Google makes novels free to print BBC News
Search engine Google plans to offer consumers the chance to download and print classic novels free of charge.The firm's book search tool will let people print classics such as Dante's Inferno or Aesop's Fables, as well as other books no longer under copyright. Until now, the service has only let people read such books on-screen. Google's book search service stems from a wider project to put books online in a searchable format, which it is undertaking with major universities. Working with Google on the Books Library project are Oxford University, Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of California, as well as the New York Public Library. Volunteers working for a project known as Gutenberg have for some years copied out-of-copyright books as text files, which can then be used for printing, reading or piping into a programme for editing. In contrast, Google is offering the books in a "print-ready" format, as have several other - albeit much smaller and less well-known - firms. Online shopping site Amazon has offered limited online access to the contents of its huge bookstore.

More services
Google's book searching device does not access books still under copyright, for which only bibliographies are available along with limited extracts. The news comes as the search engine is expanding its empire to offer a wider spectrum of services. Earlier this week, Google announced plans to target the software market for companies. The firm said it would offer companies the chance to run their email, calendar and other services on their own domains, to expand on the service it offers to individuals. This service puts Google, whose focus has been searching and advertising, in direct competition with software giant Microsoft.

Moon probe set for impact finale BBC News
Europe's lunar satellite, the Smart 1 probe, is about to end its mission by crashing on to the Moon's surface.It will be a spectacular end for the robot which has spent the past 16 months testing innovative and miniaturised space technologies. Smart 1 has also produced detailed maps of the Moon's chemical make-up, to help refine theories about its birth. The impact, which will be watched by professional and amateur telescopes, is set for 0543 GMT (0643 BST) on Sunday. The robotic craft should come down on the nearside at mid-southern latitudes, in an area called the Lake of Excellence.

Follow me
With an impact speed of about 7,200km/h (4,500mph), even at an expected glancing blow of just one degree to the surface, the probe should meet a sufficiently violent end that astronomers can follow the event from Earth. It is possible telescopes will see fresh lunar "soil", or regolith, kicked up in the crash. They may even detect a thermal flash as volatile materials on the probe melt some of its structure."Smart 1 will die, for sure, and as its 'father' I must confess to feeling a little sad," said Professor Bernard Foing, the mission's project scientist from the European Space Agency (Esa). "But it can live on in the sense that we are able to take its legacy forward - to analyse its scientific data and to carry the experience of the team into future missions." A fleet of spacecraft - both orbiters and landers - are now expected to visit the Moon in the next few years. This train of robotic explorers will culminate in astronauts returning to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo missions, probably in 2020.

New engine
Smart 1 was launched in September 2003 as a technology demonstrator. It became Europe's first space science mission to use an ion engine instead of chemical combustion to reach its destination. The system draws power through the probe's solar wings and then uses this energy to propel the spacecraft forward by expelling charged particles of xenon. It was highly efficient, covering 100 million km in a series of looping orbits and using just 60 litres of "fuel".

"That's remarkable when you think about it - it's the same volume of fuel as you'd put in the tank of a car; and we went all that way," said Smart 1 scientist Professor Manuel Grande of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. An ion engine will now be fitted to the majority of Europe's future spacecraft, such as the BepiColumbo mission to Mercury. Professor Grande himself has been principal investigator on one of Smart's miniaturised instruments: the compact X-ray spectrometer known as D-CIXS. It has made mineral maps of the Moon's composition, looking at the distribution of calcium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon and iron. Knowing the absolute abundances of these elements will help to refine theories for the Moon's formation. These describe the satellite emerging from the debris thrown out from a mighty collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body billions of years ago. "Like everything else on this spacecraft, our X-ray technology was smarter, smaller and lighter than anything that has been flown before," said Professor Grande. "The instrument weighs about five kilos. Instruments that have tried to do this before have weighed 10 times that."

Eternal light
D-CIXS has proved so successful that an enhanced version (called CIXS) is now under construction to fly on the Indian Chandrayaan mission to the Moon in 2007/8. Smart 1's camera AMIE has also added greatly to our understanding of the Moon. Previously, the best digital maps of the Moon were from the US Clementine mission with a resolution of 200m. At its best, Smart-1 mapping reveals features 40m across. That resolution is not quite good enough to see individual pieces of Apollo equipment left on the Moon, but the data can be used as a comparison tool to study surface photographs returned by the pioneering astronauts. "For example, we have correlated our data with the ground truth collected by Apollo 15. Our images are consistent with the panoramic images collected by the astronauts," said Professor Foing - adding, with a smile: "So, I believe they have been there!" Among its several firsts, Smart 1 has found peaks in the northern polar region that are always in sunlight. It has also been looking for depressions that are always in darkness - places where ice could yet be found. Both locations could be extremely useful to future manned missions, providing bases to set up solar power stations or to source water. "Smart 1 will now rest in peace on the Moon," said Professor Foing. "We are now collaborating with the international community, preparing the way for the future exploration of the Moon - the next fleet of orbiters, landers; leading to robotic villages and human bases."

By Jonathan Amos, Science reporter

Probe crashes into Moon's surface BBC News
Europe's lunar satellite, the Smart 1 probe, has ended its mission by crashing onto the Moon's surface in a controlled collision.It was a spectacular end for the robotic probe, which has spent the last 16 months testing innovative and miniaturised space technologies. Smart 1 has also produced detailed maps of the Moon's chemical make-up, to help refine theories about its birth. At 0542 GMT (0642 BST), the probe thumped into a volcanic plain. With an impact speed of about 7,200km/h (4,500mph), even at a glancing blow of just one degree to the surface, the probe met a sufficiently violent end for telescopes to observe the event from Earth. Smart 1 was returning pictures as it plunged towards the Moon's Lake of Excellence. Controllers and scientists at the European Space Agency's (Esa) operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, clapped and cheered after the spacecraft smacked into the surface. "As planned, Smart 1 has landed," said Professor Bernard Foing, the mission's project scientist from Esa. The Canada France Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, captured an infrared picture of a bright flash as Smart 1 hit its target. "I was really surprised as the flash was very impressive. I was betting on not seeing much," said Gerhard Schwehm, mission manager for Smart 1. The hope now is that the impact will have kicked up a big enough plume of fresh lunar "soil" for scientists to study its composition using ground telescopes. The impact was expected to leave a 3m by 10m (10ft by 30ft) crater on the Moon, spreading debris over 80 sq km (30 sq miles)."We know a lot about the Moon, but there are things we need to know more precisely if we are to embark on ambitious projects like those the US has planned," Dr Schwehm told the BBC News website. A fleet of spacecraft - both orbiters and landers - are now expected to visit the Moon in the next few years. This train of robotic explorers will culminate in US astronauts returning to the lunar surface for the first time since the Apollo missions, probably in 2020. Smart 1 was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket in September 2003 as a technology demonstrator. It became Europe's first space science mission to use an ion engine instead of chemical combustion to reach its destination. The system drew power through the probe's solar wings and then used this energy to propel the spacecraft forward by expelling charged particles of xenon. It was highly efficient, covering 100 million km in a series of looping orbits and using just 60 litres of "fuel". Professor Manuel Grande has been principal investigator on one of Smart's miniaturised instruments: the compact X-ray spectrometer known as D-CIXS. It has made mineral maps of the Moon's composition, looking at the distribution of calcium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon and iron. Knowing the absolute abundances of these elements will help to refine theories for the Moon's formation. These describe the satellite emerging from the debris thrown out from a mighty collision between Earth and a Mars-sized body billions of years ago. "It will take a long time for to work through the detail; the devil is in the detail with the X-ray instruments," said the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, researcher. "But when we finally put the picture together what we will get is maps of what the Moon is made of." On Saturday, mission controllers had to raise Smart 1's orbit by 600m (2,000ft) to avoid hitting a crater rim on final approach. Had the orbit not been raised, the craft would have crashed one orbit too soon - making the impact difficult or impossible to observe. "Smart 1 will now rest in peace on the Moon," said Professor Foing. "We are now collaborating with the international community, preparing the way for the future exploration of the Moon - the next fleet of orbiters, landers; leading to robotic villages and human bases."

'Safe launch' for space shuttle BBC News
Nasa officials scrutinising footage of space shuttle Atlantis' launch say some debris did hit the orbiter, but that there was no visible damage."Not only am I not alarmed, I'm really at ease after looking through this video," Nasa's Wayne Hale said. "We are looking at nits - nothing of any remote consequence," he said. Saturday's launch was just the third shuttle mission since the orbiter Columbia broke up on re-entry after being damaged by launch debris in 2003. As part of new procedures following the Columbia tragedy, in which all seven astronauts on board died, Nasa now restricts launches to daylight to allow for careful study of the external fuel tank. Mr Hale said that his assessment of the launch was a preliminary report and that Nasa would be reviewing High Definition film from the shuttle on Sunday.

Tight schedule
The shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida through a partly cloudy sky at 1115 local time (1515 GMT).The launch, Nasa's last opportunity to launch until at least late September, came after two weeks of frustrating delays for Nasa managers. "What you saw today is a flawless count, a majestic launch. This vehicle has not flown since 2001 and not everything in the count leading up to this day was easy. We had to dodge tropical storms, lightning strikes and things like that," Nasa administrator Michael Griffin said. The six astronauts on board for the 11-day mission are headed to the $100bn International Space Station to resume construction work after a gap of four years. The crew will deliver and fit the P3/P4 truss, a 17-tonne segment of the space station's "backbone" that includes a huge set of solar arrays and a giant rotary joint to allow them to track the Sun.The arrays will be the second of four sets, and will span 73m (240ft) when fully extended. Once fitted, they will effectively double the station's current ability to generate power from sunlight. Nasa managers were under pressure to launch as there is a tight schedule of some 15 further shuttle missions to complete construction work on the ISS by 2010, when the current shuttle fleet is due to be retired.

