Philippe Matthews Show Guru Advice, Author Reviews, Tech Reviews, Entertainment News

Mmmm, blueberries. It’s the height of the season, and I’ve been tossing a handful onto cereal, into pancakes or just straight into my mouth.

Kids spend an increasing fraction of their formative years online, and it is a habit they dutifully carry into adulthood. Under the right circumstances, however, a love affair with the Internet may spiral out of control and even become an addiction

The devastating string of tornadoes, droughts, wildfires and floods that hit the United States this spring marks 2011 as one of the most extreme years on record, according to a new federal analysis. Just shy of the halfway mark, 2011 has seen eight $1-billion-plus disasters, with total damages from wild weather at more than $32 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Agency officials said that total could grow significantly, since they expect this year's North Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1, will be an active one.

Dear EarthTalk : I heard that some reusable bags contain lead. Is this a major health concern?

Three new books reveal how we deal with suffering and trauma. A child who is bullied by her playmates may kick her kitten in retaliation. Passing pain to others is not just a human trait--payback can also be seen in many animals

Cosmic neutrinos could yield key insights, but detection devices would need to be the size of a star or galaxy In "Too Hard for Science?" I interview scientists about ideas they would love to explore that they don't think could be investigated. For instance, they might involve machines beyond the realm of possibility, such as particle accelerators as big as the sun, or they might be completely unethical, such as lethal experiments involving people. This feature aims to look at the impossible dreams, the seemingly intractable problems in science

FREEDOM AND COMMERCE The commentary by Jonathan Zittrain on “ Freedom and Anonymity ” [Forum] misses the point.

By Royston Chan ZHUJI, China (Reuters) - China has mobilized troops to help with flood relief and raised its disaster alert to the highest level after days of downpours forced the evacuation of more than half a million people in central and southern provinces. [More]

By Michael Taylor JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's freshly inked two-year forest moratorium was breached on its first day as a plantation company burned carbon-rich peatlands on Borneo island, an investigation by an environmental group said. [More]

By Eric Hand of Nature magazine Hadrian's villa 30 kilometers east of Rome was a place where the Roman Emperor could relax in marble baths and forget about the burdens of power. [More]

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By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to eliminate billions of dollars in support for the U.S. ethanol industry, sending a strong message that the era of taxpayer support for biofuels is ending. [More]

Help entomologists better understand ladybug species distribution across North America [More]

By Gerard Wynn LONDON (Reuters) - A widening shale gas revolution is killing the economics of renewable energy, even as falling costs allow wind and solar to overtake fossil fuels in niche areas, say energy executives and analysts.

It may seem slightly ridiculous to consider the prospects for a future solar-hydrogen economy at an institute for theoretical physics at the University of Waterloo in Canada. After all, Canada is the capital of unconventional oil , also known as oil sands, also known as tar sands, which supply more than a million barrels of oil per day to the U.S. And the primary use of today's existing hydrogen economy--a $200 billion a year proposition--is adding the energetic molecule to such unconventional oils to make them more palatable to the global energy infrastructure.