Amazon to open market in second-hand MP3s and e-books

A new market for second-hand digital downloads could let us hold virtual yard sales of our ever-growing piles of intangible possessions WHY buy second-hand? For physical goods, the appeal is in the price – you don't mind the creases in a book or rust spots on a car if it's a bargain. Although digital objects...

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Michelle Obama's dance moves go viral on YouTube

WASHINGTON - A video clip of First Lady Michelle Obama grooving with a dressed-in-drag Jimmy Fallon on his late-night comedy talk show on Saturday has gone viral on YouTube.In the video, the pair, each clad in conservative slacks and cardigans, and Fallon with a long brown-haired wig, perform a routine dubbed "Evolution of Mom Dancing," to promote Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" youth fitness...

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The Facebook mistakes people make after a date

February can make people excitable.A new year is barely old. Hope springs eternal. And then there's Valentine's Day to add a little piquancy to their emotional state.Sometimes, though, lovers suffer from a certain lack of self-control. This can manifest itself on society's everyday manifest: Facebook.I was moved, therefore, that someone had taken the time to list the major faux pas that occur when...

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Elderly Abandoned at World's Largest Religious Festival

Every 12 years, the northern Indian city of Allahabad plays host to a vast gathering of Hindu pilgrims called the Maha Kumbh Mela. This year, Allahabad is expected to host an estimated 80 million pilgrims between January and March. (See Kumbh Mela: Pictures From the Hindu Holy Festival)People come to Allahabad to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges. For many it's the realization...

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Fiery Last-Lap Daytona Crash Injures Dozens

A fiery last-lap crash at the Daytona International Speedway today sent chunks of debris flying into the stands, injuring more than 30 spectators, who were seen being carried away from the stands on stretchers.At least 14 of the injured were transported to hospitals and more than a dozen others were treated at the speedway, Dayton president Joie Chitwood III. All the drivers involved...

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Rusty rocks reveal ancient origin of photosynthesis

SUN-WORSHIP began even earlier than we thought. The world's oldest sedimentary rocks suggest an early form of photosynthesis may have evolved almost 3.8 billion years ago, not long after life appeared on Earth. A hallmark of photosynthesis in plants is that the process...

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Street theatre catches fancy of India's youth

NEW DELHI: Theatre, which is a big part of Indian tradition, has evolved over the years.An ancient form of theatre which was once practised to drive home political agendas is today being extensively used to create awareness of social issues in the country. The growing prominence of street theatre has also caught the fancy of the young.She moves about with her arms stretched, hair strewn...

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Crave Ep. 110: Prevent a hangover with the worlds first 'sober pill'?

Prevent a hangover with the worlds first 'sober pill'? Ep 110Subscribe to Crave:iTunes (HD) | iTunes (SD) | iTunes (HQ)RSS (HD) | RSS (SD) | RSS (HQ) This week on Crave, William Shatner has some choice words for J.J. Abrams, and we toss one back in the greatest drinking game ever invented. Cheers! Plus, we dodge a bullet the size of a football field as an asteroid nearly collides...

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Space Pictures This Week: Space Rose, Ghostly Horses

Space RoseImage courtesy T.A. Rector and H. Schweiker, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSFPlanetary nebula Sh2-174 "blooms" like a rose in a picture released this week by the National Optical Astronomy...

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ACLU: US Too Tough on Undocumented Immigrants

The American Civil Liberties Union says United States border security treats people crossing the border illegally to look for work as criminals instead of as desperate people trying to feed their families.Border security continues to be a central point of the ongoing immigration reform debate, with Republican saying they won't move forward without it and Democrats arguing the borders...

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Mood-sensing smartphone tells your shrink how you feel

PEOPLE with anxiety, depression or stress are often asked to record their mood changes throughout the day, helping psychologists fine-tune their treatment. But they often forget, recording only sparse information at best. Now an emotion-sensing smartphone app that automatically generates someone's "mood diary" could give psychologists...

