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.

It's become clear that the behavior toward his subordinates that got former Rep. Eric Massa into trouble in Congress is part of pattern that dates to his time in the Navy.

President Obama is set to turn up the heat on private health insurers again Wednesday, taking his increasingly populist health care overhaul pitch on the road to the political battleground state of Missouri.

House Democratic leaders announced Wednesday that they will ban the much-criticized practice of using annual spending bills to direct pet projects to companies that often return the favor with campaign contributions.

Americans have come to detest Congress ever more deeply as it nears the end of a nasty fight over health care. But more than half still back President Barack Obama, a bright spot for a Democratic Party counting on its leader to help stave off expected losses in elections this fall.

Former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed announced Wednesday he will not run for Congress in Georgia, saying he can do more to push a conservative agenda through his work for a political startup.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has told the Palestinians that they deserve a "viable" independent state with contiguous territory.

A New York congressman who resigned under an ethics cloud has been under investigation for allegedly groping multiple male aides, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

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.

Filed under: Videos, Music, Dancing

In Paris, the people love their discotheques. Ain't nothing better than breaking out your best pop 'n locks and fist pumps to the eminent, throbbing beats of the underground (or "dance clubs").

Until today, there would have been little to no chance of finding us trekking to gay Paris for anything other than croque monsieurs and ...more cheese, but now we have another reason to go, and her name is DJ Ruth Flowers. She's a 70-year-old deej (or "DJ," as we say in the biz) who spins beats while wearing wraparound cataract glasses.

That's also what we, in the biz, call a WIN.

• via:// Dooby Brain

 

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As Congress inches toward a new set of rules to avert another global financial collapse, the score, so far, looks like ? Bankers 1, Consumers 0.