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In Google Maps , the distance-measuring tool offers a choice of three unit systems: Metric, English or “I’m Feeling Geeky.” If you click the third one, you’re offered a long list of, ahem, somewhat uncommon measurement units, including parsecs, Persian cubits, and Olympic swimming pools. Mac OS X’s text-to-speech feature, meanwhile, lets you endow your Mac with any of dozens of different human voices. Each speaks a funny sample sentence.

These days, software engineers’ overlords generally don’t tolerate true, secret Easter eggs. The bosses argue that such surprises are untested, may be incompatible with the software company’s public image, and (when they feature the programmers’ names) amount to “poach me!” ads for rival companies’ headhunters.

Sci saw this paper being tweeted around the internets recently, a paper on the evolution of overconfidence . It seemed like a really interesting and cool paper, and I was kind of surprised that no one had covered it

Like a pit bull, piranhas will tear the flesh from your bones. Also like a pit bull, they bark

Hopes for new Alzheimer's drugs that would slow or stop the disease's inexorable decline have repeatedly foundered in recent years. Large pharmaceutical companies, which have pushed ahead with drugs that stop the buildup of toxic proteins that damage and kill brain cells, have reported a recurring string of bad news.

As many as 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia among adults over 60 years of age. That figure could reach 115 million by 2050 , concludes the nonprofit Alzheimer's Disease International .

As many as 35 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia among adults over 60 years of age.

By Lauren Gravitz of Nature magazine One can't squeeze blood from a turnip, but new research suggests that a bit of transgenic tweaking may make it possible to squeeze blood--or at least blood protein--from a grain of rice.

By Lauren Gravitz of Nature magazine One can't squeeze blood from a turnip, but new research suggests that a bit of transgenic tweaking may make it possible to squeeze blood--or at least blood protein--from a grain of rice. [More]

WAYCROSS, Ga.--Pawn shops, diners, churches and pine trees. Hundreds of thousands of pine trees.

WAYCROSS, Ga.--Pawn shops, diners, churches and pine trees. Hundreds of thousands of pine trees. [More]

After being tossed about and damaged by the tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, Japan's drilling ship the Chikyu has been given an especially fitting assignment: to drill into the fault zone and take temperature measurements near the epicentre of the magnitude-9.0 Tohoku earthquake that caused the tsunami. It will be the first time that researchers have drilled into an underwater fault soon after a quake. The aim of the exercise is to solve a decades-old mystery about the part that friction plays in such an event

After being tossed about and damaged by the tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, Japan's drilling ship the Chikyu has been given an especially fitting assignment: to drill into the fault zone and take temperature measurements near the epicentre of the magnitude-9.0 Tohoku earthquake that caused the tsunami. It will be the first time that researchers have drilled into an underwater fault soon after a quake.

Anxiety around children's eating habits often peaks during sweets-laden holidays like Halloween, but the factors that contribute to excess weight in kids extend well beyond special occasions. Most children who are obese--now 17 percent in the U.S.--will carry that extra heft into adulthood, along with the long-term health consequences

Anxiety around children's eating habits often peaks during sweets-laden holidays like Halloween, but the factors that contribute to excess weight in kids extend well beyond special occasions.