Wash. Pot Smokers Celebrate as Feds Stand Back

Marijuana smokers breathed a puff of relief today as they lit up legally for the first time in Washington state and were not cited, ticketed, or arrested for what is still a federal offense."There are no federal agents out there busting people," Seattle police Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said today, hours after a new state law legalizing pot went into effect.Seattle police spokesman...

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Gay 'conversion therapy' enters the courtroom

FROM condemnation to the courts. Gay "conversion therapy", the controversial counselling for gay people who wish to change their sexuality, is now in the dock. Last week, four men in New Jersey filed a civil suit under the state's Consumer Fraud Act against...

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Dublin unveils sixth austerity budget

DUBLIN: Bailed-out eurozone member Ireland on Wednesday launched its sixth austerity budget aimed at raising 3.5 billion euros via painful taxation hikes and public spending cuts.Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, unveiling his latest budget before parliament, said however that there were clear signs that the worst of the nation's financial crisis was over."There are manifest signs...

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RIP, rear-projection TV

CNET Senior Editor Scott Stein poses in front of a 92-inch Mitsubishi TV. It's one of the last of its kind.(Credit:Sarah Tew/CNET) Rear-projection TV is dead, and there's little reason to think the technology will pull a Lazarus anytime soon. On Monday Mitsubishi confirmed it has already ceased production of its last RPTVs, and told TWICE that inventory is almost gone. "The decision to exit the category...

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Scientific Results From Challenger Deep

Jane J. Lee The spotlight is shining once again on the deepest ecosystems in the ocean—Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (map) and the New Britain Trench near Papua New Guinea. At a presentation today at the American Geophysical Union's conference in San Francisco, attendees got a glimpse into these mysterious ecosystems nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) down, the former visited by filmmaker...

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John McAfee Seeks Asylum, Thanks God for 'Sanity'

Eccentric software tycoon John McAfee, wanted for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor, has made his escape from Belize to Guatemala, where he told ABC News he will be seeking asylum."Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," McAfee said. "I chose Guatemala carefully."McAfee, 67, has been on the run from police in the Central American country of Belize...

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Today on New Scientist: 4 December 2012

'Magnetic highway' found at solar system's edge NASA's Voyager 1 has detected a zone where charged particles can race along magnetic field lines linking the solar system with interstellar spaceBack-to-basics money shot shows a cent's battle scars The euro has taken a bit of a battering of late - and not just in the financial markets. See how a 1-cent coin looks through a powerful microscopeBattling...

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Fugitive McAfee seeks asylum in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY: American Internet pioneer John McAfee, wanted for questioning over the murder of his neighbor last month in Belize, is seeking political asylum in Guatemala, his lawyer said Tuesday.McAfee, 67, amassed huge wealth as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur in the 1990s, designing the hugely popular anti-virus software that bears his name and remains a leading industry product to...

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Massive day-one update won't be bundled in Wii U until 2013

TheWii U's massive update that runs after booting the hardware won't be bundled in the console for at least a few months.Speaking to Gamasutra in an interview published today, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said that the out-of-the-box update will be pushed out over the Web for the next few months. After that, Nintendo will install it in itsWii U hardware before shipping consoles to...

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Pictures We Love: Best of November

Photograph by Qais Usyan, AFP/Getty ImagesThe family of a five-year-old Afghan girl, victim of an alleged rape by a 22-year-old man, sits at her hospital bedside in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, on November 12. News agencies reported that the assailant, a neighbor, was later detained by police.(Read about the continued struggle of women in Afghanistan in National Geographic magazine.)Why We Love It...

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