Andrew Rosenthal reminiscences in the pages of the NYT about when, as an AP reporter in the USSR, his Apple IIc arrived at customs: The IIc was Apple’s first crack at a “portable” computer, which it sort of was if you didn’t mind a 7.5 pound weight, plus monitor, external floppy drive and all the [...]

Canadian scientist Ralph Steinman was among three men awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine this morning in Stockholm, but hours later his university announced that he had passed away three days earlier after a battle with cancer: A Canadian-born scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for his discoveries about the immune [...]

The conspiracy by grocery store owners to turn us all into unpaid cashiers may be ending.

If this report is true then pretty much everything we know about physics could turn out to be wrong: A startling find at one of the world’s foremost laboratories that a subatomic particle seemed to move faster than the speed of light has scientists around the world rethinking Albert Einstein and one of the foundations [...]

Rick Santorum is tired of “filth” atop Google searches for his name and wants the company to do something about it.

The decision to split Netflix into two companies makes no sense. Unless you look behind the scenes.

In a truly bizarre move, Netflix is spinning off the DVD-by-mail business that built them into an international brand and going stream-only. Those wishing to keep getting movies will have to sign on to something called Qwikster.

The reaction in the medical community to Michele Bachmann’s claim that she met a woman whose daughter now suffers from mental retardation due to receiving the HPV vaccine has been overwhelmingly negative. Two scientists, though, are telling Bachmann to put up or shut up: A University of Minnesota bioethicist is offering $1,000 for medical proof [...]

Ivar Giaever, the 1973 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, has resigned from the American Physical Society over its declaration that “global warming is occurring” and that “the evidence is incontrovertible.”

“Congress Could Make Facebooking at Work a Felony,” Rebecca Freeman argues at Atlantic Wire. “Imagine that President Obama could order the arrest of anyone who broke a promise on the Internet.” That’s what The Wall Street Journal‘s Orin Kerrthinks the latest cyber-security legislation will lead to: An assault on checking Facebook at work. Today the Senate Judiciary Committee will [...]

More success in the ongoing hunt for Earth-like planets in other star systems: Astronomers on Monday announced the discovery of 50 new planets circling stars beyond the sun, including one “super-Earth” that is the right distance from its star to possibly have water. “If we are really, really lucky, this planet could be a habitat” [...]

In its upcoming term, the Supreme Court will examine the question whether police can track people via GPS without first obtaining a warrant.

Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet

Via the BBC:  Bad spelling opens up security loophole A missing dot in an email address might mean messages end up in the hands of cyber thieves, researchers have found. By creating web domains that contained commonly mistyped names, the investigators received emails that would otherwise not be delivered.

Another sign of just how pathetic science education is in this country: Nearly half of American voters believe in the Biblical account of creation, and even more think prayer can literally help people recover from medical problems. (…) Some 45 percent of voters accept the Biblical account of creation as the explanation for the origin [...]

Governor, that analogy does not mean what you think it means.

New photos from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have given us the sharpest images yet of the physical remnants of man’s missions to the moon: A spacecraft circling the moon has snapped the sharpest photos ever of the tracks and trash left behind by Apollo astronauts in their visits from 1969 to 1972. Images taken by [...]

The idea that students raised in the Information Age are therefore savvy about information is a dangerous but pervasive myth.

Contrary to myth, the college classroom is a rapidly evolving place.

The Western fetish for turning cheap, efficient food into expensive, inefficient fuel is threatening the food supply–as is the European superstition against genetically modified foods.

Environmentalists are upset by President Obama’s decision to abandon stringent new smog regulations, but he made the right decision.

The connections between the White House and failed solar energy company Solyndra deepen.

Arthur C. Clarke predicts the future on a 1964 BBC Horizon program.

Bill Nye, who started his career explaining science to children, finds it harder to explain the subject to a Fox Business Network Host H/T: Mediaite

Thanks to a problem with the Russian rockets needed to get astronauts, supplies, and rescue missions there, the International Space Station may have to be temporarily abandoned: Astronauts may need to temporarily abandon the International Space Station this fall if last week’s Russian launch accident prevents new crews from flying, a NASA official said Monday. [...]

A case pending in Maryland raises the question of when boorish online behavior crosses the line from protected speech to criminal act.

Before achieving astounding success, Steve Jobs had to experience disappointment and failure.

Scientists digging through sandstone in Western Australia have discovered evidence of cellular life from a time when Earth didn’t even have an oxygen atmosphere: A team of Australian and British geologists have discovered fossilized, single-cell organisms that are 3.4 billion years old and that the scientists say are the oldest known fossils on earth. Their [...]

The climate change deniers aren’t going to like what Chris Christie has to say.

It pays to read a scientific study before commenting on it.

Like Jon Huntsman, Rick Perry has something to say about evolution today and he handled it very differently.

Jon Huntsman just tweeted, “To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

Of all the 2012 GOP candidates, my favorite by far is Jon Huntsman. Unfortunately, I think he just doomed what little chance he had of taking the nomination by tweeting the following: To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy. Alas, those aren’t sentiments that will take [...]

When one adopts a one-word pseudo-elfin name, one might expect a spot of trouble

The IBM PC was introduced 30 years ago. Has its time passed?

Via XKCD:     Indeed.  But try explaining that to a teenager who has decided that the Mac is just way cool despite the the relative price tag of the two devices.* —- *And before a platform war breaks out:  yes, I know it is more complicated than that (although, for a 14 year-old who [...]

A cool infographic courtesy onlineeducation.net:

Through 20 years of effort, we’ve successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember but easy for computers to guess.

Ok, so does anyone have any legal insight into the question of whether an employer can ban its employees from connecting with one another via social media (e.g., Facebook)? I can understand policies aimed at forbidding commentary about the workplace, but what about just stating that employees cannot, say, “Friend” other employees on Facebook? And [...]

An amusing claim–but probably not true.

Much like bills named for dead children, there’s a very high likelihood that any bill with “protecting children” and/or “pornographers” in the title is a) a very bad idea, b) a very stupid idea, c) of dubious Constitutionality, or, as here, d) all of the above.

Apparently, Earth isn’t alone in the track it takes in its journey around the Sun: The moon isn’t the only hunk of space rock that has been travelling around the sun with the Earth for ages. Canadian scientists have discovered that the Earth is also accompanied by a “Trojan” companion — an asteroid that travels [...]

Reports of the death of the space program are greatly exaggerated.

After 135 flights the Space Shuttle program officially came to an end today as Atlantis touched down at Kennedy Space Center: The last space shuttle flight rolled to a stop at 5:58 a.m. on Thursday, closing an era of the nation’s space program.\ “Mission complete, Houston,” said Capt. Christopher J. Ferguson of the Navy, commander [...]

One of the things you learn as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and jacket on Thursday afternoon at three o’clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they’re looking for a job and have an interview; the other is that they are an a**hole.

The Army is fielding tiny blast sensors to gauge the effects of explosions on individual soldiers.

Netflix will charge $7.99 for streaming video; it’s now a $2 add-on.

Gene Healy contends that the space program has been little more than a massive boondoggle of a government program: Outside of avoiding the hypothetical horror of Martian gulags, what does the ordinary taxpayer get from the space program? Not much, says Robin Hanson, a George Mason University economist and research associate at Oxford’s Future of [...]

A space shuttle lifted off for the last time on Friday, and some people seem to think its the beginning of the end of America.

Microsoft is making millions from Android phones, despite having nothing to do with designing, marketing, manufacturing, or distributing them.