicle reminiscent of the Batmobile Engine spec Two stage turbine 225kw at 12,000rpm Gear ratio 4:1 or 4.45:1 Epicyclic Differential with viscous couplings

The Prolexic Zombie Report Q1 - Q2 2005 The Prolexic Intrusion Prevention Network (IPN) filters hundreds of large scale DDoS attacks every month -- this report summarizes the data collected during these attacks

64-bit launch showcases Longhorn Both Apple and Microsoft announced updates to their operating systems which take full advantage of 64-bit processing power

Assault on software giant The next two years will be crucial for Microsoft

Big Ben chimes stoppage mystery Big Ben has only stopped a handful of times since it was completed in 1858. Even during the Second World War, despite dozens of attacks by Luftwaffe bombers, the clock kept within one and a half seconds of GMT

Microsoft warns of future security danger

Wireless shopping carts run Windows CE

Tsunami throws up India relics Structures uncovered could be the remains of an ancient and once-flourishing port city in the area housing the famous 1200-year-old rock-hewn Mahabalipuram temple

The Edge Annual Question—2005 What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it? Great minds can sometimes guess the truth before they have either the evidence or arguments for it, Diderot's "esprit de divination"

Huge star-quake rocks Milky Way

Motorola to Build Skype Ready Cell Phones, Headsets

Betting a Billion Bob's Predictions for 2005. Robert X. Cringely

Japan's 'smart' transport systems Car navigation systems tell drivers which roads have traffic jams using a computerized FM radio broadcast system

Water-cooling 'Easy to setup'

'Brainwave' cap controls computer A team of researchers has shown that controlling devices with the brain is a step close

NewScientist - Best of 2004

The top 10 news stories of 2004
Technology The year began with a war of computer worms and ended with running robots
Space and Astronomy Many of the most important discoveries came from observations much closer to home
Biology and Medicine Fears of a global flu pandemic, the inexorable spread of AIDS and the pervasiveness of tuberculosis andlandmark advances with the cloning of the first human embryos, the birth of a totally fatherless mammal and steps forward in stem cell technology

Pliable solar cells are on a roll Imagine wearing a jacket that charges up your mobile phone while you take a walk. Or a tent whose flysheet charges batteries all day so campers can have light all night. University of Toronto update

Ten to Avoid — The Worst Products of the Year. PC Magazine

'Best in show' at the CES tech fair

Eton or the zoo? The discovery of a new species of human poses exciting questions about who we are. How would we treat this close relative if one were found alive today? (Desmond Morris)

Space houses on Earth The dream of building the Jetson's Skypad Apartment may come to true because technology designed for space could become the basis of the new German Antarctic station

Mars Express pictures action of glaciers

HP's first Linux laptop a winner

South Africa sees future in 3G

Processor Fabrication: How a CPU is Built

Next-generation optical disc format Blu-ray Disc (BD) Recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition television (HDTV) on a 27GB disc. Plans for higher capacity discs to hold up to 54GB of data

August 2009: How Google beat Amazon and Ebay (long - ed)

Razorback may have been formed by flowing fluid - possibly water

Second team goes for space prize

Stunning images from Saturn probe

Linux wins over NZX The New Zealand stock exchange has adopted an Oracle database running on Red Hat Linux. Apart from being able to consolidate 21 databases into one, the new NZX system runs faster, more reliably and at less cost

Your Lapel Is Ringing Wrist-watch phones, minute handsets woven into clothes, and more are already on sale

Missing Black Holes Found European researchers have found 30 previously hidden supermassive black holes anchoring faraway galaxies

Dark matter remains at large The most sensitive dark-matter experiment in the world has failed to find evidence for the mysterious particles that are thought to make up almost one third the Universe

Mars rover goes backward to go forward

Teleportation breakthrough Two teams of researchers working independently have performed successful teleportation on atoms for the first time

Fossils hint at early complexity Blob-like fossils dating back about 600 million years may indicate that complex life evolved much earlier on our planet than had been thought

Toshiba develops tiny fuel cell Fuel cells generate electrical power by catalysing substances such as hydrogen and methanol. Toshiba hopes that by 2005, the fuel cells could be used in handheld electronic devices instead of lithium-ion batteries

Space rock smashes into NZ home

Methane 'belch' theory gets boost Scientists have found a series of vents in the Nordic Seas that may have burped enough methane to cause massive global warming 55 million years ago.

