the new shelton wet/dry

A Swedish mobile phone operator acknowledged Tuesday it was behind an elaborate meteorite hoax in Latvia and pledged to reimburse the Baltic nation for all costs spent by police, rescue and military workers in the incident.

Acoustic Kitty was a CIA project launched in the 1960s attempting to use cats in spy missions.

After nine months of being nearly invisible, George W. Bush made his debut in his latest incarnation: motivational speaker. Bush, who is writing a book about the dozen toughest decisions he had to make, used much of his 28 minutes onstage to talk about lighter topics such as picking out a rug design for the Oval Office that reflected his “optimism.”

“On the occasion of that summit, a shower was specially installed in the Grand Palais in Paris at a cost of €245,000 for the personal use of the president. Mr Sarkozy never used it.”

What do turn of the century lab rats, clutch NBA players like Michael Jordan, and Wall Street’s highest-paid executives have in common?

New study shows that raising kids makes married people happier.

A warm room makes people feel socially closer.

Was our oldest ancestor a proton-powered rock? A few researchers, including Russell, have been rethinking the origin of life in the light of Mitchell’s ideas. They think the most counter-intuitive trait of life is one of the best clues to its origin.

Amputees who feel phantom limbs can learn to do physically impossible body tricks.

Mona Lisa’s smile a mystery no more. It happens because our eyes are sending mixed signals to the brain about her smile.

Eating red meat significantly increases a post-menopausal woman’s chance of breast cancer, research suggests.

Just 1 cigarette has harmful effect on the arteries of young healthy adults.

Here, a male and female bed bug have found each other, but sometimes a male bed bug will mistake another male for a good mating partner.

Economy grows by 3.5 percent, signals recession may have ended, though analysts warned that it was fueled largely by government recovery programs. More: The 1st question to ask about GDP is the degree of inorganic/artificial gains.

Russian lenders are seeking to recoup losses by accepting a range of collateral, including lingerie and pigs.

If we look at the 5 factors NBER considers — GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales — it’s somewhat ambiguous to say unequivocally that the recession is over.

Can Google stay on top of the web? As Bing, Facebook, Twitter, and less well-known upstarts nip at its heels, Google has hundreds of wizards racing to come up with smarter answers. Related: 10 things Google has taught us.

Why Windows 7 costs so much.

Wicked URL shortening.

Icelandic collapse complete. McDonald’s is fleeing the country. Related: Iceland crushed by Europe [map].

U.S. throw away enough food to feed the entire world. New York City alone has an annual surplus of about 50 million pounds of food.

Today Medellín (Colombia) is safer, more tourist-friendly and more economically and socially stable than ever before, due in part to what the two men accomplished by matching design with innovative social policies and political determination.

North Carolina sea levels rising 3 times faster than in previous 500 years, Penn study says.

Overpopulation is often singled out as the planet’s root problem. If only it were that simple. Leading thinkers on population can’t agree on what the answers – or even the questions – are.

Pollution in China. [pics]

RightRides offers women, LGBTQ and gender queer individuals a free, safe, late night ride home on Friday and Saturday nights from 11:59 PM - 3 AM, (early Saturday or Sunday morning) in up to 45 NYC neighborhoods across four NYC boroughs. More info. [via Newyorkshitty.com]

NYPD increased the number of uniformed and undercover officers in Far Rockaway, Queens, after two women were raped 11 blocks from each other within a 27-hour period earlier this week.

82-story MoMA tower approved by City Council.

WIRED magazine will open its annual holiday pop-up shop Nov. 21 in the Meatpacking District.

Urs Fischer at the New Museum. [pics of the opening] Also: Rock photographers at the Brooklyn Museum. And next week: Dan Flavin at David Zwirner. [Press release | PDF]

My knowledge is limited, but I think placing an ad that kinda mocks illiterates in a NYC neighborhood with a higher percentage of illiterate people isn’t the smartest move.

A graphic history of newspaper circulation over the last two decades. Related: The plunge in U.S. newspaper circulation is accelerating. Average weekday circulation at 379 daily newspapers fell 10.6 percent.

My life and times in independent publishing.

Due to its climate change denial, and thanks largely to online media, Superfreakonomics is dead on arrival.

The painter James Rosenquist’s new memoir is an unexpected treat: a ruddy and humble book.