San Francisco's No. 1 Problem Wednesday, March 19

The ecology-conscious city (having recently encouraged routine composting of dinner leftovers) is considering environment-friendly public urinals like the PPlanter created by engineer Brent Bucknum. Users urinate into a ceramic basin and flush the …

The Entrepreneurial Spirit Wednesday, March 19

Branko Bogdanov, 58, his wife, Lela, 52, and daughter Julia, 34, were arrested in March and charged in a 10-year shoplifting enterprise run out of their upscale Northbrook, Ill., home, which they allegedly used as a base while prowling stores in …

Pay Up or Die Wednesday, March 19

A trauma victim arriving at a hospital emergency room but requiring specialized intensive care would usually be transferred promptly to a qualified "trauma center," whose success rate with such patients is believed to be 25 percent better than that …

Beauty Takes Pain Wednesday, March 19

Cosmetic surgery is expensive, but beauty-conscious Japanese girls and women (especially those obsessed with a more "Western" look) have low-priced workarounds to choose from — as uncovered in January by the fashion blogger Liz Katz. To wit: $63 …

Technological Know-How at Work Wednesday, March 19

Hard-core pornography fans are split (according to a January report on Salon.com) on whether they want male actors to use condoms, but California's Falcon Studios has the technology to serve both audiences. Falcon's actors wear them, but in some …

Science Fair Wednesday, March 19

Security and law enforcement agencies are looking beyond traditional biometric identification techniques (such as the accurate but obtrusive fingerprint and iris scans and unobtrusive yet questionably accurate facial-recognition) and, based on …

Leading Economic Indicators Wednesday, March 19

Farming continues to be a noble but grueling existence for rural residents of China, who work for only about $1,300 a year, but in one village (Jianshe, in southwest Sichuan province), farmers have established a co-operative capitalist model. In …

Witness to the Prosecution Wednesday, February 19

Thoughts from a week in 
the courtroom watching 
the Michael Dunn trial

Go Underground Wednesday, March 19

With property values sky-high in posh London boroughs like Chelsea and Kensington, some super-wealthy residents desiring to expand — and who might ordinarily be forced to build up higher — are building down, constructing elaborate, multistory …

Costs of Spain's Collapse Wednesday, March 19

London's Daily Mail reported in March that Spain may have as many as 2,900 recently abandoned "villages" (areas of land with clusters of houses) deserted by owners forced into cities to find work in the current recession — and that speculators …