Technology

TORONTO—Scientists have sequenced much of the genome of the woolly mammoth—raising the tantalizing but remote possibility that one day the long-extinct mammal could be resurrected to again trudge through the Arctic snow.
The researchers at Penn State University extracted DNA from mammoth hair found frozen in the permafrost of Siberia, where the massive beasts once roamed up until about 10,000 years ago before their species disappeared for good.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA couldn’t have staged it any better: 10 people in orbit for today’s 10th anniversary of the world’s most elaborate and expensive housing project: the International Space Station.
On Nov. 20, 1998, the first part of the space station was launched by the Russians from Kazakhstan. NASA followed up two weeks later with piece No. 2 carried up by a space shuttle.
Astronauts and cosmonauts moved in two years later and the rest, as they say, is history.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—NASA couldn’t have staged it any better: 10 people in orbit for today’s 10th anniversary of the world’s most elaborate and expensive housing project: the International Space Station.
On Nov. 20, 1998, the first part of the space station was launched by the Russians from Kazakhstan. NASA followed up two weeks later with piece No. 2 carried up by a space shuttle.
Astronauts and cosmonauts moved in two years later and the rest, as they say, is history.

JERUSALEM—Archeologists digging in northern Israel have discovered the 12,000-year-old skeleton of what they say was a witch doctor.
They said the skeleton was that of a deformed woman of around 45 years of age from the Natufian culture, which ranged from Syria to the Sinai peninsula at the time.
Leore Grosman, in charge of the excavation in the Galilee, said the bones were found in a carefully-carved oval grave with the skull resting on a tortoise shell.

TORONTO—To some they’re a status symbol while to others they represent a temporary escape from the humdrum of life.
For thieves looking for a quick and valuable score, however, those ubiquitous white ear buds dangling from the heads of so many teenagers simply mean loot.
Yet while it’s no big secret among youth that iPods are prize plunder for crooked types, many say they’d risk their own safety to save their beloved portable music players if they were targeted.

CALGARY—Southern Alberta researchers say they’ve figured out how meat-eating, egg-laying dinosaurs feathered their nests in a way that links them more closely to birds.
A fossilized nest found in the early 1990s in northern Montana initially was thought to be that of a commonly-found duck-billed dinosaur, or hadrosaur, said University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky.
“I looked at it a couple of times and I realized it wasn’t a duck-billed dinosaur nest,” Zelenitsky said yesterday.

"Dead Space" is Electronic Arts' first expedition into the realm of survival horror, going up against legendary titles such as "Resident Evil" and "Silent Hill." It combines the atmospheric horror and suspense long associated with the genre while providing some fresh elements in gameplay, graphics and experience.

ROME - Obviously, there were no satellites to snap pictures of Rome two millennia ago, but that hasn't stopped experts from giving Web surfers a bird's eye view of the ancient city.

Google Earth has added to its software a 3-D simulation that painstakingly reconstructs nearly 7,000 buildings of ancient Rome, including the Colosseum, the Forum and the Circus Maximus, officials said Wednesday.

The program gives users access to maps and global satellite imagery.

MONTREAL - Video gaming covers the gamut of ages in Canada, with parents and kids playing on their own and as a family, according to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada

The average age of adult gamers in Canada is 40 and those who played recently spent about seven hours a week on video games, says a survey released by association, which represents leading firms in the video and computer game industry.

NEW YORK - Transition officials call it Obama 2.0 - an ambitious effort to transform the president-elect's vast web operation and database of supporters into a modern tool to accomplish his goals in the White House.

If it works, Barack Obama could have an unprecedented ability to appeal for help from millions of Americans who already favour his ideas, bypassing the news media to pressure Congress.