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POPSMasten Space Systems XA0 October 7, 2009 - Masten Space Systems flew their XA01B-750 rocket vehicle in the Northrop-Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, level one. Both Flights were successful meeting the required flight profiles and time conditions. They're now in a position to claim the second prize award of $150, 000. First prize was awarded in 2008 to Armadillo Aerospace (i.e. Valve -- the company that brought you Doom). Two other teams are scheduled to compete in the competition window that ends on October 31, 2009.
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POPSArmy Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba says Bush & Rumsfeld knew about Abu Ghraib torture There was a lot of speculation as to whether or not the President and Rumsfeld were aware of the extent of the conditions at Abu Ghraib, but the discussion never seemed to go anywhere. This reopens the topic for discussion and I'd say it damn near concludes the issue in its indictment of Rumsfeld. At best, Taguba said, "Rumsfeld was in denial ... The photographs were available to him -- if he wanted to see them."
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POPSWith this Lifestyle I Fell in Love I don't know how many people here at Clipmarks have spoken with, and or possibly helped, the homeless, but I find it surprisingly common how many drug-addicts, homeless and otherwise "broken people" recognize their tragic state and are capable of putting it in such a way that you can't help but be ... moved. This individual is such a person. A person who is trapped not by his social status, or even by the drugs he's addicted to, but by the choice he makes every day to continue his personal downward spiral. Saying anything else will only take away from this, so please, watch the video. It speaks to everyone.
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POPSWhy do the Islamo-fascists hate us? Therefore, the argument goes, the chants of “Death to Israel. Death to America” from hundreds of thousands of Shiites marching in Baghdad last week had nothing to do with U.S. foreign policy but were motivated instead by hatred for American principles and lifestyles. This article cuts right to the chase & clearly draws the line between liberal & neo-conservative thinking. It reminds me of the Bush-Kerry debate in '04 when Jim asked, "What criteria would you use to determine when to starting bringing US troops home from Iraq? BUSH: ... ... A free Iraq will be an ally in the war on terror, & that's essential. A free Iraq will set a powerful example in the part of the world that is desperate for freedom. A free Iraq will help secure Israel. A free Iraq will enforce the hopes & aspirations of the reformers in places like Iran. A free Iraq is essential for the security of this country.
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POPSRice: "We can't give them a united Iraq" If the administration is now conceding that we can't unite Iraq - what the hell are we still doing there? Playing a minor support role? If this is a minor support role why have we committed all our troops? Why are we breaking the bank for a region we now admit we can't stabilize? If our benchmarks show that we're not succeeding, isn't that an admission that the challenges we face today are not how to win in Iraq, but rather how to recover from the strategic mistake of invading Iraq in the first place? Maybe someone should sit Bush down and explain the law of diminishing returns.
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POPSInsider trading allegations against President Bush
The SEC investigation ended in 1992 with a memo stating "it appears that Bush did not engage in illegal insider trading," but noted it "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result." Critics contended the SEC's makeup may have influenced the conclusions, although no evidence of impropriety has been found. The chairman at the time was Richard Breeden, a friend of the Bush family who had been nominated to the SEC by George H. W. Bush & had been a lawyer in James Baker's firm, Baker Botts. The SEC's general counsel at the time was James Doty, who would represent George W. Bush 9 months after he sought to buy into the Texas Rangers. Bush's own lawyer was Robert Jordan, who had been "partners with both Doty & Breeden at Baker Botts & who later became George W. Bush's ambassador to Saudi Arabia." As President, Bush has refused to authorize the SEC to release its full report on the Harken investigation.
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POPSThe Head of Alberto Gonzales What's interesting isn't that Gonzales was involved in firing eight US Attorneys, but rather that at the time, The Attorney General plan to appoint interim replacements and potentially avoid Senate confirmation by leaving an interim U.S. Attorney in place for the remainder of the Bush administration. How this happen? The Department sought and essentially was given new authority under a little known provision in the PATRIOT Act Reauthorization to appoint interim appointments who not subject to Senate confirmation and who could remain in place for the remainder of the Bush administration. ( 1 ) As much as I hate to admit it Limbaugh is right. This is a political fishing expedition, yet at the same time if this is what it takes to hold the Bush Administration accountable for its actions - so be it.
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POPSWal-mart spying on employees The quote that jumped out at me: "We operate for the benefit of our shareholders to make sure this company is being appropriately and ethically run ." I'm not sure following people to the far corners of the globe to spy on their personal dealings is what I'd call ethical - that amongst other grievances like union busting , lowering basic standard of living , inequality in the work place , and destroying local economies & small businesses .
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POPSPS3 Supercomputing cluster 4x faster than IBM's BlueGene/L The article goes a little further and says, A standard PC working alone would take a day to simulate 1 billionth of a second of protein folding. But scientists believe that 10,000 idle PS3s can be four times faster than IBM's BlueGene/L System, which cranks out 280.6 trillion calculations per second.
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POPS80-Year-Old Indian Math Mystery Solved A few months into 2007 and already another long-standing mathematical mystery has been more-or-less put to rest. It will be hard to top Perelman's stunning proof of the legendary Poincaré Conjecture from last year, but in math and science, you never know when the next breakthrough will come. (If you haven't already, read up on some of the incredible anecdotes about the life of the Indian genius, Ramanujan. He was truly one of a kind.)
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POPSCIA suggests project Blue Book was a PR cover The early U-2s were silver (they were later painted black) & reflected the rays from the sun, especially at sunrise and sunset. They often appeared as fiery objects to observers below. Air Force BLUE BOOK investigators aware of the secret U-2 flights tried to explain away such sightings by linking them to natural phenomena such as ice crystals and temperature inversions. ( source ).
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POPSMake Congress read the laws it passes! Slashdot has some inventive ideas to add to the pot: * "An article in Slate talks about the sneaky way a major change in the Patriot Act reauthorization bill was made by (possibly) a Congressional staffer without even his boss knowing about it. Now, I write software for a large and complex system containing millions of lines of code and I know that nobody could slip a single line of code into my project without my knowledge. This is because everything that goes into the build goes into a source control system, and email notification is generated to interested parties. Shouldn't the same process be applied to bills being debated in national legislatures that affect potentially hundreds of millions of people?"
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POPSDid CIA Deputy Dir. McLaughlin hide details about US intelligence? This paints an interesting picture of John McLaughlin. According to this article there's email correspondence and corroborating testimony from other CIA officials confirming Drumheller spoke with McLaughlin about Curveball before Colin Powell's UN speech. This means there's a high probability McLaughlin was aware the information being presented was false. The question is who else knew? The only way we're going to find out is if there's a hearing and McLaughlin is subpoenaed before a court. Email / fax / phone your representatives and ask them to launch an investigation! http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
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