Great Progress

RFS 9: Kill Hollywood

2012-01-21T19:04:00.000-06:00

Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise.

That's one reason we want to fund startups that will compete with movies and TV, but not the main reason. The main reason we want to fund such startups is not to protect the world from more SOPAs, but because SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying. They must be dying if they're resorting to such tactics. If movies and TV were growing rapidly, that growth would take up all their attention. When a striker is fouled in the penalty area, he doesn't stop as long as he still has control of the ball; it's only when he's beaten that he turns to appeal to the ref. SOPA shows Hollywood is beaten. And yet the audiences to be captured from movies and TV are still huge. There is a lot of potential energy to be liberated there.

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Real Online TV Is Finally Here

2012-01-16T17:03:00.000-06:00

Hulu has not one, but two original shows ready to stream over the Interwaves in the near future—one of them is even scripted. (The other is reality. Groan.) These aren't just six-packs of five minute webisodes; they're original content aiming to follow in the footsteps of HBO. Giddyup!
Hollywood is teetering on a ledge, debating whether or not it should jump into the great unknown of the internet. Hulu and Netflix are standing behind, ready to push the industry in for its own good.

The amateur, short-form online video boom of the past five years has been cool, but it isn't an endgame. Sure, it generated an audience—we'll always watch those five minute Funny or Die vids in our cubicles as we work—but it isn't enough to drive an industry. Online TV has the potential to be more than just an alternate, low-budget route for jaded producers, writers, and actors. It could do more than just serve as a glorified DVR with more restrictions than an airport security checkpoint. On-demand, broadcast-quality TV on any device is the prize. Hulu and Netflix have delivered on the infrastructure, but networks and studios are balking on content in the name of short-term profit. So in the face of hostility, the two services have decided to stop waiting for the dinosaurs to come around, and in effect, have become their own networks. Awesome.

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Space powers propose roadmap for flight to Mars

2012-01-09T14:57:00.000-06:00

Despite various economic issues undermining efforts by the world’s leading space powers to forge a program for future manned flights to the Red Planet, an international working group has come up with a universal space exploration roadmap.

The effort by the partner nations in the International Space Station project, namely Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency, was also supported by China, India, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other countries.

"This is not merely an ISS club, but a broader project," the chief of human spaceflights programs of Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmos, Aleksey Krasnov, added.

The proposed roadmap may be based on three alternative routes: preparation of a manned expedition to Mars from scratch, the testing of technologies on the Moon prior to a flight to Mars, or a flight to an asteroid followed by a journey to Mars.

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Space idea factory & brainstorming school

2011-12-27T12:37:00.001-06:00

•Make nuclear fuel in space: Nuclear power may be the best viable solution for long-distance space travel. But where should the nuclear fuel be produced? Grad student Jake Dodd proposes a system to create it in space. This would avoid risks posed by creating it on Earth and use rockets to launch radioactive fuel through the atmosphere. Dodd named his idea SNAP: Space-based Nuclear Activision Plant. From a constant position in space, SNAP would “ingest fertile materials shipped from Earth, transmute them into useable nuclear fuels, and aid in the manufacture and distribution of space based nuclear fuel,” Dodd said. He suggests that SNAP might use nuclear power technologies such as molten salt reactors or nuclear-pumped lasers.

•Build an industrial research park on the moon: The U.S. – especially the private sector – could provide communications, navigation and lunar ground infrastructure for China, India and other nations to send their own vehicles to the moon and back.

•Use the space station to build space ships: Use the International Space Station as a scaffold to build the next-generation lunar orbiting station. Use the lunar station to develop and build a manned spacecraft called the Cosmic Mariner, which would journey to targets like Mars, the asteroid belt and the outer planets.

•Build orbiting “filling stations” for rockets: Rockets could fill up at these floating “gas stations” so they could use their powerful engines to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere instead of the traditional method of “falling” through the atmosphere at high speeds.

•Commercial astronauts build energy satellites: The private sector and NASA should develop a commercial astronaut corps program to start training crew who can go out on weekly missions to build, among other projects, satellites that would create microwave energy from the continually available sunlight and beam it to Earth. Such projects would create high-paying jobs and help bolster the sagging world economy

Full piece

Stratolaunch Systems, A Paul G. Allen Project

2011-12-13T22:18:00.002-06:00

Stratolaunch Systems is pioneering innovative solutions to revolutionize space transportation. Watch the video or visit http://www.stratolaunch.com to learn more.

Has The 'God Particle' Been Found?

2011-12-10T17:33:00.000-06:00

Science gossip!

Rumors are flying, ABC News reports, that scientists who operate the Large Hadron Collider will meet next week to discuss an "update" on the search for the Higgs boson, a particle that is part of the same field that gives mass matter. Even the attribution of the rumors (they aren't the first that the Higgs boson has been discovered) is deliciously nerdy.

According to PhysicsWorld.com, CERN's Scientific Policy Committee will be meeting on Tuesday (Dec. 13) to discuss, amongst other things, an update on the search for the Higgs boson. Teams from the LHC's ATLAS and CMS experiments will be in attendance.

Interestingly, as noted by the Guardian.co.uk's science correspondent Ian Sample, the head scientists of the two groups will be there to give the Higgs update. "That in itself is telling – usually more junior researchers present updates on the search for the missing particle," Sample pointed out in his Dec. 6 article.

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Earth-like planet found in distant sun's habitable zone

2011-12-06T10:19:00.000-06:00

For the first time, astronomers using NASA's Kepler space telescope have confirmed a roughly Earth-size planet orbiting a sun-like star in the so-called "Goldilocks" zone where water can exist in liquid form on the surface and conditions may be favorable for life as it is known on Earth.

Along with the confirmed extra-solar planet, one of 28 discovered so far by Kepler, researchers today also announced the discovery of 1,094 new exoplanet candidates, pushing the spacecraft's total so far to 2,326, including 10 candidate Earth-size worlds orbiting in the habitable zones of their parent stars.

Additional observations are required to tell if a candidate is, in fact, an actual world. But astronomers say a planet known as Kepler-22b, orbiting a star some 600 light years from Earth, is the real thing.

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Plan to establish first lunar base and gas stations in space

2011-11-22T11:35:00.000-06:00

Imagine if every time you went for on a trip, you had to carry all the fuel required to get you to your destination and back - even if that trip was to a place far, far away, like say Mars. In space there are no refueling options available (yet), and given that propellant makes up over 90 percent of the weight of a spacecraft, this issue is fundamental to saving costs and driving future space exploration. Now the Shackleton Energy Company (SEC) is looking to establish the first operational base to mine ice on the Moon that will be used to produce liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants for distribution to spacecraft via the first gas stations in space ... and the plan is to be open for business by 2020.

According to SEC founder Bill Stone, such orbital gas stations are (along with economical Earth-to-orbit transport like that being pursued by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, and places to stay in orbit) one of the three things essential for humans to expand further into space. It is this need that SEC aims to meet while becoming the "world's foremost space-based energy company providing rocket propellants, life support, consumables, and services in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and on the Moon to all spacefarers."

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Neutrino experiment repeat at Cern finds same result

2011-11-20T12:39:00.000-06:00

The team which found that neutrinos may travel faster than light has carried out an improved version of their experiment - and confirmed the result.

If confirmed by other experiments, the find could undermine one of the basic principles of modern physics.

Critics of the first report in September had said that the long bunches of neutrinos (tiny particles) used could introduce an error into the test.

The new work used much shorter bunches.

It has been posted to the Arxiv repository and submitted to the Journal of High Energy Physics, but has not yet been reviewed by the scientific community.

The experiments have been carried out by the Opera collaboration - short for Oscillation Project with Emulsion (T)racking Apparatus.

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“Revenge of the Electric Car”: Why the automakers went green

2011-11-17T10:51:00.000-06:00

Where the electric car is going

Once doomed by automakers, EV's are flourishing in cities that plan ahead

Chris Paine’s newest film, “Revenge of the Electric Car,” is rolling out across the country with a buzz that seldom accompanies the release of a documentary. That’s because Paine’s follow-up to 2006’s “Who Killed the Electric Car,” which told the story of GM’s recall of the EV1 electric car program in the 1990s, is something of a victory.

