Cyber Monday 2010: Tips for finding deals and avoiding mishaps

Cyber Monday features many good deals, from discounted prices to free shipping. Here are tips for shopping online efficiently and securely, from your desktop computer or your smart phone.
By Mark Trumbull

Christian Science Monitor

Eager to chase down Cyber Monday deals, or just doing some online shopping before Christmas week arrives?

Here are some tips that some shopping gurus and consumer experts say you might want to consider. They might help you find a good deal, protect you from an unhappy experience, or just streamline your search.

Masters of Math, From Old Babylon

By EDWARD ROTHSTEIN

New York Times

If the cost of digging a trench is 9 gin, and the trench has a length of 5 ninda and is one-half ninda deep, and if a worker’s daily load of earth costs 10 gin to move, and his daily wages are 6 se of silver, then how wide is the canal?

War Machines: Recruiting Robots for Combat

By JOHN MARKOFF

New York Times

FORT BENNING, Ga. — War would be a lot safer, the Army says, if only more of it were fought by robots. [Interactive Graphic]

Al Gore's Ethanol Epiphany

He concedes the industry he promoted serves no useful purpose.

Wall Street Journal

Anyone who opposes ethanol subsidies, as these columns have for decades, comes to appreciate the wisdom of St. Jude. But now that a modern-day patron saint—St. Al of Green—has come out against the fuel made from corn and your tax dollars, maybe this isn't such a lost cause.

Channeling the Web: How to plug your TV into the Internet

Just as we've finally sorted out the digital TV transition, another wave of technology is about to remake the lowly set once again. This time it's a flood of new gadgets for connecting TVs to the Internet and tapping the river of online content.
By Brier Dudley
Seattle Times

TV isn't supposed to be complicated. [Printable PDF of Graphic]

A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web

By DAVID SEGAL

New York Times

SHOPPING online in late July, Clarabelle Rodriguez typed the name of her favorite eyeglass brand into Google’s search bar.