Monthly Archives: July 2012

Finding MRSA

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In the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, researchers at University Hospital Heidelberg in Germany evaluate how well the new BD Max MRSA assay can detect low-prevalence methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus as compared to BD's GeneOhm MRSA achromopeptidase assay. The Max MRSA assay had a 93.9 percent sensitivity and a 99.2 percent specificity while the GeneOhm MRSA ACP assay 93.8 percent sensitivity and 98.3 specificity, though the researchers note that the differences were not statistically significant. Upon retesting, the Max MRSA test could resolve all samples while the GeneOhm MRSA ACP tests could not. In addition, the researchers point out that GeneOhm MRSA ACP assay took less time to deliver results, though it needed more hands-on time than the Max MRSA test did.

"This study shows that within a routine clinical setting in a population with low MRSA prevalence the fully automated BD Max MRSA assay and the established BD GeneOhm MRSA ACP assay have similar sensitivity and specificity characteristics," the researchers conclude. "The BD Max MRSA assay produced less unresolved results, had fewer false positive results and showed reduced handling requirements thereby facilitating use of this molecular assay."

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Finding MRSA

Longevity Global Inc. Comes Up With Brand New Line Of Multi Utility WeldAll Series of Welders

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(PRWEB) July 20, 2012

Longevity Global Inc. is the leading equipment brand of the nation, deals in welders, cutters and power generators. They work with high success ratio and complete customer satisfaction. Longevity Global Inc. has announced multi utility welders for sale with improved and innovative technology. Their welding equipment and other products are best in efficiency and comes with assured long service for various industrial clients. Longevity Global Inc. provides extensive collection of welders such as tig welders, mig welders and stick welders.

Mr. Simon Katz, president of Longevity Global Inc. took the dice to make an announcement. He stated, We feel great to introduce our WeldAll series combo welders in all the types of welders. These Multi-Purpose Welder machines are available with MOSFET and IGBT Inverter Technology. These welding equipment are portable and simple in use for all your welding jobs such as aluminum welding and cutting. Our innovative R&D department offers these machines with TIG, STICK, plasma cutter combinations from small sized machines ranging in weight from 40-70lbs and no bigger than the size of a standard microwave.

Longevity Global Inc. supply and manufactures economy welders such as aluminum welders, stick welders, and others. Their WeldAll Series combo welder can generally weld and cut all types of metals including aluminum, steel, bronze, copper, stainless steel, mild steel, etc. Their offered welders for sale are cost competitive in comparison to most of the leading market players and are very affordable for retail as well as industrial clients.

Longevity Global Inc. is providing its dedicated service since 2001. It is growing at a phenomenal pace with high customer satisfaction, innovative products and efficient industrial production. It works in different parts of world with distributors in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, United Kingdom, and multiple other countries. Longevity Welding serve globally with manufacturing facilities with its logistic companies to effectively distribute products in a punctual and effective manner. To know more visit http://www.longevity-inc.com

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Longevity Global Inc. Comes Up With Brand New Line Of Multi Utility WeldAll Series of Welders

Biology Leaves Gay Men Highly Vulnerable to HIV: Study

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By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) -- New research pinpoints a major reason why gay and bisexual men remain so vulnerable to the AIDS epidemic: When it comes to the transmission of HIV, a man who has unprotected anal intercourse is at especially high risk.

In fact, if that kind of intercourse was only as risky as vaginal intercourse, researchers report, HIV cases among gay and bisexual men would shrink dramatically. It would go down even more, they added, if their rates of casual sex declined.

The reality, however, is much different. "Everywhere we looked, HIV is expanding both in high- and low-income countries among men who have sex with men," said study author Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Johns Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program.

The experts were quick to note that, worldwide, it is heterosexual men and women who are by far the majority of those who are infected with HIV. Still, more than 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, gay and bisexual men remain especially vulnerable to infection despite a heavy emphasis on condoms and HIV testing; these men make up the bulk of HIV cases in the United States and other Western countries.

According to UNAIDS, HIV is more common among gay and bisexual men than adults in general in all areas of the world, even Africa. In North America, an estimated 15 percent of gay and bisexual men are infected with HIV; the rate is the highest, 25 percent, in the Caribbean.

