The US Food and Drug Administration is setting its sights on the device that delivers painful electric shocks to students at the Judge Rotenberg Center, charging an advisory panel to weigh whether to ban them for good.“FDA is concerned that they present a substantial and unreasonable risk of illness or injury,” the agency wrote in […]

Foreclosure activity in Greater Boston fell in February to their lowest levels in more than five years amid a strengthening real estate market, according to newly released data from CoreLogic, the California-based property information tracker. The portion of Boston area homeowners who were in some stage of foreclosure was 1.25 percent in February, a decrease […]

US newspapers suffered further revenue declines in 2013, seeing only mixed success in a transition to digital, according to industry figures. Total newspaper industry revenue amounted to $37.59 billion in 2013, a 2.6 percent drop from $38.60 billion in 2012, according to a report released Friday by the Newspaper Association of America. In one positive […]

Roughly 1.1 million people in Zimbabwe live with HIV. Studies show circumcision could reduce the risk of infection by 60 per cent. Since 2011, Zimbabwean men and infants have been undergoing voluntary non-surgical circumcision. Opponents of circumcision argue the risks don’t outweigh the benefits and claim messaging is giving men a false sense of hope […]

The need for fluids after a hard workout is well known, but what’s the best approach? Dr. Vonda Wright, a marathoner and orthopedic surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Sports Medicine, says marathoners are so depleted after a race, she advises they reach for lukewarm fluids instead of icy ones for […]

In the quest to stay healthy and happy, nothing is free: $350 to fill a cavity, $120 for a monthly gym membership, $30 for a yoga class. But you don’t need to go broke just to be at your best. The key to paying less? Asking for it. Unfortunately, that’s something many of us don’t […]

“BOLLOCKS”, says a Cambridge professor. “Hubris,” write researchers at Harvard. “Big data is bullshit,” proclaims Obama’s reelection chief number-cruncher. A few years ago almost no one had heard of “big data”. Today it’s hard to avoid—and as a result, the digerati love to condemn it. Wired, Time, Harvard Business Review and other publications are falling […]

Cowardice comes in many forms, but there’s a special sense of shame reserved for captains who abandon ship. South Korean authorities Capt. Lee Jun-Seok, who was one of the first to flee from the ferry as it sank on Wednesday. “I can’t lift my face before the passengers and family members of those missing,” Lee […]

THIS IS HOW it happens now: Someone commits a crime, and everyone turns to his Facebook page, hoping to glimpse his inner thoughts. And there, on the public page of Kevin Edson — who allegedly put a rice cooker in a backpack, then placed it near the Marathon finish line — was that familiar photo […]

Steven Vollmer studies coral. One of the species on his radar is staghorn coral, which has long branches resembling male deer antlers. Found mostly off the Florida Keys and in the Caribbean, the coral is on the endangered species list because of white band disease, a condition involving a deadly ring of peeling that starts […]

General Mills faced a PR disaster Thursday after a report in The New York Times stated that liking any of the company’s brands on Facebook prevents them from suing the company in court. On Tuesday, Cheerios parent company General Mills updated the privacy policy on its website. The new language alerts consumers that they waive […]

One year ago, Bostonians woke up to the news that the city had locked down because the second Boston marathon bombing suspect was still on the loose, after an overnight gun battle with police that took place hours after surveillance camera images of the suspects had been released. Boston and surrounding communities became ghost towns. […]