By ELEANOR CHUTE, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The College Board -- maker of the SAT college entrance exam -- has announced a new standardized test it said it developed because of popular demand.

The two-hour test, called ReadiStep, is for eighth-graders, and is aimed at helping educators see which skills students need to develop to be prepared for high school and college.

What's your major?

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of possible answers to that question.

Students can choose from majors as common as business or as unusual as blacksmithing.

PITTSBURGH -- Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose final lecture inspired millions, died early Friday in Virginia of pancreatic cancer.