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The first pope in about 600 years to voluntarily step down is headed to a life out of the public's eye. Now, the church's cardinals turn to the task of selecting a successor.

A new study of the Barnett Shale formation in Texas shows that the natural gas reservoir there will last for at least another two decades. "Turns out, what we learned is that there's a lot of good rock left to drill," says geology professor Scott Tinker, the study's author.

Dale Stephens says many students would be better off ditching college and finding alternate ways to complete their educations. His new book, Hacking Your Education, explores that idea. "When you think about education as an investment, you have to think about what the return is going to be," he says.

For this week's Sandwich Monday, we try "The T-Rex Burger," a nine-patty monster that, until this week, had been on the menu of a renegade Canadian Wendy's franchise.

Degree-granting institutions are responding to austere budgets by catapulting themselves into the world of online education. But some professors point to low online completion rates as evidence that these "massive open online courses" do a disservice to students.

A scientist who studies tornadoes says there's still much to be learned about how they form and how to better forecast them. Still, the storm chasing and research communities will be reevaluating their procedures in the wake of three colleagues' deaths.

ESPN reports that Major League Baseball is preparing to suspend at least 20 players for associating with a known dealer of banned substances. Dave Zirin, sportswriter with The Nation, discusses his proposal: instead of banning performance-enhancing drugs, legalize and regulate them.

Also: The folly of marathon readings; Tom Wolfe has a new book; VICE apologizes for tasteless photo spread.

Claes Oldenburg is one of the best-known American pop artists. Critic Lloyd Schwartz found himself not alone in enjoying the current Oldenburg exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, which continues through Aug. 5.

Getting clean water to people in the developing world isn't just an engineering problem.