Two-dimensional barcodes displayed on a mobile phone screen serve as tickets to exhibitions or events under a service from Japanese firm, Index Corp, whose systems authenticate the barcode prior to entry. Index’s ASP architecture provides increased event security by matching the ID of a mobile phone to each barcode used to access a venue, which [...]

Muslim men can divorce their wives using text messaging, a religious adviser to the Malaysian government has ruled. The New Straits Times said that Hamid Othman, who advises the prime minister on religious matters, said divorce by short messaging service is consistent with sharia law if it is clear and unambiguous. Islamic law permits a [...]

Engineers at the University of Calgary have developed a pill that, once swallowed, will determine how healthy or ill the patient is, and will release just the right amount of medicine accordingly.
Dubbed the Intelligent Pill or iPill, the new drug-delivery system packs a micropump and sensors that monitor the body’s temperature and pH balance [...]

It is a common problem – you are in a bar or restaurant with your drink almost gone and you are desperately hoping that one of the staff will notice and offer you a refill. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. If they don’t, you leave a little less happy with your experience [...]

Happy people are three times less likely to get a cold, according to researchers who squirted cold virus up the noses of volunteers.
Psychologist Sheldon Cohen and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, also found that the positive thinkers who do develop symptoms complain about them less.
The team studied over 300 initially healthy volunteers. First, [...]

Ask Marcus Courtney, president of a Seattle-area union for technology workers, whether state governments should outsource work only to firms that hire U.S.-based employees, and the answer is a predictable yes.
“The fact is that these are taxpayer dollars, and there is clearly a benefit for taxpayer dollars to go to support the economy in [...]