Worst Jobs: Monkey Nut Remover

It's those damn central Indian rhesus macaques again. After famously killing the deputy mayor of New Delhi back in October, a new plan has been hatched to have jobless youths sterilize the monkeys in a effort to make them less aggressive. Because that's always what happens when a street urchin comes after your nuts. Naturally this has caused an uproar among conservationists and animal right activists. Somehow I doubt these kids will do the humane surgical sterilization of the sort your local vet would perform.

On a subject quite far divorced from nuts (but not as far as those monkeys will be), Ars Technica has an excellent debunking of the idea that using someone else's unsecured wi-fi constitutes theft. Just for the record, if you can't be bothered to take the five minutes to set your router to at least WEP secure, I have no sympathy for you.

And while your making adjustments to your wi-fi, why not add some functionality with a very cool set top box coming soon from Archos. Called TV+, it has the Apple TV-like function of getting video stream and content from your computer on to your TV sans wires (no iTunes integration, though), and also delivers some key features that failed to materialize in Apple's silver box. Such as and onscreen progam guide and DVR capability, and even Flash support. I'm sorry if this bit reads like an ad, but this is a pretty full-featured product and by the looks of it will give TiVo and Apple a pang of jealousy for failing to get it to market first.

One thing you may not have to feel is the flu, UK-based vaccine maker Acambis says its universal flu vaccine worked for 9 of 10 people in small-scale trails. Although it will probably won't make it to your family doctor's office for several years yet, if successful it would remove the increasing threat of influenza A, which includes the dreaded 'bird flu' strain H5N1. The company's management now has the easiest job of motivating the rank and file employees ever; "Okay, folks, we have a pandemic to prevent here! Let's go!"

Interestingly, while most viral surface proteins targeted by vaccine-produced antibodies mutate, leading to a need to modify existing flu vaccines annually, the protein utilized by by the universal vaccine does not, at least not in any known strain. Both bacteria and viruses are notorious for changing as fast as we can find new ways to kill'em. That, by the way, is a obvious example of evolution in action, despite what certain US states put in the classroom. A new report from the National Academy of Sciences blasts schools for the common practice in America's schools of either not teaching evolution or teaching it as a wild theory that the government disproved in the 1950s.

Finally, Jay Leno is a dirty rotten scab. The striking Writers Guild of America has turned its guns on the late night host for writing his own jokes for the show's big comeback episode. Because, as you all know, it takes a team of 10 professional writers at least three days to write enough proper jokes to do a one-minute monologue. Get over yourselves, WGA!