Steve Wozniak: Shocked and amazed by Steve Jobs movie

Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak has given his first in-depth interview about the forthcoming Steve Jobs movie. Woz - as he's commonly known - acted as a consultant to Danny Boyle's film after refusing to be involved in an earlier biopic. The movie is already being tipped for awards glory after a rough cut was shown to the public last weekend, ahead of its official premiere in October. The movie's scriptwriter is Aaron Sorkin. His previous account of Facebook's rise won three Oscars. But the social network's founder Mark Zuckerberg was not a...

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First Sistine Chapel recording permitted by Pope Francis

The Pope has given special permission for a studio recording in the Sistine Chapel for the first time, capturing the singing of his own choir. The album, Cantate Domino, includes music written for the Sistine Chapel Choir by Palestrina, Lassus and Victoria during the Renaissance. It also features two Gregorian chants and a world-premiere recording of the original version of Allegri's Miserere. The pieces are sung in Latin, as the composers intended. The chapel is in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City, Rome....

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Judy Carne, star of Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, dies aged 76

British television actress Judy Carne - best known as the 'Sock It To Me' girl on hit 1960s show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In - has died aged 76. She found overnight fame on the sketch comedy series, and spent two years being doused with water every time she said the phrase "Sock it to me!". Carne was also known for her tumultuous relationship with actor Burt Reynolds, to whom she was married from 1963-65. The Northampton-born actress died on 3 September, reported The Telegraph. Carne's other TV credits included appearances in The Man from...

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Sam Smith records Bond's Spectre theme tune

Sam Smith has recorded the theme song for upcoming James Bond movie Spectre. The track is called Writing's on the Wall and will be released on 25 September. Smith said: "This is one of the highlights of my career." "I am so excited to be a part of this iconic British legacy and join an incredible line up of some of my biggest musical inspirations." Just last week, Smith told BBC Radio 2's Jo Whiley he was "definitely not" working on the project. But, revealing his involvement on Tuesday, he told Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw: "I'm so relieved to actually...

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Football players cash in on global transfer market

Player wages have eaten up most of the money involved in international transfer deals during the past two years, according to Fifa TMS figures. Its Transfer Matching System (TMS) estimates that since 2013 some 57% of funds have gone into stars' pockets. Actual transfer fees have accounted for just 41% of the cash, and agent commissions the remaining 2%. Football clubs in Europe account for four-fifths of the total money spent on wages in those global deals. The new figures refer to international transfers from one country to another, and do not...

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Eurozone growth revised upwards

Economic growth in the 19 countries that make up the eurozone has been revised upwards. The second estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) for April to June put growth at 0.4%, up from the first estimate of 0.3%. The European statistics agency Eurostat also revised growth in the first quarter, from 0.4% to 0.5%. Also on Tuesday it was announced that German imports and exports had both reached record levels. Boosted by the continuing weakness of the euro, exports rose 2.4% to €103.4bn ($115.5bn; £75.1bn) in July, the federal...

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Uber to move into 100 more Chinese cities

Controversial app-based taxi service Uber plans to expand into 100 Chinese cities over the next 12 months. Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick announced the move at an event in Beijing held by one of Uber's Chinese investors, Baidu. The service is already available in around 20 cities in the country. The expansion puts it head-to-head with local rival Didi Kuadi which recently raised $3bn in funding. China's internet-linked transport market is rapidly becoming the world's biggest and is proving lucrative for Uber. Mr Kalanick said the firm had...

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Rolls-Royce sees sales hit by Chinese slowdown

Rolls-Royce has seen sales of its luxury cars hit by a fall in demand in China. The chief executive Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said the turnaround in the market had been unexpectedly fast. "We have been surprised by the speed of development in the Chinese market in a completely different direction," he said. Chinese buyers have been affected by the slump in the stock market, slower growth and a corruption clamp-down. He was speaking on the day of the launch of the Dawn, Rolls-Royce's new £250,000, 155 mph convertible, which the company described as...

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Japan's shares surge more than 3% in early trade

Japan's Nikkei surged by more than 3% on opening on Wednesday after the index saw all the gains made this year wiped out on Tuesday. The benchmark was up 4.56% at 18,221.28 points in mid morning trade after finishing the day down 2.43%. Investor sentiment was up across Asia after markets in China and the US finished in positive territory. Tuesday's weak economic data from China has also raised hopes of more stimulus for that economy and its markets. On mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was up 0.56% at 3,190.35 points - after finishing...

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United Airlines CEO Jeff Smisek quits amid corruption probe

The chief executive and chairman of the board of United Airlines, Jeff Smisek, has quit amid a corruption investigation. Two other executives of the US's third largest airline also resigned. According to US media reports, federal authorities are investigating whether Mr Smisek sanctioned a money-losing flight to benefit the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. United said that it was cooperating with investigators. At the time the route operated from Newark, New Jersey, to Columbia, South Carolina, United Airlines was lobbying...

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Is This The Best Beach City or Expact

So, in 2011, Belfer took the plunge and moved there on a student visa for a master’s degree program at Tel Aviv University. Now, after founding his own creative agency in 2014, he spends his days promoting Israeli companies internationally. The Mediterranean coastal city is hot right now, and not just for its nearly year-round summer temperatures, which can reach 40 degrees Celsius. In the last few years, Tel Aviv has been ranked the best smart city by the Smart City Expo World Congress, one of the best beach cities in the world...

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The Mysterius Origin of Punctuation

As readers and writers, we’re intimately familiar with the dots, strokes and dashes that punctuate the written word. The comma, colon, semicolon and their siblings are integral parts of writing, pointing out grammatical structures and helping us transform letters into spoken words or mental images. We would be lost without them (or, at the very least, extremely confused), and yet the earliest readers and writers managed without it for thousands of years. What changed their minds? In the 3rd Century BCE, in the Hellenic Egyptian city of Alexandria,...

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Is Alcohol Actually Bad for You

Those of us who enjoy the occasional glass of beer or wine would dearly love to believe that we’re doing our bodies a service. Any study suggesting a glass or two a day can keep the doctor away is greeted with disproportionate enthusiasm by the media and general public. But it is a complex task to determine whether or not alcohol in moderation has health benefits. It is a complex task to determine whether or not alcohol in moderation has health benefits One of the earlier studies drawing a link between alcohol consumption and health was performed...

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The Lost Tunnels buried deep beneath the UK

The air is still. It’s quiet. Occasionally, the sound of a water droplet bursting feebly onto stone echoes through the chamber. Somewhere, somehow, moisture is getting in. But for the most part, it’s dry. And were it not for the smattering of electric lights, this 200-year-old tunnel beneath the streets of Liverpool would be very dark – and very lonely. Of all of Liverpool’s engineering projects over the last 200 years, the building of the Williamson Tunnels must be the most mysterious “I still can’t get over the ferns and the moss,” says Dave...

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Earth Most Poisonous Plants

In 2014, a gardener on a country estate in the UK mysteriously died of multiple organ failure. The cause of his death remains unclear, but an inquest heard evidence suggesting he had been killed by a popular flowering plant, a member of the buttercup family. The plant in question, called Aconitum, has blooms said to resemble monk’s hoods. But the plant is also known by other more sinister names; wolf’s bane, Devil’s helmet and the Queen of Poisons. These do more than hint at its villainous reputation. For Aconitumis among the...

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