Watch the film’s trailer and it’s clear that Paine’s intention is just that: to tell the story of the forgotten underdog who has returned. Only, this time, we’re not talking about Rocky Balboa. We’re talking about a car.

It is, of course, more than a car. The electrification of the vehicle powertrain presents not only a new standard for mobility, but also how we think about energy in general. If widely adopted, electric vehicles could improve air quality, reduce dependence on oil, and spur domestic economic development.

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All-new ASIMO (Nov 2011)

2011-11-11T19:56:00.000-06:00

Honda unveiled "All-new ASIMO", a new version of their humanoid robot. It can run at 9kph and hop on one or both legs, and more.

Will almost free energy be available in the near future?

2011-11-03T11:05:00.002-05:00

There has been some debate in recent months between those who argue that in the near future -in months- there will be available on the market products based on “Cold Fusion” or “Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (LENR).” Such devices would supposedly be able to produce energy at a very low cost. Specifically, there have been several public demonstrations of a device called “E-Cat” by an Italian entrepreneur named Andrea Rossi. Apparently there are several different research groups competing at the same time for bringing to market the first product based on this technology. Among them are Brillouin Energy, Francesco Piantelli, and others. Apparently even NASA is seriously considering the feasibility of the technology.

Source

Dylan Ratigan campaigns for constitutional amendment

2011-10-18T12:47:00.002-05:00

The TV host has called on Icahn Associates LLC lobbyist Jimmy Williams, a regular guest of his, to draft his constitutional amendment language. The easiest way to get around the land’s law that spending money on politics is a 1st Amendment right is to undo that link. “We’re basically saying, ‘money isn’t speech,’” Williams said.

Hence, their draft amendment reads:

"No person, corporation or business entity of any type, domestic or foreign, shall be allowed to contribute money, directly or indirectly, to any candidate for Federal office or to contribute money on behalf of or opposed to any type of campaign for Federal office. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, campaign contributions to candidates for Federal office shall not constitute speech of any kind as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution or any amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Congress shall set forth a federal holiday for the purposes of voting for candidates for Federal office."

Source

Americans urged to live MLK's ideals at memorial dedication

2011-10-16T12:37:00.000-05:00

Will the Singularity lead to the demise of capitalism or will it somehow thrive?

2011-10-14T17:57:00.000-05:00

Ray Kurzweil argues that technology will help to turn everyone into an entrepreneur either by strong AI equipped virtual assistants guiding people to innovate, or by prudent investing of the virtual assistant in the stock market. Is this the way we are headed or will post scarcity lead to the end of capitalism and the rise of a technocracy, resource based economy, or other type of system?

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Recommended site: Singularity Hub

2011-10-14T17:56:00.002-05:00

Singularity Hub is a blog and news network covering the latest in robots, genetics, longevity, artificial intelligence, aging, stem cells, and more.

The singularity is the point in mankind’s future when we will transcend current intellectual and biological limitations and initiate an intelligence and information explosion beyond imagining.

The impossible is becoming possible. The future that you thought would not come in your lifetime is coming sooner than you thought. Singularity Hub is here to tell you about it.

Click to visit the site

Universal charging system developed for EVs

2011-10-11T18:27:00.000-05:00

While the thought of building a worldwide infrastructure of charging stations for electric vehicles may seem daunting, you know what would make it even more challenging? If each station had to separately cater to each make of EV on the road - think of how many different styles of mobile phone chargers are currently out there, for instance, and then picture that applying to cars. Fortunately, however, a consortium of automakers has developed the Combined Charging System - it will allow any one vehicle to charge its batteries using a variety of different charging methods.

The system was developed by Germany's Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, and Volkswagen, working in partnership with America's Ford and General Motors.

It consists of a single interface on the vehicle, which is compatible with methods such as one-phase AC-charging, fast three-phase AC-charging, DC-charging at home and ultra-fast DC-charging at public stations. This is intended to make EV development a less complex process, as vehicles won't need to incorporate multiple inlets, nor will their drivers need to seek out specific charging stations. Instead, all electric vehicles will be able to recharge at all stations.

Source

SpaceX's Plans for the Future

2011-10-09T14:50:00.001-05:00

Reusability is key to the dramatic cost savings that will enable advancements in human exploration of space. The Dragon spacecraft is a fully reusable and SpaceX is working toward the goal of delivering the world's first fully reusable launch vehicle. Check out the animation for a sneak peek at SpaceX's exciting plans for the future.

Quantum computer on the anvil?

2011-10-05T11:25:00.002-05:00

Washington: Physicists have moved one step closer to building a quantum computer by creating a tiny "electron superhighway" which they claim could be useful in producing the new computer that will use quantum particles in place of digital transistors found in today's microchips.

A team at Rice University says the tiny device, calleda "quantum spin Hall topological insulator", which acts as an electron superhighway, is one of the building blocks needed to create quantum particles that store and manipulate data.

Today's computers use binary bits of data that are either ones or zeros. Quantum computers would use quantum bits, or "qubits", which can be both ones and zeros at the same time, thanks to the quirks of quantum mechanics.

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In switch, cable operators want to go "a la carte"

2011-09-28T20:17:00.000-05:00

* Operators want to give consumers choice to lower costs

* Programmers will resist attempts to unbundle programs

* Sports rights and retransmission fees are biggest costs

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Reuters) - U.S. cable operators are privately working on a plan to force programmers to unbundle their networks and allow customers to subscribe to channels on an individual basis.

The plan represents a complete reversal from cable operators' long-held opposition to what is known as "a la carte" programming. Over the last decade, the cable industry battled ferociously with regulators to protect the right to bundle programming, arguing it offered customers the best value.

But executives now say the change is a necessary response to shifting dynamics such as higher carriage costs and using the Web to watch programs, as well as a weak economic recovery that has forced many consumers to cancel cable television subscriptions.

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Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections

2011-09-25T12:39:00.000-05:00

Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has announced.

He said they would also have the right to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council.

The move was welcomed by activists who have called for greater rights for women in the kingdom, which enforces a strict version of Sunni Islamic law.

The changes will occur after municipal polls on Thursday, the king said.

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Baffling CERN Results Show Neutrinos Moving Faster Than the Speed of Light

2011-09-25T11:41:00.000-05:00

Don’t go throwing out your physics texts just yet, but there’s some strange and unprecedented news brewing at CERN today that could potentially undo large parts of the Standard Model, and it has nothing to do with particle collisions at the LHC or elusive god particles. Physicists running routine neutrino experiments between CERN’s Geneva HQ and the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy 455 miles away have found that their neutrinos seem to be traveling faster than the speed of light. That’s right: faster than the fastest known speed in the universe. It's certainly not something we could have predicted when putting together our latest FYI, which investigates whether anything can move faster than light.

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Palestine: 'After 63 years' suffering – enough, enough,' says Abbas

2011-09-24T09:12:00.000-05:00

It was the United Nations that determined the fate of the Palestinian people more than six decades ago – and on Friday it was the UN that heard an impassioned plea to change the destiny of Palestine once more.

It came from Mahmoud Abbas, who was 12 years old when the UN general assembly of November 1947 voted to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab.

Abbas's predecessors, the Palestinian leaders of that earlier generation, famously rejected the partition plan – which envisaged a state on 44% of the land. So the Palestinian president came back to the same body on Friday, asking the UN to bless a Palestinian state on a terrain about half that size.

He did it with a flourish, holding up the formal letter of application he had submitted that hour to the UN secretary general, asking for full membership of the United Nations – a gesture that brought sustained applause from some delegates, impassive silence from others, including the United States and, inevitably, Israel.

"It is a moment of truth and my people are waiting to hear the answer of the world," Abbas said. "After 63 years of suffering: enough, enough, enough."