Previous research has shown that being on the receiving end of anal intercourse is equally risky whether you're a man or a woman. The risk was estimated at 1.4 percent per sex act with an infected person -- about 18 times more risky than male-to-female vaginal intercourse.

The study authors estimate that if receptive anal intercourse were only as risky as vaginal intercourse, HIV cases would fall by 80 percent to 98 percent among gay and bisexual men over five years. They also estimate that cases would fall by 29 percent to 51 percent if more gay and bisexual men had sex in long-term relationships instead of casual encounters.

The findings appear in the July 20 issue of The Lancet, along with several other studies that examine the prevalence of HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- in gay and bisexual men and offer suggestions about prevention.

Two studies examined the higher risk of HIV infection among black men.

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Biology Leaves Gay Men Highly Vulnerable to HIV: Study

Happy Feet: Plastic Surgery for Best Foot Forward

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Foot Plastic Surgery Is All the Rage, but Is It Safe?

July 20, 2012 (New York City) -- Are toes really the new nose?

Media reports of an uptick in toe and foot plastic surgery suggest that there is nothing that we won't do to put our best feet forward (and of course, sport sexy, strappy, and often pricey shoes). This includes getting our toes shortened, liposuctioned, or removed altogether.

Liposuction may help slim toes so they fit in pointy stiletto toe boxes, and some women opt to shorten a toe or remove one altogether so that they are less snug in the toe box.

Others still are signing up for laser treatments to zap away foot fungus and/or permanently remove hair on their toes and feet. There is also a surge in what are being called "Loub jobs," a plastic surgery procedure that allows women to wear their pricey Christian Louboutin shoes without pain.

"Foot beautification is definitely a trend," says Wendy Lewis. She is a New York City-based beauty consultant and author of several books, including Plastic Makes Perfect. "Many of these foot concerns are directly related to the shoes we wear."

Not everyone is on board. The American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society is against cosmetic foot surgery of any kind. According to the group, foot complications, including permanent nerve damage, infection, bleeding, scarring, and chronic pain when walking, may occur. According to this group, "Cosmetic foot surgery should not be considered in any circumstances."

Cheryl Burgess, MD, is an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Georgetown University and George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her foray into the world of foot plastic surgery involved treating people with HIV. These individuals tend to lose fat in their faces and other parts of their body due to the cocktail of medications they must take.

Word got out, and soon Burgess was injecting fat or other fillers such as Sculptra into the feet of women who wanted to wear Christian Louboutin shoes.This treatment has been dubbed a "Loub job."

According to Burgess, another popular foot fix is Botox injections to treat hammer toes. With hammertoes, there is a bend in the middle joint. She also uses Botox to curb excessive and often smelly sweating of the feet. It is already approved to treat excessive underarm sweating.

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Happy Feet: Plastic Surgery for Best Foot Forward

Pierce candidate's presidency at medical school ended in lawsuits

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Congressional candidate Stan Flemming, a Pierce County councilman, touts numerous public and civic accomplishments to underline his leadership skills. They include his tenure from 2007 to 2009 as president of the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, a medical school in Yakima.

However, Flemming doesnt mention that his stint ended in a flurry of lawsuits and acrimony.

Court records tell two stories of Flemmings term as president. Both revolve around money.

Version A:

In 2007, Flemming reluctantly takes charge of Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences, a new nonprofit college built on shaky financial footing and a dubious business model.

Flemming steers the place to long-term viability. He departs in November 2009 after local powers usurp his authority, offend his ethics and violate his contract. He sues the university for his severance pay: $708,000.

Version B:

University leaders sue Flemming, saying he doesnt deserve his severance pay. They contend he verbally resigned his position on Nov. 10, 2009, after a period of escalating misconduct, fiduciary and contractual breaches that would have otherwise led to his termination.

The stories ended at the same moment in May 2010: a settlement agreement with strict confidentiality provisions, noted at the end of the case file in Yakima County Superior Court.

