A sign of the times: New Zealand is now poised to become the latest country to enter the space rase, 3News reports: New Zealand is about to enter the space race with a private venture which aims to cash in on the market for scientific research. A Kiwi company has not only built its own rocket, but designed the fuel to blast it 120km straight up. In a bunker in Parnell, Auckland, ATEA-1 is preparing to rise to...

While many proposed infrastructure expenditures are long-overdue and greatly needed across our country, most of the projects will take years to plan, design, meet various regulatory requirements, and build. Associated new employment will be well-paying but cannot materialize quickly. Furthermore, they constitute a long-term policy for the country separate from the immediate need to address high unemployment...

The story of Stephanie Spielman, wife of Ohio State University and NFL star Chris Spielman, mother of four children, who was a 30 year old woman 12 years ago who gave herself a self-breast exam and discovered a lump that she then had examined and screened, died of breast cancer today at age 42. Her story represents the stories that I dread will become absolutely the norm and her story represents the stories...

National Healthcare Insurance Reform has moved a bit closer to reality, though it could still be derailed in the Senate. We now have a House Bill and a Senate Bill that will have to be merged into a single bill via an appointed Joint Conference Committee. The committee members will be chosen by Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi so a final bill can be written and voted upon by the Senate...

A study of 200 students published in the British Journal of Criminology found that many wrongly blame the effects of a “bad night out” on date-rape drugs when, in fact, they just drank too much. Some are in “active denial” and fears of date-rape drugs are so pervasive that students think it happens more often than the abuse as a consequence of drugs, binge drinking, or walking alone at...

On my trips abroad, I have rarely found an Indian restaurant that would satisfy my native taste buds. In the West, there has been a “curry” revolution and its impact has been the most in Britain. However, there is a growing realization that Indian cooking is not just meant to set your tongue on fire or titillate the palate, it actually mixes common sense with the ancient science of Ayurveda, gaining...

The U.S. has a big new bomb that can penetrate some 60 feet of concrete:

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis has just launched for the International Space Station. The launch took place at 2:28pm EST and appears to have been a perfect takeoff. No matter how many times I watch a launch there is always a part of me that wishes I was going along. Details on the mission can be found at the NASA web site.

Mix Apple with Politics – Not a Good Recipe By Daryl Cagle I’m holding my breath. I’m now into my third month of waiting for Apple to approve my iPhone app. Yesterday I heard from Apple that they need more time to think about it. My app is pretty cool; it is called “MSNBC.com Cartoons” and it features a real time news feed of political cartoons by top cartoonists from around the world. My app will...

Chris Mooney — he wrote the book on The Republican War on Science — says the scientific plot of the movie is not only bizarre but incomprehensible. Still, he says Roland Emmerich’s catastrophic sci-fi blockbuster is evidence that anti-science sentiment in Hollywood is declining: We’re seeing a lot fewer mad scientists in major Hollywood films today, and a lot more scientist heroes. In...

Claude Lévi-Strauss, who died on October 30th (aged 100), made the study of anthropology as fashionable as philosophy and poetry. The Economist pays a tribute: “Before Claude Lévi-Strauss revolutionised the discipline, anthropology in France, and generally elsewhere, was a matter of ill-attended lectures in small, cold halls, and the collection of feathers and fish-hooks as evidence of the quaint divergences...

Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd batted spiritedly during his recent India visit and delivered a googly to bypass ticklish issues and move on to substantive bilateral economic and strategic issues that would help strengthen ties between India and Australia. Rudd squarely faced the contentious issues of racial violence against Indian students in Australia, as also the continuing ban on the supply of uranium...

The U.S. is facing massive structural unemployment – possibly for years to come. We can use a few but not all the ideas from the past because the world, and our nation’s private sector and Federal government, are significantly different from the 1930’s. THE DISMAL NUMBERS The past decade was remarkable for its miserable job growth and generally stagnant wages, even though the total U.S. population...

Anti-abortion and pro-life advocates successfully added an Amendment to the House Health Reform Bill that prohibited any Federal Funds from subsidizing private insurance purchases by individuals and families on public exchanges that would cover abortions. Pro-abortion and pro-choice advocates cried foul and the amendment constituted an impermissible limit on a woman’s right to choose. The President also...

Warren Buffet is nobody’s fool when it comes to global business and investing. We should all heed his suggestion to invest in America’s Railroads and private companies designing, building and maintaining key national and regional infrastructure projects around the world. We won’t be able to buy BNSF shares for a short time since Berkshire Hathaway will own 100% of it, but within the next few years, there...

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. During the past few days I have been writing about the sacrifices made by and heroism exhibited by our veterans—both living and departed. We often forget, however, that many of the sacrifices made, heroism and patriotism displayed and just plain honorable service to our country is by men and women who at one time were not even permitted to legally serve, and who today can serve...

Fourteen were killed at Fort Hood, not thirteen as reported all week long. Which official is correcting the death toll? I am. On the authority of being a mother who is multi-paragravida, meaning one who has given birth more than once, and on the authority of being a grandmother of five souls, I can, I think, count straight about this particular tragedy. Francheska Velez was a 21-year-old woman, shot to death...

Interesting to note that Sky News is using YouTube to host their entire “News Corp will block Google” interview with Murdoch… …Picking up where Kathy left off this morning, The Guardian questions this Murdoch quote from that Sky News Australia interview: “We have it already with the Wall Street Journal. We have a wall, but it’s not right to the ceiling. You can get, usually, the...

The original 1787 National Convention assembled 55 delegates in Philadelphia. Over a period of four months this small group drafted the U.S. Constitution that was formally adopted by a supermajority of existing States and became effective in 1789. For most of its 220 years, it has provided the national governmental structure to create one of the most important, democratic, economically wealthy, influential,...

The Europeans believe in state action, so it’s not surprising they’re poised to leap ahead of us in road technology: Road trains that link vehicles together using wireless sensors could soon be on European roads. An EU-financed research project is looking at inexpensive ways of getting vehicles to travel in a ‘platoon’ on Europe’s motorways. Each road train could include up to...

As I type, I’m listening to Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky on NPR explaining why the Droid isn’t an iPhone killer. I have to agree, it’s not. But competition is good. And I’m resistant to buying three of those shiny apples for my family! A friend showed off his Motorolla Droid this afternoon. He’s very happy with it. I’m tempted by the HTC Droid Eris, $100 cheaper...

Paul Carr’s righteous TechCrunch contrarian rant is one that’s wary of — weary of? — ‘citizen journalists’ with cell phones and Twitter. His case in point, the Fort Hood shootings: [T]he first news and analysis out of the base didn’t come from the experts. Nor did it come from the 24-hour news media, or even from dedicated military blogs – but rather from the Twitter...

The world’s largest particle accelerator / collider (The Large Hadron Collider, for those of you keeping score) has run into yet another setback. After being plagued by coolant leaks, faulty magnets and a host of other technical difficulties, operations have again ground to a halt. The culprit? A bird smuggling a baguette over their air space. The bird dropped some bread on a section of outdoor machinery,...

November 11 is Veterans Day. A day—a celebration—to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good. This is the first of three articles honoring those men and women. Two months ago, in “Leave No Man Behind—65 Years Later,” I praised the spirit and culture of our military as reflected in the creed that you don’t...