The Rundown - July 21, 2010

Lots to cover, not enough time to comment on it all. Here's the rundown:

• The House Committee on Science and Technology is complicating the compromise on the future of NASA. PopSci provides more details.
• The Messenger spacecraft is discovering that Mercury is an interesting place.
• The Mars Odyssey Orbiter has gone into standby mode. JPL is working on the problem.
• Cassini has revealed perturbations in Saturn's rings resulting from the gravitational pull of its moons.
• The New York Times offers this piece on natural selection in humans.
• Russia is building a new commercial spaceport to the tune of $800 million.
• the WISE telescope has completed its first survey of the sky, observing over 100,000 asteroids and returning some fantastic photos.
• A man in Bosnia believes he's being attacked by aliens after his house has been hit with meteorites six times in the past three years. I'd say it sounds like someone is pulling his leg, but that's an expensive prank!