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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Film defrocks church hierarchy over handling of sex abuse

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Four deaf Wisconsin men were some of the first to seek justice after suffering childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, and a new documentary about the Catholic Church‘s poor handling of such cases stemming from the Vatican seeks to make their voices heard.“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” explores the impact...

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Older Women With HER-2 Breast Cancer May Want to Reconsider Herceptin

FIRST PERSON | New research shows that older women with HER-2 breast cancers are at a higher risk for heart problems than previously thought. The risk is intensified when used as part of a cancer treatment containing anthracycline drugs for chemotherapy. Science Codex reports that Yale University published the study.At age 50, I do not consider myself...

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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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‘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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Diabetes rates rocket in Oklahoma, South

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s diabetes problem is getting worse, and health officials say the biggest changes have been in Oklahoma and a number of Southern states.The diabetes rate in Oklahoma more than tripled over 15 years, and also boomed in Southern states like Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama. Most cases are the kind...

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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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When Facebook insiders, employees can sell stock

On Wednesday, additional Facebook stock became eligible for sale for the first time. It follows the expiration of similar lock-up periods in August and October. Other shares will become eligible for sale in the coming months.Up to 1.56 billion more shares could flood the stock market — nearly four times the 421 million shares that had been trading since...

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Inyecciones epidurales de esteroides no alivian dolor del nervio ciático

NUEVA YORK (Reuters Health) – Las inyecciones de esteroidesno alivian la ciática, un trastorno común causante de dolor de piernas y espalda baja, según muestra una revisión de laliteratura médica.Tras analizar casi dos decenas de estudios sobre miles depacientes, un equipo de Australia determinó que las inyeccionesepidurales...

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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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Beating tax cheats key to Italy’s recovery plan

ROME (AP) — Good plumbers may be worth their weight in gold, but when one was spotted zipping around in a bright red Ferrari, Italian tax police were fast on his trail.Stamping out entrenched tax evasion is crucial to Premier Mario Monti‘s quest to keep Italy from succumbing to the European debt crisis, and it is critical to fellow eurozone members in...

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At Mao-style conclave, China embraces Twitter age

BEIJING (AP) — During China’s last party congress, the cadres in charge of the world’s most populous nation didn’t know a hashtag from a hyperlink. But five years on, there’s a new message from Beijing: The political transition will be microblogged.Party officials have this fall embraced social media with unprecedented enthusiasm, hoping it can help guide...

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