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As baby boomers retire and drilling increases, energy companies are hiring, adding 23 percent more workers between 2009 and 2012. But the hiring spree has come with a terrible price: Last year, 138 workers were killed on the job, twice as many as in 2009.

Over the past year, a roaring debate has erupted among physicists about what exactly would happen if you fell into a black hole. Would it be "spaghettification," or a quantum firestorm and oblivion where space ceases to exist? The answer has big implications for fundamental physics.

Only a rare few people have the ability to remember everything that happened in their lives. But that gift can seem like a curse, they say, keeping them marooned in the past and unable to enjoy the present. Forgetting, it seems, can be a good thing.

Mountain lions are slowly making a comeback, but they live at constant risk of getting hit by cars or shot. In Santa Cruz, Calif., one project tracks how the lions live — and it's already helping to protect the big cats nationwide.

Is that a cross? A ship with a figurehead? It's only human to wonder what the future will hold, especially on the threshold of a new year. In one German tradition, fortune-seekers drop molten lead into cold water — then it's anyone's guess what the strange shapes portend.

Despite uneven economic signals, the stock market boomed to record levels in 2013. To find out why, NPR's Linda Wertheimer speaks with Jeremy Siegel from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business about what's behind the rise, and what to expect in 2014.

Emergency unemployment benefits are ending, the auto bailout is over, and the Federal Reserve is scaling back its market support. All these are signs that federal stimulus is coming to an end. NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks with TIME magazine's Michael Grunwald about the winding down of government recovery efforts following the financial collapse of 2008.

Thirty-four firefighters died in the line of duty this year. The unusually high number is sparking a larger conversation about the dangers firefighters face as more homes are built in and around drought-stricken forests.

This year saw a major development in a story that NPR's Ina Jaffe has been following since 2011. NPR's Arun Ruth checks in her about a group of homeless, disabled veterans who filed a lawsuit seeking housing on the sprawling campus of the VA health care facility in West Los Angeles.

Stories that titillate, amuse or arouse flash-in-the-pan outrage may be more widely read and shared than solid information. Celebrity and scandals have always attracted media attention, but in the Internet age, the balance is shifting more toward entertainment.