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Ant-agonism

If you've spent any time in the rural South, you've perhaps seen colonies of fire ants -- and the hatred that people have for them. Now a couple of entomologists have traced the genes of the red imported fire ant...

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July 31, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (12)

'Gag Order'

The Environmental Protection Agency has an image problem. Depending on your point of view, it's either the heavy hand of government, with onerous regulations; or it's the lowly minion of the Bush Administration, watering down laws that were meant to...

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July 28, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (34)

Did Steve Fossett Fake His Own Death?

Steve Fossett, the millionaire adventurer, disappeared with a small plane in Nevada eleven months ago, and has since been declared dead. But today British and Australian tabloids are full of this story: "ROUND-THE-WORLD flying ace Steve Fossett may have FAKED...

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July 28, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (32)

Where the Oil Is

The U.S. Geological Survey has taken a look around the part of the world north of the Arctic Circle, and in a new estimate, out today, it says there are probably "90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, 1,670...

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July 23, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (70)

Global Warming 'Consensus' Takes a 'Hit' -- or Not?

It made the Drudge Report. At the Washington Times, editor emeritus Wesley Pruden wrote, "Al Gore picked a bad day to tout his global-warming scam." And it got this headline from the "Political Grapevine" at Fox News: "Scientific Consensus About...

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July 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (77)

Transit of Earth

31 million miles from Earth, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has taken a look back at us -- at just the right moment. In a time-lapse movie from May 29, it shows a transit -- a passage of the Moon across...

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July 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (43)

The Power of 3.2 Million Suns

Yes, yes, the economy is struggling and the price of gas is staggering, but it's still nice to know about the Peony nebula. The Spitzer Space Telescope, a cousin of the Hubble that examines mostly infrared light, has spotted a...

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July 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (11)

Power Struggle

President Bush's move today to end the offshore oil drilling ban was, at the most, symbolic, and, at the least, meaningless. As he made clear, he can't do a thing with out an okay from less-than-sympathetic Democrats on Capitol Hill....

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July 14, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (43)

The Little Matter of Getting Home Safely

Another day, another spacewalk...except that the stakes are a bit high. The two Russian cosmonauts on board the Space Station, Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, went outside to try something they'd ordinarily avoid: remove an explosive bolt...

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July 10, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (5)

The Pickens Plan

Nobody can accuse T. Boone Pickens of being some wild-eyed environmentalist. He calls himself "a Texas oil man," the chair of a private equity fund called BP Capital Management. He puts his net worth at $4 billion, and he's often...

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July 8, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (34)