The "winners" of this year's Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest have been posted. The contest challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels and takes its name from the Victorian novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who penned the original It was a dark and stormy night.This year's grand prize goes to Sue Fondrie, for "Cheryl’ ( Read more... )

Jellyfish Invade Four Nuclear Reactors in Japan, Israel, Scotland:
Four nuclear reactors in Japan, Israel and Scotland were forced to shutdown due to infiltration of enormous swarms of jellyfish, which clogged the plant's cooling system ( Read more... )

Hacking can take control of a car through an infected music file:

But their most interesting attack focused on the car stereo. By adding extra code to a digital music file, they were able to turn a song burned to CD into a Trojan horse. When played on the car's stereo, this song could alter the firmware of the car's stereo system, giving attackers ( Read more... )

Pop stars to stage silent X Factor protest
Later today, Pete Doherty, the Kooks, Billy Bragg, Imogen Heap, Orbital and many more will gather in a London studio, collaborating in a bid for this year's Christmas No 1. But the strangest bit is not the team-up: it's that they are not recording a single note. The ad hoc supergroup is assembling in ( Read more... )

A little boy looks up at a man with graying hair, "Why do you play with desperation?" The man, he puts down his worn clarinet and replies, "Because they live in every town I have a gig ( Read more... )