But even if you are looking for something with more of a pulse, you will rarely be confronted down south with ranks of sun loungers.

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While it's always hard to pin down the exact origins of an idea -- especially one like pulse-code modulation, where a number of parties were involved -- sifting out the large and significant contributions from the gold pan of history tends to bring up the same names time and again.

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She added that when she knelt down to touch her mother's neck, to see if there was a pulse, she got a shock because she was "as cold as marble".

BBC: Kathleen Milward