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OWN, which has been a disaster from nearly day one with terrible ratings and Discovery quickly learning that their supposedly brilliant acquisition was quickly transforming into a money pit. Just in the past year, the signs have been pointing towards OWN’s imminent demise. First Oprah begged Nielsen viewers to watch her flailing network, and then Oprah fought with Rosie O’Donnell over the latter’s cancelled show.

Those lucky enough to still be here to look back at history post Barack Obama will recognize the last sight-piggyback funeral dirge of the once noble Space Shuttle as the Obama Regime’s defining moment. Were an artist to paint a picture of a small boy looking at up at his flying kite as the space shuttle passed over Manhattan yesterday, no portrait of the story of America’s deliberate ruin at the hands of a single politician could ever come closer to the truth. [BIG Snip of text] Few will remember that it was on the fullest moon of the year...

One of Nasa's retired space shuttles has made a dramatic flypast over the centre of the US capital on the way to its final resting place in a museum. Discovery flew over the monuments along the National Mall in Washington DC at about 10:00 EST (14:00 GMT). Piggy-backing on a modified Boeing 747, Discovery was flying at an altitude of about 1,500ft (457m), Nasa said. The shuttle programme ended in 2011. Discovery will be on show at the Air and Space Museum in Virginia. After circling four times over the Washington Monument, and passing the National Mall over Capitol Hill,...

"Unfortunately, Bear and Discovery have not been able to come to mutual agreement on new programming, and he disagrees with Discovery's decision to terminate current productions. Bear has loved the 'Man vs. Wild' journey and looks forward to producing further cutting edge content again soon for his loyal audience."

A British expedition to one of the deepest parts of the ocean has discovered an enormous species of crustacean that looks like a prawn and is 11ins long. The so-called ‘supergiant’ – a type of amphipod - was discovered more than four miles below the surface in waters north of New Zealand. Most amphipods are usually 0.8in-1.2in long. But the new specimen, found by a team from the University of Aberdeen, was ten times the size.

All of these are fascinating if anyone wants some late night entertainment... Three Men vs. Fifteen Hungry Lions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNeNTMmltyc&feature=relmfu Snake Bracelets http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypg1FGde1GQ&feature=relmfu Children hunt world's largest venomous spider for dinner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra4WmE-joMQ&feature=related Sea Bed Hunting On One Breath http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgRpwESWPLM&feature=relmfu

A video from a Discovery channel special regarding the effect of music on a fetus. One baby in the womb is really getting down and grooving to the tunes. The other-- not so much.

The presence of extra bronchial passageways in children may be a marker for autism and autism spectrum disorders, results from a novel study demonstrated. "Autism continues to remain underdiagnosed or missed altogether, unrecognized and undiagnosed because appropriate tools for screening for autism have not been available," lead investigator Dr. Barbara A. Stewart said during an interview in advance of the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, where the study was presented. "Until now, there has been no objective evidence for autism spectrum disorder." Dr. Stewart of Nemours Children’s Clinic in Pensacola, Fla., conducted bronchoscopic evaluations in 49...

The Discovery Channel is running a documentary next week asking "When Does Life Begin?" The fear of showing babies in the womb has caused some fear in the pro-abort community. One commenter at a website said: With all the anti-choice legislation this year already we really don't need Discovery channel parading fetuses around and showing how cool and realistic they are in utero. We can't stand a parade of fetuses, can we? But here's the thing. The Discovery Channel website shows why pro-aborts have something to fear from any kind of actual scientific talk concerning human life and its beginnings....

All of the found and re-discovered species belong to the Night frog group, genus Nyctibatrachus. Thanks go to S.D. Biju, an amphibian biologist at the University of Delhi, and his team for tirelessly scouring the wildlife rich Western Ghats region, and performing DNA testing of the frogs. Biju and his colleagues over the years have discovered an astounding number of new frog species, 45. That number is likely to increase. Animal discoveries, however, often come with serious concern, since many of these species are few and far between and are desperately needing conservation help. At present, 32 percent of the...

All signs pointed to this development earlier this summer and now Animal Planet has gone and made it official: “Whale Wars” is getting a spin-off series. The cable network, obviously eager to expand one of its longest-running hit series, will focus on the Sea Shepherd’s efforts to to stop an annual whale hunt known as “The Grind” in the Faroes Islands. The Lizard Trading Company, which produces the series for Animal Planet, started filming for the tentatively titled “Faroe Island Project” back on July 15th. As the press release notes, the Sea Shepherd’s Faroes campaign has gotten off to a...

Neat look around the Discovery's flight deck, use your mouse after it loads

Discovery Communications and Oprah Winfrey have pushed out Christina Norman as chief executive of OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, after a tough start for the five-month old cable network. Discovery Chief Operating Officer Peter Ligouri will take over from Norman on an interim basis, in addition to his current role. OWN, which launched in the United States on January 1, has struggled to win ratings in its first five months.

The other day it was announced that a well known, mega-company discovered a new way to destroy antibiotic resistant bacteria, such as MRSA. Using nanoparticle technology – which is 50,000 times smaller than a hair’s width – the company’s researchers were able to target an electrical charge on the bacteria’s surface, bursting the membrane open to bring about its demise. According to the Wall Street Journal, “if successful, [the discovery] would offer a fresh strategy against a worrisome public-health problem of possibly deadly bacteria evolving to become impervious to antibiotics.” Nearly 19,000 people in the U.S. each year die from...

The Audacious Epigone has a post up, Republicans are more scientifically literate than Democrats or independents are, where he reviews pro vs. anti-science attitude by party in the General Social Survey. He concludes that in fact Republicans are more scientifically literate across the issues than Democrats. Jason Malloy saw this trend four years ago in the GSS, and to some extent so have I. One point to keep in mind is that a few specific politicized scientific issues are very much the outliers in exhibiting tight partisan valences in opinion.

The one. The only. The last

Skywatcher Rob Bullen of Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England caught this snapshot of shuttle Discovery as it approached the International Space Staiton on Feb. 26, 2011. Discovery was flying its final mission, STS-133.

Space shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station for the final time at 2:14 p.m. EST Saturday, where it will make a last delivery to the orbiting space lab -- before parking ultimately at a museum. The two spacecraft were flying about 220 miles above western Australia at the time they docked for the 11-day mission to deliver supplies, spare parts, an extra storage module and a humanoid robot assistant to the International Space Station. Two spacewalks are also planned during the shuttle's week-long stay at the orbiting lab. The shuttle and station crews will open hatches and hold...

follow the shuttle as it disappears into the outer atmosphere. This can create some truly stunning footage, especially as the rockets fire and the initial launch happens. On Thursday Discovery got its last ascent into space, but this time instead of just seeing it from the ground, one lucky passenger flight also saw it from the air. The flight was from Orlando, Florida, and it happened to be passing by the Kennedy Space Center just as the launch happened. We’re also lucky that one of the passengers had the sense to pull his camera out and start recording. The footage...

NASA Managers: It's a "Go" for LaunchAt today's pre-launch news conference NASA's mission management team have given their unanimous approval for space shuttle Discovery's launch tomorrow at 4:50 p.m. EST. "Everything is on track and going beautifully with the countdown," said Mike Moses, mission management team chair. "We're really looking forward to a very action-packed, successful mission and everything is on track." Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director, agreed that everything is going extremely well with the launch countdown. He also acknowledged the processing teams who worked on Discovery, its flight systems and ground elements. "As we're powering up (the systems)...