NewsTidBits.com

A NASA astronaut accidentally lost a tool bag during a spacewalk Tuesday when a grease gun exploded. The kit is one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalker. [Source: National Geographic News / 11-20]

A tree-devouring Asian beetle is encroaching on New England's forests, beloved for their brilliant autumn colors and maple syrup, experts say. [Source: National Geographic News / 11-20]

We are faced with uncertainty every day. Will our investments pay off? Will we get the promotions we are hoping for? When faced with the unknown, most people experience some degree of anxiety and discomfort. Exactly how much anxiety someone experiences during uncertain times depends on his or her personality profile. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

A study published by researchers at Yeshiva University and its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, strongly suggests that regular attendance at religious services reduces the risk of death by approximately 20 percent. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

STS-126 astronaut Steve Bowen and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (out of frame) worked to clean and lubricate part of the station's starboard Solar Alpha... [Source: NASA Image of the Day / 11-20]

Has productivity been a bit sluggish lately? Here are five tips to boost engagement and turn work time into magic time for you and your employees [Source: ManageSmarter.com / 11-20]

A giant asteroid may have triggered a tsunami that struck New York more than 2,000 years ago. [Source: Discovery Channel / 11-20]

With Six New Colors and a Special Offer on Movies, Music and Photos; the FreeAgent Go Portable Hard Drive is a Gift Loaded with Joy [Source: TechNewsSource.com / 11-20]

CA (NASDAQ: CA), the world's leading independent IT management software company, today announced that Kay Koplovitz has been elected to its Board of Directors effective immediately. Koplovitz also has been named to the Board's Corporate Governance Committee. [Source: TechNewsSource.com / 11-20]

The volume of shoppers is expected to decline sharply during the 2008 holidays due to such factors as the financial market meltdown and a shorter season, according to a retail industry survey released Wednesday. [Source: CNN - Personal Finance / 11-20]

amatory: expressing love [Source: Dictionary.com Word of the Day / 11-20]

It is not often that the President of the United States is ignored. Stranger still this lack of attention comes at a time when he is delivering a pep talk about how the nation will pull through the financial crisis. [Source: HarvardBusiness.org / 11-20]

A colleague of mine has a collection of funny badges. One of my favorites says, I padded my resume for this? It's always a surprise to learn that someone in a prominent leadership position has done that. [Source: HarvardBusiness.org / 11-20]

With the Bush administration on the verge of relaxing regulations protecting endangered species, Democratic leaders are looking at ways to overturn any last-minute rule changes. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

The sad reality is that most companies are placing more investment in keeping track of basic assets than arguably the most important assets of all - customers. [Source: ManageSmarter.com / 11-20]

Take a walk through a supermarket in any wealthy nation and the promise of omega-3 health benefits screams off food products from bread to milk to juice. But are consumers getting the superfood they paid for? [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

After one species of penguin was hunted to apparent extinction, another emerged. [Source: Discovery Channel / 11-20]

The international commission charged with saving the once abundant bluefin tuna of the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea is meeting this week in Morocco to discuss ways to reverse the decline of the dwindling fish. [Source: Scientific American / 11-20]

A 30-year-old Colombian woman with damaged airways is healthy months after receiving what European doctors are reporting is a first-ever, stem-cell-based windpipe transplant. [Source: Scientific American / 11-20]

Scientists have discovered how stress - in the form of emotional, mental or physical tension - physically reshapes the brain and causes long-lasting harm to humans and animals. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

As my family looks to control spending, one option is to lower our in-home entertainment costs. We watch a lot of movies. But spending for HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel and Starz each month really adds to the cable bill and is starting to feel excessive. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

You can do it in the air. Or by sea. You can do it if you're young. Or old. Or in 100-plus-degree rooms (Bikram yoga). [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

[Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admits she made a mistake and says she should have checked to make sure it was tied down. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

The best map of wind speeds on Jupiter ever produced proves that the massive weather system known as the Great Red Spot has shrunken over the past dozen years. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

