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Chunks of the massive Chinese rocket that recently took an uncontrolled plunge back into the Earth’s atmosphere narrowly missed hitting New York City, according to a report. Had the Long March 5B rocket re-entered the atmosphere about 15 to 20 minutes earlier on Monday, it would have rained debris on the nation’s largest metro area, according to Ars Technica, a technology-focused publication. The about 100-foot-long rocket was launched on May 5, carrying an unnamed prototype of a newly designed Chinese crew capsule. After about a week in orbit, the 20-ton core stage of the rocket fell back into the atmosphere...

Black smoke has been seen billowing from China’s first assault carrier in Shanghai. The new Type-075 carrier, which is similar to the U.S. Navy’s America Class assault carriers, is designed to carry helicopters and hovercraft to support amphibious landings. The smoke was reported on Chinese social media platforms earlier today. Images suggest that the fire took hold within the hull of the ship, possibly in the expansive aircraft hanger. Smoke came out of the open aircraft lift near the front of the island superstructure. Smoke also came out of the rear hangar opening. For a time a massive cloud of...

From the Rolling Stones to Styx, music T-shirts are are the biggest thing in vintage clothing right now—even if buyers have never even listened to the band.

That's what one hears as the giant retailer sops up the vitality from middle-class families, local communities, and the national economy . This happens in three different but related ways. First, there's the clobbering of Main Street: Wal-Mart moves in on the edges of towns, and the much smaller downtown merchants, unable to match its prices, soon go under. Second, there's the miserable wage and benefits package offered by Sam Walton's creation. And third, there's Wal-Mart's purchasing strategy, which seems to be about buying American-made products only as a last resort -- to the point that today Wal-Mart, by itself,...

Every year or so I like to see how Microsoft is doing in its attempt to make a desktop operating system as usable as Linux. Microsoft Windows XP, Home Edition, with Service Pack 2, is a tremendous improvement over previous Windows versions when it comes to stability and appearance, but it still has many glitches that keep it from being competitive with GNU/Linux for everyday users, including a tedious installation procedure, lack of productivity software included with the operating system, hardware compatibility problems, and a price so much higher than any of the Linux distributions I've tested lately that I...

As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has grown into the nation's biggest grocer, St. Louis is one place where its Supercenters have been curiously scarce. Now, Wal-Mart says the area needs more of its grocery megastores. "We really like St. Louis," said spokesman Ryan Horn. "We're looking very closely at a number of places in the St. Louis area, and that's not going to change." A lot of others wish it would.

ROGERS, Ark. -- Wal-Mart is "good for America" and the barrage of criticism against the company is an effort to protect the status quo in retailing, President and CEO Lee Scott said Tuesday in a sharp attack on organized labor and retail rivals. Addressing about 50 journalists gathered at the company's media conference -- it first ever media event – Mr. Scott defended its wages and health care plans, criticized by labor groups as inadequate, and said that the company is able to save customers big money as it drives costs out of its system. "Innovation and competition tends to...

It sounds counterintuitive. But a new report says the secret to retailers' survival in a Wal-Mart world isn't about attempting to outrun the 800-pound retail gorilla but about the ability to maneuver around it, according to a recent study entitled "Outsmarting Wal-Mart" from the global retail practice unit of New York-based consulting firm Bain & Company. So who's thriving in a Wal-Mart world? The report's authors, Darrell Rigby and Dan Haas, picked Best Buy (Research) in consumer electronics; Walgreen (Research) in pharmacy products; Wal-Mart's arch-rival Target (Research) in the discount arena; PetsMart (Research) in pet supplies; and privately held regional...