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NASA's New Heavy-Lift Rocket - Animated Look

2011-09-14T14:50:00.000-05:00

Deep space manned exploration just moved a little closer to reality with the announcement of that development is beginning on the new Space Launch System (SLS). The first developmental flight is targeted for end of 2017.

Sen. Bernie Sanders on how taxing the rich will protect Social Security

2011-09-04T16:03:00.002-05:00

Internet-Based Political Movement Aims To Put Presidential Ticket On Ballots For The 2012 Election

2011-08-29T10:13:00.000-05:00

The response to the recent debt ceiling fiasco underscores how Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the U.S. government. Though many feel we are stuck with a two-party system after numerous attempts to elect a viable alternative candidate have failed, a new Internet-based political movement is emerging. The goal? To put a presidential nomination on the 2012 ballot derived completely from open voting on the Internet. Called Americans Elect, the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization isn’t a traditional new political party, although it must register as one. Instead, it’s a way to nominate candidates in a more democratic fashion. So far, the group has submitted the required number of signatures to put a nomination on the ballot in eight states and has plans to be on 18 by year’s end. Democratic representation is an old idea that modern technology is reinventing, and the movement has the potential to change American politics forever…and that means 2012 will be an even wackier election year than it is already shaping up to be.

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IBM produces first 'brain chips'

2011-08-18T20:55:00.000-05:00

IBM has developed a microprocessor which it claims comes closer than ever to replicating the human brain.

The system is capable of "rewiring" its connections as it encounters new information, similar to the way biological synapses work.

Researchers believe that that by replicating that feature, the technology could start to learn.

Cognitive computers may eventually be used for understanding human behaviour as well as environmental monitoring.

Dharmendra Modha, IBM's project leader, explained that they were trying to recreate aspects of the mind such as emotion, perception, sensation and cognition by "reverse engineering the brain."

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Virgin Galactic Inside the spaceship

2011-08-14T11:02:00.001-05:00

Colony on Mars? SpaceX Preps for Red Planet Living

2011-08-05T13:50:00.002-05:00

At this point, the idea of a settlement on Mars is mainly limited to Hollywood movies like "Total Recall," but if Elon Musk, CEO of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has his way, a trip to Mars will be as commonplace as a trip to Europe in just several decades.

At this point, SpaceX is focusing its efforts on commercial spaceflights to the International Space Station, the first of which will hopefully take place in December, Musk said today during an appearance at the AIAA propulsion conference. But in the coming years, Musk has high hopes for commercial journeys—and settlements—on places like the Moon and Mars.

"Ultimately, the thing that is super important in the grand scale of history is—are we on a path to becoming a multi-planet species or not? If we’re not, that’s not a very bright future. We’ll just be hanging out on Earth until some eventual calamity claims us," Musk said.

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Biographer predicts News Corp. will oust Murdochs within 60 days

2011-07-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

Rupert Murdoch's biographer and Vanity Fair scribe Michael Wolff predicts that both Rupert Murdoch and his son James will be out of power at News Corp within sixty days, according to a Retuers report.

Wolff says that the recent phone-hacking and police bribery scandals that have roiled the company put the family's dominance at the company in doubt and may bring it entirely to an end. "To restore credibility and to restore trust to this company," he said, "the newspapers have to go and the Murdochs have to go."

He claims that the Murdoch name is now "toxic" and that if the company retains members of the Australian media dynasty at its helm, News Corp will face "a lifetime of litigation."

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Higgs boson particle near discovery

2011-07-29T08:47:00.000-05:00

Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) expect to discover – or disprove - the existence of a key particle in Big Bang theory by 2012.

Cern director Rolf Heuer says the latest findings from the world's most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, have been enough to convince the centre that progress is being made in their hunt for the most sought-after of particles – the Higgs boson.

"I would say we can settle the question, the Shakespearean question - 'to be or not to be' - end of next year," he told reporters at a major conference in Grenoble, France on Monday attended by around 700 leading particle physicists.

Sometimes referred to as the “God particle”, the Higgs boson is the linchpin of the Standard Model of particle physics theory on the Big Bang. It is believed to give mass to other objects and creatures in the universe.

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Terrafugia Transition brings flying cars one step closer to reality

2011-07-11T09:29:00.000-05:00

It’s the year 2011, and we aren’t commuting in our personal flying cars, which means we are at least 11 years behind everyone’s prediction. Well Terrafugia is trying to change that with a flying car called the Transition. The Transition is basically a plane that folds up into a car-sized vehicle, which allows you to drive and fly in the same vehicle.

The Transition has been in development for quite some time now, but it has been lacking one key feature: legality. Today’s announcement from Terrafugia states that the company has received exemption from certain National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) laws. The two exemptions focus on the tires and the windshield of the Transition. The NHTSA requires that all vehicles that travel on a highway have a windshield that is made out of laminated safety glass, but in order to keep the weight low the Transition needs a polycarbonate windshield. The company claims that not only would a glass windshield be too heavy, but it could also crack and cause a loss of visibility while flying. The Transition’s tires also received an exemption, even though they are highway-rated for speed and weight, but they do not fit into the NHTSA’s definition of “multi-purpose” tires.

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Genetic revolution: Human Genome Project finally offers help against diseases

2011-06-25T09:25:00.000-05:00

When the long-awaited Human Genome Project succeeded in 2003, mapping all the DNA, genes and chromosomes that operate the human body, it was hailed as a medical miracle, compared in scientific significance to the Apollo moon landings.

But the glow quickly faded. Progress has been slower and setbacks greater than expected, prompting some to say the whole idea is overblown, and research dollars could be better spent on other ways of fighting disease.

That’s about to change.

Researchers in South Florida and across the nation now are working on advances they say could soon create an explosion of new ways to prevent, detect, treat and someday even cure scores of intractable diseases.

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Iceland's Citizens Are Writing Its New Constitution Online

2011-06-10T08:43:00.000-05:00

In the 18th century, if you wanted to draft a democratic constitution you crowded a handful of men into a room and hashed out the finer points of policy and philosophy until you had a document that was declared the law of the land. Same for the 19th and 20th centuries. But nowadays, the Internet--that great democratizer--is bringing a new kind of power to the people. Icelandic authorities overhauling that county’s constitution post-financial meltdown is tapping the power of the Web to allow citizens to give their two cents on how a new governing document should look.

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To Keep Innovating, We Need to Rethink the CPU

2011-05-22T19:17:00.001-05:00

And even beyond the preservation of Moore's Law or market relevance, the need for companies pushing CPU design forward is important for the future of science. Take for example, this New Yorker piece on quantum computing and the leading mind behind it, David Deutsch. It's big idea is that if we build a working quantum computer, it could theoretically process more numbers than there are believed particles in the universe.

What's that good for? It could prime factorize absurdly large numbers in a matter of seconds. And it could prove the validity the Many Worlds Interpretation. The theory essentially supposes that there is a different universe for every possible permutation of anything in the universe. One scientist, Peter Shor, developed an algorithm for quantum computers that would potentially support this theory, if we ever had a quantum computer powerful enough to run it on.

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Sending Humans to Mars

2011-04-25T16:32:00.002-05:00

SpaceX will send humans to Mars within 10 to 20 years, according to an interview with its CEO in the Wall Street Journal. Elon Musk says his company will send people to space within three years, and he wants to colonize other planets next.

“I want SpaceX to help make life multi-planetary,” he said. “We’re going all the way to Mars, I think. Best case, 10 years, worst case, 15 to 20 years.”

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SpaceX sets launch date for world's most powerful rocket

2011-04-07T14:05:00.000-05:00

SpaceX, the American space transport company founded by PayPal and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk that is responsible for the Dragon space capsule and Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets, has announced a late 2013 or 2014 launch date for the world’s most powerful rocket, the Falcon Heavy. Overshadowed by only the Saturn V moon rocket that was decommissioned after the Apollo program, the Falcon Heavy will be able to carry payloads of 53 metric tons (117,000 pounds or 53,070 kg) into orbit, which is more than the maximum take-off weight of a Boeing 737-200 loaded with 136 passengers, luggage and fuel.

