Inflatable USB memory

The size of the device changes depending on the amount of data it holds.

When the device is about to blow up you will see the familiar error message on your screen: "There is not enough free space".

When swithched off the flashbag remains pumped up, so you can estimate with the naked eye how much more pics, books and music albums can be transferred into it.






Thanks to Meltom for submitting this post.

Corporate Culture

Bumper Stickers You Would Like to See

Jesus loves you... but everyone else thinks you are a jerk.

Everyone has a photographic memory ...some just don't have any film.

Save your breath... You'll need it to blow up your date.

Your ridiculous little opinion has been noted.

I used to have a handle on life... but it broke off.

Some people just don't know how to drive... I call these people "Everybody But Me."

Heart Attacks... God's revenge for eating His animal friends.

Don't like my driving? Then quit watching me.

If you can read this... I can slam on my brakes and sue you.

Some people are only alive because it is illegal to shoot them.

Try not to let your mind wander... It is too small and fragile to be out by itself.

And The Number One Bumper Sticker you'd Like To See!!

Hang up and drive!!

Murphy's Law for Computers.

# When computing, whatever happens, behave as though you meant it to happen.

# When you get to the point where you really understand your computer, it's probably obsolete.

# The first place to look for information is in the section of the manual where you least expect to find it.

# When the going gets tough, upgrade.

# For every action, there is an equal and opposite malfunction.

# To err is human . . . To blame your computer for your mistakes is even more human; it is down-right natural.

# If at first you do not succeed, blame your computer.

# A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked perfectly.

# The number one cause of computer problems? Computer solutions offered by family members.

# The number two cause of computer problems? The idiot at the keyboard.

Nokia 4G phone concept fits on your wrist

A designer for Nokia has come up with a very early concept of what the fourth generation of mobile phones could look like.

This funky/clunky wristband is designed around the philosophy that you should be able to manage your information through different peripherals seamlessly depending on your mood. The wrist phone can work independently as a phone or work with a Bluetooth style headpiece. The designer goes well beyond just phone functions for the bracelet. In a demonstration, the wrist piece is also used to pay bus fare, compare prices of a sweater, make a call and buy coffee. The user, in the designer’s vision, would also have a flexible, fold-up screen that could interact with the wrist band for easier, larger scale views of things like e-commerce.

All of this is clearly another attempt of envisioning a way where out technology is completely portable and integrated fully into our lives.


Via: Yanko Design

Now You Can Charge Your Cellphone Anywhere (Even if You're Nowhere)

You're walking through East Nowhere and the battery in your cellphone or P.D.A. dies. There's no place to plug in a charger, and besides, you don't have time to hang around while the battery recharges. Cellphone battery boosters have been around for a while, but they have built-in batteries that need periodic recharging as well.

But with the Turbo Charge from Voxred, you can recharge your phone with a AA battery. The company claims the charger, which you plug into the phone or P.D.A. with an adapter, can give you up to two hours of talk time or 40 hours on standby. It comes with your choice of adapter and a battery ($19.95). Additional adapters are $2.95 each.

The lipstick-size charger is available now at www.turbocellcharge.com, and will be in stores later this year.

That means no more missed calls and no more excuses for not returning a call, even if you're stuck in East Nowhere.


Via: Forbes

Speakers That Surround You With Sound, Not Wires

Hiding speaker wires is always a problem, but it's made worse when you want to install a surround sound system with several satellite speakers. The wires from the front speakers to a computer or home entertainment center can at least blend into the clutter of wires behind a desk or audio-video center. But the long wires feeding the surround-channel speakers that are typically placed to the sides or the back of a room can be visually obtrusive.


Logitech's Z-5450 Digital 5.1 Speaker System solves that problem by using wireless links with receivers built into the rear speakers. The $499.99 system, sold through www.logitech.com and many retailers, includes a subwoofer, three front speakers and the two wireless rear speakers. Total power is 315 watts, with 116 watts to the subwoofer and the rest divided among the satellite speakers.

