The Doctor Who Chronology The Day of the Doctor: 10 things we learned | Television & radio Good heavens, that was a lot to take in. Baker. Capaldi. 1. Just like The Silence turned out to be a religious order rather than an absence of noise, so the Moment, assumed to be the point in time when the Doctor committed genocide of the Daleks and the Timelords, turns out to be not to be a time, but a weapon (a weapon that looks remarkably like iPad game The Room). The Moment is so bloody dangerous that it's staffed by a conscience - which takes the form of Rose "Bad Wolf" Tyler. 2. "I was there at the fall of Arcadia, some day I may even come to terms with that," was a throwaway line from a few series ago. 3. Just like Buffy the Vampire Slayer used to tell bite victims that they'd pricked themselves on barbecue forks, U.N.I.T. also have a prepared excuse for the Doctor's showy arrival - they claim it's a Derren Brown stunt. 4. 5. Of all the big ongoing mysteries in Doctor Who that could have been answered, it's brilliant that they chose to answer this one. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
LG investigates Smart TV 'unauthorised spying' claim 20 November 2013Last updated at 09:32 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter Mr Huntley wanted to know how LG determined which ads should be shown on his TV LG is investigating allegations that some of its TVs send details about their owners' viewing habits back to the manufacturer even if the users have activated a privacy setting. It follows a blog by a UK-based IT consultant who detailed how his Smart TV was sending data about which channels were being watched. His investigation also indicated that the TVs uploaded information about the contents of devices attached to the TV. It could mean LG has broken the law. The Information Commissioner's Office told the BBC it was looking into the issue. "We have recently been made aware of a possible data breach which may involve LG Smart TVs," said a spokesman. "We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken." Security fears
Whovians illustrate Doctor's uncanny ability to regenerate an audience | From the Guardian 'My first technical Doctor Who was Christopher Eccleston, but the one I feel closest to … ooh, ooh, Bernard Cribbins! That's Bernard Cribbins!" 27-year-old Zoe chases off after Bernard Cribbins. Her son, James, is a five-year-old in a bow tie. It's the fancy dress party that never ends, running from pre-schoolers dressed as Matt Smith to (a couple of) men in their 50s, dressed as Patrick Troughton (among the many, many things I didn't know is that Troughton is the established Who of the true fans. "Everything you really need to know in life, you can learn from the Doctor," observed Sharon, a moderator on a Doctor Who forum. "Maybe not the sixth Doctor [Colin Baker, 1984-86]." "The Doctor would never walk away from someone in pain, or leave someone in trouble. The last time I was at Excel, it was for an international arms fair – the main difference as I see it between the two crowds is that, at an arms fair, punters are there for the stuff and ignore each other.
Aluminium: The metal that just keeps on giving 22 November 2013Last updated at 20:33 ET By Laurence Knight and Tim Bowler BBC News A couple of months from now these will be back on the shelf Two hundred years ago, no-one knew aluminium existed. Today it is everywhere - in cans, window frames, packaging, even car bodies. New uses for it are constantly being discovered - but it's possible that one day we'll be able to stop mining the ore, and rely completely on recycling. Aluminium has a split personality. It may look dull, but it is one of the most reactive metals in the periodic table. "Aluminium fires are quite terrifying," says Andrea Sella, chemistry professor at University College London. "When you take aluminium and you burn it, you get a very, very intense fire." From that point of view, it may not be ideal for aircraft construction - but this disadvantage is outweighed by its strength, flexibility and exceptional lightness. Continue reading the main story Aluminium - key facts Continue reading the main story Baked sapphire
'Day Of The Doctor' Review - Familiar Faces Join Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt For Moving, Mischievous Special Some call 'Doctor Who' a children's programme. Well, I salute the child who could get to grips with all the colour, plot twists and metaphysics on display in 'Day of the Doctor', surely Steven Moffat's most ambitious outing to date. What he successfully managed to do was provide us with a ripping yarn in its own right, while doffing his cap to the fifty years of the Time Lord that had gone before, with enough half-century in-jokes - Bad Wolf, anyone? Three Timelords unite for the 50th anniversary of 'Doctor Who' But first, a blue sky on a bright London day. The last day of the Time War, watched by a man with "more blood on his hands than any other". Rose Tyler, one of the familiar faces in 'The Day of the Doctor' Ah, but that's unfair to Matt Smith, back in the 'real' world of now, and having as much fun as ever with a bunch of new, befuddled, bemused recruits. John Hurt takes his place at number nine in the complete line-up But Moffat more than compensated with what WAS in there.
