Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• File this one under "Things I Thought I'd Never Hear": This week, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station set out on a very important mission—fixing the station's sole toilet. The residents of the space station had been forced to take drastic measures and use the bathroom aboard the Soyuz escape craft that's permanently attached to the ISS. NASA managed to get a much needed part—a pump—aboard the space shuttle Discovery when it launched on May 31. The shuttle docked with the space station and everyone worked together to get the facilities in working order. The main reason for Discovery's trip to the International Space Station: to deliver a lab from Japan, get it up and running, and swap out a crew member.

• Family Force Five released their latest offering, a 3-song EP called Dance or Die on iTunes this week. Their upcoming sophomore album is set to hit the streets this fall and include 10 or more songs. The band will spend the summer playing festivals, including the Ichthus Festival, Alive Festival, Creation East, Kings Dominion, Rock the Desert, Power Light Festival, Lifelight Festival, and end the summer with their 40-city Warped Tour (June 21-August 17). Check out "Dance or Die"!

• Emilio Navarro may be 102, but that didn't stop the New York Yankees from drafting him in the Major League Baseball amateur draft. Navarro and 29 other former baseball players who played in the Negro League were drafted yesterday in a pre-draft ceremony. The men had been denied entrance into the big leagues in their playing days because of their skin color. Navarro was the first Puerto Rican to play in the Negro Leagues and is the oldest living professional ballplayer. The men accepted the tribute (dreamed up by Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield and embraced by the MLB) with true graciousness. “We are like Major League baseball players now," said Neale Henderson, a 78-year-old second baseman expected to be drafted by the Los Angeles Angels. Read more about the draft here.

• Two men were arrested in New York City yesterday (big surprise, huh?) . . . for climbing the 52-story office building that houses The New York Times. Both men, Alain Robert and Roberto Clarke, were arrested when they reached the top. Robert has climbed more than 70 skyscrapers around the world and climbed the building yesterday to mark World Environmental Day. It is not clear why Clarke climbed the building. The men were arrested for reckless endangerment, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct. Read more about it here.