Sometimes when I hear the old ‘both sides do it’ mantra so beloved by the Beltway press, I think back to my childhood and a campy episode of Star Trek. Come on! Maybe you remember this one, The Savage Curtain, where Kirk and Spock join forces with Surak and Abe Lincoln to fend off Genghis Kahn and three more megalomaniacs who might feel right at home leading a teaparty militia? [Read more…]
Mitt Romney has an IRA reportedly worth upwards of $100 million. Which is amazing, especially considering the contribution limit is $6000 per year and was lower in the past. The Romney campaign isn’t saying how he pulled it off, but here’s some educated guesswork: [Read more…]
The Mars rover Opportunity stirred in the midst of its slumber in the long Martian winter and snapped this beautiful composite image. One month from today it will be joined by the much larger Curiosity and the search for ancient life will begin in earnest. Assuming Curiosity survives NASA’s Rube Goldberg reentry and descent contraption. And a new study suggests signs of ancient life could be lurking just under the surface for it to find: [Read more…]
Woman thanks President Obama for healthcare with tears in her eyes. Click for her story at HuffPo.
As expected the June jobs report was weak, the nation added only 80,000 new jobs last month. A far cry from the number needed to match the always growing US workforce. Unemployment remained at 8.2%, so, GOP trolls in congress, grats! [Read more…]
Conservative commentator S. E. Cupp got stuck in a dilemma of her own making Thursday when the topic of atheism and politics came up on her new MSNBC news show. The debacle that followed was painful to watch, video below. [Read more…]
You walk down an ordinary drab aisle in a supermarket, but you see grocery items stand up and dance a jig, below them are prices, special offers, and nutrition profiles. In the corner of your eye a counter keeps track of the total bill for items already chosen, taxes included, and flashes red when it reaches a predetermined value. A neighbor speaks to you in Mandarin, but text scrolls past your field of vision, maybe a tiny speaker whispers the english translation in your ear. Oh, and if the power goes out, no matter. You can see in the dark.
This may sound like the future, but if Google’s new project succeeds, the future starts now. [Read more…]
To drive the point home in the Fukushima post below, all power sources have their tragic flaws. Are the record high temperatures afflicting much of the nation a result of global warming driven by fossil fuels? Best answer, maybe: [Read more…]
There’s a reason we have regulations in place for various industries: accidents can kill huge numbers of people. But as a new report on the Fukushima nuclear crisis underscores, those regs only work when they are well written and well enforced: [Read more…]
The Romney campaign flailed around a bit over the last few days trying desperately to come up with a way to criticize Obama for “raising taxes” on the middle class for healthcare, while claiming the blue-print plan Romney used in Massachusetts didn’t count as a tax. [Read more…]
While most of the nation was celebrating this week, NOAA released an official statement: there is no evidence for living aquatic humanoids: [Read more…]