Wall Street cuts losses after constructive talk on fiscal cliff

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks pared losses on Friday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 turning positive, after congressional leaders said their meeting with President Obama about the “fiscal cliff” was constructive.The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 15.59 points, or 0.12 percent, at 12,557.97. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index <.SPX>...

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Jamaica to abolish slavery-era flogging law

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaica is preparing to abolish a slavery-era law allowing flogging and whipping as means of punishing prisoners, the Caribbean country’s justice ministry said Thursday.The ministry said the punishment hasn’t been ordered by a court since 2004 but the statutes remain in the island’s penal code. It was administered with strokes...

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How Obama’s Tech Team Helped Win the Election

The Obama campaign‘s technologists were tense and tired. It was game day and everything was going wrong.Josh Thayer, the lead engineer of Narwhal, had just been informed that they’d lost another one of the services powering their software. That was bad: Narwhal was the code name for the data platform that underpinned the campaign and let it track voters...

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Springsteen, McCartney, Kanye set for Sandy show

NEW YORK (AP) — Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band and Kanye West will hit the stage at a Superstorm Sandy benefit concert next month at Madison Square Garden.MSG announced Thursday that Billy Joel, The Who, Alicia Keys and Jon Bon Jovi will also perform at the Dec. 12 show, dubbed “12-12-12.” More performers will be announced at...

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The Coffee Bean’s Endangered Gene Pool

Is the world’s coffee supply threatened by global warming? A recently published scientific study concludes that as much as 99.7 percent of wild Arabica coffee—the bean that accounts for 70 percent of the global market– may fall victim to rising temperatures by 2080. Farmers will still be able to cultivate Arabica coffee–at least for a while–but the bean’s...

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Canada’s Carney says rate hikes “less imminent”

TORONTO (Reuters) – Interest rate hikes have become less imminent than the Bank of Canada once expected, although rates are still likely to rise, central bank Governor Mark Carney said in an interview published on Saturday.“Over time, rates are likely to increase somewhat, but over time, so a less imminent timing relative to our expectation,” Carney said...

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‘Angry Birds Star Wars’ Is More Addictive Fun Fans Want [REVIEW]

Last month, Rovio announced a major partnership with Lucasfilm to create Angry Birds Star Wars. The game, out this week, represents a hybrid of the two powerful brands, and provides enjoyable gameplay for fans of both franchises.[More from Mashable: Viral Video Recap: Memes of the Week] For those unsure about the union,...

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Wakeman reworks rock epic Journey to Centre of Earth

LONDON (Reuters) – The story behind the upcoming re-issue of Rick Wakeman‘s 1974 concept album “Journey to the Center of the Earth” sounds almost as unlikely as the Jules Verne tale that inspired it.Progressive rock veteran Wakeman had presumed the original orchestration to his chart-topping disc was lost for good when his record company MAM, where the...

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Scientists map domestic pig’s genome

LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists have mapped the genome of the domestic pig in a project that could enhance the animal’s use in the testing of drugs for human disease.A study, published in science journal Nature, identified genes that could be linked with illnesses suffered by farmed pigs, providing a reference tool for selective breeding to increase their...

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Death, Facebook and the Blurred Line Between Real and Virtual

As the dividing line between our online and offline lives continues to fade, more and more of what happens in the “real” world is also seeping into the online world—and that includes death. So how should we deal with it when our friends or loved ones die? I started thinking about this recently when I decided to live-tweet a friend’s funeral (something...

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