Downtime

Technology is taking inspiration from nature with Israeli military scientists creating a robotic snake to spy on enemies and plant bombs.

Presumably having giving up trying to train their pet snakes, the scientist used them instead as a model for a high-tech sneaking device.

Soldiers can control the robotic snake and follow what it sees using a remote laptop.

In addition to snooping, the robotic snake could be used to find survivors trapped in the rubble of buildings, assuming they will not die of fright when the snake slithers in.

If you are finding this a bit to hard to swallow, check out the video.

Cybercrime is flourishing because some criminals are among the most tech-savvy people on the planet, but it seems some petty thieves still have a lot to learn.

In particular, Torbay teenager Jake Ormerod, who got nabbed for stealing a cabbie's mobile after using it to call a taxi.

The 18-year-old dialled victim Don Smith's firm and the number was recognised by the controller. Ormerod was picked up shortly afterwards, by the the police.

Hats off to @rogeroldham for his Twitter take on the online publication of MPs' expenses! (And it's the first sight gag I've seen on Twitter...)

If newspaper headlines are anything to go by, life in the UK is quite dangerous enough.

Some people, however, seem to think it necessary to risk their lives and those of others by racing against the estimated journey time on their sat navs.

This crazy pursuit is particularly popular in Wolverhampton and Aberystwyth in Wales.

Sad, really.

Perhaps someone should built them a them park or something so they don't have to resort to sat nav racing.

Sat nav users could find themselves up several creeks without a paddle soon because it seems the satellite network that makes it all happen, could be falling to pieces.

US officials say the 20-year-old global positioning satellite (GPS)network is in dire need of repairs and upgrades.

Let's hope that the GPS network is too important for the US to allow to fail, because otherwise lots of people will be in hot water.

The UK's predilection for roundabout every few miles and even yards, is likely to result in millions of people going in circles with no sat navs telling them when to exit.

Online shopping is a bit of a lucky dip it seems, with nearly half of online grocery shoppers getting the wrong goods.

OK, 45% of those surveyed by Which? got more or less the right thing, but 15% ended up with the completely wrong goods.

Getting a can of vanilla air freshener instead of vanilla ice-cream could really put shoppers off doing it online.

Anyone who has tasted vanilla air freshener will tell you it's a poor substitute.

Wolfram Alpha, the world's latest search engine, uses clever maths to tell you things you don't already know. In the name of research, Downtime asked Wolfram Alpha about Satan. Apparently Satan can be represented by a mathematical formula.