Dinosaurs fried by cosmic collision Most dinosaurs were incinerated in a matter of hours after an asteroid impact 65 million years ago kicked up a global rain of broiling debris, according to a new study. Anything not underground or protected by water was wiped out

Satellite images 'show Atlantis' Satellite photos of southern Spain reveal features on the ground appearing to match descriptions made by Greek scholar Plato of the fabled utopia Atlantis

Does Race Exist? If races are defined as genetically discrete groups, no. But researchers can use some genetic information to group individuals into clusters with medical relevance

Flexible TV online trial The future of television is almost upon us: the day when we spend our train or bus journey to work catching up on the shows we missed the night, or even several days, before

Bones hint at first use of fire Human-like species living in Africa up to 1.5 million years ago may have known how to control fire

Airplane wings that change shape To maximize a plane's efficiency over a broader range of flight speeds, engineers have developed a concept for morphing airplane wings that change shape like a bird's and are covered with a segmented outer skin like the scales of a fish

Estonia embraces web without wires There is a new revolution brewing along Tallinn's ancient stone streets and inside its charming Gothic buildings. Wireless net access, or wi-fi, is quickly becoming the rule, not exception

Sound to Chill Ice Cream Scientists have found a new way to refrigerate ice cream, by using sound waves instead of chemicals

Beyond Megapixels Series of articles examining current digital photography hardware, as well as the author’s views of what is to come

Da Vinci 'car' brought to life Five centuries after his death Italian scientists have finally managed to interpret the design for a car by Leonardo da Vinci and recreate it

The Basics of Space Flight A training module designed primarily to help NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab operations people identify the range of concepts associated with deep space missions, and grasp the relationships these concepts exhibit

NASA testing Einstein theory A satellite that will put Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity to the test is ready to be launched. From its 400-mile-high polar orbit over Earth, the Gravity Probe B experiment will attempt to confirm or debunk two predicted effects of Einstein's theories, NASA says. One is that a gyroscope - a guidance device used in things like airplanes and missiles - without any outside interference should move slightly off kilter when it's near a massive object like the Earth

Time Can be Turned Back Eight years ago, scientists in Antarctica made a sensational discovery. Researchers noticed spinning gray fog in the sky over the pole which did not change form and did not move. They launched a weather balloon that soared upwards and immediately disappeared. The balloon was brought back with the help of a rope attached to it before

They were extremely surprised to see that a chronometer set in the weather balloon displayed the date of January 27, 1965, the same day 30 years ago. The experiment was repeated several times after the equipment was found in good repair. Each time the watch was back it displayed the past time. The phenomenon was called "the time gate" and was reported to the White House (Is this an April 1 story? - Ed)

Titan probe set for white-knuckle descent The Huygens space probe is due to land on Saturn's moon Titan in just under a year's time. Depending on where it touches down, it may also be the first time that something made by the hands of humans has entered an ocean anywhere else than on Earth. But Titan's oceans are completely unlike Earth's - they are dark and oily, made of liquid methane and ethane

Hubble's deep view of the cosmos The Hubble Space Telescope has obtained the deepest view of the cosmos, detecting the oldest and most distant galaxies seen by astronomers

Earth loses its magnetism Like a Kryptonite-challenged Superman, its strength has steadily and mysteriously waned, leaving parts of the planet vulnerable to increased radiation from space

Most flexible electronic paper yet revealed There are many projects aiming to develop "electronic paper". Such a display could, for example, be used create a fully updatable newspaper which could rolled up into a coat pocket

Gadget snapshots from Cebit

Spam being rapidly outpaced by 'spim' While the torrent of unsolicited spam emails continues to rise, it is being far outpaced by the surge in unwanted messages sent to the users of instant messaging programs. The volume of so-called "spim" is set triple in 2004, according to a new report

What the net did next The internet is set to become the basis for just about every form of communication, according to net pioneer Vint Cerf, and he should know what he is talking about

Did NASA Accidentally Nuke Jupiter? On September 21 2003, NASA deliberately directed its Galileo spacecraft to make one final plunge into Jupiter’s vast atmosphere to prevent possible contamination of the environment on moon Europa from a future random collision with the spacecraft once its fuel was exhausted. One month later October 19, 2003... amateur astronomer Olivier Meeckers secures a remarkable image of Jupiter through a small refracting telescope. On the image, a dark black splotch showed up on the southern edge of Jupiter’s well-known North Equatorial Belt

