world? i ll tell you. then the politics of outer space. america won the race to the moon, but that was 40 years ago. the u.s. is essentially sitting on the bench in the current space race. will that hurt it back here on earth? and is america coming apart? that s what the author of a controversial new book says. i ll ask him about it. first, here s my take. something caught my eye the other day. pat robertson, the high priest of the religious right, had some startling things to say about drugs. i really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol, mr. robertson said recently. i have never used manner, and i don t intend to, he said, but it s just one of those things that, well, i think this war on drugs just hasn t succeeded. the reason robertson is for legalizing marijuana is that it has created a prison problem in america that is well beyond what most americans imagine. he is right. here are the numbers. the total number of americans under correctiona
was a basic one, would john glenn s body survive the flight. could we do this or not. would your are eye balls change shape. that was the concerns and the little miniature eye chart is still on friendship 7 in the smithsonian in washington. would the fluid in the inner ears move randomly and give you vertigo. things that we didn t know the answer to then. the basic questions of survival in space were answered by john glenn s flight so later flights were still able to ex-focus on other ex-pair isn ts. and why he took the risks. he was asked and here is how he and the question. it was important for our country. it was important because of the cold war. it was a new step forward and we were proud to be representing our country there. you made it as safe as you possibly could and what little bit of risk was left was we accepted that. these two surviving mercury
including former astronaut scott carpenter. glenn and carpenter are the only mercury 7 crew still alive today. glenn s capsule circled the earth three times back on february 20, 1962, just three months later, carpenter completed a similar mission. rick: switching gear, not a good week for the people who develop and market smart phone apps. congress signaling apple for falling short when it comes to focusing customers personal information. the federal trade commission is also targeting google s android phones and the app makers themselves and that agency s concern is kids who are less likely to understand what they re exposing themselves to perhaps when they download an app. what responsibility do these businesses have when it comes to protecting their customers? adult and child alike? kyle harrington is the founder and managing partner of harrington capital management. you re a business guy. you don t like to see new rules or regulations put on
have been was yesterday down in the florida keys where scott carpenter went fishing for a very good cause. raising money, the astronaut scholarship foundation, and they do online auctions and things, and the folks that bid on this paid about 5,000 to fish with scott. scott was a mercury. mercury 7 original astronaut. the importance of science and engineering. engineering is very important. and how they are doing everything to raise money for scholarships for students in those fields. see, so everybody talks about, the president talks about we need innovation. yeah. we need to innovate. what keeps the united states ahead of everybody is our ability to innovate. with all due respect, they re all lawyers. what we need are scientists and entirely we need engineers. the space shuttle will do some science but it s mostly or largely an engineering feat. we love engineering feats. charles lindbergh, pyramids, we love the stuff.
take a look at those pictures inside the space shuttle discovery. live pictures from nasa tv. it s expected to blast off at 4:50 p.m. eastern from florida s kennedy space station. on board five men, one woman, and the first robotic-like astronaut. they will deliver a storage module, science rig and spare parts to the international space station during the 11-day mission. it was first launched back in 1984, discovery has completed more than 30 missions making it the most experienced space shuttle. the hubble space telescope was transported in 1990 and glenn went back in space in 1998 and he was the first u.s. citizen to orbit citizen and he was the oldest to fly in space at the age of 77. discovery took the colbert treadmill to space in 2009. that s steven colbert am.