What Do Astronauts Eat in Space?

You have a degree in astrophysics and you know how to fly a jet. You’ve endured years of preparation and training, logged thousands of hours of flight time and even survived NASA’s terrifying “vomit comet” weightlessness test. Now you’re up in space for the very first time, floating around the shuttle’s cabin, and as you look out of the window, you realize something: you’re hungry.

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Postcard: Ulan Bator

In the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, “Shoot the Chinese” is spray-painted on a brick wall near a movie theater. A pair of swastikas and the words “Killer Boys …! Danger!” can be read on a fence in an outlying neighborhood of yurt dwellings. Graffiti like this, which can be found all over the city, is the work of Mongolia’s neo-Nazis, an admittedly implausible but often intimidating, and occasionally violent, movement

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Copter crash kills 16 in Afghanistan, NATO says

A helicopter crashed during takeoff from Kandahar airfield in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 16 people, NATO said. The aircraft was a “civilian contracted” helicopter, not a military one, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. The helicopter was not shot down, ISAF said, adding that the exact cause of the crash was not known.

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Is Secretary Clinton being back-benched?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivers a major foreign policy speech and some Washington political observers ask: "Is she trying to get back in the spotlight?" Since she slipped and broke her elbow last month, the secretary has had to cancel an international trip, and some inside-the-Beltway types are reading the tea leaves. Is it another step in the process of keeping Secretary Clinton from the real foreign policy decision-making in the Obama administration “The Daily Beast’s” Tina Brown writes: “Left behind on major presidential trips, overruled in choosing her own staff — Hillary Clinton is the invisible woman at State.” “It’s time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa,” she said

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Plant explosion in China kills 1, injures 108

A chemical plant explosion early Wednesday in Luoyang, China, killed a factory worker and hospitalized 108 others, seven of them seriously, state-run media said. The U.S. Navy tailed a North Korean ship that was believed to have been carrying weapons bound for Myanmar.

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Wealthy arm their yachts with military-level security

The world’s richest people are spending millions arming their super-yachts with military-style technology and trained personnel to fight off potential attackers. The threat of pirates and growing fears that yachts may be their next target have led many owners to equip their vessels with the latest James Bond-like technology. Hidden chambers, escape pods, tracking devices and ex-marines employed as security guards have all risen in popularity

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Gas pipe deal aims to end Russia’s monopoly

Officials from six countries gathered Monday in Turkey and signed a deal to build a U.S.-backed pipeline, aimed at breaking Russia’s near-monopoly on natural gas supplies to Europe. The proposed Nabucco pipeline would run from Turkey’s eastern border, through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, to a key gas terminal in Baumgarten, Austria. Germany is also a partner in the deal, which is being signed in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

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