Earlier e ngineer Jacco van der Worp objected to NASA's decision and claimed that, plunging into Jupiter’s deep and increasingly dense atmosphere, the Galileo electrical power supply, a set of plutonium fuel pellets, would ultimately collapse in upon itself under the enormous pressures of the overwhelming atmosphere - merely a variant on the now well-known design of the Fat Boy plutonium nuclear weapon. No official comment ... (very well written - Ed)

The robots are coming... Quick reference guide to some Linux-powered robots currently available or near production, extensive reading list with further information on Linux in robotics

Humanity will survive information deluge – Sir Arthur C Clarke There are many who are genuinely alarmed by the immense amount of information available to us through the Internet, television and other media. To them, I can offer little consolation other than to suggest that they put themselves in the place of their ancestors at the time the printing press was invented. ‘My God,’ they cried, ‘now there could be as many as a thousand books. How will we ever read them all?’

Supercomputers can't keep up Frustrated scientists carried an extra burden as they watched wildfires torch southern California: Their instruments told them this destruction would happen, but once the fires ignited, their computers could not forecast where or how long the fires would burn, or suggest where fire crews might contain their spread

Water sparks new power source A new way to generate electricity from water which could be used to power small electronic devices in the future has been developed. Thanks to a phenomenon called the electric double layer, when water flows through 10-micron-diameter-wide channels, a positive charge is created at one end of the block and a negative charge at the other - just like a conventional battery

High-speed internet over power lines Hydro-Québec is planning to offer internet service over its power lines to compete with similar services from cable and telephone companies. such a service could be up to five times faster than high-speed cable internet service. The utility already uses signals over its power lines to control stoplights

Humour

Mystery plaques puzzle Parisians Locals and visitors to Paris have been baffled by a series of memorial plaques that have sprung up on buildings across the city.

Education

All the World's an MIT Campus. For about $27,000 a year, elite students can earn a degree at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Now the rest of the world can access MIT's curriculum on the Web for free, no tests or admissions essays required.

Genetics

When humans faced extinction Humans may have come close to extinction about 70,000 years ago. At one point there may have been only 2,000 individuals alive as our species teetered on the brink. For a while, humanity was in a perilous state, vulnerable to disease, environmental disasters and conflict. If any of these factors had turned against us, we would not be here

Health

India hits back in 'bio-piracy' battle With help from software engineers and patent examiners, doctors in ayurveda, unani and siddha are putting together a 30-million-page electronic encyclopaedia of India's traditional medical knowledge, the first of its kind in the world

By silencing gene in worm, researchers identify role in age-old mystery of regeneration

Engineered enhancers closer Thirty years from now, the uproar surrounding Barry Bonds' alleged steroid use might seem quaint by comparison to the human enhancement technologies that could be available then

Man 'cured of HIV' Doctors are planning further tests on a British man reported to have become the first person to be cured of HIV

Marathon mouse' doubles stamina Scientists in have genetically engineered mice which can run twice as far as normal before becoming exhausted

Monkeys test 'hardworking gene' Scientists have found a way of turning lazy monkeys into workaholics using gene therapy

The humble leech's medical magic In a world where medical advances are dominated by developments in drugs and surgery it seems that in certain fields these humble creatures cannot be beaten

Harnessing honey's healing power Honey has been known for its healing properties for thousands of years - the Ancient Greeks used it, and so have many other peoples through the ages. A biochemist has now identified one particular type of honey with extraordinary healing qualities. "It has a very broad spectrum of action. It works on bacteria, fungi, protozoa. We haven't found anything it doesn't work on among infectious organisms"

3 000 die each day from malaria Malaria kills more than one million people a year, 90% in Africa, according to a report in the British Medical Journal

Mosquitoes could fight malaria Researchers have identified genes that control the way mosquitoes respond to the malaria parasite. Their discovery could aid the development of anti-malarial strategies by using a mosquito's own immune system to curb the disease

Love lab predicts marital outcome At the Relationship Research Institute scientists say they have created a mathematical model that can tell which marriages are doomed to end in divorce

Children 'left to die in agony' Over 200,000 children around the world die from cancer each year without ever receiving basic medical care or relief for their pain

Tea strainer in the neck 'stops strokes' Hundreds of thousands of strokes could be prevented each year by a simple mesh cylinder that diverts blood clots away from the brain, claims the company that developed the device

