Monday, November 28, 2005 SpaceX called off the much-delayed inaugural launch of their new Falcon 1 rocket on Saturday from Kwajalein’s Omelek Island launch site. The intent was to launch the U.S. Air Force Academy’s FalconSat 2 satellite, which will monitor plasma interactions with the Earth’s upper atmosphere and magnetosphere. The launch was delayed, then finally cancelled after an oxygen boil-off vent had accidentally been left open. The oxygen was unable to cool the helium…

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Treasury Department secretary Timothy Geithner and the Obama administration are pressuring Congress to allow the government to seize troubled financial institutions such as insurance companies and investment firms. Currently, banks are the only such entities that the government has authority to take over. Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, Geithner said “The United States government does not have the legal means today to manage the orderly restructuring of a large,…

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Wednesday, May 31, 2006 High Court proceedings have commenced with every Australian state challenging the legality of the Howard Government’s radical new industrial relations workplace reforms. Acting Employment Protection Minister John Kobelke said the new laws reduced the pay, employment conditions and job security of many Western Australian workers and their families. The minister said the proceedings challenged the validity of John Howard’s Work Choices legislation that came into effect on March 27, this year.…

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009THEMIS space probes discovered that the Northern lights are seen when electrical tornadoes, rotating faster than a million miles an hour, hover about 40,000 miles (60,000 km) above the earth. The energy spins down to the Earth’s ionosphere where the tornadoes become unstable, and interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. Professor Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, director of the Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics in Braunschweig Germany, explains, “When these space tornadoes reach the upper atmosphere…

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Monday, March 15, 2010 The NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation will experience a shake-up in its cast as Paul Schneider, a regular cast member with the critically acclaimed series, will depart at the end of this season. Officials with the show have also announced this month that Rob Lowe will make an extended guest appearance on the series, and Adam Scott will join as a regular cast member. Michael Schur, who co-created Parks and…

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Monday, September 7, 2015 The US economy added 173,000 jobs in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. The unemployment rate fell from 5.3 to 5.1 percent, the lowest since April 2008. Although August job gains were lower than most economists forecast, job growth numbers for June and July were revised upwards by a combined 44,000. Average job gains over the past three months stand at 221,000, compared to March-May’s 189,000 monthly average.…

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Saturday, September 10, 2011 A 182-page report issued September 1 by the United States National Research Council warns that the amount of debris in space is reaching “a tipping point”, and could cause damage to satellites or spacecraft. The report calls for regulations to reduce the amount of debris, and suggests that scientists increase research into methods to remove some of the debris from orbit, though it makes no recommendations about how to do so.…

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