Technically Incorrect

Professor launches site to find world's funniest fart

I know that there is a vast probability that some of you will want to be part of a flatulence sound experiment today. How can I possibly deny you that satisfaction?

Professor Trevor Cox, of Salford University in the United Kingdom, is a man who is obsessed with acoustics. He now wants to know which specific flatulent sound makes people laugh the most.

Naturally, Cox, being a man of academia, avoids the word "fart" on the home page of Soundsfunny.org. He invites you to "listen to whoopee sounds, and vote for the funniest." He is, after all, a man more

Facebook and MySpace: Raising the risk of cancer?

Biology is an extremely messy thing. It makes you do things you regret in the morning--and sometimes things you regret seconds after you've been arrested.

Yet according to psychologist Dr. Aric Sigman, biology may be a crucial reason why too much time on Facebook and MySpace might leave you at greater risk of deathly diseases like cancer and dementia.

Apparently, if you spend too many hours interacting (socially) alone, your immune system, your hormone levels--in short, the whole chemical box of your entrails--gets just a little messed up. And when the chemicals start to misconcoct, bad things can happen.more

Hazards of BlackBerry-walking

The best way to get from one place to another here in New York, where I'm on a business trip, is to walk. Except that walking has become increasingly hazardous.

It's not the nastily dressed business folks who come up behind you and insist on brushing your shoulder as they waft to another interesting appointment. It's the people walking straight at you, typing into their BlackBerry. (My statistically insignificant research showed 75 percent were BlackBerry users. You know, men in cashmere coats and tasseled loafers.)

It happened to me the first time just outside a Cellulite Center more

14-year-old arrested over texting in class

It was math. It was, no doubt, more opaque than the truth about A-Rod. So a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl texted away.

Until she was taken away.

She was confronted by a school security officer at Wauwatosa High School, after she had ignored the math teacher's request to look at numbers instead of texting them.

At first, according to the police report, she denied having a phone. However, two of her class mates declared that this was not true. The phone, a Samsung Cricket, was then recovered from her person. From "the buttocks area," to be precise.

She was cited for disorderly conduct more

British soldiers cautioned about social networking

If you thought the British Army's upper lip was always stiffer than its bayonets, then you might be jolted upright by a new development.

The British Ministry of Defense has expressed its concern that soldiers might betray the nation's secrets on Facebook and MySpace. Many British newspapers are relaying soldiers' dismay at a new directive that appears to prevent them from networking socially.

A serviceman enjoying the winter in Afghanistan told the Sun: "The fun police have taken over. I can't talk to my wife and kids or even play Call of Duty 5. Do they really more

Lance Armstrong begs twitterati to find his bike

Lance Armstrong seems like a man with an abundance of life's gifts. Women, calves, Tour de France victories.

However, someone who chooses to "live weak" snuck into his team's truck in Sacramento, Calif., and pilfered Mr. Armstrong's time trial bike. I am assuming that one of his entourage may have informed the police of the heinous event.

Mr. Armstrong himself, however, turned to the one force he can trust. Yes, his 112,000 Twitter followers. With a huge great heave of emotion coursing through his every vein, he penned: "Someone stole my time trial bike! Wtf!? APB more

AT&T shows that greed has its limits

How often does a sponsoring company try and ban its own products? Perhaps not as often as it should.

I was persuaded on Saturday to visit the AT&T National Pro-Am golf tournament at Pebble Beach. It didn't take much. Just the offer of a free ticket and the company of the dissolute and deranged.

(For those of you not familiar with this tournament, professional golfers agree to tolerate amateur players like George Lopez, Andy Garcia and Bill Murray for days that seem to turn into weeks. Much of the money goes to charity.)

As I got out of more

Chinese blogger stabbed in restroom

Could it have been a commenter?

Xu Lai, a well-known Chinese science journalist and blogger was stabbed while speaking at a book reading in Beijing.

Apparently, he was answering questions when two men dragged him into a restroom and knifed him. Thankfully, his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.

No one really knows whether he was attacked because of something he wrote- his site is known as Pro-State in Flames- or because someone simply didn't like him. Of course, these things are not mutually exclusive.

He is known for what some describe as a biting and sarcastic style more

13-year-old has baby, plays PlayStation

This one is for mature audiences only.

The whole of Britain is aghast and, quite naturally, deeply interested in the story of Alfie Patten, a 13-year-old boy who has just become a father for the first time. Yes, he and his maybe girlfriend, 15-year-old Chantelle Steadman, are celebrating the birth of little Maisie.

And they're toasting their bliss like every other newly-blessed couple- with a touch of PlayStation.

In these wonderful, touching pictures, baby Maisie rests in Alfie's lap, while he fights off fatherhood's lack of sleep by fighting a bunch of drug dealers in Stilwater Prison. more

Woman, not breast-feeding, thrown off Facebook

Toni Ainsworth is a 21-year-old model who opened a Facebook account.

Because she is a model, she has a lot of pictures of herself taken. Like a fine businesswoman, wishing to extend her brand far and wide, she uploaded them onto her Facebook account.

It is possible that she was not entirely clothed in all the shots. However, no doubt deeply wary of Facebook's Areola Police, who monitor breast-feeding pictures with the latest microscopes, she doctored the pictures on Photoshop. She says she covered all her potentially controversial parts with a barcode--which surely shows a rare artistic bent.

However, more