Twenty four years after blowing it in Paris in 1984, Spain won UEFA Euro 2008 championship.

Pit a cane toad against a freshwater crocodile and who wins? Although the croc eats the oversized amphibian, it seems the toad has the final laugh.

cientists were fascinated by the ghostly find: a human skeleton buried in an Aztec temple with a clay, skull-shaped whistle in each bony hand. But no one blew into the noisemakers for nearly 15 years. When someone finally did, the shrill, windy screech made the spine tingle.

As many as 300 Internet warnings of mass murder and other death threats have been posted online in Japan after a knifing rampage in Tokyo left seven people dead.

Sony Computer Entertainment America was granted a patent on Friday for a "hand-held [sic] device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels." It'd be a stretch to say any of this is explicitly indicative of a PSP 2.0 or PSP phone, but it is interesting to note that "game device" is listed as one of the potential applications,

This is the commercial everyone has been talking about. Did you also know that this spot was awarded a Cannes Lions 2008 Film Bronze award..?

The launch of the 3G iPhone is a little over a week away. With all the promotion that Apple and AT&T are getting, other carriers and mobile handset developers have been releasing touchscreen phones like crazy. From Blackberry to LG, there are tons of touchscreen handsets that will hit the market this year in order to take ground from the iPhone. However, they're missing something very important. It's not about the touchscreen guys, it's mainly about the mobile apps.

The Biggest Selling Point of the iPhone

The iPhone has a ton of selling points. It sports an user interface that goes beyond anything ever seen on the Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Palm OS'. The performance is fast! The interface is intuitive and it sports an iPod. How many people have phones with music playback capabilities, yet don't transfer any songs to play on their phone? I'm one of those users and if you're one too, you know you'd use the iPod that's integrated with the iPhone with no hesitation. All in all, the iPhone is sleek, beautiful, and performs adequately. The biggest selling point though, is not necessarily the Safari browser, but the applications that have been developed to take advantage of Safari's functionality on the iPhone.

Why the Apps Make a Big Difference

Touchscreen phones are being snapped up left and right. More than enough are already available including the LG Voyager (Verizon), Samsung Instinct (Sprint), HTC Touch (Verizon, Sprint), LG Vu (AT&T), and Samsung Glyde (Verizon). While this is great for those who may want to go against the rising tide of the iPhone, these phones will not break the iPhone's stronghold. Why? Their browsers suck!

The biggest reason most people would like an iPhone is because of the Safari browser. However, it's not just the browser. It's the mobile applications that are accessible via the browser. Have you seen the user interfaces for mobile apps made for the iPhone? The functionality is splendid. The design is flawless just like the iPhone. Execution these applications is in strict accordance with Apple-like standards. There are tons of mobile applications already available that don't require you to download them. And after the WWDC, there are tons more on the way.

Reaching for Something Better

While it's nice to see more touchscreens on the market and phones that pick up where the iPhone natively slacks, meaning you don't need to "jailbreak" them just to do something, they just don't compare to what's available for the iPhone. Sure there are more Windows Mobile applications floating around than iPhone apps, but take a look at the design and execution difference. When it comes to mobile apps, it doesn't get any better than what the iPhone has at this point. However, I hope that mobile handset makers and carriers are striving for something better to break what is surely a monopoly that the iPhone will eventually hold on the mobile web.

Kid gets slammed in the head by a playground equipment

Jesse Alexander, the executive producer of the popular TV-shows ‘Heroes’ and ‘Lost’ and Matt Mason, author of ‘The Pirate’s Dilemma’, are working on a new TV-show about piracy. The show will be based on Matt’s book, and will show how important pirates are for today’s society.

The weekend is a good chance to play around with web apps and social networks. With that in mind, on a rainy Sunday I found myself checking out Sarah Perez's classic post from May: How to Make Facebook Useful Again. You may also want to read the comments for other useful suggestions. But if you just want the highlights and then do some experimenting within Facebook on a lazy Saturday or Sunday, then here they are:

Note: All of the content below was written by Sarah Perez, with some of the suggestions coming from Susan Beebe. I did some light editing at the start, for this post.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part I - Use Facebook's Features

Use Facebook Email: Here's an answer that speaks profoundly to the generation gap. For some, Facebook email isn't useful at all, while for others, it's one of the most important features.

For true Facebook'ers, real email is for business only. Using Facebook (and MySpace) is how you talk to your friends.

"If I'm talking to any friends it's through a social network," said Asheem Badshah, a teenaged president of Scriptovia.com. "For me even IM died, and was replaced by text messaging. Facebook will replace e-mail for communicating with certain people." (excerpted from CNet)

Use Facebook Events: You don't need an online calendar to plan your schedule - Facebook has an Events app built-in. Here you can manage your events, see your friends' events, and even see when people's birthdays are. Your use of this feature is another telltale sign of which generation of Facebook users you fit into.

Block App Spam: Facebook finally added the "Block Application" option. Whew!

