Neglected news items from the past week.

Musical chips

A computer wearing a bow tie performed two piano works by the Hungarian Gyorgy Ligeti. Sibelius 7 reads music, transforming it into electrical impulses that power pistons to depress keys on a piano. Paul Patterson, head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, says Sibelius 7 will advance music by enabling composers to write pieces that are impossible to play. He quoted the pianist Alfred Brendel, who once said that Ligeti's music needed five hands. "This, of course, cuts out a number of very good performers," Mr Patterson noted.

Musical pees

A Dutch inventor, Wim van Vugt, has produced a battery-operated nappy that plays a tune when wet.

No toothpick ban

Complaints from the public in South Korea have led to the reversal of a ban on toothpicks in restaurants. The ban was announced following reports of pigs suffering after eating toothpick-polluted leftovers.

Garden nose

The 24ft-long, 5ft-high nose from a prototype of Concorde was sold at auction for £36,700. The buyer, Mr Azima, plans to install it in his garden in Kansas City.

Waterloo revenged

A lock of Napoleon Bonaparte's hair fetched £3,680 at auction, while a lock of the Duke of Wellington's went to the same buyer for only £598.

Foot patrol

Australian police in Victoria are hunting a man who has entered 18 homes through unlocked windows or doors, has never stolen anything, but, says a police spokesperson: "sneaks in and tickles the feet of young children, mainly boys ... the guy obviously has a problem."

No fire in Kent

Two fire engines raced to an address in Kent after a man dialled 999 to report a dream about a house on fire that was so vivid it had to be real. A Kent Fire Brigade spokesman said: "We have to take all genuine calls seriously". The fire engines found no fire.