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BEIJING (AP) -- China on Saturday successfully carried out the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades, the next stage in an ambitious space program that aims to eventually have a Chinese astronaut set foot on the moon. The unmanned Chang'e 3 lander, named after a mythical Chinese goddess of the moon, touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor following a 12-minute landing process.

Surprising Findings: - Traditional hospitals, according to 57% of people, will be obsolete in the future - Majority of people (84%) would be willing to share their personal health information to advance and lower costs in the health care system - More than 70% of people are receptive to using toilet sensors, prescription bottle sensors and swallowed health monitors - 72% of those surveyed would be willing to see a doctor via video conference for non-urgent appointments - 66% of people say they would prefer a care regimen that is designed specifically for them based on their genetic profile or...

"..........Experts point out that troubled information technology projects aren't unusual in private companies either. But the government's problems, involving taxpayer money, are pervasive and add up to billions in waste. Washington will spend more than $76 billion this year on information technology. A federal report in January found that 700 projects, accounting for $12.5 billion, were in trouble. "Clearly the federal IT system is broken," said Michael Krigsman, an industry analyst who is often hired to analyze project failures. The problems seen with HealthCare.gov are not unique, he said. "There are whole strings of failed IT projects where everybody points...

The US Justice Department is intervening in a private lawsuit against H&R Block for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. H&R Block is a large provider of American tax services and informational services for tax payers.

Samsung's next generation flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S5, is the most hotly-anticipated mobile launch since the Nexus 5. Its release (rumoured to be in January 2014) also means that - for what we think is the first time ever - the world's top mobile phones will all have a 5 in the title. We for one welcome the age of the Nexus 5, Samsung Galaxy S5 and iPhone 5S. Before we get ahead of ourselves, we've rounded-up all the rumours about the device's specs, price and features - including a possible eye scanner and a CRAZILY high-res screen. Plus...

The phrase “chemistry set” is embedded in the collective unconscious, but try to actually call one to mind. What does a chemistry set look like? What does it include? What can you do with it? If you’re anything close to being a millennial, you probably have only vague answers to these questions. If you’re a little older, however, you probably remember one of the classic sets that is responsible for our powerful (if nonspecific) connection to the concept of a chemistry set. Chief among these, in many people’s eyes, is the Gilbert Chemistry Set, which inspired untold numbers of young...

"It's not my dog. He didn't bite you. Besides, you kicked him first." Thus the trial lawyer's complete defense. And President Obama's too when it comes to the epic fail of Obamacare: "He didn't know it was so badly constructed." "It's working better now." "And besides, the state exchanges are running so smoothly that they prove the concept is a good one. Too bad those Republican governors blocked other state exchanges" This last bit of malarky seems to have been swallowed whole by a media eager to spin for the floundering, fading, 37% approval-rating president. One example: The reliably left-wing...

There’s a reason why a lot of the world’s top investors, like Warren Buffett, don’t invest in technology—it moves too fast. And it’s too hard to track whether the hot stock or idea of today will be worth anything in five years. Buffett famously references the auto industry when he talks about his aversion to technology stocks. There were hundreds of car companies in the U.S. during the early part of the 20th century, but only a handful survived and made investors any money over the long haul. The big question is, are we in a bubble right now? First,...

Someone may have posted something on this already...Scary concept and has a little too close to real feel... http://www.dragondaymovie.com/?video=video-8-3

ISON May Be Starting to Disintergrate. ( 3:32 ) Latest Images, http://spaceweathergallery.com/index.php?title=comet Solar,Comet and Quake Links, http://www.bpearthwatch.com

This past month, the Illinois State Supreme Court determined the state’s affiliate nexus law—a law requiring out-of-state companies with advertising affiliates in the state to collect and remit sales tax—violated federal law. In the majority opinion, Justice Anne Burke ruled that Illinois’ attempt to force collection of sales tax by out-of-state retailers based on their decision to use in-state online advertising rather than traditional print advertising represented a discriminatory taxation regime on the Internet and therefore violated the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act. No one understands the significance of last month’s Illinois State Supreme Court decision better than FatWallet founder...