Probe to study mighty explosions Science reporter, BBC News, Norwich
Scientists have been giving details of a new mission to explore the Sun.Solar-B is a Japanese spacecraft which will have three telescopes to study solar flares, the huge bursts of energy which erupt from the Sun's surface. Flares can hurl particles and radiation at the Earth, disrupting communications and posing a hazard to astronauts. The probe, which should launch in two weeks' time, has US and UK support, with Britain providing an instrument to investigate extreme ultraviolet light. Whilst scientists understand the flaring process very well, they cannot predict when one of these enormous explosions will occur. The Solar-B mission will try to gain new insights into the flares' so called "trigger phase". "Solar flares are fast and furious - they can cause communication black-outs at Earth within 30 minutes of a flare erupting on the Sun's surface," explained Professor Louise Harra, the UK Solar-B project scientist based at University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory. "It's imperative that we understand what triggers these events with the ultimate aim of being able to predict them with greater accuracy." And she told the BBC: "There is a big push to go back to the Moon and on to Mars, especially in the US. Even back in the Apollo days, they were very reliant on predictions that were as accurate as possible, because a huge flare would cause serious trouble for the astronaut, if not death." Professor Harra was giving details of the mission to the British Association's Science Festival. The spacecraft is scheduled for a 22 September, 2200 GMT launch from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) Uchinoura Space Centre at Uchinoura Kagoshima in southern Japan.
By Jonathan Amos

Colourful beginning for humanity Science reporter, BBC News, Norwich
Evidence is emerging from Africa that colours were being used in a symbolic way perhaps 200,000 years ago, a UK scientist working in the region claims. Lawrence Barham has been studying tools and other artefacts left by ancient humans at a site in Zambia. He says the range of mineral pigments, or ochres, found there hints at the use of paint, perhaps to mark the body. If correct, it would push back the earliest known example of abstract thinking by at least 100,000 years. Being able to conceptualise - the ability to let one thing represent another - was a giant leap in human evolution. It was the mental activity that would eventually permit the development of sophisticated language and maths.

Language proxy
Shells from Israel that were strung as beads into a necklace or bracelet are widely accepted to be the oldest unequivocal evidence for such behaviour in humans. But Dr Barham said it would be hard to accept that humans were not engaged in such activity much earlier in the archaeological record. "As an archaeologist I am interested to find out where colour symbolism first appears because for colour symbolism to work it must be attached to language," the Liverpool University researcher said. "Colour symbolism is an abstraction and we cannot work this abstraction without language; so this is a proxy for trying to find in the archaeological record real echoes for the emergence of language," Dr Barham told the British Association's Science Festival. Dr Barham's work over the past 10 years has majored on a site known as Twin Rivers, an old cave complex in the south of Zambia. It was occupied by humans some 170,000-300,000 years ago. Which type of human is not clear, however; there is a fragment of bone which could belong to Homo heidelbergensis, the ancestor of modern humans, which like us had a large brain.

Bright range
Dr Barham said the tools found at Twin Rivers showed evidence of increasing sophistication, with simple handaxes giving way to small blades and flakes that had to be attached to handles. The emergence of this "composite" technology coincided with the systematic use of ochres. Ochre is a soft stone that contains iron oxides; it comes in a range of colours. At Twin Rivers there are red, yellow, brown, pink, black and even purple ochres. If they are scraped, they will produce a powder which can be mixed with animal fat, for example, and used as a paint. Dr Barham wonders if ancient humans in Zambia wiped these pigments on their bodies, using them in rituals - just as paints are still used in some cultures today, to mark the passage of warrior to elder, or the coming of age of boys and girls. The problem is that there are purely functional uses for this material as well, to preserve hides and as a glue to bind stone blades to their shafts.

Chance creation
"If you were to argue that these oxides were purely functional and have no symbolic value, you have to explain away the range of colours that are being selected from different places in the landscape," said Lawrence Barham. "Because if it was just for the iron element, any of them would do - the red, or the yellow. Some are closer to the site than others, so it seems that people were deliberately selecting the material for the colour property. That's my argument anyway." A number of claims have previously been made for conceptual thinking in humans hundreds of thousands of years ago. Many of these claims relate to pieces of rock that are said to represent the human form. The Berekhat Ram figure from Israel and the Tan-Tan figure from Morocco, for example, have been presented as the work of Homo erectus. But many sceptical researchers believe these items are merely accidents of nature; they are objects that have been moulded into human form through chance geological processes. And Dr Barham knows he has some way to go to convince colleagues of his case. "Archaeologists are a very cautious group. We set high standards for accepting an interpretation based on symbolism," he told BBC News.
By Jonathan Amos

Concerns over security software BBC News
There are many ways to provide security, one of which is to keep harmful elements away from those parts or people they may want to damage. Exclusion is often the only way society can defend itself. It is much the same for people that go online, where the main focus of security is keeping our data safe. The big players like Symantec, McAfee and Sophos offer huge suites of programs aimed at protecting you and your computer online. But there is an alternative. A growing number of programs from smaller firms are aimed at the security market are available to download free of charge. More often than not these programs are meant to entice you to upgrade to the full version, which costs money. Zone Labs do just that with a free version of their firewall product, ZoneAlarm. But offering software gratis does more for the company than just expand its potential customer base. "We get a lot of experience from the free version, so by having 35 millions copies of ZoneAlarm out there we're able to understand what is the threat environment, and provide a more secure proposition to our paid user base," said Laura Yecies of Zone Labs.

System attacks
But as you would imagine, some people - for example the manufacturers of products that you pay for - do not think it is such a good idea to trust the family data to a free security product. "We've seen plenty of examples where an attacker will actually create their attack either in or as part of a free security tool," said Greg Day of McAfee. "We've seen examples where maybe you think you've got a bit of spyware [on your computer], something trying to steal a bit of information or some kind of attack, and you go to the internet and to try and find more and perhaps get a free tool to get rid of it."Now maybe the good ones will actually get rid of that attack but at the same time they may drop maybe 10 or 20 other attacks onto your system." The bottom line, according to Mr Day, is that when you download free security software you cannot be certain what you get. But completely free security software may be a thing of the past when the new version of Windows hits the shops early next year. Windows Vista, as the new operating system is known, brings a whole new way of dealing with how data is controlled within the operating system. Essentially, programs, including Microsoft's own, will not be given the privilege to write data just anywhere on the computer as they do in XP. "[The new] Internet Explorer is not able to write to the main areas of the file system, it can't overwrite Windows," said Microsoft's Stephen Lamb. "So if I visit a website I don't have to worry that a keylogger or a root kit, or some of these things that you hear about in the press, are going to get onto the system."

Cracking Windows
Laura Yecies of Zone Labs said: "Microsoft is certainly making it more difficult for the independent security vendors right now. "They're essentially trying to take control of the security user interface functions. "Fortunately we have a pretty crack team which is finding new and innovative ways to continue to provide a very important security layer to our users." So the antivirus people are having to hack Windows so they can get close enough to protect it. Microsoft does not see it that way, though. "The question I would ask is 'do I want third parties, other than the manufacturers of the kernel (the core code of a computer's operating system) that I'm using, making changes to that?' Because making changes, even to access controls, can have a direct impact on the reliability and integrity of the system," said Mr Lamb. "That's really why Windows Vista's been re-architected - to protect itself from external access." At the same time as Microsoft starts closing off parts of the operating system to security software vendors, it has also released its own security product known as OneCare. The all in one package is designed to look after your computer and all your data, leaving the whole gamut of security on Microsoft's shoulders. Let us hope they are broad enough.
By Chris Long

Shuttle docks with space station BBC News
The space shuttle Atlantis has docked with the International Space Station, completing a crucial step in its 11-day mission to the orbiting outpost.Commander Brent Jett first had to flip the shuttle on its back so ISS crew could scan its underside for damage. Then, he slowly aligned the spacecraft with the docking port and achieved a perfect link-up at 1048 GMT (0648 EDT). The astronauts got a warm welcome from the ISS crew after opening the hatch separating their joined spacecraft. "Houston station, capture confirmed," Commander Jett radioed back to Earth after the docking manoeuvre was completed. The 11-day mission aims to double the station's energy-generating capacity. Nasa says that some debris from the fuel tank did hit the orbiter during its launch, but no damage was detected from ground observations. "At this point, the mission has been going along well," said the shuttle programme's deputy manager John Shannon. "We saw no debris at all coming off during our critical period; Atlantis looks great."

'Busy day'
Three possible impacts on the shuttle were detected, two from insulation foam and a third from ice; but all occurred several minutes after launch when Atlantis was already travelling through the thinner air of the upper atmosphere, which Nasa says is less likely to result in damage. Saturday's launch was just the third shuttle mission since the orbiter Columbia broke up on re-entry after being damaged by launch debris in 2003. The period following docking will, says Nasa, be one of the most complex and busy in shuttle history. The first task is to transfer and then fit the P3/P4 truss, a 17-tonne segment of the space station's "backbone" that includes a huge set of solar arrays and a giant rotary joint to allow them to track the Sun. The arrays will be the second of four sets, and will span 73m (240ft) when fully extended. Once fitted, they will effectively double the station's current ability to generate power from sunlight. Astronauts Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper then plan an "overnight camp out" in the airlock in preparation for the first of three spacewalks.

