Representatives from the three different companies chosen by NASA to develop private space taxis to carry astronauts to orbit say their vehicles are making substantial progress toward launching people into orbit within the next few years. The companies — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), The Boeing Company and Sierra Nevada Corp. — are competing to…
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), right, poses for a photo with Willie Robertson, left, of the TV show Duck Dynasty and his wife Korie Robinson, center, before President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address on Jan. 28, 2014.Image: Lindsey Graham Even members of U.S. Congress aren’t above posing for photos with celebrities. Some of the…
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the lawmakers of his Justice and Development Party at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey on June 26, 2012. Image: Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press A local court ordered Turkey to lift its ban on YouTube on Friday, just one day after the government finally unblocked Twitter following another court ruling.…
A newly created webpage for embattled Missouri Republican congressman Todd Akin prominently featured a human fetus and a grammatical error until refreshed versions of the website removed the photograph and fixed the mistake. “I’m pro life and I stand with Todd Akin,” read the page. “Tell McCaskill That Your [sic] Standing With Todd Akin!” Version…
This Nov. 14 photo shows Peggy Young, of Lorton, Virginia, with her daughter Triniti, 7, in Washington.Image: Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press In 2006, United Parcel Service driver Peggy Young was put on unpaid leave because she got pregnant. Now, Young is suing her former employer because she believes UPS violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and the…
In celebration of Earth Day, a website called HooplaHa.com is asking for people everywhere to submit their own Vines of Earth-friendly acts of kindness under the hashtag #GivingVine. HooplaHa, a self-proclaimed “feel good” website that produces original, guaranteed-to-make-you-smile videos, started the #GivingVine campaign earlier this year with the sole purpose of collecting Vines of good…
Government officials do not have the hardware or the authority to collect and analyze the artillery receipts, health records and other data that could have signaled a threat was headed toward a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., last week, former federal officials said. Nor do Americans have the stomach to grant the government such intrusive…
Google, with its fully decked-out media lounge, backstage “Conversation Room” and end-of-the-week epic party, was inarguably the most prominent of the technology companies at the Republican National Convention — a list that also included Facebook and Twitter. That makes sense – Google and YouTube were the official social network and live stream provider of the…
The air quality in Beijing, China is notoriously bad, but it was unspeakably terrible over the weekend. How bad was the pollution? On a scale of 0-500 (500 being the worst), Beijing hit 755 on Saturday evening. That’s not a typo — Beijing’s air was so bad that it shattered the existing scale. That’s according…
Prime Minister David Cameron leaves Downing Street for Parliament on December 3, 2014 in London.Image: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images LONDON — David Cameron got his masochisms mixed with his sadisms at Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions session. The PM tortured the English language while trying to spank shadow chancellor Ed Balls for his recent comments that Labour…
11 Classic Political Campaign Advertisements 1. “I Like Ike” Dwight Eisenhower’s 1952 presidential campaign ad was produced by Walt Disney Studios and Citizens for Eisenhower-Nixon. “I Like Ike” is one of the most well-known and catchiest political slogans of all time. 2. JFK Jingle John F. Kennedy’s repetitive jingle aired during the 1960 presidential campaign.…
President Barack Obama, stands with his nominee to become Health and Human Services secretary, Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell, while speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Friday, April 11, 2014, where he made the announcement.Image: Susan Walsh/Associated Press *Pending her confirmation. Kathleen Sebelius is resigning from her post as secretary…
Nicholas Ivie, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, was killed earlier this month while on duty, leaving behind a wife and two daughters. Billy Sanders, Ivie’s classmate at the Border Patrol Academy and former colleague at the Naco Border Patrol Station, has since turned to online crowdfunding to help Ivie’s family, raising almost $30,000 in less…
Wikipedia’s arbitration committee has taken action against editors who insisted that whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who is transsexual, go by her former name, Bradley. They are now prohibited from editing any page related to trans issues. Manning is one of the most controversial American figures in recent memory, for reasons wholly unrelated to her gender identity.…
One year after launching on NASA’s final space shuttle mission, the orbiter Atlantis is parked today just a few miles from the launch pad where it lifted off on July 8, 2011. No longer flight-worthy — its main engines replaced with replicas and its hazardous fuel lines removed — Atlantis is waiting inside a high…
The police officer who doused students with pepper spray during Occupy Wall Street protests at the University of California, Davis, is no longer employed by the University. “Consistent with privacy guidelines established in state law and university policy, I can confirm that John Pike’s employment with the university ended on July 31, 2012,” UC Davis…
The digital rollout of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., as the Republican vice-presidential candidate is hitting a few virtual speed bumps. The Obama team launched a Google advertising campaign keyed to searches on Ryan’s name that links to web pages with talking points criticizing Ryan’s budget proposal. The ad stood alone for a time on Monday,…
Members of France’s National Assembly held a moment of silence for the victims of last week’s attacks before raising their voices in a show of national unity on Tuesday, joining together in a rendition of the French national anthem in the government chambers. The National Assembly is made up of 577 delegates. The tribute is…
Astronomers have gotten the first-ever peek at our solar system’s tail, called the heliotail, finding that it’s shaped like a four-leaf clover, NASA scientists announced Wednesday. The discovery was made using NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), a coffee-table-sized spacecraft that is studying the edge of the solar system. “Many models have suggested the heliotail might…
North Korea has had its “Sputnik” moment on Tuesday, when it successfully launched a rocket reportedly carrying a satellite into orbit for the first time in its history. Now, we can relive the communist nation’s historic moment on YouTube. The video shows the interior of the mission control center, as well as different views of…