The site has just been sold for £1bn. Simon Usborne charts its founders’ histories, and how they made a mint out of your Great Auntie Mabel
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Luke Blackall: You'd need the stamina of an athlete to go to all these Olympic parties
Saturday 28 July 2012
Man About Town
Exclusive: Jimi Hendrix's experience - the records that inspired a genius
Sunday 15 July 2012
New exhibition of his music collection reveals the influences that made him great
Gates is a ruthless schemer, says his Microsoft co-founder
Thursday 31 March 2011
Bill Gates is a ruthless schemer who demeaned his employees and conspired to rip off his business partner, according to a memoir written by the co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen.
Man dies in jousting TV reenactment
Friday 28 January 2011
A man died during a jousting re-enactment because of failures to ensure a correct helmet was worn and failures to ensure his shield was appropriately assembled, a coroner ruled yesterday.
US judge dismisses JK Rowling plagiarism claim
Friday 07 January 2011
An American judge has dismissed a case alleging that Harry Potter author JK Rowling copied her ideas from another writer.
Tech billionaire Paul Allen sues Google, Apple, Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo and eBay, amongst others.
Saturday 28 August 2010
Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen is suing nearly a dozen major companies, including tech giants Google Inc. and Apple Inc., alleging they infringed on four web technology patents held by his company Interval Licensing LLC.
No evidence offered in man's Securitas robbery trial
Friday 13 August 2010
Prosecutors have offered no evidence against the last man accused of links to the record-breaking Securitas robbery, it emerged today.
Securitas robbery mastermind jailed
Wednesday 02 June 2010
A martial arts expert who masterminded the £53m Securitas robbery was jailed for 10 years in Morocco yesterday. The cage fighter, Lee Murray, 30, was told he will spend the next decade in prison at a hearing in Rabat, Kent Police said.
'The pitch could trigger a bigger shock than when we beat Tottenham'
Saturday 15 May 2010
Sweet dreams are made of building a media empire in sunny LA
Sunday 02 May 2010
Ed Roberts: Pioneering electronics engineer who built the first widely available home computer
Thursday 29 April 2010
Ed Roberts was one of the early pioneers in the world of personal computing, an electronics engineer who designed and created the first widely available home microcomputer in 1974. With no keyboard, no screen and only a set of switches to programme it, this was a different beast to today's laptop and desktop PCs. However, it is thanks to Roberts and his colleagues that computers emerged out of the worlds of academia, the military and commerce to make their way into our homes.
Gates pays his respects to the 'father of computing'
Saturday 03 April 2010
The halo effect: Who are the real philanthropists – celebrities or the megarich?
Sunday 28 March 2010
Leonardo DiCaprio will be there, rubbing shoulders with Stella McCartney, who will no doubt stop for a polite chat with Tobey Maguire and Sigourney Weaver. This will not be another awards ceremony – replete with glad-handing and mutual backslapping – but one of the biggest-ever charity events, intended to raise millions of pounds for the environment.
JK Rowling brands Harry Potter plagiarism claims 'absurd'
Thursday 18 February 2010
JK Rowling hit out at plagiarism claims against her Harry Potter series as "unfounded" and "absurd" today.
- 1 Is the Muslim call to prayer really such a menace?
- 2 Channel 4 to 'provoke' viewers who associate Islam with terrorism with live call to prayer during Ramadan
- 3 US army doctor returns arm to Vietnamese soldier fifty years after he took it as a souvenir
- 4 Police seize possessions of rough sleepers in crackdown on homelessness
- 5 Demand for food banks has nothing to do with benefits squeeze, says Work minister Lord Freud
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Where's Wallonia?
War and peace: history revisited in the cities of Southern Belgium - a travel guide in association with the Belgian Tourist Office.
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