Attorneys for both sides say they cant discuss terms of the settlement. Flemming says he never resigned. He says the university agreed to pay him in full, 100 percent.

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Pierce candidate's presidency at medical school ended in lawsuits

Doctor Gordon Saxe speaks at upcoming La Jolla nutrition lecture

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Gordon Saxe, M.D., director of research for the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine, will be the next guest of the La Jolla Community Centers Distinguished Speaker Series.

Dr. Saxe will present a lecture/cooking demonstration revealing how the natural healing power of food can rejuvenate you from the inside out, beginning at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, July 26, at 6811 La Jolla Blvd. Chef Lauray MacElhern will assist.

The program will start with a wine and hors doeuvres reception sponsored by Sunrise of La Jolla. A Q&A session will follow the lecture.

Reservations can be at (858) 459-0831.

Dr. Saxes research has focused on diet, body-mind exercise, and non-drug treatment of cancer and chronic disease. Prior to UCSD, Dr. Saxe was the medical director for the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. He received his medical degree from Michigan State University, his Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan, and his M.P.H. in Nutrition from Tulane University. He completed residency training at the University of Massachusetts and is board certified in Preventive Medicine. Lauray MacElhern is the managing director of the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine. She came to UCSD after running an international non-profit organization dedicated to nutrition education and research for cancer prevention and survival.

Gordon Saxe, M.D., director of research for the UCSD Center for Integrative Medicine

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Doctor Gordon Saxe speaks at upcoming La Jolla nutrition lecture

"Phantom Creep Theatre: Lon Chaney Shall Not Die," Tonight at The Coney Island Museum

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At the Coney Island Museum in Brooklyn, the Phantom Creep Theater pays tribute to classic horror with its version of the spook show, a macabre entertainment popular in the early 20th century that weds Grand Guignol tradition with modern sideshow showmanship. Hosted by M.C.’s in the vein of late-night television horror hosts like Ghoulardi and Dr. Creep, the shows feature B movies, live music, old-hat magic and a total blackout in which a monster or phantom tears through the theater.
--"No Rest for the Wicked, Undead or Ghoulish," New York Times. July 12, 2012

Tonight, at the Coney Island Museum, I hope to see you for "Phantom Creep Theatre: Lon Chaney Shall Not Die!",  an ode to the 1950s spook show organized in part by friend and Midnight Archive creator Ronni Thomas. The night's series of performances, screenings and hijinx will be dedicated to the memory and work of Lon Chaney Sr., patron saint of classic horror, and will feature a live theatrical recreation of the lost 1929 film "Thunder,"which included "insidious carnies, murderous dwarves, [and] ravenous gorillas on the loose" and reputedly killed "the man of a 1,000 faces." In fine spook show tradition, there will also be an attempt to make contact with the ghost of Mr. Chaney, a chance to meet the "Hypno Corpse," varied film screenings, live music, and many thrills and screams, all for only 10 dollars.

Full details follow; hope very much to see you there!

PHANTOM CREEP THEATRE: Lon Chaney Shall Not Die!
Location: The Coney Island Museum
Date: TONIGHT Saturday, July 21
Time: Doors 8:00, Event 8:30 PM
Admission: $10
Free Popcorn!

Set your faces to stun for THE UNHOLY THREE (1930), screened from a 16mm film print! This film includes insidious carnies, murderous dwarves, ravenous gorillas on the loose, Lon Chaney, Sr.'s only speaking role, and much, much more!

Experience a one time live theatrical recreation of the (lost) film that killed Lon Chaney, Sr.... THUNDER! No one has seen this gut wrenching, edge of your seat, golden era rail road drama, in over 80 years!! You can't see it anywhere, but the Phantom Creep Theatre stage!

These presentations and more are part of an entire evening celebrating the man of a 1,000 faces, the man who ceased to exist between pictures, the broken hearted clown who was born on April Fool's Day - Lon Chaney, Sr.!

Will you bear witness to COUNT MOLOCH and EK, as they attempt to make contact with the ghost of Lon Chaney, Sr., live on the Coney Island Museum stage?!?!

