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UCLA researchers have designed a device that can use solar energy to inexpensively and efficiently create and store energy, which could be used to power electronic devices, and to create hydrogen fuel for eco-friendly cars. The device could make hydrogen cars affordable for many more consumers because it produces hydrogen using nickel, iron and cobalt — elements that are much more abundant and less expensive than the platinum and other precious metals that are currently used to produce hydrogen fuel. “Hydrogen is a great fuel for vehicles: It is the cleanest fuel known, it’s cheap and it puts no pollutants...

A retired visiting judge ruled Monday that subpoenas issued to employees in the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office were improper, then refused to hear any additional testimony on a reported FBI investigation of the DA. Judge Douglas Shaver, the retired 262nd District Judge in Harris County, quashed subpoenas that named employees of District Attorney Abel Reyna and invalidated the subpoenas seeking specific evidence, which meant none of Reyna’s employees would be forced to testify on the issue raised by F. Clinton Broden, a Dallas lawyer who is representing a Hewitt man in the Twin Peaks cases. In late October Reyna...

A US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, also known as a submarine hunter, is now assisting in the search area. The official said that the waters of the Atlantic Ocean where the sounds originated are extremely deep. The official stressed that search efforts thus far have yet to locate the submarine. The Argentinian military has been working with a US company that specializes in satellite communication to determine the location of the submarine. The ARA San Juan submarine and its 44 crew members were traveling from a base in southern Argentina's Tierra del Fuego archipelago to their home port in Mar...

Location-Based Prompts When Bell was on to some new idea and feeling a surge of inspiration, he could work with obsessive focus. “There is a sort of telephonic undercurrent going on [in my mind] all the while,” the inventor told his wife Mabel, explaining that he had “periods of restlessness when my brain is crowded with ideas tingling to my fingertips when I am excited and cannot stop for anybody.” During such times, Bell went without food or drink, and asked that no one, not even Mabel, disturb him, lest such interruptions burst the gossamer threads of his emerging ideas....

Video at link is 10 minutes 15 seconds in duration. The vlogger demonstrates Google's new biased search results.

For months, District Attorney Abel Reyna and his staff made clear they were champing at the bit to try strapping, 35-year-old Dallas Bandidos chieftain and locomotive engineer Jake Carrizal before any of the other bikers rounded up after the deadly 2015 shootout at Waco’s Twin Peaks restaurant and watering hole. Consequently, many of us in the peanut gallery leaned closer to better understand, perchance appreciate, Reyna’s strategy of legally pursuing 154 bikers on identical organized crime charges, as opposed to the more discriminating capital murder charges Waco police originally contemplated. So much for that idea. The Nov. 10 mistrial only...

Two people were killed when a wrong-way driver crashed into another vehicle along the 118 Freeway in Porter Ranch early Sunday, according to the CHP. The California Highway Patrol began hearing reports of a car driving west along the eastbound carpool lane of traffic at a high-rate of speed about 12:25 a.m. Stringer video captured the wrong-way driver along the 118 in San Fernando. About 12:30 a.m. the wrong-way driver crashed head-on into another vehicle along the eastbound side of the highway near De Soto Avenue, according to the CHP log. The vehicles, which were mangled in the crash, were...

Tiffany Ariana Trump’s instagram dress has some serious staying power, and Twitter can’t seem to get enough of last week’s Instagram picture of her in the super sexy mini dress. With the conversation revolving around Donald Trump’s youngest and low-profile daughter, many are digging deeper into Tiffany Trump’s personal life and are curious about her boyfriend, Ross Mechanic. The picture of Tiffany Trump’s minidress took on a life of its own recently. On Google Trends over the past seven days, netizens conducted droves of searches about the aspiring attorney: “Tiffany Trump dress,” “Tiffany Trump colored dress,” “Tiffany Trump sheer dress,”...

The Al Franken scandal was briefly covered on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update" segment. And considering it's SNL, they were surprisingly tough on him. Video is at the link.

Graduate students at the University of Nebraska and other universities around the country are raising concerns over one provision of the broader tax overhaul approved on a party-line vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday. Tuition waivers offered to graduate students and those in doctorate programs are not taxed as income under current tax laws, but the bill introduced by House Republicans would remove that exemption. If that provision remains intact after Senate consideration, graduate students receiving a tuition waiver — about 0.05 percent of the U.S. population — would essentially be taxed on money they never receive. Brandy...