Scientists reveal how H5N1 kills BBC News
Scientists have discovered a potential reason to explain why the H5N1 strain of bird flu is so much more deadly to people than standard human flus.A team in Vietnam compared people infected with the different flus. The Nature Medicine research found that the bird flu virus triggers a massive inflammatory response, which often proved fatal. A UK expert said the study provided vital information about how best to treat people infected with the virus. There have been 241 cases of people being infected with H5N1 since the outbreak started in 2003. Over half died from the disease. The team from the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, looked at 18 people who had had H5N1 and eight who had had normal human flu. They looked at the level of the viral load - the concentration of the relevant virus in a person's blood, and at how the person's immune system had responded to infection.

Blood cells
It was found that the patients infected with H5N1 had much higher viral loads in the throat than those patients infected with the human flu virus. And the markers of viral load were highest in the H5N1 patients who had died. Virus could also frequently be detected in the blood of H5N1 patients, but only in those who died. The researchers noted that the presence of high levels of H5N1 virus triggered a release of proteins called cytokines which should control a body's response to infection. The highest levels of cytokines were seen in those with the highest viral loads- who were those who had died. In these cases there was also an associated loss of lymphocytes (types of white blood cell) in the peripheral blood. The team suggest it is these factors which lead to lung damage, and on many occasions, death. Dr Menno de Jong and his colleagues wrote in Nature Medicine: "The focus of clinical management should be on preventing this intense cytokine response, by early diagnosis and effective antiviral treatment." Professor John Oxford, a virus expert based at Barts and The London NHS Trust, said; "This clearly puts the emphasis on the level of virus a person has. "The higher it is, the higher the chance of death." He said it showed people infected with H5N1 should be treated with antiviral drugs - Tamiflu, Relenza or amantadine - in order to reduce the amount of virus in their systems. Professor Oxford said the information would also help if the virus mixed with a human flu and mutated into a form which was easily transmitted between people. He added: "We are lucky this is happening now. If it had been the 1970s or 80s, we would not have had these antiviral drugs to turn to."

CEO Guide to Technology Businessweek
Social Networks: Execs Use Them Too! Networking technology gives companies a new set of tools for recruiting and customer service—but privacy questions remain
Who's Harnessing Social Networks?
Slide Show: Companies are finding a host of ways to tap online communities for recruiting, sales, advertising and business development
Marketing to Kids Where They Live
Companies hoping to attract young customers are building whole marketing campaigns around social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace
A Guide to Social Networking: Tip Sheet
MySpace-type sites are just starting to gain traction among executives. Here's how to work the networks
Podcast: The CEO's Guide to Social Networks
There are a number of social networks designed for executives, including LinkedIn, Ryze, OpenBC and Ecademy
In Asia, MySpace Clones Stalk Cyberspace
The huge success of the social networking site in the U.S. has inspired similar sites all over Asia. The business model is a perfect fit
MySpace: No Free Ride in Europe
The social-networking site rules in the U.S. Overseas is another matter, due to competition and a fragmented market
MyStrands Adds Music to Web 2.0's Mix
By combining social networking with a high-tech music recommendation system, the Spanish startup may have a hit. Next move: mobile phones

PREDICTION MARKETS
Workers, Place Your Bets
More corporations are setting up their own markets for economic forecasts, hoping to tap into the wisdom of employees
Consulting the Corporate Crystal Ball
Slide Show: See which companies are using prediction markets to glean forecasts on matters from pricing to product success or failure
Hollywood Games People Play
Will Ben Affleck come back? Which movies will hit it big? The Hollywood Stock Exchange helps companies make educated guesses
Quiz: Are You a Master Predictor?
See if you can match the prediction markets on the likelihood of key world events—from the capture of Bin Laden to the winner of the world series
Podcast: Predicting for Success
Professor Robin Hanson, a pioneer in the emerging field of prediction markets, tells CEOs what they need to know in order to better forecast future events

VOIP
Internet Telephony: Coming in Clear
Companies are upgrading old phone networks to reduce bills and add features. But cost savings can take time, and IP systems aren't risk-free
Slide Show: New Voices Mean Big Business
Vendors are battling for share in the Voice over Internet Protocol business market—and packing new products with a host of features
Open Source Takes on Telecom
Digium CEO Mark Spencer explains how he's woven freely available software into a low-priced phone system for businesses
Net Phoning for the Dial-Up Set
Efonica aims to sell Internet-based service in parts of the world largely unreached by broadband, but many analysts are skeptical
CEO Guide to VoIP: Tip Sheet
Surviving the changeover to voice over Internet protocol can be tricky, but with these do's and don'ts, you'll be all set
Podcast: The CEO's Guide to VoIP
Gartner consultant Jeff Snyder tells CEOs what they need to know for a successful voice over IP deployment

First spacewalk for Atlantis crew BBC News
Two US astronauts have completed a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS). Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Joe Tanner wired up a new $372m addition, which will provide power, data and communication services. A bolt, spring and washer floated free during the work, and Nasa is examining whether it could cause problems. The second of three spacewalks planned during the 11-day mission is due to take place in 24 hours. The first task was to connect up the P3/P4 truss, a 17-tonne segment of the space station's "backbone", which includes a huge set of solar arrays.

Complex task
Shortly before the spacewalk, astronauts Steve MacLean and Jeff Williams manoeuvred it into place using a robotic arm from inside the ISS. Spacewalk veteran Tanner then stepped out of the airlock into space, tethered to the space station, followed by novice spacewalker Piper. "Welcome to the world of EVAs," he told his colleague, using the Nasa slang for spacewalks. "Aaah. Wonderful," replied Piper. Piper and Tanner carried out a long list of mundane but essential construction tasks.

Lost debris
Towards the end of the spacewalk, Tanner was working with a bolt when it sprang loose and floated towards the truss. The washer went into space, but the astronauts were concerned that the bolt and spring might have got caught up in the wiring and tubing they were fitting. "Not a good thing," said Tanner. "Let's hope it doesn't end up somewhere in the mechanism." Earlier in the spacewalk, Nasa's Mission Control Center in Houston informed the Atlantis crew that no detailed inspections of the shuttle's heat shield were needed. Nasa saw some debris from the fuel tank hit the orbiter during its launch, but no damage was detected from ground observations. This allows astronauts Dan Burbank and MacLean to press ahead with the second spacewalk, planned for Wednesday. If all goes to plan, the new segment will be powered up and two giant solar arrays unfurled during the third spacewalk on Thursday.

Warm welcome
Saturday's launch was just the third shuttle mission since the orbiter Columbia broke up on re-entry after being damaged by launch debris in 2003. The six astronauts, one woman and five men, arrived at the ISS on Monday. After docking with the station, they greeted its three occupants, and started work on the first construction mission since November 2002. Nasa says the next few days will be one of the most complex and busy in shuttle history.

Before You Start Networking, Get on the Net Red Orbit
Call it a marriage of an age-old art form and a new-age communications technology. They can learn a lot from each other, and that's a goal at CoolTea's "Blog and Dine" business networking event on Sept. 19 at Chocopologie, a South Norwalk boutique chocolate maker. The Blog and Dine event has been preceded by an online blog to facilitate conversations among CoolTea members that Chuck Scott, founder of CoolTea, hopes will continue at the event. The blog contains business, food and beverage, social and general chat themes. CoolTea is a regional group mostly composed of individuals involved in high-tech and business professions. Online at www.cooltea.com, it has been hosting business networking events in Fairfield County since the late 1990s. "It is quite possible that this Blog and Dine networking event is the first time that Web blogging technology has been combined with business networking event experience," Scott said, adding that the blog was seen by more than 1,500 visitors last month. Many CoolTea participants are operators of small businesses and should be inspired by the story Chocopologie owner Fritz Knipschildt tells about how he became a chocolatier and started his own business, Scott said. A native of Denmark, Knipschildt worked in restaurants in Denmark, France and Spain before moving to the United States in the mid-1990s. CoolTea member Marzena Kmiecik, owner of Pixelfanatix, a Norwalk-based Internet marketing firm, suggested holding the event at Chocopologie. "I hope it's inspiring. It will be cool. He's got a great story to tell. He's passionate, and CoolTea tells people to focus on what they love," Kmiecik said. Like many of CoolTea's members, Knipschildt relies on technology to connect with customers around the world. Scott, founder and managing director of the Avanti Group, a Ridgefield business that integrates communications, management and the Web, said he expects more than 80 people to attend. "Hopefully, we'll have a lot of people coming to learn about what we do," said Knipschildt, who employs 32 people in the manufacturing and shipping of his unique chocolates at the 12 S. Main St., business and in the adjoining cafe. The menu features a variety of Chocopologie's chocolate desserts and unique hors d'oeuvres. Also, Peter Troilo from Nicholas Roberts Ltd., a Darien wine merchant, will showcase wines and beers. The fee to attend is $40 per person for CoolTea subscribers and $50 per person for nonsubscribers. Advance online registration is required at www.bloganddine.com/events/0601/
By Richard Lee, The Stamford Advocate, Conn.

