Free Republic

North Korea fired what it described as a “space satellite” toward the south on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, according to Reuters. Sirens were heard across Seoul around 6:32 a.m. local time, and the city issued a warning asking citizens to prepare for potential evacuation, the report said. The Japanese government issued an emergency warning over its J-Alert broadcasting system for residents of the southern prefecture of Okinawa, saying a missile had been launched from North Korea. The launch comes a day after North Korea confirmed it will launch a reconnaissance satellite in June. The North’s official KCNA news agency...

After five years of testing, the U.S. Navy is finally entering the digital age for navigation. Five years ago, the first all digital navigation system was installed, in the USS Cape St. George (a cruiser). Called the Voyage Management System (VMS), this version used 29 CDs containing the 12,000 paper nautical charts that were stored in several large filing cabinets on the Cape St. George. The current version of VMS puts all the electronic charts on one high density DVD, or a portable hard drive. The navy has been working on VMS since the 1990s, and the first thing they...