Archaeologists unearth Britain’s ‘first building boom’

Researchers have developed a new dating technique that has given the first detailed picture of the emergence of an agricultural way of life in Britain more than 5,000 yearsago.

A new analysis of artefacts recovered from the first monuments built in Britain shows that the Neolithic period had a slow start followed by a rapid growth in trade and technology.

Scientists say the new approach can be used to unravel the detailed sequence of events of many more important moments in human pre-history — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Bribery in India: A website for whistleblowers

Imagine if you had to pay a bribe to see your newborn baby, get your water supply connected or obtain your driving

licence. It’s an everyday fact of life in India — but campaigners are now using people power and the internet to fight back.

Uncover the market price of corruption, proclaims the banner on the homepage of ipaidabribe.com.

It invites people to share their experiences of bribery, what a bribe was for, where it took place and how much was involved — via redwolf.newsvine.com

The Monster Study

In 1939, University of Iowa graduate student Mary Tudor began an experiment with local orphans, warning them that they were showing signs of stuttering and lecturing them whenever they repeated a word. The children became acutely self-conscious, and many began to stutter, fulfilling the theory that the affliction is caused by the diagnosis — via redwolf.newsvine.com

600 species discovered in Madagascar in last decade

More than 600 new species, including the world’s smallest known primate, a spider that spins golden webs and a gecko that changes colour during courtship, have been discovered on Madagascar in the past decade.

New species found between 1999 and last year included 41 mammals, 385 plants, 69 amphibians, 61 reptiles, 17 fish and 42 invertebrates.

Magadascar is the world’s fourth largest island, covering an area the size of France.

It was isolated from other landmasses 165m years ago, leading scientists to dub it the Eight Continent and making many of the species discovered there totally unique in the world — via darrah–greenville–sc.newsvine.com

Hotel Hospes Palma / EQUIP Xavier Claramunt

Along the different stages [EQUIP Xavier Claramunt] for refurbishing and extending the Maricel Hotel, we have been pursuing a recovering of memorable and desirable original scenarios. On the first intervention we tried to make clear that the sea was there. Now, with this extension, the aim is to regain the trees and dry stonewalls that have been part of the environmental history of Majorca — via ArchDaily

Jailed rape victim seeks to sue Commonwealth

A Brisbane woman who claims to have been drugged and raped by coworkers in Dubai plans to sue the Commonwealth of Australia after she was jailed for adultery.

Alicia Gali, 29, has already been granted leave to sue the Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, alleging her employer breached its workplace obligations by failing to have systems in place to protect workers against assault — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Antimatter Atoms Trapped for More Than 15 Minutes

Maybe antimatter is finally ready for its close-up. A team of physicists has succeeded in producing rudimentary atoms of antimatter and holding on to them for several minutes, an advance that holds hope for detailed comparisons of how ordinary atoms of matter compare with their exotic antimatter counterparts.

The researchers, from the ALPHA antimatter experiment at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics, reported last year the first trapping of antihydrogen, the simplest antimatter atom. But the antihydrogen had at that time been confined for less than two tenths of a second. That interval has now been extended by a factor of more than 5,000. In a study published online 5 June in Nature Physics, the ALPHA group reports having confined antihydrogen for 16 minutes and 40 seconds. The more relevant number for physicists, who often deal in powers of 10, is 1,000 seconds — via redwolf.newsvine.com

School to ban kids who are not toilet-trained

A group of parents here have turned an agitated lot after a primary school threatened to ban their children if they were not sent properly toilet-trained.

Headmistress Patricia Deus warned parents that her teachers were spending hours every week helping children as old as five to go to the loo. Many are still wearing nappies, Daily Express reported Saturday — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Probe launched into missing pets at LA animal shelter

In the latest investigation involving a Los Angeles city agency, officials have launched a probe into the disappearance of nearly 40 dogs, cats and other animals from a Lincoln Heights shelter.

Brenda Barnette, general manager of the Animal Services Department, said 64 animals have disappeared from six shelters in roughly a year. Of that total, 39 were housed at the city’s North Central shelter on Lacy Street — a missing rate considered unusually high — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Catholic hospital bars contraception advice

Cancer doctors are on a collision course with a Catholic health organisation over new religion-based rules which prohibit them recommending contraception to patients taking a drug derived from thalidomide, which can cause severe birth defects.

Under a clampdown at Newcastle’s Calvary Mater Hospital, doctors recruiting patients into clinical trials may no longer distribute information about contraception. Instead they are allowed to offer a statement of reproductive risks, which advises participants to avoid pregnancy but gives no information on how to achieve this — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Dalek Replica

The Dalek Replica is hand-built to order, using the original moulds and specifications from the BBC Props Department. Officially licensed by the Beeb, it stands at a life-sized 5’3” tall, comes in a range of classic colours and has a whole range of features to play with.

The arms are mounted on ball joints, allowing them to be moved -– or wiggled in rage, as was more common. The plunger arm can be extended in and out and the iconic dome can be rotated 360°. What’s more, inset casters in the base let you move it around with ease. But we know what you really want to ask -– can I ride in it?

And the answer is -– no! Unfortunately. This faithful replica is built in exactly the same way as the ones appearing on TV. Which means they’re not made for driving to the shops. But what you get instead is a Dalek that looks and feels exactly like the ones that used to have you running to your mum, or fosbury flopping over the sofa to safety — via Firebox

British spies use cakes in cyber war

British intelligence has hacked into an al-Qaeda online magazine and replaced bomb-making instructions with a recipe for cupcakes.

The cyber-warfare operation was carried out by MI6 and the GCHQ signals intelligence agency to disrupt the terrorists’ attempts to recruit lone-wolf agents using a new English-language web publication called Inspire — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Kapiti Beach House / Geoff Fletcher Architects

The concept [Geoff Fletcher Architects] was a glass and cedar enclosure revealing only a shuttered box to the coast to take in views and weather storms. The concealed and very private entry has a welcoming residential feel achieved using an inverse hip roof, glazed entry porch and ply bathroom box. The house is a carefully crafted intervention designed to silver off to blend with dunes, planting and flaxes. It offers a sense of retreat no matter what the weather — via ArchDaily

Conroy: Filter alive and kicking

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy went in to bat for the Labor Government’s mandatory internet filter again, reaffirming the commitment to the unpopular policy. Nothing has changed since earlier debates; the filter still has the same problems it has always had -– it’s useless, unworkable and expensive. It still won’t help anybody — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Mechanical Apoctopus No.2 / monsterkookies

In a future world that has been destroyed by humans, only creatures in the darkest corners of the Earth have survived. The Apoctopus learns to adapt in the depths of an ocean whose waters had been tainted with the bi-products of the nuclear industry, some several centuries ago… — via Etsy