gov News Transcript: DoD News Briefing: Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen Cohen's keynote address at the Conference on Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy at the Georgia Center, Mahler Auditorium, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. The event is part of the Sam Nunn Policy Forum being hosted by the University of Georgia. Secretary Cohen is joined by Sen. Sam Nunn and Sen. Richard G. Secretary Cohen: Senator Nunn, thank you very much. I'll comment on that later during the course of the morning, but I've had occasion to meet with a number of Russian counterparts, and as we go through various translations of the communications that we're having, the two words they are able to articulate very clearly, they say 'Nunn/Lugar, Nunn/Lugar. It was Nunn/Lugar I that dealt with the reduction of nuclear weapons between the United States and the Soviet Union in terms of trying to come to grips with how we helped the Russians dismantle hundreds of their nuclear weapons, and also helped them with their destruction of chemical weapons.
New App Lets You Boycott Koch Brothers, Monsanto And More By Scanning Your Shopping Cart In her keynote speech at last year's annual Netroots Nation gathering, Darcy Burner pitched a seemingly simple idea to the thousands of bloggers and web developers in the audience. The former programmer and congressional candidate proposed a smartphone app allowing shoppers to swipe barcodes to check whether conservative billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch were behind a product on the shelves. Burner figured the average supermarket shopper had no idea that buying Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper or Dixie cups meant contributing cash to through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific. Similarly, purchasing a pair of yoga pants containing Lycra or a Stainmaster carpet meant indirectly handing the Kochs your money (Koch Industries bought Invista, one of the world’s largest fiber and textiles companies, in 2004 from DuPont). At the time, Burner created a mock interface for her app, but that's as far as she got. Follow @Clare_OC
How NASA might build its very first warp drive I want to see this work as much as anyone else on io9, but every time I read an article on warp drive, I expend so much mental energy trying to wrap my head around the concept that my entire left hand side goes numb. Somewhere along the line my understanding of concepts such as the nature of Spacetime is deficient. Here's the problem. When I think about the idea of expanding the conceptual framework that describes the continuum between two abstract concepts, behind a spaceship, whilst contracting the conceptual framework that describes the continuum between two abstract concepts, in front of a spaceship; all I can think of is that this like saying that when in conversation with another person, I can reach out with my hand, grasp hold of the words that are coming out of that other persons mouth and fold them in half. If someone could point me towards some legible books that I could buy that would help me understand where my understanding has gone wrong, I would be grateful. Thanks.
Buying Insurance Should Be as Easy as Using an IPad As a central part of President Barack Obama’s health-care law, Americans will soon be able to obtain insurance through federal exchanges. But how, exactly, will people apply for coverage? In March, a draft of the Obama administration’s application form was released online. Unfortunately, the form was complex, long and immensely difficult to navigate. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services released a radically revised application form, and there’s excellent news. For people with families, the form is a bit longer (11 pages), yet the questions are straightforward, simple and jargon-free. Although the tale of the streamlined health-insurance application form has a happy ending, it also offers three general lessons. Three Lessons The first lesson is that complex forms and requirements can seriously undermine federal and state programs. Have you ever visited a new town and asked a local how to get to the nearest gas station? Experience Matters Not necessarily. (Cass R.
NASA's Warp Drive Project: "Speeds" That Could Take a Spacecraft to Alpha Centauri in Two Weeks Even Though the System is 4.3 Light-Years Away | Space (Before It's News) NASA’s Warp Drive Project: “Speeds” that Could Take a Spacecraft to Alpha Centauri in Two Weeks — Even Though the System is 4.3 Light-Years Away. A few months ago, physicist Harold White stunned the aeronautics world when he announced that he and his team at NASA had begun work on the development of a faster-than-light warp drive. His proposed design, an ingenious re-imagining of an Alcubierre Drive, may eventually result in an engine that can transport a spacecraft to the nearest star in a matter of weeks — and all without violating Einstein’s law of relativity. The above image of a Vulcan command ship features a warp engine similar to an Alcubierre Drive. Image courtesy CBS. The Alcubierre Drive The idea came to White while he was considering a rather remarkable equation formulated by physicist Miguel Alcubierre. Alcubierre suggested a mechanism by which space-time could be “warped” both in front of and behind a spacecraft. A new design io9.com Top image: CBS Studios Inc.
Anti-Abuse Ad That Is Only Visible To Children Spanish organization Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk (ANAR) Foundation has created an anti-abuse ad that is only visible to children. Created using lenticular printing, the ad shows a different photo depending on the angle that the ad is viewed from. From an adult’s perspective, the ad shows a picture of a boy with the words “Sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it”. However, from a child’s point of view, the boy in the ad becomes bruised and the words “If somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you” will appear, together with the foundation’s help line. The ad was created to offer a helpline to abused children, without informing their abusers. Click to watch the video below: [via PetaPixel] Receive interesting stories like this one in your inbox
'Frozen waves' of blue ice photographed by Tony Travouillon Dramatic images appear to show a frozen wave but the phenomenon is actually caused by compressed iceThe ice appears blue because it absorbs light from the 'red end' of the spectrum and throws out the blue light By Rik Sharma Published: 13:18 GMT, 26 November 2012 | Updated: 19:07 GMT, 26 November 2012 At first glance these beautiful images from the Antarctic appear to show 50-ft tall waves that have been instantly frozen as they break. Some people have posted the pictures online, taken by scientist Tony Travouillon at Dumont D'Urville, with a description claiming they are a tsunami wave which was frozen. But although email chains and internet forums back this claim up, what is really pictured is the natural phenomenon of blue ice. Imposing: Although this is not, as widely rumoured, a wave frozen while breaking, it is still an incredible phenomenon Frozen towers: This blue ice is created because ice bubbles are compressed and light at the red end of the spectrum is absorbed
How to Design Our Neighborhoods for Happiness by Jay Walljasper Biology is destiny, declared Sigmund Freud. But if Freud were around today, he might say “design is destiny”—especially after taking a stroll through most modern cities. The way we design our communities plays a huge role in how we experience our lives. The way we design our communities plays a huge role in how we experience our lives. You don’t have to be a therapist to realize that this creates lasting psychological effects. Of course, this is no startling revelation. One of the notable solutions being put into practice to combat this problem is New Urbanism, an architectural movement to build new communities (and revitalize existing ones) by maximizing opportunities for social exchange: public plazas, front porches, corner stores, coffee shops, neighborhood schools, narrow streets, and, yes, sidewalks. But while New Urbanism is making strides at the level of the neighborhood, we still spend most of our time at home, which today means seeing no one other than our nuclear family.