Space Station Sunday: From Progress To A Dragon

Good afternoon, space fans!  Here's all of this week's news from low earth orbit.

Mail call!  The Progress cargo ship approaches the ISS.
(Image courtesy Jeff Williams / NASA.gov.)

Reforestation Is The Bomb: Retrofitted Military Cargo Planes Help Plant Trees

Earth needs trees, but humans and our pesky usurpation keep cutting them down.  But what if we could use that incessant drive to conquer as a force for good forestry?  Taking over land is always a major objective of warfare, so why not use a weapon of war to help improve vast swaths of land?

Botany has never looked so badass.
(Image courtesy xplanes.tumblr.com.)

Seven Silly Swindles: April Fool's Day 2016

It's April Fool's Day, and we decided not to be mean.  That sounds weird, yes, but really, we're not going to tell you NASA is having a $10 rocket-ride lottery or that a new cancer treatment works but turns your skin plaid, or that an actual time machine has been invented but that it only goes to the 1990s.  You're smarter than that.  So, let's instead revel in the havoc wrought on other unsuspecting world-wide-websurfers (wait, seriously, that time machine thing isn't real?) today.

Mr. T pities any fools who were taken in by bad jokes today.
(Image courtesy countdown.onlineclock.net.)

Blowing Up The Burners: New Bill To Make Anonymous Cell Phones Illegal?

Chances are, as a modern human being, you own at least one cell phone that you guard with a vigilance that many bodyguards would envy.  It's as important as your wallet or keys, and maybe more so due to its irreplaceability.  But what about the cell phones that are used specifically for their disposable nature?  Should they be illegal just because sometimes you have business to handle that you don't want interacting with the rest of your real life?

Burner phones:  will they be burned at the legal stake for their perceived sins?
(Image courtesy survivethewild.net.)

Screen Cuisine: New MMMojis Make Eatery Choices Easy

Are you lazy, or just hungover?  Hey, we don't discriminate, are you both?  If you find your state of lushness and/or lackadaisicality is impeding your most base efforts at communication - not even speech, we're talking an inability to text properly - well, now technology has an answer for you.

This is also ideal for when your SO claims they don't care what they want to eat.
Scroll and randomly hit an icon, problem solved!
(Image courtesy dailymail.co.uk.)

Space Station Sunday: In Cygnus And In Health

Good evening, space fans!  It's been another fascinating week for our friends falling through space.

Later, they're going to set that whole damn spacecraft on fire.
Wait, what?
(Image courtesy Jeff Williams / NASA.gov.)

Putting The "Art" In "Artificial Intelligence": Japanese Researchers Create A Book-Writing 'Bot

It seems we can't go more than a day without hearing about another job being taken over by a robot.  While their applications for manufacturing, gaming, navigation, food service, and concierge roles are effective, some 'bots in Japan are taking things to a whole new level.  Namely, passing themselves off as human author.

"Call me Ishmael-2000."
(Image courtesy www.easysystems.nl.)