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. Region could contain 30% of the world's gas reserves. Fears that study will raise tensions in regionThe battle for the Arctic's hidden mineral riches is likely to intensify after a survey revealing the energy reserves present beneath the ice.A map of potential oil and gas reserves in the region, published today in Science, shows that about 30% of the world's ­un­exploited gas and 13% of oil lie under the seas around the north pole. Billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas lie within the Arctic ­circle, where, until now, permanent ice has prevented drilling.The report is likely to further stoke international competition for mineral, tourism and shipping rights in the region. Exploration and drilling for oil and gas have become easier as climate change forces the ice to retreat, and all countries with borders inside the Arctic circle are fighting to claim their share. 'For better or worse, limited ­exploration prospects in the rest of the world ­combined with techn

President: Changes must come this year or the opportunity will be lost.

British industry is headed for the biggest shakeup since the Industrial Revolution, with the country set to be a pioneer in video games, superfoods and robotics, according to a new study.With dark Satanic mills long gone, the HSBC Future of Business report predicts that five 'supercities' - Brighton, Leeds, Liverpool, london and Newcastle - will emerge as knowledge industries gain traction instead of natural resource-based businesses. The Britain mapped out by the researchers foresees factories, power stations and livestock supplanted by centres for gaming, windfarms and robotics as the economic landscape is redrawn around the 'tropics of knowledge and next generation industries'. The findings are based on interviews with 500 entrepreneurs and company directors.'Our panel predicted the rise of supercities and regions over the next 20 years,' said Martin Raymond from the Future Laboratory, one of the report's authors. 'They promise to change the traditional national and regional power

An anonymous reader writes 'Mozilla execs John Lilly and Mitchell Baker were interviewed at the WSJ's All Things Digital conference last week. In a wide-ranging conversation, they discussed the history of Firefox, proprietary versus Open source development and the debut of Chrome and Mozilla's changing relationship with Google. A great interview. Well worth reading. There's video as well.' of this story at Slashdot.

. Region could contain 30% of the world's gas reserves. Fears that study will raise tensions in regionThe battle for the Arctic's hidden mineral riches is likely to intensify after a survey revealing the energy reserves present beneath the ice.A map of potential oil and gas reserves in the region, published today in Science, shows that about 30% of the world's ­un­exploited gas and 13% of oil lie under the seas around the north pole. Billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas lie within the Arctic ­circle, where, until now, permanent ice has prevented drilling.The report is likely to further stoke international competition for mineral, tourism and shipping rights in the region. Exploration and drilling for oil and gas have become easier as climate change forces the ice to retreat, and all countries with borders inside the Arctic circle are fighting to claim their share. 'For better or worse, limited ­exploration prospects in the rest of the world ­combined with techn

A NATIONAL survey is needed to ensure womens' clothing sizes measure up, a consumer advocate says.

An alien world has been found by observing subtle changes in a star's position in the sky for the first time – its star is also the lightest known to host a planet

Senior figures in the Labour party are moving towards a consensus on the need to accept voting reform as part of a radical change in the political system.Supporters and opponents of proportional representation, writing in the Guardian tomorrow, appear to be converging on the introduction of an alternative vote (AV) system in single member constituencies, allowing the public to rank candidates in order of preference rather than simply marking a cross against one candidate when electing a new MP.Former cabinet minister David Blunkett, who describes proportional representation as a recipe to 'disempower voters' and the basis for 'horse trading' and 'dodgy stitch-ups' among political parties, admits he could 'wear the alternative vote system if I had to' provided it is not linked with a top-up system of MPs drawn from party lists.He says: 'PR is a recipe for weak government, born out of the understandable moment.' And he warns that an AV system that also involves 'topping up the Commons wi

NBC Universal's chief executive said the changing economics of television means that networks have to change the way programming is done.

Writing software is hard, particularly when the tools you use force you to think at too low a level. At that point, it's time to start thinking about changing the way you write code.by making it easier to write code.