Here are several findings from polling of voters on the day of the Iowa caucuses that may — or may not – prove to be important as the GOP race moves on to New Hampshire and beyond.

Romney Gets 1% of ‘True Conservative’ Voters. A quarter of Iowa caucus voters said the most important candidate quality was that they be a ‘true conservative.’ Among these voters, just 1% supported Romney; 37% backed Paul and 36% supported Santorum.

Number of Late Deciders Spikes. Nearly half of Iowa caucus voters (46%) said they decided their vote on the day of the caucuses or in the days leading up to them. Four years ago, 30% said they decided on the day of the voting or in the three days before. Santorum won about a third of the votes from late deciders, more than any other candidate.

The Issue Divides. Just 13% said that abortion was the most important issue in choosing a candidate; these voters overwhelmingly backed Santorum. Far more Iowa caucus voters rated the economy (42%) and budget deficit (34%) as most important: The former group supported Romney, while deficit hawks supported Paul.

More Independents. Independents comprised nearly a quarter (23%) of GOP caucus voters, […]

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Residents of Leesburg, Florida were shocked to see their local Social Security office turned into a random Homeland Security checkpoint Tuesday morning, as DHS officers armed with semiautomatic rifles and accompanied by sniffer dogs checked identifications of locals.

‘With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building,

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Einstein’s theories of relativity suggest that gravity can cause time to slow down. Now scientists have demonstrated a way to stop time altogether-or at least, to give the appearance of time stopping by bending light to create a hole in time.

The new research builds on recent demonstrations of ‘invisibility cloaks’ that can make objects seem to disappear by bending waves of visible light.

The idea is that, if light moves around an object instead of striking it, that light doesn’t get scattered and reflected back to an observer, making the object essentially invisible.

Now Cornell University scientists have used a similar concept to create a hole in time, albeit a very short one: The effect lasts around 40 trillionths of a second.

‘Imagine that you could divert light in time-slow it down, speed it up-so that you create a gap in the light beam in time,’ said study co-author and Cornell physicist Alex Gaeta.

‘In this case, any event that occurs at that instant of time won’t lead to scattering of light. It appears as if the event never occurred.’

For example, Gaeta said, think of laser beams crisscrossing a museum display to protect priceless works of art.

‘You have a laser beam and a detector […]

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Some pack a bit of revolution in their bags when they come home. Others are making a getaway from the economic crisis abroad. Many want to contribute to Rio de Janeiro with something they learned elsewhere.

‘Our journey began three years ago, when [we] began to imagine a different Rio de Janeiro, where the voices of all citizens would be respected and heard during the decision-making processses that define the city’s future,

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At the National Arboretum, the white petals of snowdrops - normally an early spring flower - have unfurled. In Maine’s Acadia National Park, lakes still have patches of open water instead of being frozen solid. And in Donna Izlar’s back yard in downtown Atlanta, the apricot tree has started blooming.

It’s not in your imagination. The unusually mild temperatures across several regions of the country in the past few months are disrupting the natural cycles that define the winter landscape.

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