Mar
02

In burglary-plagued Oakland, it's easy to pick on this workshop

OAKLAND — Burglaries have plagued just about every corner of this beleaguered city of late: Last year, Oakland averaged one...
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Listen to David Bowie's First Album in 10 Years for Free Online (Legally)

You don’t have to wait until March 12 to find out whether David Bowie’s first album in a decade is more Tin Machine than Low; the long-awaited The Next Day is already available, streaming in full on iTunes for a limited period pre-release.The stream continues Bowie’s current interest in previewing content from the album for free online before release; videos for both...
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U.S. Judges Offer Addicts a Way to Avoid Prison

Todd Heisler/The New York TimesEmily Leitch of Brooklyn, with her son, Nazir, 4, was arrested for importing cocaine but went to “drug court” to avoid prison. Federal judges around the country are teaming up with prosecutors to create special treatment programs for drug-addicted defendants who would otherwise face significant prison time, an effort intended to sidestep drug laws widely seen as inflexible...
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Economix Blog: Bernanke Defends Stimulus as Necessary and Effective

The Federal Reserve’s chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, picked an unusual time to offer his most recent defense of the Fed’s campaign to stimulate the economy: 7 p.m. on a Friday night in San Francisco, 10 p.m. back home on the East Coast.The basic message was the same as Mr. Bernanke delivered to Congress earlier this week: The Fed regards its current efforts as necessary and effective, and the risks, while...
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Mar
01

Bell jurors ordered to begin anew after panelist is dismissed

After nearly five days of deliberations, jurors in the Bell corruption trial were ordered Thursday to begin anew after a member...
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Verbal Java: Meaning-Based Language Can Be Instantly Translated

LONG BEACH, California — Software written in the Java programming language can be written once and then run on all sorts of computers without being recompiled. An emerging system for human communication, Free Speech, performs a similar trick: Encode information once in Free Speech and it could be instantly rendered into any language.Using Free Speech, a news publisher could disseminate articles...
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The New Old Age Blog: Why Can’t I Live With People Like Me?

“Aging in place” is the mantra of long-term care. Whether looking at reams of survey data, talking to friends or wishing on a star, who among us wouldn’t rather spend the final years — golden or less so — at home, surrounded by our cherished possessions, in our own bed, no cranky old coot as a roommate, no institutional smells or sounds, no lukewarm meals on a schedule of someone else’s making?That...
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F-35 Jets Returned to Service by Pentagon

The Pentagon lifted its grounding of the new F-35 jet fighter on Thursday after concluding that a turbine blade had cracked on a single plane after it was overused in test operations. The office that runs the program said no other cracks were found in inspections of the other engines made so far, and no engine redesign was needed. It said the engine in which the blade cracked was...
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Feb
28

DNA science points to better treatment for acne

Ancient Egyptians were vexed by it, using sulfur to dry it out. Shakespeare wrote of its "bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and...
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LaserOrigami Turns Your Laser Cutter Into a Folding Factory

Researchers at the Hasso Plattner Institute have worked out a way to make 3-D objects using only a 2-D laser cutter. They call it LaserOrigami.When you own a laser cutter, careful calibration is key. Get the focal length wrong and, instead of a nice clean cut, you end up with a blurry burn pattern. LaserOrigami takes this problem and turns it into a feature. By aiming a de-focused laser...
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