Brown weighs parole for Manson family member

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown has about a month to decide whether to release a former follower of notorious killer Charles Manson...

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Navy's Next-Gen Binoculars Will Recognize Your Face

Take a close look, because the next generation of military binoculars could be doing more than just letting sailors and soldiers see from far away. The Navy now wants binoculars that can scan and recognize your face from 650 feet away.That’s according to a Jan. 16 contract announcement from the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, which is seeking a “Wireless 3D Binocular Face Recognition...

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DealBook: U.S. Accuses S.&P. of Fraud in Suit on Loan Bundles

The Justice Department late Monday filed civil fraud charges against the nation’s largest credit-ratings agency, Standard & Poor’s, accusing the firm of inflating the ratings of mortgage investments and setting them up for a crash when the financial crisis struck.The suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, is the first significant federal action against the ratings industry, which during...

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Robert De Niro cements place in Hollywood movies

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Double Oscar winner Robert De Niro cemented his place in acting history on Monday by placing his hands and feet in concrete in front of Hollywood‘s historic Chinese Theatre.De Niro, 69, gave a short thank you speech with a few punchlines of his own.“(Actor) Joe Pesci always said I’d end up with my feet in cement. I don’t think this is what he had in mind,” said De Niro, referring...

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Well: Expressing the Inexpressible

When Kyle Potvin learned she had breast cancer at the age of 41, she tracked the details of her illness and treatment in a journal. But when it came to grappling with issues of mortality, fear and hope, she found that her best outlet was poetry.How I feared chemo, afraidIt would change me.It did.Something dissolved inside me.Tears began a slow drip;I cried at the news storyOf a lost boy found in the...

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Ravens win Super Bowl XLVII over the 49ers, 34-31

Ravens 34, 49ers 31 (final)The Baltimore Ravens have defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.It's the second championship...

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Wired Science Space Photo of the Day: Wheatley Crater on Venus

Magellan radar image of Wheatley crater on Venus. This 72 km diameter crater shows a radar bright ejecta pattern and a generally flat floor with some rough raised areas and faulting. The crater is located in Asteria Regio at 16.6N,267E. Image: NASA/GSFC [high-resolution]Caption: N...

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New Questions Raised Over a Bank of America Settlement

Bank of America has long rued its decision in 2008 to acquire Countrywide Financial, the subprime mortgage giant. To date, the bank has set aside some $40 billion to settle claims of mortgage misconduct that occurred before it acquired the freewheeling lender. It has been a regular refrain at Bank of America. Last month, Brian T. Moynihan, the bank’s chief executive, told Bloomberg television...

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Beyonce brings electricity at Super Bowl halftime

Lights out? Blame Beyonce‘s electrifying performance.If naysayers still doubted Beyonce‘s singing’s talents — even after her national anthem performance this week at a press conference — the singer proved she is an exceptional performer at the Super Bowl halftime show.Beyonce opened and closed the performance belting songs, and in between she danced hard and heavy — and better than most contemporary...

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Phys Ed: Helmets for Ski and Snowboard Safety

Phys EdGretchen Reynolds on the science of fitness.Recently, researchers from the department of sport science at the University of Innsbruck in Austria stood on the slopes at a local ski resort and trained a radar gun on a group of about 500 skiers and snowboarders, each of whom had completed a lengthy personality questionnaire about whether he or she tended to be cautious or a risk taker.The researchers...

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