Weaver ants help flowers get the best pollinator

MOST flowers don't want pesky ants hanging around scaring away would-be pollinators. Not so the Singapore rhododendron - the first flower found to recruit ants to chase poor pollinators away. Francisco Gonzálvez at EEZA, the arid...

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McAfee reportedly captured by police

WASHINGTON: Anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, wanted by authorities in Belize for his neighbour's murder, has been captured after weeks on the run, his blog said on Saturday."We have received an unconfirmed report that John McAfee has been captured at the border of Belize and Mexico," his official blog whoismcafee.com said.The website, which McAfee launched to counter what he sees...

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McAfee nabbed? His blog says maybe, following CNN interview

The bizarre real-life potboiler concerning on-the-lam antivirus-software pioneer John McAfee continued today, as -- following a cloak-and-dagger CNN interview with the fugitive -- McAfee's own blog posted an item saying he may have been captured at the Belize-Mexico border.The item, pictured above and reported earlier by news agency AFP, says little more than that and calls the report of the capture...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Police: KC Chiefs Player Killed Girlfriend, Self

Jovan Belcher, a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs, committed suicide today in front of his coaches and police officers outside the team's stadium, shortly after he fatally shot his girlfriend, police said."We heard that they had been arguing in the past [and] as far as recently, they'd been arguing before the shooting occurred this morning," Kansas City Police spokesman...

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Today on New Scientist: 30 November 2012

Dinosaurs might have once gazed into the Grand Canyon It had been thought that the canyon formed 6 million years ago, but now two geologists say it is actually closer to 70 million years oldSaturn's rings may double up as a moon factory A new model suggests Saturn's famous rings spawned the planet's moons. Could the mechanism explain the moons of Uranus, Neptune and even Earth?Gaming the future:...

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Facebook ordered to remove paedophile monitoring page

LONDON: A Facebook page set up to monitor paedophiles has been removed after a judge in Northern Ireland ruled Friday that it risked infringing the human rights of a convicted sex offender.The man, who cannot be identified, started legal proceedings against the social networking site after discovering his photograph and threatening comments had been posted on the page.High Court judge...

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Facebook photo a Powerball prank? A million users hedge bets

The number of shares is jumping by the minute. Daniels clarifies in a comment beneath this photo that the million bucks will go to one of the sharers.If you can't be the winner of a multimillion-dollar jackpot, you might as well snag your 15 minutes of fame -- and have a little fun -- for not winning it.That seems to have been the thinking of one Nolan Daniels, who posted a photo of himself on Facebook...

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Photos: Kilauea Lava Reaches the Sea

Into the Sea Photograph by Hugh Gentry, ReutersA spectacular natural phenomenon was on display early this week as lava from a vent in Hawaii's Kilauea volcano flowed into...

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Parents Fight Back Against Deadly Discipline

Parents of children who have died or been injured while being manhandled, held down or locked up in America's public schools are fighting back.Dozens have filed lawsuits and many are speaking out publicly to end what they say is an epidemic of harsh measures being used in schools to subdue unruly or aggressive children – many of whom suffer from autism or other disabilities....

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Projections of sea level rise are vast underestimates

Expect more water to lap at your shores. That's the take-home message from two studies out this week that look at the latest data on sea level rise due to climate change. The first shows that current projections for the end of the...

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Lohan arrested over NY fight, charged over LA crash

NEW YORK: US actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested for assault in New York Thursday, and also charged over a car crash in California, in a double legal blow which could in theory land her back to jail.The perennially troubled 26-year-old, who is struggling to get her life back on the rails and remains on probation for a 2011 jewellery theft, was arrested in the early hours after a fight at...

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Ceglia ordered to pay Facebook $90,000 in legal fees

Paul Ceglia Facebook profile photo(Credit:Facebook)In an effort to make billions of dollars by suing Facebook, Paul Ceglia is actually putting a large dent in his own wallet. Federal Magistrate Leslie Foschio ordered Ceglia to pay the social network almost $90,000 in attorney fees today, according to the Los Angeles Times. The order comes because of Ceglia's last-minute cancellation of legal depositions...

