Powerball's $580-million jackpot inspires wishes, dreamers

Don't bother telling Wednesday night's Powerball winners  that a lottery is just a tax on those who flunked math....

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Netflix Gambles on Big Data to Become the HBO of Streaming

Reed Hastings has a dream. Actually, it’s more of an obsession. The Netflix CEO wants his streaming video service to become the next HBO, but without the hassle of a cable subscription. It’s a bold plan, and if Netflix can pull it off, it’ll change the way you watch TV.Netflix is gunning for the HBO original-content legacy. Its first exclusive series, Lillyhammer, debuted in January 2012....

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R&B star Mary J. Blige sued for defaulting on $2.2 million loan

(Reuters) – R&B star Mary J. Blige was hit with a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging the Grammy winner and her husband defaulted on a $ 2.2 million bank loan.According to court documents filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Signature Bank is seeking to recoup the original loan plus $ 58,000 in interest.Blige, 41, who has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide, and her husband Martin...

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The New Old Age Blog: New Help for Hoarders

There were times, Sandra Stark remembers, when she couldn’t use her kitchen or sit on her sofa. Her collections — figurines, vases, paperweights — had overtaken every closet, drawer and surface. Stacks of clothing and old magazines added to the clutter.Her daughters came in and threw everything away — to Ms. Stark’s horror — but a year later her home was again barely navigable. “I couldn’t throw out...

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The Next War: In Federal Budget Cutting, F-35 Fighter Jet Is at Risk

Luke Sharrett for The New York TimesVice Adm. David Venlet was named to lead the Joint Strike Fighter program in 2010 after problems had left it behind schedule and over budget. LEXINGTON PARK, Md. — The Marine version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, already more than a decade in the making, was facing a crucial question: Could the jet, which can soar well past the speed of sound, land at sea like...

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Twin car bombs in Damascus kill at least 34 people

Dozens of people were killed Wednesday morning in four consecutive explosions that rocked a pro-regime suburb of the Syrian...

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Geek Researcher Spends Three Years Living With Hackers

When you’re starting off as an anthropologist, you aim is to explore a subculture your peers have yet to uncover, spending years living with the locals and learning their ways.That’s what Gabriella Coleman did. She went to San Francisco and lived with the hackers.Coleman, an anthropologist who teaches at McGill University, spent three years living in the Bay Area, studying the community that...

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Leads, director of Motown musical visit Hitsville

DETROIT (AP) — The stars of the upcoming Broadway musical about Motown Records have read pretty much every book about and listened to every song from that golden era of American music.The research only took them so far, so they decided to come and see Hitsville, U.S.A., for themselves.Brandon Victor Dixon, who portrays the label’s founder, Berry Gordy, and Valisia LeKae, who plays its signature songstress,...

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The New Old Age Blog: Doctor's Orders? Another Test

It is no longer news that Americans, and older Americans in particular, get more routine screening tests than they need, more than are useful. Prostate tests for men over 75, annual Pap smears for women over 65 and colonoscopies for anyone over 75 — all are overused, large-scale studies have shown.Now it appears that many older patients are also subjected to too-frequent use of the other kind of testing,...

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Facebook Gift Store Urges Users to Shop While They Share

SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is already privy to its users’ e-mail addresses, wedding pictures and political beliefs. Now the company is nudging them to share a bit more: credit card numbers and offline addresses. James Best Jr./The New York TimesFacebook Gifts is a service that prompts users to buy things for friends on the social network. Sharing Even MoreWhat...

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Much talk, little action on 'fiscal cliff' as Congress returns

WASHINGTON — Congress returned to a lame-duck session with no signs of quick compromise to ease the nation's budget deadlock,...

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Munich Subway Photos Resemble Abandoned Kubrickian Spacecraft

Nick Frank likes to summarize his approach to photography with one phrase: “Reduce to the max.”Get to the point. Remove all distractions. It’s a framework that lends itself well to Frank’s series on subway stations in Munich, Germany, where he lives.“Pictures are often overloaded with information so what I’m doing is trying to flatten the image until you see the essence of the main subject,”...

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New Zealand becomes Middle Earth as Hobbit mania takes hold

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand‘s capital city was rushing to complete its transformation into a haven for hairy feet and pointed ears on Tuesday as stars jetted in for the long-awaited world premiere of the first movie of the Hobbit trilogy.Wellington, where director Peter Jackson and much of the post production is based, has renamed itself “the Middle of Middle Earth“, as fans held costume parties...

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The New Old Age Blog: New Efforts to Close Hospitals' Revolving Doors

In the past, the only thing a patient was sure to get after a hospital stay was a bill. But as Medicare cracks down on high readmission rates, hospitals are dispatching nurses, transportation, culturally specific diet tips, free medications and even bathroom scales to patients deemed at risk of relapsing.Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., has nurses visit high-risk patients...

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Military's dogs of war also suffer post-traumatic stress disorder

LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas — Not long after a Belgian Malinois named Cora went off to war, she earned a reputation for sniffing...

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Alt Text: How to Tell Real SEALs From Basement-Dwelling Posers

The White House recently congratulated the makers of Troop ID, a service designed to help online merchants securely identify members of the armed forces. This was a significant recommendation, the first software application to be publicly praised by the president since he canceled a 2009 press conference in order to play Doodle Jump.While I’m happy that troops will be able to claim their 10...

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Dog bite sidelines ‘Dirty Dozen’ trumpeter Towns

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Dirty Dozen Brass Band trumpeter Efrem Towns is recovering at home in New Orleans from a vicious attack by a Rottweiler at an Atlanta motel.He missed performances in Colorado and New Orleans after the attack on Nov. 18, and doesn’t know if he’ll make the band’s next scheduled gig on Dec. 28, The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/XOJoNr) reported.He and baritone sax player Roger Lewis...

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Agency Investigates Deaths and Injuries Associated With Bed Rails

Thomas Patterson for The New York TimesGloria Black’s mother died in her bed at a care facility. In November 2006, when Clara Marshall began suffering from the effects of dementia, her family moved her into the Waterford at Fairway Village, an assisted living home in Vancouver, Wash. The facility offered round-the-clock care for Ms. Marshall, who had wandered away from home several times. Her husband...

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Solar power plants burden the counties that host them

When it comes to attracting business to California's eastern deserts, Inyo County is none too choosy.Since the 19th century...

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Tracking Mars: Curiosity Makes Its Mark on the Red Planet

Since Curiosity landed on mars on Aug. 6, the rover has traveled hundreds of feet over the Martian surface. In the process, it has tracked up the sandy, dusty terrain, leaving tire marks, scoop divots, Morse code and one tiny piece of itself behind.Unlike the Apollo astronauts' footprints on the moon, Curiosity's trails will probably be wiped away by the planet's frequent wind and sand storms. But...

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‘Gangnam Style’ most watched YouTube video ever

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean rapper PSY‘s “Gangnam Style” has become YouTube’s most viewed video of all time.YouTube says in a posting on its Trends blog that “Gangnam Style” had been viewed 805 million times as of Saturday afternoon, surpassing Justin Bieber‘s “Baby,” which has had 803 million views.The blog says the “velocity of popularity for PSY’s outlandish video is unprecedented.”PSY’s...

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Indian Prostitutes’ New Autonomy Imperils AIDS Fight

Kuni Takahashi for The New York TimesSex workers in Mumbai’s long-established red-light district, where brothels are dwindling. MUMBAI, India — Millions once bought sex in the narrow alleys of Kamathipura, a vast red-light district here. But prostitutes with inexpensive mobile phones are luring customers elsewhere, and that is endangering the astonishing progress India has made against AIDS. ...

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