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Will the local gallery go the way of the local bookstore or record store? In the past few years, there's been a growth in sites that sell fine art on the Internet. On Tuesday, Amazon joined that market.

Cutlery, dishes and other inedible accoutrements to a meal can alter our perceptions of taste, according to researchers. And it might be more about our brains than our tongues.

Suppose you own a bakery or a flower shop, or rent out your hall for wedding receptions, and you oppose same-sex marriage. Should you be required to serve gay couples? Most state public accommodation laws require businesses to serve everyone. But some vendors who oppose gay marriage on religious grounds say accommodating gay weddings would violate their religious beliefs. As gay marriage becomes more widespread, these conflicts between religious and civil rights are growing.

Pedro Almodovar's ensemble comedy I'm So Excited is set on an airplane with mechanical problems; Neil Jordan's Byzantium centers on a pair of itinerant English vampires. The two films couldn't be more different, but the two filmmakers are very much in command of their craft.

Forty-six states and Washington, D.C., have signed on to the Common Core State Standards, a set of K-12 standards meant to ensure that students are reaching the same learning benchmarks nationwide. But as states begin implementing the standards, many conservatives have come out against them.

Revelations that the NSA spied on foreign Internet communications are a particularly sensitive issue in Germany, where memories of privacy intrusions under Communist rule in the East remain vivid. But the German government itself is beefing up existing surveillance in the name of fighting terrorism.

China sees Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked details of the agency's surveillance programs, as the gift that keeps on giving. The country's state-run media has hailed him as a hero for exposing what it calls American hypocrisy.

The U.S. says it will consider arming the rebels if it can confirm Bashar Assad's regime used the nerve gas sarin in recent attacks. But there's a danger that any weapons the U.S. provides could fall into the wrong hands.

As Colorado lawmakers debate rules regulating recreational marijuana use, one big question looms: how to charge taxes that will fund oversight of retail pot businesses. The tax requires a statewide vote. If it fails, some worry that underfunded enforcement will invite the feds to shut recreational pot down entirely.

The Justice Department is investigating the IRS's flagging of grass-roots conservative groups that sought nonprofit status. But some lawmakers want the debate extended to look at the well-financed activities of existing 501(c)(4) groups that spent millions in the 2012 elections.