'Oldest' New World writing found BBC News
Ancient civilisations in Mexico developed a writing system as early as 2,000 years ago, new evidence suggests.The discovery in the state of Veracruz of a block inscribed with symbolic shapes has astounded anthropologists. Researchers tell Science magazine that they consider it to be the oldest example of writing in the New World. The inscriptions are thought to have been made by the Olmecs, an ancient pre-Columbian people known for creating large statues of heads. The finding suggests that New World people developed writing some 400 years before their contemporaries in the Western hemisphere. Co-author Stephen Houston of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, US, said it was a "tantalising discovery". "I think it could be the beginning of a new era of focus on Olmec civilisation," he said. "It's telling us that these records probably exist and that many remain to be found. If we can decode their content, these earliest voices of Mesoamerican civilisation will speak to us today."

Chance find
The slab has been dated to the early first millennium BC. It appears to have been made by the Olmec civilisation of Mesoamerica, a geographical region located between the Sinaloa River valley in northern Mexico and the Gulf of Fonseca south of El Salvador. The area, once home to the Aztecs, Mayas and their predecessors, covers much of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and western Honduras. The Olmecs appeared on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico around 1,200 BC. They are known to have carved glyphs - a symbolic figure or character that stands for a letter, sound, or word - since around 900 BC, but scholars are divided over whether this can be classified as true writing.The stone slab, named the "Cascajal block", was first uncovered by road builders digging up an ancient mound at Cascajal, outside San Lorenzo, in the late 1990s. It weighs about 12kg (26lbs) and measures 36cm (14in) in length, 21cm (8in) in width and 13cm (5in) in thickness. Its text consists of 62 signs, some of which are repeated up to four times. Mexican archaeologists Carmen Rodríguez and Ponciano Ortíz were the first to recognise the importance of the find, and it was examined by international archaeologists earlier this year.

Precious object
The team says the text "conforms to all expectations of writing" because of its distinct elements, patterns of sequencing, and consistent reading order. Commenting on the discovery, Mary Pohl, of Florida State University in Tallahassee, said she believed the authors had made a good case."I think it's a hugely important and symbolic find," she told the BBC News website. "It's new and further evidence that [the Olmecs] had writing and had text." The block was carved from precious serpentine rock, suggesting it was probably a holy object used by high orders of society for some kind of ritual activity, she said. The inscription is indecipherable but scientists hope that further excavations at the site could give clues to its content. "I think more things will be found," said Dr Pohl. "We can make some progress although I don't think we'll ever be able to decipher it completely." The Sumerians, who lived in Mesopotamia, what is now southern Iraq, are generally regarded to be the first people to develop a form of writing around 5,000 years ago; although there have been even older claims made for Chinese inscriptions.


By Helen Briggs, Science reporter

Social networking sites: The next big thing in politics Linux World Australia
Social networking Web sites such as MySpace and YouTube are already having a major impact on the way political campaigns are run, but a group of social-network experts had a hard time predicting Friday just what applications will best connect with voters in future elections. All of the creators of social-network sites speaking at a conference on "person-to-person-to-person" networking and its effect on campaigns seemed to agree that politicians need to pay attention to "consumer-created media," a term that some participants objected to. The rise of MySpace, Facebook and other social-networking sites are making the controlled, broadcast-style way of distributing political information obsolete, said Henry Copeland, president and founder of Blogads, an advertising service for blogs. "The people we're dealing with today are no longer 'consumers,' they're participants," Copeland said at the conference, hosted by the George Washington University Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. Politicians who ignore the impact of blogs and other social-networking sites will miss a huge number of potential voters, said Tom Gerace, founder and chief executive officer of Gather.com, which he billed as MySpace for grown-ups. MySpace, which boasts 108 million profiles created by members, already reaches more people each day than CNN.com or NYTimes.com, he said. "If you just play in the traditional media, you're missing most of your audience today -- not 10 years down the road, but today," Gerace said. MySpace has more than 7,400 discussion groups related to politics. Candidates such as former Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark, Nevada Democratic senatorial candidate Jack Carter and Arizona Republican Senator John McCain either have created their own pages or have supporter-created pages there. MySpace also has user groups devoted to the "truth" about the U.S. government's involvement in the 9/11 attacks, the legalization of marijuana and the claim that Republicans are better in bed. Smart politicians will harness the power of social-networking sites, especially the ability to run videos within them, said Jeff Berman, senior vice president for public affairs at MySpace. Politicians are just beginning to tap into the potential of social-networking sites, he said. For example, when a popular music group debuts a new song on MySpace, it could raise awareness for a political campaign just by having links to its pages on its MySpace site, he said. "It just makes sense [for politicians] to be there," he said. "This is influencer marketing." Smart politicians should also begin to realize that citizens journalists armed with video cameras or a blog platform are beginning to show up everywhere, speakers said. In August, Senator George Allen, a Virginia Republican in a tough campaign for re-election, was caught on video calling an Indian-American man working for his opponent "macaca." Macaca is a species of monkey, but Allen said he didn't know that. But asked about the future impact of social-networking sites on campaigns, conference participants hesitated to predict. "Anybody who tells you they know where this space is heading right now is lying," said John de Tar, co-founder of HotSoup.com. One audience member questioned if the increasing influence of social-networking sites was a positive development in a world where 9/11 conspiracy discussion groups get the same play as serious candidates. There's "mass production of nonsense in politics," the man said. But Chuck deFeo, general manager of Townhall.com, disagreed. "It's healthy for democracy for more voices to be heard," he said. "People get more involved in politics."
Grant Gross, IDG News Service

Stunning finds of fish and coral BBC News
Discoveries of hugely diverse fish and coral species in the Indonesian archipelago have amazed researchers.The Bird's Head region in Papua may be the most biologically diverse in all the oceans, say scientists from Conservation International (CI). Among 50 species believed to be new are bottom-dwelling "walking" sharks and "flasher" wrasse, which feature colourful male courting displays. CI is working with the Indonesian government to protect the ecosystem. "Five years ago we ran our first expedition to Raja Ampat [islands off the Bird's Head], and this revealed what we felt to be the epicentre of marine biodiversity on the planet," said Mark Erdmann, a CI scientist on the project.Researchers have just returned for a more detailed survey, which revealed 20 corals, 24 fish and eight mantis shrimp believed to be new to science. Highlights included two apparently new species of epaulette sharks, which spend most of their time walking across the sea floor, swimming away when danger looms. Unspectacular, dull brown male wrasse transform into a spectacular blaze of yellow, blue and purple to impress females in their harem and persuade them to mate. "We were simply blown away by what we found," Dr Erdmann told the BBC News website.

Turbulent history
Reefs in the "coral triangle" - an area rather un-triangular in shape which includes tracts of water off the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor - are home to about 600 species of reef-building coral.That is more than exist along Australia's Great Barrier Reef which covers an area 10 times larger. What makes the region special, it seems, is a combination of its topography and its history. It contains a mixture of deep basins and shallower waters. As global sea levels have risen and fallen over the millennia, the basins would have become isolated, allowing species to evolve differently in each, before being returned to the open sea when waters rose. This pattern has very likely been amplified by the region's active tectonics, creating regular earthquakes and other upheavals. Another contributing factor could be the region's isolation from large centres of human population, making it easier for unique species and ecosystems to survive.That has certainly helped in the preservation of land animals in the region, which has seen several finds of new forest species in recent years. CI believes that without protection, the unique marine creatures of the Bird's Head area will not survive intact; human activities, in particular fishing using explosives and cyanide, will have their inevitable impact. "The other thing we are afraid of is economic development plans for Papua, which involve increased fisheries exploitation," said Dr Erdmann.
"There are relatively few people living there, but they are dependent on their coastline; and we think development plans need to be revisited." CI and its conservation partners are now working with the Indonesian government to protect the special areas of the Bird's Head peninsula and Raja Ampat islands, and to manage development in a sustainable way.
By Richard Black, Environment correspondent

YouTube in 'landmark' music deal BBC News
Video-sharing site YouTube has signed a deal with media giant Warner Music to allow its material to be used legally. It means interviews and videos by Warner's artists can be used in return for a slice of advertising revenue. The agreement also covers the use of material in homemade videos, which form a large part of YouTube's content. Both companies hailed it as a landmark agreement, coming days after Universal Music said it was considering legal action over sites such as YouTube. A royalty-tracking system has been developed by YouTube to detect when videos on the site are using copyrighted material and work out how much Warner is owed in advertising revenue.

Media 'transformed'
The technology would also enable Warner to review homemade videos and decide whether to approve or reject them. Chad Hurley, who helped set up YouTube in a Californian garage just 19 months ago, said: "We are very excited. This is a real landmark for our company." Warner Music Group, the world's fourth largest record company, includes artists such as Madonna, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Green Day, as well as vintage names like Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Ray Charles. Warner Music chairman Edgar Bronfman said: "Consumer-empowering destinations like YouTube have created a two-way dialogue that will transform entertainment and media forever."

'Mystery object' delays shuttle BBC News
The US space agency's Atlantis shuttle has had its Wednesday landing postponed after an unidentified object was seen floating near the vehicle. The delay will give engineers an opportunity to investigate the incident - and time for poor weather at the Florida landing strip to pass. "The mission management team has decided to keep Atlantis 24 more hours in orbit," a Nasa spokesman said. Atlantis is returning from the space station where it attached solar wings. The first opportunity for a touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center is now 0615 EDT (1015 GMT) on Thursday. The mystery object appears on video taken by a shuttle camera. It has been described as small and dark, and coming possibly from the ship's payload bay. It was noticed as astronauts were testing the vehicle's jets in preparation for the return to Earth.