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Richard Branson's extreme submarine

2011-04-07T13:59:00.003-05:00

CNN interview here.

Their submersible, designed by Graham Hawkes, is one of the more interesting parts of the journey. Shaped more like a dolphin than a traditional submarine, the Virgin Oceanic craft has an operating depth of 37,000 feet--about seven miles--which means it has to be able to withstand outrageous pressure, 1,500 times that of an airplane. Constructed of carbon fiber and titanium (with a quartz dome), the craft is currently undergoing tests--at that depth, the smallest crack would result in certain death for the pilots, both due to the immense pressure (13 million pounds) and the simple fact that there exist no other vehicles capable of a rescue mission. The sub travels at a maximum of three knots, and can dive at 350 feet per minute, so a dive to the bottom of the Mariana trench and back would take around five hours.

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Americans of all political stripes are in the throes of a “radical democratic awakening,”

2011-04-07T06:07:00.000-05:00

GRITtv: Dennis Kucinich: What Is Economic Democracy?

2011-03-24T07:56:00.002-05:00

After Earth: Why, Where, How, and When We Might Leave Our Home Planet

2011-03-11T12:19:00.000-06:00

Earth won’t always be fit for occupation. We know that in two billion years or so, an expanding sun will boil away our oceans, leaving our home in the universe uninhabitable—unless, that is, we haven’t already been wiped out by the Andromeda galaxy, which is on a multibillion-year collision course with our Milky Way. Moreover, at least a third of the thousand mile-wide asteroids that hurtle across our orbital path will eventually crash into us, at a rate of about one every 300,000 years.

View photos and read more

Kucinich introduces resolution to end war

2011-03-11T12:17:00.002-06:00

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Representatives Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), Walter Jones (R-NC) and eight others today introduced a bipartisan, privileged resolution which, if enacted, would require President Barack Obama to withdraw all U.S. Armed Forces from Afghanistan by the end of 2011.

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A post shows how corporate media lies to Americans

2011-03-11T08:37:00.000-06:00

Via Crooks and Liars

Jack Cafferty Calls Social Security a 'Social Welfare Program'

You know, I used to have some respect for Jack Cafferty even though I knew back then that we were on primarily opposite ends of the political spectrum because he spoke out against the Bush administration when that wasn't necessarily the most popular thing for a conservative to be doing, but he just lost me completely here. Calling Social Security a "welfare program" is just shameless.

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My comment

Whether you call Social Security welfare or entitlements, as always the Corporate Monopoly Media treats Americans like idiots. It's time to evolve out of a primitive representative republic and into a real Citizen's Democracy with real time Internet based democratic Controls.

Solidarity from coast to coast

2011-02-28T14:46:00.001-06:00

IN DOZENS of state capitals and cities across the country, workers from both the private and public sector, political activists, students and community members organized rallies to demonstrate their support for the struggle against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his union-busting attack.

The outpourings of support--from Los Angeles to New York City, and from Boise, Idaho, to Miami--showed how fed up people are around the country with the politicians' pro-corporate, anti-worker agenda, and how much they sense the importance of the fight in Wisconsin.

Read more here

U.S. needs its own democracy movement

2011-02-13T12:08:00.002-06:00

The Egyptians want to establish a viable democracy, and that’s a long, hard road. Americans are in the mind-bogglingly self-destructive process of letting a real democracy slip away.

I had lunch with the historian Howard Zinn just a few weeks before he died in January 2010. He was chagrined about the state of affairs in the U.S. but not at all daunted. “If there is going to be change,” he said, “real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves.”

I thought of that as I watched the coverage of the ecstatic celebrations in the streets of Cairo.

Read full piece here

Egypt, Jordan, and the Arab world's 'watershed' moment

2011-02-01T17:40:00.000-06:00

(CNN) -- The protests that have spread through parts of the Arab world led to dramatic change in another country Tuesday, as Jordan's king dismissed his government.

King Abdullah II made the decision following protests in recent weeks in which several thousand people demanded economic and political reforms.

Experts on the region said Tuesday Abdullah's decision was aimed at warding off larger-scale demonstrations in the wake of the huge protests in Tunisia and Egypt. The Tunisia protests, which began the movement, toppled that country's government. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak has fired his Cabinet, but protesters in massive demonstrations continue to call for his ouster.

The protests -- which have also caught on to various extents in Algeria, Yemen, and Sudan -- have proved to be "a real watershed event for the Arab world," said Blake Hounshell, managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine. "It's really unprecedented."

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Sci-Fi To Fact: Planet Hunters Find Worlds Like Earth

2010-12-29T10:00:00.001-06:00

As recently as 20 years ago, no one knew if planets outside our solar system existed. But now we know of more than 500. The biggest astronomy headlines in 2010 came from the quest for planets far outside our solar system that are similar to Earth.

Here

Archive Gallery: PopSci's Most Fantastic Space Colonies

2010-10-23T05:52:00.003-05:00

Let's face it, sometime within the next century or so, overpopulation, the exhaustion of natural resources, an alien invasion -- or perhaps the optimistic spirit of adventure -- will force us to leave Earth in search of a new habitat. Earlier this week, NASA and DARPA announced a preliminary "Hundred-Year Starship" program for sending pioneers on permanent missions to Mars. To many, relocation from Earth sounds like a glorified exile, but some retro-futuristic eye candy from the Popular Science archives will surely change their minds.

Read full story

So called "Progressives" don't get it

2010-10-15T09:36:00.005-05:00

The idiots at Crooks and Liars claim to hate republicans and conservatives, yet day after day they refer to the rethugs as the GOP! I could scream, this is beltway talk and it goes against everything they claim to stand for as a beltway critics. I will never use this offensive term because I don't kiss anyone's ass and do not believe they are the grand ole party, to say that as a left leaning person is stupid, always was, always will be. Will people wisen up? I don't have much hope for this ass kissing nation brainwashed by an omnipresent, greedy, relentless corporate media that represents the rich over everyone else. If a site, any site, that claims to be for the people, unbiased, and independent uses the Village line g.o.p., that instantly sends up a red flag that it is lying and is indeed speaking by and for the D.C. beltway village in concern troll fashion.

Democracy has been perverted by capitalism.

2010-10-15T09:34:00.002-05:00

Democracy in practice only benefits the upper class, the lower class is not ignorant to their status and knowingly participates in their own subjugation. It's really quite remarkable, and even with this knowledge the middle and working classes don't seek a better life alternative. History will show how the idea of being fair, democracy, was intentionally used by the rich unfairly for decades until a point of enlightenment for society. Unfortunately we are still in the murky age of deception, enlightenment is within reach as the stinking rich reach with ever more greed which will no doubt backfire on them altering democracy, society, and equality for the better. Democracy needs to work for everyone, for this to work right capitalism must be phased out.

92% of Americans prefer Swedish style Democracy

2010-09-29T07:17:00.000-05:00

The respondents were presented with unlabeled pie charts representing the wealth distributions of the U.S., where the richest 20 percent controlled about 84 percent of wealth, and Sweden, where the top 20 percent only controlled 36 percent of wealth. Without knowing which country they were picking, 92 percent of respondents said they'd rather live in a country with Sweden's wealth distribution.

As the new Forbes billionaires list, released Wednesday, testifies, the richest Americans are getting richer, even as the country as a whole gets poorer. After 2005 income inequality continued to balloon.

READ the study:

Story continues below

The Progressive Politics of Happiness

2010-06-13T10:33:00.000-05:00

Here of some examples of the kind of policies we should promote:

Paid family leave. Only the United States, Swaziland, Liberia and Papua New Guinea don’t guarantee at least paid maternity leave. Most wealthy countries also offer paid leave for fathers.

Paid sick days. Only a handful of desperately poor countries and the United States, don’t guaranteed paid leave when you’re sick. 86 percent of food service workers get no paid sick days and they come to work sick and get you sick—they can be fired if they don’t.

