Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
You can’t make this stuff up! A vulture, tagged by Israeli scientists to study the bird’s migration patterns, flew into Saudi Arabia where it was arrested as a spy.
More progress: The House plans to vote Thursday on a five percent cut in office salaries and expenses.
A flightless prehistoric bird, about the size of a chicken and found only in Jamaica, used the blunt and thick bones at the end of its wings as a weapon against its rivals.
A Playboy topless calendar pin-up that went into lunar orbit on Apollo 12 is up for sale.
Another government-operated business that is losing money: Arianespace is requesting financial aid from the member nations of the European Space Agency to avoid a loss in 2010. This despite the fact that “the current request comes at a time when Arianespace might be expected to be in prime financial health.”
New research confirms that the Viking landers did find organics on Mars back in the 1970s. Listen also to the September 15, 2010 and September 23, 2010 radio interviews that John Batchelor and I did with Viking project scientist Gilbert Levin and Christopher McKay of the Ames Research Center on this very subject.
This is the kind of change I like: Firefox has become the number one browser in Europe, beating out Internet Explorer.
Repeal the damn bill! Obamacare ends the construction of 45 doctor-owned hospitals.
A clear danger to free speech.
Note that though I agree entirely with this New York Times op-ed, it is almost humorous how this partisan liberal newspaper only notices these threats to freedom when Republicans are in power.
NASA engineers are considering giving Discovery’s external tank the equivalent of a girdle in order to keep it from developing more cracks during launch. Key quote:
If that decision is made, it is unlikely NASA could complete the work, repair the tank’s foam insulation and get Discovery back out to the launch pad in time to support a launch attempt during the next available window, which opens Feb. 3 and closes Feb. 10. Work to beef up all 108 stringers at the top of the intertank almost certainly would delay Discovery’s launch on a space station resupply mission to the next available window, which opens Feb. 27 and closes in early March.
Start ’em young! A ten year old Canadian girl has become the youngest person to discover a supernova.
