Next Best Thing

Aides to President Barack Obama have been complaining this past of week of the President’s behavior during meetings. Speaking on condition of anonymity, several high-level staffers have said that the President has seemed distracted since being granted his super-secure blackberry device this past week. “He’s just always sitting there, not looking at anyone who’s talking to him, just staring at that stupid device. He needs to constantly be re-fed information, and he never gives any input – just sits there button mashing.” One aide detailed a meeting regarding the revisions to the economic stimulus package that President Obama has been attempting to push through congress. According to the aide, the President was looking down, looking very frustrated during the entire meeting, leading several advisers to believe that he was quite angry with them. It was only when President Obama’s eyes grew large and he exclaimed “Alright! I got an extra life!” that it became clear to everyone tha...

It's poetic, the notion that the flap of a butterfly's wing in Brazil can set off a cascade of atmospheric events that, weeks later, spurs the formation of a tornado in Texas. This so-called "butterfly effect" is used to explain why chaotic systems like the weather can't be predicted more than a few days in advance. One can't know every little factor affecting the atmosphere — every flutter of every butterfly in Brazil — so there's little hope of foreseeing the exact time and place a storm will touch down weeks later. The butterfly effect is all the more pleasing because the computer model that led to its discovery resembles a butterfly. The mathematician Edward Lorenz created the model, called a strange attractor, in the 1960s; it's a line that alternately spirals around two adjacent ovals, mapping out the chaotic solution to a set of interrelated equations. Lorenz found that the shape of the attractor was extremely sensitive to initi...

A very black carbon nanotube coating renders objects into silhouettes and could form the basis of a future stealth device. Like a cloak of invisibility, the material makes things disappear completely when viewed against a black background. "The most exciting thing is that it makes any 3-D object look like a shadow," said researcher Haofei Shi at the University of Michigan. "You know something is there but you don't know what it is." The effect works even under direct light and from multiple viewing angles, showcasing the first perfect light-absorbing coating, Shi said. Capable of swallowing a broad spectrum of light, the paper-like material has potential for roomy stealth airplanes and sun-gulping solar cells. "You can wear a coat made of this material and you will look like a flat sheet of black paper," said co-researcher Jay Guo at the University of Michigan. "They cannot perceive any 3-D aspects of the person in the coat … Th...

The secret recipe for Coca-Cola, the world's best-selling soft drink, has stayed under lock and key in a bank vault in Atlanta since 1925. That is, until today (Dec. 8), when the priceless list of ingredients was carefully moved to a new vault that is now on display at the World of Coca-Cola Museum in downtown Atlanta. "The time has come for our secret formula to come back home," The Coca-Cola Company's chief executive officer, Muhtar Kent, said at the unveiling of the new exhibit, according to the Associated Press. While visitors to the beverage company's corporate museum will now be able to experience the titillation of being near the coveted recipe, which dates back to 1886, they won't be able to jot down any notes: It will remain hidden from view, contained in a giant metal vault that can only be accessed by keypad and hand-imprint scanner. As both a marketing ploy and a clever business measure, the Coca-Cola Company makes much ado about the ...

Tens of thousands of people gathered on Saturday (Dec. 10) in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square to protest against the regime of Vladimir Putin and his party. But amid the pro-democracy chants and police presence, there was a mysterious visitor: An unidentified craft was spotted hovering high above the event. It was strangely silent, and clearly not a helicopter. The UFO was caught on video, and had some protesters wondering if they were being watched by aliens. According to a report in Britain's the Daily Telegraph , "Witnesses are at a loss to explain the object seen by thousands." Spacecraft or aircraft? The UFO is unlike most suspected extraterrestrial spacecraft (such as typical "flying saucers") in that it seems to be held aloft by four (or perhaps six) small propellers. Such propellers would be useless to travel through space, as there is no air for the propellers to push against. Instead, many suspected the UFO of being an unmanned camera dron...

An accused witch, Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia earlier this week. She had been convicted of practicing "witchcraft and sorcery," according to the Saudi Interior Ministry. Such a crime is a capital offense in Saudi Arabia, and so Nassar was sentenced to death. Nassar's sentence was appealed — and upheld — by the Saudi Supreme Judicial Council. Nassar, who claimed to be a healer and mystic, was arrested after authorities reportedly found a variety of occult items in her possession, including herbs, glass bottles of "an unknown liquid used for sorcery," and a book on witchcraft . According to a police spokesman, Nassar had also falsely promised miracle healings and cures, charging ill clients as much as $800 for her services. Many Shiite Muslims — like many fundamentalist Christians — consider fortune-telling an occult practice and therefore evil. Making a psychic prediction or using magic (or even claiming or pretendi...

• Save Money Tip 1 • Spend Less. This is not over simplifying the best way to save money! It is essential if you are serious about being a long term money saver and being able to save money every day. Review what you spend and look at ways you can save money. Consider making telephone calls for instance only at off-peak times. Do you really need to have newspapers and magazines delivered? Can you do without those coffees you buy at break time everyday - would a flask of coffee taken to work save you money? What about using the public lending library instead of buying books or music CDs or DVDs? Try to never waste money and make every purchase a considered purchase. Once you start looking for little ways to save money and spend less you will quickly become an expert and really save money fast. Spending less means you value every penny of your money - you will not be so quick to throw that money away on impulse - after all you worked so hard to earn it! Save Money Tip One • Save Money...