Media Decoder Blog: Comcast Buys Rest of NBC In Early Sale

8:53 p.m. | Updated Comcast gave NBCUniversal a $16.7 billion vote of confidence on Tuesday, agreeing to pay that sum to acquire General Electric’s remaining 49 percent stake in the entertainment company. The deal accelerated a sales process that was expected to take several more years.Brian Roberts, chief executive of Comcast, said the acquisition, which will be completed by the end of March, underscored...

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Pentagon expands military benefits for same-sex couples

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has agreed to expand benefits for gay and lesbian couples serving in the military, but officials continued...

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Why Thousands of Spiders Are Crawling in the Skies Over Brazil

Last week, spiders descended in droves upon a town in southern Brazil — literally.When 20-year-old web designer Erick Reis left a friend’s house on Sunday, he saw what looked like thousands of spiders overhead, reported G1, a Brazilian news site, on Feb. 8. The large, sturdy spiders were hanging from power lines and poles, and crawling around on a vast network of silk strands spun over...

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Trump may have trouble collecting on $5 million orangutan bet

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A comedian, a millionaire and an orangutan. It may sound like the beginning of a screwball joke, but Donald Trump isn’t laughing.The famously outspoken real estate magnate has sued famously outspoken television host Bill Maher, demanding the $ 5 million Maher offered to give to charity if Trump could prove his father is not an orangutan.But legal experts say Trump is unlikely...

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Health Testing on Mice Is Found Misleading in Some Cases

Evan McGlinn for The New York TimesDr. H. Shaw Warren is one of the authors of a new study that questions the use of laboratory mice as models for all human diseases. For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — sepsis, burns and trauma. As a...

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Media Decoder Blog: Univision and Disney Give Details of Fusion, a Channel for Latinos

A new 24-hour news and entertainment channel has a name, Fusion. It also has powerful backers in Univision and ABC News, a unit of the Walt Disney Company, and distribution deals in at least 20 million homes. What is not known is whether Fusion has an audience.Fusion will have its premiere late this summer, the companies announced Monday, as the first cable channel aimed to appeal specifically to...

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Gen. Joseph Dunford becomes U.S. commander in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. took over Sunday as the newest and probably last U.S. commander in Afghanistan,...

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Wired Science Space Photo of the Day: Wings of the Seagull Nebula

This image shows the intricate structure of part of the Seagull Nebula, known more formally as IC 2177. These wisps of gas and dust are known as Sharpless 2-296 (officially Sh 2-296) and form part of the “wings” of the celestial bird. This region of the sky is a fascinating muddle of intriguing astronomical objects — a mix of dark and glowing red clouds, weaving amongst bright stars. This new view...

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For Families Struggling with Mental Illness, Carolyn Wolf Is a Guide in the Darkness

When a life starts to unravel, where do you turn for help? Melissa Klump began to slip in the eighth grade. She couldn’t focus in class, and in a moment of despair she swallowed 60 ibuprofen tablets. She was smart, pretty and ill: depression, attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, either bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. In her 20s, after a more...

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The Media Equation: The Inconvenient but Vital Drone Debate

Last week, the debate over drone strikes broke out into plain view during the confirmation hearings for John O. Brennan, President Obama’s choice to head the Central Intelligence Agency. Given that the program has been operating largely under the public radar, a question has been raised whether the news media have done their job in keeping the American public informed about this radically different...

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