Tourist arrival
Mission Control has told the astronauts on Atlantis to hold off packing away the shuttle's robot arm and television antenna in case further inspections are required. "The question is: what is it? Is it something benign, or is it something more critical we should pay attention to?" said Wayne Hale, the space shuttle programme manager. "We want to make sure we're safe before committing to that critical journey through the atmosphere." Even before the unexplained object came to the attention of engineers, Nasa was considering a change to the scheduled landing time because of unfavourable weather forecasts at Kennedy. Atlantis is making its way home from a construction visit to the International Space Station. The orbiter undocked on Sunday to make way for a Soyuz craft that is heading to the platform with a new crew and the first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari. The US businesswoman is expected at the station with the new commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and flight engineer Mikhail Tyurinat at 0524 GMT on Wednesday.

News Corp plans MySpace in China The Financial Times
Rupert Murdoch said on Tuesday that his wife, Wendy Deng, was working with senior News Corp executives to help bring the company’s popular MySpace social networking site to China. “We have to make MySpace a very Chinese site,” Mr Murdoch said at a media conference organised by Goldman Sachs. “I have sent my wife across there because she understands the language.” Mr Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, bought MySpace last year as part of his strategy for the digital age. MySpace has become one of the most popular sites on the internet because of the ease with which people can communicate and share text, pictures and video. He said his wife, Ms Deng, who is not an officer of the company, was currently in China with senior News Corp executives trying to find a way for MySpace to enter the Chinese market without running up against political obstacles and the “heavy weather” that internet groups Google and Yahoo have encountered. Mr Murdoch said MySpace in China was likely to have local partners, who would own around 50 per cent. This would ensure the content was more suitable for a Chinese audience, and Mr Murdoch also said it would mean his local partners could deal with complaints. Mr Murdoch has been trying to expand his media group in the Chinese mainland, but admitted last year he was hitting a brick wall with the authorities over foreign media groups’ control. The Chinese authorities continue to restrict the free exchange of information and access to news, despite rapid liberalisation of the economy. There is widespread internet use, and the spread of broadband connections is increasingly rapidly. MySpace is adding around 1.5m new users globally every week and recently surpassed 100m registered users. It recently launched in the UK and is planning other European expansion. Mr Murdoch, who beat rival Viacom in buying the site last year, said one of the biggest challenges MySpace faced was technical, with the company having to cope with buying enough servers to keep up with its sharp increases in traffic.
By Aline van Duyn and Joshua Chaffin in New York

MyGOP Tries to Leverage the Internet IT Management
Can social-networking sites motivate volunteers to raise money and recruit activists for major U.S. political parties? That's what the Republican National Committee had in mind earlier this year when it launched MyGOP, a Web 2.0-style service seeking strong personal involvement by its visitors.I wrote last week about a similar experiment, PartyBuilder, that recently went live with high expectations by the Democratic Party. The experience of MyGOP, however, provides a cautionary tale for the Democrats -- or any organization or business that sees the Web as an easy medium to master.

Raising the Flag for the Republican Faithful
Since MyGOP has been live for a few months longer than PartyBuilder, commentators have had a longer period to critique its effectiveness as a political intake tool. And even many committed Republican stalwarts, to MyGOP's chagrin, have had tough words for the G.O.P.'s effort. As a case in point, MyGOP urged participants to hold house parties on May 22 to raise funds for the Republican cause. The results weren't quite what were expected:

• Prizes. The party offered Apple iPods to the top five fund-raisers (a prize that raised some eyebrows since Steve Jobs is known as a liberal and Al Gore sits on Apple's board);
• Tallies. When the results came in, the top five party activists had raised the sum of only $1,224 -- far below the total hoped for in this public networking process;
• Net Gain or Loss. Since iPods list for about $300 each, there was much talk that the party had "lost money" on the top five fund-raisers. But the rules offered the prizes only to activists who collected at least 10 contributions, which only two of the five achieved. So the party may actually have made a small gain.

Michael Turk, the eCampaign Director for Bush-Cheney '04 (and then, for a time, the Republican National Committee itself), wrote about MyGOP's May 22 event in a subsequent blog entry. "If the RNC was able to link this to a fundraising appeal for candidates," he said, "and you could pick the candidates you support and only raise funds for them, rather than for the party, I think it would be a lot more successful." In defense of MyGOP, however, the Republican leader also pointed out that the top house-party volunteers are "10 people who are communicating to nearly 1,000 others on behalf of the GOP."

Plans to Link MyGOP to Networking Sites
The RNC's current eCampaign Director, Patrick Ruffini, told me in a telephone interview yesterday that MyGOP will grow beyond its current incarnation. "We will continue to expand this," he says, "in ways that technology develops, which obviously develops at breakneck speed." Ruffini predicts that MyGOP will integrate with today's most popular social-networking sites, mentioning MySpace, Facebook, and other giant meet-and-greet portals. "We're looking at ways we can leverage people on our network and in other networks," he said. Information posted at MyGOP might automatically appear on a Republican activist's page at a major networking site, Ruffini speculates. "There's all kinds of APIs out there, and we've seen the success of widgets." Widgets are small programs that exchange content between sites, supported by application programming interfaces like the one Facebook announced last month. Asked whether criticisms of MyGOP's house-party effort were valid, Ruffini replied, "People use their [MyGOP] pages for many different things. One is fund-raising but others are recruiting. It's also saved us money by not having to place ads on other sites."

Looking Ahead to November
Both the G.O.P.'s Ruffini and PartyBuilder director Josh McConaha, who I interviewed last week, express confidence that their early attempts at social networking will influence this fall's races for Congress. Ultimately, their sites are test runs for 2008, when both parties face wide-open primaries and the eventual winner of the White House is anyone's guess. When invited to say how many participants MyGOP has registered thus far, Ruffini answered, "It's fluctuating. Not everyone chooses to make themselves public. It's in the thousands." By contrast, McConaha told me that the Democrats' new service had signed up approximately 10,000 registrants in the first seven days after its unveiling and continues to grow. Raw numbers aren't the whole story, but the two competing services' growth rates are certain to affect their effectiveness over time.

What the Web Hath Wrought
Whether MyGOP or PartyBuilder becomes the bigger or better service is hard to project. What's clear so far, however, is that it's more difficult to create a wildly popular networking site than it may first appear. For more information on MyGOP, see its page at the RNC. To visit PartyBuilder, see its DNC page.
By Brian Livingston

'Lucy's baby' found in Ethiopia BBC News
The 3.3-million-year-old fossilised remains of a human-like child have been unearthed in Ethiopia's Dikika region. The female Australopithecus afarensis bones are from the same species as an adult skeleton found in 1974 which was nicknamed "Lucy". Scientists are thrilled with the find, reported in the journal Nature. They believe the near-complete remains offer a remarkable opportunity to study growth and development in an important extinct human ancestor. The juvenile Australopithecus afarensis remains vanishingly rare. The skeleton was first identified in 2000, locked inside a block of sandstone. It has taken five years of painstaking work to free the bones. "The Dikika fossil is now revealing many secrets about Australopithecus afarensis and other early hominins, because the fossil evidence was not there," said dig leader Zeresenay Alemseged, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Delicate bones
The find consists of the whole skull, the entire torso and important parts of the upper and lower limbs. CT scans reveal unerupted teeth still in the jaw, a detail that makes scientists think the individual may have been about three years old when she died. Remarkably, some quite delicate bones not normally preserved in the fossilisation process are also present, such as the hyoid, or tongue, bone. The hyoid bone reflects how the voice box is built and perhaps what sounds a species can produce. Judging by how well it was preserved, the skeleton may have come from a body that was quickly buried by sediment in a flood, the researchers said. "In my opinion, afarensis is a very good transitional species for what was before four million years ago and what came after three million years," Dr Alemseged told BBC science correspondent Pallab Ghosh. "[The species had] a mixture of ape-like and human-like features. This puts afarensis in a special position to play a pivotal role in the story of what we are and where we come from."

Climbing ability
This early ancestor possessed primitive teeth and a small brain but it stood upright and walked on two feet. There is considerable argument about whether the Dikika girl could also climb trees like an ape. This climbing ability would require anatomical equipment like long arms, and the "Lucy" species had arms that dangled down to just above the knees. It also had gorilla-like shoulder blades which suggest it could have been skilled at swinging through trees. But the question is whether such features indicate climbing ability or are just "evolutionary baggage". The Dikika girl had an estimated brain size of 330 cubic centimetres when she died, which is not very different from that of a similarly aged chimpanzee. However, when compared to the adult afarensis values, it forms 63 - 88% of the adult brain size. This is lower than that of an adult chimp, where by the age of three, over 90% of the brain is formed. This relatively slow brain growth in the Dikika girl appears to be slightly closer to that of humans. Slow, gradual development in an extended childhood is regarded as a very human trait - probably to enable our higher functions to develop. Professor Fred Spoor of University College London said the find would give scientists a "detailed insight into how our distant relatives grew up and behaved... at a time of human evolution when they looked a good deal more like bipedal chimpanzees than like us." Dr Jonathan Wynn of the University of St Andrews, UK, and colleagues at the University of South Florida dated the sediments surrounding the remains and came up with an age of 3.3 million years. The "Lucy" skeleton, discovered in Hadar, Ethiopia, in 1974 belongs to the same species as the Dikika girl. For more than 20 years it was the oldest human ancestor known to science.