Go Mobile: With this application, you can use Facebook when you're on the go. You can upload photos and notes from your camera phone (mobile@facebook.com) straight to Facebook. You can also receive and reply to Facebook messages, pokes and Wall posts using text messages, or use your phone’s mobile browser at m.facebook.com. To actually use the app, activate your phone here. Don't forget to also add Facebook Video so you can also send in your mobile videos to video@facebook.com, too.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part II - Get Things Done

If you're really going to take advantage of all Facebook can do for you, then you have to find a way to do everything you need to do right in Facebook. Some of these tools (below) can help:

Check eBay: A great example of how the info you need flows into Facebook, the eBay app lets you check on your eBay auctions...and, in true social spirit, those of your friends as well. You can even just comment on auctions without even needing an eBay account.

Use Paypal: Just bought something on eBay? Might as well add Paypal too.

Upload Your Resume: Use an app like Professional Profile to post your resume on Facebook. It also lets you sync your LinkedIn profile and recommendations. There are also other apps for LinkedIn: LinkedIn Contacts and My Linked Profile, too.

Create a Business Card: The business cards app helps you create a custom business card that can be attached to your Facebook messages. (It's email signatures 2.0!)

Use Zoho: Access all your Zoho Office files in Facebook for free. (An unofficial app exists for Google Docs).

Share Files: Who needs Pownce when you can share files in Facebook? Add an app like Box.net or DivShare to do so.

Use Blackboard: Ugh. We know you don't want to, but you kind of have to, so you may as well add Blackboard Sync to Facebook. (Online assignment system for college students).

Make a To-Do List: Some people just love lists. Task Manager can help you GTD.

Use a Calendar: Need a more traditional calendar app? Try this one from 30Boxes, or one of these unofficial Google Calendar apps. Or you could just sync Facebook with any other calendar, both online and off, with fbCal. How to Make Facebook Useful: Part III - Bring Web 2.0/Social Tools Into Facebook:

No need to leave the comfort of Facebook's walls to use the social web - you can just pull the social web into Facebook. Some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications are available as Facebook apps.

Use FriendFeed: No need to go without your daily fix of lifestreaming. The early adopter crowd loves this one.

Use Flickr: Take your pick from 100 applications for using flickr on Facebook...or just use this one.

Use Twitter: Post to Twitter and make your latest tweet your Facebook status.

Use Upcoming: Plan your events via Upcoming and see events taking place in your area, too.

Get Movie Recommendations: Get movies reviews via Flixster so you know whether to rent that flick or see it in the theaters...or not.

Get Restaurant Recommendations: Use Bizzlr to get recommendations for where to eat. (our coverage)

Share Books/Book Reviews: Depending on personal preference, you may like Shelfari, Visual Bookshelf, Goodreads, or Bookshare.

Find People: Use Spock's people search app to find anyone, anywhere.

Link to Other Profiles: With As Seen On, you can link your Facebook profile to other social media profiles.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part IV - Bonus Content! Here are few other great apps worth an honorable mention, at the very least.

Make Firefox Better: You can find great add-ons for Firefox with Rock Your Firefox.

Search the Web & Share: Think Microsoft should put Live Search in Facebook? They just did.

Reading the Daily News Facebook-Style: No need to go off-site to get the latest news - customize your own morning paper with Zine.

And More!: Check out our series from last July to get ideas for other Facebook apps for Work, Utilities, and Media. 

"Want to know the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the best place in town for borscht, or the weather in Novosibirsk? In most of the world you might Google the answer. But a Russian would more likely "Yandex" it. Russia's Yandex -- set to go public on Nasdaq -- is innovating in a hurry to hold off the US giant."

Will Mini Laptops push Dell and HP to the brink if the become the acceptable home and/or office computer?

From WWI session: See what team Blizzard had to say about the newfound power of the Zerg Queen, the upgraded Protoss Mothership and the reason behind de-emphasizing heroic classes.

As the head of the webspam team at Google, I'm in charge of making sure your search results are as relevant and informative as possible. Webspam, in case you've never heard of it, is the junk you see in search results when websites successfully cheat their way into higher positions in search results or otherwise violate search engine quality ....

By proceeding with his one-candidate election on Friday, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has thumbed his nose at the international community. So what is the international community going to do to ensure compliance with democratic norms by the leader of a landlocked country whose economy is in free fall...

iPhone rate plans in Canada are EXPENSIVE.

On Thursday we asked you what books have changed your life, and over 250 thoughtful comments later, it's clear you all have book shelves stuffed with meaningful tomes. Now it's time to share the love. Today we've compiled some of the titles that you mentioned the most, with summaries so you can check 'em out further—and get a glimpse into the minds

Many women are left unhappy in the aftermath of casual sexual encounters. Four out of five men, in contrast, said they were happy with a brief fling.

Here is an oxymoron - the socialist Kibutz movement is finding great capitalist success in its growing hotel network. Ecology is one of the biggest focal points with organic farms and recycled playgrounds.

Whether they're creating content for sites like YouTube and Wikipedia, viewer-submitted news services like CNN's iReport or videogames like Spore and LittleBigPlanet, today's most valuable employees will most likely never set foot inside the building—or collect a paycheck.