New educational standards say 4th graders should know the difference between poetry and prose, 8th graders must be able to prove Pythagoras’ theorem.

Demographers say this year could be the "tipping point" when the number of babies born to minorities outnumbers that of babies born to whites.

By one new metric, Michelangelo has been bumped from his perch atop the Italian art charts by Caravaggio.

Another Toyota Prius is being blamed for out-of-control acceleration following an incident in Harrison, N.Y., as the besieged automaker dealt with a new high-profile new headache.

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address was "very troubling" and that the annual speech to Congress has "degenerated into a political pep rally."

A New York congressman who resigned under an ethics cloud has been under investigation for allegedly groping multiple male aides, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

At least three Swedish newspapers on Wednesday published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog after an alleged plot to murder the artist who created it was uncovered in Ireland.

As much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, Islamist militants and local U.N. staff, according to a new report.

Celizic: Connecticut won its record 71st straight game on Monday. On Tuesday, the Huskies extended it to 72. No women’s team has ever won more consecutive games. Only UCLA’s 88-game winning streak that ran from 1971-74 is longer in D-I hoops. And America greeted this extraordinary achievement by erupting into a coast-to-coast yawn.

She was her usual strong self this week, nailing Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason,” and the judges noted that her big selling point was that she knows herself and who she is as an artist.

A federal indictment accuses a Pennsylvania woman of using the Internet to recruit jihadist fighters and promote terrorism overseas, NBC News reports.

Robert “Joe” Halderman has pleaded guilty to trying to shake down David Letterman over the comic’s sexual affairs.

With DeGeneres on board — and Simon Cowell on the way out — judges Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi seem to have decided it's time to start trying harder.

A ring accused of helping people from the Mideast obtain student visas by taking proficiency exams and classes for them has exposed a vulnerability in tracking foreign students.

The actress Lindsay Lohan has sued E*Trade Financial Corp for $100 million, saying a "milkaholic" baby girl who appeared in a recent commercial was modeled after her.

She was her usual strong self this week, nailing Tracy Chapman’s “Give Me One Reason,” and the judges noted that her big selling point was that she knows herself and who she is as an artist.

Monday's "Late Show with David Letterman" beat "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" in adults 18-49 and adults 25-54, the demographic groups that matter most to advertisers.

TheWrap: With DeGeneres on board — and Simon on the way out — Randy and Kara seem to have decided it's time to start trying harder.

Robert “Joe” Halderman has pleaded guilty to trying to shake down David Letterman over the comic’s sexual affairs.

The outspoken Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver is the latest NFL star to join the “Dancing with the Stars” fray, but while the show doesn’t start for two more weeks, he’s already got a message for the judges.

The executive director of the film academy says Farrah Fawcett wasn't included in the Academy Awards In Memoriam segment because the actress was better known as a TV star.

The actress Lindsay Lohan has sued E*Trade Financial Corp for $100 million, saying a "milkaholic" baby girl who appeared in a recent commercial was modeled after her.

There is a special challenge for a child of a star or stars in coping with the harsh glare of the spotlight while looking for his or her own niche. Plenty of high-profile stories illustrate that.

Andy Whitfield, who plays the title role in the Starz series, will begin treatment immediately. Doctors say the cancer was detected in its early stages and is "very treatable."

Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien's sidekick at "The Tonight Show," is acknowledging some ill will toward NBC and Jay Leno in the wake of the network's late-night upheaval.

A German man who tried to blackmail supermodel Cindy Crawford with a photo of her bound and gagged 7-year-old daughter was sentenced to two years in jail Tuesday.

Marie Osmond’s 18-year-old son was remembered at a funeral service Monday with fond words, laughter and music from his famous singing family.

For as much as "The Hurt Locker" was the critics' darling, it had three major strikes against it in its battle against the mighty James Cameron's "Avatar."

"Love Never Dies" picks up the story 10 years on, with disfigured genius the Phantom relocated to the bright lights of New York's Coney Island and still besotted with beautiful soprano Christine Daae.

Fans have been clamoring for White, 88, to do “SNL” — an idea she called "ridiculous" just a few weeks ago — ever since her comic turn in a Snickers ad during the Super Bowl.

Lindsay Lohan attends a Vogue party in Paris, Lil Wayne is cuffed in a New York courtroom, Hugh Grant tees off in Abu Dhabi and more.

Watch the R-rated trailer for the upcoming sci-fi action thriller Repo Man, then check out our gallery of images from the movie, below.