Entities known, and unknown, may leave the stage and roam the room in the dark. Will you be ripped from your seat, or frozen with fear to it?

"That's all there is to life: A little laugh, a little tear." - Lon Chaney, Sr.

Plus, the HYPNO CORPSE will shock and amaze you!

LIVE performances, FILM (not digital!) projections, LIVE music! ...ONLY ten bones?! YES! 

The team that ran the original Silver Scream Spook Show at Coney Island, reunite for the first time ever on the stage that started it all! NYC's 8mm Movie Matinee, along with Atlanta GA's Silver Scream Spook Show, and the internet's own Midnight Archive web series, are throwing a gala summer-long series!

A spook show collaboration of colossal proportions in Coney Island! Ghosts materialize before your eyes! Monsters summoned from beyond! Strange creatures reach out at you through the darkness!

Including, but not limited to:

Golden era monster movies presented from 16mm film prints!

Live morbid magicians conjuring spirits that may run out into the audience to shake and shock you to your very core!

Each month is a DIFFERENT theme with NEW films, NEW gags, and NEW live hijinks! Collect ALL the memories and experiences!

You can find out more, and get tickets, by clicking here; tickets can also be purchased at the door. You can read the entire New York Times article about the event by clicking here.

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Catholics need help experiencing interactive prayer, magazine says

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By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The church must offer people -- especially the young -- a spirituality that responds to their computer-driven desire for interactive experiences, said an influential Jesuit magazine.

The Italian magazine, La Civilta Cattolica, said the church does not have to invent a new spirituality for a new generation. It just has to recognize that because of intensive computer and social network use people have changed, so the church must change the way it offers its spiritual treasures.

The key, the magazine said, is to help people take the step from superficial interaction -- "surfing the net" and clicking on link after link -- to contemplation.

First, people must recognize the need "to safeguard spaces that allow interiorization to develop." That means a bit of silence and being out of arm's reach of the computer or smartphone, the magazine said.

But the church also must offer Catholics ideas of what to do with that quiet time, and the magazine started with something its Jesuit staff knows something about: the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits whose feast is July 31.

The exercises, it said, offer a systematic formula for helping someone take the already-interactive experience of reading to a new level.

For example, its suggestion for contemplating the birth of Jesus begins by asking the reader to "see with the imagination the road from Nazareth to Bethlehem, considering the length and breadth of it, whether it is a flat road or goes through valleys or over hills; and similarly to look at the place of the Nativity, to see how big or small it is, how low or high, and what is in it."

The reader is asked to look around the cave or grotto and see who is there and then to imagine himself or herself in the scene as well, watching, listening and helping, if possible.

In the exercises, the magazine said, the person praying imagines being in the biblical scene, shares the emotions of those present and tries to relive the mystery, "interacting with the personalities and the environment."

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Catholics need help experiencing interactive prayer, magazine says

Fishing for spirituality

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Rania Khallaf visits Alexandria to trace anything related to spirituality in our hasty material life

When I first heard about this "Spirituality Workshop" I was completely confused, but having been invited to attend the event by its convener, the established caricaturist Hassan Fedawy -- who is known for his crazy and unexpected ideas -- I grew more and more enthusiastic to learn about it.

Spirituality is a term that yields many interpretations; it could refer to our relationship to God and religion, or to music that has a Sufi beat, or for some others it might refer to witchcraft or astrology.

However, what would you make of combining art and spirituality together? It could be a highly refined product.

Spirituality (rawhanyat in Arabic) is the name of a weekly workshop convened and supervised by Fedawy, a creative caricaturist and associate professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria.

Dozens of young people from all walks of life attend the workshop on a weekly basis. Sufi music by legendary musicians such as the famous Nubian singer Hamza Alaa Eddin, widely known internationally, or Sufi chanter Ahmed Barin, give a special contour to the creative atmosphere. The workshop also invites famous literary figures to join and enrich the experience -- one good recent special guest was the Nubian novelist Hagag Odoul, who resides in Alexandria.

During the three-hour workshop, which takes place in the historical Saint Mark's Cathedral on Nabi Danial Street, participants are given a unique opportunity to dig deep inside themselves and come up with something unique that reveals their inner spirit.

