Nationally, nearly a third-200 of 642 Borders stores-will shut down, with an additional 75 stores to be listed for possible closure. About 6,000 employees will be let go as a result of what an industry analyst called "the biggest bankruptcy in the history of the book business." As of Christmas Day, according to the bankruptcy filing, the Ann Arbor. Mich. company had debts of $1.29 billion, compared with $1.28 billion in total assets. It owes $302 million to vendors, mostly publishing houses, including Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster and Random House. "Publishers are going to take a tremendous hit," said ABA President Michael Tucker, who is also co-founder and CEO of the Bay Area independent book chain Books Inc. "But at least they are prepared. If this had happened a couple of years ago, it would have been truly devastating." The book business, especially the brick-and-mortar sector, has taken plenty of hits in the face of Amazon.com, e-books, Kindles and iPads. And fewer traditional books are being bought. According to Nielsen, which tracks 70 percent of the market (excluding Walmart), overall sales dropped from 751.7 million in 2009 to 717.8 million last year. Borders says that it will honor gift cards and coupons and that its rewards program will remain in effect.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F02%2F17%2FMNJN1HNIGC.DTL

With a two-game total of $77,147, a computer called Watson dominated the two former giants of the quiz show, 74-game winner Ken Jennings and all-time money champ ($3.2 million) Brad Rutter, more than tripling Jennings' second-place total of $24,000. After being crushed in Game 1 on Monday and Tuesday, Jennings pushed the machine in the second game Wednesday, but lost on the final question about 19th-century novelists. The answer, "Bram Stoker," whose Dracula featured another nonhuman creature that gave humans fits, combined with Watson's daringly big $17,973 bet, pushed the machine to victory. "I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords," Jennings wrote along with his answer, echoing a classic line from The Simpsons. Built over four years at a cost of more than $30 million, Watson itself was in the room next to the temporary Jeopardy! stage at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center near New York. Both building and machine are named for the man who led the company from a small manufacturer of office and business equipment into an international computing giant. http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20110217_Jonathan_Storm__The_computer_wins__Jeopardy___showdown__Big_.html

The game show-playing supercomputer Watson is expected to do much more than make a name for itself on Jeopardy. IBM's computer could very well herald a whole new era in medicine. That's the vision of IBM engineers and Dr. Eliot Siegel, professor and vice chairman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine's department of diagnostic radiology. Siegel and his colleagues at the University of Maryland, as well as at Columbia University Medical Center, are working with IBM engineers to figure out the best ways for Watson to work hand-in-hand with physicians and medical specialists.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9209899/IBM_s_Watson_could_usher_new_era_in_medicine?taxonomyId=12

The biggest solar flare in four years has blasted out from the sun, and is expected to reach Earth late February 17. The flare, or coronal mass ejection (CME), was emitted on Monday at 8:56 p.m. EST. It's been categorized as a Class X2.2 flare, the most severe type. The coronal mass ejection associated with the flare is currently traveling about 900 Km/second and is expected to reach Earth’s orbit tonight at about 10pm EST. It's the biggest flare yet in the current solar cycle. http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/54167-massive-solar-flare-hits-earth-tonight
Federal court management statistics http://www.uscourts.gov/Statistics/FederalCourtManagementStatistics.aspx
You may move from this page to other statistics; for instance, bankruptcy, caseload, and judicial facts and figures.

In Maine, lawmakers are poised to make the "whoopie pie" the official state dessert — even though some claim the chocolate cake sandwich filled with white fluffy filling was actually invented in Pennsylvania. "Whoopie pies have been on the rise for several years, and no one can pinpoint exactly the reason," says Amos Orcutt of the Maine Whoopie Pie Association. Orcutt first got the idea about making the snack the official state dessert from a New York Times article in which the author asserted that if the whoopie pie wasn't Maine's official dessert, it should be. Maine legislators spent an hour-and-a-half listening to testimony about the whoopie pie. And there were competing points of view. Rep. Don Pilon of Saco, Maine, told the committee that whoopie pies are not the dessert to promote at a time when more than 30 percent of students in the state are overweight. "Do we really want to glorify a dessert that lists lard as its primary ingredient?" he asked.
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/03/133432767/food-fight-maine-legislature-takes-on-whoopie-pies

Interstate whoopie pie fight
"Save Our Whoopie!" reads a digital petition and video posted last week on the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau's website. It calls the Maine bill a "confectionary larceny." And the name? "The Amish moms used to put the whoopie pies in the children's lunches and when they found them they would yell 'Whoopie!'" says Deryl Stoltzfus, general manager at Hershey Farm Restaurant & Inn in Ronks, home to the annual whoopie-pie festival, in which 20,000 whoopies are made in 100 flavors on the big day, including one 240-pound pie.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576136593240752596.html

Recipes for whoopie pies http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/recipe-roundup/whoopie-pies-9-recipes-youll-absolutely-love-116225