Paid vacation time. Only the United States, Guyana, Suriname, Nepal and Burma don’t guarantee at least some paid vacation time. Every European gets at least four weeks off with pay a year. We should support the Paid Vacation Act of 2009, sponsored in Congress by a true progressive, Representative Alan Grayson of Florida. It’s a very modest proposal, but a step in the right direction.

Here’s another idea: the choice of shorter work-time. In the Netherlands and some other European countries, workers have a legal right to reduce their hours without losing their jobs. They keep the same hourly pay, pro-rated benefits and full health care. This is an enormous expansion of personal freedom—the right to choose time over money, to select shorter hours of work without losing one’s livelihood.

Each of these policy reforms is essential to good health. Indeed, our lack of these rights is part of the reason Americans have the worst health in the industrial world, despite paying twice as much as everyone else does for healthcare. We are almost twice as likely to suffer chronic illness in old age as Europeans are, for example. Workplace stress in America is a killer, the “new tobacco” in the words of one cardiologist.

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Fake Mars Mission: 'Real World' Meets Space Travel

2010-06-03T08:21:00.000-05:00

A fake mission to Mars is getting under way at a research institute in Moscow, where six men will spend the next year and a half inside a mock spaceship.

The international "crew" includes two men from Europe, one from China and three from Russia. They'll spend the next 520 days living inside just a few bus-sized modules at Russia's Institute for Biomedical Problems.

The team will have to put up with endless astronaut food, the grind of exercise and maintenance work, science experiments, fake emergencies — plus extreme isolation from the outside world.

"We get to see what happens to them over the course of an awful long time, and that's not been done before," says Nick Kanas, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco who worked on a 105-day pilot study leading up to this new Mars simulation.

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No Longer a fan of Rachel Maddow!

2010-06-01T21:37:00.002-05:00

Tonight I tuned into her show, which I rarely do anymore since she became a mouthpiece for republican jerks using her to spread their talking points. Tonight was the last straw. There is a ridiculously stupid saying in liberal blog land, iokiyr, which mean these weak kneed "liberals" and "progressives" believe the thugs can do as they please with impunity. Retarded, that's putting it mildly. How can you be an opposition party and believe such a counterproductive thing? To add insult to injury Maddow said, "iokiyr always and forever" I was boiling mad, and refuse to watch her show again. It's never okay, forever we must fight them, prove them wrong. Always. Sadly the transformation to corporate drone is now complete. Only Keith Olbermann still defends progressive values, although that is will no doubt change if MSNBC happens to read this post. Americans better wake up to the media monopolies who now brainwash them on all stations at all times, radio and the printed press are not better and sometimes much worse. God bless America and the independent thinkers that made her great.

War Is Making You Poor Act

2010-05-25T15:09:00.002-05:00

Today, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) introduced bipartisan legislation called the “War Is Making You Poor Act,” which aims to call attention to a) how much money is being spent to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and b) how budget gimmicks are used to pay for them. Grayson’s legislation would slash the $159 billion request for supplemental war funding and use that money to deliver a tax break for all Americans. Grayson demands the Pentagon use its currently existing $549 billion defense budget to fight the wars. Speaking on the House floor today, Grayson underscored that the point of his legislation is to highlight the costs of the wars:

http://www.buzzflash.net/story.php?id=1098067

Future of the Car: The Electric-Car Cheat Sheet

2010-05-19T08:11:00.002-05:00

In the past three years, the thought of companies like Chevrolet and Nissan selling lithium-ion-powered cars has gone from laughable to old news. Late this year, the plug-in Chevy Volt and pure-electric Nissan Leaf arrive. Carmakers from Ford to Toyota will follow in 2011 and 2012 with new electrified models of their own. In the beginning, the electric-car revolution probably won’t seem so revolutionary: a few thousand cars here and there. As long as automakers and battery companies keep pushing technology forward, however—by scaling up production and developing more-powerful ways to store electricity and power a car with it—the future for cars that plug into the wall will continue to brighten. Here’s where this emerging industry stands today.

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ParEcon Questions & Answers

2010-05-11T12:36:00.000-05:00

If not capitalism, if not socialism, if not anarchism, if not Green economics, if not Solidarity economics, then what?

Our answer is participatory economics or, for short, parecon.

We mean for participatory economics or parecon to transcend capitalism, to implement the best socialist values, to transcend what have been socialist institutions, to achieve anarchist aspirations, to be green, to promote solidarity, and to accomplish production, consumption, and allocation in a truly classless way.

We do not mean participatory economics to be a blueprint. It is not and could not be and should not be a detailed map of a better economy.

We mean for participatory economics to be a description of a new economy's institutions. We mean for participatory economics to be a description of the central features a desirable new economy will need to have to be both viable and worthy.

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96-0: Fed Audit Passes Senate

2010-05-11T12:32:00.000-05:00

Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), the Federal Reserve's most outspoken defender, came out in support of an amendment by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to force transparency on the Federal Reserve. Gregg's surprising support gives the amendment a major boost.

The Sanders amendment began as a reflection of language passed by the House and cosponsored by Reps. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) that would authorize a broad audit of the Fed. In negotiations with Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and officials from the Fed, Sanders scaled back his audit and restricted it to a one-time look at lending activity from December 1, 2007 until the present -- information that the Fed has so far fought to keep from disclosing. It goes further in some respects than the Paul-Grayson measure, in that it mandates the disclosure of recipients of Fed largesse. (Background on the compromise here.)

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New Software Can Hire, Evaluate, and Pay Workers, Making Human Bosses Obsolete

2010-05-11T12:29:00.000-05:00

Anyone looking for work these days knows how hard it is to get your resume into the hands of a human. Fortunately, perhaps, it may soon be possible to get hired without that step.

Freelancer.com, an Australian jobs site, is using software algorithms that allow computers to automatically recruit, hire and pay workers to do a wide range of tasks, New Scientist reports.

"Software can now simply post a job and hire one, three, or 500 humans; software can now literally assemble an army overnight to solve complex problems," says Matt Barrie, Freelancer.com's CEO, in a press release.

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Graphene is Next

2010-05-06T23:43:00.000-05:00

The Substance Found in Pencils will Speed Up our Computers One Thousand Fold

Graphene. If you’ve never heard about it, don’t worry, a lot of people haven’t, because it’s really only been “discovered” relatively recently, and most of the truly interesting news about it has been in the last year. The amazing thing is that we’ve actually been using it for centuries, in the form of the common pencil. Graphene is a form of carbon, much like carbon nanotubes and other fullerenes, with one major difference. While fullerenes are 3D structures of carbon atoms, graphene is a flat sheet. It’s a 2D lattice of carbon with bonds as strong as diamond. It’s this sheetlike nature that makes it so useful in a pencil. As you write, individual planes of graphite are sheared off the end and deposited on the paper. Those individual planes are pure graphene.

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Obama Seeks To Stabilize A Risky Business

2010-05-02T10:57:00.000-05:00

Obama's insistence on addressing derivatives — and the sense shared by lobbyists on all sides of the issue that derivatives will inevitably fall under greater scrutiny of some kind — represents a remarkable turnaround.

A dozen years ago, President Bill Clinton, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Congress all opposed government oversight of derivatives. A law enacted in 2000 made it clear that most derivatives could not be regulated. Derivatives serve a legitimate purpose in hedging risks and there was concern at the time that imposing too much regulation would put the U.S. out of line in what is truly a globalized market.

Some of those worries remain valid. Still, the former consensus against regulation has flipped around almost entirely. Derivatives are widely viewed as a key contributor to the near-collapse of the financial markets in 2008. It's clear that any financial overhaul bill that clears Congress this year will impose new restrictions on derivatives trading.

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Graceful Decline

2010-04-23T08:40:00.000-05:00

Full piece is here

The end of Pax Americana

The epoch of American dominance is drawing to a close, and international politics is entering a period of transition: no longer unipolar but not yet fully multipolar. President Barack Obama’s November 2009 trip to China provided both substantive and emblematic evidence of the shift. As the Financial Times observed, “Coming at a moment when Chinese prestige is growing and the U.S. is facing enormous difficulties, Mr. Obama’s trip has symbolized the advent of a more multi-polar world where U.S. leadership has to co-exist with several rising powers, most notably China.” In the same Pew study, 44 percent of Americans polled said that China was the leading economic power; just 27 percent chose the United States.