There are papers and pencils ready for an outpouring of what is going on inside the creative self. And occasionally, this unique spiritual experience is artistically interrupted by small discussions between Fedawy, the master, and his students.

Are we talking about a healing session here? Most probably, yes. The place itself is already infused with a kind of spirituality thanks to its great history and architecture, and position among other churches in Egypt.

After a delicious lunch at the Greek Club, which overlooks the sea and the Qait Bey Fort I asked my friend Fedawy what triggered the idea in his mind, and why now?

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Fishing for spirituality

Japan successfully launches its freighter to space station

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An unmanned Japanese rocket carrying more than five tons of space station hardware, scientific gear and crew supplies vaulted away from its scenic seaside launch stand in southern Japan Friday (U.S. time) and set off on weeklong flight to the International Space Station.

Trailing a plume of fire and a billowing cloud of exhaust, the 186-foot-tall H-2B smoothly climbed skyward through rainy weather and quickly disappeared into a deck of low clouds, arcing out over the Pacific Ocean on a southeasterly trajectory tilted 51.6 degrees to the equator.

Flight controllers said the strap-on boosters burned out and fell away in pairs as planned about two minutes after liftoff, followed four minutes later by the first stage. The second stage then ignited and continued the push to orbit.

There were no apparent problems and 15 minutes after liftoff from launch pad No. 2 at the Tanegashima Space Center, the HTV-3 cargo ship, nicknamed Kounotori, or "white stork," was released into its planned preliminary orbit with a low point, or perigee, of about 124 miles and an apogee, or high point, of around 186 miles.

"The flight of the HTV-3 went true and as expected," said Josh Byerly, NASA's mission control commentator in Houston. "Everything now set up for the arrival of the HTV-3 coming up next week."

If all goes well, the 17.5-ton spacecraft will carry out a series of carefully orchestrated rocket firings to catch up with the space station next Friday, pulling to within about 30 feet and then stationkeeping while astronaut Joseph Acaba, operating the station's robot arm, locks onto a grapple fixture.

Japanese flight engineer Akihiko Hoshide then plans to take over, moving the HTV-3 spacecraft to the Earth-facing port of the station's forward Harmony module where it will be locked into place with a common berthing mechanism. Hatches will be opened the next day.

Developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, as a contribution to the space station program, the HTV is 32 feet long and 14.4 feet wide. It is designed to carry both pressurized and unpressurized cargo, including equipment too big to pass through the space station's hatches.

For it's third flight, the HTV is loaded with 3.9 tons of pressurized cargo, including an aquatic habitat, five small "CubeSats" and a satellite launcher, a catalytic reactor for the station's water processing system and a water pump. Also on board: Japanese food, beverages and crew clothing.

The high-tech aquarium can be used to house small fish for up to 90 days.

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Japan successfully launches its freighter to space station

Inside Japan's Huge Space Truck (Infographic)

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Japan's Kounotori space cargo ships are one of several vital robotic supply ships that ferry fresh food and equipment to the International Space Station.

Built for the for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kounotori spacecraft (the name means "White Stork" in Japanese) are unmanned cargo ships that deliver tons of supplies, including fresh food, and equipment to the International Space Station. The cylindrical spacecraft launch on Japan's expendable H-2B rocket from the country's Tanegashima Space Center.

Japan's H-2 Transfer Vehicles, a gold cylinder about 33 feet (10 meters) long and 14 feet (4.4 m) wide are disposable vehicles that deliver cargo to the space station inside a pressurized module, which astronauts can access, and in an unpressurized section accessible by the station's robotic arm. The freighters are part of a growing suite of internationally built unmanned cargo spaceships that help supply the International Space Station.

At mission's end, the cargo ship is intentionally destroyed by burning up Earth's atmosphere. JAXA launched the first HTV cargo ship in 2009. A second followed in 2011, with a third scheduled to fly in July 2012.

There are several other robotic cargo ships that deliver supplies to the space station. In addition to Japan's HTV, Russia's Progress space capsules and the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicles also serve the station.

