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Oh, Good! A Commercial!

Follow this logic: A television show, even one you like, becomes more enjoyable if...it's interrupted by commercials. It doesn't matter what the commercials are, or whether they're any good -- just the fact of the interruption makes the show seem...

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February 27, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (22)

Flying Colors

To the naked eye, Comet Lulin may have a vaguely pale green look when it passes about 38 million miles from Earth on Tuesday. We're told it's already been visible where the sky is clear and city lights don't interfere,...

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February 20, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (8)

Galileo. Winemaker? Fashion Designer?

We are coming up on 400 years now since Galileo Galilei made a discovery that changed the way we look at the world. Quick -- no peeking -- do you recall what it was? A. He calculated the force of...

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February 19, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (23)

Race and IQ: Should Scientists Even Study It?

It is one of the most sensitive debates in modern society. Arguments over whether race affects intelligence have gone on for generations, and today, in competing commentaries, scientists in the journal NATURE are debating whether the issue should even be...

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February 12, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (96)

Get Shorty

You know about Twitter, right? The website-turned-phenomenon that allowed people to send short -- 140 characters or less -- updates about where they were and what they were doing? Like all good things that draw an audience, Twitter users are...

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February 10, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

Easter Eggs

Go into Google Maps and enter the following address: 450 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, PA 15212. Click on Street View. (Brief pause while you open a new window on your computer and give it a try.) It should work, but if...

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February 9, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (6)

Mixed Signals

The digital TV switch seems to rub everyone the wrong way -- even though people seem split over whether to delay it, even though people seem to agree that there are bigger issues the nation is facing right now. On...

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February 6, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (39)

A Snake the Size of a Bus

Have a phobia about snakes? Then be grateful you lived 60 million years later than Titanoboa cerrejonensis. It was at least 42 feet long. It probably weighed more than 2,500 pounds. It was big enough to eat a cow, as...

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February 4, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (32)

Did Humans Help Cause the Great China Earthquake?

Earthquakes, whether you're a believer or an actuary, are "acts of God." We humans do not have the power to predict, stop, or cause them. Or so we think. We all jumped a bit at a headline in The Telegraph...

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February 3, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (43)

Google Rules the Waves

John Hanke, the entrepreneur who started what is now Google Earth, has slowly been taking over the universe. He already had the earth in glorious detail. Now he's added Mars and the heavens and -- correcting one minor oversight --...

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February 2, 2009 | Permalink | User Comments (3)