Conn. Shooting: Town Mourns as Police Seek Clues

Members of the shattered community of Newtown, Conn., struggling to come to grips with the loss of 20 children and six adults massacred by Adam Lanza, faced a new shock today when a threat was made against a church that many of the victims and their families attend.The St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church was evacuated during a noon service as armed police officers swarmed around...

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Zebrafish made to grow pre-hands instead of fins

PERHAPS the little fish embryo shown here is dancing a jig because it has just discovered that it has legs instead of fins. Fossils show that limbs evolved from fins, but a new study shows how it may have happened, live in the lab. ...

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Golf: South African Horne hits second successive hole-in-one

MALELANE, South Africa: South Africa's Keith Horne hit a second successive hole-in-one at the Alfred Dunhill Championship on Saturday and drove away a brand new BMW for his efforts.The 41-year-old Horne celebrated his achievement at the same par-3 12th hole at the Leopard Creek Estate."Unbelievable. It was the same club, but the wind was different, so I had to hit a full eight-iron this...

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Can a MP3 sound better than a high-resolution FLAC or Apple Lossless file?

A great-sounding recording will sound its best only when it's properly mastered to LP, SACD, DVD-Audio, or a high-resolution file. Those formats will reveal the full glory of the music in ways that lower-resolution formats like MP3 or analog cassette always miss. But if you didn't have access to the high-resolution file to compare it with, a great recording will still sound pretty terrific as an AAC,...

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Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National GeographicThe aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles...

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'Good Evidence' on Massacre Motive

Police indicated today they have "some very good evidence" about the motive behind Adam Lanza's massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and said that the sole person to survive being shot by Lanza will be "instrumental" in the probe.Authorities also finished the grim task of identifying all of Lanza's 27 victims, which included 20 children. Families, who already feared...

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Today on New Scientist: 14 December 2012

Global cuteness increased by discovery of new loris Three new species of Bornean slow loris have been discovered, quadrupling the world's cuteness indexTime-travelling 3D tour shows birth of Eiffel Tower Watch an ultra-realistic 3D reconstruction that lets you experience Paris through the agesWarning, speedsters: you can't fool quantum radar A technique borrowed from quantum cryptography could...

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Clashes in Egypt on eve of divisive referendum

CAIRO: Stone-throwing clashes broke out Friday in the Egyptian city of Alexandria between Islamists and opposition protesters, on the eve of a highly charged referendum on a new constitution, witnesses and state media said.Fifteen people were wounded, according to medics, and several cars set on fire in the violence in the Mediterranean city, Egypt's second largest.State television showed...

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Latest Steve Jobs action figure remarkably detailed

Legend Toys' Steve Jobs figure kicks back with an iPad. The Japanese caption says "Apple is always in my heart."(Credit:Legend Toys)You know the holidays are getting close when Steve Jobs action figures start to appear. We've seen a few toy tributes to Jobs from Chinese companies. There was a kerfuffle in January of this year when Hong Kong toymaker In Icons bowed to pressure from Jobs' family and...

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Pictures: Unspoiled Rivers

Photograph by David Doubilet, National GeographicA bushman paddles a canoe along the Okavango River, southern Africa's fourth longest waterway. The Okavango starts in Angola and 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) later drains into Botswana's Moremi Wildlife Reserve, where it creates an unusual landlocked, delta-like oasis in the Kalahari Desert.This oasis, protected by the reserve, is a near-pristine...

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