According to Karen McComb of the University of Sussex, UK, domestic cats hide a plaintive cry within their purrs that both irritates owners and appeals to their nurturing instincts.

The louder this high-frequency element, the more urgent and less pleasant the purr was rated. Cats may be exploiting "innate tendencies in humans to respond to cry-like sounds in the context of nurturing offspring", McComb says.

Governments and companies should limit the snooping they do on web users.

He also warned that attempts to censor what people could say or what they could do online were ultimately doomed to failure.

"The trend over the years is that the internet in the end goes around censorship and openness eventually triumphs," he said. "But it is by no means an easy road."

NASA reported 11 lightning strikes during the storms that have plagued the Florida coast for weeks. None of the strikes hit the shuttle or its external tank and solid rocket boosters, but there were strikes to the lightning mast and water tower. Two of the strikes were strong enough to trigger an evaluation by NASA engineers.

The Endeavour's original launch date was June 13, but it was canceled 5 hours before launch due to a potentially dangerous vent line hydrogen gas leak. NASA tried again on June 17 but called the mission when the hydrogen leak reappeared.

Now scientists from the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel have discovered that ridges in the plant's giant leaves actually collect water and channel it down to the plant's root system, harvesting up to 16 times more water than any other plant in the region.

"Even in the slightest rains," the researchers wrote, "the typical plant harvests more than 4,300 cubic centimeters of water per year and enjoys a water regime of about 427 millimeters per year, equivalent to the water supply in a Mediterranean climate."

Ramesh Iyer, TI's head of worldwide business development for mobile computing told CNET that a Google OS could really be the tip of an iceberg. In other words, today the netbook, tomorrow the world.

However what seems to be happening is that yet another Linux distribution has gained the backing of a big outfit. Some new applications that run on it will be Javascript based and run through a web browser.

If an $80,000-per-song verdict isn't enough to deter Thomas-Rasset from file sharing, we're not so sure an injunction matters. Still, the RIAA fears the 32-year-old Thomas-Rasset, who undoubtedly has become the world's most notorious copyright scofflaw.

"Furthermore, the nature of defendant's means of infringement - a peer-to-peer file sharing network with tens of millions of potential users - has resulted in the distribution of plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings to innumerable other people, who, in turn, are likely to further distribute plaintiffs' sound recordings," Reynolds wrote.

Although HTML 5 is still in the draft stage, several of its features have already been widely adopted by browsers like Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Among the most compelling is the "video" element, which has the potential to free Web video from its plugin prison and make video content a native first-class citizen on the Web-if codec disagreements don't stand in the way.

The HTML 5 working group is split between supporters of Ogg Theora and H.264.

Apple and Google favor H.264 while Mozilla and Opera favor Ogg Theora.

Apple has admitted that its latest iPhone 3GS model can overheat but has blamed the problem on sunshine rather than a glitch with its design.

Apple says that users should not leave their phones in a car where temperatures can exceed the -20C to 45C range that the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS models were designed to function in.

iPhone 3GS users on Mac forums complain, however, that the handset becomes hot when it is not being used in a car.

A report from printer manufacturer Lexmark claims the federal government wastes $440 million dollars a year (almost $1 million per day) on unnecessary printing.

Overall, 69 percent of federal employees said they believe their agencies "rely strongly on paper trails."

Although 80 percent of respondents said they believe that they personally make conscious efforts to monitor their printing habits, 92 percent admitted they do not need all of the documents they print in a day.

Japanese giant hornets, which can be up to 5cm long, are voracious predators that can devastate bees' nests and consume their larvae.

But, if the bees spot their attacker in time, they mount a powerful defence in the form of a bee ball.

As the temperature inside the ball increased to more than 45C, the carbon dioxide level also rose sharply.

"The hornet may be killed during the first 0-5 minute period, in which the highest level of heat production and carbon dioxide emissions take place," said Dr Sakamoto.