We've never been to Neil Gaiman's house (well, not since that unfortunate restraining order incident, which we don't plan to go into right now), but reporter Serena Altschul got inside for a segment that ran Oscar day on CBS Sunday Morning. The piece was timed to take advantage of the buzz surrounding Coraline's nomination for Best Animated Feature Film, an award which of course went to Up, but even so, there's still plenty of fascinating info here about the author of The Graveyard Book.

The beginning of March has come and gone without official word about who will play The First Avenger: Captain America, but Deadline Hollywood is now debunking a rumor, first reported by Fox 411, that The Office's John Krasinski had a lock on the role.

Ever since the Beastie Boys enlisted director Spike Jonze to shoot the video of their 1994 hit Sabotage in the manner of a 1970s cop show, enterprising Webheads have recut their favorite shows to create their own version of the video, and the latest has hit the Web: one using images from Syfy's own Battlestar Galactica, below.

Sad news for fans of Starz's Spartacus: Blood and Sand: Star Andy Whitfield has been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and will begin treatment immediately in New Zealand.

Here's something you don't see every day: a lesbian werewolf movie.

It's called Jack & Diane (no relation to John Mellencamp's song, we presume, as Jack here is a girl), and it stars the incredibly hot Juno Temple (Year One) and Olivia Thirlby and is directed by Bradley Rust Gray.

Dinoshark vs. Sharktopus? Maybe. Dinocroc vs. Supergator? It's on, baby.

B-movie master and new Oscar honoree Roger Corman is on a roll. The legendary producer will unleash Dinoshark this Saturday on Syfy, and it'll be followed soon after by Sharktopus and—are you ready?—Dinocroc vs. Supergator and possibly even Dinoshark vs. Sharktopus. The trick, Corman explained during a recent exclusive interview, is to know just how far to extend a franchise.

Let's be honest: We're not going to go see Hot Tub Time Machine for an in-depth analysis of time travel. The story of four dudes who go back to the '80s via a Jacuzzi to relive their youth is an excuse to marvel at how different the '80s were and, oh, yeah, naked boobies.

TV pilot season is a result of what happened on television the previous fall, and considering that the only sci-fi or fantasy "hit" of the season was The CW's The Vampire Diaries, with other new shows performing marginally and returning shows like Heroes fading, the broadcast networks aren't feeling a lot of love for the fantastic. In fact, CBS doesn't have anything in the pipe at all.

Syfy announced that it will air the U.S. premiere of the second season of Merlin on April 2, following the spring return of Stargate Universe.

Merlin will debut at 10 p.m. ET/PT after SGU at 9.

If your first thought when you saw Ben Stiller as a Na'vi at the Oscars Sunday night, was "Gee, I wonder what every other Hollywood celebrity I've ever seen would like like Avatized," you're in luck, because that's exactly what Photoshop wizard Robert Paulson has been trying to do ever since James Cameron's blockbuster was released.

Is Borat about to make sexy time with the Men in Black? Industry insiders report that Columbia Pictures is finally having casting conversations about its third entry in the MiB franchise, and some of the names that have popped up are, well, unusual, according to Bloody Disgusting.

The Science Fiction Museum and SF Hall of Fame announced that this year's Hall of Fame inductees will be Octavia E. Butler, Roger Zelazny, Douglas Trumbull and Richard Matheson.

Remember that teaser trailer for Tron Legacy we told you about? It's now live and you can view it above.

Paramount and Marvel released the official synopsis and cast list for its upcoming Thor, starring Star Trek's Chris Hemsworth and Star Wars' Natalie Portman, which you can read below.

You can get directions for driving, walking and public transit where applicable, and now Google is updating its popular maps service to include biking directions across the US. It's not using the same algorithms to get your from A to B as it would with a car or on foot, either. Google's been hard at work tweaking Maps for a while now, and its bike directions will try to steer you clear of high congestion areas or tough hills, as well as keeping you on bike lanes where possible.

The new functionality is already live, and you can go see it for yourself. Google's also made it easy for you to report and give feedback on directions that don't work out so well, or that don't include a bike lane when one is nearby.

All in all, it's a sweet day to be a biker. That is, if the service works better than Google's new automated captioning.

Google Maps, via PhysOrg

It's hard to decide if Frank Skroback's 1934 creation is a plane that drives like a car, or a car that's supposed to soar like a plane, but it's considered the oldest known "roadable aircraft" — which we guess is the '30s version of a flying car. The vehicle is going to be put on sale later this month at Red Baron's Antiques in Atlanta, and it's not just some gimmick novelty. While it most certainly won't fly, Skroback really did take a stab at the whole idea, and the plane-car will sell with blueprints, extensive documentation, the 1921 patent and even a record of Skroback trying to sell it himself.

