May 8/2011 week

Teachers around the U.S. are using Twitter in the classroom in an effort to get students to shed their inhibition and articulate opinions.

Two small islands in South Asia's first biosphere reserve have sunk into the sea. Their submergence is primarily due to depleting coral reef mining.

Bob Dylan has gotten flak for a recent performance in China, which many thought was censored. Songs that might have overtly offended China's Communist rulers were avoided.

Jedward, identical twin singers from Ireland, progressed to the Eurovision Song Contest finals after a frenetic performance dressed in red sparkly jackets.

Intrepid and numb to fatigue, robots are encroaching on yet another human job, waiting tables in Japan, South Korea and China.

Pakistan's Parliament condemned the U.S. Bin Laden mission as a "violation of Pakistan's sovereignty," and expressed deep distress at an apparent "campaign to malign Pakistan."

Sound recorders, placed along the coast of Long Island and throughout New York Harbor, picked up the ballads of a great and diverse number of whales thronging the area.

Io [EYE-oh or EE-oh] is the most volcanic world in the Solar System, and scientists think it's because of a torrid reservoir of magma under the crust at least 30km (50 miles) thick.

During the poppy harvest, fighting between the Taliban and Marines stops to allow farmers to work. The scene holds a tepid trepidation, as fighting will resume at the end of the season.

MakerBot is a consumer-grade, desktop-size 3-D printer that takes the conceptual and makes it reality, and can be used for practical applications or pure whimsy.