I guess they need to do something with all the spare money they have, so they're buying their own shares.

BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft unveils $40bn buy-back

That's the conclusion I draw from the news today that Thorntons has revealed annual profits have risen nearly 20% to £8.5m. Although the Thorntons PR spin is "There's room for pleasure and a little bit of indulgence in everyone's life", my assessment is rather: "if you're struggling to make ends meet, why not stuff your face with choccies"?

BBC NEWS | Business | Chocolate firm defies the crunch

As if we didn't already know it. "This August has been the dullest in the UK since records began - with just 105.5 hours of sunshine, against an average for the month of 165 hours."

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Call that a summer?

"The research suggests that the best way of swatting a fly is to creep up slowly and aim ahead of its location."

Well, duh. I bet those researchers spent months trying to work out how to get the last ship in Space Invaders too.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Fly's brain 'senses swat threat'

Microsoft's Photosynth is pretty amazing, and I just couldn't wait to take lots of photos of something to try it out. Combined with laziness, I ended up doing my own head. (You'll need to install the plugin.)

Karl's Head photosynthed

Microsoft have used their MSN network to study the Six Degrees of Separation theory and seem to think the average number is about six after all. Which I could have told them anyway...

The good news is my Six Degrees Facebook application gets a mention at the bottom of the Guardian article.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Study revives six degrees theory
Proof! Just six degrees of separation between us
Six Degrees of Separation on Facebook

I've been working on my Six Degrees Facebook application on and off the past couple of weeks, partly as a way to get to know what the new platform is capable of, and it seems to have paid off. For the first time I've gone over 300 thousand installs, and daily active users is up to 4000 for the first time since before Christmas.

Possibly optimising it for the new profile has helped, but I've also updated everyone's profile boxes, changed the icon, published a news story to users... It will be interesting to see if it continues.

Six Degrees of Separation on Facebook