Bankrupt Empire

2010-04-20T08:51:00.000-05:00

The United States government is effectively bankrupt. Washington no longer can afford to micromanage the world. International social engineering is a dubious venture under the best of circumstances. It is folly to attempt while drowning in red ink.

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NASA to Launch Robonaut This Year

2010-04-15T08:54:00.002-05:00

Later this year, NASA's R2 will become the first humanoid robot resident of the International Space Station. The launch of the handsome android, which until now had not been firmly scheduled, has now been fast-tracked to happen this September.

Before the bot goes up, it has to be tested in conditions of vacuum, low gravity, high radiation, and trained sensitivity to the unusual practices on board the ISS.

NASA has released a new video showing off R2's impressive capabilities.

Source

GM viruses offer hope of future where energy is unlimited

2010-04-14T07:39:00.000-05:00

Breakthrough as US Researchers Replicate Photosynthesis in Laboratory

Scientists have made a fundamental breakthrough in their attempts to replicate photosynthesis - the ability of plants to harvest the power of sunlight - in the hope of making unlimited amounts of "green" energy from water and sunlight alone.

The researchers have assembled genetically modified viruses into wire-like structures that are able to use the energy of the sun to split water molecules into their constitute parts of oxygen and hydrogen, which can then be used as a source of chemical energy.

If the process can be scaled up and made more efficient, it promises to produce unlimited quantities of hydrogen fuel, a clean source of energy that can be used to generate electricity as well as acting as a portable, carbon-free fuel for cars and other vehicles.

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Nine Myths About Socialism in the US

2010-04-09T23:53:00.002-05:00

Myth #1. The US government is involved in class warfare attacking the rich to lift up the poor.

There is a class war going on all right. But it is the rich against the rest of us and the rich are winning. The gap between the rich and everyone else is wider in the US than any of the 30 other countries surveyed. In fact, the top 10% in the US have a higher annual income than any other country. And the poorest 10% in the US are below the average of the other OECD countries. The rich in the U.S. have been rapidly leaving the middle class and poor behind since the 1980s.

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Geminoid F: Hiroshi Ishiguro Unveils New Smiling Female Android

2010-04-05T09:19:00.001-05:00

eminoid F, a copy of a woman in her 20s with long dark hair, exhibits facial expressions more naturally than previous androids

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro unveiled today his latest creation: a female android called Geminoid F. The new robot, a copy of a woman in her 20s with long dark hair, can laugh, smile, and exhibit other facial expressions more naturally than Ishiguro's previous androids.

Ishiguro, a professor at Osaka University, is famous for creating a robot replica of himself, the Geminoid HI-1, a teleoperated android that he controls remotely. The new Geminoid F ("F" stands for female) is also designed to be remote controlled by an operator.

Source

Inducing 'Plasticity' in Brain, Allowing it to Rewire Itself Like New

2010-03-31T09:33:00.001-05:00

The brain is the body's most complicated biological machine, and as such it can be very difficult to service when something goes wrong; after our neural wiring is put in place, at a very young age, altering or rebuilding it becomes extremely challenging. But researchers at UC San Francisco have figured out a way to induce a new period of "plasticity" -- a state in which neural circuitry is receptive to change -- in the visual cortices of mice, a breakthrough that could lead to treatments for brain circuits damaged by developmental problems or traumas.

All regions of the brain go through periods of high plasticity at various times in the development process during early life. During this time, neurons are highly responsive to signals -- in the case of the visual cortex, visual signals -- that shape the way they will function going forward. Through a process known as synaptic transmission, the cells rapidly relay signals from one appropriate cell to the next, creating the neural circuitry that enables functions like vision.

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President Obama Should Embrace the Socialist Label

2010-03-30T08:38:00.000-05:00

[...]

What's so terrible about being a Socialist? It's a perfectly respectable political philosophy and the last time I checked it wasn't against the law or anything and Sanders seems to be doing just fine. So why do President Obama and his Republican critics act as though it's such a dirty word?

If Barack Obama wants to be a transformational President like Ronald Reagan, inspiring a new generation of Americans to believe as he does, he would be wise to own the label and change the public perception of it rather than running from it. And the President's Republican critics should get over their timidity and engage in the kind of full-throated public discourse that debates the issues on the merits and calls him what he, objectively, is.

As for the rest of us in the vast mainstream of American life who aren't blindly beholden to any political ideologies, we'll continue to be believe in a sort of hybrid of Socialism and Capitalism, celebrating a political and economic system that allows people to get rich even as we aggressively encourage the wealthy among us to give away much of that wealth to charities and churches in order to help the less fortunate among us all.

Source

A Victory for the American People

2010-03-24T14:34:00.001-05:00

Just a great picture of yesterday's historical signing ceremony for HCR. President Obama and others broke out in a sudden smile for a moment.

The Top Ten Immediate Benefits You'll Get When Health Care Reform Passes

2010-03-22T08:12:00.002-05:00

As soon as health care passes, the American people will see immediate benefits. The legislation will:

* Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new plans;

* Provide immediate access to insurance for uninsured Americans who are uninsured because of a pre-existing condition through a temporary high-risk pool;

* Prohibit dropping people from coverage when they get sick in all individual plans;

* Lower seniors' prescription drug prices by beginning to close the donut hole;

* Offer tax credits to small businesses to purchase coverage;

* Eliminate lifetime limits and restrictive annual limits on benefits in all plans;

* Require plans to cover an enrollee's dependent children until age 26;

* Require new plans to cover preventive services and immunizations without cost-sharing;

* Ensure consumers have access to an effective internal and external appeals process to appeal new insurance plan decisions;

* Require premium rebates to enrollees from insurers with high administrative expenditures and require public disclosure of the percent of premiums applied to overhead costs.

By enacting these provisions right away, and others over time, we will be able to lower costs for everyone and give all Americans and small businesses more control over their health care choices.

Source

A Computer That Processes Faster Than The Speed of Light

2010-03-18T07:19:00.000-05:00

How fast is too fast? According to the laws of physics, the speed of light is a good boundary, as going beyond it opens you up to all sorts of paradoxes and space-time phenomena that are usually the stuff of sci-fi. But a couple of researchers in Austria have come up with a way to compute information faster than the speed of light.

The idea is not quite as crazy as it might sound, though you may wish to limber up your mind before delving deeper. It's based on the same principle as that of quantum entanglement -- the notion that two particles on opposite sides of the universe can be linked through their quantum states such that one cannot be adequately described without the other. That is, an action on one particle instantaneously influences its counterpart, even if they are separated by light years.

More here

The Myth of Europe's High Taxes

2010-03-17T00:07:00.000-05:00

Americans pay just as much-- and receive far less in benefits, says author Steven Hill

Do Americans really pay fewer taxes than Europeans? Contrary to conventional wisdom, the answer surprisingly is: not really. That’s because in return for their taxes, Europeans – even those unemployed during these tough times – have access to a generous support system for families and individuals that most Americans can only imagine. That includes not only quality health care but also child care, a good retirement pension, inexpensive college education, job retraining, paid sick leave, paid parental leave (after a birth or to care for sick children), ample vacations, affordable housing, adequate senior care and more. In order to receive the same level of benefits as Europeans, most Americans have to fork out a lot of out-of-pocket payments, in addition to our taxes. These payments often are in the form of fees, surcharges, higher tuition, insurance premiums, co-payments and other hidden charges.

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HR 4789 and The Public Option: The Way Forward

2010-03-14T07:50:00.002-05:00

by Rep. Alan Grayson
[...]

And to the right-wing loons who call it socialism, we say, "if you want to be a slave to the insurance companies, that's fine. If you want 30% of your premiums to go to 'administrative costs' and billion-dollar bonuses for insurance CEOs who figure out new and creative ways to deny you the care you need to stay healthy and alive, that's fine. But don't you try to dictate to me that I can't have a public option!"