In the United States, NASA is relying on two companies to develop unmanned space freighters: California-based SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, Corp., of Virginia. The first official SpaceX delivery to the station is slated for later this year.

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Venus Transit of the Sun: A 2012 Observer's Guide (Infographic)

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Inside Japan's Huge Space Truck (Infographic)

Space station cargo blasts off

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An unmanned Japanese spaceship soared into orbit from an island launch site on Friday, beginning a weeklong journey to deliver vital supplies to astronauts living on the International Space Station.

The H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3 (HTV-3), nicknamed Kounotori 3 (Japanese for "White Stork 3"), is delivering student science projects, a new camera system, as well as food and spare equipment.

Kounotori 3 lifted off atop a Japanese H-2B rocket at 10:06 p.m. ET (11:06 a.m. Japan time Saturday) from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. It is the third of its kind to fly, following the flights of HTVs 1 and 2 in September 2009 and January 2011, respectively.

On July 27, the spaceship will fly to within 40 feet (12 meters) from the space station, where it will be plucked from orbit by astronauts steering the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm. Controlling the arm, astronauts Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency will move Kounotori 3 to the station's Earth-facing docking port on its Harmony node. The maneuver is scheduled for around 7 a.m. ET. [Inside Japan's Huge Space Truck (Infographic)]

Space news from NBCNews.com

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: A photographer's time-lapse video packs three years' worth of wonderful night-sky imagery into just three minutes.

Among the spaceship's 4 tons (3,600 kilograms) of cargo are two science experiments designed by the student winners of the YouTube Space Lab competition. Students from around the world between the ages of 14 and 18 were invited to design space station experiments and describe them in videos submitted to YouTube. Then public users of the site voted on their favorites.

The winners were Amr Mohamed, 18, of Alexandria, Egypt; and Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma, both 16, of Troy, Mich. Mohamed designed a project to study how microgravity affects the hunting strategy of zebra spiders. Chen and Ma set up an experiment to investigate how different nutrients and compounds affect the growth and virulence of bacteria grown in space.

Chen and Ma were onsite at the Tanegashima Space Center to watch the launch of their experiment, while Mohamed elected to travel to the cosmonaut training center in Star City, Russia, for his prize.

The Japanese cargo freighter is also carrying a new camera for the space station, called the ISERV (International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System), which will observe disaster sites on Earth and other areas of interest for environmental studies. Scientists on the ground will be able to direct the camera via remote control.

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Space station cargo blasts off

Japanese cargo ship launched on flight to space station

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A Japanese cargo ship is on track for berthing at the International Space Station next week, carrying five tons of supplies and equipment, including a small research aquarium and other science gear.

An unmanned Japanese rocket carrying more than five tons of space station hardware, scientific gear and crew supplies vaulted away from its scenic seaside launch stand in southern Japan Friday (U.S. time) and set off on weeklong flight to the International Space Station.

The powerful H-2B rocket's two hydrogen-fueled first stage engines roared to life as the countdown ticked to zero, followed a few seconds later by ignition of four strap-on solid-fuel boosters at 10:06 p.m. EDT (11:06 a.m. Saturday local time), roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the launch pad into the plane of the space station's orbit.

A Japanese H-2B rocket blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan early Saturday (Japan time), boosting the HTV-3 cargo craft into space for a weeklong flight to the International Space Station.

Trailing a plume of fire and a billowing cloud of exhaust, the 186-foot-tall H-2B smoothly climbed skyward through rainy weather and quickly disappeared into a deck of low clouds, arcing out over the Pacific Ocean on a southeasterly trajectory tilted 51.6 degrees to the equator.

Flight controllers said the strap-on boosters burned out and fell away in pairs as planned about two minutes after liftoff, followed four minutes later by the first stage. The second stage then ignited and continued the push to orbit.

There were no apparent problems and 15 minutes after liftoff from launch pad No. 2 at the Tanegashima Space Center, the HTV-3 cargo ship, nicknamed Kounotori, or "white stork," was released into its planned preliminary orbit with a low point, or perigee, of about 124 miles and an apogee, or high point, of around 186 miles.

