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'Kindle Worlds' Lets Authors Publish Fan Fiction — At Dubious Cost
Yesterday, Amazon announced the launch of Kindle Worlds — a way for fanfic writers to publish. But does the fine print make it more trouble than its worth?
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Exclusive: Congressman Preps Bill to End Terror War Authority
A prominent legislator thinks it's time for the broad post-9/11 law authorizing the war on terrorism to expire. And he's going to introduce a bill to repeal it.
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There's a Movie in the Works About the Bra Designers Behind the Apollo Spacesuits
Warner Bros. has tapped a new writer to pen a screenplay based on the book Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo, which chronicles the Playtex designers behind the NASA program's spacesuits.
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No Longer Dominating Its Market, TiVo Plots a Software Comeback
TiVo has become the Kleenex of the TV world -- a once dominant brand that's become a generic commodity. Yes, we still call recording a TV show "TiVoing." But as cable and satellite companies started offering their own DVRs and cheap streaming boxes from Roku, Apple and others flooded the market, TiVO has been increasingly marginalized and risks irrelevancy. That's changing, though, as the company moves beyond hardware to the far more lucrative world of software and licensing.
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Solar-Powered Plane Breaks World Record for Distance
Solar Impulse pilot Andr? Borschberg completed a record-setting flight in the wee hours this morning after flying more than 950 miles on solar power alone, even if he was, strictly speaking, going backward for part of the trip.
His impressive flight from Phoenix to Dallas completed the second leg of the Solar Impulse team's "Across America" ...
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A Natural History of Fluoride
Contrary to what many people believe, fluoride is not some evil scourge of industrial society. Wired Science blogger Deborah Blum debunks some anti-fluoride misinformation, and shares a natural history of the element.
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Not a Fan of Runways? This Off-Roading Jet Is for You
The Swiss love adding functionality to existing products. But you can only tack on so many corkscrews and tweezers to a knife, so one company decided to make a twin-engine jet that can take off and land without the luxury of a runway.
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Salesforce Nabs Open Source Database Guru for War on Oracle
The grudge match between Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and his former protege Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, has reached legendary proportions in recent years. Salesforce has now added more fuel to the fire, hiring Tom Lane, a core contributor to PostgreSQL, an open source database that provides an alternative to Oracle software.
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Obama Swears Drone Surge Is Done
Drone strikes will remain a fixture of U.S. counterterrorism. But President Obama, in a major speech, signaled that he's going to rein in their use.
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WikiLeaks Donations Down to a Trickle
As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange approaches the one-year anniversary of his confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, a report released Wednesday reveals that donations to the secret-spilling site have slowed to a trickle.
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Kim Dotcom Claims Ownership of Two-Factor Authentication
Infamous file-sharing kingpin Kim Dotcom claimed today he is the inventor of two-factor authentication, a method of securing online services.
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Strange Dark Matter Interactions Could Create Galactic Disks and Dark Light
A small percentage of the dark matter in our universe might be able to interact with itself through an as yet unknown dark force, forming dark atoms and possibly even emitting dark light.
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This 23-Ton, 5.3-Million-Brick X-Wing Is the Biggest Lego Model Ever
This full-size X-Wing model is not only awesome, it's also the largest Lego model ever built.
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Physicists Create Quantum Link Between Photons That Don't Exist at the Same Time
Now they're just messing with us. Physicists have long known that quantum mechanics allows for a subtle connection between quantum particles called entanglement, in which measuring one particle can instantly set the otherwise uncertain condition, or "state," of another particle?even if it's light years away. Now, experimenters in Israel have shown that they can entangle two photons that don't even exist at the same time.
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How an Entirely New, Autistic Way of Thinking Powers Silicon Valley
I propose a new category of thinker in addition to the traditional visual and verbal: pattern thinkers. In society, three kinds of minds ? visual, verbal, pattern ? naturally complement one another. Yet society puts them together without anybody thinking about it. The notorious antenna problem on the iPhone 4? Too much art, not enough engineering. Contrast this philosophy with Google?s; the minds behind Google, I guarantee you, were pattern thinkers. And to this day, Google products favor engineering over art.
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Driving Volkswagen's 261-MPG Diesel-Electric Supercar Spacepod
It's time to redefine the supercar, and the 261 MPG Volkswagen XL1 is the first draft in a new history of uber-capable machines.
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If Your OS Isn't Flat Yet, It's in for a Radical Redesign
Everyone's talking about flat. Flat Windows 8, flat Apple iOS 7, flat Google+ and Google Now?flat is the design trend du jour, yet we're still waiting for its arrival. So what the heck is it?
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Meet the Man Who Sold a Month-Old App to Dropbox for $100M
Gentry Underwood answers our questions on the success of his app Mailbox and Mailbox's future now that it has been acquired by Dropbox.
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A Practical Guide to the Catchphrases of Arrested Development
If you're one of the dozen or so people who still haven't seen the show, never fear: Wired has prepared a handy guide to communicating with your friends and neighbors via Arrested Development catchphrases. Soon, you'll be yelling "No touching!" with the best of them.
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Unsurpassed Comfort for Zero-Drop Running
Ladies on the zero-drop kick will love the extra cushioned comfort of Altra's latest running shoes.
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Hardcore Console Gamers Don't Want Much, Just the Impossible
To the dedicated gamers that wish Microsoft would stop pushing the all-in-one entertainment angle -- do you really know what you're asking for?
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Turncoats: How the Taliban Undermines and Infiltrates the Afghan Local Police
The U.S. strategy in Afghanistan depends on the loyalty of the Afghan Local Police. But that loyalty is being tested by an apparent Taliban campaign of infiltration.
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Amazon's Urban Biospheres Give New Meaning to 'Tech Bubble'
In case you doubted that the 21st century as envisioned by past generations' pulp futurists had arrived, check out the biospheres Amazon has proposed to anchor its new downtown Seattle headquarters.
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Watch Live: Hunt for Scar Left by Biggest Moon Explosion Ever Seen
Get up close and personal with the gibbous moon in a search for the impact crater left behind by the biggest explosion from a meteorite impact seen on the lunar surface. This live show starts comes via the Slooh Space Camera and begins tonight at 6 p.m. PST/9 p.m. EST.
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Tesla Pays Off All $465M in Federal Loans 9 Years Early
Tesla haters just lost another quiver in their dwindling arsenal. The upstart electric automaker has paid off the entirety of its Department of Energy loan -- a whopping $451.8M -- and did it nine years ahead of schedule.
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Holder: We've Droned 4 Americans, 3 by Accident. Oops.
For the first time, the Obama administration has acknowledged killing four Americans in drone strikes -- three of whom were killed accidentally.
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Confusion Ruled the Day at Microsoft's Xbox One Reveal Event
Everyone was putting on a cheery face and plenty of back-slapping was going around, but there was no mistaking the feeling that the company was about to take a big gamble.
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Someone Paid $36,000 for Luke Skywalker's Pants
For most, Star Wars was about a band of rebels standing up to a totalitarian regime, but for others it was all about Luke Skywalker's pants, apparently.
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Twitter Finally Adds Two-Factor Authentication to Secure Your Account
Twitter just announced that it?s launched two-factor authentication for accounts.
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Watch 3-D Printed Shotgun Slugs Blow Away Their Targets
Everyone knows about 3-D printed guns. Now a hobbyist from Tennessee has created 3-D printed shotgun slugs. Then his friend blasted away.
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