Norway's hot new title? The Bible, now outselling 'Fifty Shades of Grey' (via The Christian Science Monitor) Copyright ImageClick to View Actors rehearse a scene from ‘Bibelen,’ a six-hour play based on a nontraditional interpretation of the Bible that is currently...
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Bible sales outpacing ’50 Shades of Grey’ in Norway
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‘Boundless Informant’: the NSA’s secret tool to track global surveillance data
Revealed: The NSA’s powerful tool for cataloging data – including figures on US collection The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep...
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North and South Korea prepare to negotiate directly after years of mistrust
North and South Korea will sit down to their first talks for years on Sunday, confronting decades of mutual distrust in an apparent search for some positive end to months of soaring military tensions. The working-level discussions in the border truce village of Panmunjom are intended to pave the...
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Researchers warn: New ‘bird flu’ strains close to becoming pandemics
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found there isn’t much stopping the latest strains of the H5N1 and H7N9 flu viruses — also known as the “bird flu” — from being communicable from person to person. MIT News reported on Thursday that new...
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‘Palace Malice’ wins Belmont Stakes
Palace Malice seized the lead at the top of the stretch and won the $1 million, 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes on Saturday to become the third winner in three Triple Crown races this year. Trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by Mike Smith, Palace Malice insured that neither Kentucky Derby-winner Orb nor...
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National intelligence director slams ‘hyperbole’ in coverage of NSA data-mining program
The federal official in charge of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies criticized recent coverage of the data surveillance programs used by the National Security Agency (NSA) on Saturday, saying it was a misrepresentation and that it put the country at risk. While he supported advocating for...
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Attorney General Eric Holder under pressure to open more media leak investigations
By David Ingram and Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Attorney General Eric Holder appears to have little choice but to launch a new round of investigations into media leaks, the very issue that consumed him for the last month and led to renewed calls for his resignation. Holder’s...
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Suspected ricin-laced letter to CIA found at Spokane, Washington post office
(Reuters) – Postal workers in Spokane, Washington, on Saturday retrieved a wayward letter suspected of containing the deadly poison ricin that vanished for several weeks after it was sent from Washington state to a CIA address that does not receive mail, the FBI said. The envelope resembled...
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Tens of thousands defy Turkey’s Prime Minister with fresh protests
Tens of thousands of demonstrators packed the streets of Turkish cities in defiance of a call from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for them to end their civil uprising. The government said the protests were “under control” even as the largest crowds yet on Saturday packed every inch...
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Fires have burned 3 percent of Amazon rainforest in 12 years: NASA
The Brazilian Amazon harbours 40% of all remaining tropical rainforest, playing a vital role in global biodiversity conservation and climate regulation. (Alexander Lees/REUTERS) The size of the Amazon rainforest has been shrinking – and not just because of traditional…
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Swarmageddon’s fury: Cicadas invade Mid-Atlantic
Swarmageddon's fury: Cicadas invade N.J., pop culture (via NJ.com) WOODBRIDGE — Swarmageddon has arrived. Those red-eyed critters known as cicadas have cropped up all over the Garden State, and while their once-every-17-years emergence has entomologists giddy, unsuspecting New Jerseyans such...
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Maine Republican opposes Medicaid expansion because of his manly brain
Maine House Republican Minority Leader Ken Fredette cited his manly mind on Wednesday to explain why he was opposed to accepting federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage in the state. Speaking on the House floor, he said debate over Medicaid expansion reminded him of the book Men Are from Mars,...
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Southern Baptists vote to condemn Boy Scouts for accepting gay members
By Amanda Orr HOUSTON (Reuters) – The Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday voted to voice opposition to the Boy Scouts of America decision to admit gay members, saying that homosexual conduct is contrary to a scout’s oath to do his duty to God. The Southern Baptists, the...
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Scientists decry ‘the worst case of scientific censorship since the church banned Copernicus’
By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) – The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, magic mushrooms and other psychoactive substances amounts to scientific censorship and is hampering research into potentially important medicinal uses, leading scientists argued on Wednesday. Laws and international...
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U.S. charges eight hackers over alleged cyber theft of at least $15 million
By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) – Federal prosecutors in New Jersey on Wednesday unveiled criminal charges against eight people accused of trying to steal at least $15 million from U.S. customers in an international cybercrime scheme targeting accounts at 15 financial institutions and...
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Hands-free cell phone devices still pose driving risk: study
Speech-to-text devices in new cars fail to overcome the well-known perils of hands-on texting while driving, a US study published Wednesday suggests. Developing standards for measuring cognitive distraction behind the wheel, University of Utah researchers wired the heads of 32 drivers with sensors,...
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Gay men say online dating helped them accept their sexual orientation: study
Online dating websites help some gay men accept their sexual orientation, according to research published June 7 in New Media & Society. Nuno Nodin of the Instituto Superior De Psicologia Aplicada in Portugal and his colleagues investigated how the use of the Internet by gay men changed them in...
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Americans more likely than Japanese to focus on the goal rather than the process of actions: study
Research published this month in the scientific journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin has uncovered a cultural variation in the way American and Japanese people describe everyday actions. In their study, Yuri Miyamoto of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and her colleagues said...
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Math invades the U.S. House: Congressman rises to hail solution to the Boltzmann equation
A congressman from California provided an unusual sight on Wednesday: talk in the U.S. House of Representatives of geometrical fractional derivatives to solve 7-dimensional quantum equations. While legislators were giving predictable speeches on the economy and recent government scandals, Rep....
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Australian prime minister and Arnold Schwarzenegger join forces to fight climate change
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard joined forces with former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to urge global action on climate change, saying politics must be put aside. The unlikely pair met in Perth on Thursday and jointly penned an opinion piece that ran in News Limited newspapers....
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