Employers hoping to get the best out of employees with huge performance contingent payments may actually be helping them to do worse, suggests a new paper published by a team of researchers in behavioral economics from several universities. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

In the last 10 years, e-mail has gone from a novelty to a necessity. What was once a pastime is now an essential form of communication, with many people opening their inboxes to find dozens of e-mails waiting. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

Planning on gobbling a few extra treats this holiday season? Soon, your cell phone may be able to help you maintain your exercise routine and keep the pounds off over winter months, without your having to lift a finger to keep track. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

A Queen's University study sheds new light on the way one of our cell enzymes, implicated in causing tissue damage after heart attacks and strokes, is normally kept under control. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

Scientists at Penn State are leaders of a team that is the first to report the genome-wide sequence of an extinct animal, according to Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering and one of the project's two leaders. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

A white paper, How is a Shortage of Primary Care Physicians Affecting the Quality and Cost of Medical Care?, released today by the American College of Physicians (ACP) documents the value of primary care by reviewing 20 years of research. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

The health insurance industry said Wednesday it will support a national health care overhaul that requires them to accept all customers, regardless of pre-existing medical conditions, but in return it wants lawmakers to mandate that everyone buy coverage. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

PC Magazine, which has documented the explosive growth of the personal computer since 1982, is dropping its print edition next year and going online. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

Inspired by ancient Alexandria's attempt to collect the world's knowledge, the EU launches Thursday its Europeana digital library, an online digest of Europe's cultural heritage. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

Scientists have identified a promising set of new compounds in the fight against muscular dystrophy. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

The American College of Physicians (ACP) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) have released a joint statement on the importance of adult vaccination against an increasing number of vaccine-preventable diseases. The statement has been endorsed by 17 other medical societies representing a range of practice areas. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

A new class of compounds called phosphaplatins can effectively kill ovarian, testicular, head and neck cancer cells with potentially less toxicity than conventional drugs, according to a new study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

Researchers have identified a stage during dopamine neuron differentiation that may be an ideal time to collect human embryonic stem cells for transplantation to treat Parkinson's disease, according to data presented at Neuroscience 2008, the 38th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

A ban on fast food advertisements in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent, according to a new study being published this month in the Journal of Law and Economics. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

The computer mouse may someday become an endangered species. Instead of rolling a mouse around to move a cursor around on the screen, more and more users will gesture with their fingers on touch screens and multi-touch trackpads, analysts say. [Source: physorg.com / 11-20]

Space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station's robotic Canadarm2 (foreground) are featured in this view while the shuttle as it is docked... [Source: NASA Image of the Day / 11-20]

A drug based on a chemical found in garlic can treat diabetes types I and II when taken as a tablet, a study in the new Royal Society of Chemistry journal Metallomics says. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Despite recent doubts about its effectiveness, the influenza vaccine does give valuable protection against illness, hospital admission and death caused by influenza, and people over 65 should have the flu jab this winter, say experts on bmj.com today. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Flight controllers were revamping plans Wednesday for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

One of two spider that wove messy, tangled web in science experiment in orbit suddenly can't be found. [Source: FOX News - Sci/Tech / 11-19]

Which part of search engine optimization (SEO) is most important? Well, it likely depends on who you ask, but just to be clear, all aspects are important. But which aspect of SEO you emphasize at any given time might be different based on what your website needs to succeed. [Source: SEO Journal / 11-19]

LinkedIn, Spoke and others help procurement execs recruit new talent and benchmark best practices [Source: Purchasing / 11-19]

Google Inc. has opened an online photo gallery that will feature millions of images from Life magazine's archives that have never been seen by the public before.... [Source: AP / 11-19]

With storm clouds hanging over the U.S. economy and the holidays just weeks away, the software maker is cutting the price of all its flash-based devices. [Source: CNET News.com / 11-19]

