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Two years ago several of my Sci Am colleagues and I had an intense email exchange over a period of weeks, trying to figure out what to make of a new paper by string theorist Erik Verlinde. I don’t think I’ve ever been so flummoxed by physicists’ reactions to a paper. Mathematically it could hardly have been simpler—the level of middle-school algebra for the most part. Logically and physically, it was a head-hurter. I couldn’t decide whether it was profound or trite. The theorists we consulted said they couldn’t follow it, which we took as a polite way of saying...

What are you afraid of, Mr. President? I know it must be tough dragging yourself to these glitzy fund-raisers and mingling with rich people who shower you with money and affection. Who needs an unfriendly reporter shouting an unscripted question at you, or checking to see whether any of the guests are getting government contracts? We all know Obama has an aversion to tough questions. During the campaign, he would refuse to engage with most local media, and reporters who camped out at the rope line got a stern talking-to from a campaign staffer. But using the White House press...

CONCORD, N.H. -- Amid chants from the gallery and thousands of demonstrators in the Statehouse plaza, New Hampshire's Republican-dominated House approved a $10.2 billion budget yesterday that makes deep cuts to social programs and strips public unions of much of their bargaining power. The House debated the budget for five hours before Republicans pushed it through, 243-124.

The White House postponed an event scheduled for Wednesday afternoon where President Obama was supposed to receive an award for a commitment to transparency due to unspecified “changes to the president’s schedule.” The award was to be presented by organizers of the Freedom of Information Day conference in conjunction with “Sunshine Week” for the president’s “deep commitment to an open and transparent government—of, by, and for the people.” The Associated Press reported this week that despite pledges of increased transparency, the Obama administration last year responded to fewer Freedom of Information Act requests than the year before. In 2010 there...

The marching orders from Congress and the White House to NASA were pretty straightforward. Go out and build a new big rocket to replace the retiring space shuttle fleet. Unlike the shuttle, the new rocket has to be powerful enough to get out of low Earth orbit and carry humans to an asteroid and eventually Mars, perhaps even the moon. There must also be a test flight by 2016. But at this point, NASA officials are warning of a potentially devastating setback to future space exploration. Its first new rocket in 40 years may not happen because the agency doesn't

Responding to the growing furor over the paychecks of executives at companies that received billions of dollars in the government’s financial rescue, the Obama administration will order the companies that received the most aid to deeply slash the compensation to their highest paid executives, an official involved in the decision said on Wednesday.

Ice flow alone explains why fjords are cut so deep 20 May 2008 NewScientist.com news service Fjords form when ice sheets gouge out a valley below sea level - but what makes the ice bite so deep? A variety of factors was thought to be behind the rapid and deep incisions made as ice sheets flow down from the mountains. For example, if the sheet moves from a region where it is frozen to the bedrock to a region where the rock surface is slightly warmer, the ice might start to slide against the rock, eroding it more rapidly. Mark...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration intends to slash counterterrorism funding for police, firefighters and rescue departments across the country by more than half next year, according to budget documents obtained by The Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department has given $23 billion to states and local communities to fight terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks, but one document says the administration is not convinced that the money has been well spent and thinks the nation's highest-risk cities have largely satisfied their security needs. The department wanted to provide $3.2 billion to help states and cities protect against terrorist attacks in...

A very dark spot on Mars could be an entrance to a deep hole or cavern, according to scientists studying imagery taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The geological oddity measures some 330 feet (100 meters) across and is located on an otherwise bright dusty lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons, one of the four giant Tharsis volcanoes on the red planet. The hole might be the sort of place that could support life or serve as a habitat for future astronauts, researchers speculated. Must be deep The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its High Resolution Imaging Science...

allegedly included dog feces along with his payment for a parking ticket has been charged with disorderly conduct. The 22-year-old man was charged with the misdemeanor May 11 in a criminal complaint filed in Mower County District Court. The man's vehicle was ticketed on April 18 while it was parked in front of his residence. He put an envelope containing his payment and dog feces in a drop box at the law enforcement center, the complaint stated. On April 25, an office employee for the Austin Police Department smelled a rank odor as she gathered envelopes from the box. Opening...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2007 – The Defense Department’s America Supports You program transcends politics in its mission to support the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, a senior defense official said today in an appearance on Fox News Channel's "Fox and Friends" program. “I think we have a great history of that through our America Supports You program,” Allison Barber, deputy assistant secretary of defense for internal communications and public liaison, said. “Over the past two and a half years, we’ve seen hundreds and thousands of people who say, ‘We’ll debate the policy of the (Iraq) war...

