A YouTube video suggesting that face recognition cameras installed in HP laptops cannot detect black faces has had over one million views. The short movie, uploaded earlier this month, features “Black Desi” and his colleague “White Wanda”. When Wanda, a white woman, is in front of the screen, the camera zooms to her face and [...]
A “molecular switch” that can prevent Huntington’s disease from developing has been found in mice. A US study concluded the mutated huntingtin protein, which causes the disease, could be stopped in its tracks by a subtle chemical modification. It is hoped the work could lead to much-needed treatments for the inherited disorder. The study, by [...]
The Greek parliament has voted to adopt big budget cuts designed to lower the country’s high levels of debt. Greece aims to shrink public debt to 9.1% of overall economic output next year, down from 12.7% this year. To do this, it has outlined measures to cut public spending and boost revenue by cutting back [...]
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has vowed to defeat organised crime in the country by 2013. “The mafia is a pathological phenomenon that we want to defeat once and for all by the end of this term in office,” Mr Berlusconi told Italy’s national radio. “No government in the history of the republic has acted [...]
Microsoft has indefinitely suspended its Chinese microblogging service MSN Juku after admitting that it “copied” code used to create the site. A vendor contracted to work for the software giant was caught lifting code from a rival Canadian start-up, Plurk. According to Plurk as much as 80% of the basecode was “stolen directly”. Microsoft apologised [...]
Scientists have unlocked the entire genetic code of two of the most common cancers – skin and lung – a move they say could revolutionise cancer care. Not only will the cancer maps pave the way for blood tests to spot tumours far earlier, they will also yield new drug targets, says the Wellcome Trust [...]
Microsoft has reached agreement with European Union anti-trust regulators to allow European users a choice of web browsers. The accord ends 10 years of dispute between the two sides. Over that time, the EU imposed fines totalling 1.68bn euros ($2.44bn, £1.5bn). The European Commission said Microsoft’s legally binding agreement ended the dispute and averted a [...]
Formal negotiations have re-opened at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen after a delay of nine hours. The hold-up was caused by wrangles over the texts to be used as the basis for the talks. Beneath the dispute lies a long-running accusation from developing countries that the Danish hosts are trying to sideline their concerns. [...]
The Teletext information service on analogue and digital television will close across the UK on 16 December. Limited services including holidays, racing and bookmaking and the subtitles on analogue channels will remain available. Teletext’s chat and dating TV channels on Freeview will also be unaffected. Speaking to the BBC in Jersey, Karen Rankin, the Managing [...]
Post menopausal women who take anti-depressants face a small – but statistically significant – increased risk of a stroke, research suggests. The US study was based on 136,293 women aged 50 to 79, who were followed for an average of six years. Anti-depressant users were 45% more likely to have a stroke than women not [...]
Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner passenger aircraft has successfully completed its first test flight in the US. The three-hour flight started and finished in Seattle. It had been due to last up to four hours, but the plane landed early due to heavy rain. The 787 project had been delayed by two and a half years, [...]
In his first message since an attack that left him in hospital, the Italian prime minister has told his supporters that love always triumphs over hate. The brief message from Silvio Berlusconi was posted on the website of his People of Freedom party. Mr Berlusconi, struck in the face by a model replica of Milan’s [...]