1918 killer flu secrets revealed Scientists have worked out how the virus which caused the world's worst flu epidemic infected man. They believe the virus, which claimed the lives of 50m people around the world, jumped from birds to humans

Next flu pandemic could wreak global havoc Pandemic influenza occurs periodically throughout history, causing widespread illness and death, overwhelming medical systems and wreaking chaos in societies. These viruses are highly contagious, and because they are new, no one is immune

Human Nature

Monkey Business Is Fair Play Getting the short end of the stick tends to tick people off. It turns out the same is true for monkeys. Capuchin monkeys become upset when they feel they've been treated unfairly. Findings suggest that the animals have an innate sense of justice, a trait previously thought to be unique to humans

World

The girl who named a planet In 1930, at just 11 years of age, Mrs Phair suggested the title Pluto for the newly discovered ninth planet

US army in Iraq institutionally racist The US army, British Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster says, is imbued with an unparalleled sense of patriotism, duty, passion and talent. "Yet it seemed weighed down by bureaucracy, a stiflingly hierarchical outlook, a predisposition to offensive operations and a sense that duty required all issues to be confronted head-on."

Difficulty with Names There are a number of things preventing Windows users from moving en masse to Linux. While the naming of applications is probably not a make-or-break issue, it is a legitimate consideration because many of the names chosen for Linux programs are downright confusing.

Condoms used to measure inflation

'Little ant' beats Coke Mexico has imposed anti-monopoly fines of about $68m against a Coca-Cola Co subsidiary and dozens of distributors and bottlers, largely due to a three-year battle waged by one woman who got tired of being told what to sell at her one-room store in an impoverished Mexico City neighbourhood

The Arctic's new gold rush A predicted thaw in the Arctic ice cover combined with a search for energy supplies is leading to a new "gold rush" in the high north

Radar finds water for Sudan refugees A new technique using satellite radar images may hold the key to providing the water needs of 200,000 Sudanese living in sweltering heat in camps along the Chadian border

Phishing pair jailed Douglas Havard has been jailed for six years after stealing up to £6.5m through identity fraud. He made fake credit cards with stolen bank details as part of a global syndicate

Smart home dream could be for all Homes in which a single button controls lighting, heating, security, music, film - everything digital - has long been promised, but has never quite delivered

Why smart people defend bad ideas We all know someone that’s intelligent, but who occasionally defends obviously bad ideas. Why does this happen?

How a Bookmaker and a Whiz Kid Took On an Extortionist — and Won Facing an online extortion threat, Mickey Richardson bet his Web-based business on a networking whiz from Sacramento who first beat back the bad guys, then helped the cops nab them. If you collect revenue online, you'd better read this

How a Bookmaker and a Whiz Kid Took On an Extortionist — and Won Facing an online extortion threat, Mickey Richardson bet his Web-based business on a networking whiz from Sacramento who first beat back the bad guys, then helped the cops nab them. If you collect revenue online, you'd better read this

Bronze Age perfume factory 'discovered'

Can Terrorists Build the Bomb?

Ethical Hacking and Computer Forensics

ChoicePoint: More ID theft warnings

20 Year Usenet Timeline Google groups

Stars of shopping mall TV

Life interrupted Plugged into it all, we're stressed to distraction. 'Cognitive overload' encompasses the modern day angst of stress, multi-tasking, distraction and data flurries

What corporate America can't build: a sentence "i need help," said the message devoid of punctuation. "i am writing a essay on writing i work for this company and my boss want me to help improve the workers writing skills can yall help me with some information thank you"

Internet 'suicide clubs' In Japan, the internet has been blamed for a spate of group suicides which appear to have been arranged in online chat rooms

Living in Somalia's anarchy Somalia is the only country in the world where there is no government

Firefox users ignore online ads, report says Internet Explorer users are at least four times as likely to click on Web ads

Bill Gates 'most spammed person' Microsoft's Bill Gates is inundated with up to four million e-mails a day - most of them junk. However, he has almost an entire department orking to filter out unwanted mails

Riksha wheels of hope bring Internet to villagers For 12-year-old Anju Sharma, hope for a better life arrives in her poor farming village three days a week on a bicycle rickshaw that carries a computer with a high-speed, wireless Internet connection

Turning the tables on Nigeria's e-mail conmen (very good read)

