In just over a day, a powerful computer program accomplished a feat that took physicists centuries to complete: extrapolating the laws of motion from a pendulum's swings.

Computer Program Self-Discovers Laws of Physics | Wired Science from Wired.com

Let's take something of a 30,000-foot view on the condition of General Motors. The chart below details GM's operating margin -- its profits divided into its revenues -- over the past 50 years:

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: GM's Problems are 50 Years in the Making

"Backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle
Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation.

Brilliant photo, see also this video

More Stunning Imagery - A Backlit Space Station | NASA Watch

Professor Charles Nesson of Harvard Law School, the attorney for Joel Tenenbaum, has filed a motion to dismiss (here's the memorandum of law [PDF] in support of the motion) on behalf of his client, the defendant in SONY BMG Music v Tenenbaum. I thought you would find it interesting because he argues that statutory damages for noncommercial defendants under copyright law are unconstitutional, unreasonable, and way out of proportion to any alleged injury to the plaintiffs here, which at most is, he argues, de minimis:

Groklaw - Tenenbaum: Are Copyright Law's Statutory Damages Unconstitutional for NonCommercial File Sharers?

I.B.M. is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems in a proposed deal valued at nearly $7 billion, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said on Wednesday.

I.B.M. Said to Be in Talks to Buy Sun for $7 Billion - NYTimes.com

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon: Pope Benedict XVI said before he landed here Tuesday, on his first leg of a trip to Africa, that condoms were not the answer in the continent's fight against H.I.V., his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even the clergy who work with AIDS patients.

Benedict won't yield on anti-condom view - International Herald Tribune

But now, like Bush before him, Obama is playing the national security card to hide details of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement being negotiated across the globe.

The White House this week declared (.pdf) the text of the proposed treaty a "properly classified" national security secret, in rejecting a Freedom of Information Act request by Knowledge Ecology International.

Obama Administration Declares Proposed IP Treaty a 'National Security' Secret | Threat Level from Wired.com

A commercial jetliner suffered a loss of one of its two engines shortly after taking off from La Guardia Airport on Wednesday morning and was forced to make an emergency landing at Kennedy International Airport, officials said.

American Airlines Flight 309, an MD-80, bound for Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, landed at Kennedy around 8:35 a.m., after losing a trail of metal parts, evidently from its No. 2 engine, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Some of the metal parts were reported to have fallen onto a rooftop of a commercial building in Queens.

There were 88 passengers and five crew members on board, said Andrea Huguely, a spokeswoman for the airline. No one was injured.

Plane Makes Emergency Landing at J.F.K. - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Space Shuttle Discovery on the launch pad with the moon rising behind it.

Flickr Photo Download: STS-119 Shuttle Discovery With Moon (200903110001HQ)

Traders embraced a proposal that the Securities and Exchange Commission may bring back the "uptick" short sales rule, hopeful it will prevent "bear raids" on stocks. null

=US Traders Embrace Possible Reintroduction Of Uptick Rule - MarketWatch