Son of Nick Van Exel sentenced to 60 years on murder conviction

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The World's Tweets Light Up the Globe in Stunning Live Visualization

It’s simple, but lovely. Web designer Franck Ernewein‘s real-time Twitter visualization, Tweetping, drops a bright pixel at the location of every tweet in the world, starting as soon as you open the page.The result is a constantly changing image that grows to look like a nighttime satellite shot, bright spots swarming over the most developed areas. But Ernewein has packaged it all in a subtly...

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CNN Temporarily Blacked Out in China During Segment on NYT Hacking

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Chinese censors temporarily blocked CNN International’s broadcasting signal Thursday night, during a segment about Chinese hackers infiltrating the New York Times’ computer network, a CNN spokeswoman told TheWrap.On Wednesday night, the Times reported that it had suffered four months of persistent cyber attacks after publishing a front-page story about the wealth amassed...

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Ferrol Sams, Doctor Turned Novelist, Dies at 90

Ferrol Sams, a country doctor who started writing fiction in his late 50s and went on to win critical praise and a devoted readership for his humorous and perceptive novels and stories that drew on his medical practice and his rural Southern roots, died on Tuesday at his home in Fayetteville, Ga. He was 90. The cause, said his son Ferrol Sams III, also a doctor, was that he was “slap...

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Americans Closest to Retirement Were Hardest Hit by Recession

David Maxwell for The New York TimesSusan Zimmerman, 62, has three part-time jobs. Michael Stravato for The New York TimesArynita Armstrong, 60, at her home in Willis, Tex. She last worked five years ago. “When you’re older, they just see gray hair and they write you off,” she says. In the current listless economy, every generation has a claim to having been most...

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Flu outbreak remains high, but waning, CDC says

Claude Flanagan receives a flu shot from Geneva Hill, a licensed vocational nurse, during a free flu vaccine clinic this...

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Game|Life Podcast Presents the Bad News Bonanza

Oh boy! Nintendo loses more money, Electronic Arts kills off Medal of Honor, Disney kills off Junction Point and a bunch more depressing stuff happened this week. So get ready for the bad news marathon on this week’s Game|Life. Wired senior editor Peter Rubin and I attempt to find silver linings in everything, and sometimes succeed. Sometimes.Plus we recorded this podcast...

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“30 Rock” closes its doors with a sentimental farewell

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Emmy-winning TV comedy “30 Rock” bowed out after seven seasons on Thursday with bittersweet farewells but giving all its zany characters a happy ending.The satirical show-within-a-show about the inside workings of a fictional television sketch series saw Tina Fey‘s hapless writer Liz Lemon try to round up her unruly cast for a last hurrah.Along the way, unpredictable sketch...

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Well: Gluten-Free Muffin Recipes

For people who need to eliminate gluten from their diet, baking becomes a challenge. Beginners often find gluten-free baked goods too dense. Even the Recipes for Health columnist Martha Rose Shulman didn’t like the flavor of a commercial gluten-free flour mix, which left her gluten-free cookies and tart-shells with a strong taste of bean flour. As a result, she created her own gluten-free mix for...

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DealBook: Dutch Government Takes Control of SNS Reaal

The Dutch government on Friday nationalized one of the country’s biggest financial institutions, SNS Reaal, after the troubled company failed to find a private sector buyer.The Dutch finance minister, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that the government would spend 3.7 billion euros ($5 billion) in taxpayer money to clean up the bank, which has struggled for years with unprofitable real estate loans. Mr....

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Senate Democrats huddle on gun measures

WASHINGTON – Vice President Joe Biden met Thursday with Senate Democrats to brief the caucus about the rationale behind the...

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German Activists Punch Out Big Brother's Eyes

It’s being called Grand Theft Auto for the surveillance generation, only instead of being played out in the digital world, it’s played out in the real world. And the object of the game isn’t to steal cars or pull off other underworld pranks but to take out Big Brother’s eyes by destroying CCTV surveillance cameras spread across the city.That’s the new game being played...

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A Minute With: Rapper T.I. dips into comedy in “Identity Thief”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Rapper Tip “T.I.” Harris has seen and done it all – three Grammy Awards, a novel, time in jail, a fashion line, TV reality show, businessman and several movies.Now the Atlanta-based singer is dipping into comedy, appearing in the film “Identity Thief” as an armed enforcer on the trail of a character played by Melissa McCarthy who is on the run from many of those she’s swindled.T.I.,...

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Well: Waiting for Alzheimer's to Begin

My gray matter might be waning. Then again, it might not be. But I swear that I can feel memories — as I’m making them — slide off a neuron and into a tangle of plaque. I steel myself for those moments to come when I won’t remember what just went into my head.I’m not losing track of my car keys, which is pretty standard in aging minds. Nor have I ever forgotten to turn off the oven after use, common...

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U.P.S. Posts a Loss and Forecasts Lower Profit

U.P.S. followed a stream of other big companies like Rockwell Automation and Northrop Grumman that were also weighed down by pension-related charges. A prolonged period of low interest rates is driving up companies’ pension costs. Even factoring out the $3 billion noncash pension charge, U.P.S., the world’s largest package-delivery company, reported a fourth-quarter profit that still missed...

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Patty Andrews dies at 94; Andrews Sisters' last surviving member

They were the swinging, sassy voice of the homefront for U.S. service personnel overseas during World War II, singing catchy...

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Disney's Innovative Animated Hybrid <em>Paperman</em> Debuts Online

For those who didn’t catch it in theaters when it accompanied Wreck-It Ralph at the tail end of last year, Disney Animation’s Paperman has debuted online, giving everyone a chance to look at the Oscar-nominated animated short that blends hand-drawn and computer-generated imagery in a beautiful, innovative way that might just look like the future of animation as a whole.The first thing...

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Lindsay Lohan could face jail after March trial in California

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Lindsay Lohan will stand trial on March 18 on charges she lied to California police about a June car crash and violated probation, raising the possibility she could be sent back to jail.A judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday set the trial date on charges related to the car crash and said the court will hold a hearing at the same time on whether Lohan in the incident violated...

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Well: Myths of Weight Loss Are Plentiful, Researcher Says

If schools reinstated physical education classes, a lot of fat children would lose weight  And they might never have gotten fat in the first place if their mothers had just breast fed them when they were babies. But be warned: obese people should definitely steer clear of crash diets. And they can lose more than 50 pounds in five years simply by walking a mile a day.Those are among...

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DealBook: Top Federal Prosecutor of Corporate Crime Resigns

1:42 p.m. | Updated with formal announcementLanny A. Breuer, the federal prosecutor who led the Justice Department’s response to corporate crime in the wake of the financial crisis, announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down after nearly four years in the post.As head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, one of the most senior roles at the agency, Mr. Breuer tackled corporate bribery...

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Senate overwhelmingly approves John Kerry for secretary of State

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to confirm Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) as the next secretary of State,...

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