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A jump, hop, and a rocket ride away lies Earth's blushing sister: Mars. While apparently lifeless today, some 4 billion years ago, Mars featured rivers, oceans, and potentially even microbial life. The good times obviously didn't last. On Earth, we fear asteroid impacts as harbingers of destruction, but to early Mars, they were cascading gifts of life. The energy and gas they provided helped keep the planet hot and wet. But as the solar system settled down after its turbulent birth, those impacts grew to be few and far between. At the same time, Mars' core was cooling, quieting the...

Can Quiet, Efficient 'Space Elevators' Really Work? By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist   |   February 19, 2014 06:38am ET An electric-powered climber spacecraft rides up the space elevator.Credit: Frank Chase/Chase Design StudiosView full size image Is it time to push the "up" button on the space elevator?A space elevator consisting of an Earth-anchored tether that extends 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) into space could eventually provide routine, safe, inexpensive and quiet access to orbit, some researchers say.A new assessment of the concept has been pulled together titled "Space Elevators: An Assessment of the Technological Feasibility and the Way Forward."...

The Keystone XL Pipeline has been viewed as a means to alleviate several problems: reducing America's dependency upon Middle East Oil, providing a source for America's refining of oil if America ever decides to face reality and challenge the environmentalist insistence against building domestic refineries, lowering the price of fuel at the pump (since increasing pump prices directly influences the price of all domestic products, everything moves by oil), providing employment for many Americans in the construction of the pipeline and at the port, and an assurance of a reliable source of crude (in case we decide to accept reality)....

A visit to North Korea by U.S. envoy Stephen Bosworth ended in failure Thursday to convince the North to return to multilateral nuclear disarmament talks. "We identified some common understandings on the need for and the role of the six-party talks and the importance of the implementation of the 2005 Joint Statement," Bosworth told reporters. "It remains to be seen when and how [North Korea] will return to the six-party talks." He added, "This is something that requires further consultations among all six of us." But Bosworth claimed he had "very useful" meetings with senior North Korean officials. Further bilateral...

Is it time for us to get serious about building a "Space Elevator?" On August 13, approximately 280 people gathered at the Microsoft Campus in Redmond Washington for a "Space Elevator Overview" public lecture, with 60 attendees continuing on to be part of the four day long Fifth International Space Elevator Conference sponsored by Microsoft and JPL Foundation. Delegates flew in from Japan, Armenia and other far-off locations. A proposal for a space elevator was first published by Yuri Artsunov in the USSR in 1960. At that time, the west knew little about Artsunov's work, and the idea was re-invented...

Forests of artificial trees, giant space mirrors and sailing ships that create clouds may offer the only hope of saving the world from dangerous climate change, Britain's leading scientists said today. A report by the Royal Society - Britain's most prestigious science body - said global engineering projects that suck carbon dioxide out of the air or reflect the sun's rays into space had 'useful potential' as a weapon against global warming. But the authors added that risky and unproven attempts to meddle with the climate could have 'catastrophic consequences for mankind' if they were used irresponsibly and that the...

Must see video! Idiot Obama supporter really believes she will have "no more mortgage payments" and won't even have to pay for gas in her car!

The Iraqi defense minister said Monday that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq’s borders from external threat until at least 2018. Those comments from the minister, Abdul Qadir, were among the most specific public projections of a timeline for the American commitment in Iraq by officials in either Washington or Baghdad. And they suggested a longer commitment than either government had previously indicated. Pentagon officials expressed no surprise at Mr. Qadir’s projections, which were even less optimistic than those he made...

<p>Herewith some thoughts about tomorrow's Annapolis peace conference, and the larger problem of how to approach the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first question ...is, "What is the conflict about?" There are basically two possibilities: that it is about the size of Israel, or about its existence.</p>

There is a difference between legitimate government secrets, necessary to protect the national security, and secrecy as a habit of doing business. Out government has developed a habit of engaging in secrecy right out in the open and the result is unaccountability, massive expense, corruption, and a weakening of democracy. This is caused by congressmen who don’t read the legislation that they are voting into law and who can blame them. Bills before Congress have become so cumbersome, complex and labyrinthine that the laws of the land are unreadable and incomprehensible. A case in point is the controversial 380-page immigration...