Social networking sites catch on in Japan Japan Today
Mi-chan likes his coffee cold. Every morning, the Kyoto University athlete wakes up in his tiny apartment, washes his face in the sink and wanders over to the fridge, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes while reaching for a carton of pre-made Nestle coffee and milk to mix it with.He wanted to find others like him, so he created a community on Mixi for those who start their day with a cup of Joe. In the first week since its inception in mid-August, Mi-chan’s community has a dozen members. Not a bad start for a guy who spends most of his spare time on the tennis court. Mixi is Japan’s biggest cybercraze. A community portal like the U.S.’s MySpace and Korea’s Cyworld, the two-and-a-half-year old site has quintupled its user base in the past year and now ranks third in page views nationwide, trailing behind Yahoo! Japan and Rakuten, but beating out the massive online bulletin 2ch.net. Mixi’s 5 million-strong user base comes nowhere near the 54 million unique users of MySpace or the 18 million of Cyworld, which amounts to more than a third of the population of South Korea. But a decade ago, the concept of a public forum where people shared ideas was virtually unthinkable in Japan. Today, networking sites are creating a new dimension of social interaction in Japan, bringing us in step with the netizens of the U.S. and Korea. And, like most other cultural trends that sweep the land, it’s happening in a uniquely Japanese way: it’s heavily mobile-based, it’s privacy-oriented, and it’s happening concurrently on both a mainstream and niche market level. When Mixi was launched in February 2004, critics were skeptical, but e-Mercury KK (now Mixi KK) was hopeful. “We aim to create an entertainment community site through which human connections can be understood intuitively,” the company declared. It referenced the then-dominant U.S. site Friendster.com as a model, but pledged to take it one step further by adding a blogging feature. Participation in Mixi would be by invitation only, and there would be a special emphasis on the ability to send and receive mail from your Mixi “friends” through the web interface. The objective of its creation was twofold — to increase traffic for the company’s extant job search portal Find Job!, and to sustain a stable, ad-supported community site via this larger user base. It was the first social networking website ever to be established in Japan. In the U.S., social networking sites (SNS) started on the niche level, especially among racially segmented forums like AsianAvenue, MiGente, and BlackPlanet. Until a couple of years ago, Friendster was the biggest mainstream site. But its owners quickly found that its zero tolerance policy for pages other than those for real individual humans (there were strict rules against dogs, ideas, groups, or “fakesters”) and its overloaded servers were not keeping up with demand.

MySpace takes sociological approach
That’s when MySpace, a site started by programmers Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, stepped in. “We put all the things people are using the internet for in one place,” a MySpace spokesperson says. “While others were serving the niches, we were taking a more sociological approach.” Last year, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought the site for $580 million, symbolizing the integration of new media into the ranks of traditional media and — with its continued dramatic growth since its acquisition — the legitimization of social networking online as a profitable business. What does social networking mean for the Japanese? An estimated 3.2 million people walk through Shinjuku station every day, but the chances of them interacting with anyone other than a travel companion are slim to none. Respect for personal space is of paramount importance in busy Tokyo, yet every day more and more of the city’s denizens are signing on to community sites to interact with strangers. In many ways, Japanese prefer interaction at a safe distance. This is, after all, a country where pickup lines are more often subtly typed into cell phone message windows than spoken face-to-face. In the beginning, Mixi’s growth was slow but steady, with 300,000 users signing on in the first year. By the end of 2005 that number had grown to 2 million, with another 3 million added in the first half of 2006. Today, Mixi is part of the lexicon, peppered into daily conversations by people asking each other if they “Mixi-ed” on their way to work that day. Sixty-two percent of Mixi enthusiasts are in their twenties, but over a million thirty-something’s and half a million teenagers also take part. Networking sites came to Japan at the apex of what University of Southern California anthropologist Mimi Ito calls the “always-on social culture.” About five years earlier, with the release of DoCoMo’s i-mode and Sky Mail from J-Phone (which became Vodafone and is about to become SoftBank), text messaging started to become the social standard for communication among Japanese teenagers. “What text messaging established is a sense that you’re constantly connected to your peer culture,” says Ito, who is conducting a study of portable device use in Japan funded by Intel. “In Japan, there was never that culture of having your own phone line, or of having friends over at home like in the United States. What mobile phones did was establish a low-level yet constant connection among groups of friends. They expect they should be able to reach each other all the time.” All of a sudden, the Japanese teenager was never alone — she could text friends for an opinion while shoe shopping, text her boyfriend on her way to school, check the weekend weather during Friday math class, or write a quick blog post as she waited for the train. Today, nine out of 10 Japanese mobile phone owners aged 12 through 59 use text messaging, and one fifth of all Internet users access the web from their mobile phones. The diversity of mobile functions is also expanding. Peer-to-peer communication like photo mail, video phone, and video mail are used by 40% of all mobile phone owners, but GPS navigation systems, ring tone downloads, games and credit-card like features are also attracting a large fraction of the population. “Cell phones will always have their niche. Commute times are long, and people tend to meet outside the home,” Ito explains. “There are also a lot of features of the handheld that are a lot better for private communication than the home PC where other family members are present.”

Privacy and portability key to success
The secret of Mixi’s success lies in part in its ability to address the importance of privacy and portability in Japanese culture. Like any other public forum, social networking sites can create vulnerable situations for those without street smarts. In July, Spa! magazine headlined a story on horrible SNS incidents. Sweet talkers, stalkers, murderers and rapists all lurk in these seemingly safe forums, the article warned with the kind of gasp-inducing humor common in Japanese entertainment. The paranoia goes beyond Japanese borders. Calling MySpace “a happy hunting ground for child predators,” a Pennsylvania congressman recently proposed an act that would ban access to these sites from schools nationwide. And with one in ten Koreans claiming to be victims of web-based assault, the Korean National Assembly is currently discussing the implementation of laws to prevent “cyberviolence.” Because participation in Mixi is by invitation only, there is a sense of safety and familiarity with everyone online. You can view the “footsteps” of all the people who have visited your site, making visitor history completely transparent and eliminating the threat of unwanted suitors or stalkers. Mixi took security one step further when, in July, it obtained a privacy mark from the Japan Information Processing Development Corporation. Most of Mixi’s features are mobile-friendly, too, so people can read others’ diaries or add to their own to kill time during their commute. Most importantly, users can post pictures taken with their camera phones directly onto their Mixi page with a simple email. But every user seems to cite a different favorite function:

• “I love looking at friends’ pictures and reading their diaries.”
• “It’s fun getting replies and comments to your diaries. Pretty soon, you get addicted.”
• “It’s like a virtual reunion every day. And the closed community makes me feel safe.”
• “I enjoy looking at the footsteps to see who’s checked out my site.”

“I like the maniacal communities.”
It’s the “communities” on Mixi — like the one Mi-chan created — that have many users hooked. Today, Mixi has 900,000 communities based on topics ranging from schools attended to which character they like on MarioKart (28 pledge allegiance to Luigi, 72 prefer Yoshi, and 20 stick with Mario). There’s even a community for loyal Metropolis readers. Users can arrange the list of Mixi communities by popularity or by date created. The top 10 communities have over 70,000 participants and include groups for people who love sleep, lose things easily, can’t live without music, want to make their lovers happy, like to look at the sky, can’t motivate until the last minute, and are addicted to psychology tests, as well as forums for funny images and recipes. Mixi’s community feature reflects both the importance of hit charts, or rankings, and the creative ways in which people relate in Japan. (The MySpace “group” feature, by contrast, does not allow a search by popularity and neatly categorizes its groups by more conventional topics like entertainment, travel, and religion.) Dozens of other social networking sites have spawned in Japan over the past year. Yahoo! and Rakuten have their own general interest communities, and then there are the niche sites: Photo Zou and Buzznet for photo enthusiasts, Spolym and 89SNS for sports fans, Otaba and Filn for Akiba types, Nikibi Navi and Kirei Navi for the beauty-conscious, JointventureJP for businesspeople, and Sexi for the x-rated, among others. A navigation site called SNS Navi even allows eager community-seekers to search a database of over 300 social networking sites by genre to see which ones fit their fancy.

