This bus' next stop: doing good

Maybe you want to help others. Maybe you long to lend a hand. But you're not sure where and you're not sure how and you don't...

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Maker Mom Builds Cookie-Cutter Empire With 3-D Printers

Athey Moravetz is doing some tasty work with her 3-D printers. The video game designer has worked on PlayStation games like Resistance Retribution and Uncharted Golden Abyss. She's also a self-described "jack-of-all-trades," skilled with 3-D modeling tools like Maya, and knows how to design compelling characters with them. After having two children she decided to work from home, and in addition...

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Ridley Scott, Paul Attanasio Working on “Vatican” Pilot for Showtime

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Showtime is once again preparing to go papal.The network, which already has a Pope-centric hit in the form of “The Borgias,” has given the green light to pilot tentatively titled “The Vatican,” from Ridley Scott and Paul Attanasio, Showtime said Thursday.A contemporary exploration of the politics and power plays within the Catholic church, “The Vatican” will be written...

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The Neediest Cases: The Daughter of a Sick Woman Falls Prey to a Craigslist Scam

Sitting side by side on their living room sofa, Patricia Morales and her daughter, Katherine, could be any mother-daughter duo. Both have dark hair, dark eyes and welcoming, infectious smiles. Librado Romero/The New York TimesPatricia Morales, 62, at home in the Bronx. Her treatment for ailments like rheumatoid arthritis and hepatitis C led to depression. ...

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Instagram Reversal Doesn’t Appease Everyone

Peter DaSilva for The New York TimesKevin Systrom, right, co-founder of Instagram, with employees in the company office in San Francisco last year. SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook may have quelled a full-scale rebellion by quickly dumping the contentious new terms of use for Instagram, its photo-sharing service. But even as the social network furiously backpedaled, some users said Friday they were carrying...

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Boehner's 'fiscal cliff' plan fails

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John A. Boehner abruptly canceled a vote on his Plan B tax proposal late Thursday after failing to...

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The Surprising Truth: Technology Is Aging in Reverse

We’re living in a Black Swan world, but what does this mean for the future of technology? The new book Antifragile argues that technologies, ideas, and theories – anything informational or cultural, as opposed to physical – age in reverse.We may be trained to think that the new is about to overcome the old, but that’s just an optical illusion. Because the failure rate of the new...

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‘Zero Dark Thirty’ One of Biggest Mid-Week Limited Debuts Ever

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Zero Dark Thirty” has been slammed by several senators for its depiction of torture, but the issue only appears to have helped it at the box office.Director Kathryn Bigelow‘s dramatization of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden racked up an estimated $ 124,848 in five theaters in New York City and Los Angeles on Wednesday. That’s an average of $ 24,969, making it one of the biggest...

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About New York: One Boy’s Death Moves State to Action to Prevent Others

Prompted by the death of a 12-year-old Queens boy in April, New York health officials are poised to make their state the first in the nation to require that hospitals aggressively look for sepsis in patients so treatment can begin sooner. Under the regulations, which are now being drafted, the hospitals will also have to publicly report the results of their efforts. The action by New York...

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DealBook: Peter Madoff Is Sentenced to 10 Years for His Role in Fraud

8:48 p.m. | Updated Peter B. Madoff was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for crimes that helped his brother, Bernard L. Madoff, swindle investors out of billions of dollars in a Ponzi scheme that collapsed four years ago this month.A lawyer by training, Peter Madoff is the second figure in the scandal to be sentenced. His older brother, Bernard, pleaded guilty in March 2009 and is serving...

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Fearful 'end of world' calls, emails flood NASA as Dec. 21 nears

If there's one government agency really looking forward to Dec. 22, it's NASA.The space agency said it has been flooded with...

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Spoiler Alert: First 3-D Printed Records Sound Awful

The needle drops and a series of high, repetitive whines come from the album. Then a crackling sound, and a muffled guitar riff. Finally, Kurt Cobain’s voice — audible, but distant and hollow, like he is singing in a tunnel with a scarf over his mouth.It’s about the worst version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” you could find. But it is awesome all the same for its totally unique medium. This...

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China’s airing of ‘V for Vendetta’ stuns viewers

BEIJING (AP) — Television audiences across China watched an anarchist antihero rebel against a totalitarian government and persuade the people to rule themselves. Soon the Internet was crackling with quotes of “V for Vendetta‘s” famous line: “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”The airing of the movie Friday night on China Central Television...

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DealBook: Leniency Denied, UBS Unit Admits Guilt in Rate Case

UBS on Wednesday became the first big global bank in more than two decades to have a subsidiary plead guilty to fraud.UBS, the Swiss bank, scrambled until the last minute to avoid that fate. A week ago, in a bid for leniency over interest-rate manipulation, the bank’s chairman traveled to Washington to plead his case to the Justice Department, according to people briefed on the matter. Knowing the...

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Jury awards $6.9 million to boy molested by L.A. Unified teacher

A jury has awarded $6.9 million to a 14-year-old boy who was molested by a Los Angeles Unified School District teacher when...

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Text Adventure: <cite>Zork</cite> Creators Honored With Pioneer Award

In the days before graphics, computer games had to entice players with nothing more than a well-turned phrase.Whether you prefer to call them “text adventures” or “interactive fiction,” games played with nothing but writing and verbal commands were a significant part of the early days of interactive entertainment. At the forefront of the medium were the designers of...

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Tom Hooper, Mychael Danna join crowded slate of Palm Springs honorees

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Les Miserables” director Tom Hooper and “Life of Pi” composer Mychael Danna are the latest awards-season hopefuls to be added to the slate of honorees at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, PSIFF organizers announced on Tuesday.The two will join a list of honorees that in recent days has expanded to include Helen Mirren, Richard Gere, Bradley Cooper and Sally...

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Irish Government Set to Allow Abortion in Rare Cases

DUBLIN — The Irish government said Tuesday that it was preparing to allow abortion under limited circumstances in an effort to comply with demands by the European Court of Human Rights to clarify the country’s legal position on the issue. Cathal Mcnaughton/ReutersA vigil was held in Dublin on Monday in memory of Dr. Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist who died after being...

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Newport Beach dock renters may withhold holiday love

Marcy Cook embraces the holiday season. The tell? Start with the teddy bears dressed as Santa. More than 1,500 stand sentry...

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Intellectual Ventures: Why the Patent System Needs Aggregators Like Us

The U.S. patent system borrowed from mainland Europe a concept that had evolved over hundreds of years: the “moral right” for inventors to protect their ideas. But America’s founders went even further – they also included the obligation for inventors to publish.This extra part of the deal was ingenious: It has been key to America’s history as a global leader in innovation.Because inventors...

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