The system, which is THX-certified, has three digital and five analog inputs that allow connection of all sorts of audio sources, as well as a computer. It also has built-in decoders for DTS soundtracks and Dolby Pro Logic II for surround-sound playback from two-channel analog sources. With its compact control box, the tidy system surrounds you with sound, not wires.

Via: Forbes

For an out-of-this-world experience, just lie down

Prolonged stays in space have a profound effect on the human body, which is adapted to the Earth's gravitational pull.

In the greatly reduced gravity of space, humans experience bone and muscle loss, decreases in cardiovascular activity and a redistribution of fluids toward the upper body, among other physiological effects.

Now US scientists have confirmed what space researchers have long suspected – people on Earth can experience similar effects simply by lying around for days at a time. For the best simulation of space, they must recline on a bed tilted at a 6° angle with their head at the lower end.

Researchers from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, compared records of the exercise performance of four male astronauts on the STS-78 space shuttle mission in 1996 with those of eight men who were confined to inclined beds and instructed to conduct the same activities as the astronauts over a 17-day period.

They found similar declines in both groups in terms of their cardiorespiratory function and their ability to exercise. The amount of oxygen the men's bodies were able to use optimally during cycling tests declined by 10.4% in the astronauts and by 6.6% in the bedrest subjects. Researchers would expect to see a loss of about 10% in this measure as a result of a decade of aging on Earth.

Todd Trappe, an exercise scientist at Ball State, says the finding could be used to help mitigate the effects on inactive people such as bedridden patients and the elderly, as well as ensuring the safety of long-term space travellers.
Spaceflight proxy

The similarity of the two groups' results confirms the decades-long practice of using inclined bedrest as a proxy for spaceflight. "This 6° head-down tilt does appear to mimic the responses to spaceflight very well," Trappe told New Scientist.

"By being in space and floating around, your body deteriorates and, as a result, when you return to a gravitational environment, your body is not up to the task," he says. That's not much of a problem when the gravitational environment astronauts are returning to is the Earth, where a team of people is always prepared to tend to their medical needs.

The problem would be much more serious on a lengthy mission to the Red Planet. "Out at Mars, no one's around to help you out," Trapp notes. And in the case of a mission emergency the body really needs its optimum cardiorespiratory function, which may no longer be sufficient after the long journey.

For that reason, researchers are working to improve the "exercise countermeasures" astronauts use while at the International Space Station to fight the bodily toll of microgravity.

Trappe is part of a group including scientists from NASA, the European Space Agency and the French space agency CNES that has recently completed a 60-day inclined bedrest study of women to simulate a two-month spaceflight. They tested a combination of resistance exercises and treadmill running as countermeasures.

Although the team is still compiling its results, Trappe told New Scientist: "It appears that they're very promising and provide a very significant attenuation of all the deleterious things that happen, at least to the muscle function."

Via: New Scientist

Free Personal Development Toolkit

… People who fail to take control of the way they respond to situations often use language like “He made me feel terrible” or “This job is making me feel restricted”. Many people blame external factors for the way they feel and are letting their environment control them.

We can even choose to respond positively to fearful situations. We cannot escape fear, but we can transform it into our companion. Read ‘The Truths about Fear’ for more information on this.

If you respond positively on a regular basis it will result in you becoming more effective and in control. Being firmer about how you respond allows you to base your decisions on your values and principles, which will give you strength and integrity. This technique can be used in any situation from a personal conflict to a major crisis…

At Life Tools, they provide a free personal development toolkit to assist you with tips and tricks for your life. Covered areas such as missions and goals, time management, stress management, relationships, behavior & attitude, managing fear, decision making, finances, personal safety and career. You can download all of the life tools techniques in one PDF (link at the first paragraph), or browse different topics and download a separate PDF for each section. Here is an example section on the Responding Positively in behavior and attitude:

Via: Life Tools

Ultra High Security Password Generator

Generating long, high-quality random passwords is
not simple. So here is some totally random raw
material, generated just for YOU, to start with.

