27 Apr 2007 @ 22:13
I Choose Love, The Experience echoes hope to all peoples of the earth, by utilizing the tools of acceptance, compassion, forgiveness and love.... [link]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking floated free in zero gravity Thursday, becoming the first person with a disability to have the experience.
The zero-gravity flight in a modified jet creates the experience of microgravity during 25-second plunges -- called parabolas -- over the Atlantic Ocean.
"It was amazing," Hawking, paralyzed by a progressive neurological disorder, said afterward through an electronic device. (Go on a zero-gravity flight)
"The zero-G part was wonderful and the full-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. (Watch Hawking float around in zero-G )
"Space, here I come."
Hawking, a mathematics professor at the University of Cambridge who has done groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the universe, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He cannot speak or move.
He is one of the best-known theoretical physicists of his generation and also wrote the book "A Brief History of Time."
A doctor and three nurses monitored Hawking throughout the Zero Gravity Corp. flight. The scientist floated in the air, free of his wheelchair and electronic communication gear for the first time in 40 years.
The jet's interior is padded to protect the weightless fliers and is equipped with cameras to record their adventure. Normally, the plane conducts 10 to 15 plunges for its passengers who pay $3,750 for the ride, although that fee was waived for Hawking.
After the jet reached its proper altitude, Hawking's assistants lifted him out of his seat and laid him on his back in the front of the cabin for the first plunge.
"We consider ... having him weightless for 25 seconds is a successful mission," Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of Zero Gravity, said before the flight. "If we do more than one, fantastic."
Urged on by Hawking's smiles after the first parabola, they did seven more, Diamandis said afterward.
"He was doing gold-medalist gymnastics in zero G," Diamandis said.
Hawking has an ulterior motive for going on the flight other than the personal thrill of weightlessness -- he believes in the importance of private space ventures and the need to reduce the cost of space tourism so that it is accessible to more people.
"Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons," he said before the flight. "First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space."
Diamandis put it more poetically afterward:
"Professor Hawking reached for the sky and touched the heavens today."
26 Apr 2007 @ 11:41
The inspiring story of Rick & Dick Hoyt, the father and son team, who have competed in triathlons, iron man, marathons and road races for 25 years overcoming some incredibly disabilities
This is soooooooooo beautiful - for those of you on dial up .. it's really worth taking the time to let it load !!
Bound is a striking word, meaning both action and restraint.
Are we bound to this earth? Can anyone be bound for glory?
How bound and determined do we have to be?
Is everyone eventually bound to find out?
This short is about being bound to the quantum interface for mind body communication
and about life bound to discover itself. We exist because of many possibilities,
perhaps an infinite number of possibilities. Our consciousness just one bit in that ocean of potential
This is the first episode of a series on life in the universe. Looking for life in the universe isn't like looking for your car keys. It's hard to know where to even start. The best place to start is probably by NOT trying to find alien civilizations, but rather ANY kind of life we can.
Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet .. [link]
TODAY the 25/04/2007 European astronomers detected out of the solar system a planet “of terrestrial type livable”.
It is located at more than twenty light-years of the Earth.
A “ground (a)” was identified by a team of French, Swiss and Portuguese astronomers (1) within a planetary system extrasolaire located at 20,5 light-years of our planet (2). The planet in question “is lightest of the 200 planets extrasolaires [located out of the solar system] known to date”, according to a study published Thursday in the review Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Its mass, five times that of our planet (3), lets suppose “either a rock constitution (as for the Earth), or a surface covered by an ocean”, specify the discoverers. According to their calculations, the average temperature of this exoplanète lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius. “These conditions allow the liquid presence of water its surface”, underlines the team. And to indicate that all these “common points” with our planet “make it possible to imagine the existence of a possible extraterrestrial life”.... [link]
29 Apr 2007 @ 17:46
27 Apr 2007 @ 22:13
27 Apr 2007 @ 17:07