Fort McMurray, Alberta, is an unlikely destination for a congressional boondoggle, especially when cold snaps of 40 below make it dangerous to leave any patch of skin uncovered. But here I am in midwinter, 250 miles north of Edmonton, watching a flock of Washington politicians in subzero parkas cling to tour guides like a trail of oversize ducklings. With gas prices approaching $3 a gallon in some states, the US representatives are braving the frigid air not for adventure but to learn about a filthy sort of alchemy, one that turns sludgy, sticky earth into sweet crude oil.
Monthly Archive for June, 2004
At least once a year during the 1980s Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld vanished. Cheney was working diligently on Capitol Hill, as a congressman rising through the ranks of the Republican leadership. Rumsfeld, who had served as Gerald Ford’s Secretary of Defense, was a hard-driving business executive in the Chicago area?where, as the head of G. D. Searle & Co., he dedicated time and energy to the success of such commercial products as Nutra-Sweet, Equal, and Metamucil. Yet for periods of three or four days at a time no one in Congress knew where Cheney was, nor could anyone at Searle locate Rumsfeld. Even their wives were in the dark; they were handed only a mysterious Washington phone number to use in case of emergency.
A team of astronomers have found a colossal black hole so ancient, they’re not sure how it had enough time to grow to its current size, about 10 billion times the mass of the sun.
People with diabetes could soon be waving goodbye to the pain and hassle of needles, thanks to a new under-skin sensor that monitors blood sugar levels with a simple wave of the arm.
There’s nothing worse than a satellite that can’t make decisions. Rather than organizing data, it simply spews out everything it collects, swamping scientists with huge amounts of information. It’s like getting a newspaper with no headlines or section pages in which all the stories are strung together end-to-end.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? As the Pentagon readies its first military tribunal since World War II, a Supreme Court ruling is putting pressure on the Bush administration to conduct a proceeding that more exacting civilian courts would accept as fair, legal experts say.
WASHINGTON (AP)—Twenty-two states are being put on notice that air quality in many of their counties is unhealthy because of tons of microscopic soot from power plants, diesel-burning trucks, cars and factories.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A huge, ice-covered pool believed to hold the world?s oldest seawater is being scoured by scientists taking an inventory of aquatic life in the Arctic, the least-documented ocean on the planet.
By a narrow margin, the Supreme Court yesterday ruled that a federal law meant to shield minors from Internet pornography likely violates free-speech rights.
BOSTON ? When Josh Tickell drives his 1971 Datsun 240Z, powered by a straight six-diesel engine, he gets 44 miles to the gallon. He also gets disbelieving stares from everyone else on the road. The bright-red hot rod, with flames shooting out of a dandelion-rimmed globe on the hood, proclaims in fiery yellow letters: “Powered by vegetable oil.”
Unleashed viruses, environmental disaster, gray goo—astronomer Sir Martin Rees calculates that civilization has only a 50-50 chance of making it to the 22nd century
WASHINGTON – The Army is preparing to notify about 5,600 retired and discharged soldiers who are not members of the National Guard or Reserve that they will be involuntarily recalled to active duty for possible service in Iraq or Afghanistan, Army officials said Tuesday.
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Forget about hair of the dog. A hangover cure may be locked inside the common prickly pear cactus, researchers said on Monday.
CULVER CITY, California (AP)—Sam Raimi hopes to remain in film a long time after he’s through making “Spider-Man” movies. For about 1,000 years.
SANTA CRUZ, Calif.—On the mantel of a quiet suburban home here stands a curious object resembling a small set of organ pipes nestled into a neat white case. At first glance it does not seem possible that such a complex, curving form could have been folded from a single sheet of paper, and yet it was.
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