Green men - Former Astronomer Royal Martin Rees has suggested that we could find out whether aliens exist within the next 40 years, using photos of distant planets to check out what's out there. Of course, if it's intelligent life then it will no doubt be hiding after years of receiving stray broadcasts of Independence Day. [
]
Ginger nut - You can keep your uprisings and your bucket list fulfilment, one of the finer uses of social media in our eyes is the population of the Celebrity Biscuit Database. Via Twitter, its writers have discovered that, predictably, Huey Morgan favours Oreos, while Gary Lineker is partial to a chocolate digestive. [Celebrity Biscuit Database]
An important read – This moving open letter from Gary McKinnon's mother to David Cameron and Theresa May highlights the mess of international confusion around cyber crime. [Guardian]
Undersold - A US hacker who sold access to 72,000 PCs has been sentenced to 30 months in jail. Still, such nefarious activity can be explained away by the promise of riches beyond your wildest dreams, right? Wrong. He sold the computers out for a measly £940. [BBC]
Sarrrrrcre bleu - France is the most piratical of all the G8 countries as far as sharing and downloading ebooks, films, TV shows and games goes, according to Irdeto's global digital piracy report. The UK comes in goody-two-shoes-seventh. [Irdeto]
Witty Banter Again - After years of being told that watching TV makes us stupid, we are now being told that watching repeats of our favourite old shows actually promotes happiness and creativity. Buffalo University discovered that by not exerting 'mental energy' because we already know what's going to happen we get a mental boost. Which must make viewers of Dave the happiest people on the planet. [Daily Mail]
In your face - The FBI have started to roll out a $1 billion dollar facial recognition programme as it looks to pick people out of the crowd. Frankly the scariest thing about this is that they are only doing this now – TV told us this happened AGES ago, and it never lies. Does it? [New Scientist]
Top of the world MS - Microsoft's Xbox has managed a twentieth straight month at the top of the sales charts for consoles. If they stay top of the charts much longer then they will overtake Bryan Adams' record with Everything I Do ( I Do It For You). [bit of topical humour there - ed] [TNW]
WoW – Those of you with a spare €8 billion rattling round in your pockets might want to consider buying gaming giant Activision Blizzard, with owners Vivendi apparently looking to flog the publisher of the likes of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. Sony and Microsoft have reportedly passed, which doesn't bode especially well. [CVG]
G-book – New-age, fantasy novelist and psychology type person Silvia Hartmann is going to write her new book on Google Docs and let readers watch as she types. If you can take time out of your busy drying-paint viewing schedule then check out the details at the source link. [Silvia Hartmann]