Deeply disturbing, Google lawyer saysA court in Dallas, Texas has found a website operator liable for copyright infringement because his site linked to an 'audio webcast' without permission. Observers have criticised the judge for failing to understand the internet. Robert Davis runs Supercrosslive.com and put direct links on his site to audio streams of motorcycle racing. Those streams were created, owned and hosted by SFX Motor Sports, which is behind some of the events covered. A preliminary injunction was granted on 12th December by Judge Sam Lindsay in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Judge Lindsay...

Delving deep into Britain's past By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News Neanderthals probably made this hand axe from Swanscombe in Kent Scientists are to begin work on the second phase of a project aimed at piecing together the history of human colonisation in Britain. Phase one of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project (AHOB) discovered people were here 200,000 years earlier than previously thought. Phase two has now secured funds to the tune of £1m and will run until 2010. Team members hope to find out more about Britain's earliest settlers and perhaps unearth their fossil remains. They...

Stupid Investment of the Week If you treasure your money, steer clear of this stock,(Brolin haha!) By Chuck Jaffe, MarketWatch Last Update: 9:06 AM ET Apr 28, 2006 BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Uncovering new, tiny companies with the potential for success is a bit like hunting for treasure. You need to read the map of financials, understand the landscape of the business and do the right calculations or you are just going to wind up throwing a lot of money away with nothing to show for it. So when a company promises to be a treasure, literally and figuratively, investors should...

Despite a commanding financial advantage, state Controller Steve Westly could have trouble overcoming the union muscle that will direct voters toward his rival, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, in the Democratic primary for governor. The failure of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's public works bond to reach the June ballot means there will be little to attract the moderate voters Westly needs to counteract the died-in-the-wool Democrats that unions are expected to drive toward Angelides. "The challenge for Steve Westly is going to be getting people who are not so tightly affiliated with the Democratic Party to show up and vote," said Bruce...

China admits to 'deep-seated conflicts' amid economic boom By Richard Spencer in Beijing (Filed: 06/03/2006) China's prime minister gave a surprisingly gloomy assessment of the state of the country's booming economy and fast-changing society in his annual speech to parliament yesterday. In the face of near-euphoria among governments and businesses in the western world about the pace of its growth, Wen Jiabao said long-term economic health was at risk while society faced "deep-seated conflicts". Wen Jiabao delivers the annual ‘work report’ yesterday For years, Communist leaders have worried about the growing wealth gap between the expanding cities of the east...

Digging deep for a clue to a global mysteryThe search for the ancient skulls of Peking Man, missing since 1941, sits firmly on Beijing's agenda, GEOFFREY YORK writes GEOFFREY YORK ZHOUKOUDIAN, CHINA -- For more than two decades, Yang Shoukai had hoarded his secret, unsure what to do with a possible clue to one of China's most baffling mysteries. As construction supervisor on the site of an abandoned U.S. military barracks in Tianjin in 1982, he had discovered a strange cement box in the basement of the old wartime barracks. He tried to dig it up, but lacked the proper...

Cold and Deep: Antarctica's Lake Vostok has two big neighbors Sid Perkins GREAT LAKES. Lake Vostok and the newly described 90°E and Sovetskaya Lakes lie beneath a kilometers-thick blanket of ice. The black square in the inset shows the outline of this satellite image on a map of Antarctica; the cross indicates the South Pole. R.E. Bell, et al. Trapped beneath Antarctica's kilometers-thick ice sheet are two bodies of water that rival North America's Great Lakes, new analyses suggest. The geological setting of these huge, unfrozen lakes hints that they may harbor ecosystems that have been isolated for millions of...

Deep-sea robot photographs ancient Greek shipwreck Deborah Halber, News Office Correspondent February 2, 2006Image © / Chios 2005 Shipwreck Survey -- WHOI, Hellenic Ministry of Culture: Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Hellenic Center for Marine ResearchThis image shows a sample of the data collected by the SeaBed autonomous underwater vehicle as it swam over the Chios shipwreck in July 2005. The 3-D color mesh represents a topographic map of the sea floor, created using data collected by multibeam sonar. The brown strip shows the area captured in digital images, which were used to create the photomosaic of the wreck. Sometime in...

Recent events in American politics suggest liberals are clowns with zero sense of perspective. No wonder Americans don't elect them anymore. Canadians need to wise up and get in on the joke. Last week, the liberal media fell over itself as a U.S. special prosecutor charged vice-presidential aide "Scooter" Libby with lying, during the investigation of a non-crime, about whether he first heard a CIA operative's name from a reporter or from somewhere else. Who cares? We've got the president of Iran rapping like Eminem about "wiping Israel off the map," and the liberal priority, as articulated by Democratic Senate...