College Programmers Beat Tech Elite in Hacking Contest

It was 3 a.m. on the first day of final exams. While most slept, a small cohort of students, overcome with excitement, locked arms to sing the Auburn University alma mater. The Alabama school, which has recently produced NFL stars named "Cam" and "Cadillac," had just pulled off an earth-shaking upset in an unlikely "sport" — coding. Auburn University is often thought of as a college football powerhouse,...

Read More..

Sulia: The Hottest Social Network You've Never Heard Of

1. Sulia Sulia is "a subject-based social network that connects you to the top social sources on subjects you care about." You can sign up to the service by connecting either your Twitter or Facebook accounts. Click here to view this gallery. [More from Mashable: This Is My Brain on YouTube] Social services that promise to aggregate online content neatly into easily digestible digital piles are...

Read More..

Icebergs Scoured Florida During Ice Age

SAN FRANCISCO — During the last ice age, icebergs carved trenches in the ocean floor as far south as Miami, according to research presented here yesterday (Dec. 6) at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Based on the sea level at the time, some 20,000 years ago, the chunks of floating ice must have reached at least 320 to 650 feet (100 to 200 meters) tall to reach the seafloor,...

Read More..

Supreme Court To Take Up Same-Sex Marriage

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday (Dec. 7) that it will take up the issue of same-sex marriage this term, with rulings expected in June. The announcement comes after a period of uncertainty during which the judges met about their upcoming docket but declined to make any announcements about their plans to consider the gay marriage issue. There were 10 pending cases regarding same-sex marriage...

Read More..

Baby Leopard Brothers Come to San Diego Zoo

Meet Riki-san and Haui-san, a cute and clumsy pair of clouded leopard cubs that made their debut this week at the San Diego Zoo. The 14-week-old brothers came to Southern California by way of the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, which has a breeding program aimed at boosting the numbers of this species, listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Named for their...

Read More..

SEC charges China affiliates of top accounting firms

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Monday charged the Chinese arms of five top accounting firms with securities violations over their refusal to produce certain audit papers for U.S.-listed Chinese companies. The Securities and Exchange Commission began proceedings against the Chinese affiliates of Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, BDO and Ernst & Young. The agency on Monday...

Read More..

Morgan Stanley trader was probed at Goldman: sources

(Reuters) - Morgan Stanley hired former Goldman Sachs trader Edward Glenn Hadden to run its Treasury bond desk last year, even though his former employer had placed the trader on paid leave for about a year following an internal inquiry, said three people familiar with the situation. The inquiry by Goldman involved a matter separate from an ongoing investigation by exchange operator CME Group into...

Read More..

Court withdraws win for BNY Mellon in Sentinel case

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court in the United States has withdrawn a ruling that put Bank of New York Mellon Corp ahead of former customers of Sentinel Management Group seeking to recoup money lost in the futures broker's 2007 collapse. In a two-line ruling that gave no further explanation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit withdrew an August 9 opinion. "This appeal remains under...

Read More..

Fed officials laud stimulus, quibble over future plans

Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren, one of the most vocal proponents of Fed asset purchases, said there was a "strong case" for the Fed to stay the course on accommodative policies next year and continue buying a total of $85 billion in bonds each month. In September, the Fed announced an open-ended bond buying scheme that began with $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed securities. That...

Read More..

Asian shares fall from nine-month high on weak U.S. data

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped on Tuesday after a plunge in U.S. manufacturing activity hit American stocks and the dollar, while the euro hovered near a six-week high on optimism over Greece's plan to buy back debt. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.MIAPJ0000PUS> fell 0.3 percent to 450.79, backing away from a nine-month high reached on Monday. Australian...

Read More..