Consumer spending on e-commerce sites grows 1 percent, the slowest month since Comscore began keeping track. [Source: CNET News.com / 11-19]

[Source: Seeking Alpha / 11-19]

NYTimes.com announced today its new Holiday Technology section with three exciting features in time for the upcoming holiday season that are designed to provide consumers with expert guidance [Source: Business Wire / 11-19]

Children's Miracle Network, an international non-profit organization that raises funds for children's hospitals, has launched an initiative called ShoppingForMiracles.org. [Source: Business Wire / 11-19]

New anti-malware solution will broaden PC protection and help improve Windows experience. [Source: TechNewsSource.com / 11-19]

eminence grise: powerful person [Source: Dictionary.com Word of the Day / 11-19]

What to know about healthcare with new political leadership on the horizon and no end in sight to rising costs. [Source: HRE Online / 11-19]

India-headquartered providers are energizing the human resource outsourcing industry. [Source: HRE Online / 11-19]

In 2009, companies will be forced to juggle expatriates and their families worldwide, while balancing the decisions involved in finding and retaining globally competent employees. [Source: HRE Online / 11-19]

Companies need to use exploration, education and experimentation in order to help employees plan ahead for their retirement years. [Source: HRE Online / 11-19]

Over the years, hunting for cancer-related genes and understanding how they work has been an important, although time-consuming, exercise. At Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Bradley Scott woke up pain-free a couple weeks ago for the first time in two years. The stabbing pain in his leg is gone. He now walks more than a mile a day. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

A spacewalking astronaut has had a grease gun erupt in her bag, and the tote has drifted off into space. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

The cancer preventive properties of broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables appear to work specifically in smokers, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Families gathering around the Thanksgiving table this year will enjoy a traditional side dish that's been given some upscale breeding - cranberries. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

With millions of baby boomers entering late adulthood, the number of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is expected to drastically rise over the next several decades. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Two common cancer drugs have been shown to both prevent and reverse type 1 diabetes in a mouse model of the disease, according to research conducted at the University of California, San Francisco. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Combine the aphorisms that practice makes perfect and timing is everything into one and you might get something resembling findings published in this month's issue of Psychological Science. Proper spacing of lessons, the researchers report, can dramatically enhance learning. And larger gaps between study sessions result in better recall of facts. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Thousands of Americans suffering from the chronic inflammatory bowel condition known as Crohn's disease are leading longer, healthier lives due to innovative new surgeries, according to experts at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

All great athletes know that in order to perform well, they can't just depend on their physical capabilities. Speed and efficiency in decision-making are just as essential. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

Between the ages of six months and six years old, close to 90 percent of children have at least one sleep-related problem. Among the most common issues are night terrors, teeth-grinding and bed-wetting. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

When retiring, men are more likely than women to move directly from work to retirement, but overall the retirement patterns for dual-income married couples are complex and call for additional considerations in planning for the future, according to a new study from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

New research in mice suggests that high levels of social support may provide some protection against strokes by reducing the amount of damaging inflammation in the brain. [Source: physorg.com / 11-19]

A loose wiring connection and improper venting can cause the battery to overheat, posing a burn hazard to consumers. [Source: cpsc.gov - Recalls and product safety / 11-18]

Thousands of wild horses in U.S. care will not be put down to give the government another year to explore possible solutions and let cooler heads prevail, U.S. officials said Monday. [Source: National Geographic News / 11-18]

A whaling ship is seen departing Japan Monday in video provided by Greenpeace, which claims the ship is on its way to Antarctic waters to hunt whales. Warning: Video contains graphic imagery. [Source: National Geographic News / 11-18]

Learn the art of presence and small talk from communications experts who swear you can do it even if you don't think you can. [Source: Entrepreneur.com / 11-18]

Learning the name of a color changes the part of the brain that's at work. [Source: Discovery Channel / 11-18]

Hong Kong's unemployment for the third quarter jumped to 3.5 per cent, figures showed Tuesday, as the government warned the job market may suffer further from the global economic crisis. [Source: Channel NewsAsia Business News / 11-18]

