Does the timeout work? The Wall Street Journal says the NBA’s penchant for calling timeouts may be a misstep. New research shows that taking a break does little to affect the outcome of a game. Researchers say in two-thirds of the games they analyzed timeouts had no effect on the final score.

It certainly has been a week full of face-biting stories. The Staten Island Advance says a 52-year-old man is accused of biting off part of the ear of another diner patron who changed the TV channel. The victim says after getting in a spat with a women over what to watch on the diner’s TV, he went outside to smoke a cigarette. That’s when the woman’s companion came out, punched him in the face, took a bite out of his ear, and yelled, “That’s right, a 52-year-old beat your [backside] up!”

A small Tennessee police department says it was lied to about the age and condition of a drug dog it purchased from the K-9 Academy in Arkansas reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The breeder sold the department what they thought was an 18-month-old dog but several vets have concluded its real age is closer to 6 or 8 years old. In addition, the dog has a mammary tumor and is so obese that it must lose 14 pound before being allowed back on the job.

The Charlotte Observer says the most common question asked at John Edwards’ trial was, “what was he thinking?” Yesterday, the jury in the case admitted it was a question they couldn’t answer. After finding Edwards not guilty on one count, they couldn’t find consensus on the other five and a mistrial was declared. Columnist Rob Christensen says the mistrial brought back memories of when he first met the politician: “Little did I realize when I first met Edwards in 1997 that I was really looking at rocker Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’—you know, “not the man they think I am at home ... burning out his fuse up here alone.”

In 1769, David Rittenhouse set up an observatory on his farm outside Philadelphia. He wanted to see a very cool and very rare astrological phenomenon that only happens four times every 243 years called the Transit of Venus, in which Venus passes in front of the sun. This Tuesday is your last chance this century to see what Rittenhouse saw more than 200 years ago. The Philadelphia Inquirer says if you’re in the area, you can check out Rittenhouse’s brass telescope too.

President Obama and George W. Bush cracked jokes about each other in Washington yesterday as a portrait of the former president was unveiled. The Houston Chronicle says for about an hour, Republicans were in full control of the White House as many generations of the Bush clan and their political entourage turned out for the ceremony.

It was a big splash for private space exploration yesterday, says the Orlando Sentinel, after SpaceX’s Dragon capsule fell back to Earth and landed in the Pacific Ocean. The “flawless mission” ended with the California company getting NASA certification to operate as a cargo carrier to the International Space Station.