theodp writes "If you're a bright kid who wants to prepare for the 21st century workforce (PDF) by studying engineering at Purdue, the government will help your parents pay the $100,000 or so tuition tab with a 7.9% interest loan (plus 4% fees) that's likely to be non-dischargeable in bankruptcy and paid back with after-tax money. If, on the other hand, you want to buy a tricked-out $100,000 Model S, Tesla has teamed up with the government, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bank on what it calls a 'Revolutionary New Finance Product' that enables those who play the game right to avoid paying sales tax, get the government to pick up the first $15,000 (no down payment needed!), and also receive a 2.95% bankruptcy-dischargeable loan for the balance, the payments for which could be tax-deductible. Yep, 'Revolutionary' may be about right!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Night sky photographer Martin Pugh in Australia captured this amazing view of the Pencil Nebula in March 2013.

New supercomputer simulations show how spiral galaxies like the Milky Way get, and keep, their skinny, star-studded arms.

The same factor in our immune system that is instrumental in enabling us to fight off severe and dangerous inflammatory ailments is also a player in doing the opposite at a later stage, causing the suppression of our immune response.

Migrations happen for a reason, not randomly. A new study, based on computer simulation, attempts to explain the effect of so-called directional migration - migration for a reason - on cooperative behaviors and social cohesion. The authors devised a computer simulation of what they refer to as selfish individuals - those who are mainly concerned with their own interests, to the exclusion of the interests of others. In this study, they propose a new migration rule, dubbed directional migration, in existing models referred to as evolutionary game theory.

Men are almost as likely as women to want children, and they feel more isolated, depressed, angry and sad than women if they don’t have them, a new study says.

A new study of Hong Kong chronic pain patients suggests that targeting feelings of mental defeat could prevent severe depression, anxiety and interference with daily activities.

Physicists have, for the first time, successfully transmitted a secure quantum code through the atmosphere from an aircraft to a ground station.

Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors may be a novel treatment strategy for patients with cancer that has become resistant to the commonly used chemotherapy drug cisplatin, according to data from a preclinical study.

With a ruling allow corporations to disclose new financial information on social networks, the Securities and Exchange Commission paves the way for companies to package more of their news independent of the media.

The Lapka system is made up of four sensor modules that measure different aspects of your environment: radiation, electromagnetic fields, humidity and nitrates in food.

Wired spoke with Game of Thrones actors Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Rose Leslie (Ygritte), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) and Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell) about what fans have to look forward to this season.

In 2011, artist Molly Crabapple was hosting Occupy Wall Street activists and journalists in her New York apartment and traveling the world to sites of unrest and revolution. In 2012, she was being arrested for returning to Zucotti Park. In 2013 she returns to the scene again with Shell Game, a series of nine allegorical paintings to commemorate the chaos of a year of revolution, to be shown at New York's Smart Clothes Gallery starting April 14.

Retailers online and offline will need a combined 25 million square meters in additional space over the next five years to store and handle the stuff they sell, according to a new report. That's the size of more than seven Central Parks.

The Twitter and Facebook accounts for a popular crime watchdog in one of Mexico's most dangerous states has been abruptly taken down. The owner also has a $46,000 bounty on his head.

John Wilkes spent a year negotiating his move to Google, and when he finally agreed to join the company, he still didn't know what he'd be working on.

Tim Hetherington is trying to explain why he documents war. He launches into a clich? about violence and the "human experience" but quickly stops, laughs and says, "No, that sounds too fucking bullshit." It's the opening scene from HBO's new documentary about Hetherington called Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Times of Tim Hetherington. The film, which airs April 18, is a posthumous recounting of one of the most impressive photojournalism careers to date, directed by one of Hetherington's close colleagues, Sebastian Junger.

Days and weeks after finishing BioShock Infinite, we can't stop thinking about it. With so many angles to explore, we decided to have a conversation about what we took away from Infinite.

Sometime in 2002, I fell in love with my first phone. It was the Sony Ericsson T68i, and it was absolutely perfect.

Thousands of phones have come and gone, but the number of handsets that could be called truly groundbreaking is surprisingly small. Here they are.