mars

At a little past 10:30pm Pacific time on Sunday, the Mars rover Curiosity successfully navigated "seven minutes of terror" to land on the Martian planet. Livestream of the JPL control room showed NASA scientists cheering, even crying, in delight.

gary-johnson

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson received 19% support in poll published late last week. The survey, commissioned by the Libertarian Action Super PAC, was geared specifically to confront the candidate selection criteria of the Commission on Presidential Debates, which are rigged to favor of the candidates put forward by the Republican and Democratic parties.

It’s likely to come as a surprise to many small government advocates that today the US government (local, state, and fed) is the smallest it has been in 45 years.

The Hamilton Project recently released the graph below that shows the ratio of government employees versus population.

The Hamilton Project is an economic policy initiative of the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Roger Pion booking photo

Shortly after noon on Thursday, August 2, Vermont farmer Roger Pion, 34, rode his parents’ 20,000 pound tractor into Newport, Vermont, on his way to the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department’s new building, where he rolled back and forth over seven of the sheriff department’s cruisers (two unmarked) and a van, before moseying on down the road with no one in pursuit.

Jill-Stein-Arrested

Green Party Candidate Jill Stein went orange last week, after being arrested in Philadelphia. The presidential candidate and her running mate Cheri Honkala joined in on a citizen organized, sit in protest of Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant tied to the housing bubble and subprime mortgages.

Photo: komonews.com

North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un took his first steps onto the international stage Friday when he met with a number of Chinese ambassadors in Pyongyang. This was Kim's first meeting with foreign dignitaries since he came into power after his father, the late Kim Jong Il, died in December.