NASA OKs Private Spacecraft To Dock With Space Station In December 2011

Dvice reports –

For the first time, a private, commercial spacecraft will launch into Earth orbit and autonomously dock with the International Space Station. Lumbering governments beware: private industry is taking over your space turf. SpaceX has been working on its Dragon space capsule for six or seven years now, and after a successful launch, orbital insertion, deorbit, and landing back in December, NASA has decided that Dragon is fit to meet up with the ISS. The mission will launch on November 30, and if all goes well, the ISS docking will take place nine days later. While the Dragon capsule is human rated (and was intended from the beginning to carry up to seven humans), this first ISS rendezvous is going to be unmanned, and Dragon will carry a cargo of, uh, cargo. Mostly Tang, I bet.

Continue reading HERE  or  HERE (SpaceX site).

 

Negro Bar State Park Is A Real Place

Negro Bar State Park is located in California, near Sacramento.

According to mental_floss – Negro Bar is a historical site, but not the segregated tavern it sounds like. It was a tiny mining camp that sprung up during the Gold Rush of 1849, situated on a sand bar, near mines first worked by a few African-American miners. Those first miners moved on to better gold fields by 1852, and new miners of various origins moved in. But the name remained.

Read more on mental_floss     – or HERE.

21 Surprising Common Misconceptions

BuzzFeed presents a very interesting list of common misconceptions. I found several of them thought provoking, such as – #1. There’s No Evidence That Vikings Had Horns On Their Helmets, or, #17. Sugar Does Not Cause Hyperactivity In Children. The list cites no sources for the assertions – a serious shortcoming – I don’t have the time to do the research.

Read the entire list HERE.

 

 

 

The Saddest Little Museum Ever [pics]

Pirogovo Museum in Kiev. The museum was founded on the outskirts of Kiev in 1976. Its territory is divided into sectors for temporary and territorial principles. The exhibits presented in the “Pirogovo” acquaint visitors with the architecture of Ukrainian villages, peasant life and folk art of the Ukrainians. Many homes on life in those years, and in some souvenir shops are open.

Visit the sad little museum HERE.

 

Henry’s Anytime Chili for One [video]

Hypersonic Plane Lost On Test Flight

The LA Times reports –

A test flight of an experimental aircraft capable of speeding through air at 20 times the speed of sound ended prematurely Thursday morning when the arrowhead-shaped plane failed and stopped sending back real-time data to engineers and scientists who were moderating the mission. In the test flight, the aircraft, known as the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, was launched at 7:45 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base, located northwest of Santa Barbara, into the upper reaches of  Earth’s  atmosphere aboard an eight-story Minotaur IV rocket, made by Orbital Sciences Corp. The plan was for the Falcon to speed westward for 30 minutes before plunging into the ocean near Kwajalein Atoll, about 4,000 miles from Vandenberg. But about 20 minutes into the mission, the Pentagon’s research arm, known as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced on its Twitter account that: “Range assets have lost telemetry.” It sounds eerily similar to the problems that plagued the Falcon’s first flight, which took place in April 2010. That test flight ended prematurely with only nine minutes of flight time. Engineers went back to the drawing board and were believed to have had things ironed out.

Continue reading HERE.

 

How Wall Street Really Works – Dilbert [pic]

supersize it

original

Religious People Are Nerds [video]

CollegeHumor has a very un-CollegeHumor-y video about how extremely religious people are the same as nerds because nerds are essentially people who are extremely into stuff.

Watch the video on BuzzFeed.

 

China Investigates Pills Made From Dead Babies – Chinese Viagra?

ChinaDaily reports –

BEIJING / CHANGCHUN – The Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that it has launched an investigation in the wake of a media report in South Korea about capsules from China – made from the flesh of dead babies – being used as stamina boosters. Deng Haihua, spokesman of the ministry, said on Tuesday that the ministry has instructed its provincial agency in Jilin to look into the case. Deng said China has strict management of disposal of infant and fetal remains as well as placentas. “Any practice that handles the remains as medical waste is strictly prohibited,” Deng said. According to the country’s regulations, medical institutions and their staff are prohibited from trading corpses. The Global Times reported on Monday that SBS, one of the three major national television networks in South Korea, broadcast a documentary on Aug 6 about the appearance of capsules from China containing dead baby flesh. According to the report, the TV program warned that some of the capsules were taken by Koreans. The television team claimed to have been to China, found the hospital that sold the materials, and taken video of the manufacturing process. It quoted insiders saying the “tonic” capsules are mainly sent to South Korea through members of the Korean ethnic group in China.

Continue reading HERE.

 

This Site Must Be Legitimate – WinLottoGuaranteed.com

I think that tip #2 is all anyone needs in order to win the lotto. Remember, just pick the right numbers.

Still need more help? – visit WinLottoGuaranteed.com

 

 

10 Immutable Laws Of Mistakes

TechRepublic presents an excellent article that outlines mistakes and how they apply in the tech industry. These 10 laws are so universal that they apply to virtually any job and life in general.

Read the article HERE.

 

 

Before We Had The Internet… [video]