"The flight of the HTV-3 went true and as expected," said Josh Byerly, NASA's mission control commentator in Houston. "Everything now set up for the arrival of the HTV-3 coming up next week."

If all goes well, the 17.5-ton spacecraft will carry out a series of carefully orchestrated rocket firings to catch up with the space station next Friday, pulling to within about 30 feet and then stationkeeping while astronaut Joseph Acaba, operating the station's robot arm, locks onto a grapple fixture.

The HTV-3 cargo ship is released into open space in these two views from a camera mounted on the launcher's second stage.

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Japanese cargo ship launched on flight to space station

NASA puts history up on iTunes

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NASA history on iTunes. Credit: NASA

GREENBELT, Md., July 20 (UPI) -- NASA says it's posting historical video, audio, photographs and documents to iTunes to observe the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The material will be available for free download on iTunes U, a platform for making educational resources available to a wide audience through the iTunes Store, the space agency said in a release Friday.

NASA's History Program Office iTunes U site currently contains about 300 items from a broad sweep of NASA activities related to important moments, activities and figures in the space agency's history.

"New materials will continue to be uploaded as we expand the coverage both in depth and breadth," Bill Barry, NASA's chief historian, said. "We're thrilled to educate people on NASA's rich history and are open to user suggestions and requests."

The material is available at http://www.nasa.gov/connect/itunesu.html.

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NASA puts history up on iTunes

NASA's costly space race

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NASA provides a quick look at its current and future human spaceflight activities.

By Alan Boyle

NASA is closing out one chapter in the multibillion-dollar effort to create new fleets of spaceships, and getting ready to open the next one. Sometime in the next month or two, the space agency will pick up to three teams of companies to receive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of funding for their spaceship development efforts. That's a lot of money but it's important to keep all those expenditures in perspective.

As an accompaniment to this week's series of commentaries about the commercial space race, here's a guide to what's gone on before and what's coming up:

Cargo transportsNASA's push to commercialize transportation services to low Earth orbit began in 2006, a couple of years after the White House decided that the space shuttle fleet had to be retired, when SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler were awarded almost half a billion dollars to support the development of robotic cargo spacecraft capable of resupplying the space station in the post-shuttle era. "If it doesn't work, I've frankly made the wrong bet," said Mike Griffin, who was NASA's administrator at the time.

In Rocketplane Kistler's case, the bet didn't pay off. NASA paid the company $32.1 million, but Rocketplane failed to win enough private backing to keep going. The company lost its NASA funding and ended up declaring bankruptcy. Orbital Sciences Corp. was selected as a replacement.

With May's successful demonstration flight of the Dragon cargo capsule, SpaceX has virtually completed all its objectives for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS. It should soon get the last of the $396 million in COTS money that NASA has set aside for the company. Orbital Sciences, meanwhile, is gearing up for key flight tests of its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule, and at last report has received $266.5 million of its $288 million in COTS money.

Even as the development program nears its end, SpaceX and Orbital are getting ready to begin routine cargo flights to the space station under a follow-on program known as Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS. SpaceX is due to get $1.6 billion for 12 flights scheduled through 2015, while Orbital gets $1.9 billion for eight flights. Citing NASA figures, NBC News' Jay Barbree says SpaceX and Orbital have each received $337.6 million in preparation for the CRS flights.

May 31: SpaceX's Dragon cargo craft returns to Earth from the International Space Station.

Space taxis So far, we've been talking about unmanned flights to the space station, but NASA also needs U.S. spaceships capable of carrying astronauts to and from the station. Because these "space taxis" will be carrying people rather than mere stuff, the safety standards will have to be higher than they are for cargo craft. In 2010, NASA started setting aside funds to support the development of such spacecraft by private-sector partners. In the first phase of the program, NASA awarded $50 million to five companies for work on future spaceships or safety systems: $3.7 million to Blue Origin, $18 million to the Boeing Co., $1.4 million to Paragon Space Development Corp., $20 million to Sierra Nevada Corp., and $6.7 million to United Launch Alliance.

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NASA's costly space race