Politics

580 articles on Politics

• Breaking News - Space Flight can be Artsy Stuff too
  03.23.12

• Idiotic Idea of the Day: Jailing Lurkers of Terror Websites
  French President Nicholas Sarkozy wants to criminalize visitors to pro-terrorism websites. An understandable idea at first -- but it would cripple open source terrorism analysis without stopping actual terrorists. Sacre bleu.
  03.23.12

• Secret Nuclear Drone Plan Nixed by 'Political Realities'
  A government lab hatched a secret plan for nuclear-powered drones, a new document shows. But the project had to be abandoned for "political" reasons.
  03.22.12

• How Safe Is Your Data Stored in Apple's iCloud?
  Our friend over at Ars Technica answer reader questions, and this one seems like one many iPhone and iPad users will want to know, not to mention future OS X Mountain Lion users: How safe is my data stored in iCloud? Chris Foresman's answer also touches more generally on the issue of storage in the cloud vs. on-premises.
  03.22.12

• After Massacre, Army Tried to Delete Accused Shooter From the Internet
  The military waited six days before releasing the name of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales. One of the reasons: to try and erase the sergeant from the internet.
  03.22.12

• MPAA Wants Megaupload User Data Retained for Lawsuits -- Updated
  Hollywood studios are mulling a massive copyright litigation campaign that entails suing individual users of Megaupload, the file-sharing service that shuttered in January in the wake of federal indictments targeting its operators on allegations of facilitating wanton infringement. The site had 66.6 million customers.
  03.21.12

• Afghanistan Commander: War Is Actually Going Fine
  Never mind the riots, the fratricides, the burned holy books and the bloody slaughter of civilians. The commander of the Afghanistan war believes the decade-long conflict is "on track."
  03.20.12

• Navy Chief: Robotic Subs Might Span Oceans. (Someday.)
  The Navy isn't giving up on its pipe dream of building robotic submarines that can span oceans. The technology isn't there yet: propulsion, navigation and fuel systems haven't yet been designed for cross-ocean undersea drone travel. But Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy's top officer, sees some promising drone-sub developments around the corner.
  03.19.12

• Pentagon Plan: Watch a Satellite's Every Move -- From 22,000 Miles Away
  The Pentagon's mad-science division recently launched a mind-bending plan to harvest dead satellites for useful parts. But the orbital recycling mission won't work, unless the military can see which satellites it's cannibalizing.
  03.19.12

• Do Not Be Afraid of the DIY Space Parachute ¿ It Might Just Work
  03.19.12

• 5 in 5: 5 Rockets to Launch From Virginia Coast
  03.19.12

• Inspiration From Space
  03.17.12

• Darpa: Use NASCAR Parts to Rev Up Satellites
  The Pentagon's looking to send way more satellites beyond the skies. To do it, though, it's starting on the highway -- by using race car parts to make spacecraft-construction quicker and cheaper than it is today.
  03.16.12

• Gadhafi's Son Built a Ship With Deadly Shark Tank Inside
  Hannibal Gadhafi¿son of the assassinated Libyan dictator¿built a ship with a 120-ton sea water aquarium inside. Why? To put six sharks inside, including two bull sharks and two whites, the most dangerous in the world.
  03.16.12

• Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge
  The U.S. Navy already has more seapower off Iran's shores than most of the world's navies combined. And it's not enough. Joining the two aircraft carrier strike groups are new minesweepers, helicopters, tricked-out patrol boats with Gatling guns and missiles, infrared night vision -- and maybe even more carriers. Get ready for the new surge. And hope Iran doesn't freak out.
  03.16.12

• CIA Chief: We'll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher
  It's great that you've got so much new household hardware connected to the internet. Especially for the CIA, whose director wants to spy on you through it.
  03.15.12

• Nobody Wants to Stay in Afghanistan Any More (Except a Few Generals)
  03.15.12

• U.S. Starts to Close Bases in Afghanistan
  It's taken the U.S. ten years. But it's finally starting to close bases in Afghanistan in earnest, as the troop drawdown goes from rhetoric to reality.
  03.15.12

• Spy Blimp Caught Rogue Soldier on Tape After Shooting Spree
  Above a small base in southern Afghanistan, a spy blimp captured video of the perpetrator of Sunday's massacre surrendering to base forces. The question now becomes what other aspects of the killings, which left 16 Afghan civilians dead, are detailed in that video -- or in any additional footage that may have been shot by the U.S. military's innumerable surveillance sensors in the region.
  03.14.12

• NASA's Robotic Glove Gives Astronauts a Stronger Grip
  A robotic glove developed by General Motors and Nasa will let workers and astronauts grip tools for longer, with less force and more comfortably.
  03.14.12

• Candidates With Low Voices May Attract More Votes
  Hidden among the obvious reasons why people vote for a politician may be a curious biological knee-jerk: preference for the pitch of a candidate's voice.
  03.14.12

• Google Adds (Even More) Links to the Pentagon
  On Monday, the Defense Department's best-known geek announced that she was leaving the Pentagon for a job at Google. It was just the latest twist in the internet colossus' long and deeply complicated relationship with America's military and intelligence communities.
  03.14.12

• Exclusive: Darpa Director Bolts Pentagon for Google
  Darpa director Regina Dugan will soon be stepping down from her position atop the Pentagon's premiere research shop to take a job with Google. The Pentagon inspector general investigation into Darpa's relationship with her company has nothing to do with Dugan's departure, her spokesman insists.
  03.12.12

• Afghanistan Massacre Blows Hole in GOP War Support
  03.12.12

• Drones, Dogs and the Future of Privacy
  Just in case you haven't seen the memo: Drones are coming to a city near you. Why now? Under a fresh mandate from Congress, the FAA will begin to relax its restrictions around the domestic use of "unmanned aerial systems," leading to greater use of drones by public agencies and, eventually, the private sector. The FAA¿s primary concern is safety. But civil liberty groups are worried about what they see as a greater danger: the specter of massive surveillance.
  03.08.12

• U.S. Defense Chief to Israel: We'd Hit Iran Harder Than You
  03.08.12

• Don't Freak Out, But Iran Is Helping Venezuela Build Drones
  Iran is planning to build surveillance drones for the Venezuelan military. But don't expect an invasion of the machines led by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez quite yet.
  03.08.12