Health-Exchange Deadline Looms

All of the Affordable Care Act, also known as "Obamacare," doesn't go into effect until 2014, but states are required to set up their own health care exchanges or leave it to the federal government to step in by next year. The deadline for the governors' decisions is Friday.The health insurance exchanges are one of the key stipulations of the new health care law. They will offer...

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UK government urged to consider relaxing drug rules

JUST say yes to considering relaxed drug controls, urged a panel of UK parliamentarians this week - but Prime Minister David Cameron has rejected the calls. Many countries have loosened their penalties for drug use, including the Czech Republic and Portugal, which...

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Unsafe ride-on animal toy recalled

SINGAPORE: SPRING Singapore has found that a toy given out as a free gift contains unsafe levels of phthalates, commonly used as a plasticiser in toys. The free gift comes in the shape of cows, deers and ponies. SPRING had sent samples of the toy for testing in response to a consumer's complaint.As a precaution, SPRING had asked the retailer Aura Roboclean Singapore Pte Ltd to immediately...

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Google Maps returns to iOS as an app after Apple's removal

Screen shots of Google's new Maps app for iOS.(Credit:Google)Once banished from Apple's iOS, Google Maps has returned to the mobile platform in the form of a standalone app.The official Google Maps app returned to Apple's App store this evening. As expected, the new app includes turn-by-turn navigation, just like itsAndroid counterpart, as well as public transit directions, and its Street View.However,...

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Hubble Discovers Oldest Known Galaxy

The Hubble space telescope has discovered seven primitive galaxies formed in the earliest days of the cosmos, including one believed to be the oldest ever detected.The discovery, announced Wednesday, is part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field campaign to determine how and when galaxies first assembled following the Big Bang."This 'cosmic dawn' was not a single, dramatic event," said astrophysicist...

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McAfee Lands in Miami: I'm Free

Software mogul John McAfee has been released from detention in Guatemala City and has landed in Miami.Immediately upon landing, according to passengers on the plane, McAfee's name was called and he was whisked off the aircraft. Federal officials escorted the 67-year-old Internet antivirus pioneer through customs spirit him out a side door, out of the view of reporters, according...

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Today on New Scientist: 11 December 2012

Out-of-season's greetings from the Arctic frost flowers Season's regards from an icy meadow in the Arctic, but it's no winter wonderland and please don't dash out into itHow hacking a mosquito's heart could eradicate malaria Watch how a double-pronged trick helps mosquitoes remain healthy while carrying disease, a process that could be exploited to eliminate malariaNew drug lifts hard-to-treat...

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UN Security Council to meet over N. Korean launch

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday to discuss North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket in defiance of threats of sanctions, a Western diplomat said."The Japanese and the Americans have requested a Security Council meeting, which will take place late Wednesday morning" around 11:00 am (1700 GMT), the diplomat said.Japan's chief government spokesman Osamu Fujimura...

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Start-Ups Silicon Valley Ep. 6: Booty calls and booted dolls

Hermione sans dildo.(Credit:BravoTV Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)Last week, we left our protagonists on "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" hanging on the end of a strap-on. No, wait. It was Hermione (blonde, British, boozer) who was hanging on to a strap-on at the end.Her brother Ben (short, pretty, pretty short) was livid with her, even though it was her birthday party. One doesn't play with sex...

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Best Space Pictures of 2012: Editor's Picks

Photograph courtesy Tunç Tezel, APOY/Royal ObservatoryThis image of the Milky Way's vast star fields hanging over a valley of human-made light was recognized in the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition run by the U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich.To get the shot, photographer Tunç Tezel trekked to Uludag National Park near his hometown of Bursa, Turkey. He intended to watch the moon...

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