Every time this page is displayed, our server generates a unique set of custom, high quality, cryptographic-strength password strings which are safe for you to use:

64 random hexadecimal characters (0-9 and A-F):
249A4147ACDE5970F18F7D23EB43AB67F1E43E374F1574BE6A5C0349B58B72F4

63 random printable ASCII characters:
:I+[4kvEo*-_z0"

63 random alpha-numeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9):
cgw526Wo06GJJ1QqCGba5spnCgYfsmtwaJlSWR9rujcBQSOYcbfx4CE7b9LpuYo

Click your web browser's "refresh" button a few times and watch the password strings change each time.

What makes these perfect and safe?

Every one is completely random (maximum entropy) without any pattern, and the cryptographically-strong pseudo random number generator we use guarantees that no similar strings will ever be produced again.

Also, because this page will only allow itself to be displayed over a snoop-proof and proxy-proof high-security SSL connection, and it is marked as having expired back in 1999, this page which was custom generated just now for you will not be cached or visible to anyone else.

Therefore, these password strings are just for you. You may safely take these strings as they are, or use chunks from several to build your own if you prefer, or do whatever you want with them. Each set displayed are totally, uniquely yours.

The "Application Notes" section below discusses various aspects of using these random passwords for locking down wireless WEP and WPA networks, for use as VPN shared secrets, as well as for other purposes.



Application Notes:

A note about "random" and "pseudo-random" terminology:

Throughout this page I use the shorthand term "random" instead of the longer but more precise term "pseudo-random". I use the output of this page — myself — for any purpose, without hesitation, any time I need a chunk of randomness because there is no better place to find anything more trusted, random and safe. The "pseudo-randomness" of these numbers does not make them any less good.

There are ways to generate absolutely random numbers, but computer algorithms cannot be used for that, since, by definition, no deterministic mathematical algorithm can generate a random result. Electrical and mechanical noise found in chaotic physical systems can be tapped and used as a source of true randomness, but this is much more than is needed for our purposes here. High quality algorithms are sufficient.

The deterministic binary noise generated by my server, which is then converted into various displayable formats, is derived from the highest quality mathematical pseudo-random algorithms known. In other words, these password strings are as random as anything non-random can be.

This page's password "raw material":

The raw password material is provided in several formats to support its use in many different applications. Each of the password strings on the page is generated independently of every other, based upon its own unique pseudo-random binary data. So there is no underlying similarity in the data among the various format passwords.

64 hex characters = 256 binary bits:
FE3B333284C5F4CA02C3108E168440169BC20B12EA7623F8ADA07D68334E0390
Each of the 64 hexadecimal characters encodes 4 bits of binary data, so the entire 64 characters is equivalent to 256 binary bits — which is the actual binary key length used by the WiFi WPA pre-shared key (PSK). Some WPA-PSK user interfaces (such as the one in Windows XP) allows the 256-bit WPA pre-shared key to be directly provided as 64 hexadecimal characters. This is a precise means for supplying the WPA keying material, but it is ONLY useful if ALL of the devices in a WPA-protected WiFi network allow the 256-bit keying material to be specified as raw hex. If any device did not support this mode of specification (and most do not) it would not be able to join the network.

Using fewer hex characters for WEP encryption:

If some of your WiFi network cannot support the newer and much stronger (effectively unbreakable when used with maximum-entropy keys like these) WPA encryption system, you'll be forced either to run two WiFi networks in parallel (which is totally feasible — one super-secure and one at lower security) or to downgrade your entire network to weaker WEP encryption. Still, ANY encryption is better than no encryption.

WEP key strength (key length) is sometimes confusing because, although there are only two widely accepted standard lengths, 40-bit and 104-bit, those lengths are sometimes confused by adding the 24-bit IV (initialization vector) counter to the length, resulting in 64-bit and 128-bit total key lengths.