Police warn of 'ransom' spam targeting UK users 15 November 2013Last updated at 13:19 ET Tens of millions of internet users could be at risk from email spam Tens of millions of UK internet users could be at risk from "ransom" email spam seemingly sent from financial institutions. The email has an attachment that looks legitimate but is malware that encrypts computer files. If the attachment is opened, a displayed countdown timer demands a ransom to decrypt the files. Small to medium businesses seem to be the target and the National Crime Agency says there is significant risk. Lee Miles, deputy head of the National Cyber Crime Unit, says: "The NCA are actively pursuing organised crime groups committing this type of crime. The malware installs a piece of "ransomware" called Cryptolocker on computers running the Windows operating system. There is evidence that some victims who paid got their data back but experts say there was no guarantee that payment would produce a key. No guarantee
Blogs - Doctor Who - The Night Of The Doctor: Excitement Levels Reach 8/8 Quantum memory 'world record' smashed A fragile quantum memory state has been held stable at room temperature for a "world record" 39 minutes - overcoming a key barrier to ultrafast computers. "Qubits" of information encoded in a silicon system persisted for almost 100 times longer than ever before. Quantum systems are notoriously fickle to measure and manipulate, but if harnessed could transform computing. The new benchmark was set by an international team led by Mike Thewalt of Simon Fraser University, Canada. "This opens the possibility of truly long-term storage of quantum information at room temperature," said Prof Thewalt, whose achievement is detailed in the journal Science. In conventional computers, "bits" of data are stored as a string of 1s and 0s. But in a quantum system, "qubits" are stored in a so-called "superposition state" in which they can be both 1s and 0 at the same time - enabling them to perform multiple calculations simultaneously. There is no Guinness Book of quantum records.
Paul McGann - I’d be up for playing the Doctor again He impressed as a dashing eighth Doctor in the 1990s film, various audio stories and recently dazzled fans when he appeared in a brief clip released online last week explaining the origins of John Hurt's dark and mysterious Doctor. But Doctor Who fans could be seeing even more of actor Paul McGann who has apparently refused to rule out taking up the job full time one day. McGann, whose Doctor was shown regenerating into John Hurt’s “War Doctor” on the planet Karn in the 6 minute 49 second clip was asked by the Sunday Times if he was “angling” for the role full time. “As long as the writing is good I’d be up for it,” said the star of the 1996 film Doctor Who: The Movie. How the writers would get round that given that he seems to come between Sylvester McCoy and John Hurt is anyone’s guess. But in a drama that leaps between time and space it’s probably not beyond the capability of either current showrunner Steven Moffatt or whoever succeeds him…..
Trending: The infuriating future of spam... "twam"? 15 November 2013Last updated at 13:33 ET By BBC Trending What's popular and why Political parties and companies are using sophisticated tools to create their own trends in social media. Has spam entered a new era - and should we start calling it "twam"? Last week, some Twitter users experienced a bizarre moment of deja vu. The UK's Labour Party was allowed by more than 800 supporters - including famous comedians and social activists - to take over their accounts. This kind of thing is starting to happen more often, says Finn Brunton, author of a book about the history of digital spam. Continue reading the main story Defining spam "Anything that someone does online that is unfairly taking up more than their share of people's attention, or time, or computer bandwidth" Finn Brunton, author of Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet The canned pre-cooked meat Spam was introduced to the UK in 1941, and the term was first used by early adopters of the computer in the 1970s.