Inside the Asylum

Israel intercepted a ship in the Mediterranean carrying weapons and ammunition, and mysteriously, the cargo from Iran doesn't seem to belong to anyone. Israel says it was bound for Hezbollah, but they deny it. I guess Israel can now claim it as salvage.
[Update] In fact, it's even easier for Israel. Iran says the weapons on the ship don't exist, so I guess Israel can take them without having to claim anything, since the people who sent them deny they exist, and the people they were being sent to deny they own them. I guess it's just a cargo of ownerless non-existent weapons. Apparently there were 40 shipping containers. That's a lot of firepower to send on a Mediterranean cruise with no destination.

One of the "holy grails" of the space program is to successfully built a space elevator. Basically, you get a cable (a very strong cable) that extends from the surface of the earth far enough out into space so that natural forces allow it to just hang there on its own. Then you run an elevator up and down it. Hey presto, you've solved the problem of having to use rockets to get into orbit. Naturally enough, there are a heck of a lot of engineering problems that will need to be solved before anything like it can be built. That's why it's encouraging to see that people are working on it, and even making a little progress.

LaserMotive of Seattle qualified for at least $900,000 in the $2 million NASA-backed Space Elevator Games, which began Wednesday at the Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base. LaserMotive's vehicle climbed 2,953 feet (nearly 1 kilometer) in just over four minutes and then repeated the feat.

Hey, those are his words.

Iran's Supreme Leader, spurning what he described as several personal overtures from US President Barack Obama, has warned that negotiating with the US was ''naive and perverted'' and said Iranian politicians should not be ''deceived'' into starting such talks.