Stoke boss Tony Pulis has criticises Asmir Begovic after the keeper refuses to play for the club in their Carling Cup second-round win over Shrewsbury.

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An anonymous reader writes “The production of RFID chips, an integral element of the new generation of German identity cards, has started after the government gave a 10-year contract to the chipmaker NXP in the Netherlands. Citizens will receive the mandatory new ID cards starting from the first of November. The new card allows German authorities to identify people with speed and accuracy, the government said. These authorities include the police, (more…)

Talk about a dance, dance revolution: The Dancepants Kinetic Music Player, a shortlisted entry in Designboom’s Green Life competition, makes you work for tunes. Designed by Inesa Malafej and Arunas Sukarevicius from Lithuania, the Dancepants converts kinetic energy from running or dancing into electricity for your MP3 player.

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Ashley Young looks increasingly likely to stay at Aston Villa, BBC Sport understands.

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One week ago, Blizzard announced plans to change its forums, requiring users to post under their real names using as system called Real ID. Six solid days of backlash from its community and mass media attention later, Blizzard backed off on Real ID.

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Germany beat Britain 3-2 courtesy of a golden goal to lift the Four Nations title.

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D4C5CE writes “A chess-playing German tinkerer has contrived (and made a video of) an amazing contraption that plugs real chess pieces into the freechess.org server using a 20W LED projector and an old webcam to read moves on a projected chessboard.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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For almost a decade and a half, astronomers have been finding new planets orbiting distant stars — first a trickle and, more recently, a flood of alien worlds, with the tally now well above 400, and climbing every day.

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OnLive’s cloud-based gaming service not only turns any computer into a gaming rig, it shows how streaming could be the future for all kinds of application

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Th’Inquisitor was one of several readers to point out coverage of Apple’s stealth security fix, included along with the recent Snow Leopard 10.6.4 update. Graham Cluley of Sophos first noticed the update to protect Mac computers from a Trojan, and the fact that Apple didn’t mention it in the release notes. The malware opens a back door to a Mac that can allow attackers to gain control of the machine and snoop about on it or turn it into a zombie. (more…)