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How is consciousness possible? What biological purpose does it serve? And why do we value it so highly? In Soul Dust, the psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, proposes a startling new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is nothing less than a magical-mystery show that we stage for ourselves inside our own heads. This self-made show lights up the world for us and makes us feel special and transcendent. Thus consciousness paves the way for spirituality, and allows us, as human beings, to reap the rewards, and anxieties, of living in what Humphrey calls the \"soul niche.\"

Computer scientist Ross Anderson works for the University of Cambridge, which has given him and other staff members tremendous leeway--even permitting them 100% ownership of some patents. Very few other universities allow such latitude, but this week, Cambridge is pushing a new policy that would curtail some of that independence and require all inventors on staff to let the university own and more actively manage staff patents. In effect, Anderson and allies such as molecular biologist Mike Clark are fighting to retain some of the old ways of doing business, and a campus-wide vote this month will determine which side prevails.

\"We're just hitting solid material all through here and it's wooden so that's a pretty good sign that there is a shipwreck here,\" he said. \"I'd hit something, it wasn't a rock and it wasn't steel it was, well in the process of working through the evening it turned out that it was wood and it was oregon wood and oregon wood is American,\" he said. \"Best job I've been on in my life, actually I've had some tough jobs in my time you know and this is about the best I've had so I'm sort of whistling dixie you know!

The antiparty spirit has surged forth on many occasions in American history- among the abolitionists, for example, and in the Civil War Confederacy, with its single-term six-year presidency, a classic political design for minimizing partisan conflict. After the Civil War, upper-class northern liberal reformers in the Republican Party (Mugwumps and others) rose up in fury at what they saw as the nation's debased politics of corruption and spoilsmanship, championing causes such as depoliticization of the civil service and restrictions on immigration.

\"Because a lot of economies aren't in good shape, you'll see more and more skilled computing people being out of work, and turning to the dark side where they work for criminals,\" says Ilia Kolochenko, chief executive of High-Tech Bridge, a web security company. \"And at the same time you've got a lot of companies trying to optimise their costs, and preferring to save money on the cyber side. It's hard to predict how successful and how large the scale will be, but I'm pretty sure it will get worse.\" The idea of banks building up a false sense of security before a disaster might sound familiar. Simon Moores, an independent consultant on security, likens the situation now to the US financial market in 2006/7, when complacency over the inherent risks of mortgage-based products was compounded by ratings agencies which had an interest in certifying sketchy financial instruments as safe. \"It's just like The Big Short,\" Moores says, referring to the film and book about the lead-up to the financial collapse, which was forecast by only a few. \"The computer security industry is worth [pound]30bn, but it doesn't work any more. Having a box to protect your bank website or business doesn't work. But nobody is prepared to accept the fact.\" Moores points out that 2015 was a record year for cyber-attacks globally -- but that's only because 2016 hasn't finished yet. Malware -- which tries to attack PCs or corporate systems -- is on the rise: \"There are now thought to be more than 500 million worms, Trojans and other viruses in circulation, and reportedly every day there's another 1.25 million 'polymorphic' threats [which change as they are copied between machines, making identification harder].\"

Park rangers saw an arrow embedded in the flesh of a distressed New Zealand fur seal at Cape Jaffa, the SA Environment Department said today. The discovery of the injured seal followed the killing of a popular fur seal known as Sam at Albany, in Western Australia, at the weekend.