Technology

> Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday that attempts by governments to censor Web site contents were doomed, because banned information can seep out despite official injunctions. > "The ability to really withhold information no longer exists," Gates told a government forum on the Internet. > Gates

Adult stem cell research advances: > Researchers say they have turned adult muscle stem cells into cartilage, and used them in animals to heal the kind of damage caused by arthritis. [http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060130/hl_hsn/musclestemcellstransformedintocartilage] But who cares? It's no fun unless

Great, first my wife, now the screen. I'll never be able to hide a sour mood again. > Many computers are already able to see and hear. However, they have no way of telling whether their users are happy or angry. At CeBIT 2006, researchers will be presenting

WaPo runs a piece this morning about the popularity of text messaging [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122801430.html] . Excerpts: > A text message sent via mobile phone is usually confined to 160 characters or less and takes several seconds to send. To accommodate

I'm assuming a similar trend is set to hit the U.S., if it hasn't already: > A new survey by The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Age Concern found that while only 4 cent of over-50s currently own an MP3 player, another 23 per

Handing out the death penalty for double-parking a rickshaw: > A Chinese company has begun marketing kidneys, livers and other organs from executed prisoners to sick Britons in need of transplants. . . . What could possibly go wrong with that arrangement? > Some human rights campaigners have claimed the use of

Far out. What could possibly go wrong? > The first serious possibility that the woolly mammoth, or something like it, could walk on Earth again was raised yesterday by an international team of scientists. > A portion of the genetic code of the mammoth has been reconstructed and, to the

Highly disturbing piece at NYT this morning about voluntary child porn [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/national/19kids.ready.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5094&en=5eb58e4d773204ee&hp&ex=1135054800&partner=homepage] : youngsters with webcams who receive money and gifts from pedophiles for undressing