Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National GeographicThe aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles...

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Conn. Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'

Adam Lanza of Newtown, Connecticut was a child of the suburbs and a child of divorce who at age 20 still lived with his mother.This morning he appears to have started his day by shooting his mother Nancy in the face, and then drove her car to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, armed with two handguns and a semi-automatic rifle.There, before turning his gun on himself, he shot...

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Today on New Scientist: 13 December 2012

Violent beauty at the end of an Alaskan glacier You can almost hear the crash of ice on water in this stunning image of an ice sheet calving off the Chenega glacier in AlaskaOvereating now bigger global problem than lack of food The most comprehensive disease report ever produced confirms that, for the first time, there is a larger health problem from people eating too much than too littleIn...

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More land released for sale in early 2013

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of National Development (MND) has announced the Government Land Sales Programme for the first half of 2013 (1H2013).In a statement issued on Friday, MND said it will provide an adequate supply of private housing to meet continued demand from home buyers.There will be 12 private residential sites, including five executive condominium (EC) sites and a commercial and...

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Project Blitzkrieg warns of mass cyberattacks against U.S. banks

McAfee Global Threat Intelligence shows a vorVzakone malware campaign that targeted victims across the U.S. during a two-month period, with the latest victim infected on October 25.(Credit:McAfee Labs)The wave of distributed denial of service attacks that hit U.S. banks in October was next-to-nothing compared to what could happen if cybercriminals actually carry through with their plans for next year....

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Global Checkup: Most People Living Longer, But Sicker

If the world's entire population went in for a collective checkup, would the doctor's prognosis be good or bad? Both, according to new studies published in The Lancet medical journal.The vast collaborative effort, called the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010, includes papers by nearly 500 authors in 50 countries. Spanning four decades of data, it represents...

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Health-Exchange Deadline Looms

All of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," doesn't go into effect until 2014, but states are required to set up their own health care exchanges or leave it to the federal government to step in by next year. The deadline for the governors' decisions is Friday.The health insurance exchanges are one of the key stipulations of the new health care law. They will offer...

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UK government urged to consider relaxing drug rules

JUST say yes to considering relaxed drug controls, urged a panel of UK parliamentarians this week - but Prime Minister David Cameron has rejected the calls. Many countries have loosened their penalties for drug use, including the Czech Republic and Portugal, which...

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Asian markets mostly up after Fed move

HONG KONG: Asian stock markets mostly rose Thursday as the US Federal Reserve announced fresh monetary easing and said it would not lift interest rates until unemployment was under control.However, the gains were capped after the central bank's chief Ben Bernanke said the looming fiscal cliff of huge tax hikes and deep spending cuts was already hitting the economy.The yen continued its...

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Woman Tasered after trying to buy too many iPhones

Resisting arrest?(Credit:WMUR-TV Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Normally, when you hear screams outside an Apple store, it's because, oh, the doors have opened and there's a new gizmo for the insatiable.However, at the Apple store in the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H. on Tuesday, the screams were those of a 44-year-old Chinese woman being Tasered by police.As WMUR-TV reports, Xiaojie Li,...

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