However, the user only ever specifies a key of either 40 or 104 binary bits. Since WEP keys should always be specified in their hexadecimal form to guarantee device interaction, and since each hex digit represents 4 binary bits of the key, 40 and 104 bit keys are represented by 10 and 26 hex digits respectively. So you may simply snip off whatever length of random hex characters you require for your system's WEP key.

Note that if all of your equipment supports the use of the new longer 256/232 bit WEP keys, you would use 232/4 or 58 hexadecimal characters for your pre-shared key.


63 printable ASCII characters hashed down to 256 binary bits:
/[aVK3i/WlC \&tt4'FsLq|p^ukkW:{Z7\sCT*Bz3Q6Hmy+&-0>}K>lqxM_vA7]
The more "standard" means for specifying the 256-bits of WPA keying material is for the user to specify a string of up to 63 printable ASCII characters. This string is then "hashed" along with the network's SSID designation to form a cryptographically strong 256-bit result which is then used by all devices within the WPA-secured WiFi network.


The 63 alphanumeric-only character subset:
EAqgpiYzlUOrC5ASLRwQPtW0fO0O2qLfcTuJxDO7v0xIsJVAoNWwNoSadimfqap
If some device was not following the WiFi Alliance WPA specification by not hashing the entire printable ASCII character set correctly, it would end up with a different 256-bit hash result than devices that correctly obeyed the specification. It would then be unable to connect to any network that uses the full range of printable ASCII characters.

Since we have heard unconfirmed anecdotal reports of such non-compliant WPA devices (and since you might have one), this page also offers "junior" WPA password strings using only the "easy" ASCII characters which even any non-fully-specification-compliant device would have to be able to properly handle. If you find that using the full random ASCII character set within your WPA-PSK protected WiFi network causes one of your devices to be unable to connect to your WPA protected access point, you can downgrade your WPA network to "easy ASCII" by using one of these easy keys.

And don't worry for a moment about using an easy ASCII key. If you still use a full-length 63 character key, your entire network will still be EXTREMELY secure. And PLEASE drop us a line to let us know that you have such a device and what it is!


Shorter pieces are random too:

A beneficial property of these maximum entropy pseudo-random passwords is their lack of "inter-symbol memory." This means that in a string of symbols, any of the possible password symbols is equally likely to occur next. This is important if your application requires you to use shorter password strings. Any "sub-string" of symbols will be just as random and high quality as any other.


When does size matter?

The use of these maximum-entropy passwords minimizes (essentially zeroes) the likelihood of successful "dictionary attacks" since these passwords won't appear in any dictionary. So you should always try to use passwords like these.

When these passwords are used to generate pre-shared keys for protecting WPA WiFi and VPN networks, the only known attack is the use of "brute force" — trying every possible password combination. Brute force attackers hope that the network's designer (you) were lazy and used a shorter password for "convenience". So they start by trying all one-character passwords, then two-character, then three and so on, working their way up toward longer random passwords.

Since the passwords used to generate pre-shared keys are configured into the network only once, and do not need to be entered by their users every time, the best practice is to use the longest possible password and never worry about your password security again.

Note that while this "the longer the better" rule of thumb is always true, long passwords won't protect legacy WEP-protected networks due to well known and readily exploited weaknesses in the WEP keying system and its misuse of WEP's RC4 encryption. With WEP protection, even a highly random maximum-entropy key can be cracked in a few hours. (Listen to Security Now! episode #11 for the full story on cracking WEP security.)

I hope this "passwords" page, and the maximum-entropy and guaranteed unique passwords created just for you will be of immediate and continuing value to you.

Via: Perfect Passwords

Horse antibodies could combat a bird flu outbreak

An old-fashioned method may offer a cheap and quick way to protect against the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Chinese scientists have produced antibodies in horses that are an effective treatment for bird flu – at least in mice.

Jiahai Lu at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou and colleagues repeatedly inoculated horses with a chicken vaccine against H5N1 bird flu to make them produce antibodies.

