Dec
31

This Rose Parade marks a major step for a young float designer

Charles Meier pulled his first all nighter when he was 11 years old. His mother found him asleep in a flower box.It was the...
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In Memoriam: 9 Tech Titans Who Died in 2012

"We made machines for the masses," said Jack Tramiel, the founder of the company that gave the world the Commodore 64. Then he nodded to the man sitting beside him, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. "They made machines for the classes." The year was 2007, and Tramiel was on stage at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Commodore 64, a machine...
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Kanye West, Kim Kardashian expecting baby: reports

(Reuters) – Rapper Kanye West and reality TV star Kim Kardashian are expecting their first child, celebrity media outlets reported on Monday.Fans and family took to Twitter to congratulate the celebrity power couple.“Been wanting to shout from the rooftops with joy and now I can!” wrote Kardashian’s sister Kourtney. “Another angel to welcome to our family. Overwhelmed with excitement!”According to...
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Chinese Firm Is Cleared to Buy American DNA Sequencing Company

Ramin Rahimian for The New York TimesDNA sequencing machines at Complete Genomics in California. The firm dismissed concerns about its acquisition. The federal government has given national security clearance to the controversial purchase of an American DNA sequencing company by a Chinese firm. The Chinese firm, BGI-Shenzhen, said in a statement this weekend that its acquisition of Complete...
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Dec
30

Immigration reform could get overshadowed in Congress

WASHINGTON — The window to pass immigration laws next year is narrowing as the effort competes with a renewed debate over gun...
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Wired Science Space Photo of the Day: Hidden Flames

This composite image combines EIT images from three wavelengths (171Å, 195Å and 284Å) into one that reveals solar features unique to each wavelength. Since the EIT images come to us from the spacecraft in black and white, they are color coded for easy identification. For this image, the nearly simultaneous images from May 1998 were each given a color code (red, yellow...
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Hot spots draw believers, but not doomsday

As the sun rose from time zone to time zone across the world on Friday, there was still no sign of the world’s end — but that didn’t stop those convinced that a 5,125-year Mayan calendar predicts the apocalypse from gathering at some of the world’s purported survival hot spots.Many of the esoterically inclined expected a new age of consciousness — others wanted a party. But, in some places said to...
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Well: Exercise and the Ever-Smarter Human Brain

Anyone whose resolve to exercise in 2013 is a bit shaky might want to consider an emerging scientific view of human evolution. It suggests that we are clever today in part because a million years ago, we could outrun and outwalk most other mammals over long distances. Our brains were shaped and sharpened by movement, the idea goes, and we continue to require regular physical activity in order for...
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Senate Leaders Racing to Beat Fiscal Deadline

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders and their aides spent Saturday searching for a formula to extend tax cuts for most Americans that could win bipartisan support in the Senate and final approval in the fractious House by the new year, hoping to prevent large tax increases and budget cuts that could threaten the fragile economy. As part of the last-minute negotiations, the lawmakers were haggling...
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Dec
28

Fiscal standoff leaves U.S. payrolls in doubt

WASHINGTON — If the nation goes over the "fiscal cliff," some Americans will wake up Tuesday with financial headaches to rival...
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Race Fan Builds F1 Car in His Garden Shed

Kevin Thomas has a bit more mechanical knowledge than the average Formula 1 fan, and he’s used it to cobble together an F1 racer using cast-off parts and eBay bits.The enterprising Briton, not having the hectares of cash needed to buy a modern Formula 1 racer, decided to build one. In his garden shed. Using spare parts.The idea came to him after seeeing an F1 car in...
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FBI removes many redactions in Marilyn Monroe file

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The FBI has re-issued files it kept on Marilyn Monroe, removing dozens of redactions from entries related to surveillance of the actress for communist ties.A large section of the files obtained by The Associated Press focuses on Monroe’s 1962 trip to Mexico and her emerging friendship with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who was disinherited from his wealthy family for leftist views....
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The New Old Age Blog: United States Lags in Alzheimer's Support

This month, the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging released a report examining how five nations — the United States, Australia, France, Japan and Britain — are responding to growing numbers of older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.Every country has a strategy, but some are much further ahead than others. Notably, France began addressing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in...
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Dec
27

A risky return to the U.S.

The barrilero never stops moving.All day he wheels cardboard barrels stuffed with used clothing through the narrow aisles of...
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App Guide: Puzzle Games

Crosswords work great on touchscreens. But sometimes, to really kill the time, you need something more colorful and animated.OrbitalOrbital is like a cosmic snooker match. You aim a cannon that fires colorful glowing orbs onto a grid. Each sphere is destroyed when it taps another one three times. You have to ensure that they ricochet around and collide the necessary times yet don’t rebound...
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Marvel’s Peter Parker in perilous predicament

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After 50 years of spinning webs and catching a who’s who of criminals, Peter Parker is out of the hero game.But Spider-Man is still slinging from building to building — reborn, refreshed and revived with a new sense of the old maxim that Ben Parker taught his then-fledgling nephew that “with great power, comes great responsibility.”Writer Dan Slott, who’s been penning Spidey adventures...
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Creating the Ultimate Housework Workout

Robert Wright for The New York TimesChris Ely, an English butler, and Carol Johnson, a fitness instructor at Crunch NYC, perfecting a houseworkout. CAN housework help you live longer? A New York Times blog post by Gretchen Reynolds last month cited research linking vigorous activity, including housework, and longevity. The study, which tracked the death rates of British civil servants, was the latest...
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Dec
26

Contested UTLA panel elections signal internal fissures

The young staff at the Alexander Science Center has been hard hit by seniority-based layoffs, the main factor behind a turnover...
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10 More Mind-Blowing, Skill-Building Raspberry Pi Projects

Raspberry Pi, the credit-card sized, $35 Linux computer, has been on the market for under a year, but excited hackers are using the platform for dozens of new, cool projects and accessory products every month. Since our last Raspberry Pi roundup we've found 10 more amazing projects that show how versatile this diminutive PCB is. From voice-activated coffeemakers to wall-hanging plotters, the Raspberry...
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Britain’s royal family attends Christmas services

LONDON (AP) — Britain‘s royal family is attending Christmas Day church services — with a few notable absences.Wearing a turquoise coat and matching hat, Queen Elizabeth II arrived at St. Mary Magdelene Church on her sprawling Sandringham estate in Norfolk. She was accompanied in a Bentley by granddaughters Beatrice and Eugenie.Her husband, Prince Philip, walked from the house to the church with other...
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Chicken Farms Try Oregano as Antibiotic Substitute

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York TimesChickens raised for Bell & Evans, like these in Pennsylvania, eat feed laced with oregano oil. FREDERICKSBURG, Pa. — The smell of oregano wafting from Scott Sechler’s office is so strong that anyone visiting Bell & Evans these days could be forgiven for wondering whether Mr. Sechler has forsaken the production of chicken and gone into pizza. ...
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Dec
25

U.S. drone strategy in Yemen is fraught with peril

AL SARRAIN, Yemen — The U.S. drone flew over a cluster of mud houses on a ridge and, according to Yemeni officials, locked onto...
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