Amazon to open market in second-hand MP3s and e-books

A new market for second-hand digital downloads could let us hold virtual yard sales of our ever-growing piles of intangible possessions WHY buy second-hand? For physical goods, the appeal is in the price – you don't mind the creases in a book or rust spots on a car if it's a bargain. Although digital objects...

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Football: Bayern's six-goal Bremen rout opens 18-point lead

BERLIN: Bayern Munich rested half a dozen stars but still romped to a 6-1 win at home against 10-man Werder Bremen on Saturday to go 18 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga.Bayern boss Jupp Heynckes celebrated his 1000th Bundesliga game as a player and coach by making six changes from the team which won 3-1 at Arsenal in the Champions League on Tuesday.But they still extended their...

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No more working from home for Yahoo employees, says report

Yahoo's focus on mobile apparently requires its employees to stay in the office.ATD is reporting that CEO Marissa Mayer let it be known yesterday -- via a memo to employees from HR head Jackie Reses -- that come June, any existing work-from-home arrangements will no longer apply."To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working...

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Elderly Abandoned at World's Largest Religious Festival

Every 12 years, the northern Indian city of Allahabad plays host to a vast gathering of Hindu pilgrims called the Maha Kumbh Mela. This year, Allahabad is expected to host an estimated 80 million pilgrims between January and March. (See Kumbh Mela: Pictures From the Hindu Holy Festival)People come to Allahabad to wash away their sins in the sacred River Ganges. For many it's the realization...

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Pistorius Family: 'Law Must Run Its Course'

South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius is spending time his family today after the athlete was freed on $113,000 bail Friday."We realise that the law must run its course, and we would not have it any other way," the Olympian's uncle, Arnold Pistorius said in a statement on Saturday.The Pistorius family expressed their gratitude that the former Olympian was allowed out of jail...

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Rusty rocks reveal ancient origin of photosynthesis

SUN-WORSHIP began even earlier than we thought. The world's oldest sedimentary rocks suggest an early form of photosynthesis may have evolved almost 3.8 billion years ago, not long after life appeared on Earth. A hallmark of photosynthesis in plants is that the process...

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Spain's Iberia workers end strike, no deal in sight

MADRID: Workers at Spanish airline Iberia on Friday wrapped up a week-long strike that has seen hundreds of flights cancelled, with no sign of agreement in a dispute over the company's plan to cut 3,800 jobs.Staff marked the last day of this week's strike -- the first of three planned five-day actions -- with a noisy demonstration in terminal four of Madrid's Barajas airport.They waved...

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Watch: How to make a peanut butter sandwich in space

Chris Hadfield shows how to make a peanut butter and honey sandwich on the International Space Station.(Credit:Video screenshot by CBSNews.com)Everything is more interesting in space. Even the lowly peanut butter sandwich becomes fascinating when the person making it is an astronaut and the "kitchen" is the International Space Station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield takes you on a culinary tour...

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Meet One of Mars Rover Curiosity’s Earthbound Twins

Like its twin that's busy exploring Mars aboard the rover Curiosity, the device known as SAM II spends its days as if it were 200 million miles away, in a very different environment than our own.Temperatures around the instrument plunge to minus 130ºF (-90°C), the air pressure is one percent of Earth's, and the atmosphere it sits in consists largely of carbon dioxide.But this second SAM—short...

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Jodi Arias' Friends Believe in Her Innocence

Accused murderer Jodi Arias believes she should be punished, but hopes she will not be sentenced to death, two of her closest friends told ABC News in an exclusive interview.Ann Campbell and Donavan Bering have been a constant presence for Arias wth at least one of them sitting in the Phoenix, Ariz., courtroom along with Arias' family for almost every day of her murder trial....

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Flowers get an electrifying buzz out of visiting bees

Plants could turn out to be one of the more chatty organisms. Recent studies have shown they can communicate with a surprising range of cues. Now it turns out they could be sending out electrical signals, too. As they fly through...

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Big Bird repays Obamas with healthy eating ad

WASHINGTON: Big Bird is back as a player in big time US politics.Mitt Romney wanted to get rid of him, but after a reprieve following the Republican's election defeat, the towering Sesame Street puppet has signed up to endorse First Lady Michelle Obama's nutrition and fitness campaign.The fluffy yellow character known to generations of US kids is seen jogging in the East Room of the White...

