http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091227.html

Three thousand light-years away,

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091226.html

M51 Hubble Remix

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091225.html

The graceful arc of the Milky Way

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/25/storycorps_national_social_history_project_records

We hear the voices of people, citizen and non-citizen, old and young telling their stories to each other. A grandmother tells her grandson about her own childhood. A young man proposes to his girlfriend. A soldier talks about his experience in war. A father remembers a loved one who passed away….All of these are stories told by ordinary Americans. Now, thousands of them are preserved forever–in sound.

Three years ago, award-winning radio producer Dave Isay created a national social history project called StoryCorps. It now has the potential to become one of the largest documentary oral history projects ever donated to the Library of Congress. [includes rush transcript]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091224.html

Gamma Cas and Friends

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5743.txt

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5741.txt

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5742.txt

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/24/gaza_freedom_march_planned_for_one

This weekend marks that one-year anniversary of the start of Israel’s three-week assault on the Gaza Strip that killed some 1,400 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis. To mark the occasion, a group of over nearly 1,400 individuals from over forty countries around the world are aiming to break the siege of Gaza and participate in a nonviolent march inside Gaza alongside thousands of Palestinians. We speak with Hedy Epstein, an eighty-five-year-old Holocaust survivor who is taking part in the march, and Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK and part of the coordinating committee of the Gaza Freedom March. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/24/the_nation__immigration_agents_holding

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is holding an untold number of people in secretively maintained detention facilities all over the United States. That’s according to an explosive report that’s the cover story of the latest issue of The Nation magazine. They also report that ICE agents regularly impersonate civilians and rely on other illegal tricks to arrest longtime US residents who have no criminal history. We speak with the author of the two-part investigation, Jacqueline Stevens. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/24/senate_passes_healthcare_overhaul_compromise_with

In a rare Christmas Eve session, the Senate passed its sweeping healthcare reform legislation this morning by a vote of 60 to 39, along party lines. The $871 billion Senate bill must now be reconciled with the House bill after Congress reconvenes in January. We speak with Trudy Lieberman, contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/24/headlines

• Senate Passes Healthcare Overhaul Bill
• Air Strike in Yemen Kills 30
• Obama: Disappointment over Climate Talks is Justified
• Goldman Sachs Faces Probe over Betting on Housing Market Crash
• AIG Executives Refuse to Return Bonuses
• UN Security Council Imposes Sanctions on Eritrea
• Energy Dept to Announce Billions in Nuclear Reactor Loan Guarantees
• New York City Calls for Ban on Gas Drilling in Upstate Watershed
• Chevron to Pay $45 Million in Gas Drilling Royalty Settlement
• Israeli Organ Harvesting Scandal Revealed
• West Bank Activist Arrested for Displaying Israeli Tear Gas Canisters
• Ecuador Revokes License for Indigenous Radio Station
• Crusading Sports Journalist Lester Rodney, 98, Dies

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091223.html

The Sun is a

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5729.txt

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5722.txt

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5546.txt

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/23/report_obama_ordered_us_military_strike

We take a look at Yemen, the latest target of US-backed military strikes against suspected al-Qaeda sites. ABC News reports that President Obama directly ordered two cruise missile attacks in Yemen last week. According to the New York Times, the United States gave Yemeni forces military hardware and intelligence to carry out the attack. We speak with Yemen expert, Towson University Professor Charles Schmitz. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/23/exclusive_environmental_activist_jeff_free_luers

In June 2001, Jeff “Free” Luers was sentenced to twenty-three years and eight months in prison. His crime? Setting fire to three vehicles in a car dealership to protest global warming. No one was hurt in the fire. In 2007, the Oregon Court of Appeals overturned Jeff’s sentence and reduced it to ten years. Last week, on December 16th, Jeff Luers walked out of prison a free man. In a Democracy Now! global broadcast exclusive, Jeff Luers speaks out in his first interview since his release. We also speak with his attorney, Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. [includes rush transcript]

http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/12/23/headlines

• Obama Claims He Didn't Campaign for Public Option
• Doctors Group Calls for Senate to Reject Healthcare Bill
• Swedish Environment Minister: Copenhagen Accord Was a “Disaster”
• Danish Police Release Two Journalists Held for Nine Days
• Report: US Won't Likely Close Guantanamo Until 2011
• CIA Ran Secret Prisons in Lithuania
• Report: ICE Runs Secret Immigrant Detention Sites in US
• Drug War Killing: Marine Hero's Family Killed in Mexico
• Kidnapped Colombian Governor Found Dead
• Officials Refuse to Release Autopsy of Muslim Imam Killed by FBI
• Congressional Study Clears ACORN of Violating Federal Regulations

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091222.html

How do planets form?