L-3 Communications, which sold $40 million in scanners to TSA, doubled its lobbyist spending in the last five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance its cause in Washington.

Disappointed that our solar system mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" became "Mean Very Evil Men Just Shortened Up Nature" at the International Astronomical Union meeting which demoted Pluto as a planet?

You're not alone but Mike Brown, the astronomer who ignited that spark, is unapologetic, and has even written a book on it, "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming", where he discusses the origins of his quest, which resulted in Eris and led to the elimination of Pluto as a planet due to a rather ridiculous, arbitrary of definition of planet specifically designed to exclude Pluto instead of being, you know, science.

Two anchors on WGN were rewarded for their patience in trying to show a bridge implosion live by...missing it.   After 5 minutes of trying to kill time, they segued to the studio to talk about the weather.    And as soon as they did, the bridge went.

Watch them eat their papers in frustration.  No one likes to miss a bridge implosion.

A dedicated vegan has to make a difficult choice.  

She realizes, as most culturally neutral people knew, that nutrition is a shockingly inexact science and that the human body may react to a strict vegan style for one person but moralizing and posturing that therefore everyone else is unethical if they aren't vegan is not an evidence-based claim, it is simply one of good fortune that they don't get sick.

She isn't going all Texas barbecue about it, just eating a small bit of fish or an egg each day to achieve a little more balance than she had before, but says both her spirits and her physical health are better.

In 2006, 2% of the world's astronomers, led by a guy with a television show, decided Pluto should not be a planet.    Recently discovered Eris was bigger, they said, so rather than make Eris a planet they made Pluto a rock.   

They did so by specifically creating a new definition of planet designed to exclude Pluto - "A body that circles the sun without being some other object's satellite, is large enough to be rounded by its own gravity (but not so big that it begins to undergo nuclear fusion, like a star) and has "cleared its neighborhood" of most other orbiting bodies."

Isaac Newton, the man who invented calculus, described the law of universal gravitation and built the first reflecting telescope and is rightfully considered one of the most influential scientists in history, also practiced alchemy for three decades, says Indiana University professor William Newman.

No surprise, many scientists dabbled in alchemy.    Alchemy was an offshoot of chemistry, to some, though centuries before literary geniuses like Chaucer ridiculed alchemists as charlatans.

The NCAA has for established a rule for mandatory testing of all student athletes in D-1 schools effective for the 2010-2011 academic year.

But there is something devilish in the details, writes Roger Groves in Forbes - students can take the test or be excused from it if they establish they sign a waiver relieving the school of liability.

"Cars" is the Pixar movie where I thought they would finally take a fall.  I didn't like the art in previews but my kids wanted to see and away we went.   Like everyone else, I thought the finished product was terrific.

For "Cars 2", unlike (the also terrific) "Toy Story 3", John Lasseter is back directing.   Basically, I am sold that these guys can do no wrong after fifteen solid years of doing no wrong.

The basic premise is that Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) and Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) go overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car.  I don't need to know anything else, just take my 8 bucks.

Do more boys get autism or is it under-diagnosed in girls?  Or over-diagnosed in boys?

Leaving aside that the autism spectrum has been extruded out so far that virtually every personality type is labeled some form of autism, the fact remains that real autism, the kind with severe symptoms, exists.

Researchers at the universities of Exeter and Bristol say that even when symptoms are equally severe, boys received autism diagnoses more often.