Cyber cops to patrol Vietnam net

Confession for two: a spammer spills it all S. Pammer had sent spam for five months; his last run was some time ago. In a rather agreeable conversation in the middle of the night, he relayed his side of the story. The conversation covers his motivation, how the spam was sent and his web site hosted, the quality of his address files and his actual profits

The Money Machines The humble ATM revolutionized the way we deal with money and turned global commerce into a 24/7 affair. You can thank a Texan named Don Wetzel—and the blizzard of 1978

Bad driving the secret to traffic forecasts A traffic simulation system is helping drivers by predicting jams on Germany's autobahn network up to an hour before they happen. The secret of its success is to take into account the way real drivers - and their cars - behave

Denmark backs hippy idyll plans Danish politicians have agreed a law that paves the way for a new legal basis for Christiania, the enclave famous for its alternative lifestyle

Faces of the week Steve Jobs ...

Bookies race to beat net attacks Bookmakers are avoiding attack using technology to spot and stop data barrages before they hit web servers.

Gorilla study gives social clues The western gorilla lives peacefully in human-like social groups

Decoding the Chatter Inside the nerve center of America's counterterrorist operations

Migration boom Over the past 15 years, the number of people crossing borders in search of a better life has been rising steadily. At the start of the 21st Century, one in every 35 people is an international migrant. If they all lived in the same place, it would be the world's fifth-largest country

Poverty 'is world's worst threat' The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, says the biggest challenge confronting the world is not terrorism but poverty

Family lives alone for 20 yrs Cut off from the rest of the world, with only veld and animals for company, a husband and wife and their four children have spent the past 20 years all alone on a remote Free State farm

Catching up A man from Arkansas, who has awoken from almost two decades in a coma, is now trying to catch up on half a lifetime

Africa

Africa's web ambitions In search of profitable connections and the promise of increased prosperity. Ghana's capital city of Accra boasts about 500 internet cafes, roughly six times as many as London. They're dating, they're being entertained, they're sourcing educational materials. Many are desperately trying to find a way of getting themselves out of Ghana, whilst others are engaged in the notorious, fraudulent activities more usually associated with Nigeria.

a bit slow

news:

news for nerds. stuff that matters:

sport:

Sex

Sex films help panda get pregnant

Clinton regrets "I did something for the worst possible reason, just because I could. I think that's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything"

Sex stimulates intellect Scientists claim that regular sex makes people smarter but Sex will not make you Einstein

Cyber sex lures love cheats The internet will soon become the most common form of infidelity, if it isn't already

Environment

The Ice Age Cometh If enough cold, fresh water coming from the melting polar ice caps and the melting glaciers of Greenland flows into the northern Atlantic, it will shut down the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe and northeastern North America warm. The worst-case scenario would be a full-blown return of the last ice age – in a period as short as 2 to 3 years from its onset

Power from the bottom line The Microbial Fuel Cell uses bacteria to break down waste, liberating electrons in the process

Disappearing butterflies may be early victims of the sixth mass extinction A milestone study of British birds, butterflies and wild flowers has revealed the strongest evidence yet that we are on the verge of a mass extinction of global wildlife

Earth's white hell Imagine an earth where ice sheets cover continents and freeze the seas, plunging the planet into a white hell lasting millions of years.

Mysterious mass die-off of vultures solved The catastrophic decline of griffon vultures in south Asia is being caused not by a mysterious disease, as had been thought, but a common painkiller given to sick cattle

New light shed on SA cave art A huge collection of rock paintings in South Africa is far older than previously thought research has found. Archaeologists using the latest radio-carbon dating technology found that the Ukhahlamba-Drakensberg paintings are 3,000 years old

Smog-busting paint soaks up noxious gases A paint that soaks up some of the most noxious gases from vehicle exhausts will go on sale in Europe in March. Its makers hope it will give architects and town planners a new weapon in the fight against pollution

Spiders 'remember first date' New findings suggest invertebrates possess social recognition - something never before found. Female wolf spiders prefer to mate with males who have similar leg colouration to that sported by males they saw when they were sexually immature adolescents. Strange suitors who do not fit the bill tend to end up as lunch before the pair can get better acquainted

Satellites Show CFC Ban Slowed Ozone Destruction It seems there's finally some good news for the ozone layer

Art & Entertainment

Sony BMG repents over CD debacle Software developer Mark Russinovich discovered that Sony BMG's XCP anti-piracy programs used virus-like techniques to hide itself on a PC