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Asian markets mixed, yen claws back some losses

HONG KONG: Asian markets were mixed on Friday, with Tokyo dragged by a further strengthening in the yen, while the euro faced selling pressure following weak eurozone data.Losses on Wall Street added to the gloom after disappointing US economic figures, while traders were casting an eye to a general election in Italy at the weekend.Tokyo fell 0.50 per cent by the break, Hong Kong lost...

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PayPal readies launch of mobile payments system in Europe

PayPal's new payment hardware for the Chip and PIN system of credit and debit cards in Europe.(Credit:PayPal)PayPal unveiled new hardware today that will allow it to take its in-person mobile payment system to Europe, expanding the lead it has in the international market on payments rival Square.PayPal Here, which launched last March in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong, will debut in the...

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Oldest Known Wild Bird Hatches Chick at 62

Wisdom, the oldest known wild bird, has yet another feather in her cap—a new chick.The Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis)—62 years old at least—recently hatched a healthy baby in the U.S. Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, her sixth in a row and possibly the 35th of her lifetime, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) North American Bird Banding Program. (Related:...

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Arias Challenged On Pedophilia Claim

Accused murderer Jodi Arias was challenged today by phone records, text message records, and her own diary entries that appeared to contradict her claim that she caught her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, looking at pictures of naked boys.Arias had said during her testimony that one afternoon in January 2008, she walked in on Alexander masturbating to pictures of naked boys....

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Higgs may spell doom, unless supersymmetry saves us

Lisa Grossman, physical sciences reporter(Image: CERN)Is the Higgs boson a herald of the apocalypse? That's the suggestion behind a theory, developed more than 30 years ago, that is back in the headlines this week. According to physicists, the mass of the Higgs-like particle announced last summer supports the notion that our universe is teetering on the edge of stability, like a pencil balanced...

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It's 'The Oscars', now officially

LOS ANGELES: They are the 85th Academy Awards, the climax of Hollywood's awards season, this coming weekend -- except officially they're not. This year, they've been rebranded to "The Oscars."The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which organizes Tinseltown's biggest awards, did not confirm the change revealed by show co-producer Neil Meron, who said "85th Academy Awards"...

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Google said to release touch-screen laptop this year

An Acer Chromebook.(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET)As the divide between laptops and tablets continues to shrink, word is that Google has already developed its first Chrome-powered touchscreen laptop. According to the Wall Street Journal, the tech giant's new device would come with cloud computing and could go on sale as soon as this year. This endeavor would put Google in closer competition with Microsoft,...

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Newtown Shooter Had Sensory Processing Disorder

From the time he was little, Adam Lanza couldn't bear to be touched. By middle school, the chaos and noise of large, bustling classrooms began to upset him. At 20, just before the Newtown shootings, he was isolated and, the world would later learn, disturbed.All this was revealed in "Raising Adam Lanza," an investigative report by the Hartford Courant in partnership with the PBS...

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Today on New Scientist: 19 February 2013

Doctors would tax sugary drinks to combat obesity Hiking the price of fizzy drinks would cut consumption and so help fight obesity, urges the British Academy of Medical Royal CollegesSpace station's dark matter hunter coy about findings Researchers on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which sits above the International Space Station, have collected their first results - but won't reveal them...

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Scuffles at Dutch MP Wilders' Australia event

MELBOURNE: Mounted police restored order as scuffles broke out outside an Australian venue where Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders was speaking, but authorities said on Wednesday that no arrests were made.Populist Wilders spoke on Tuesday night in Melbourne, receiving a standing ovation from several hundred people who had heard him warn that mass migration from Islamic nations could...

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Judge: Apple shareholder suit shows 'likelihood of success'

A U.S. federal judge said today he sees merit in an activist hedge fund manager's lawsuit against Apple but did not issue a ruling on whether to block next week's shareholder vote on a proxy proposal.U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan declined to immediately rule on a request by Greenlight Capital to stop a February 27 vote because he wasn't sure the plaintiff would suffer "irreparable harm" if...

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