And there is a way left to get it. By insisting on a vote on H.R. 4789. Three votes on health care, not two. The Senate bill, the reconciliation amendments, and the Public Option Act.

We got 50 co-sponsors for this bill in two days. Including five powerful committee chairman. But we need more.

Sign our Petition at WeWantMedicare.com.

Call. Write. Visit. Do whatever you can do to get you Congressman to co-sponsor this bill, and push it to a vote. Right now, before it's too late.

Let's do it!

An Oscar for America’s Hubris

2010-03-11T18:53:00.003-06:00

What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing. According to press reports, members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally found a movie about the Iraq war they liked because it is “apolitical.” Actually, “The Hurt Locker” is just the opposite; it’s an endorsement of the politically chauvinistic view that the world is a stage upon which Americans get to deal with their demons no matter the consequence for others.

It is imperial hubris turned into an art form in which the Iraqi people appear as numbed bystanders when they are not deranged extras. It is a perverse tribute to the film’s accuracy in portraying the insanity of the U.S. invasion—while ignoring its root causes—that the Iraqis are at no point treated as though they are important.

The Coffee Party USA Wake Up and Stand Up

2010-03-10T08:11:00.001-06:00

MISSION: The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.

We are diverse — ethnically, geographically, politically, in age and in experience.

We are 100% grassroots. No lobbyists here. No pundits. And no hyper-partisan strategists calling the shots in this movement. We are a spontaneous and collective expression of our desire to forge a culture of civic engagement that is solution-oriented, not blame-oriented.

We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.

We want a society in which democracy is treated as sacrosanct and ordinary citizens participate out of a sense of civic duty, civic pride, and a desire to contribute to society. The Coffee Party is a call to action. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us an enduring gift — Democracy — and we must use it to meet the challenges that we face as a nation.

Visit their Home Page

Opinion: Mars Is Within Our Reach -- Here's How

2010-03-10T08:07:00.000-06:00

Buzz Aldrin

I believe we can be well on our way to Mars by July 20, 2019 -- which just happens to be the 50th anniversary of my Apollo 11 flight to the moon. The plan I've designed, called a unified space vision, contains ideas for the development of a deep-space craft that I call the Exploration Module, and development of a true heavy lift space booster evolved from the existing space shuttle.

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Al Gore wishes global warming wasn't real

2010-03-01T21:45:00.001-06:00

Former vice president Al Gore, the target of ridicule by climate skeptics this winter, says he wishes global warming was an "illusion."

Former vice president Al Gore has long warned of the dangers of global warming. He spoke about them during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.

Unfortunately, its dangers are real, despite mistakes by a leading United Nations climate-science panel, Gore writes Sunday in The New York Times. "The overwhelming consensus on global warming remains unchanged," he says, adding:

In fact, the crisis is still growing because we are continuing to dump 90 million tons of global-warming pollution every 24 hours into the atmosphere — as if it were an open sewer.

Why liberal blogs are hurting progress

2010-02-23T15:22:00.000-06:00

Most liberal blogs have commenters who are extremely cynical, and they aren't shy about forecasting doom and failure. Major media reads these blogs to gauge public opinion and fashion their news to incorporate fears put out by cynical commenters in blogs. I don't blame these people, many suffering unemployment or worse in this terrible economy, but their fears may becoming reality as the cold and ruthless corporate media can use and exploit these worries to further the general corporate agenda dividing the very rich and the rest of us in the 99% who are not millionaires. I don't comment on blogs much anymore, but I still read these type of comments and can't help but see how people who mean well, unwittingly give ideas to the filthy rich on how to keep these poor people down. A little more optimism and less competition to see who can be most cynical would go a long way, in my opinion.

Make Poverty History: Make Clean Energy Cheap

2010-02-23T14:38:00.002-06:00

The task is clear: to eliminate energy poverty and avoid climate catastrophe, we must unleash our forces of innovation - namely, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs - to develop a portfolio of truly scalable clean energy technologies, bring these technologies to market, and ensure they are affordable enough to deploy throughout the world.

Read full article here

Is It Time To Replace The American Dream?

2010-02-22T12:20:00.002-06:00

If we listen very closely, we can hear the whisper of a new dream in the making, one based on what youth around the world are beginning to call "quality of life". In this new world, the American Dream seems almost provincial, even quaint, and entirely unsuited for a generation that is beginning to extend its empathic sensibility beyond national identities, to include the whole of humanity and the entirety of the planet as their extended community. If the American Dream served as the gold standard for the era of national markets and nation-state governments, the dream of "quality of life" becomes the standard for the emerging biosphere era.

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Cut working week to 21 hours, urges think tank

2010-02-17T18:37:00.001-06:00

Anna Coote, co-author of the 21 Hours report, said: "So many of us live to work, work to earn, and earn to consume, and our consumption habits are squandering the earth's natural resources.

"Spending less time in paid work could help us to break this pattern. We'd have more time to be better parents, better citizens, better carers and better neighbours.

"We could even become better employees - less stressed, more in control, happier in our jobs and more productive.

"It is time to break the power of the old industrial clock, take back our lives and work for a sustainable future."

Original article here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8513783.stm

Evolving the Democratic Party

2010-02-07T09:51:00.002-06:00

It would be better if the Democratic party was the party of principled activists rather than a group of victimized, oppressed *by enter reason here* by rethugs, who are a minority themselves of mostly idiots. Are blacks, etc. voting Dem because they are victims of bigotry, or do they vote Dem for solid social/liberal principles. There's a big difference, I just hope we can evolve into Democratic Socialism, so the conservative minority will become history, along with racism, etc.

Ending the Narrative

2010-02-04T22:33:00.005-06:00

Corporate media creates a narrative of conflict for the two parties. Why? Because it's good for ratings and therefore profits. Having Dems rule for years is probably good for the country but the CM is greedy and puts it's profits over the good of the nation, thus the dreadful narrative of rw morons coming back to power.

It's up to people to wake up, tune out, and vote more practically, not according to some secret code fed to them by the corporate media Borg.

Michael Moore

2010-02-02T10:44:00.001-06:00

"What I'm asking for is a new economic order," he says. "I don't know how to construct that. I'm not an economist. All I ask is that it have two organising principles. Number one, that the economy is run democratically. In other words, the people have a say in how its run, not just the 1%. And number two, that it has an ethical and moral core to it. That nothing is done without considering the ethical nature, no business decision is made without first asking the question, is this for the common good?"

Read full article

A People's History Of The United States

2010-01-30T10:35:00.000-06:00

by Howard Zinn, Click here to read the book online free

The Note: This great book should really be read by everyone. It is difficult to describe why it so great because it both teaches and inspires. You really just have to read it. We think it is so good that it demands to be as accessible as possible. Once you've finished it, we're sure you'll agree. In fact, years ago, we would offer people twenty dollars if they read the book and didn't think it was completely worth their time. Of all the people who took us up on it, no one collected.

Scott Horton Interviews Howard Zinn

2010-01-30T10:32:00.000-06:00

Historian Howard Zinn, author of the new People’s History of American Empire, discusses the long history of American imperialism from the genocide of the American Indians to the wars against Mexico, Spain, the Good War, and the “war on terrorism,” and the long and proud history of the American antiwar movement too.

The UK's world role: Great Britain's greatness fixation

2010-01-29T11:58:00.000-06:00

Every country likes to be taken seriously around the world. Lots of nations like to feel they are punching their weight, or even above it. Only a few, however, seem to feel the need to promote themselves as the one the others all look to for leadership. It is one thing – though never uncontroversial, and in some contexts increasingly implausible – for the United States to see itself in this role. As the world's largest economic and military power, the US remains even now the necessary nation in international affairs. It is quite another thing for Britain to pretend to such a status.

