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#Post#: 2345--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Boo
Date: May 17, 2011, 6:39 pm
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Marcia
that child has now been removed from the "mother's" care
there seems to be a story as to the relationship betwix mother
and daughter
Boo 8)
#Post#: 2802--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Graz
Date: June 25, 2011, 10:38 am
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New York state senate legalizes gay marriage
#Post#: 2803--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: CLM
Date: June 25, 2011, 10:52 am
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--- Quote from: Graz link ---
>
> New York state senate legalizes gay marriage
>
>
--- End Quote ---
..and it killed Columbo ... heh!
#Post#: 2808--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Graz
Date: June 25, 2011, 2:03 pm
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hmmm...I like Columbo, too bad he couldn't take it... :D
btw, some of my best friends/relatives happen to be gay...all
good people... :)
#Post#: 2924--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Dawn of September
Date: July 9, 2011, 9:06 pm
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... THEY FORGOT ME!!!! ....
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HTML http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1021860--atlantis-blasts-off-on-final-shuttle-mission
When Kieran Carroll thinks about the future of space travel, he
invokes the chorus of a song that’s popular among his fellow
rocket scientists.
“There’s only one way to go from here, without a doubt,” he
croons. “The only way to go from here is out.”
Past president of the Canadian Space Society, Carroll seems
undaunted by the present uncertain state of space exploration
symbolized by Friday’s launch of the U.S. space shuttle
Atlantis, marking the 135th — and final — voyage in a program
that began 30 years ago and has no clear successor.
Atlantis is on a 13-day resupply mission to the International
Space Station and will be retired upon its return.
For the first time in decades, the United States will possess no
ability of its own to launch humans into space. The only way to
go from here will be aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, at about $50
million a shot.
Many aerospace engineers are in despair, and the National
Aeronautic and Space Administration is said to be suffering a
brain drain without precedent.
You’d think Carroll would be down-hearted, too, but he isn’t.
Instead, when he looks to the future, Carroll sees hundreds of
solar energy satellites gliding through the firmament, each
producing a gigawatt of power — roughly the output of a
Pickering nuclear generator — and beaming it back to Earth.
He envisions human astronauts striding — floating, really —
across the frigid, irregular terrain of Phobos and Deimos, both
moons of Mars that may contain vast quantities of precious
minerals.
He barely blanches even at the prospect of interstellar travel
by humans, never mind the awkward truth that any rocket
currently on the drawing board would need more than 100,000
years — and God knows how much fuel — just to reach Alpha
Centauri, the nearest star.
“Some of us,” he says, “can’t help but think of going beyond the
solar system.”
To suggest that human space exploration is in danger of imminent
collapse is to violate just about every tenet of the cosmos
according to Kieran Carroll.
The same goes for the universe as envisioned by John Logsdon,
former director of the Space Policy Institute at George
Washington University in the U.S. capital.
“We certainly need to replace the shuttle with a new capability
to carry crews into orbit,” he says. “That’s a clear and burning
need. In the longer term, there is a consensus we want to move
to exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.”
But, first, much is going to change.
Because of a decision last year by U.S. President Barack Obama,
NASA is no longer responsible for designing or building
low-orbit launch vehicles.
“The private sector will develop the vehicles,” says Logsdon,
“and NASA will rent their services.”
The current front-runner in the private-sector space race is
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or Spacex, a
rocket-building venture headed by U.S. multi-millionaire Elon
Musk, who made his fortune on the Internet.
Carroll welcomes this shift, predicting huge savings.
“For decades, it’s been obvious the main thing holding us back
is high launch costs,” he says. “People in the civil service
necessarily avoid risk. They order a lot of extra work to be
done to get rid of every conceivable hazard.”
That costs money. The 135 shuttle flights culminating in
Atlantis’s current swan song have borne a price tag, on average,
of about $1.5 billion.
Carroll says the private sector should eventually be able to do
the same job for a 10th of that price, or less.
But launching rockets into space is just one part of the
challenge. The rockets also need a place to go.
In 2004, when he announced the space shuttle’s discontinuation,
then U.S. president George W. Bush directed NASA to make the
moon its next priority.
Last year, Obama set a new course, calling instead for missions
to nearby asteroids — and Mars.
“My preference is back to the moon first,” says Logsdon. “But
the holy grail is exploring Mars.”
Among its many otherworldly attractions, Mars possesses the
virtue of proximity — it’s just nine months away as the rocket
flies — and so humans could make the trip.
But should they? Or should NASA rely on robots instead?
Carroll and Logsdon agree space exploration demands a human
touch.
“Absolutely,” says Carroll. “The benefit of putting humans in
space outweighs the costs.”
Will humans ever boldly go across interstellar space in the
manner of Captain Kirk and the Starship Enterprise?
That’s a far bigger question.
“Interstellar exploration is much more challenging and may be in
the realm of science fiction for many centuries to come,” says
Logsdon. “But you say ‘ever.’ Ever is a long time.”
#Post#: 3186--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Graz
Date: August 23, 2011, 7:15 am
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sad news yesterday, Jack Layton passed away...I didn't support
his NDP vision, but by all accounts he was a good man...RIP...
HTML http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01311/gee23nw1_jpg_1311107cl-8.jpg
people write messages in chalk outside City Hall in Toronto...
#Post#: 3188--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Boo
Date: August 23, 2011, 6:42 pm
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""but by all accounts he was a good man...""
his public persona was a glimpse of the under lying person, and
that glimpse revealed questionable person :(
Boo 8)
#Post#: 3205--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Dawn of September
Date: August 25, 2011, 2:45 am
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--- Quote from: Graz link ---
>
> sad news yesterday, Jack Layton passed away...I didn't support
his NDP vision, but by all accounts he was a good man...RIP...
>
>
HTML http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/01311/gee23nw1_jpg_1311107cl-8.jpg
>
> people write messages in chalk outside City Hall in Toronto...
>
--- End Quote ---
I have been in tears every day since his death, what a tragic
loss after such an incredible victory ... his work on his dreams
not to be fulfilled :i
I will be working Saturday but I am sure the highlights of his
funeral will be shown over and over, sure to send me into more
crying fits.
So far, I have only seen one negative report
HTML http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dailybrew/christie-blatchford-jack-layton-column-sparks-backlash-social-201032751.html
RIP Jack Layton you were a class act and I hope that those of us
that are left here will step up to the plate to fulfill your
legacy.
#Post#: 3215--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Boo
Date: August 26, 2011, 12:05 am
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"step up to the plate to fulfill your legacy"
what, cobble that coalition with the separtists, that failed the
first try????
Boo 8)
#Post#: 3228--------------------------------------------------
Re: NEWS
DIR By: Dawn of September
Date: August 28, 2011, 11:34 pm
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Boo if you thought Layton was a separatist that is your onion.
You gonna do a hate on me because BC blew off the HST?
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