Online community craze in Japan
International social networking giants have spotted the online community craze in Japan, but their sweeping popularity back home does not guarantee success here. Cyworld is almost as big as the internet itself in Korea, but the social networking site-cum-virtual world, which opened its doors in Japan in December, admits to having had its share of challenges in gaining legitimacy in the Japanese market. “The Japanese tend not to talk about personal topics online,” says Daisuke Kashiwakura, the public relations manager for Cyworld Japan. “So we’ve created friend grouping functions and the option of censoring who can see certain information for the Japanese market only.” MySpace refused to comment on its international expansion, but is reportedly launching its Japanese interface this fall. It’s just one of many popular internet services from abroad making their way here, customizing their products to meet the mobile and privacy-oriented market. One of the world’s hottest internet properties this year is YouTube, the U.S.-based site where people can share and watch homemade videos. YouTube has enjoyed a surge in Japanese users, with more than 4 million by May. At the same time, video-sharing recently went mobile via the social networking site Gree, to which members can upload MP4s for friends to see. And while just a couple of years ago people in Japan were asking, “What’s Guruguru?” when asked if they knew the leading U.S. search engine, Google has risen from its ranks following the launch of Google Video and other new services in Japan, increasing its page views at rates higher than those of Yahoo! and Rakuten. Google recently started offering services on KDDI’s EZWeb. To meet mobile users’ demands, each result page displays related ring tone sites and music stores in addition to the regular listings found on a PC Web search. And Japanese internet usage in general is widening its scope, with Wikipedia reaching a fifth of total internet users in the country and Amazon coming head-to-head with Rakuten in unique visitor numbers. Japan is a country of technological contradictions, where 9-year-olds have the most advanced cell phones in the world but still learn how to do multiplication tables on an abacus. But with companies customizing their products for the Japanese market, and with everyone from Buddhist monks to urban housewives warming up to the idea of an online society, we are diving into a new era of multidimensional communication. It’s almost midnight, and after a long day of tennis and studying, Mi-chan unwinds by typing his daily ramblings onto his MyMixi page and checking in on his coffee community. “Through Mixi, I’ve finally found a way to connect with people about the most random topics,” says Mi-chan. “I didn’t know about this until a teammate mentioned it, but it’s truly wonderful.” Tonight, he logs on at his desktop, but tomorrow night he might just check in on his cell phone if he’s out drinking with his friends. When he wakes up in the morning, he’ll have his cafe au lait, and he won’t feel alone.
By Lisa Katayama

Gore Really Does Get The Web Forbes
Republican wags had a field day when former Vice President Al Gore claimed in 2000 that he was the one who took the initiative in "creating the Internet." Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott quickly issued a wry news release claiming that he invented the paper clip. Even Gore's predecessor, Dan Quayle--the man who memorably added an "e" to the end of "potato"--took up the bait: "If Gore invented the Internet, then I invented Spell-Check," he quipped. To be fair to Gore, who is a director of Apple Computer, and an unofficial adviser to Google's senior management, he had a bigger role in promoting the Web than almost anybody else. He had been working on the problem of giving American citizens network access since the late 1970s, and in 1994 introduced the GLOBE program, an education activity that made extensive use of the Internet to increase student awareness of their environment. Gore's Internet savvy must have played a role in Current TV, the cable network he co-founded, landing a deal with online behemoth Yahoo. The two companies are launching the Yahoo! Current Network joint venture, an online video site featuring user-generated content as well as "pro" videos from the staffs of the two companies. The Current TV cable channel, which was launched last year, is already a kind of YouTube for television. It features videos submitted by users, slicing its schedules into short segments called "pods," each just a few minutes long. It encourages viewers to upload their videos and then invites everyone in its online community to vote for what should be on TV. This viewer-created content, or VC2, makes up about a third of the channel's output. Joel Hyatt, the CEO of Current Media, said that the videos for Yahoo Current will be original videos created just for the site. "The innovation is not taking what we're doing on TV and porting it over to the Web. We don't particularly see that as a unique idea," he said. "This is not about repurposing content from TV for the Web," he added. Current already has a partnership with Google. The search engine leader provides updates on the network every half hour about popular searches on the Web. "Wouldn't you want to work with both Google and Yahoo? We're delighted with the relationship with both companies," Hyatt said.
By Chris Noon
"The Resurrection of Al Gore" Wired
"An Inconvenient Truth" Al Gore
Video: "An Inconvenient Truth" Al Gore

First zero-gravity human surgery BBC News
A team of French doctors are planning to carry out the first operation on a human being under weightless conditions in a specially adapted aircraft.It is hoped the trial will be a first step to performing surgery in space. The doctors will be removing a benign tumour from the arm of a volunteer as the plane makes a series of manoeuvres to create weightlessness. The surgeons will be working strapped to the sides of the plane while the patient is held inside a plastic tent. Specially designed instruments have been fitted with magnets to attach them to the metal operating table.

Earthly spin-offs
During the three-hour flight above south-west France, the specially designed Airbus A300 Zero-G will be making parabolic swoops to create zero gravity. The operation will be carried out in a series of 20-second periods of weightlessness.Both patient and medical team have been trained to cope with zero-gravity in machines similar to those used by astronauts. "Since February we have been rehearsing this operation on the ground and in the plane. It is all crystal clear in our heads," said chief surgeon Dominique Martin, quoted by AFP news agency. It is the first time such an operation has been tried on a human being. Earlier this year, Mr Martin and his team mended a artery in a rat's tail 0.5mm in diameter. It is part of a long-term project to study the possibility of carrying out surgery during long-distance space flights, using robots in the spacecraft, guided by doctors on Earth via a satellite link. The BBC's Valerie Jones says it will be many years before such technology would be needed - perhaps on long flights to Mars. But the researchers say there could be a spin-off for Earth. The equipment could be used for emergencies in confined locations such as caves or in buildings toppled by earthquakes.

Microsoft patches bad browser bug BBC News
Microsoft has released a patch for a bug in the Internet Explorer browser two weeks early to combat a mounting number of attacks made via the loophole. The software giant usually releases security updates once a month. However, the growing number of attacks using the loophole forced it to move early. Cyber criminals are known to be using the bug to install keyloggers, adware and spyware and take over Windows PCs.

Flaw found
The bug was discovered by security firm Sunbelt Software and revolves around the way that the Internet Explorer browser handles a technology known as vector graphics. Via a carefully made webpage, malicious hackers can exploit this bug to take over machines. Porn sites were among the first to exploit this bug but many others started to use it once it became more widely known. Microsoft said it had taken the step of releasing the patch early because of the "risk" it posed to users. "This one affected many different platforms in many scenarios that are considered by customers to be common usage," said Microsoft researchers on its security update blog. Despite this Microsoft said that the number of attacks launched via the bug was "very limited". The patch is being pushed out to users via Microsoft's update sites. The software company urged people to apply the patch quickly if they do not get it automatically. Some security companies took the step of releasing their own patches for the bug to stop people falling victim.

Demofall-2006: esnips Socialtwister
eSnips lets you share content online - whatever kind of content it is. There’s a number of disparate places that we’re sharing content now and each one has it’s own social network. eSnips targets mainstream users that would be frustrated with too many places to share their content. You can upload any type of file to eSnips and create as many separate sharing environments that you want. You can even sell some of the content you put into the system. There are close to 1M users and about 3M visitors per month. eSnips uses a folder metaphor that allows you to organize your content. Folders can be shared or private and are tagged to make them discoverable. eSnips automatically suggests other folders that might be interesting based on the content in your folder. eSnips is free and you get 1GB of storage.

Demofall-2006: Yoriwa - Leaptag Socialtwister
“Personalized discovery tag that learns what you want and delivers it when you want it” The product is a plugin that you install for the browser. I had a brief demonstration on how the system works and it is interesting. The process starts by defining some areas of interest. Behind the scenes, the application goes out and searches its index. As you use the application, you are able to give items a Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down. Based on your feedback the system adjusts automatically and refines its search technique to bring you increasingly relevent content. It returns News & Blogs, Websites, Books sorted out into an accordion interface. There is also a social component to the application. Users can share their finds with their contacts - it seems to be based on Skype. From there, you are able to see what your group of friends thinks as well.

DEMOfall 2006: HeyLetsGo.com Social Twister
They want to help us make real connections with real people. They’re combining a local event guide with social networking. I had a chance to see a demo up close before the presentation and it is an impressive solution to a real problem. HeyLetsGo allows you to find not just interesting events but also to learn more about who’s going and what you might expect. They have a BuzzLevel measure (patent pending) that is like Page Rank for events. The range of events is very broad and covers much more than tech events. One nice feature is that I can see what my friends are planning on doing - a pivot I find missing from something like Upcoming. The site also can recommend people that have a lot in common with you and potentially help you find new places and people to hang out with. Another nice feature is real-time integration that enables you to report back on an event WHILE it’s happening. That’s having your finger on the pulse of an event.

DEMOfall 2006: Cuts.com Social Twister
Cuts is a really interesting system that enables you to edit the video you have in a truly innovative way. In essence, Cuts allows you add in some metadata to your own media files that handles skipping, muting and commenting on the media as it plays throughout various points in the playback. This is entirely legal since you are required to have the media on your own machine. They’ve built a community around this

DEMOfall 2006: SimpleStar - PhotoShow Social Twister
“People don’t think they’re creative.. give them a great place to start and then let them customize”. PhotoShow allows you to automatically pull your pictures into the application. Once you’ve chosen a theme and possibly associated a music soundtrack (choose from 500 licensed songs). Once the show is ready, you can send it to your MySpace show. A partnership with Time Warner Cable allows you to now directly broadcast your PhotoShow to TV. PhotoShow TV has sub-channels that allows you to choose the type of programming you’re looking for.

DEMOfall 2006: iBloks Social Twister
“People want to create like pros” iBloks allows you to remix your own media. The system has an interesting 3D interface that allows you to animate and paint onto a moving palette. iBloks has a unique integration with Windows Vista. iBloks lets you publish to cell phone, video ipod, PSP, and the web. They make money by letting people buy digital content and mods from them. They sell from 99 cents to $9.99. “We’re moving from user-generated content to community-generated content”.

DEMOfall 2006: ScrapBlog Social Twister
“They wanted to go beyond sharing photos and video online.” I had a chance to see the product in action and demoed by the CEO and it’s really quite impressive what is possible inside this application. Photos can be sourced from Flickr, Photobucket, or your desktop. In addition, you can also include videos from YouTube and other services. A collection of “stickers” enable you to customize things further. There are some very nice looking themes that will allow you to get a jump start. Unlike other themes, these are fully editable. Soon podcast integration is planned - for now, you can put music into the background. You can ultimately publish your ScrapBlog to the web and choose the level of security you want to have. From there, you can quickly embed the ScrapBlog into your blog or MySpace profile. In addition, Wordpress and Typepad integration is supported. If you’re a Flickr user, you can even export the ScrapBlog as a photo set.

