Stephen Hawking: We Must Colonize Space To Survive

Stephen Hawking says selfishness and aggression will be the end of us.

In a speech in Waterloo, Ontario–the home of the thriving Research In Motion–Hawking said it’s nice that humankind has developed technical abilities to make its environment a lovely (or not) place, but that our sheer selfishness and aggression–yes, not only in America–will be our undoing.

“Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain lurking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space,” he said.

The only way, it seems, is to send more and more human beings into space in order to discover potential …

A Photo To Define A Movement

Portland protester Elizabeth Nichols is identified as the woman who was pepper-sprayed in the face at Pioneer Courthouse Square.

The photo was taken from the southeast corner of the square, looking toward the intersection of 6th and Yamhill after a day of marching through downtown Portland, Ore., by Occupy Portland participants. People gathered on the east side of the Steel bridge earlier in the morning to demonstrate in support of the Occupy movement, on the day known as N17. Several people were arrested and the march continued over the lower span of the bridge into downtown, where a rally was …

NASA To See If Mars Has Or Has Had Extraterrestrial Life

A sedan-sized rover named Curiosity will ascend to Mars next week to see if life has, or ever could, exist there.

Scientists want to search for signs other than the ancient presence of water to assess whether Mars does, or did, support biology.

“We want to know everything we can about the minerals, the carbon-based compounds, the temperatures, the chemistry of the micro-environments we look at,” said Pamela Conrad of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and an investigator for the Sample Analysis at Mars instruments on Curiosity. By comparing data with potentially similar environments on Earth, the team hopes to …

Police Pepper Spray Peaceful UC Davis Students

Students at UC Davis had a sit-in to demand release of students who’d been arrested.

Police dressed in riot gear approached the peaceful group of students and began attacking them with peppy spray, forcing them to cover their faces. Many of them falled over. “What is wrong with you?” demanded one student. “You’re supposed to protect us!” yelled another.

…

Lobbying Firm Has Plan To Undermine Occupy Wall Street

Submitted by Epiphany

Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, a Washington lobbying firm, sent a memo to one of its clients, the American Bankers Association, with a plan to thwart Occupy Wall Street.

CLGC’s memo proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians. The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.

According to the memo, if Democrats embrace …

Gingrich Think Tank Raked In $37 Million From Health Care Industry; Group Promoted Mandated Insurance

Submitted by Mr. Right

Special access to the former speaker and other perks were available to those who gave to Newt Gingrich’s Center for Health Transformation.

The Center for Health Transformation, which opened in 2003, brought in dues of as much as $200,000 per year from insurers and other health-care firms, offering some of them “access to Newt Gingrich” and “direct Newt interaction,” according to promotional materials. The biggest funders, including firms such as AstraZeneca, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Novo Nordisk, were also eligible to receive discounts on “products and workshops” from other Gingrich groups.

The health center advocated, …

Gingrich: Fire Union Janitors And Put Kids To Work

Speaking at Harvard Newt Gingrich spoke out against child labor laws saying they “entrap” young people. The solution? Fire unionized janitors so underage children can take their jobs. Put adults with families out of work to help poor children.

“You say to somebody, you shouldn’t go to work before you’re what, 14, 16 years of age, fine. You’re totally poor. You’re in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I’ve tried for years to have a very simple model,” he said. “Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one …

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Best Way To Cut Deficit Is “Do Nothing”

Submitted by Mary

We can cut $7.1 trillion by doing nothing.

That’s right. If Congress simply fails to act between now and Jan. 1, 2013, the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush expire, $1.2 trillion in additional budget cuts go through under the terms of last summer’s debt-ceiling deal, and a variety of other tax cuts also go away.…

Pat Robertson: Obama Has A Muslim “Inclination”

Pat Robertson is troubled that President Obama visited Indonesia.

Robertson: You know Lee [Webb] the thing that somehow concerns me, they say he’s going back to the place that he spent his childhood, he spent four years in Indonesia, I don’t know if he was trained in a madrassa, one of those Muslim schools, but nevertheless that is his inclination. His father was a Kenyan socialist and he talks about the roots of his father. So he’s got an African and an Indonesian background. I don’t know what his mother was doing; she just sort of flitted around. But …

Alan Keyes On Penn State: Gay Rights Advocates Only “Pretend To Draw The Line” At The Sexual Abuse Of Children”

Alan Keyes believes the “almost religious promotion of homosexuality” is responsible for the Penn State scandal.

If the allegations against Sandusky are true, there’s an aspect of the situation that doesn’t make sense. Why would higher-ups be willing to risk their reputations and life-long careers to cover for the wrongdoing of one of their subordinates? Despite the almost religious promotion of homosexuality now in evidence at all too many of America’s institutions of so-called “higher learning,” it’s hard to believe that they would thus willingly sacrifice themselves to the gods of “political correctness,” especially given the fact that the zealous …

Herman Cain: Taliban And Al Qaeda Are Part Of New Libyan Government

Herman Cain said at a press conference Friday that the Taliban and al Qaeda will be part of the new Libyan government.  Cain was blaming the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel interviewer for not being specific enough with him when he flubbed the Libya question during his meeting with the paper’s editorial board.

Do I agree with siding with the opposition? Do I agree with saying that Qadhafi should go? Do I agree that they now have a country where you’ve got Taliban and Al Qaeda that’s going to be part of the government? … Do I agree with not knowing the government …