Stolen Mobile Embarrassingly Revealed

They are stealing everything these days, a Register article reports and mobiles are getting very small - yes, size does count. Someone saw a lady steal a mobile from another customer in a retaurant, the police were called, couldn't find it on the suspect, and were about to let her go, when with a degree of lateral thinking, someone suggested they call the stolen mobile.

From the indispensable Threadwatch.org

lmfao! If it had been set to 'vibrate only', the culprit could easily have been fingered by the tell-tale smile :) (I wonder if it echoed?)

Life expectancy gap 'widening'

"Health inequalities across the UK are at their widest since Victorian times, a study says.

The joint University of Bristol and University of Sheffield team found a 10-year difference in life expectancy between the best and worst areas.

Despite attempts to reverse the trend, they said the gap was still rising but this could change in coming years.

Glasgow had the worst life expectancy, 72.9 years, compared to Kensington and Chelsea in London on 82.4."

more...

what the report doesn't point out is how miserable the last 25 years are if you are poor: robbed of your pension by the company whose scheme you paid into for 40 years, surrounded by thugs and junkies on crime ridden estates, mugged and beaten up for £2 ...

Scientists read hidden thoughts

"Scientists say they can read a person's unconscious thoughts using a simple brain scan.

Functional MRI scans plot brain activity by looking at brain blood flow and are already used by researchers.

A team at University College London found with fMRI they could tell what a person was thinking deep down even when the individual was unaware themselves.

The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, offer exiting new ways to probe the subconscious, said experts."

rest of the story ...
This is the first basic step to reading somebody's mind
Researcher Dr Geraint Rees

no need for me to say anythng then

Moore's Law on computer chips marks 40th

"Moore's Law, the guiding principle that has driven the computer chip industry, celebrates its 40th birthday this week.

The 'law' was adopted after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore wrote in a 1965 article that the number of transistors on a chip would double every 24 months.

Chips that can work faster and faster have driven the technological and digital revolution so far.

Dr Moore said that the next 40 years could be 'mind-boggling' and that he wished he could be around to see it."

the rest of the story ...

Oops! Police shooting suspect critical

A 23-year-old man suspected of shooting two detectives who were investigating a murder remains critically ill in hospital on Tuesday, police said.

The man was found seriously injured in Halifax, West Yorkshire, on Monday after fleeing a pub in nearby Ripponden where he was being quizzed by police.
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Yips, chips and putting - golfers terror not psychological

"Golfers' yips are down to cramp similar to those experienced by writers and musicians, US experts say.

The yips is a term for jerky movements that get worse when the player is anxious and can cripple their putting and chipping skills.

Some say the root of the problem is psychological, while others say it is a form of movement disorder, or dystonia.

The Mayo Clinic team told a neurology conference in Miami, Florida, how their lab tests showed it was down to spasms."

the rest of the story ..

Labs told to destroy deadly virus

"The US government has told more than 3,700 laboratories in 18 countries to destroy potentially lethal influenza samples sent out in testing kits.

The samples are of 'Asian flu', which killed between one and four million people in 1957 but disappeared by 1968.

If the virus is not handled properly, 'it can easily cause an influenza epidemic', Klaus Stohr of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned.

The virus was sent to Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America.

The full list of countries and areas where laboratories received the virus is: Bermuda, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and the US."
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What a jolly idea! Send out party packs of killer pandemic influenza!
Of course, the conspiracy theorist in me thinks this is related to dead microbiologists and this is just laying the groundwork for a population-thinning outbreak

Extra zinc in diet 'helps pupils do better at school'

Key points
Zinc found to help memory and attention span in pupils
Supplements may help kids improve classroom performance

A DAILY supplement of zinc can boost pupils’ performance in the classroom, a study has found.

Researchers monitored 200 schoolchildren and found that those taking more than double the current recommended daily intake of zinc had faster and more accurate memories. Their attention spans also increased.

Zinc is a naturally occurring mineral found in many everyday foods, including red meat, shellfish, nuts, seeds and wholegrains. The traditional Scottish breakfast of porridge oats is also rich in zinc, as are raspberries.

Must explain why the Scots are so inventive

Work bloggers offered guidelines

"Bloggers, people who have their own websites where they share thoughts daily, have been urged to be anonymous if they write about their workplace.

The advice comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a US digital civil rights group, which has issued guidelines for safe blogging.

The EFF suggest bloggers should be safe if they avoid identifying details.

Recent cases of workers fired for what they said on their blogs have highlighted the risks for some.

The term 'doocing' was coined to describe being fired for one's website content after a US web designer was fired for her site in 2002.

'The point is that anyone can eventually find your blog if your real identity is tied to it in some way,' the EFF explains.

'And there may be consequences. Family members may be shocked or upset when they read your uncensored thoughts.

'A potential boss may think twice about hiring you. But these concerns shouldn't stop you from writing."
More ...

Google to start 'video blogging'

"Search engine firm Google is to begin an experiment in 'video blogging', according to co-founder Larry Page.

Mr Page told a conference in San Francisco that the company would be archiving people's video clips, starting in the next few days.

The move to let people upload video to Google's servers comes as the firm trials a video search service.

Google Video provides transcripts of TV clips and links to downloadable content, where it is available.

Google's interest in blogging - web logging - stems back to 2003 when it bought popular blog site, Blogger.com"
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Yippee! More ways to show porn on the net

Online ad spend trumps airwaves

"The amount of money spent on internet advertising in the UK has exceeded the amount spent on radio ads for the first time, a report has found.

The online advertising take surged to £653.3m ($1.23bn) in 2004, a 60% rise on the previous year's £407.8m figure.

This represented 3.9% of the total spent by advertisers, slightly more than the 3.8% share that went to radio.

Online ad revenue has grown more than fourfold since 2000, said the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)."
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Tiny drives set for space boost

Hard drives for mobiles and other portable gadgets could store up to a terabyte of data in the next few years, using a century-old recording process.

Hitachi has said it can fit 230 gigabits of data per square inch on a disk using "perpendicular recording"
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'Geek speak' confuses net users

The average home computer user is bamboozled by technology jargon which is used to warn people about the most serious security threats online.

Many are often left vulnerable because they have no idea what they are supposed to be protecting themselves against, a survey for AOL UK has found.

Confusing "geek speak" used by experts and media included "phishing", "rogue dialler", "Trojan" and "spyware".

Eighty-four percent did not know that phishing describes faked e-mail scams.
More...