They then collected the horses’ blood, separated out the antibodies and split them to make them less likely to cause an allergic reaction when injected into a human. When they injected mice with a tenth of a milligram of these antibodies 24 hours after they had been given an otherwise lethal dose of H5N1, all the mice lived.
Costly keep

In theory, such antibodies could be made quickly against a pandemic strain of H5N1, potentially saving many lives and limiting the spread of the virus. The trouble is that most drug companies have stopped making antibodies this way.

This is because keeping horses is expensive and until now the markets for antiserum have been in poor countries and offer low financial returns. In addition, animal rights campaigners object to the technique.

Companies have instead invested in making modern, monoclonal antibodies using cell cultures. "It would be complex and expensive for a company to hugely scale up its monoclonal production to treat whole populations rather than a few people,” says David Fedson, founder of the vaccine industry’s pandemic task force.

Via: New Scientist

Absence makes the heart grow weaker

Loneliness is bad for the heart, suggests a new study. It shows that loneliness increases the blood pressure of those nearing retirement age to the same degree as smoking or a sedentary lifestyle.

Chronic feelings of social isolation are associated with as much as a 30 mmHg rise in a person’s systolic blood pressure by the age of 65, which could easily push their systolic blood pressure over 150 mmHg, the medical definition of hypertension. The study showed that this is independent of other confounding variables such as smoking, drinking, socioeconomic status and body mass index.

“While we haven’t conclusively proven why this happens, the pieces are starting to fall into place,” says John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, US, who conducted the research.

“This shows that how we deal with isolation changes as we age on both emotional and physical levels,” says Sarah Pressman, a health psychologist at Carnegie Mellon University. “This is not something that’s all in your head.”
Lonely youths

Previous work by Cacioppo showed that college students who felt socially isolated had increased vascular tension - a narrowing of blood vessels that increases resistance to blood flow. Their young bodies could compensate, so the condition did not lead to abnormally high blood pressure, but Cacioppo speculated that the same would not be true in older individuals.

The study drew data from the first year of the Chicago Health, Aging, and Social Relations Study (CHASRS), which ran the full gamut of physical and psychological examinations for 229 individuals born between 1935 and 1952.

These allowed the researchers to assess subjects' social life and glean their own thoughts on social isolation. Combined with a vast array of associated physiological and hormonal data, this could be the gateway to understanding what role loneliness plays in human health, Cacioppo says.
Social connections

“Loneliness isn’t just stress or depression,” he notes. “It’s a unique physiological and psychological reaction.”

But this physiological reaction is still clouded in mystery. The study confirmed previous findings that the number of social connections a person has can be predictive of whether or not that person is lonely. But it also shows that some of the most outgoing people can still display psychological symptoms of extreme social isolation.

Studies on twins have indicated that genetics probably plays a role in determining susceptibility to loneliness. Cacioppo believes the emotion is the result of evolutionary forces that drove us to form groups and thus increase our ability to survive.

“This isn’t a disease, it’s an important part of what draws us together,” he says. “We’ve gone from the selfish gene to the lonely brain.”

It is Cacioppo’s hope that further research will reveal a more complete picture of the physiological underpinnings of loneliness - and in doing so help find ways to moderate human feelings of isolation.

Via: New Scientist

No One Will Ever Walk Again. Used Cars at incredible prices.

Via: AdverBox

Cellphones search for more sex than ever

LOOKING at porn on a PC is, apparently, so last century, and only a fool risks a furtive glance at adult websites on their company PDA. Nowadays the cellphone is the device of choice for those seeking out porn on the web, according to research by Google.

Computer scientists Maryan Kamvar and Shumeet Baluja analysed 1 million searches made using the firm's mobile search software. They found that "adult" material constituted 20 per cent of the searches on cellphones, but only 5 per cent on PDAs. Just 8.5 per cent of searches on desktop computers are for adult material.

