English Blog

Sales of the third edition of the vast tome have fallen due to the increasing popularity of online alternatives, according to its publisher.

A team of 80 lexicographers has been working on the third edition of the OED – known as OED3 – for the past 21 years.

The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), said the impact of the internet means OED3 will probably appear only in electronic form.

PARIS – The enigmatic smile remains a mystery, but French scientists say they have cracked a few secrets of the "Mona Lisa."

French researchers studied seven of the Louvre Museum's Leonardo da Vinci paintings, including the "Mona Lisa," to analyze the master's use of successive ultrathin layers of paint and glaze — a technique that gave his works their dreamy quality.

The future of public transportation starts in China:

The straddling bus, first exhibited on the 13th Beijing International High-tech Expo in May this year. In the near future, the model is to be put into pilot use in Beijing’s Mentougou District.

Yet to John Le Carré, 007 is a "neo-fascist gangster" who would ply his trade for any country provided he could get a plentiful supply of beautiful women and dry Martinis.

In a 1966 interview with Malcolm Muggeridge, newly re-discovered in the BBC archive, the author and creator of the decidedly unglamorous spy George Smiley was scathing in his assessment of Ian Fleming's suave secret agent.

Van Mon

Most of us think nothing of turning on the lights. But nearly two billion people live without electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

When the sun goes down, people living off the grid can't simply flick a switch. They live with the dark or burn fossil fuels such as kerosene for light.

Social entrepreneur Stephen Katsaros invented a solar-powered light bulb he hopes will bring clean, safe light to people in the developing world.

Original Greek statues were brightly painted, but after thousands of years, those paints have worn away. Find out how shining a light on the statues can be all that's required to see them as they were thousands of years ago.

Notoriously straight-faced South African author had his audience roaring at a recent appearance – and apparently smiled

Stop the presses, hold the front page: reports are trickling out that the notoriously po-faced Nobel laureate JM Coetzee cracked a rare smile last week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/gallery/2010/aug/03/authors-last-words-d...

He wrote songs and sang them on the streets of Berlin. One told of a poor boy who grows up wishing for a little horse. The horse arrives years later pulling his mother’s hearse.

For decades jazz cognoscenti have talked reverently of “the Savory Collection.” Recorded from radio broadcasts in the late 1930s by an audio engineer named William Savory, it was known to include extended live performances by some of the most honored names in jazz — but only a handful of people had ever heard even the smallest fraction of that music, adding to its mystique.