The power of the sun, 4 trillion terawatts of pure, clean energy baby! That’s been the dream ever since the secret of the sun’s power was first gleaned by nuclear physicists almost a century ago. Fusion has been a long time coming, but we may finally be getting close: [Read more…]
On a hypothetical simmering ocean world, under an oversized blue-white star, the tendrils of one of sci-fi writer Steven Baxter’s “Qax” reach out to the limb of another in the distance.
It’s fair to think we know life when we see it. But is that really true? Scientists have worked on defining life for decades, and in most cases they’ve ended up with a pragmatic suite a characteristics that’s both useful and clearly incomplete. With the recent focus on Mars, the effort is rejoined. Here’s one stab at it: [Read more…]
There’s a bit of a lively debate in geology about tectonic plates and how rare or common they may be. Since earth is the only planet we’ve studied in-depth, the winners of that debate are yet to be announced. But one geophysicist has found evidence for nascent plate tectonics on a certain nearby world, and the evidence was there all along: [Read more…]
A strange phenomenon is underway in the south Pacific off the coast of New Zealand. Rocks, lots and lots of rocks, but they’re floating! Could this be the end of the world, are the four horsemen saddling up to reap our divine souls? No, there’s a less dramatic, but nevertheless fascinating explanation: [Read more…]
Yeap, all over the news sites, atheism turns up hundreds of hits today alone instead of the paltry dozen or so over the last week it usually does. But they’re all the same and we have Paul Ryan to thank for this. Like most Kochwhores these days, Ryan professes admiration for the fictional characters in an old novel called Atlas Shrugged. With one notable clarification: [Read more…]
That will no doubt be one of the memes trotted out to the wingnut victims, also known as the conservative base. Paul Ryan is courageous, he’s taking on the establishment’s most treasured programs and standing fearlessly against pork barrel politicians from both sides! All hail the Deficit Warrior Prince! Here’s some background on Mr Ryan: [Read more…]
In all the excitement of another wingnut sociopath slotted for the Republican VP, I almost forgot my big news. I got a raise! It took a year and half to earn, I had to do the work before getting the money, and then it got dragged out for some inexplicable reasons that kept me doing that work without getting the raise for months, big coinkindink I know. But after ranking at number one or number two, time and time again, month after long month, I finally got it! I now officially make right around … [Read more…]
Regular Joe Paul Ryan eating din-din with two zillionaire conservatives enjoying a $350 bottle of wine in DC. Yeah, America needs THIS guy …
Team Romney has flipped the game board and rolled out their VP pick early. There’ll be a bunch of articles coming out on Paul Ryan and his Medicare killing plan. No one can say the exact reasons, but one thing we can infer: Team Romney must have seen the same trends in their internal data that’s been reported widely over the last few weeks showing Romney losing ground nationally and in key states. That makes this is a somewhat desperate hail Mary throw toward the end zone. [Read more…]
I never predicted things would move this quickly and decisively against Romney, but polls seem to be taking another dump on him. That means his VP pick is more important than ever, in the meantime Mittens issued a statement that damn near sounds like a plea for mercy: [Read more…]
Curiosity is revving up her primary cameras and testing the treads. Soon she’ll trundle off the landing site and start prospecting for Martian gold. I’ve collected a few of the best EDL pics below. [Read more…]