The Google team say that people regard their phones as intensely personal devices and so "may feel more comfortable querying adult terms" on them, perceiving a smaller chance of others discovering their activities.
Via: New Scientist

Why older mums expect more twins

OVARIES in overdrive are responsible for the relatively large number of twins born to older mothers.

Though fertility declines with age, older women who do have children are more likely than younger mothers to give birth to non-identical twins. "It's a paradox that nobody could explain," says Roy Homburg of the Free University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Non-identical twins develop from separate fertilised eggs, so the increase among older women was attributed to their greater use of IVF, in which several embryos may be implanted. However, when Homburg and his colleagues analysed multiple birth records in the Netherlands over the past decade, they found that more than half the cases involved natural pregnancies.

The team used ultrasound to monitor the growth of ovarian follicles, from which the eggs are released, in 507 women. Of the 105 women who produced multiple eggs in one cycle, 95 per cent were more than 30 years old. The older women also had increased levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). Women who produced multiple eggs had the highest levels of all (Human Reproduction, DOI: 10.1093/humrep/de1009).

"From the age of 35 to the menopause, FSH goes up steadily to counter failing ovaries, which have difficulty releasing eggs," says Homburg. "In some cases the body overcompensates, shooting hormone levels so high that two are released."

Via: New Scientist

The goat fetus that's immune to BSE

A CLONED goat fetus in a Texas lab is raising hopes of one day producing herds of genetically modified cattle that are immune to BSE. Researchers at Texas A&M University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute in New York genetically modified the fetus to be almost completely lacking in prions, the proteins which in their rogue form cause BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep.

Animals that cannot produce normal prions are resistant to BSE-like diseases. "Knockout" mice can be created with a non-functioning prion gene, but attempts to make knockout versions of larger animals have failed.

So Mark Westhusin and his colleagues turned to a technique called RNA interference. Using a virus, they introduced into a goat's skin cell a double-stranded piece of RNA containing the instructions needed to make prions. The RNA targets the normal, single-stranded form of RNA, and destroys it. They then cloned the skin cell to create what they call a "knockdown" transgenic fetus incapable of making prions, which should therefore be resistant to BSE-like disease (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0600813103). The researchers say the method should also work for cows.

Via: New Scientist

Fidel Castro Burns His Pants To Survive

Cuba's Fidel Castro has such a burning desire to survive assassination he sets his pants on fire.

He is so fearful of being bumped off he orders his underwear to be burnt rather than sent to the laundry where it could be infused with lethal chemicals.

The outlandish claim is made by his former bodyguard Delfin Fernandez who has gone through a litany of the socialist dictator's quirks on US television.

Castro's underwear protection may not be all that strange, however.

According to the Havana Museum, he has survived 639 murder bids since coming to power in 1959.

These include the famous exploding cigar, a poison syringe hidden in a pen and a gun disguised as a TV camera.

Mr Fernandez, who fled Cuba in 1999 and has worked as a bodyguard for David Beckham and Antonio Banderas, is a regular on TV in Florida where his claims about Castro's indiosyncracies have kept Cuban exiles entertained.

Among those claims are Castro's love of an exclusive ham, which Mr Fernandez says he was sent to Spain to collect, and his order to compile blackmail dossiers on foreign businessmen.

Mr Fernandez, 44, also accuses Castro's brother, Raul, of being a crook who has robbed the country of millions.

Via: Sky News

Be a Space Tourist Soon......For A Price

Space tourism to an orbital space station could become a reality by 2050 - but at a huge cost to travellers, it has been revealed.

Those looking for this kind of astronomical adventure are likely to have to fork out around £575,000 for the privilege, a report prepared for Churchill Travel Insurance has found.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic project is set to put tourists into space in 2008.

The Churchill report said that what is envisaged for 2050 is a trip free of the Earth's gravitational pull but one which would only take about three and a half hours.

The report said that touronauts (tourist astronauts) would need to travel to Russia - the most likely base camp for a launch.

