Feb
04

Ice-age art hints at birth of modern mind

Sumit Paul-Choudhury, editorFigurines from the Don river valley (Images: Kirstin Jennings)The world’s oldest portrait, the world’s first fully carved sculpture, the world's oldest ceramic figure, the world’s earliest puppet - there’s no shortage of superlatives in the new exhibition of art from the ice age at the British Museum in LondonBut focus too closely on the exhibits’ record-breaking ages...
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Romney son Tagg rules out US Senate run

WASHINGTON: Defeated US Republican White House candidate Mitt Romney's son Tagg ruled out running for Senate on Monday after speculation that he might jump in to seek a newly open Massachusetts seat."I have been humbled by the outreach I received this weekend encouraging me to become a candidate for the US Senate," said Tagg Romney, in a statement issued after reports that he was preparing...
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Report: Twitter buys social TV analytics company BlueFin Labs

A graphic used on Blue Fin Labs' Web site to illustrate its report on which Super Bowl commercials worked the best, and why.(Credit:Blue Fin Labs)Twitter has reportedly acquired BlueFin Labs, which generates social TV analytics, in a deal which is said to be the social networking giant's biggest-ever.According to Business Insider, Twitter has closed a deal to buy BlueFin, a company that specializes...
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What Caused the Super Bowl Blackout?

All that is known so far about the Mercedes-Benz Superdome power outage that temporarily halted last night's Super Bowl game is that a crucial piece of sensing equipment operated exactly as designed: It turned the electricity off.But officials at the Superdome and its energy company, Entergy, said further investigation is needed to get at the root cause of the electricity abnormality that...
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Boy Safe, Kidnapper Dead as Ala. Standoff Ends

A week-long Alabama standoff in which a retired trucker held a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker has ended with the kidnapper dead and the child safe, according to law enforcement."FBI Agents safely recovered the child who's been held hostage for nearly a week," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said at a news conference.The agent said negotiations with the suspect...
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Feb
03

Bug protects itself by turning its environment to gold

Mythical King Midas was ultimately doomed because everything he touched turned to gold. Now, the reverse has been found in bacteria that owe their survival to a natural Midas touch. Delftia acidovorans lives in sticky biofilms that...
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Scotland Yard stole dead children's identities: report

LONDON: London's Metropolitan Police stole the identities of some 80 dead children and issued false documents in their names for use by undercover officers, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday.The force authorised the practice over three decades for officers attempting to infiltrate protest groups, without informing the children's parents, the broadsheet said.Its investigation...
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Super Bowl does Wi-Fi on a massive scale

There should be no shortage of Wi-Fi at the Super Bowl. And the NFL want to make sure it stays that way.The Wi-Fi network at the Superdome in New Orleans has been structured and reinforced to handle a stunning 30,000 simultaneous connections during the big game, starting shortly, between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. Ars Technica reported that detail and lots more about the setup...
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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, APThe magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg...
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Super Bowl XLVII Brings a First, a Last and a Triumph for NOLA

There's more than just a trophy on the line for Superbowl XLVII -- as two sibling head coaches are pitted against each other for the first time, while one of the NFL's greatest players turns in his final performance, and then there's the question on everyone's minds:Will Beyonce lip sync during the half-time show?20 Bizarre Items Inspired by the 2013 SuperbowMore than 150,000 fans...
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