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Facebook puts old photos on ice

Facebook's data center in Prineville, Oregon.(Credit:Facebook)Facebook will preserve your aged photos using the tried-and-true freezer method, as billions of photos are headed for colder climates: a "cold storage" unit at Facebook's Prineville, Oregon data center. Yesterday, the social network opened up the in-construction building to members of the media to demonstrate how it plans to make room...

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Pictures: Artifacts Provide Clues to Life in Early Christchurch

Photograph courtesy Jaden Harris, Underground Overground Archaeology      A tiny container for Holloway's ointment, less than two inches (five centimeters) wide, came from what was probably a brick-lined basement on Madras Street under a multistory modern commercial building.British patent medicine entrepreneur Thomas Holloway began to advertise his ointment in 1837, claiming it would...

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Las Vegas Strip Shooting Leads to 3 Dead

A drive-by shooting on the Las Vegas strip early this morning by the occupants of a Range Rover SUV, who shot at the occupants of a Maserati, caused a multi-car accident and car explosion that left three dead.Police said that they believe a group of men riding in a black Range Rover Sport SUV pulled up alongside a Maserati around 4:20 a.m. today and fired shots into the car, striking...

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First snaps made of fetal brains wiring themselves up

The first images have been captured of the fetal brain at different stages of its development. The work gives a glimpse of how the brain's neural connections form in the womb, and could one day lead to prenatal diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as autism and schizophrenia. ...

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Tennis: Kvitova eyes revenge match with Radwanska

DUBAI: Petra Kvitova, the former Wimbledon champion from the Czech Republic, continued her exciting return to form here on Wednesday with a performance which edged her nearer the tenth title of her career.Kvitova's brilliantly masked hitting eased her into the quarter-finals of the $2,000,000 Dubai Open with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/1) win over Ana Ivanovic, the former French Open champion from Serbia.It...

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Microsoft to back Oracle in Java case against Google -- report

The legal war between Oracle and Google has been rather muted for the last several months, but there could be a major new twist in the case.Reuters has reported that legal representatives for Microsoft told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a briefing yesterday that it would support Oracle.We reached out to Oracle to confirm, but the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based corporation declined...

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Florida Python Hunt Captures 68 Invasive Snakes

It's a wrap—the 2013 Python Challenge has nabbed 68 invasive Burmese pythons in Florida, organizers say. And experts are surprised so many of the elusive giants were caught.Nearly 1,600 people from 38 states—most of them inexperienced hunters—registered for the chance to track down one of the animals, many of which descend from snakes that either escaped or were dumped into the wild.Since...

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Fiery Debate Over Pistorius' Story at Bail Hearing

As prosecutors today outlined their case against South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius, providing details that they say indicates a premeditated act of murder against his girlfriend, his lawyers swatted at each bit of evidence on the dramatic second day of a bail hearing that will likely foreshadow the upcoming trial.The Johannesburg courtroom sat riveted as police investigators...

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Today on New Scientist: 19 February 2013

Doctors would tax sugary drinks to combat obesity Hiking the price of fizzy drinks would cut consumption and so help fight obesity, urges the British Academy of Medical Royal CollegesSpace station's dark matter hunter coy about findings Researchers on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which sits above the International Space Station, have collected their first results - but won't reveal them...

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Kerry to visit Europe, Mideast on first trip

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry will visit nine countries in Europe and the Middle East starting Sunday as he undertakes his first foreign trip as top diplomat, the State Department said Tuesday.Kerry will visit Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar through March 6, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told...

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Apple: Employee computers were hacked in targeted attack

Apple's Cupertino campus.(Credit:James Martin/CNET)Apple today said it too was targeted as part of the string of hacking efforts on companies and news agencies. The iPhone and Mac maker today told Reuters that hackers targeted computers used by its employees, but that "there was no evidence that any data left Apple."In a statement, Apple said it discovered malware that made use of a vulnerability...

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New Ancient Members of Whale Family Found

Jane J. Lee in Boston The ancestors of modern baleen whales—including the ancient forbears of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) and humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae)—just got four new relatives.Scientists announced Sunday that they have discovered the new species thanks in large part to a construction crew in southern California.The researchers discovered 11 whale species...

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