The craft may require the winning bidder to expand their garage, however, as it's 21 feet long and seven feet wide. Even if you could get Skroback's machine off the ground, you probably shouldn't — it has no real control solution once its airborne. Best to be content turning every head as you head to the grocery store.

If you do happen to be in Atlanta on March 13th or 14th, you could put a bid yourself for the oldest known flying (or not) car in the world.

Red Baron's Antiques, via Wired

Japan's latest entry into the race to make humanoid robots a mainstream reality is the new Kojiro robot developed by researchers at Tokyo University's JSK Robotics Laboratory. Made of lightweight, flexible materials, the goal of team leader Professor Nakanishi was to create a robot that would be more suited, and safe, for a household environment.

Employing a system of around 100 tendon-like components, Kojiro is also seen as the future of robots with more natural movements. You can see video of the Kojiro robot in action here.

Via DailyMail

At first we thought this was an early April Fool's sight gag, but it's not. It's an actual product from Hammacher Schlemmer, and they're calling this $150 sports chair Brobdingnagian, a word I've been looking for an excuse to use in print for years. For those of us not familiar with the work of Jonathan Swift, that means humongous.

Look and laugh at this 5.5-foot-tall throne, capable of embracing even the most gigantic butt with its 9-square-foot seat. And hey, did you eat dozens of hot dogs on that picnic? No worries, because it supports up to 400 pounds, enough for three or four of our attractive, slim readers. And no matter how thirsty you are, its six cupholders stand ready to accommodate all your beverage-guzzling needs.

We can only sum it up thusly: Brobdingnagian makes you feel like a Lilliputian. Good lord, I love this job.

Hammacher Schlemmer, via The Awesomer

Here's one way to sidestep climate change, where every low-lying area on the planet will be underwater: Just build underwater skyscrapers! Imagine the magnificent views of undersea flora and fauna from this floating city that's completely self-sustaining.

hO2+ scraper is a design concept entered into the eVoIo Skyscraper Competition, and we're thinking it must have had a good chance of winning. We especially like those balancing tentacles that keep it from flipping over as they generate power. Sure seems like a lot less trouble than scuba diving. Sign us up.

eVolo, via Gizmodo

Let's take another step toward the wireless future with this Warpia Easy Dock universal docking station from Source R&D. Plunk down your $150, and you can use your desktop keyboard, mouse and LCD display with your Mac or PC laptop — no wires required.

Sound too good to be true? Of course, there are limitations, such as 1,400 x 1,050 resolution, not quite up to the full rez of most LCD displays these days.

Still, this is a good start. If they can just bring that resolution up to 1,920 x 1,200, this setup could let you park that laptop up to 30 feet away and go to town, just like you're using a high-resolution desktop PC. Nice.

Via Max Borges

Do you still have an original Super Nintendo kicking around? Well, you're probably well aware that it's tough to find cheap original games to play on it these days. So why do it? This Myth Flash Cart lets you load up a fake cartridge with hundreds of games downloaded from the internet to play on your original console.

Of course, the $169 price is pretty ridiculous. But for you obsessive SNES fans out there it might be worth the scratch to play any game on your original console.

IC2005 via Engadget

In the world of overpriced, limited-edition watches, it takes a lot of work to stand out from the crowd. This 4N watch does so by having all of the numbers on independent dials that rotate the time into place, cleverly combining digital and analog timekeeping.

Of course, with a production run limited to 16 units, this is going to be one expensive timepiece. But hey, dials! That's fun, right?

A Blog to Read via BornRich

The subtle art of listening, allegedly the keystone of successful marriages, has a defensive role in the chaos of war, too. A Dutch firm is shopping to world militaries a tiny device that listens for screams, gunshots, mortars and even warplanes. It doesn't listen in the conventional sense, but instead measures the 3D movement of individual air particles in order to determine the x, y and z coordinates of whatever made the noise in question.

If there's ever something that will kill off in-home 3D before it has a chance, it's insanely expensive 3D glasses. We've heard rumors of it before, and now it looks like it might just be the case. Sony's new 3D glasses will set you back a whopping $133 per pair.

Doing the math there, that means a family of four will need to drop $587 on top of a new TV to watch a 3D movie together. Granted, sets will probably come with one or two pairs of glasses, but we're still looking at a sizable investment on top of, you know, having to buy a whole new TV. Thanks but no thanks, TV manufacturers.

Gizmodo via SlipperyBrick

We've all played Rock Band and Guitar Hero, but how many of us have come away with any further knowledge about the fundamentals of guitar playing? Maybe the interest, sure, but none of the foundation. A new gaming start-up, Seven45 Studios, is looking to change all that with Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring.

