• Challenges loom as Obama seeks space weapons ban

“There’s still a lot of wiggle room” in the administration’s statement on military space, said analyst Victoria Samson with the private Center for Defense Information. “But just the sheer fact that they are discussing it represents a real shift from the Bush administration.”

• Lunar Camera More Sensitive Than Expected
• Russia: No more space tourists after 2009

This might actually be good news for the law and order crowd, although supporters of human rights won’t be so happy:

• Ethiopia withdraws last troops from Somalia
• Islamists seize Somali MPs’ base

The usual post-soviet geekery:

• Nato has ‘no will’ to admit Georgia or Ukraine
• Russia plans base in Georgia rebel region:report
• (Kosovo) B92: Situation in northern Mitrovica calm after blasts

And finally, you know I can’t resist a good crime story, especially when it makes the police look like idiots:

• 14-year-old boy impersonates cop, police say

The boy, who has been charged as a juvenile for impersonating an officer, walked into the Grand Crossing District station, 7040 S. Cottage Grove Ave., dressed in a Chicago police uniform, police spokeswoman Monique Bond said. The boy, who reported for duty about 1:30 p.m., partnered with another police officer for about five hours.

The boy identified himself as an officer from another district but was detailed for the day to Grand Crossing and also was savvy enough to sign out a police radio and a ticket book, according to a source. The source also said the boy went on traffic stops with the officer he went on the street with.

Germany mulls use of navy to protect ships against piracy
MPD to put 3 antiwhaling activists on Interpol list

Canada asserting its title as keeper of the Passage
Record number of cruise ships in Canadian Arctic this summer
Arctic ambitions: Development chill
Report finds coal burning has polluted Arctic but figures surprise
Warming climate threatens Alaska’s vast forests

Obama Suggests $2 Billion In New Funding for NASA
McCain says he’s the one to keep US in space
McCain told to extend shuttle and accelerate Constellation
Panel Wants Massive Milspace Reshuffling

Algae: Biofuel Of The Future?

However, of all things, the MarsPhoenix Twitter feed commented on this issue overnight: “Heard about the recent news reports implying I may have found Martian life. Those reports are incorrect” and “Reports claiming there was a White House briefing are also untrue and incorrect.”

NASA Brings Total Eclipse of the Sun to the Masses
Mostly an excuse for me to show you this, an older NASA picture (from here) of a solar eclipse on earth seen from space:

SpaceX suffers third rocket launch failure
Falcon Launch Video and Message from Elon Musk

After earlier offering to pay for other programs by delaying the return to human spaceflight by five years, Obama is now saying we need to push ahead and fully fund NASA today. At the same time, the Florida Dems are hitting McCain for his space policy. It’s good political sense in the fight for Florida’s electoral votes, where the margins are so thin that every little constituency counts. And the space industry is by no means little in Florida. Curious to see if it’s also going to fit into a larger plan to put Texas in play this year.
Obama Reverses Campaign Stance on Constellation Cuts
Florida Democratic Party: McCain’s Low Road on NASA

U.S. Iran stand threatens space station

A little-known law intended to prevent the sale of nuclear technology to Iran would also bar NASA from buying Russian Soyuz spacecraft after 2011. With the space shuttle slated to retire in 2010 and its replacement not scheduled to fly before 2015, the agency would have no way to send astronauts to the space station.

Infrastructure needed for future space exploration

NASA plans to cut 200 jobs in New Orleans

Meet Colonel Buck, Our New Space Wing Commander

“We have water,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. “We’ve seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted.”

Mars Express acquires sharpest images of martian moon Phobos

Liquid flowing on surface of Saturn moon: NASA

Space a Potential Fracture Line at Democratic National Convention?
And if politics is the authoritative allocation of values, this is totally a political question: why does the Air Force get all the cool toys?
US airforce to launch robotic Space Shuttle 2.0 this year

Just why the Air Force thinks it needs orbital landers isn’t clear, but such craft could be one option for America’s desired “prompt global reach” capability. Rather than using hypersonic airbreathers ripping through the atmosphere to reach a target, the US forces might choose to send payloads still faster, through the vacuum of low orbit. Future orbiters derived from the X-37 might deliver warheads, spy packages or even troops to far-flung theatres within hours of getting the go order, although they’d never be able to get back again.

The Shape of Space To Come

And of course… OMG ALIENS!!1!

NASA expert claims to have seen ET from UFO standing in Shuttle payload bay during space flight.

I, Clark C. McClelland, former ScO, Space Shuttle Fleet, personally observed an 8 to 9 foot tall ET on his 27 inch video monitors while on duty in the Kennedy Space Center, Launch Control Center (LCC). The ET was standing upright in the Space Shuttle Payload Bay having a discussion with TWO tethered US NASA Astronauts! I also observed on my monitors, the spacecraft of the ET as it was in a stabilized, safe orbit to the rear of the Space Shuttle main engine pods.
…
NASA is not a CIVILIAN SPACE AGENCY! The Pentagon owns NASA! Some of the DoD (Department of Defense) missions I participated in were TOP SECRET! Those missions carried TS Satellites and other space mission hardware into orbit where several crews met with ETs! I am ready to tell my story, but, for compensation,

VIDEO: UFOs over Worthing
Second Video of Topanga Canyon – Los Angeles UFO Emerges!

Launching in place of the NASA missions on an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., will be a classified DOD spacecraft, sources say. That mission will go in the November time frame originally targeted for LRO/LCROSS.

Pirates seize five Russians

Jeremy Scahill:
Media Goof Again: Blackwater Isn’t Going Anywhere

Brzezinski Warns of Afghanistan Offensive

Kosovo wants talks with Serbia; Belgrade says ‘no’

U.S. wants Georgia, Abkhazia talks without preconditions
Georgia: Conflict mediation faces hurdles
GEORGIA: OSCE ENVOY PUSHES FOR MOVEMENT IN SOUTH OSSETIA PEACE PROCESS
And finally, roadside bombs are a new development in South Ossetia:
Deadly bomb blasts rock S Ossetia

I had a story the other day about the Sea Shepherd Society declaring the start of their next Antarctic whaling campaign. Here’s a blog from one of the crew:
Blog of a Vegan Pirate, Post 1: Operation Migaloo

Judges cite nonsense poem in Guantanamo case

A federal appeals court reviewing evidence at Guantanamo Bay compared a Bush administration legal argument to one made by a hapless, dimwitted character in a 19th century nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.

BBC News says it this way:
France plans revolution in space
Financial Times says it like this:
Paris calls for military angle to space strategy

FBI to descend on Denver for Dem event

“We don’t have any information right now about any credible threat to the convention on a terrorist level.”

Notes from the decline:
Midwest floods spotlight decrepit infrastructure
Weather Risks Cloud Promise of Biofuel

And finally, duh…
Study finds long benefit in illegal mushroom drug

She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open.

But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day.

“I feel more centered in who I am and what I’m doing,” said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. “I don’t seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected.”

Satellites Or UFOS Over San Jose?
Romantic Marriage Proposal Sparks UFO Scare
Fighter jet hits UFO

I guess there’s some real news today too….

Why is McCain getting $58,000 a year in disability income?

Guantanamo inmates suffering mental damage: report
Curious that reporting on Gitmo has to come out of Berlin.

Nigerian navy clashes with pirates or insurgents or someone:
4 soldiers injured as militants, JTF clash

Phoenix gets shake-up after failing test
(India) Now, space cell to keep an eye on China’s plans
Astronauts Float in Largest Space Jam Ever