Just before 3:00 a.m. PDT with a short burst of the thrusters, Dragon again began approaching the ISS. Minutes later, with the Dragon 220 meters from the station, astronaut Kuipers sent a command via the UHF communications link and Dragon aborted its approach as expected and returned to the 250 meter hold position. Test one was complete. Kuipers planned to send a command for Dragon to hold at 235 meters, but problems with Dragon’s onboard thermal camera used for the rendezvous with the ISS kept it at the 250 meter point. After a few minutes the test resumed and Kuipers issued Dragon a hold command at 235 meters, but it happened a bit earlier than planned. Over the next half hour or so, the teams in Hawthorne and Houston were busy evaluating the data from the onboard sensors to make sure both the station and Dragon agreed on their relative positions before moving any closer, particularly inside the simply named “Keep Out Sphere” that surrounds the ISS at 200 meters.

I have mixed feelings on this one. Great to see a space program going forward, not so excited about how. I just have a nagging feeling this type of private industry is going to…and this is probably to worst euphemism to use here…but “crash and burn” seems apt. While I don’t doubt that we can do things cheaper and probably faster in a private company, both market forces and natural ones can have massive side effects. We’ll see how this plays out, but until the private industry survives a real test, I’m not sure its going to be viable long term without massive public support (which kinda makes you wonder what will happen to the tech if one of these companies fails and gets bought out by someone we don’t want to know how to make these kinds of rockets). —- ISS Welcomes SpaceX Dragon — First Private Spacecraft at Station | Autopia | Wired.com http://m.wired.com/autopia/2012/05/spacex-docking/

Facebook’s stock should trade for $13.80 – Mark Hulbert – MarketWatch

Since Facebook is most often compared to Google , let’s assume that its price-to-sales ratio in five years will be just as high as Google’s is currently: 5.51-to-1. You could argue that this is an overly generous assumption, of course. But it nevertheless means Facebook’s market cap in five years will be just $63.8 billion — 30% less than where it stands today. Assuming that the total number of its shares stays constant, that works out to a price per share of just $23.26 — in contrast to its recent closing price of $33.03. Ouch. Actually, however, the news is even worse: No one is going to invest in Facebook shares today if its price will be 30% lower in five years. So, in order to entice someone to invest in it today, Facebook needs to offer a handsome return. Assuming that its five-year return is equal to the stock market’s long-term average return of 11% annualized, Facebook shares currently would need to be trading at just $13.80.

And there ya go. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/facebooks-stock-should-trade-for-1380-2012-05-25

Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney will be joined by former rival Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump at a campaign event on Tuesday in Las Vegas. The event, which will be held at Trump’s hotel located on the Las Vegas strip, is coupled with a fundraising contest launched by the Romney campaign on Thursday. Supporters who donate to the presumptive Republican nominee’s campaign will be entered in a raffle for a prize package that includes dinner with Romney and Trump.

If you do win the dinner and you have pizza, remember folks of this social strata think it’s polite to use a fork. — Trump And Gingrich To Campaign With Romney In Las Vegas | TPM Livewire http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/trump-gingrich-to-campaign-with-romney-in-las