Man-and-woman Mars trip by 2018? Can you say 'couples counseling'?

An artist's concept of a proposed Mars flyby spacecraft equipped with an inflatable habitat module.(Credit:Inspiration Mars)A wealthy space tourist announced plans today to launch a high-risk manned flight to Mars in 2018, sending a man and a woman on a bare-bones 501-day round-trip flyby, passing just 100 miles above the Red Planet before heading back to Earth.Dennis Tito, the first private citizen...

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Why African Rhinos Are Facing a Crisis

The body count for African rhinos killed for their horns is approaching crisis proportions, according to the latest figures released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). To National Geographic reporter Peter Gwin, the dire numbers—a rhinoceros slain every 11 minutes since the beginning of 2013—don't come as a surprise. "The killing will continue as long as...

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Holder Says Sequester Makes America Less Safe

The looming budget sequestration will make Americans less safe, Eric Holder says—and anyone who says otherwise isn't telling the truth."This is something that is going to have an impact on the safety of this country," the U.S. attorney general told ABC's Pierre Thomas on Wednesday in a wide-ranging, exclusive interview."And anybody that says otherwise is either lying or saying...

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Newly spotted comet to buzz Mars in 2014

Lisa Grossman, physical sciences reporterA Martian sunset, as seen by NASA's Spirit rover in 2005. (Image: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Texas A&M, Cornell, JPL, NASA)There's a new comet in town, and it is making a beeline for Mars. If projections of its orbit are correct, the icy visitor will buzz the Red Planet in October 2014.Dubbed C/2013 A1, the comet was discovered on 3 January by prolific...

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Batman to lose son Robin

NEW YORK: Batman may be able to save the world, but he'll lose his sidekick Robin -- who in his current incarnation as his son -- in the upcoming Batman Incorporated comic book series.DC Comics said the caped crusader's acrobatic young assistant, Batman alter ego Bruce Wayne's son Damian, will die in Wednesday's issue number eight."This master theme of damaged and ruined families was nowhere...

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Yelp: We compete with print -- not Google or Facebook

Google, who? Facebook, huh? Yea, that's right. The Internet behemoths don't pose any threat to business reviews site Yelp and its still-blossoming local advertising business. Well, that's Yelp's attitude anyhow. "Today, we're really competing with print, radio, and television," Geoff Donaker, Yelp's chief operating officer, said Tuesday when speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom...

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A History of Balloon Crashes

A hot-air balloon exploded in Egypt yesterday as it carried 19 people over ancient ruins near Luxor. The cause is believed to be a torn gas hose. In Egypt as in many other countries, balloon rides are a popular way to sightsee. (Read about unmanned flight in National Geographic magazine.)The sport of hot-air ballooning dates to 1783, when a French balloon took to the skies with a sheep,...

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Arias Liked Some Kinky Sex, She Admits

Though accused murderer Jodi Arias said she sometimes felt "like a prostitute" at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, she admitted today that she often enjoyed their sex life and even suggested sex acts they could try.Prosecutor Juan Martinez, after a day of aggressive questioning and bickering with Arias, asked her about her own suggestions for her sex life with...

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Today on New Scientist: 25 February 2013

First fruits of a groundbreaking art-science tie-up A pioneering collaboration between two of London's most prestigious cultural institutions shows that sci-art has come of ageThe great illusion of the self Your mind's greatest trick is convincing you of your own reality. Discover the elaborate illusions involved and what they mean in our special featureStunning seeds: a biological meteor wreathed...

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NY Times to rebrand Herald Tribune in its own image

NEW YORK: For a decade the International Herald Tribune has been the global edition of the New York Times in all but name. On Monday, the parent company made it official.In a statement, the New York Times Company said the 125-year-old offshoot of the defunct New York Herald Tribune will be rechristened sometime this fall as the International New York Times."The digital revolution has turned...

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