A week-long trip to space would mean a month off work and a great deal of preparation, with touronauts needing to spend two weeks in training for the trip, and one week recovering.

Similar to jet lag, "space lag" will mean that the touronaut is likely to suffer from dizziness, weakness and swelling of the body, as well as dehydration and constipation.

The space station will offer a back-to-basics style holiday with cramped, smelly and noisy conditions.

Touronauts will be expected to help out with day-to-day duties on the space station, including gardening in the hotel vegetable and plant garden to supplement diets.

Mike Ketteringham, head of Churchill Travel Insurance, said: "Although there are currently people planning to pay £115,000 for a sub-orbital space flight in 2008, we are looking further afield to a time where holidays to orbital space hotels are possible."

Via: Sky News

Best Ever Air Guitar Song

Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven the been voted the ultimate guitar solo of all time.

The Jimmy Page epic beat the likes of Guns N' Roses' Paradise City and Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child to best air guitar moment.

The solo was voted for by almost 2,000 readers of Total Guitar magazine.

Despite never being released as a single, the 1971 song remains one of the most-played rock songs ever.

It has been covered by everyone from Dolly Parton to Rolf Harris.

Other tracks in the top 10 include The Eagles' Hotel California, Cream's Crossroads, Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
Led Zeppelin perform in 1977
Led Zeppelin perform in 1977

Total Guitar editor Stephen Lawson said: "Absolutely everyone loves to play air guitar when they hear the moment in a song where the guitarist rocks out.

"I'm not surprised that Stairway to Heaven is number one - not only is Jimmy Page's solo incredibly ballsy and a little bit flash, but it is also brilliantly structured."

:: Top 10 Guitar Solos

1. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
2. Van Halen - Eruption
3. Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
4. The Eagles - Hotel California
5. Metallica - Enter Sandman
6. Cream - Crossroads
7. Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
8. Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
9. Free - All Right Now
10. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Via: Sky News

Brits Have More Brains Than French

Brighter Britons have more brain power than the French, according to controversial new research.

But no gloating at the back there about beating Continental rivals - the most intelligent country in Europe is Germany.

The University of Ulster has drawn up a league table of IQs across Europe and found that the average score in the British Isles is 100, the eighth equal brainiest along with Norway.

The score puts Britain comfortably in the top half of the table.

Average IQ in France is 94, says Prof Richard Lynn, the man behind the research.
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That falls into the relegation zone, along with Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Serbia.

Within each country, there are common differences between town and country, said Prof Lynn.

People in the cities scored a higher average than those living in rural areas, he said.

His theory for the differences in his country-by-country findings is based on the weather and diet.

In the colder northern climes of Europe, humans needed to eat more to keep warm and that gave them bigger brains.

Prof Lynn is no stranger to controversey. Last year, he said men were more intelligent than women by an average of five IQ points.

Via: Sky News

Dogs Eat Better Than Their Owner

Devoted dog owners often joke that their pets eat better than they do.

Now it seems that could really be the case after tests showed some brands of dog and cat food contain less fat and salt than fast food and ready meals.

Scientific analysis found that a can of Gourmet Gold - a brand of cat meat - contained 2.9g of fat per 100g, while Cesar dog food contained 4.4g.

This compares to 24.8g of fat per 100g found in a MacDonald's Big Mac and medium fries and 11.7g of fat found in 100g of Waitrose's chicken korma.

Levels of salt and sugar in pet food were also found to be lower, although the convenience food did contain more fibre.
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The findings will again raise concerns about the amount of unhealthy ingredients in ready meals and fast foods.

The Food Standards Agency has launched a traffic light scheme of food packaging to show the amounts of salt, sugar and fat - with a red warning indicating high levels.

John Searle, the scientist who carried out the pet food analysis said: "The cat and dog foods that we analysed would be categorised in the green or amber levels while some convenience foods aimed at humans would fall in the red, or unhealthy category.

"It would not do a human any harm to eat this cat and dog food.

Under European Union law, all pet food must be fit for human consumption.

Via: Sky News