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According to a study released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans were living longer in 2010, although the change in life expectancy, from 78.6 years in 2009 to 78.7 in 2010, is hardly worth celebrating (and too much celebrating might knock off that extra tenth of a year you picked up). The widely reported news from that report is good news, indeed — for the first time since 1965, homicide did not make the top 15 causes of death in the United States. Beyond that good news, the study offered a revealing look at the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. Health experts say that lifestyle changes can help prevent or reduce the risk of some of these fatal conditions.

The story of explorer Robert F. Scott is equal parts heroism, tragedy and controversy. As the 100th anniversary of Scott’s reaching the South Pole comes on Jan. 17, 2012, many people will recall from their high school history class that Scott lost the “race” to the South Pole to fellow explorer Roald Amundsen, and then Scott and his party tragically perished on the return trip from the pole. Yet 100 years later, Scott’s legacy is still a subject of fierce debate among scholars. Through the years, Scott has gone from hero, to inept fool, to a hero once again as historians have hotly debated his achievements and failures during his final expedition. We certainly can’t resolve a century-old debate in a 1,200-word story, but here are five thoughts on the legacy of the British explorer.

Space exploration is a hazardous business. Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, many missions have failed to escape orbit or have crashed back to Earth upon their return, often to great media publicity. In the latest example, the Russian probe Phobos-Grunt, which was launched Nov. 9, 2011 to explore Mars’ moon, Phobos, never escaped Earth’s orbit and is set to reenter the atmosphere Jan. 15 or 16, complete with a payload of toxic hydrazine rocket fuel. Several of the incidents on this list are virtually unknown. Others have become national tragedies where astronauts and cosmonauts paid the ultimate sacrifice for space exploration.

Since the introduction of nuclear weapons in 1945, the United States has sought to balance the security of its nuclear assets with the ability to deploy them if needed. The Department of Defense’s Nuclear Surety Program seeks to safeguard weapons from theft, loss, destruction or jettison. But given the thousands of warheads in service through the years — an inventory that currently stands at 2,576 warheads, down from a high of 31,000 during the Cold War — accidents happen. The most serious incidents include what is known as a Broken Arrow, a nuclear-related loss or accident that does not create the risk of war. According to the Brookings Institution, 11 nuclear bombs have been lost and remain unrecovered. The DoD has reported hundreds of nuclear weapons mishaps, many of which are lesser incidents known as Dull Swords. Here are 10 notable accidents involving nuclear weapons in U.S. history.

There is no secret formula to getting a book published. It requires luck and good timing and it doesn’t hurt to know the right people. The traditional route has become more difficult as the industry struggles to evolve. The same names appear on bestseller lists and publishers fight over celebrity memoirs. If you’re not already famous or an established author, it can seem like a closed shop. Yet debut authors get published all the time despite the odds. And many authors succeed with self-published books. It takes patience, perseverance and a thick skin to deal with rejection. But these are qualities most writers have developed after months or years tapping away at the keyboard, waiting for the muse to show up, battling with self-doubt. If you have a completed manuscript sitting on your desk, congratulations. Now for the dirty work ... put the champagne on ice and roll up your sleeves.

The following information was gathered over five years as I researched the publishing world. Sources include countless books, magazines, websites, and conversations with established authors. I also draw on my own experience as a writer and producer, as well as my work in coaching authors in media readiness and book marketing.

Forty pounds in four months? Three dress sizes in three weeks? Two inches in 20 days? These are not the numbers you should be thinking about when it comes to a healthier “you” in the new year. If you want to get results, you need to set realistic goals and focus not on short-term gains, but a lifestyle change. To get started, here are some time-tested numbers to keep in mind to help in your quest. Instead of targeting an ideal “size,” go forth and shed bad habits and adopt a new lifestyle for lasting, positive change.

It’s hard to believe now, with dozens of popular films under his belt, but Morgan Freeman was in his 50s before landing his first major movie roles in Hollywood. Today, after many high-profile award nominations and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work in Million Dollar Baby, Freeman is considered by many to be one of the greatest living actors. In honor of his 75th birthday this year, here’s a list of the top 10 Morgan Freeman films. As always with a film list of this type, a spoiler alert is in effect.

It almost a rite of passage for each generation to have an apocalypse to fear, and astronomy provides plenty of scary scenarios for doomsday. Perhaps such end-of-the-world scares are thrilling or even amusing to some, but the harm comes when individuals act on these fears, often selling off their worldly possessions or even taking their lives. And of course, plenty of hucksters are eager to capitalize on a coming apocalypse. Here’s a look at five astronomical events that were feared by many to signal the end the world as we know it; obviously, the results turned out otherwise.

Tim Tebow has been verbally attacked in the media, in sports bars and on fan blogs this season with a zeal usually reserved for pedophiles and serial killers. He’s certainly the most controversial athlete at the moment, due in large part to his “crime”: public prayer. The Denver Broncos rookie quarterback can take heart in the fact that it would take much more than “Tebowing” to crack this list of the 10 most controversial U.S. athletes of all time.

Throughout history, nothing has stimulated the creativity of inventors more than warfare, or the threat of war. Many things we take for granted today, such as the Internet, GPS navigation, radar, rockets and nuclear energy all trace their genesis to military applications. Yet for every useful weapon or commercial application that has resulted from war, many other ideas have been discarded. During World War II in particular, many strange weapons were pursued in hopes of turning the tide of war. At the time, they seemed like plausible ideas; in hindsight, some of them seem almost comical. From ancient times through the present day, here are 10 strange weapons of war.