She said she was supportive of the field tests, because she felt it would help New York make the case that the new test would be equivalent to the previous GED test.

WSJ: Test Maker Pays New York State Students to Take a Trial Exam

The severity of the laboratory test was equivalent to an oblique collision with the rocky surface of the Earth - a comet coming in at an angle of less than 25 degrees from the horizon, rather than head on (perpendicular to the Earth's surface).

BBC: Comets could have seeded life on Earth

The multi-core war may have begun, but the battle will be fought with software, although that's not to say that the hardware side has already been won: apparently the test chip is much larger than equivalent chips -- 275 mm squared, versus a typical Core 2 Duo's 143 mm squared -- and Intel currently has no way to hook up memory to the chip.

ENGADGET: Intel demonstrates 80-core processor

While makers typically don't test for the calorie count, most assume calories are equivalent to nonbeer candy.

WSJ: Hoppy Holidays: Sweet Makers

But first, it must survive a 90-minute test of nerve in a setting that may best be described as international soccer's equivalent of armageddon.

WSJ: High Hopes on Rooney's Return

Although the experiment did not test the idea (or, for that matter, the effects of an upgrade to the rodent equivalent of business class), the researchers speculate that it may be this lack of synchrony that caused the deaths of the older animals.

ECONOMIST: Biology: Go west, old man | The