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NASA outline Flexible Path precursor to man on Mars

2010-01-29T11:51:00.000-06:00

With the official opening statements on the overhaul of NASA’s future expected “soon”, the realignment of NASA’s future goals will create a Human Space Flight path that will likely stretch out for decades. The end goal remains footsteps on Mars, but the approach may involve the use of deep space and Phobos as the precursor for a manned mission to the Red Planet.

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Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction

2010-01-29T11:44:00.000-06:00

Excerpt from original

Hollywood, the news industry and television, all corporate controlled, have become instruments of inverted totalitarianism. They censor or ridicule those who critique or challenge corporate structures and assumptions. They saturate the airwaves with manufactured controversy, whether it is Tiger Woods or the dispute between Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. They manipulate images to make us confuse how we are made to feel with knowledge, which is how Barack Obama became president. And the draconian internal control employed by the Department of Homeland Security, the military and the police over any form of popular dissent, coupled with the corporate media's censorship, does for inverted totalitarianism what thugs and bonfires of books do in classical totalitarian regimes.

10 Ways to Stop Corporate Dominance of Politics

2010-01-28T08:56:00.002-06:00

The recent Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited corporate spending in politics just may be the straw that breaks the plutocracy’s back.

Pro-democracy groups, business leaders, and elected representatives are proposing mechanisms to prevent or counter the millions of dollars that corporations can now draw from their treasuries to push for government action favorable to their bottom line. The outrage ignited by the Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission extends to President Obama, who has promised that repairing the damage will be a priority for his administration.

But what can be done to limit or reverse the effect of the Court’s decision? Here are 10 ideas:

The necessity of science fiction

2010-01-24T14:01:00.000-06:00

"This article makes an interesting point about the necessity of science fiction — or, more specifically, speculative fiction as a tool to aid in the long-term survival of the human species. 'We live in a world that is incredibly frightening for a growing portion of the population because of the exponential rate of change we are experiencing. Our world is changing so fast now that we often don't have time to contemplate the full ramifications that come with the increasingly rapid adoption of new technologies and social changes. Most often this is simply because these changes are being introduced almost one after another after another, without any time to breathe. Speculative fiction, however, if widely adopted, makes it almost instinctive that we think about these situations and possible outcomes before they even arise.'"

Link to comments, source

Save Democracy

2010-01-21T09:04:00.000-06:00

PETITION TEXT

Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the government is up for sale and that the law itself will be bought and sold. It would be political bribery on the largest scale imaginable.

This issue transcends partisan political arguments. We cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations. You must stop this.

At any moment, the Supreme Court will announce whether it will allow corporations to spend unlimited funds on political campaigns.

Sign my petition to the Supreme Court now, and tell them to keep unlimited corporate spending out of our federal elections.

Click here to sign Alan Grayson's important petition!

We Don't Need This Culture of Overwork

2010-01-19T20:34:00.000-06:00

by Johann Hari

This year, we all need to become more like Utah, under its Republican governor – and then go further. No, dear reader, don't panic – I have not converted to Mormonism, nor have I tossed out my sanity with my old Santa hat and Christmas decorations. The people of one of the most conservative states in the US have stumbled across a simple policy that slashes greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent, saves huge sums of money, improves public services, cuts traffic congestion, and makes 82 per cent of workers happier. It can do the same for us – and point to an even better future beyond it – without the need for the Arch-Angel Moron (yes, Mormons really do believe in him) to offer his blessing.

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How Progressives Can Move Obama to the Left

2010-01-17T09:52:00.003-06:00

By: Cenk Uygur Friday December 25, 2009 1:58 pm

After talking about this with a great many progressives on our show, I’ve come to some conclusions. These are so self-evident that they will be viewed as obvious in hindsight.

Does he mean well or does he have bad intentions? Come on, don’t be ridiculous. Of course, he means well. But in his own mind, George Bush thought he meant well too (for the most part). I’m positive that Obama thinks that he is doing the best he can to bring about as much change as he can within the limits of this system.

Is he a true progressive or a corporatist sell out? Well, that depends on what you mean. Has he wound up helping corporate America tremendously through health care "reform," finance "reform," etc.? Well, Wall Street certainly seems to think so (and so do most progressives). Did he do that because he thought, "I can’t wait to help corporate America and screw over the little guy"? No, I’m sure he thought he had to accommodate the powers that be in order to affect any change at all in this system. But the bottom line has been the same, either way – the system has been tweaked but corporate America chugs along with even more government largesse than before.

I’m sure Obama is a progressive that would help the average American if he thought he could. But apparently he thinks he can’t. He can only bring them a small amount of change because of what he thinks the system will allow.

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Alan Grayson Introduces Bills To Fight Corporate Money In Politics

2010-01-17T01:32:00.000-06:00

Anticipating a Supreme Court decision that could free corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) introduced five bills on Wednesday to choke off the expected flood of corporate cash.

"We are facing a potential threat to our democracy," Grayson said in an interview with HuffPost. "Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the government is up for sale and that the law itself will be bought and sold. It would be political bribery on the largest scale imaginable."

At issue in the Supreme Court case is whether the government can limit corporate spending during presidential and congressional campaigns. The case is pitting Citizens United, a conservative group, against the Federal Election Commission. The FEC banned ads for Citizens United's film bashing Hillary Clinton during the 2008 election season.

Grayson introduced a handful of bills on Wednesday -- the Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act, the Corporate Propaganda Sunshine Act, the End Political Kickbacks Act, and two other measures.

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Is the Government In Charge, Or Is It The Shadow Elite?

2010-01-17T01:30:00.000-06:00

Janine R. Wedel

In today's messy world, trust is elusive. People we once held up as experts for their credentials can no longer be trusted to be impartial. Many public figures and "experts" of all stripes -- left, right, or center -- perform overlapping roles without fully disclosing them. While they purport to operate in the public interest, these "flexians" structure their roles and involvements to serve their own agendas. Their true loyalties and agendas are not fully revealed or easily detected. Practicing what has been called an "evolving door," they move beyond the revolving door of the past.

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Behind the Veils of Power: Hope for Progressives

2010-01-17T01:27:00.000-06:00

l Bernard Weiner l

Pundits of all stripes are calling this past decade a thoroughgoing disaster, one of the worst in our nation's history. True, but there's another way of evaluating the CheneyBush era.

Sure, lots of horrific things happened in the years between 2000 and 2010: a massive terrorist attack, our country lied into a disastrous war in Iraq, the Administration colluding with corporations in looting the treasury and polluting the air and water, a great recession brought into being at least partially by refusing to enforce oversight regulations on financial institutions, eight years lost in the fight against global warming. Yes, all those things, and many more dark episodes, including the strengthening of a kind of native fascism, happened during the CheneyBush era.

But those shameful ashes of the past eight years can, Phoenix-like, also yield a momentous rebirth of American democracy, a more rational foreign policy, and economic justice. What leads me to this contrarian conclusion?

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US Is Now Reaping the Whirlwind

2010-01-17T01:23:00.001-06:00

Greed, war, partisanship and economic disparity will hinder America's future prosperity

by William Dimma

In the rose-coloured and relentlessly upbeat years that preceded the nearly unprecedented meltdown that surfaced first in the U.S. in the early autumn of 2007, its citizens experienced a sense of seemingly permanent euphoria. The earlier demise of Soviet communism ("the end of history") signalled the apparent triumph of the distinctively American brand of free enterprise. Subsequent economic growth, despite a corrective tweak now and then, seemed to confirm it.

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Iraq Invasion in 2003 Was Illegitimate: Dutch Probe

2010-01-17T01:22:00.000-06:00

THE HAGUE - The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq lacked legitimacy under international law, an independent commission probing Dutch political support for the still controversial action said Tuesday.

"There was insufficient legitimacy" for the invasion for which the Netherlands gave political but no military backing, commission chairman Willibrord Davids told journalists in The Hague.

The commission's report said the wording of UN resolution 1441 "cannot reasonably be interpreted (as the Dutch government did) as authorising individual member states to use military force to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council's resolutions."

The resolution, passed in 2002, had offered Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations".

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