Primary care doctors in the United States feel overworked and nearly half plan to either cut back on how many patients they see or quit medicine entirely, according to a survey released on Tuesday. [Source: Reuters - Technology / 11-18]

[Source: Seeking Alpha / 11-18]

While you make your holiday list - and check it twice - UPS (NYSE:UPS) is revving up its fleet of Brown sleighs for its 101st holiday Peak Season. [Source: UPS / 11-18]

We are always being told by marketers of healthy yogurts that the human gut contains a bustling community of different bacteria, both good and bad, and that this balance is vital to keeping you healthy. But if you target the disease-causing bacteria with medicine, what might be the collateral damage to their health-associated cousins that call the human body home? [Source: physorg.com / 11-18]

The International Space Station's Expedition 18 crew provided a close-up view of Endeavour's tail section. The image provides partial views of the shuttle's... [Source: NASA Image of the Day / 11-18]

The XM-Sirius satellite radio merger is shifting the lineups and in some cases the sentiments of subscribers. [Source: USATODAY.com Tech / 11-18]

In the worst labor market in 14 years, Americans from auto workers to financial analysts are considering a career change in hopes of landing a job. Many job seekers are getting specialized training as a way to break into a new industry. [Source: CNN - Top Stories / 11-18]

What with a lousy economy and grim tidings ahead, more tech companies are telling employees to take more vacation as part of a cost-cutting move [Source: CNET News.com / 11-18]

Firmware update now available for those who purchased Apple's redesigned MacBook or MacBook Pro and have been having problems with the glass trackpad on those systems. [Source: CNET News.com / 11-18]

[Source: PRNewswire - Technology / 11-18]

HP (NYSE:HPQ) today kicked off its holiday campaign, "Practical Magic" which is designed to capture the spirit and magic of the holiday season while bringing people [Source: Business Wire / 11-18]

Business Wire this week will present a distinguished panel of XBRL experts discussing eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) and the proposed mandate by the Securities and Exchange [Source: Business Wire / 11-18]

And the award for Best Animated Short Film goes to … an Internet community? [Source: ElectronicsBuzz.com / 11-18]

[Source: TechNewsSource.com / 11-18]

Over the last 2 years we have posted close to 100 puzzles, teasers, riddles, and every kind of form of mental exercise (including lengthy interviews with top neuroscientists!).Which ones have proven most stimulating (of the puzzles and teasers, not the interviews)? Well, we could answer that question in a variety of ways, but I'd suggest [Source: SharpBrains / 11-18]

Not long after the opening of the payload bay doors on space shuttle Endeavour, the crew was able to get a first look at cargo and hardware located in... [Source: NASA Image of the Day / 11-18]

Employers face a double whammy on the retirement front. The volatile stock market may prompt some workers to cut back on 401(k) contributions -- leading to problems with federal nondiscrimination tests -- while, at the same time, the impact on pension plans may force employers to drastically hike reserves -- or freeze benefits. [Source: HRE Online / 11-18]

You can load up Google News in your Firefox sidebar.  This quick tip and tweak will give you the ability to check out the iPhone optimized Google News in your Firefox sidebar.  This makes scrolling through the day's news an even quicker and easier experience. [Source: Firefox Facts / 11-18]

affectation: exaggerated display; pretense [Source: Dictionary.com Word of the Day / 11-18]

Despite higher air fares and an economic crisis that is forcing many Americans to stay home for the holidays, air travel is expected to be more crowded and hectic than usual this Thanksgiving, experts say. [Source: CNN - Personal Finance / 11-18]

Images from NASA satellites give a wider perspective of the full extent and devastation of the wildfires raging in Southern California. [Source: NASA News / 11-18]

Do you wear the shoes of change? Turns out only 20 percent of leaders are true influencers. Here are the top five reasons most leaders lack influence. [Source: ManageSmarter.com / 11-18]