Lennon reveals all in new tapes 'I'd like to list what we did and what the Stones did two months later on every album, Mick imitates us'

In pictures
An Argentine slum through children's eyes
The Photobloggers

Digital shakes up entertainment The people who make films, TV and music are trying to work out how to survive in a digital era where the consumer is in control

Star Wars Episode III Easter Egg Hunt One cannot take in all the detail of a Star Wars movie in one sitting. So intricate and meticulous is each shot that every image tells a rich story. In some cases, that story is kind of funny -- a cleverly placed nod to audience members who know where to look. For eagle eyed viewers, they're called Easter Eggs

Obituary: Hunter S Thompson BBC. Denver Post. Last column: Shotgun golf with Bill Murray

Sound of 2005: The Bravery "... what this band is about - standing tall and not being afraid@

Harbin ice festival

Slip a Geek Book Under the Tree

The 2004 Good Gift Games Guide The last time you played a board game you got the Adam’s apple caught in the funny-bone slot and then you couldn’t pass GO or collect $200. These days, however, board games are a lot more enticing and fun, herewith the best of this year’s crop

Poems by the great
Turkmen president "My sight is sharp - I see everything"
Saddam Hussein

Art, Death, DNA Steve Kurtz is an artist operating in an unusual medium. Rather than exploring ideas with brushes and paint, he uses bacteria and DNA to create works meant to spark debate about the safety and morality of genetic research

In pictures: Kenyan art An exhibition of the work of six painters and one sculptor living and working in Kenya is currently on show at London's Ensign Gallery

Critical Art Ensemble Collective of artists dedicated to explore the intersections between art, technology, radical politics and critical theory

In pictures: New Blood at the Saatchi Gallery

In pictures: New Blood at the Saatchi Gallery; Marlon Brando turns 80This Is Only a Test Prove that an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters will compose the complete works of Shakespeare. False

Classic artworks turn 3D Researchers have developed algorithms that generate new views of a painting or portions of it, allowing art historians to analyse the shape and proportion of objects. The technique can also create a three-dimensional reconstruction of the whole painting. "How much better to be able to walk inside the painting itself"

I, Robot conquers US box office

Marlon Brando turns 80

Anger at Fahrenheit 9/11 film title Fahrenheit 451 author Ray Bradbury has said director Michael Moore did not ask to use his title. The 1953 masterpiece, depicts an ugly futuristic society in which firemen burn homes and libraries in order to destroy books. Fahrenheit 451 takes its title from the temperature at which books burn. Moore has called Fahrenheit 9/11 the "temperature at which freedom burns."

CDs, DVDs not so immortal

Guns N' Roses top rock riff poll Sweet Child O' Mine has the greatest guitar riff ever, according to a poll in Total Guitar magazine, ahead of Nirvana's grunge anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit

Requiem for the Record Store "The fat lady is warming up, but she's not exactly singing," says Mike Dreese, who runs Newbury Comics, a music chain in Massachusetts. "We're five to seven years from a complete meltdown. The only question is whether our death is in seven years or eight. Everybody's lights are out in 10

MP3 surround sound system debuts Soon your MP3 files could be sounding even better

Bug beat on CD Smear yoghurt on your favourite CD. Let it dry. Slide the disc into the player. Crank up the volume. And hear that music in a completely fresh, possibly spine-chilling way. The bizarre innovation -- an "optical biocomputer" -- is the brainchild of an Australian scientist who as well as being a mathematician with a record of published research, also owns a nightclub and bar in Melbourne

MP3 music goes hi-fi A range of digital music players are springing up that let you listen to songs on a hard drive on a hi-fi. In the future, says Mr Cosson, e-mails or news alerts could be sent to the player to flash up on its screen. Slim Devices

Sport

Hail England sports reporter for The Times wrote: "England have regained the Ashes. But perhaps you would like to hear that one again.

England have regained the Ashes. Trust me, I know what I am talking about: England have regained the Ashes."

