independent.co.uk

Sir Jonathan Ive: We nearly axed the iPhone, it wasn't enough to be good ...we knew it had to be great

independent.co.uk

You have that horrible, horrible feeling deep down in your tummy and you know that it's OK but it's not great. And I think some of the bravest things we've ever done are really at that point when you say, 'that's good and it's competent, but it not's great'.

Estimated reading time: 3 min

Vast methane 'plumes' seen in Arctic ocean as sea ice retreats

independent.co.uk

Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.

Estimated reading time: 4 min

How Google Translate works

independent.co.uk

Most of these translation relations – Icelandic to Farsi, Yiddish to Vietnamese, and dozens more – are the newborn offspring of Google Translate: there is no history of translation between them, and therefore no paired texts, on the web or anywhere else.

Estimated reading time: 6 min

Skateboarders are essential for our cities

independent.co.uk

Skateboarders are essential for our cities

Estimated reading time: 4 min

Revealed: The best and worst places to be a woman

independent.co.uk

Thailand has the greatest percentage of women in senior management (45 per cent).

Estimated reading time: 9 min

Why I wish I'd dropped out of university

independent.co.uk

So what lesson can be drawn? My three years at Warwick University were a waste of time. Had I known at the start what I know now I would have dropped out. If you start university and don't like the lecturers, people and culture, drop out. Go and do something that you enjoy and are enthused by. You will be doing yourself a favour.

Estimated reading time: 3 min

My elf self

independent.co.uk

I often see people on the streets dressed as objects and handing out leaflets. I tend to avoid leaflets but it breaks my heart to see a grown man dressed as a taco. So, if there is a costume involved, I tend not only to accept the leaflet, but to accept it graciously, saying, "Thank you so much," and thinking, "You poor, pathetic son of a bitch. I don't know what you have but I hope I never catch it."

Estimated reading time: 12 min

Have they found the Higgs boson at last? Cern physicists say they're confident of 'God particle' breakthrough

independent.co.uk

Cern says that confirming what type of boson the particle is could take years and that the scientists would need to return to the Large Hadron Collider - the world's largest 'atom smasher' - to carry out further tests. This will measure at what rate the particle decays and compare it with the results of predictions, as theorised by Edinburgh professor Peter Higgs 50 years ago.

Estimated reading time: 2 min

Tony Nicklinson: 'Perhaps I’ll say goodbye on Twitter'

independent.co.uk

I do believe that it is a person's first human right to be able to determine when, where and how to end his own life. All this talk about a person's life being ‘a gift from god and only he can decide when a person's life can end’ is utter rubbish.

Estimated reading time: 4 min

Sites like Uni Lad only act to support our everyday rape culture

independent.co.uk

Many people are already aware of the infamous ‘Uni Lad’ website, which was temporarily deactivated after running an article that seemed to condone rape, saying: “85% of rape cases go unreported. That seems to be fairly good odds.”

Estimated reading time: 6 min

Scientology's 'heretic': How Marty Rathbun became the arch-enemy of L Ron Hubbard devotees

independent.co.uk

Like every other member, he signed a billion-year contract.

Estimated reading time: 19 min

Sweet taste of sales success: Why are cookbooks selling better than ever?

independent.co.uk

Recipes, once only accessed in the pages of Julia Child or Jamie Oliver, are now available for free on hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs. Many predicted the gradual death of the cookery book. And as sales of ebooks, with their handy online purchasing, have soared (sales increased by 366 per cent last year), would foodies replace their colourful books with a Kindle? So it's interesting to learn that sales of cookery books have never been better.

Estimated reading time: 5 min

The secret lives of North Korea

independent.co.uk

I realised that while many, even some experts, viewed North Koreans as identical automatons who obeyed unquestioningly every order of their leaders, this was simply wrong. North Korea is not like that at all. It is a real country with real people, whose everyday concerns are often not so very different from our own: their friends, how their children are doing at school, their jobs, and making enough money to get by. Above all, North Koreans are sharply differentiated human beings, with a good sense of humour and are often fun to be with.

Estimated reading time: 6 min

Laurie Penny: A woman's opinion is the mini-skirt of the internet

independent.co.uk

Free speech means being free to use technology and participate in public life without fear of abuse – and if the only people who can do so are white, straight men, the internet is not as free as we'd like to believe.

Estimated reading time: 4 min

Police foil plot to murder and castrate Justin Bieber with 'bounty set at $2,500 per testicle'

independent.co.uk

American police have uncovered a plot by three men to capture, castrate and murder teen pop sensation Justin Bieber and his bodyguard – with ‘a bounty set at $2,500 for each testicle’.

Estimated reading time: 2 min