Qatar Airways is offering loaner laptops to its business class passengers in the wake of a U.S. ban on them on flights from several countries. “As an award-winning and global airline we truly appreciate the importance of being able to work on board our aircraft and that is why I have insisted on offering only the best possible solution for our customers,” said Akbar Al Baker, the company’s CEO. “By providing this laptop loan service we can ensure that our passengers on flights to the US can continue to work …

Failing eyesight, poor digestion, bad teeth, limbs no longer so limber: With captive giant pandas living longer than ever, the list of their physical and even emotional needs is growing.   China, the pandas’ native home, is seeking to cater to those requirements with a special home for the old timers along with customized diets, exercise and other care aimed at improving their quality of life.   “Of course we spend more energy taking care of old pandas,” said Xu Yalin, a panda keeper for 19 years at the China …

In the U.S., people often measure “success” as fifteen minutes of fame, or a blockbuster financial quarter. This focus on short term results doesn’t always build the skills needed to solve long-term problems, such as reducing disease outbreaks or maintaining species diversity. Concerns about the nation’s short attention span have prompted some visionaries to create a playfully serious way to think ahead. From San Francisco, Shelley Schlender reports about the Long Now Foundation. … From: MeNeedIt

U.S. economic growth was a little stronger that first thought in the last few months of 2016. Thursday’s updated report from the Commerce Department says the economy grew at a 2.1 percent annual rate in October, November and December.  Growth was helped by stronger consumer spending. PNC Bank economist Gus Faucher says the world’s largest economy is in “solid shape” and expects growth will be stronger this year than in 2016. During the campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump promised to boost economic growth to four percent or better by cutting …

Amid the growing opioid use crisis in the United States, a new study suggests heroin use is on the rise, particularly among younger white people. According to researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, “The portion of Americans using heroin has climbed five-fold in the last decade, and clinically defined heroin dependence has more than tripled.” They say the increases were most marked “among males, whites, those with low income and little education,” with the most pronounced increase among whites age 18 to 44. “In 2001 to 2002, …

Part of music icon Bob Dylan’s once-secret 6,000-piece archive, including thousands of hours of studio sessions, film reels and caches of unpublished lyrics, has opened in Oklahoma. More than 1,000 pieces of the collection spanning Dylan’s six-decade career are available to scholars at the Gilcrease Museum’s Helmerich Center for American Research in Tulsa. The opening comes a year after the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Tulsa acquired the collection for an estimated $15 million to $20 million. The public will get a glimpse of some of the …

Universal Pictures is going back to its roots — monsters. The studio Wednesday debuted footage from its upcoming adventure film The Mummy, which opens a monster universe drawing on Universal’s vault of classic properties like Bride of Frankenstein, Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Tom Cruise stars in the Alex Kurtzman-directed The Mummy, which is equal parts action and horror as Cruise’s explorer Nick Morton attempts to combat an ancient evil that has been unlocked and threatens to destroy the world. Sofia Boutella is the Mummy, once an Egyptian princess who …

Farmers around the world are using an unsustainable amount of well water to irrigate their crops, which could lead to an uptick in food prices as that water runs low, international researchers warned Wednesday. Farmers are increasing their use of groundwater to grow staple crops such as rice, wheat and cotton, the scientists said. But much of that water use is unsustainable, as water is being pumped out faster than it can be naturally replenished. “Groundwater depletion is increasing rapidly, especially in the last 10, 20 years, due to the …