Shorts (right)
The odds that a falling satellite will kill you Friday are probably zero — but maybe not quite.
EU excludes members Romania and Bulgaria entry to bloc’s travel zone
BRUSSELS — Preoccupied with fears of increased migration from the south, the European Union told its two newest members, Romania and Bulgaria, on Thursday that they would have to wait to join the bloc’s passport-free travel zone.
Satellite to rain from sky
A dead NASA satellite looks to make it’s reentry into Earth’s atmosphere sometime in the afternoon Friday, EDT. This large hunk of space debris has been incapacitated and is tumbling towards a most spectacular plunge to the surface. NASA expects 26 sizable pieces to remain intact to the ground, the largest of which may be over 300lbs. Although the re-entry is predicted to leave a awe-inspiring trail in the sky over 500 miles long, don’t get your hopes up. The satellite is most likely to make its hard landing somewhere in Europe or Asia, depending on the exact time of reentry. If you are concerned about your friend overseas getting hurt by the debris, don’t worry. NASA has guesstimated a 1 in 3,200 chance of the satellite harming any human.
Study calls single-sex education misguided & stereotype-reinforcing
Single-sex education is ineffective, misguided and may actually increase gender stereotyping, a team of psychologists asserts in a paper to be published Friday.
Obama: $320 billion cuts in Medicare, Medicaid
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s budget director said Monday that the president’s new deficit reduction plan would impose “a lot of pain,” and that is clearly true of White House proposals to cut $320 billion from projected spending on Medicare and Medicaid in the coming decade.
Cameron and Sarkozy visit Libya, vow continued NATO effort
TRIPOLI, Libya — The leaders of Britain and France visited Libya on Thursday in a triumphal but heavily guarded tour intended to boost the country’s revolutionary leaders, whose forces were propelled to power with NATO’s help last month by routing Moammar Gadhafi and his military in the most violent conflict of the Arab Spring uprisings.
Shorts (left)
WASHINGTON — An armed drone operated by the CIA this week killed a top al-Qaida operative responsible for plotting terror attacks inside Pakistan, two U.S. officials said Thursday.
China consolidates grip on rare earths
BEIJING — In the name of fighting pollution, China has sent the price of compact fluorescent light bulbs soaring in the United States.
US to seek fines on oil firms for Gulf spill
WASHINGTON — The federal government will seek to fine BP, Transocean and Halliburton for violations tied to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the nation’s top offshore drilling regulator said Thursday.
Sunny but cooler weekend ahead
After experiencing warm temperatures most of this week, a cold frontal passage last night ushered in more fall-like weather. A high-pressure system will settle in to the region, bringing with it a much colder and drier air mass. While temperatures Monday through Thursday were 10°F above normal mid-60°Fs, temperatures this weekend could be as much as 10°F below normal. With clear skies and low wind speeds, the conditions tonight will be ideal for radiative cooling, allowing temperatures to drop into the mid 40°Fs.
White House weighs limits of terror fight
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s legal team is split over how much latitude the United States has to kill Islamist militants in Yemen and Somalia, a question that could define the limits of the war against al-Qaida and its allies, according to administration and congressional officials.
Shorts (right)
JERUSALEM — Senior U.S. and European diplomats tried without success Thursday to persuade the Palestinian leaders to skip or modify their planned U.N. membership bid, officials involved said.
Striking prediction: Abundance of US oil
A new report that predictably found huge potential natural gas supplies in the U.S. also contained news its own writers found surprising — that oil is more abundant than they thought.
Shorts (left)
Broadcom agreed Monday to buy NetLogic Microsystems for $3.7 billion in cash, in a bid to capitalize on the world’s surging data needs.
Wall Street recovers as new worries shake Euro markets
Shares on Wall Street closed mostly higher Monday despite fears of a deepening debt crisis in Europe that battered European markets and financial institutions suspected of being vulnerable to a possible Greek default.
Warm weather now, but cooling through the week
New England will not contend with any rain today, except for some afternoon clouds. A strong low pressure spinning in northern Quebec will funnel in warm, moist air from the southern U.S. This will raise temperatures well into the 80s°F for today and tomorrow. Then, a cold front should approach on Wednesday, providing an opportunity for some pop-up thunderstorms. A cooler air mass will follow the front’s passage on Thursday, as well as clear skies by the weekend.
Default rates for federal student loans rise sharply
The share of federal student loan defaults rose sharply last year, especially at for-profit schools, where 15 percent of borrowers defaulted in the first two years of repayment, up from 11.6 percent the previous year.
Shorts (left)
WASHINGTON — Ben S. Bernanke PhD ’79, the Federal Reserve chairman, offered a new twist on a familiar subject Thursday, revisiting the question of why growth continues to fall short of hopes and expectations.
Obama to Congress: ‘Pass this jobs bill’
WASHINGTON — Mixing politically moderate proposals with a punchy tone, President Barack Obama challenged lawmakers Thursday to “pass this jobs bill” — a blunt call on Congress to enact his $447 billion package of tax cuts and new government spending designed to revive a stalling economy as well as his own political standing.
Rain, rain, going away … for now
Here in Cambridge, everyone is griping about the miserable rain that dampened the first week of classes. However, we escaped the worst of the deluge that continues to cause unprecedented flooding throughout New York, Pennsylvania, and much of the interior Northeast.