American and European regulators have approved Google’s purchase of handset maker Motorola Mobility. The deal is worth a reported $12,5 billion and Google is said to be pleased at acquiring 17 000 new patents, and a further 7 500 patent applications as part of the deal.
As Al Green so eloquently put it all those years ago, “how can you mend a broken heart?” A recent study has found that stem cells may in fact be used to heal scars and other damage after a heart attack.
“We screwed up!” These were the words of Airbus CEO Thomas Enders at the Singapore Airshow this weekend, as the entire European fleet of A380’s is downed to check for cracks in their wings. Aeroplane manufacturer FAIL.
Nine people were recently killed in Kosovo when an avalanche covered their house under 10 feet of snow. A little girl, only five years old, was pulled alive from the snow after being buried for more than 10 hours. How do you find someone buried under a storey of snow? With their cellphone.
As the death toll from the bout of extremely cold weather in Europe has surpassed the 500 mark, a Swiss man is doing his best to stay warm. He’s installed a wood-burning stove to heat up his car when he needs to drive.
The international jury of the 55th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected a picture by Samuel Aranda from Spain as the World Press Photo of the Year 2011. The winning image, after the jump.
Americans seem to have an insatiable appetite for high-energy, adrenalin fueled sports laced with machoism and violence. Their latest “sport” is no exception; it’s a crude mix of soccer, American football, ice hockey without the skates, a dash of WWE and police brutality.
Thanks to Hollywood and entertainment media when we think of robots we tend to imagine humanoid machines, sometimes so closely resembling their real-life counterparts that the two are almost indiscernible. Because of that, there’s nothing that can really adequately prepare for this headless robotic monstrosity conjured up by the bright minds at DARPA.
One of the most famous image capturing companies in the world has decided to permanently discontinue one its most famous products: the camera. After filing for bankruptcy protection last month, Kodak new that it needed to make drastic changes to its business model.
The Twittosphere went a little gaga earlier this week over pictures of a supposed line of Louis Vuitton condoms that the luxury French fashion house was planning to unleash on their highbrow clientele.
The 102 turbine Walney Offshore wind farm located approximately 15 kilometres off Walney Island, Cumbria, in the Irish Sea in the UK, is about to start harvesting the wind. It will provide electricity for 320 000 homes and the project has cost £1 billion.
Obama seems to be going with the “sing when you’re winning” line of thought – first his rendition of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”, and now his 28-track long Campaign playlist has shown up on Spotify, to remind voters that he’s totally hip to the groove. Take a look to compare your tastes with the POTUS.
There is great excitement in Cape Town after the discovery of a ship found buried in a pit on the construction site at the No. 1 Silo at the V&A Waterfront. Read more about the excavation process, and see a video of the process, after the jump.
There’s nothing we love more than incredibly lame fake video, and this one is a doozy. An engineer surveying for a planned road claims to have taken video of an actual wooly mammoth crossing an icy river in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug region of Siberia.
It was announced earlier this week that rock n roll legends Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will be performing at this year’s GRAMMY Awards. If you don’t know who the above mentioned is you have no business calling yourself a music lover and you have my deepest sympathies.
Scientists have done something they have been working on for over two decades: successfully drilled more than three kilometres through sheer Antarctic ice into a freshwater lake to take a sample. All they really know now is that Lake Vostok has had no contact with atmospheric pollutants for millions of years.
Three Indian politicians, among them a women’s affairs minister, resigned after two of them were caught watching what was thought to be porn on a mobile phone belonging to another minister during a session of state parliament on Tuesday. They’re also members of one of the more morally conservative parties.
See, it turns out that Google doesn’t actually know everything about your online browsing habits. But boy, they’d sure like to! Which is why they’re rolling out two services that records users’ online activities in full, in return for Amazon gift cards or – in the sightly more intense version – hard cash.
Yesterday Sonny Bill Williams claimed the NZPBA Heavyweight Championship title in the first round! He basically made it rain fists on his opponent, Clarence Tillman III. This happened a day after Tillman III pushed and threw a punch at Williams during their ceremonial weigh-in for the media. I’m sure there is a valuable life lesson to be learned here. Watch both incidents after the jump.
One Chinese family in Xinxiang City, Henan Province has gotten the Year of the Dragon off to a stellar start, producing the heaviest newborn ever recorded in China, weighing in at a whopping 15,52lb, or just over 7kg!
This thing. Is the coolest thing. Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner is going to overcome his dorky name by leaping from a balloon at a height of 36km, and 35 seconds later become the first person to break the sound barrier during free fall. Then he’ll probably deploy his parachute and land safely in New Mexico.
Scientists believe they have discovered the oldest works of art known to mankind. Although the six pieces are supposedly of seals, they’ve been described as somewhat of “an academic bombshell”. That’s because they’re 42 000 years old, and are the only known pieces created by Neanderthal man, who preceded homo sapiens, more commonly known as humans.
Sure, Marvel dropped their ‘Avengers’ trailer during the super bowl too, but if there’s one thing Marvel likes it’s making money, and nothing makes money like overstimulated comic book movie fans. And this trailer for Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ starring Andrew Garfield & Emma Stone, is very, very stimulating.
On Monday, the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs in South Africa, Edna Molewa, met with the Minister of Tourism in Mozambique, Fernando Sumbana Junior. They met in Pretoria to discuss solutions to the rhino poaching epidemic occurring in the Kruger National Park. This is what they’ve concluded so far.
TRENDnet, a networking solutions company whose slogan reads “Networks People Trust”, recently came under fire when it was revealed that 100s of their supposedly secure internet cameras could be easily accessed thanks to a flaw in the system.
So! Die Antwoord’s new album, TEN$ION, is coming out tomorrow – the first release on their new, Interscope-free, indie label, ZEF Records. Which is cool. Even cooler is the fact that it’s available for free streaming on Dutch broadcasting channel 3VOOR12, in case you’re somebody who likes free stuff. Listen here.
Peta, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, has launched a lawsuit against SeaWorld in which five killer whales have been named as the plaintiffs. The court case argues that they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans.
Yesterday, OK Go released their new music video for Needing/Getting, which doubled as a Super Bowl ad for the Chevy Sonic. The band drives a Chevy fitted with retractable arms down a 3km stretch of desert lined with 1 000 instruments to perform a version of “Needing/Getting” that took four months to prep and four days to shoot.
Overnight temperatures in Finland have been plummeting to minus 40 degrees Celsius, all forms of travel have begun to become severely effected, and the cold is expected to continue for days to come.
Hot off the press in Iran this morning comes a report that the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Tehran has added any and all toys derived from The Simpsons to a nationwide ban list, which includes Barbie dolls and assorted products.