I Can See Corruption From Your House
Sweet! A key Troopergate witness has just flipped, implicating Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:
Murlene Wilkes, the proprietor of Harbor Adjusting Services in Anchorage, had originally denied that she was pressured by Gov. Palin’s office to deny state trooper Mike Wooten’s claim for workers compensation benefits.
But Wilkes changed her story two weeks ago when she was subpoenaed [...]
All You Need to Know
So the governorship of Alaska, as with that of most states, is largely ceremonial in many ways. It’s no secret, but don’t you dare suggest that a Republican running mate wasn’t a hands-on Commander-in-Chief of the state’s National Guard. Not unless you’re willing immediately to contradict yourself for a promotion:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has promoted [...]
A Progressive Tax Plan?
It will come as no surprise that Sen. McCain is running on a promise to cut taxes, despite the biggest federal budget deficit in history–nor is it news that he wants to give the biggest tax cuts to wealthy families. What gives me hope is Sen. Obama’s plan to shift the tax burden upward, increasing [...]
Virus in Spaaaaaaaaace!
Laptop computers taken to the International Space Station had been compromised by a well-known virus:
Space news website SpaceRef broke the story about the virus on the laptops that astronauts took to the ISS.
NASA told SpaceRef that no command or control systems of the ISS were at risk from the malicious program.
The laptops infected with the [...]
And the Carbon Monoxide Is a Vitamin
China’s legendary air pollution, a by-product of their rapid industrialization and failure to regulate, has been redefined as “mist” in what must be one of the most darkly amusing whoppers of the Beijing Olympic season:
But yesterday Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the IOC’s medical commission, said he was confident that pollution would not harm athletes or [...]
Pre-Clovis Americans
A new discovery of coprolites in Oregon pushes back the earliest known human population in North America to fourteen thousand years ago:
The petrified poop — coprolites to scientists — is yielding a look at the diet of these ancient Americans, Jenkins said.
While the analysis is not yet complete, he said there are bones of squirrels, [...]
Higg Out
In Geneva, they’re trying to find…everything:
Scientists at CERN, Europe’s atom-smashing laboratory, are preparing for the greatest experiment in the history of particle physics which could unveil a sub-atomic component, the Higgs Boson, which is so tantalising that it has been called “the God Particle”…
The “Higgs,” named after a British physicist, Peter Higgs, who first [...]
I See You
New telescope to see new things:
“The amount of time and work that was put into this project to reach the point where we are today is immense,” said LBT Director Richard Green. “To see the telescope operational with both mirrors is a great feeling.”
The $120m (£60m) telescope uses two mirrors in tandem to maximise [...]
The Earth Is Doomed
Scientists agree:
But don’t blow your savings on an Apocalypse Party just yet, for astronomers say the planet’s demise is 7.6 billion years away.
The unusual calculations appear in the British open-access journal Astrophysics (on http://uk.arxiv.org/).
Robert Smith, emeritus reader in astronomy at the University of Sussex, southern England, previously calculated that as the Sun runs out of [...]
Al Gore Shares Nobel Peace Prize
Just announced:
The Nobel Peace Prize committee on Friday turned its sights on the battle against climate change by giving the 2007 award to former US vice president Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Gore has reinvented himself as a climate warrior since failing in his bid to become US president in 2000. [...]