Out of all the things I’ve grown to love in the U.S., Thanksgiving is probably at the top of my list. It is by far my favorite holiday, and I get great joy out of hosting and cooking my “mind” off during the days prior. What I love most about it is that it’s probably the most American event you can imagine: It is all-inclusive as it allows all of us to celebrate family, friends and love without determining if somebody "qualifies" to partake based on their religion, race or nationality. It is a true “one size fits all” holiday,...

...The island nation is a paradisiacal land of jade hills dotted with grazing sheep, golden-sand beaches surrounded by Jurassic Park-like jungles, snow-capped peaks that rise steeply from azure fjords, and pastoral villages serving gourmet meals and world-class wine. Brown spends his days as if he is campaigning across this terrain. He gladhands mayors and their constituents, bearing patriotic gifts: US-New Zealand flag pins, and military challenge coins imprinted with Brown’s signature. He introduces himself to chambers of commerce, noting that he, too, was once a business owner. And he connects with Kiwis over rock music and rugby, trying to parry...

GAC Motors expects to start shipping cars to the US in 2019 but will probably change the name from Trumpchi firstHere in America we’ve grown accustomed to goods made in China. We walk around in Chinese-made shoes, talking on Chinese-made phones through Chinese-made headphones. There’s one major industry where the average American consumer really hasn’t made the leap. That’s the auto industry. However, that may be about to change. According to the NY Times, Chinese automaker GAC Motor is planning to begin selling cars in the US by the end of 2019. The company hopes to be the first...

Farting, breaking wind, cutting the cheese, or gas. The English language has numerous words for flatulence and this is even before we devolve into the subcategories that make up the genre. Whatever you call it, farting is a taboo act, but it is also a source of fascination. It’s not for nothing that there is a popular children’s book series called Fart Squad or that the preview of the most recent installment of the Alvin and the Chipmunks dynasty led with the punchline, “Sorry, pizza toots.” Today farting is something for which we perfunctorily ask forgiveness, but in the past...

A man who always joked that he didn't want to venture into the afterlife hungry got his wish when he was buried with two cheesesteaks from his favorite sandwich shop — Pat's King of Steaks in Philadelphia. According to his grandson, Dominic Lussi, when asked what he wanted to take with him when he died, Richard Lussi replied, "What do you think? Pat's cheesesteak!" "No onions," his grandson said he would say, "because they'll come back to haunt me."

At eight minutes after four yesterday afternoon, McLennan County, Texas District Attorney Abelino Reyna filed a motion to quash a hearing Monday at which he and three other members of his office – Michael Jarrett, Amanda Dillon and Heather Nering – have been subpoenaed to appear. The hearing was scheduled because Dallas Attorney Clint Broden intends to call Reyna as a witness in the trial of his client, former Scimitar Motorcycle Club member Matthew Clendennen. Broden thinks Reyna’s testimony may be impeachable. The Scimitars are a support club for the Cossacks Motorcycle Club. On May 17, 2015 Cossacks crashed a...

Well, he has already lost his head. This would just make it official. If the Islamic State gets the chance to make this image a reality, perhaps Pope Francis will be able to remind his killers, just before the blade slices into his neck, that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” “Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14) Just a few days after circulating a propaganda poster depicting a jihadist driving toward the Vatican,...

Making his debut on November 18, 1928, we commemorate the birth of that ever lovable mouse that was once a rabbit called Oswald. To get to the beginning of the story, we have to go back to 1927 when Walt Disney first sketched a floppy eared bunny while under contract to Universal Studios. The events that unraveled brought us Mickey Mouse. From a rabbit named Oswald to a mouse named Mortimer, eventually, the squeaky-voiced rodent was dubbed Mickey. He flopped in two animated short films without any success. Then on November 18, 1928, Mickey’s star was born. The first animation...

Equine therapy — which Anthony Weiner participated in at a Meadows-style facility called Recovery Ranch in Nunnelly, Tenn. — encourages sex addicts, many of whom may be emotionally calloused from their desires to deceive loved ones, to rediscover how it feels to take care of another living being. “You go into a big arena and there are horses,” said the source. “Ten of us spent 20 or 30 minutes walking around and interacting with the horses. We got a sense of their personalities and talked about it when we got back. You talked about how the horses responded to you...

A British man sentenced to life behind bars earlier this year for beating his 2-day-old daughter to death was himself found dead in his prison cell Sunday, murdered by a fellow prisoner. Liam Deane, 22, was killed by prisoner John Westland, 28, who was charged afterward and appeared in court for his initial hearing this Tuesday, according to the Yorkshire Evening Post. While the nature of the murder — specifically, how and why it was committed — remains unclear, it’s known that Deane was sentenced to life in prison in October for the horrific murder of his daughter, Luna.