Energy device in funding limbo for two decades -- dying on the vine for lack of nuclear weapons potential. US Physicist Dr. Robert W. Bussard has produced proven, consistent, working prototypes of a fusion device that does not need to release neutrons as part of the fusion process. Neutrons induce radioactivity to their immediate surroundings. Bussard's method does not do this. This just one of the major drawbacks of other fusion projects such as the Tokamak project. The massive (30 meters X 110 feet) Tokamak/ITER project (D-T/Deuterium - Tritium) fusion reaction produces about 20 million units of energy mostly in...

Can't post the article but check it out! http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aHczjrHrbtxo

SIMI VALLEY, Calif., Aug. 18, 2006 -- As during the Cold War, the spread of freedom remains America’s most valuable tool in combating the nation’s enemies, a senior Defense Department official said here yesterday. A slab of the Berlin Wall now housed at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. Photo by Steven Donald Smith  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “The power of freedom brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989, and it brought millions to the voting booth in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Christopher “Ryan” Henry, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said during a...

With the economy booming and elections only months away, the commissars at the District Building are hard at work on two misguided schemes to turn the District into the socialist paradise they've always dreamed of.... Under Mendelson's proposal, large retailers would not be required simply to pay the District's minimum wage. Rather, they would have to abide by the much more stringent "living wage" requirements for city contractors that involve higher levels of pay and benefits. Like city contractors, they would also be required to hire half their workers from the District's jobless pool, or file reports every month showing...

Question for conservatives who vote for Republican candidates every few years because the Republicans are the "lesser of two evils." P> How is your voting strategy working out? Since "conservative" Republicans have taken over the House of Representatives 11 years ago, the expansion of government has continued at every level. Nothing has been done to stop the holocaust of abortion. Gay marriage under the guise of "civil unions" is becoming a norm in our society. Our government continues in its Wilsonian tradition of globe-trotting and nation-building with the precious blood of American soldiers fertilizing the subjected nations, making them "safe...

It is unfortunate that the mayor of Columbia and several influential professors at USC have been snookered into believing there is a future in hydrogen fuel cells. A lot of starry-eyed futurists have been telling us for the past 30 years that hydrogen fuel cells are the way of the future, but the science is not on their side. Some fuel cell advocates continue to say that fuel cells are twice as efficient as internal combustion engines, but the facts are otherwise. The recent study by the National Academy of Sciences shows that proton exchange membrane fuel cells (the type...

"LET HER GO" I'm sure that you have heard that phrase spoken more than once, since the debate concerning the fate of Terri Schindler reached prominence recently. One might well ask: "Let her go where?" I find it particularly disturbing when I hear people in elected positions saying things which indicate that they are allowing a belief in a "hereafter" to influence their decisions. Perhaps Judge Greer, who is reported to be a conservative, and Christian, Republican, has a belief in a future, better, life for Terri, and it is his desire to speed her on her way to his...

id they believe they would be welcomed as liberators? Administration plans to privatize Social Security have clearly run into unexpected opposition. Even Republicans are balking; Representative Bill Thomas says that the initial Bush plan will soon be a "dead horse." That may be overstating it, but for privatizers the worst is yet to come. If people are rightly skeptical about claims that Social Security faces an imminent crisis, just wait until they start looking closely at the supposed solution.President Bush is like a financial adviser who tells you that at the rate you're going, you won't be able to afford...

Special News Update: Sunday December 1st I have been promising my supporters from around the globe two new WTC2002 design concepts, and I'm delighted to say the wait is over... Explore the WTC2002 website for a closer look at WTC2002 Concept #2 and WTC2002 Concept #3. And please, take the a moment to vote for your favourite in the 'Your Voice' section. Your voices will be heard. I thank you again for your continued support. WTC2002 grows in strength every day because of you, and LMDC, we are ready for whatever you throw at us, WE WILL PREVAIL! Do reflect...