Bureaucracy: In his interview last week with NBC News, President Obama tacitly admitted that the government that he has put in charge of the nation's health care system is virtually incapable of handling it. "It is so bureaucratic and so cumbersome that a whole bunch of it doesn't work or it ends up being way over cost." No, that wasn't some hard-core Tea Party lawmaker calling for a radical downsizing of the federal government. That was Obama attempting to explain how it is that his administration could fail to build a working website despite spending 3-1/2 years and hundreds of...

Fudan University in Shanghai is to study China's historical figures such as Confucius and the early emperors through modern DNA technology, Beijing Times reports. The studies follow the latest findings published on Monday on Cao Cao, a warlord who lived nearly 2,000 years ago in final years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It debunked rumors that Cao's father Cao Song was fostered by comparing the DNA of Cao's living descendents and that found in the teeth of Cao's grandfather. Han Sheng from Fudan University, who led the Cao Cao research, says it is a breakthrough in the fields of both...

Edward Snowden's stolen secrets and the dismal failure of the rollout of Obamacare is giving electronic technology a bad name. But blaming high-tech tools is more like blaming the messenger. We have to work harder to master the secrets of the Internet, but the human element remains our biggest weakness. It's hardly news that the screening process for giving Snowden access to sensitive data was deeply flawed. So, too, were the instructions to the National Security Agency that enabled the abuse of the rest of us. For whatever good intentions the NSA might have had, the snoops cost America the...

Dish Network said on Wednesday it will close all 300 or so retail locations of the Blockbuster video rental chain by January, closing a chapter on a brand that failed to compete in the digital world. Dish plans to lay off as many as 2,800 employees. Dish, the second-largest U.S. satellite TV company, bought the failed Blockbuster LLC video rental chain in a bankruptcy auction in 2011 for $320 million, a dramatic fall for a brand that at its peak in 2002 had a market value of $5 billion.

Weighing only 0.56 ounces (16 grams), the Black Hornet looks like a tiny toy helicopter. But it's really a nano-size piece of military hardware unlike anything on the battlefield today... The Black Hornet nano drone, which can be carried in a soldier's pocket, has an onboard camera that gives troops video and still images of hard-to-access places.

Excerpt: Yes, you can get a ticket for driving while wearing the new eyewear-like Google Glass wearable computer, which is now being tested nationwide for possible entry into the consumer market. Cecilia Abadie, 44, who lives in Temecula and works at a golf store in San Diego, got just such a ticket Tuesday night after being stopped for speeding by a California Highway Patrol officer. Quickly, Abadie posted a note on the Internet: "A cop just stopped me and gave me a ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving! ... Is Google Glass illegal while driving or is this cop...

We no longer have to play at goblins and ghosts on Halloween. We've got real snoops and authentic spooks, and they're plenty scary, reading our mail and tracing us through social media. Safety and security are the crucial domestic interests in the high-tech world where we all live. We feel helpless in trying to keep control over our most minute musings; we're sure that Big Brother is watching us, and not necessarily to watch over us. It's the season when doubts and fears, some real and some not, assail. We're frustrated with the breakout of Obamacare, which betrayed its...

In today's knowledge economy, high-tech firms and high-paying, high-tech jobs are key factors in economic growth and prosperity. Some economists have estimated that every high-tech job creates an additional five or so spinoff jobs, a significant ripple effect through the economy.A new analysis by Michael Mandel of the Progressive Policy Institute identifies 25 leading locations for high-tech information jobs. While much research on high-tech meccas looks at the metro level, Mandel's study identifies the concentration of high-tech jobs by county, which offers a closer look at clustering and agglomeration.The map below, by the Martin Prosperity Institute's Zara Matheson, shows the 25...

Why does the White House need a private-sector "tech surge" to repair its wretched Obamacare website failures? Weren't all of the president's myriad IT czars and their underlings supposed to ensure that taxpayers got the most effective, innovative, cutting-edge and secure technology for their money? Now is the perfect time for an update on Obama's top government titans of information technology. As usual, "screw up, move up" is standard bureaucratic operating procedure. Let's start with the "federal chief information officer." In 2009, Obama named then 34-year-old "whiz kid" Vivek Kundra to the post overseeing $80 billion in government IT spending....