Strewth Robbo, yer flamin' galah! Rival columnists slug it out ahead of the first Ashes Test

Faster and stronger, but for how long? Asafa Powell broke the world 100m record by shaving one-hundredth of a second off the old mark. Savour the moment, because record-breaking is set to happen less and less. You can never reach perfection, record-breaking is slowing up, but it will never stop entirely

Snaps of the stars Football's elite exhibit their own photographs

Fifa agrees goal-line technology

Quotes of the year
Quotes of the year - Part II

Photos from the Dakar Rally

Fans burn effigies of Woolmer, Inzamam About 150 people crushed a television set, vowing not to watch coverage of the Pakistan cricket team's tour of Australia any more

Kasparov vs machine showdown. It has been a long wait for Garry Kasparov - five years and eight months, to be exact. But now the world's number one chess player has the chance to get his own back after he stunned the world of chess by losing to a computer in 1997.

Language

Expletive deleted. It has been taboo for more than 500 years. But from fcuk to Four Weddings and a Funeral, the f-word has become so commonplace it now seems acceptable in everyday conversation. Is it no longer obscene? And if it isn't, what is?

Food

Hungry world 'must eat less meat' World water supplies will not be enough for our descendants to enjoy the sort of diet the West eats now

The Dalai Lama: Mass killing of animals is ethically unacceptable Kentucky Fried Chicken fast-food chain has abandoned plans to open outlets in Tibet

Brazilians decode coffee genome Scientists have decoded the genetic structure of the country's best-known product and will use the genetic code to create a super-coffee, richer in taste, more aromatic and resistant to disease and frost. This would be achieved naturally through cross-pollination and not through genetic modifications in a laboratory

Africa's bees are a sweet deal The African bee is regarded as the most aggressive of bee species. It’s also the most hard-working in the world

I Cook for Myself Alone Long-serving prisoners from across France have teamed up with one of the country's top chefs to produce a book of recipes which its promoters hope will become a reference for impecunious kitchens everywhere

Coffee cleared in chemical court The Pharmacy Department of a university in Naples, the Italian city most famous for its coffee, put the country's national beverage on trial. It was frequently pointed out that coffee can have the damaging effects when drunk in excessive amounts - but the court was also told that only three people are known to have died from drinking too much coffee

Obituary

Walter Sisulu Together we shared ideas, forged common commitments. We walked side by side through the valley of death, nursing each other's bruises, holding each other up when our steps faltered. Together we savoured the taste of freedom - Nelson Mandela

Religion

Nepal Buddha boy A meditating teenage boy in Nepal is drawing the attention of scientists after attracting huge crowds in the past six months earning himself the name Buddha-reincarnate. Ram Bahadur Bamjan's friends, relatives and managers say he has been meditating without drinking water for six months now and that he will carry on for another six years until he gains enlightenment - as did the Buddha some 250km away in Lumbini in western Nepal

French teenagers mug Santa Claus Father Christmas suffered multiple bruises and has lodged a criminal complaint

Pilgrim carries mother on 17-year trek Swami is on an epic mission - he is carrying his aged, blind mother, Kethakdevi, on his shoulders on an all-India pilgrimage. "He is a nice son but I am getting tired. I sometimes feel like ending the journey and getting back home"

Weeping cross still a mystery The wooden cross in the Garden of Remembrance in Pietermaritzburg is tacky with resin just a few days before the anniversary of the massacre of thousands of South African soldiers at the Battle of Delville Wood during the Somme offensive of 1916

Tribe halts whale rescue An Indian tribe has so far stopped the effort to move a killer whale from a Canadian harbour where it poses a threat to boats and planes. They tell the story of their chief who on his deathbed three years ago promised to return as a whale. Three days after he died Luna first appeared in their harbour and has not left

Zoroastrians pilgrimage to the temple in the rocky mountain of Chakchak, Iran. Tea and wine are drunk inside - alcohol being allowed for religious use by non-Muslims in the Islamic republic. Women can also take off their obligatory veils

Dalai Lama bemoans 'rule of fear' Curled in a chair in his hotel suite in Glasgow, the Dalai Lama was asked what he might have said to British Prime Minister Tony Blair had he been invited to Downing Street during his visit to the United Kingdom. Leaning forward, he chuckled: “Nothing in particular.’’

Winged Sandals Take the tour with Hermes the messenger god, through a magical place filled with awesome gods, daring heroes and fabulous monsters (prize winning animation - you'll need Flash and broadband/patience)

Jesus Christ born in Ukraine New Jesus Christ has been baptized in Zhitomir. Jesus' first words were "na"[take it] and "dai"[give]. Jesus already understands that one should not only 'give' but also be able to 'take' in order to survive on this planet