Friday Poll: Which 'Star Wars' character should get the first spin-off film?

Will your favorite character get a spin-off?(Credit:Lucasfilm)First, Disney bought Lucasfilm and "Star Wars" fans everywhere had mixed feelings. Then, a rumor became reality as J.J Abrams signed on to direct the next "Star Wars" movie. Now, almost everybody is feeling hopeful about the future of the franchise. To put a cherry on the sci-fi sundae, we've now been told that a series of character spin-off...

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Debate Continues: Did Your Seafood Feel Pain?

Part of our weekly "In Focus" series—stepping back, looking closer.Chefs have been grappling with the question for years: What's the best way to humanely kill a lobster?Some cooks recommend tucking the invertebrate into the freezer for an hour, while others prefer quickly stabbing it behind the eyes. For the serious seafood gourmand, there are even stun devices that are advertised as the...

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Rescued Ethan Spends Birthday With SWAT Heroes

As a beaming 6-year-old Ethan said "cheese" for photos and played with toy cars at his birthday party, there were no immediate signs of the turmoil the young boy had endured just days earlier.The boy, identified only as Ethan, was held hostage in a nearly week-long standoff in Alabama. He was physically unharmed after Jimmy Lee Dykes kidnapped him from a school bus and held...

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Today on New Scientist: 7 February 2013

Light-taming window conjures Turing's image Watch how a surface can be manipulated to cast images, allowing designers to paint with lightNew map pinpoints cities to avoid as sea levels rise Sydney, Tokyo and Buenos Aires are in for some of the biggest sea-level rises by 2100, finds one of the most comprehensive predictions to dateTour of the body hardly gets under the skin Anatomies by Hugh...

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War crimes court wants Gaddafi spy chief handed over

THE HAGUE: International Criminal Court judges on Thursday demanded Libya hand over Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief Abdullah Senussi to face charges of crimes against humanity.The latest broadside in the legal tug-of-war between The Hague-based ICC and Tripoli over where Senussi and Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam should be tried repeated a demand for Senussi to be handed over.The ICC "orders...

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Options for managing browser tabs in OS X

Tabbed browsing is one of the more useful features to make it to Web browsers. However, as with using single windows you might inadvertently close one and need to restore it. While you can create a new tab and then peruse the browser history to find a link to the content it contained, an easier option is to use the built-in tab restoration options in your browser.To do this, there are two hotkeys...

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Severed Heads Were Sacrifices in Ancient Mexico

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of more than 150 skulls from an ancient shrine in central Mexico—evidence of one of the largest mass sacrifices of humans in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.The skulls, many facing east, lay beneath a crude, slightly elevated mound of crushed stone on what was once an artificial island in a vast shallow lake, now completely dry."The site is barely a bump...

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Suspect Tried to Flee Country Before Cop Shooting

The fired ex-California cop who set off a region-wide manhunt after allegedly shooting three police officers this morning -- one fatally -- had initially gone to a yacht club near San Diego where police say he attempted to steal a boat and flee to Mexico.Police say that former police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, who officials believe posted an online manifesto outlining...

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Today on New Scientist: 6 February 2013

Open Richard III DNA evidence for peer review A good case has been made that a skeleton unearthed from a car park is that of the last Plantagenet king of England - it's time to share the dataUniversal bug sensor takes guesswork out of diagnosis A machine that can identify all bacteria, viruses and fungi known to cause disease in humans should speed up diagnosis and help to reduce antibiotic...

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Football: Singapore lose to Jordan in opening 2015 Asian Cup qualifier

SINGAPORE: Singapore's quest to reach the 2015 Asian Cup got off on a disappointing note with a 4-0 defeat against Jordan in Amman on Wednesday.Two goals from Ahmad Hayel in the 54th and 73rd minutes, and one each from Abdallah Deeb (18th) and Khalil Zaid Baniateyah (52nd) gave Jordan the win over the reigning Southeast Asian champions at the Amman International Stadium.The win puts Jordan...

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