[Link: www.wired.com...]

Update: You can see a video of SpaceX's successful berthing with the International Space Station above and several still images after the text below.

Tune in May 24 at 11 p.m. PDT (7 a.m. GMT) to see a live feed of SpaceX taking its next historic step: a rendezvous with the International Space Station.

In recent days, SpaceX's Dragon capsule has performed some interesting orbital ballet around the station, coming within a few miles, backing away, and then coming in close again. Dragon is expected to come to its closest approach, just 32 feet from the ISS, which will be its final hold position, known as a capture point.

For more details see the Dragon X web site.

[Link: www.wired.com...]

The Navy's ambitious renewable energy plans aren't sunk quite yet. But they took a major hit Thursday, when the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to all-but-ban the military from buying alternative fuels.

Like their counterparts in the House, senators prohibited the Pentagon from buying renewable fuels that are more expensive than traditional ones -- a standard that biofuels many never meet. In addition, the committee blocked the Defense Department from helping build biofuel refineries unless "specifically authorized by law" - just as the Navy was set to pour $170 million into an effort with the Departments of Energy and Agriculture to do precisely that.

The measures -- amendments to the Pentagon's budget for next year -- were pushed by two Republicans. Sen. James Inhofe has long been one of the Republican's fiercest critics of renewable energy efforts; Sen. John McCain has in recent years turned away from long-held eco-friendly positions.

"Adopting a 'green agenda' for national defense of course is a terrible misplacement of priorities," McCain told National Journal Daily on Tuesday, calling it "a clear indication that the president doesn't understand national security."

[Link: www.cnn.com...]

(CNN) -- Iranian sailors helped scare off armed pirates who attacked an American cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian state media reported Thursday.

Iran detains 13 alleged pirates after clash

It's the latest example of U.S.-Iranian cooperation on pirate-infested high seas despite a wave of tensions between Washington and Tehran over the decades.

EU forces attack pirate targets on Somali shore

The incident occurred northeast of Fujairah, a port for refueling oil tankers, the Fars News Agency said. The port, in the United Arab Emirates, is close to the Strait of Hormuz, an important oil shipping lane.

[Link: www.petapixel.com...]

Chinese government officials never seem to learn. If you've been following us for a while, you may remember the Chinese government's Photoshop fail from last year, where three officials were supposedly inspecting a road, but instead looked more like they were floating above it. And on May 9th five more government inspectors were immortalized floating around, this time inspecting a park.

The horribly 'shopped photo quickly went viral among Chinese netizens, and a week later the government website issued the following apology:

May 9th, my company submitted the news manuscript of the "Completion and Transfer of the Green Landscaping Project of Nanhu Beach Park" to the Yuhang District Government Portal Website, along with photographs of technicians on location conducting inspections. Due to unsuitable work processes, there were serious mistakes in the uploaded photograph. With regards to the errors of our work, we deeply express our apologies: We sincerely accept the criticizes of the netizen masses, and wholeheartedly appreciate the concern netizens have given us.

[Link: www.wired.com...]

Did you hear the one about the New York state lawmakers who forgot about the First Amendment in the name of combating cyberbullying and "baseless political attacks"?

Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites, such as blogs and newspapers, to "remove any comments posted on his or her website by an anonymous poster unless such anonymous poster agrees to attach his or her name to the post."

No votes on the measures have been taken. But unless the First Amendment is repealed, they stand no chance of surviving any constitutional scrutiny even if they were approved.

Republican Assemblyman Jim Conte said the legislation would cut down on "mean-spirited and baseless political attacks" and "turns the spotlight on cyberbullies by forcing them to reveal their identity."

Had the internet been around in the late 1700s, perhaps the anonymously written Federalist Papers would have to be taken down unless Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay revealed themselves.

"This statute would essentially destroy the ability to speak anonymously online on sites in New York," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney with the Center for Democracy and Technology. He added that the legislation provides a "heckler's veto to anybody who disagrees with or doesn't like what an anonymous poster said."

Sen. Thomas O'Mara, a Republican who is also sponsoring the measure, said it would "help lend some accountability to the internet age."

[Link: www.wired.com...]

Yesterday, Sunday 20, 2012 Copenhagen Suborbitals successfully test fired the largest amateur-built bi-liquid rocket engine in the world. In short, the TM65 engine fired for about 30 seconds and was still standing after the test with almost no trace from the magical transformation of 700 liters of propellant turned into pure power.

The event was not only another technological cornerstone for our suborbital space organization but also a living proof of a perfect cooperation between Copenhagen Suborbitals crew members, our support organization (CSS), spectators and additional assistance by friends and allies. This is done from pure heart of the mission and hand build from scratch. No payment, no commercial interest and no holding back information.

We were certainly blessed by a beautiful and hot summer day with a blue sky and the vapor fumes from liquid oxygen (LOX) has never looked more stunning.

The TM65 engine runs on alcohol and LOX and the alcohol was fueled the night before the test. On the day of the test we began around 10 a.m. and soon everyone began to perform whatever tasks they were assigned to. Setting up crowd and safety perimeters, kilometers of power and data cables, photo and video equipment, water sound suppression system, PA equipment, live streaming studio, spectator entrance, food areas and tools for the operation and check out of engine TM65.

Note what the Police had to say, I for one believe the Police. How it is they had to rush through a crowd like that is worth knowing if we can find out.

Another angle

[Link: www.cnn.com...]

Washington (CNN) -- When presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appears before Latino small-business owners in Washington on Wednesday, he'll address a group whose explosive birth rates foreshadow a seismic political shift in GOP strongholds in the Deep South and Southwest.

"The Republicans' problem is their voters are white, aging and dying off," said David Bositis, a senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, who studies minority political engagement.

"There will come a time when they suffer catastrophic losses with the realization of the population changes."

Over the next several generations, the wave of minority voters -- who, according to U.S. Census figures released this week, now represent more than half of the nation's population born in the past year -- will become more of a power base in places like Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. That hold will extend across the Southwest all the way to California, experts say.

[Link: www.mtu.edu...]

Professor Yun Hang Hu's research team developed a heat-releasing reaction between carbon dioxide and Li3N that forms two chemicals: amorphous carbon nitride (C3N4), a semiconductor; and lithium cyanamide (Li2CN2), a precursor to fertilizers.

"The reaction converts CO2 to a solid material," said Hu. "That would be good even if it weren't useful, but it is."

And how much energy does it release? Plenty. Hu's team added carbon dioxide to less than a gram of Li3N at 330 degrees Celsius, and the surrounding temperature jumped almost immediately to about 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit, about the temperature of lava exiting a volcano.

Hu's work is funded by the National Science Foundation and detailed in the article "Fast and Exothermic Reaction of CO2 and Li3N into C-N-Containing Solid Materials," authored by Hu and graduate student Yan Huo and published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry.