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The term "Rube Goldberg machine" has become shorthand for a convoluted contraption made up of a series of chain reactions. But Goldberg was also a real person, whose ideas for whimsical devices have captivated imaginations for decades.

When 18th century Jewish peddler Jacob Cerf reappears in the 21st century, he finds he can read minds and will people to do his bidding — but he's also a common housefly. Rebecca Miller's Jacob's Folly traces Jacob's mission to get back at God.

The Hunger Games has been a huge success, and the film adaptation is only weeks away. Now, publishers are looking for the next big dystopian hit.

One of the biggest actresses of MGM's Golden Age, also lived a quiet life as an inventor. During World War II, Hedy Lamarr invented a form of wireless communication that led to Bluetooth, GPS and more.

Former engineer Arturo Bejar says he repeatedly raised the alarm to company execs about Instagram's harm to teens and they failed to act. Senators vow to pass a social media law this year.

This week, Andre 3000 released an instrumental album featuring the flute instead of an expected rap album. Scott Simon asks LA Times' August Brown about the flute's decades-long role in pop music.

Molly Antopol's short stories are set in many different times and places. But reviewer Meg Wolitzer says each one will make you nostalgic for another era in short fiction, a time when writer like Bernard Malamud, and Issac Bashevis Singer and Grace Paley roamed the earth.

Hundreds of civilians in Sri Lanka have been killed recently. Aid officials believe many were victims of shelling by the Sri Lankan army fighting against the Tamil Tigers, who are using civilians as human shields. The Sri Lankan government is ignoring international appeals for a pause in the fighting. The military has its sights set on one man.

India's financial capital, Mumbai, on Friday commemorates the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks that left 166 people dead.

David Coleman Headley of Chicago is charged with conducting extensive surveillance on potential targets in Mumbai before last year's terrorist attacks. Headley, a U.S. citizen, changed his name in 2006. Prosecutors say that is so he could pass in India for an American who was neither Muslim nor Pakistani. Stories about Headley's involvement in the attacks have been circulating in India for weeks.