We can only confuse science and environmentalism when science happens to match their cultural agenda - ethanol, for example, was lousy science and the anti-science positions embraced by environmentalists to combat pollution were firmly in the anti-science camp; biology and the energy sector have terrific solutions available right now but if 'stop CO2' is instead a cult-like mantra, they can't be part of the policy discourse.

Nothing says celebrating athletic perfection like a McDonald's hamburger.

Actually, elite athletes likely can eat all the hamburgers they want but you get the idea - a McDonald's, nay the world's largest McDonald's, at the site dedicated to athletic excellence is pretty funny.

But Brits are nothing if not funny.  And so they get a 3,000-square-meter McDonald's restaurant,  on two floors and equivalent to half the length of an American football field. 

Olympic chiefs have moved quickly to reject claims that the new McDonald's will deter from aims to promote a healthy and active lifestyle, which London chiefs have been pushing since winning the Olympic bid.

Partisans on each side will claim some vast conspiracy in the debt ceiling debate - Republicans are bought by corporations and hate poor people because they want to lower their taxes, Democrats are bought by unions and hate poor people because they want to give them stuff for free - but it may be simpler than that.    Cooperation is in our nature but morality can undercut the tendency, writes Jason Castro in Scientific American, and game theory can tell us some things about why - at least academically.

It's impossible to imagine a science audience is not excited about "The Avengers".  Marvel, who throughout the 1980s and 1990s could do nothing right, has now taken great pains to do nothing wrong.   "Thor" should have been the hardest but it was darn good and only the twin Hulk efforts could be regarded as something of a misfire.

I wouldn't have picked Scarlett Johansson to be Black Widow (Hilary Swank, obviously) and yet another Hulk can be annoying, but you can tell by the audience reaction that this is going to be pretty sweet.

From digital archives, to religious studies, to national libraries, these university libraries from around the world have plenty of information for you. 

Here are a few samples and go to the link below for the comprehensive list:

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) as a secondary effect of a nuclear blast has been known for decades, but recently groups have started to talk about EMP concern in a primary attack.   With so many of today's communications systems based on electromagnetics and the semiconductor world that lives there, a terrorist attacked designed not to kill people but simply to explode and kill communications has gotten some press.

But how much of our communications system or the electrical grid would be impacted?   No one is sure, there are too many variables, but people still create some worst-case domino effect where all electricity is knocked out, food is gone and Sean Penn is patrolling the streets with a shotgun and contend we have to plan for it.

Zahi Hawass, long on self-aggrandizement and short on scientific knowledge, was everything that was wrong with the latest dictatorship in Egypt.

After months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, Hawass lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mubarak's regime.

If you miss french fries that aren't cooked in animal fat and wish pesky health mullahs would stop trying to ban things and get something productive done, there is hope for the future.  Science is out to make a better french fry, not just a healthier one that tastes like cardboard (we're also talking to you, Frito's).

Today, President Obama said 80 percent of the public supports Democrats' demand for tax increases.   "The American people are sold.  The problem is members of Congress are dug in ideologically."

Demanding to have less money sounds odd, because it is.   A new Rasmussen Reports national survey found only 34% thought tax hikes were a valid part of the solution.