NASA technology (9)

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Dragon’s Crew Accommodations

NASA – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has finished an important evaluation of a prototype Dragon spacecraft designed to carry people into orbit. This key milestone is part of SpaceX’s partnership with NASA under a funded Space Act Agreement to advance the design of crew transportation vehicles.

The primary goal of the tests was to determine whether the layout will allow astronauts to maneuver effectively in the vehicle. Several veteran space shuttle astronauts and NASA engineers conducted the evaluation during a pair of two-day-long reviews.

On top, from left, are NASA Crew Survival Engineering Team Lead Dustin Gohmert, NASA astronauts Tony Antonelli and Eric Boe, and SpaceX Mission Operations Engineer Laura Crabtree. On bottom, from left, are SpaceX Thermal Engineer Brenda Hernandez and NASA astronauts Rex Walheim and Tim Kopra. Image Credit: SpaceX

Romney opens new front vs Obama: schools are failing

By Sam Youngman and Laura MacInnis – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney opened a new front on Wednesday (May 23, 2012) in his fight against President Barack Obama, accusing him of presiding over a failing U.S. education system in the grip of union bosses who refuse to accept reforms.

Meanwhile, at a series of fundraisers , Obama kept hitting at his opponent’s record as a job-cutting private equity executive – a prime target for his re-election campaign – and touted his own economic plans to “move the country forward.”

Romney made more money and more access to charter schools the centerpiece of his platform, but he launched a strong attack on teachers’ unions. “The teachers’ unions are the clearest example of a group that has lost its way,” Romney said. more> http://tinyurl.com/c52je9p

The Future Of Greece And The Euro

old currency (Photo credit: the queen of subtle)

By William T. Dickens and Stephen J. Rose – After so many intra-European wars, political leaders after World War II created a series of institutions that bound the major countries to each other. That effort reached its pinnacle in the 1990s with the formation of the European Union (EU) and the establishment of the European Monetary Union (EMU) with its common currency the Euro. The EU established common standards, free movement of goods and people across European borders, and subsidies to less developed economies. The establishment of the Euro as the common currency made trade simpler.

The system worked well until the world-wide financial collapse of 2008. more> http://tinyurl.com/cqoya67

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• A new era of fiscal responsibility: the free lunch is finished | John Bolton (guardian.co.uk)
• What could happen if Greece exits the Eurozone (torfx.com)
• Bilderberg Scheme To Save The Euro (synoesyevrou.wordpress.com)

Creation of gamma optics refutes physics assumption

R&D Mag – Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have opened up a new chapter in optics: in experiments with gamma rays at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble they have proven that these extremely high-energy electromagnetic waves can be focused by lenses like conventional light – the researchers have thus refuted a fundamental assumption of theoretical physics that had been valid for decades.

Until now, physicists had assumed that electromagnetic radiation with far greater energy than that in the visible spectrum could not be diffracted with lenses. When Dietrich Habs, professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and Fellow of the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, and his team were making their measurements at the ILL they discovered that this also applies to the even higher energy gamma-rays—after X-ray optics, the era of gamma optics is now beginning. more> http://tinyurl.com/ck6xpym

Related articles

• Gamma-Ray Bending Opens New Door for Optics (news.sciencemag.org)
• Gamma ray optics: A viable tool for a new branch of scientific discovery (phys.org)

Line-item veto bill hits Senate wall

Cantor and other House and Senate leaders meeting with President Barack Obama in November 2010.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Molly K. Hooper – The House-passed line-item veto bill, which has been endorsed by the White House, is on life support in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

More than four months after the House approved the measure, co-sponsored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the Senate hasn’t touched it.

Both House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) voted for the bill that passed the lower chamber 254-173. The White House said it “strongly supports” that measure. more> http://tinyurl.com/d56542j

Related articles

• Bipartisan Line Item Veto Bill Passed by the House, Stalled by Harry Reid (gds44.wordpress.com)
• Line-item surrender (bangordailynews.com)