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Pictures: Inside the World's Most Powerful Laser

Photograph courtesy Damien Jemison, LLNLLooking like a portal to a science fiction movie, preamplifiers line a corridor at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF).Preamplifiers work by increasing the energy of laser beams—up to ten billion times—before these beams reach the facility's target chamber.The project's lasers are tackling "one of physics' grand...

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Accused WikiLeaker Manning Speaks for First Time

Private First Class Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified and confidential military and diplomatic documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, took the stand in a military court today to make his first public statements since his arrest in 2010.Manning appeared confident and animated at a pre-trial hearing at Fort Meade...

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Today on New Scientist: 28 November 2012

Out-of-proportion black hole is a rare cosmic fossil A fairly small galaxy is host to a strangely enormous black hole, which could be a remnant of a quasar from the dawn of timeFlowing lithium atoms form accidental transistor A transistor that controls the flow of atoms, rather than electrons, could be used as a model to probe the mysterious electrical property of superconductivityEurope in...

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Only path to Palestinian state is direct talks: Clinton

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that the only path towards a Palestinian state was through direct negotiations, on the eve of a contentious United Nations vote."I have said many times that the path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York," Clinton told reporters,...

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LivingSocial said to lay off nearly 10 percent of staff

Rumor has it that LivingSocial is planning to lay off up to 400 employees tomorrow, according to the Washington Business Journal. Sources aware of the daily deals company's plans told the Journal that the layoffs will be in U.S. offices and will include various positions and markets. Currently, the company has around 4,500 employees, according to its website, so the layoffs would decrease its staff...

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Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite...

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Factory Workers: We Were Locked in, Flames Spread

More survivors of the factory fire in Bangladesh that killed more than 100 garment workers this weekend have told human rights and international labor groups they were actually locked in by security gates as the flames spread."The police and the fire department are confirming that the collapsible gates were locked on each floor," said Charles Kernighan, executive director of...

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Gas explosion in Springfield points to ageing pipes

Human error and corroded pipes were a catastrophic combination on 23 November when a natural gas explosion in Springfield, Massachusetts, injured 21 people and damaged more than 40 buildings. Gas company officials attributed the...

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"Two and a Half Men cursed" says former star Sheen

LOS ANGELES: Perennially troubled US actor Charlie Sheen said Tuesday that hit TV series "Two and a Half Men," on which he starred for years, is "cursed," after one of its stars called the show "filth".Sheen, who was sacked from the comedy show last year following his own public meltdown, was speaking as the show's producers remained tight-lipped about how they will deal with the outburst...

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iPad still dominates tablets, but Android grabs marketshare

Apple's iPads are losing tablet market share to Android.Apple'siPad continues to dominate thetablet market, but Google'sAndroid appears to be taking a bite out of Apple's market share.The iPad lineup made up 55 percent of tablet shipments in the third quarter, according to data released today by ABI Research, a 14 percent decline from the second quarter and its lowest level since the iPad's introduction...

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Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India

Photograph courtesy Conservation IndiaA young boy can sell bundles of fresh Amur falcons (pictured) for less than five dollars. Still, when multiplied by the thousands of falcons hunters can catch in a day, the practice can be a considerable financial boon to these groups.Since discovering the extent of Amur hunting in Nagaland this fall, Conservation India has taken the issue to the local Indian...

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Petraeus Scandal: Socialite Jill Kelley Fighting Back

Tampa socialite Jill Kelley is fighting back. Today, sources close to the woman who was caught in the media crossfire during the David Petraeus sex scandal have released new letters aimed at reclaiming her reputation.In one, Kelley's attorney goes after a New York businessman who claimed Kelley was using her connections to Petraeus to broker a deal with the South Korean government."It...

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