The Great Pyramid of Giza is the sole survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World. An Arab proverb says that: "Man fears time, yet time fears the Pyramids", a reference to the fact that the pyramid has survived for about 4,500 years and, in that time, has lost a mere 10 metres off its incredible 145 metre height.

Composed of two million blocks of stone, each weighing more than two tonnes, this was not erected by George Wimpey and Co in a fortnight. For approximately 43 centuries it was the world's tallest man-made structure.

Or so we thought. Reports are emerging from Bosnia-Herzegovina of structures that make the pyramid of Giza look like a scale model.

At 267 metres tall, the Pyramid of the Sun blows the Egyptian opposition into the weeds. If that wasn't enough, it is simply one of a number of pyramids located in the same region - there are also the Pyramids of the Sun, the Dragon and, most recently discovered, Love.

If you've ever heard Larry Lessig's stump speech on creativity and copyright, you know that it has a chunk in the middle dedicated to the fact that Disney, one of the biggest proponents of copyright extension to keep Mickey Mouse protected, has a long history of taking the ideas of others and reusing them in their own stories. In fact, the biggest irony is the fact that Disney "stole" (using their language) the very idea behind Mickey Mouse's Steamboat Willie debut from Buster Keaton's Steamboat Bill -- which came out the same year.

William Patry goes through the court battle from about a decade ago where questions were raised about Disney's rights to the story of Bambi. Turns out they might not really have owned the rights to it. Patry focuses on the case and why the ruling is exceptionally bad, but even more interesting to me is the lengths Disney went to try to win the case. As Patry notes, they basically threw out every possible argument to see what stuck, including claiming that Bambi was really in the public domain and then that it wasn't in the public domain, but that Disney owned the rights to it, rather than the heirs of the author of the story. So whenever Disney claims some moral right to keep extending copyright, it seems like the Bambi fight is worth pointing out as a counter example alongside the Steamboat Willie story.

In the past two years, the number of consumers using pop-up blockers and spam filters has more than doubled, according to a new study, "Consumers Love to Hate Advertising," from Forrester Research. More than half of all American households now report using these ad-blocking technologies to block unwanted pitches.

Broadband households have become even harder to reach: Some 81% of those with high-speed Internet access employ pop-up blockers and spam filters.

And that distaste is strong. "Only 13% of consumers admit that they buy products because of their ads, and a paltry 6% believe that companies generally tell the truth in ads," the report states.

Forrester also notes that ad avoidance is becoming more common on television. Today, 15% of consumers acknowledge using their digital video recorders to skip ads, more than three times as many as in 2004.

The 18 year-old, Peyton Strickland, was killed last Friday as he went to answer a knock at the door. Outside was a band of heavily armed police who, it is suggested, blasted him to kingdom come because the games controller he had in his hand may have looked like some sort of weapon.

The assassination squad had seen pictures of Strickland and pals posing on the Interweb with a selection of assault weapons. So naturally they went in tooled up and took no chances. Stickland's dog, Blaze, was also blasted to bits. He probably had big teeth.

Americans are warned either to open their door promptly when it is knocked at, or to swiftly leg it out the back an see how far they get. On no account should they dither about or have anything in their hands.

Sir Cliff Richard appears set to lose a battle to extend the number of years that musicians can receive royalties for their records, the BBC has learned.

He wants copyright to last 95 years, rather than the present 50 years.

This outcome would mean the report had "missed a great opportunity" to support the music industry, the chairman of the British Phonographic Industry claimed.

Music journalist Neil McCormack told BBC Radio Five Live that this outcome would be a blow to the industry.

"You can make a record in 1955 and have been getting royalties," he said. "Suddenly they're gone."

John Kennedy, the chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, predicted the Treasury would be forced to decide "whether or not it wants to support one of its successful industries".

"If the UK government decides not to support copyright equalisation, then the music industry will have to continue its campaign in Europe," he said.

Los Angeles resident Brett Stone said he aims to usher in 2007 by building a .91-meter (three-foot) cigarette using around 112 grams of marijuana.

Stone said he was inspired to try for a record after learning that the previous biggest joint was made with 100 grams.

Stone said he would be careful to ensure that his record attempt would remain legal, indicating that the joint would be smoked in a local medical marijuana collective.

Stone said he plans to roll an even bigger joint to mark the US football final at the Super Bowl next February -- and has asked companies if they can provide custom made rolling papers to help the attempt.

Traces of radioactive polonium have been found in the blood of the deceased Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA) said on Friday. His urine also tested positive for radiation.

The agency is now assessing the health risks posed to members of the public who may have come into contact with Litvinenko, including family members and hospital staff who cared for him during the weeks he spent in hospital. They are also trying to decide the safest way for pathologists to conduct an autopsy of his body, and indeed whether such a procedure is safe enough to be performed at all.

Litvinenko, aged 43, died on Thursday of heart failure after claiming he had been poisoned in a London restaurant. He was formerly an agent of the Soviet, then the Russian, security service. He specialised in investigating organised crime and its involvement with corrupt officials.

The European Commission is set to call for an immediate halt on the illegal transfer of financial information to the United States Treasury.

"The hidden, systematic, massive and long-term transfer of personal data by SWIFT to the UST in a confidential, non-transparent and systematic manner for years without effective legal grounds and without the possibility of independent control by public data protection supervisory authorities constitutes a violation of the fundamental European principles as regards data protection and is not in accordance with Belgian and European law," says the EC opinion.

SWIFT has already been found to be in breach of data protection law by Belgian authorities, but no action has been taken. However, complaints filed by campaign group Privacy international in 33 European countries were put on ice while the A29 group formed a consensus opinion.

According to a report on the university's Daily Bruin, the incident occured at around 11.30 pm on Tuesday when security officers at the Powell Library CLICC computer lab "asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check".

When he didn't immediately vacate the building, the security operatives returned with police officers to escort him from the premises. The Daily Bruin continues: "By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well."

"It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in pain. The student also told the officers he had a medical condition."

The video shows the tasered ne'er-do-well shouting "Here's your Patriot Act, here's your fucking abuse of power", while refusing to get up. Shortly thereafter, the cops tasered him a second time for his trouble.

Students who protested at the treatment were themselves threatened to keep their distance or cop a tasering. Laila Gordy, "a fourth-year economics student who was present in the library during the incident", claimed officers threatened to zap her "when she asked an officer for his name and his badge number".

Eyewitness David Remesnitsky said of the incident: "It was the most disgusting and vile act I had ever seen in my life."

The Quadruple Bypass Burger has four slabs of beef weighing 2lbs, three cheese layers, four bacon rashers, lettuce and tomato.

The Heart Attack Grill in Tempe, Arizona, has wheelchairs to carry customers out of the restaurant.

Customers can also order the smaller Triple Bypass Burger and Flatliner fries cooked in pure lard.