Space Shuttle Atlantis landed for at Kennedy Space Center for what is intended to be the last time on Wednesday, May 26. The shuttle saw nearly 25 years of service by NASA and made 32 during its time. There is still the possibility that NASA may need the shuttle to resupply the the International Space Station and that the shuttle will fly again. Space Shuttles Discovery and Endeavour are still planned to each make one more flight before the entire Shuttle Program is completely retired.
After over a month of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, British Petroleum (BP) believes that their “Top Kill” method will stop the leak caused by an oil rig explosion on April 20 that left 11 rig workers dead. The leak is nearly a mile under the sea at the ocean floor. Millions of gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf as a result of the leak, and many gulf coast states have faced steep decreases in tourist income from fears of the oil contaminating beaches along the coast.
The White House has been putting increased pressure on BP and has threatened government intervention if the oil company does not remedy the situation quickly. The president has also announced the formation of a bipartisan commission to study the causes of the incident and to suggest action to prevent such an action from occurring the future.
The President has received criticism from both sides of the aisle for his lack of response to the oil crisis. Democratic political strategist James Carville, a native of Louisiana, and his wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin have both been critical of the President Obama for not being tougher, for not fixing the leak more quickly and has called for coming down on BP severely for the incident happening in the first place.
Facebook has announced a new privacy system that they believe will alleviate user privacy concerns that have risen from changes made to the social networking website. Many users have complained that some of the new setting have made it difficult for people to decide what personal information they want people to see. The new system breaks down options into three categories: friends, friends of friends and everybody.