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The Obama administration is again delaying a part of the Affordable Care Act that requires most companies to provide employees with health insurance. This time, smallish firms — those with fewer than 100 workers but more than 49 — get a reprieve until 2016.

As an acoustic engineer, Trevor Cox has spent most of his career getting rid of bizarre, unwanted sounds. But in The Sound Book, Cox turns up the volume on those sonic oddities. The book explores weird echoes and unexpected noises from around the globe — including "whisper galleries" and a chirping pyramid.

Much of the attention on the Olympic slopestyle events has focused on snowboarders, but the downhill event is also done on skis. Devin Logan enters Tuesday's competition as the world's top-ranked female freestyle skier. And at 20, she'll compete before she can legally celebrate with a beer.

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen is a biathlete competing for a record 13th medal — which would make him the most decorated athlete ever at the Winter Games. No one has ever been so good for so long in his sport. "He's 40 years old, and he's motivated like an 18-year-old," says one expert.

Air bags stored in backpacks are saving the lives of backcountry skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers. They look something like car air bags, but they work on an entirely different principle. These keep you safe simply by turning you into a larger object, and that helps you rise to the top of debris.

Governments, schools and companies keep track of your race. The statistics are used to track the proportion of blacks and whites who graduate from school. They tell us how many people identify themselves as Native American or Asian. They help us measure health disparities. But there's a problem with all those statistics — and the deeper way we think about race.

NBC says its coverage of the Winter Olympics has drawn more than 100 million viewers over its first weekend. That indicates lots of interest in the games, which will fill 1,539 hours of coverage across NBC's broadcast network, cable channels and online. We have some suggestions for watching the Sochi Olympics — from the regular network broadcast to cable to the Internet.

Her singing and dancing in movies charmed millions during the Great Depression, when she was the top box-office draw. After leaving show business, Temple (known in her private life as Shirley Temple Black) was an ambassador. She represented the nation at the U.N. and in Prague during the Cold War.

Eleven candidates are trying to replace Hamid Karzai in the April 5 election. Ten are Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group. Candidates are already holding rallies, debating and wooing the support of tribal leaders. Here's a rundown of the top contenders.

Energy drinks tend to get a bad rap. But when it comes to caffeine intake, teenagers seem to be getting far more caffeine from coffee drinks. Overall, about three-fourths of children in the U.S. consume caffeine on a given day.