SAN FRANCISCO — In the late 1950s, American space companies jumped into a headlong race to build an aerospace industry that could launch missiles across the world and rockets above it. In her new book Another Science Fiction, archivist Megan Prelinger delves into the hyperbolic, whimsical world of the advertisements these early aerospace companies created to [...]

digg_url ="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/03/hydro-paraplant/"; Take a huge oceanic catamaran, stick a hydroelectric turbine underneath it, and hitch it to a 6.5 million-square-foot parafoil flying nearly a mile in the air. That’s a Korean research team’s new proposal for generating gigawatts of clean energy. As the parafoil pulls the boat, seawater would be forced through the turbine, which generates electricity. [...]

An empirical test of ideas proposed by Martin Heidegger shows the great German philosopher to be correct: Everyday tools really do become part of ourselves. The findings come from a deceptively simple study of people using a computer mouse rigged to malfunction. The resulting disruption in attention wasn’t superficial. It seemingly extended to the very roots [...]

Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn said Monday he is gay, ending days of speculation that began after his arrest last week for investigation of driving under the influence.

Some 65 years after their service, a group of former civilian women pilots whose unheralded work was key to helping the U.S. effort in World War II are honored with the Congressional Gold Medal.

It's a grass-roots protest movement composed of the newly politicized and people distrustful of hierarchy. So how is it possible to be an illegitimate Tea Party member?

Embattled former Rep. Eric Massa sought Tuesday night to turn attention away from sexual harassment allegations swirling around him in the wake of his resignation.

Filed under: Videos, Cute, Animals

We've brought you a slew of videos featuring puppies versus inanimate objects, and that's all superb because watching a puppy battle it out with an otherwise not real thing is just a bounty of perfection.

Here, though, we have fully grown terriers going fido a fido with in-ground sprinklers, always supple bait for sneak attacks.

• via:// LA Times

 

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Israel approves the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem ? a move that is sharply denounced by Vice President Joe Biden during a visit there.

A nearly $140 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits and a host of expiring tax cuts cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday in the Senate on a vote of 66-34, setting up passage of the bill possibly later in the day.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is accustomed to working in the shadows, but he now finds himself in newspaper stories.

Filed under: Humor, Tech

As if forgetting your password wasn't stressful enough, you also have to remember the horrifying questions you once answered about yourself when you signed up for the damn account in the first place. Not normal objective stuff like you might prefer, but sneaky, depressing and overall damaging 'life questions' that make you remember things you really would really prefer not to. C'mon! Let's stir up some raw emotion. Here are a few of my favorites.

 

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Progressive activists ratcheted up the pressure for health care reform Tuesday, picketing in front of a hotel where a group of insurance industry leaders were meeting.

Dozens of same-sex couples plan to marry in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, the first day that such unions will be legal in the nation's capital.