DEMOfall 2006: Wallop Social Twister
Americans spend Trillions on self-expression every year (think clothing, music, etc.). I’ve had a chance earlier today to see a demo of the product. There’s been tons of coverage in the blogosphere over the last couple of days so I won’t belabour it. The interesting point that was made during the presentation is the meshing of our online and offline personas. What struck me the most about Wallop was the interface (co-designed by the Frog Design team). There really is no metaphor that nicely describes the site. Movement throughout the application is very organic. The most “forced feature” if there is any, is the method of creating conversations around things. One of the most interesting features is the Radar. This is the visual map of your network. They are abandoning the friend of a friend model. The system uses an affinity model that brings people closer to you based on your level of interaction with the individual - either direct or indirect (through your network). Some controversy seems to have dusted up over the Mods. These are small flash movies that can be created by the 2M+ flash developers in the world. Wallop is literally a marketplace for flash applets. They take a 30% commission for the sale and all pricing is dictated by the creator. I give it a thumbs up.

Space tourist in Earth touchdown BBC News
The first female paying space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, has landed on the Kazakh steppe after a journey back from the International Space Station (ISS).The Soyuz capsule also carried fellow US astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. It landed in the 56-mile (90km) predicted zone. The craft slowed its descent by firing rockets and opening parachutes until it landed softly on its side in a field. A dozen helicopter rescue teams rushed over to help the astronauts out. Ms Ansari was given a bunch of red roses by an official as well as a kiss from her husband, Hamid. All three astronauts were carried on reclining chairs to waiting helicopters. From Kustanai, Kazakhstan, they were to fly to a training centre outside Moscow.

'Safe and sound'
The 40-year-old Iranian-born US businesswoman smiled weakly as she exited the Russian capsule."They brought me home safe and sound," she said. "Anousheh has done a good job - she's one of the team," ITAR-Tass news agency quoted her co-traveller Mr Vinogradov as saying. Meanwhile, Mr Williams told Reuters news agency that "it was the ride of a lifetime". The return to Earth took just over three hours. G-forces caused by heavy deceleration can be physically draining after time spent "weightless". However, the first female Muslim space tourist insisted that "this 10 days has been magnificent for me". She is thought to have paid at least $20m (£10.6m) for a holiday in space which she said she "hoped to do again soon".

Snails, worms and barley
Ms Ansari becomes the fourth tourist to visit the ISS after Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth and Greg Olsen. Her Soyuz craft was launched to the ISS from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on Monday 18 September. Ahead of her lift-off, Ms Ansari said she was an ambassador for attracting private investment into space programmes. Her family sponsored the X-Prize, which honoured the first private vehicle to make it into space. The space explorers brought back snails, worms and barley grown during experiments aboard the ISS.

Mars rover takes in crater view BBC News
The US space agency's robotic rover Opportunity has been sending back images as it approaches the edge of an 800m-wide crater on Mars.Opportunity has been making its way to Victoria Crater for the past 21 Earth months - about half its mission. The rover is moving towards a recess on the crater rim to get a prime view. The depression has high walls with layers of exposed rock that should reveal significant new information about the Red Planet's geological past. The researchers hope it will serve up a treasure trove of information about Martian history, particularly the role of water on the planet. Between 27 and 28 September, Opportunity edged 3.7m (12ft) closer to the top of recess dubbed Duck Bay.Victoria Crater is about five times wider than Endurance Crater, which Opportunity spent six months exploring in 2004, and about 40 times wider than Eagle Crater, where the rover first landed. The US space agency's (Nasa) second rover, Spirit, is on the other side of the Red Planet. It has been holed up at one northward-tilted position through the southern Mars winter in order to collect the maximum energy supply for its solar panels. Spirit is conducting studies that benefit from staying in one place, such as monitoring effects of wind on dust. It will begin driving again when the Martian spring increases the amount of solar power available. Both rovers will be on a reduced workload through October as Mars passes behind the Sun as viewed from Earth. This makes communication with the robots more difficult than usual.

Rise of the web's social network BBC Click
Since its beginning, the web has often been used as a tool to meet new people, but in recent years the interaction between web-users has grown dramatically, spawning a new generation of networking sites.The notion of Web 2.0, or an internet model where content is created and shared by users, has given birth to some of the most popular sites the internet has ever seen. So much so, that anybody who is anyone, wants to be part of the online social networking scene. Sites like Bebo, Friendster and Myspace have fuelled the social networking trend. At first glance the sites could be dismissed as posh blogs, but tools that make it simpler to post text, photos, music and now home-grown video have turned social networking into an online phenomenon. Bebo's Sarah Gavin says: "It's really powerful. I think it's the first time that individuals have got the power. "We've got authors up there publicising their books. If they're just starting out as a film producer they have the opportunity to get their content up on the site and go out to the general public to see what they actually think about it. "It's a hugely powerful medium and people are just starting to grasp how effective that can be."In 2003, a site was unleashed on the net that would change everything; a site so popular and influential it has launched the careers of pop stars and was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for $580m. That site is, of course, Myspace. The inclusion of music on Myspace has been one of the biggest reasons for the site's success. Unknown artists have demonstrated that social networking sites can be an effective means of promoting themselves. Artists like Lily Allen and the Arctic Monkeys have used Myspace as a springboard to success.

Making connections
It is not just bands who have adopted social networking sites as a means of promotion. Club and radio DJ Dan Greenpeace was introduced to Myspace by friends in America last year. Dan Greenpeace: "I use Myspace primarily for networking. "What I like about it is people can access me and access information about myself and what I'm working on. "It's a much more personal and interactive way of communicating with people out there who are actually interested in what you're doing." While Myspace enjoys the largest slice of the social networking pie, rival sites such as Bebo have hit back, introducing the same sorts of features that have made Myspace such a success. Bebo's Sarah Gavin says: "We've added a few things. "One of the key things for us was music, which has been hugely successful for us. "We've got over 100,000 bands signed up in six weeks. The other thing we've really seen in the last 12 months is a trend with video."

'Knowledge pool'
On the smaller end of the scale, sites are specialising to appeal to specific groups. Dedicated music network Last FM uses software called audioscrobbler to track the musical tastes of its members. These profiles can be used to suggest community groups that like the same music, or introduce its members to new music which matches their existing profile. Last FM's Martin Stiksel says: "I think the future of social networks still lies in the connections between people and the potential that lies in these connections between people." He added: "If there is a possibility to pool all of this knowledge, like there is in a social network, to the benefit of everybody, that's a really, really powerful thing."

'Closed communities'
While most social networking sites do not discriminate, and allow anybody to log on, a few sites have cropped up with a very particular sort of user in mind.Beautiful People's entry criteria are simple - good looks. Beautiful People's Greg Hodge says: "Beautiful People is like an elite online club where every member works the door. "Essentially you put up a picture and a profile where you're rated over a three day period by members of the opposite sex on whether or not they deem you attractive enough. "It is not just, as you'd expect, a dating site. It's become a site where people will help each other find apartments, find work, they have sensational parties."
By Marc Cieslak, Reporter

Delving deep into Britain's past BBC News
Scientists are to begin work on the second phase of a project aimed at piecing together the history of human colonisation in Britain.Phase one of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project (AHOB) discovered people were here 200,000 years earlier than previously thought. Phase two has now secured funds to the tune of £1m and will run until 2010. Team members hope to find out more about Britain's earliest settlers and perhaps unearth their fossil remains. They will also compare the animals and plants of Britain with those of nearby continental Europe. This will establish similarities and differences to determine how distinctive the British environment was in the distant past. The first year of "AHOB2" will include an attempt to recover DNA from a fragment of human jawbone discovered at Kents Cavern in Devon. Recent re-dating of the specimen shows it is older than previously thought. If the jawbone is from a modern human (Homo sapiens), as it was long thought to be, it would be amongst the earliest fossils from our species known from Europe; but the early date suggests it could also be from a late Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis).

Warm periods
A see-sawing climate and the presence of intermittent land access between Britain and what is now continental Europe allowed only stuttering waves of immigration. Humans came to try to live in Britain eight times and on at least seven occasions they failed - beaten back by freezing conditions.Phase one of AHOB extended the timing of the earliest known influx by 200,000 years. More than 30 flint tools unearthed in a fossil-rich seam at Pakefield, near Lowestoft, on the east coast, represent the oldest, unequivocal evidence of humans in northern Europe. But project scientists now plan to hunt for even older evidence of occupation than this. "The conditions that brought people to Pakefield were Mediterranean; there were warm summers and mild winters. Those conditions were there even earlier than Pakefield," said Chris Stringer, the project's director and head of human origins at London's Natural History Museum. "How far back could human occupation go in Britain? We just don't know; but we are certainly going to be looking."

Burial practices
Professor Stringer said the discovery of a well-preserved fossil hominid, or early human, continues to be a "personal dream". While the ancient settlers of Britain left an evidence trail in the form of stone artefacts and butchered animal bones, their fossil remains are vanishingly rare.Early Neanderthals are known from teeth discovered at Pontnewydd in Wales and a partial skull unearthed at Swanscombe