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Fish Fare Futilely in Future pH

Scientific American Online - Thu, 2010-07-08 16:30

More carbon dioxide emissions lead to more CO2 dissolving in the oceans, which turns the water acidic. Those sour seas slow the growth of corals. And it turns out acidic seawater also makes clownfish and damselfish suicidally bold and reckless, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . [Philip Munday et al., http://bit.ly/blfQHy ] [More]

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Chrysler launches money-back guarantee

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 15:39
DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler Group LLC will offer consumers a 60-day, money-back guarantee on new vehicles and also make the first two months of payments for buyers, as it tries to shore up sales amid lackluster consumer confidence.


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June discounts help retail sales, may hit July

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 15:25
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. retailers relied heavily on promotions to boost sales in June, helping teen clothing chains and department stores, but the trend may hit margins as they head into the key back-to-school shopping season.


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Tropical depression soaks Mexico-Texas border

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 15:23
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - A tropical depression churned over Mexico's border with Texas on Thursday, dumping heavy rains on a region badly flooded by Hurricane Alex last week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.


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Three Britons found guilty in suicide bomb plot

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 14:25
LONDON (Reuters) - Three Britons were convicted on Thursday of plotting to murder hundreds of people in suicide bombings after being recruited by an al Qaeda-inspired cell bent on blowing up transatlantic airliners bound for North America.


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Joy in Spain, German misery after defeat

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 14:14
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Spaniards exploded in joy on Thursday after their team reached the World Cup final for the first time while Germany plunged into tearful misery following a semi-final defeat that ended their World Cup dream.


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Status Matters

Scientific American Online - Thu, 2010-07-08 14:00

The underdog creams a top-ranked opponent--and the crowd goes wild. But such a surge in the face of the odds is even more difficult than it appears, according to a recent study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology . If status is on the line, people try harder to win when they are pitted against lower-ranked opponents.

Psychologists Nathan Pettit of Cornell University and Robert Lount of Ohio State University asked Cornell students to perform simple tasks in teams--for instance, writing down as many possible uses for a knife as they could come up with. The researchers falsely told the students that they were competing against another university that was ranked higher or lower than Cornell--but they added that the tasks at hand were not indicative of academic performance, so the rankings should not predict which team would do better. When the students thought they were facing a lower-ranked school, they did better on the task.

[More]
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Joblessness and housing add risks to U.S. recovery: IMF

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 13:53
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High unemployment and a moribund housing market have increased risks to the U.S. economic recovery, while the public debt looms large and needs to be cut, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.


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Fresh faces add zest to Emmy nominations

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 13:43
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Quirky musical comedy "Glee" and 1960s advertising drama series "Mad Men" led the nominations on Thursday for primetime Emmy Awards in a cross section of new faces and old TV favorites.


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Will Your Plug-In Car Actually Be Coal-Powered? And Other July Stories

Scientific American Online - Thu, 2010-07-08 13:40

Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina and staff editor Michael Moyer join podcast host Steve Mirsky (pictured) to talk about articles in the July issue, including: "The Dirty Truth about Plug-In Hybrids"; "How Babies Think"; and "Birds That Lived with Dinosaurs". [More]

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Vatican set to revise rules on sexual abuse

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 13:28
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican next week will revise Church law on sexual abuse of children by priests, doubling a statute of limitations and introducing penalties for child pornography, Catholic Church sources said on Thursday.


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How Babies Think (preview)

Scientific American Online - Thu, 2010-07-08 13:00

Thirty years ago most psychologists, philosophers and psychiatrists thought that babies and young children were irrational, egocentric and amoral. They believed children were locked in the concrete here and now--unable to understand cause and effect, imagine the experiences of other people, or appreciate the difference between reality and fantasy. People still often think of children as defective adults.

But in the past three decades scientists have discovered that even the youngest children know more than we would ever have thought possible. Moreover, studies suggest that children learn about the world in much the same way that scientists do--by conducting experiments, analyzing statistics, and forming intuitive theories of the physical, biological and psychological realms. Since about 2000, researchers have started to understand the underlying computational, evolutionary and neurological mechanisms that underpin these remarkable early abilities. These revolutionary findings not only change our ideas about babies, they give us a fresh perspective on human nature itself.

[More]
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U.S. aims to detect cyber infrastructure attacks: report

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 12:13
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government is launching a program nicknamed "Perfect Citizen" to detect cyber assaults on private U.S. companies and government agencies running critical infrastructure, the Wall Street Journal said in its online edition.


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Tropical storm could hit Texas-Mexico border Thursday

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 11:46
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A tropical storm might hit the Texas-Mexico border Thursday afternoon, the U.S. National Hurricane Center forecast.


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Spain dream of final glory and emulating Brazil

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 11:37
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's progress to their first World Cup final was seen by local media on Thursday as another vindication of their elegant brand of attacking football.


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Norway arrests 3 al Qaeda-linked suspects over plot

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 11:00
OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian police arrested three men on Thursday suspected of planning an attack and having links to al Qaeda and people under investigation in the United States and Britain.


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Climate scientists praise report on hacked email scandal

Reuters - Thu, 2010-07-08 09:21
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Leading climate scientists on Thursday welcomed a British report that cleared researchers of exaggerating the effects of global warming and said they hoped it would restore faith in the fight against climate change.


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Cougar sex drive an evolutionary adaptation

Science A GoGo - Thu, 2010-07-08 09:10
As a woman's fertility begins to wane, the brain ramps up the libido in what researchers call "reproduction expediting," an adaptive response that makes women more willing to engage in one-night stands and adventurous sexual behavior in an effort capitalize on their remaining childbearing years...
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