Many Feds Face Furloughs Twice
Lawmakers Push Retroactive Furlough Pay
How Long Has the Shutdown Lasted?
In Focus: Who Faces Furloughs?
No TSP Contributions During a Shutdown
How Contractors Might Weather a Shutdown
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Dear NASA, Happy Birthday! To Celebrate, We're Shutting You Down. Love, Congress
9:47 AM ET
FROM NEXTGOV
October 1 is our nation's space agency's 55th birthday. To celebrate, NASA employees can, well, do whatever they want, just as long as they don't do their jobs. NASA, as President Obama put it in his afternoon remarks, is shutting "down almost entirely" after a faction of congressional Republicans succeeded ...
Scientist Recalls Winning 1971 Voyager 1-Related Contract by Telegram
September 16, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Last Thursday, NASA made a historic announcement: Voyager 1, "the little spacecraft that could," became the first ambassador of human civilization to exit the bubble around our sun and enter interstellar space. Even though the spacecraft is 11.6 billion miles away, and could have no possible impact on my day-to-day ...
Video: What Is Reddit?
September 11, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
How many times have I found myself at a family dinner or out with friends trying to explain Reddit? More than I care to count, and though I've over time honed my description, I can tell I'm not doing a great job. "Well, anyone can submit a link, or just ...
Your Heartbeat: The Ultimate in Password Protection?
September 4, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Nearly all of computer security boils down to one question: How can a device know that you are you? Passwords are the most basic tactic for confirming your identity. If you can come up with your secret string of numbers and letters, you must be you. But everyone knows that ...
A Database of 3D Fossils, Ready for You to Explore and Print
August 27, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Fossils are a marvel to behold. Coils of shell, lines of bone, spreading branches of a plant -- these are the records of the lives that once graced our planet, a reminder that our moment is not only the present alone, but an accretion of the years before it. Beyond ...
3D Printing Goes Mainstream Retail
August 21, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
About a month ago, a UPS store in eastern San Diego started offering a new service: 3D printing. Six weeks ago, store owner Burke Jones says, "I didn't know anything about 3D printing." "I'd love to take credit for the idea because it's been really successful, but the truth is ...
Making Prison Phone Calls Cheaper: Why It Matters
August 19, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Earlier this month, the three current members of the Federal Communications Commission voted on a question that had gone unanswered for a decade: How much should prisoners and their families have to pay to talk on the phone with each other? By a 2-to-1 vote, the commission decided to move ...
What Does It Really Matter If Companies Are Tracking Us Online?
August 16, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Say you, like me, went to bed a little early last night. And when you woke up this morning, you decided to catch the episode of the Daily Show that you missed. So you pointed your browser over to thedailyshow.com, and there, as you expected, is John Oliver. But there's ...
Finally, Prisoners and Their Families Won't Have to Pay Crazy Phone Rates
August 13, 2013 Every year, 700,000 people walk through the doors of a correctional facility, back into a society that they left months or years ago. Who is waiting for them on the other side? When was the last time they spoke? Fans of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black know ...
NASA's Newest Space Telescope Sends Back Its First Images of the Sun, and They're Gorgeous
July 26, 2013
FROM NEXTGOV
Last month, NASA launched a new telescope, known as IRIS, into space to study the sun. Today we got our first glimpse of what IRIS is seeing, and ... wow. Even NASA's press release bubbled with excitement: The moment when a telescope first opens its doors represents the culmination of ...
