Researchers have developed a computer that’s much better than humans at determining when someone is faking pain. Using facial cues, the computer was able to detect whether pain was real or fake 85% of the time compared to just 55% accuracy of trained observers. The San Diego Union-Tribune says the program could be used to determine whether someone really needs painkillers or for children who can’t articulate pain well.

Twitter turns 8 today. To celebrate, USA Today has come up with eight memorable moments in the microblogging site’s history. USA Today singled out user Janis Krum’s photo of a partially submerged US Airways Flight 1549 and the inadvertent tweet of the raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound as two of the more remarkable moments in Twitter history.

You won’t find the best sunscreens in the world at your local drug store. In fact, you won’t find them at all in the United States. The Washington Post says the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t expanded its list of approved sunscreen ingredients since 1999. Eight applications for new ingredients are pending - some dating back to 2003.

Astronomer Mike Brown made a name for himself when he demoted Pluto in 2006. The LA Times catches up with him. Brown says “killing Pluto was awesome” but he’s now focused on a new task - figuring out how we got here. Brown is trying to put pieces of the planetary puzzle together to figure out how Earth was formed and how clouds of gas become planetary systems.

Airlines routinely use satellites to provide WiFi to passengers in-flight. But they don’t use satellites for the more routine task of tracking planes and gathering the information from flight data recorders. The New York Times says neither airlines nor regulators have adopted the use of satellites for these tasks given the cost and the general safety of air travel.

The next high school musical you see might feature something you don’t expect: product placement. The Wall Street Journal says school theater departments are co-opting a technique used in Hollywood for years. One high school production of Grease in Ohio featured a character carrying a pizza box from a local pizzeria that paid $500 as part of a sponsorship deal..

For someone with as much influence as she has, it’s hard to believe Oprah Winfrey hasn’t endorsed a product until now. The Seattle Times says Oprah helped design Teavana Oprah Chai Tea. It will be available starting April 29th. For each Oprah chai product sold, Starbucks will make a donation to her youth education initiative.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic have come up with an alternative to the colonoscopy that’s nearly as reliable in detecting cancers, but it’s not without its own “ick” factor. The test involves sending stool samples in the mail. The Minneapolis Star Tribune says the test could become an alternative for the millions of Americans who ignore their doctors’ advice because they’re squeamish about getting a rectal exam.

Anything you could ever imagine buying, and many things you couldn’t can be found at the Global Pet Expo. Penelope Green pays a visit there for The New York Times. There she discovers everything from anxiety-reducing shirts for dogs to the on-demand ball launcher for those dogs that can’t get enough of playing fetch.

A newly classified dinosaur is being called “The Chicken from Hell.” The 11 foot long, 500 lb. dinosaur is officially part of a group called oviraptorosaurs. The Washington Post says fossils were found in a sedimentary rock layer known as the Hell Creek Formation in three locations in North and South Dakota - helping the dinosaur earn its nickname. But its appearance was definitely a factor as well.

The LA Times details the largely secret, four-year mission to rebuild a B-2 Stealth Bomber that was badly damaged in a fire in Guam. It involved hundreds of rare parts, thousands of man hours and 300 Northrop and Air Force workers, many of whom flew to Guam to work on the project seven days a week. With only 20 B-2s in existence, Air Force officials said there was no doubt they would invest the $105 million it took to repair the plane.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz writes an opinion piece in the New York Daily News about reckless drivers. He says the only way to really deter reckless driving is to punish everyone who drives recklessly - not just those who kill someone. Dershowitz says, the law rarely punishes even those who do kill someone - with only five percent of the drivers involved in fatalities in New York being charged with serious crimes.

Is your golf swing a fire hazard? Scientists at UC Irvine say they’ve confirmed what firefighters had suspected for years - titanium coated golf clubs can cause vegetation on the golf course to burst into flames. The Orange County register says golf clubs are now being blamed for several golf course fires. If the club hits a rock, it can create sparks that burn hot enough and long enough to spark a fire.

Don’t let anyone fool you, General Motors is in recall crisis mode. Detroit Free-Press business columnist Tom Walsh says whether GM survives now rests in the hands of CEO Mary Barra. Walsh says Barra got off to a good start by being accountable and apologetic, vowing that something like this won’t happen again.

Lobster at Quiznos? The Wall Street Journal says lobster is finding its way into everyday settings more often. From fast food to find dining, lobster that was once a luxury item is becoming more affordable. Lobster populations have been strong - leading to falling prices.

