Humor

For centuries, historians and scientists have sought the meaning behind Stonehenge's construction. Built around 3000 BC, it has taken a very, very, very long time for anyone to truly unravel the mystery of its creation...until now. According to ... researchers at Britain's University of Sheffield, the country's much-visited Stonehenge was used as a cemetery from its early beginnings and very likely began its existence as a resting place for a local elite and generations of descendants. That elite, it is being speculated, could have even represented a very primitive ruling dynasty. Archaeologists ... (view more)

A criminal has successfully answered a security firm chief's challenge to steal his identity -- and it could be a particularly costly defeat. Todd Davis of Californian company LifeLock was so confident of his fraud prevention service that he ... published billboards and filmed TV adverts displaying his own social security number. (It's 457-55-5462 in case you were wondering.) At least 87 people have attempted to steal his identity; at one stage people were trying to use his social security number under the names 'Joe Blow' and 'Jabba The Hutt', while another would-be criminal listed his address ... (view more)

In response to security flaws, prisons all over Israel will soon be equipped with a computer program that can interpret the sounds of a guard dog to distinguish between warning cries and normal barking. In the past, Israeli prisons have relied on ... guard dogs to help monitor the surrounding areas and send out warning signals when a convict attempts to escape. However, this system has seen its share of flaws in the past, as guards have admitted to not being able to hear the dogs calling out to them or were unable to respond quick enough to catch the criminal. Other times, the guards would simply ... (view more)

What's worse for religious followers than declining church attendance and the rising popularity of violent video games, erotic movies, and the entire hip hop culture? Perhaps news that one of the twentieth century's most revered minds regarded ... religion as "pretty childish" and dismissed the notion that the Jewish people could be a "chosen people". Those words were actually written by Albert Einstein in a 1954 letter mailed to philosopher Eric Gutkind. The physicist's scribbled note reveals a lot about the personal beliefs of the genius largely credited for first splitting the atom, and it ... (view more)

Java's long-standing record of avoiding virus problems came to an ironic and messy end at a recent conference dedicated to the computer programming technology. Around 70 people at the JavaOne trade show in San Francisco were victims of a ... particularly nasty virus which caused their back-end systems to spew out unwanted material uncontrollably. However, it was stomachs rather than servers which felt the effects of the 'norovirus', a human rather than computer complaint. Symptoms disappear quickly, but are highly contagious. And given how many handshakes take place at such an event, the results ... (view more)

Nintendo has been credited in the last year for making video game players more active by playing their Wii console. The results have been impressive, at least, compared to the traditional play mechanics of the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. However, ... Nintendo's latest product is a genuine fat-buster. Wii Fit is a gym 'simulator' game though the exercise is entirely genuine. Players use a special balance board which tracks the movement and weight, then converts it into a movements for an onscreen character. The game includes more than 40 activities based around strength training, aerobics, balance ... (view more)

You'd think stolen military gear would be sold quietly. However, it turns out anything from jet parts to body armour is available through eBay and Craigslist. The Government Accountability Office has announced the results of a unique form of covert ... ops: sending military investigators online posing as sellers. They were able to buy items not intended for public use, like night vision goggles and enhanced body armour vests. Worryingly, the haul also included army combat uniforms. Selling such clothing to non-military buyers has been illegal since January, 2007 because Iraqi insurgents were ... (view more)

Imagine the surprise of the Cuban nation (and the rest of the world for that matter) when one of the first orders of business for the new government of Raul Castro was giving the average Cuban citizen an opportunity to own their first cell phone. ... Previously, only employees of foreign firms or high-standing political officers were the ones to own a cell phone. (Source: npr.org ) When the current President of Cuba Raul Castro rose to power this past February, many feared that his political views would reflect the authoritarian style of his older brother. Under the Fidel Castro regime, many ... (view more)

About the only tech sphere blamed more often than 'video games' is the 'Internet'. Some kids from Flesherton, Ontario, Canada have done little to change that stigma, after being caught having constructed their very own homemade stun gun. According ... to reports, the boys found instructions on how to build the sometimes-lethal device online. The teen who first made the search also built the primitive taser, which he then sold to a friend for $20. Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) described the teens responsible as "good young men," and seem to believe neither fully realized what they were doing. ... (view more)

Google displayed its sense of humor Tuesday, April 1st, and avid Goolge fans unwittingly went along for the ride. As bleary-eyed computer users around the world opened their Gmail accounts that morning, they were greeted with a hyperlink in red: ... 'New! Gmail Custom Time'. The link led to a page describing how users could now change the time stamp on 10 emails per year! The limit had been decided through a bizarre formula that took into account important factors such as 'Average Life Expectancy', 'Probability that users believe the time stamp' and something called the 'Golden Ratio'. (Source: ... (view more)