US shuttle carries first teacher into space
CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) – The US space shuttle Endeavour orbited Earth on Thursday, carrying the first teacher in space 21 years after the Challenger explosion ended the dreams of another “educator astronaut.”

San Francisco Wi-Fi issue goes to ballot
SAN FRANCISCO – This freewheeling city can’t seem to agree if free wireless access to the Internet is such a great idea.

University to build speediest supercomputer
By 2011, the University of Illinois should be the home of the world’s fastest supercomputer.

Computers for 3-Year-Olds
Toy and PC makers are rolling out computers and digital tools for the youngest audience yet

Dell Offers Virtual Path to Linux on Desktop
Dell Inc. hopes to push the open source Linux operating system into the corporate desktop environment using virtualization so alternative Linux operating systems can more easily be run alongside Windows systems from Microsoft Corp.

IBM launches system to track medications
NEW YORK – To help the pharmaceutical industry combat drug counterfeiting, IBM is launching an electronic pedigree system Thursday that tracks medications through the supply chain until they reach consumers.

Bats Burn More Sugar Faster Than Top Athletes
Nectar-feeding bats burn sugar faster than top-class athletes, making them the fastest sugar-metabolizing mammals on Earth, according to a new study.

Low-Cal Sweets Might Still Make Kids Obese
Taste is a cue to overeat, research suggests

Plastics Chemical of ‘Some Concern’ for Fetal, Child Health
Government panel notes that bisphenol A is ubiquitous in bottles, CDs, packaging.

Scientists develop new test for liver cancer
LONDON (Reuters) – A simple blood test can detect early stage liver cancer and more accurately diagnose a disease that is a major killer in Asia and Africa, researchers said on Wednesday.

Secret to Overcoming Shyness Revealed … Tentatively
People can overcome their shyness with preparation followed by slowly engaging themselves in new social situations, according to psychologists.

Bad bosses get promoted, not punished?
NEW YORK (Reuters) – How do people get ahead in the workplace? One way seems to be by making their subordinates miserable, according to a study released Friday… “The fact that 64.2 percent of the respondents indicated that either nothing at all or something positive happened to the bad leader is rather remarkable — remarkably disturbing,” wrote the study’s authors.
Anyone who has worked in corporate America is intimately familiar with this phenomenon.  Scott Adams has made a fortune documenting it.

Astronomers Find New Star ‘Family’
Astronomers have spotted a small group of young stellar “siblings” in a dusty stellar nursery 848 light-years away. The finding, made using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, could reveal more clues about the formation of and interactions among cosmic families made up of hundreds of gravitationally bound stars.