Ballpark food is expensive. But $25 for a corn dog might be a stretch. The Arizona Diamondbacks are introducing an 18-inch dog, stuffed with cheddar cheese, jalapenos and bacon. It comes with a side of fries, chipotle ketchup and spicy mustard. The Arizona Republic says this isn’t the most expensive ballpark dog - the Texas Rangers sell a 2-foot long chili dog called the “Boomstick” for $26.

Come April 8th, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP. From that point on, the operating system will be vulnerable to attack and will no longer be a safe place to work. The Wall Street Journal weighs your options - from upgrading to Windows 8.1 or the more familiar Windows 7 to jumping ship with a non-Microsoft operating system.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts is vowing to bring “Uber-like” quality to his company’s customer service. USA Today says Roberts wants customers to be able to track their cable service technician, in the same way Uber users can track where their cab is. Roberts is promising that improvements to Comcast’s customer service will spread quickly to Time Warner Cable if and when the two companies merge.

Think kids have too much homework these days? New research shows homework burdens are virtually unchanged over the past 30 years. USA Today says the share of 17-year-olds who say they spent more than two hours a night on homework was 13% in surveys from both 1984 and 2012. One recent survey found 46% of parents in one New Jersey township said their kids spend too much time on homework.

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden has been given a digital treatment allowing the classic work to be examined in all of its complexity. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle says a team from the State University College at Geneseo worked with experts and historical groups on the project. Readers can go to digitalthoreau.org to explore how the final version of Walden compares with any of Thoreau’s previous six drafts.

Since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, one of the thoughts I’ve had is why a transponder can be turned off in the first place. Gregg Easterbrook writes an Op-Ed in the New York Times asking the same question. He says transponders should have been re-engineered after the September 11th attacks so they could not be manually turned off. Only a hijacker would want to turn off a transponder.

If you think Google knows a lot about you, you won’t believe how much Amazon knows. By tracking your purchases, Amazon has a unique insight into your behavior. But the Seattle Times says Amazon won’t share its most coveted data to advertisers for fear of alienating customers. Even though advertising is a $1B business for Amazon, the company does $70B in sales.

The Wall Street Journal’s Ben Cohen has some helpful advice on how to win your office NCAA Tournament pool. He breaks it down into three levels of fans. For the novice, he says, pick the favorites. Intermediates should focus on which teams have the best players and advanced players should pay attention to a team’s pace. Slower teams have fewer chances to make up for mistakes.

The scientific community is buzzing about a discovery that gives strong evidence to the theory that the cosmos was created in a split second. Astronomers working at the South Pole announced they had found ripples from gravitational waves created in the big bang. The Washington Post says it took researchers four years to build the telescope used to detect the waves, and three years to analyze the data.

While all signs point to Hillary Clinton making a run for the White House in 2016, USA Today asks if her age would be a concern. If she were to win, at age 69, she would be just a few months younger than our oldest president, Ronald Reagan. But life expectancy in 1963 was just 69 years old, today it is 79.

The Denver Post tells the story of the once-thriving boomtown of Bonanza, Colorado. It’s now home to just one resident. The state is likely to soon nullify its 133-year-old incorporation. Its only resident is a former hotshot team firefighter who moved to Bonanza 19-years ago, he says to live at the end of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

The Washington Post’s Hank Stuever reviews HBO’s new documentary, “Paycheck to Paycheck: The Life and Times of Katrina Gilbert.” It’s the story of a single mother of three kids struggling to make it. He says it differs from many similar stories in that filmmakers often choose the hardest-luck examples, rather than someone who is just scraping by.

The Wall Street Journal this morning has experts weigh in on both sides of six personal finance debates. My favorite is the question of whether you should pay for your child’s college education. Meir Statman, a finance professor at Santa Clara University, says you should pay for college, to instill the notion that an education is important and ensure your children don’t start off adulthood with crippling debt. Psychotherapist and Author Laura Herman says kids who pay their own way take it more seriously and are less likely to drop out.

With the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament getting underway this week, the LA Times’ David Wharton says no other sporting event offers so many chances for David to slay Goliath. He says the underdog spirit of the tournament reinforces one of our core beliefs: Anyone who works hard enough can succeed. The underdog also offers a safe emotional investment. You should expect them to lose, so you’re not as disappointed when they do.

In a lesson about being careful what you post online, students at Los Alamitos High School in California persuaded teachers to read mildly mean tweets about them. That includes tweets about the out of shape running coach and the good-looking, but balding teacher. The Orange County Register says the video was inspired by Jimmy Kimmel’s segment where celebrities read mean tweets. It’s been viewed on YouTube more than 400,000 times. VIDEO