As the name implies, you'll be using a six-string guitar to play songs in the game instead of a controller basically shaped like one. When not plugged into an Xbox 360, the Power Gig controller will actually work with standard guitar amps and strum like you'd expect.

Flip the peripheral's dampening trigger into place, however, and the strings will lock into place and all the sudden you've got yourself a video game controller, using colored strips along the side of the neck that correspond with chords the game wants you to play. The strings can even be unlocked, and the game will demand more of you, wanting to play both the proper chord and string.

Power Gig isn't the perfected guitar sim Seven45 Studios seems ultimately keen to produce as it won't actually teach you to read music, but it will get you playing a real guitar, and getting a feel for it. The game is still in its early stages and information such as price and the release date are still forthcoming.

Via Joystiq

Nokia is not adverse to dreaming up futuristic concepts (such as the Morph, pictured above, though the Morph used solar power), but this Piezoelectric Kinetic Energy Harvester sounds like it'll either do what the company says it will, or bring about the grim future world envisioned in The Matrix where we're all suddenly batteries. Batteries!

So what is a Piezoelectric Kinetic Energy Harvester supposed to do? Well, have you ever seen one of the watches some people have that charge themselves as you walk, using the swaying of your wrist to generate energy? Well, it works a lot like that, according to New Scientist:

Nokia envisages a phone in which the heavier components, such as the radio transmitter circuit and battery, are supported on a sturdy frame. This frame can move along two sets of rails, one allows it travel up and down, the other side to side.

Strips of piezoelectric crystals sit at the end of each rail and generate a current when compressed by the frame. So as the user walks, or otherwise moves the phone, the motion generates electricity. This charges a capacitor which in turn trickles charge into the battery, keeping it topped up.

That doesn't sound so bad, though you have to wonder if there will be hassles associated with the phone. If you're sitting at your desk all day, for instance, would you have to shake your phone a lot for a quick call if you're running low? And how much energy will the thing be able to generate even while you're walking if it's in your pocket? If Nokia ever makes the Piezoelectric Kinetic Energy Harvester a reality, we'll be sure to ask them.

Nokia Patent, via New Scientist, via OhGizmo!

You may have noticed a new option on some YouTube videos: the ability to turn on closed captioning. Next time you see it, do. It's absolutely hilarious.

The service is still in beta, and it really shows. Engadget first spotted how weird Apple's iPad launch video got when the feature was activated — sometimes the text is so different from what's being said that you wonder if Google is just having a laugh. "A high-res color display" becomes "a high risk going to split," and when one of the designers says he doesn't have to change himself to use the iPad, the captions make it sound like he very clearly does. If you were relying on these captions, it would be a very different commercial.

How about an even more topical example? Remember when Sandra Bullock said that about workers and Florida and t-shirts? No? That's because you're not crazy; she never did. It's safe to say that, while an awesome idea, YouTube auto-captioning needs a little bit of work.

Check out the iPad commercial here, and be sure to click on the "CC" at the base of the video.

You can also see Bullock's acceptance speech here — be sure to do the same.

Via Engadget

Asus is taking the cover off the next big release in its popular line of Eee PCs, the 1005PR, which resides in the same family as the company's excellent 1005HA "Seashell." The new machine boasts a 10.1 inch LED backlit display that — with the 1005PR's onboard HD decoder — is capable of displaying HD content in 720p. The 1005PR also takes advantage of Intel's newer Pineview-M N450 processor that the CPU maker released late last year, which is geared toward netbooks and helps improve battery life.

Other than that you're also looking at a copy of Windows 7 Starter Edition, which is a pared-down version of of the OS, made specifically for netbooks. With all that in mind, you'd expect Asus to try to ship the 1005PR has some kind of fancy high-end netbook, but not so: the company wants to see it on shelves for $400. No word on where or when, though we wouldn't expect Asus will keep us waiting too long.

Check out more of the 1005PR in the gallery below, which features press shots showing off some of the different colors as well as the nicely-spaced keyboard keys.

Via Thoughts From The Sidelines

Buenos Aires-based designer Francisco Lupin has come up with a concept design that, if brought to market, could make your airport woes fly away for good. The Nexus is a concept electric-powered scooter that would be powered by two 12 volt batteries and offer up to two hours of use.

With a power button reminiscent of a PC's, and a sleek body crafted to navigate dense foot traffic, the vehicle would be primarily used for transport within large, major airports. Best of all, when not in use the Nexus folds up into a compact form exactly like your luggage. You can see more of Lupin's eco-friendly designs here.

Via Tuvie