In a capitalistic market, many compare prices but few encourage true competition. Customers can save big dollars by dropping loyalty (and perhaps a little shame) to proactively encouraging service providers (e.g., insurance, pest control, lenders, etc.) to compete for their ... Read this and 4 comments.

Are Ouija Boards a result of the ideomotor effect, true gateway devices to the spirit world, or simply a parlor trick? Ouija Boards have been around for more than a century and yet they are still often regarded with a sense of mysticism and even fear. Herein, we will look into the history of the Ouija Board, analyze the principles behind its operation, look at what the skeptics have to say, review a few Ouija Board tales, and dabble with some experiments. It is just a game, isn't ... Read this and 6 comments.

Knowing how to pick a lock is just a handy "life skill." Rather than providing a primer into a life of burglary, knowledge of how easy the technique really is can be valuable in assessing personal and home security (or intellectually scoffing at the unrealistic picking techniques presented in ... Read this and 9 comments.

A creative data-harvesting method allows an expansion of the previous analysis, which considered the ability of recruiting websites to predict college football success. The analysis is also completed from top to bottom without including kickers, who are typically scored unusually ... Read this and 1 comment.

Much is made of high school football players and their ratings. Many of them, however, turn out to be over- or under-rated. A comparison of how Rivals.com and Scout.com ranked players who made 2007 NCAA Division I All-America teams when they were just high school recruits shows just how much trust we can put in recruiting ... Read this and 8 comments.

Access to clean, safe drinking water is something everyone in the world needs. While commonly provided by government entities, private corporation players - who stand to make large profits - are increasing in number on the Water Industry ... Read this and 3 comments.

Auction 73, scheduled for January 24, 2008, will shake up the 700MHz frequency band for wireless communications. Contrary to how unimportant that sounds, frequency allocations determined by Auction 73 will affect, at a minimum, cellular digital telephones and a national broadband first responder network. Development of these two services will likely change the face of American communications options and improve the responsiveness and quality of service provided by local rescue units. For ... Read this and 10 comments.

Whether or not you are paid every two weeks or twice a month may not seem like a big deal. For those starting or leaving employment, however, it could mean the loss of a nice chunk of ... Read this and 5 comments.

There is rampant and conflicting advice concerning the use of epidural analgesia during labor. A collection of recent and pertinent research on the topic identifies a handful of confirmed risks and benefits, and exposes numerous other items as nothing more than ... Read this and 34 comments.

Everyone has those nagging suspicions about repeating patterns of numbers or "rigging" the lottery. With eleven years of winning MegaMillions lottery numbers to analyze, this article examines some trends behind the jackpots based on such statistics as numerical distribution, number relationships and win frequency to name a few. Perhaps given some insight into the winning patterns, MegaMillions players just might have an improved chance of earning back their dollar with ... Read this and 46 comments.